Book Review: "The Mussorgsky Riddle" by Dr. Darin Kennedy

"The Mussorgsky Riddle" is by Darin Kennedy and this is his debut mystery novel. It was a very unusual, intricate mystery centered around a thirteen year old autistic boy who needs rescuing. Mira Tejedor, a psychic who senses other's emotions and uses her abilities to find things is the only one who can help Anthony Faircloth in his time of need.

Something traumatic has happened to Anthony in the last month and his way of dealing with it is to retreat into his own mind. Mira is summoned by Anthony's mother after the doctors tests and the boy's psychologist can find no answers to what has caused his near catatonic state. Mira enters the child's fractured psyche hoping to help sort out his tormented mind.

At the same time, there is also a missing high school girl who Anthony's older brother used to date. Mira is pulled into the investigation and endeavors to help the police find out what happened in the girl's disappearance. As the book progresses, Mira suspects that Anthony's condition is somehow connected to the missing girl and to save Anthony she must solve a case that is ripping a city apart.

The book started out strongly with many details that kept the reader interested and willing to suspend their disbelief in psychic phenomenon  Unfortunately as the book progresses, there are so many riddles, twists and turns that the reader gets tired. I found myself muttering at my Kindle for the author to "just get on with it already!". It really was an interesting read though so I'm hesitant to give it only three stars. If I could I'd hedge my bets and give it an extra half star for sure but one cannot do that with the scoring used for books.

I will certainly keep Darin Kennedy on my radar as he is a good writer. I just think with this, his first mystery, he put a little too many details about musical scores and mythical creatures in the book. In the end I just wanted to get some information that was concrete to help me figure out what the heck happened to Anthony and the missing girl.  It's not a bad read and in the end I was sorely tempted to give it four stars as the ending is as good as the beginning. I just wish the second half of the book had been a little shorter, with the clues coming a little less "few and far between".

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