A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones

Sunshine Vicram has just been elected Sheriff of her hometown, Del Sol, New Mexico.  She never knew she was running!  Today is her first day on the job.  Although she and her daughter Auri have returned to the place Sunshine calls home, the place seems different, yet very much the same, as if time has stood still.

Her first day and the next few will find Sunshine questioning herself for saying yes to the position. Between a young girl being kidnapped, a prisoner on the run, being worried about her daughter, seeing her first love again, finding a dead body in the mountains and having to navigate a feud between two townspeople over a rooster…what else could life throw at her?  Believe it or not, even more!

The young girl, Sybil goes missing just before her 15th birthday.  A new friend of her daughter’s, Sybil has been haunted for years believing that she would die before her 15th birthday. Was she really kidnapped or is this just a ruse for attention?

While trying to find Sybil, they discover a dead body up in the mountains.  Does this have anything to do with the kidnapping? Or is this just added stress on Sunshine.

All this is happening as Sunshine begins to relive her own abduction from years ago.  Could any of this be connected to her own kidnapping, something she has little to no recollection of because she had a brain injury.

Her daughter Auri is not fairing any better!  On her first day, when her friend Sybil fails to show up at school, she must try and navigate her peers, who know she is the daughter of the Sheriff and want to have nothing to do with her. And when she discovers her friend is missing, decides to play sleuth against her mother’s wishes.

Now, throw the quirky townspeople into the mix, including her own sheriff’s department staff, add a missing deputy that no one seems to know where he is (although they seem to know where he is) and you have a story reminiscent an episode of The Gilmore Girls, sharp witted humor, funny and sarcastic, with a very strong female protagonist.

The creative book chapter headings only make you fall in love with the town and the people in it even more!  Hopefully there will be a second in the series and Sunshine can continue to keep us smiling!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Darynda Jones for the advanced copy.