Review - Murder at Union Station by David S. Pederson

Charlotte Castle is moving to Los Angeles to try and break into the film business. However, just before she's about to board the train at Phoenix's Union Station, the body of her former roommate is found in her trunk. It doesn't look good for Charlotte, so her father hires Mason Adler to prove his daughter's innocence. It doesn't take long for Mason to uncover several people with motive and opportunity, but which one really killed the young woman?

This second volume of the Mason Adler Mysteries picks up with the private detective and his circle of friends first introduced in Murder on Monte Vista. The crime is new, and there is almost no allusion to the previous mystery, so you could conceivably read this story without having read the previous one. However, since that book introduced all the characters and their relationships, I think reading this second book without having read the first would be a mistake.

We got to know Mason quite well in the previous book, and this installment seems to assume that we already know the private detective is gay but very discreet. He has a woman neighbor, Lydia, who knowingly acts as his “beard” for appearance's sake, and in this mystery, she becomes a Dr Watson to Mason's Sherlock Holmes. The detective seems dedicated to his work and doesn't have a romantic interest in this story.

The mystery this time around is another tricky one with lots of clues and several suspects. All the clues are there for us, just like they are for Mason. You may well face-palm yourself when Mason finally realizes the key circumstances that unlock the real motives behind the murder.

“Murder at Union Station” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).