Alex had been working on the story of a young Polish immigrant woman who had become pregnant by a Catholic priest and who has now been murdered. Instead, Alex is assigned to do a piece on beauty salon disasters that have resulted in severe illness. Grumbling, Alex begins to investigate the piece and the first salon she stumbles upon is staffed mostly by Polish immigrants.

Sophie, one of the immigrants, knew Milla, the young woman who was murdered. Now Alex realizes she can still stay on her original case using the beauty salon exposé as her cover. Before long, Alex finds herself tangled up with a prostitution ring and the connections lead right back to the Catholic Church. Complicating matters for Alex is her soon to be ex-boyfriend and investigator for a competing news magazine, Dan.

Dan finds it hard to believe that Alex has been taken off the case and certainly can’t believe she went quietly, so, even though he broke off the relationship, continues to skulk around looking for a story. Using her Polish upbringing, Alex easily insinuates herself in situations that she hopes will help Sophie and maybe even get her a scoop, but more than likely will get her killed.

Deadly Blessings starts out with several good ideas, but there is so much packed into the plot that it often becomes muddied and unclear what Alex’s focus is. The book starts out with Alex’s failed attempts at finding her birth parents, something that doesn’t play a large part in the current investigation, but may set up something for Alex’s future. Alex starts out with one investigation, Milla’s murder, moves on to the beauty salons, then to Sophie’s brother’s death and though all the parts are ultimately connected, there is more than enough here for several stories.

While the characters are plentiful, their motives, including Alex’s, are not easily understood and Alex often appears to have the attitude, “I’m just doing my job.” Glimpses provided into Alex’s personal life prove to be interesting, but are not fleshed out enough to make her an interesting or sympathetic character. The plot, while quite full, is interesting and very timely. While it is relatively easy to figure out where it is going, there is something that makes readers keep reading.

This book is billed as the first in a series of Alex St. James mysteries and there appears to be plenty here to explore as Alex is revealed and manages to get herself into some more interesting investigations.

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry