Sunny Side Up (Li Johnson Murder Mysteries) by Daniel Stallings

For twenty-year-old Li Johnson, a job as a cruise ship waiter was supposed to be a way to get over his father's death and earn enough money to go back to college. Instead, Li is struggling to maintain his sanity while coping with the demands of a sadistic maitre d' and a boatload of entitled rich jerk passengers. Li just wants to keep his head down and survive his job from hell, but when he finds a passenger sunburned to a crisp on the Sunbathing Deck, something about the scene just doesn't add up. Before he knows it, Li is on the track of a murderer and if Li doesn't find the real killer soon, he might just get framed for the crime -- or worse, lose his crappy job.

A brand-new classic in the amateur detective genre, Sunny Side Up is a traditional murder mystery for the 21st century, with a glamorous setting, a gallery of suspects, clues that will keep readers guessing to the last page, and a delightful new hero in Li Johnson, the millennial minimum wage manhunter, who brings sleuthing to the service economy.  (Summary via Amazon)


LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Sunny Side Up by Daniel Stallings !!

First it is a cozy mystery written by a MALE.....not something you see very often.  Second the storyline takes place on a cruise ship.  Thirdly the person who dies is famous.  Fourthly the main character is someone you can totally relate to....his name is Liam and he's mourning the loss of his dad while trying to just keep himself afloat financially even though no matter what he does it seems that he is sinking.....(see what I did there ?  hee hee)  Not to mention that no matter what Liam does, he cannot catch a break, everyone hates him.

I also have to say that when reading a mystery book, whether it is a cozy or not, the reader is always trying to figure out who did it.  Sometimes the reader will just enjoy the story and let the author take them away which is what I would suggest when reading Sunny Side Up.  No matter how hard you try to figure out who did it, you are going to be BLOWN away when it is finally revealed !!!  

Sometimes you don't realize how close the main character actually is to the killer and with Sunny Side Up, even though they are all pretty close seeing as it is on a cruise ship, no matter how big the boat is, Liam cannot get any closer to the killer  !!

I love how Stallings links some of the people together on the cruise.....you have a tightknit group of fashion world people.....from Charlegne, Queen of Fashion, who ends up dead from sunstroke, to her two very loyal assistants, to the sister of her deceased fiance, Rosemary.......and there are a few other guests on the ship that you have to pay attention too.

I thoroughly loved Sunny Side Up and reading the story through the eyes of a male main character for a change.  It was nice to see that men actually think just as hard as women do .... especially when it comes to murder and clearing their name......  

Review by Missi S.