An Epic first day on the job

A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE
Sunshine Vicram # 1
Darynda Jones
St. Martin's Books
April 7, 2020


Sunshine Vicram never thought she would return to her hometown of Del Sol, New Mexico, after leaving with her infant daughter 14 years earlier. Sunshine was abducted at the age of 17 and barely survived. She had since built a stellar career in law enforcement in Albuquerque and was content with her life. However, after winning the election to be the new sheriff of Del Sol, one that she was not aware of entering and never campaigned for, she decided to return with her daughter, Aurora. No doubt, her loving parents engineered the election somehow. Sunshine wants to find out how they did it, and more importantly, find her abductor and bring him to justice.

Del Sol is usually a tranquil place, and Sunshine only expects to have to arrest the occasional flasher and manage an ongoing feud between two senior citizens over a rooster. She also anticipates having to deal with the Ravinder clan of transplanted Southern Mafia types. The head of the family, Levi Ravinder, has dragged them into respectability (somewhat) with his successful and legal moonshine distillery. Levi is also the only man that Sunshine has ever loved since they were children. Expectations change when a 14-year-old girl is abducted on Sunshine's first day, announced by the girl's distraught mother crashing her Mercedes through the front wall of the police station. This abduction has disturbing echoes of Sunshine's own experience.

A Bad Day for Sunshine is a mix of family drama, crime drama, a touch of paranormal, frequent laugh-out-loud moments, suspense and simmering romance. To say that the village of Del Sol is inhabited by quirky and eccentric characters is a gross understatement. But after all, New Mexico is the home of Roswell. There are more twists and turns in the story than one can count and I was sucked in from the first page. Told from the viewpoints of Sunshine and her scarily smart daughter, Auri, this novel is a true page-turner. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING-4.5 rounded up to 5 stars