Road to the Mansfield (Express Investigations Book 1) by CB Laurence – Review by Jennifer Gordon

Road to the Mansfield by C.B. Laurence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This fast paced and suspenseful historical crime novel had plenty of mystery and drama which had me gripped from start to finish. The main characters include a swamp rat turned lady, a hotshot southern attorney, and a small town dreamer, all of which endure life’s ups and downs, to end up at Hollywood’s swanky Mansfield Supper Club. In 1927, Louisiana, seventeen year old Francie Roubideaux from the Louisiana bayou finds herself under the iron rule of Miss Claire in New Orleans. Francis uses her “daddy’s wits and her mama’s grace”, to survive, but fate and fickle fortune have plans for her. Rose Donovan’s dreary small town life in Illinois, during 1937, becomes exciting when a New York City music man whisks her away to Hollywood. However, Rose is soon torn between an addictive passion and another man’s arms, and finds that it’s more than her heart that’s on the line.

Georgia, in 1936, and a rising star on the Atlanta legal circuit, Beau Hartwell is envied by every lawyer in the city, until his past comes back to haunt him. Beau has to go from the big city to backwoods justice, with a case that can break more than his career. “In one fateful night, their worlds collide in ways no one saw coming”, and the storyline definitely had me hooked. The descriptive narrative brought both the characters and the settings vividly to life, making me feel fully immersed in the story. Although the three stories are complete at the end of this novel, it does have a ‘to be continued’ ending. I look forward to book two in this new series.

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