“I used to round up shopping carts in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. Then I met Ceepak and life’s been one big roller coaster ride ever since.” – Danny Boyle
Officer Danny Boyle isn’t the only one going for a roller coaster ride in Rolling Thunder, the sixth entry in author Chris Grabenstein’s John Ceepak/Jersey Shore mystery series. Memorial Day weekend in Sea Haven, New Jersey finds Danny and his partner, John Ceepak, working crowd control at the grand opening of the Rolling Thunder roller coaster. “Big Paddy” O’Malley, owner of the Rolling Thunder, his family, and assorted town dignitaries are also on hand to be the first to experience the seaside town’s newest attraction.
They get more than they bargained for when Mrs. O’Malley has a heart attack and dies during the coaster’s initial run. Though the death appears on the surface to be nothing more than an unfortunate tragedy, Ceepak and Danny are bothered by the lack of distress exhibited by several members of the family and begin looking into the workings of the O’Malley clan. As they are doing so another death, this one unquestionably a murder, confirms their suspicion that something is fishy in Sea Haven.
As with all previous entries in this outstanding series, Grabenstein serves up a wonderfully complex mystery for Ceepak and Danny to tackle. Along the way they must deal with a jealous, potentially criminally complicit colleague, prominent members of the community engaging in organized activities of questionable legality, a mayor who wants nothing more than to not upset the tourists, and a family with Shakespearean levels of dysfunction. (more…)
