Notebook Mysteries ~ Decisions and Possibilities by Kimberly Mullins – Review by Tia Martel

Decisions and Possibilities by Kimberly Mullins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emma is a young, upstanding girl in the 1880s but she’s also determined. Determined to help women be equal. Determined to solve crimes. And determined to do what she can to make a difference. Notebook Mysteries Decisions and Possibilities follows Emma as she sleuths her way through a variety of unusual activities.

I found the idea to be intriguing, following a girl through journeys of crime isn’t new, but the idea of following through her journal entries is. While this book started out in this sense, sort of falling back into written accounts that Emma made, it didn’t stay like this. The reader starts out with Emma reminiscing about a previous case after stumbling onto the notebook where she writes about the case.

As we move forward we are introduced to other characters including her partners in business and others. One thing I found interesting about this book was the use of the Narrator as a character, a character with its own thoughts and comments, mostly directed to another known as Dear-One. We don’t get many inserts from these two characters, but I feel if there were more I think the story could gain a lot of details.

Throughout the course of the story, we hear about three different cases and a separate account that is related. For me, as a reader, I felt that three cases in a short book was too much and that it would have been more beneficial to the story and characters to spend time on one case and perhaps introduce a second one to entice readers for the next installment.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and felt that Kimberly Mullins had a strong grip on an amazing idea. I’m excited to see more from her as she continues to write and become stronger in her style.

View all my reviews