I was on a cozy mystery spree, and Pains and Penalties by Sarah Biglow was the last one on my list. The premise was intriguing, the narrative was breezy, and there was a decent twist at the end, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

Don’t get me wrong—the story had all the elements of a good cozy mystery: small-town setting, an amateur sleuth in Reverend Jess, and a murder with a hint of scandal. Jess herself was an interesting enough protagonist, especially with the added complexity of her being a priest navigating both her spiritual and investigative duties. However, I found myself not so much disliking the main character as having serious issues with Chris, the police detective.

Here’s the thing: cozy mysteries often revolve around an amateur sleuth outsmarting the authorities, and that’s fine. It’s kind of the genre’s bread and butter. But in this case, Chris, the police detective, was portrayed as downright incompetent. He felt less like a trained professional and more like comic relief.

For instance, just before the climax, when it was time to track down the culprit, Chris somehow didn’t even think of tracking the murderer’s phone—a pretty basic move in any modern investigation. It was Jess, our amateur sleuth, who had to suggest it to him. His response? Something along the lines of, “You go, girl!” It was cringeworthy. I get that the goal is to highlight Jess’s cleverness, but it was hard to take Chris seriously as a detective. We’re talking about someone whose job it is to solve crimes, and he couldn’t come up with something that should be standard procedure for law enforcement. It just made him look like a clown.

This kind of lazy characterization undermines the tension in the story. Sure, the amateur sleuth needs to shine, but not at the expense of making the professionals look completely inept. It’s a tricky balance, and in this case, it tipped too far in the wrong direction for me. Chris’s cluelessness pulled me out of the story more than once, which is a shame because, otherwise, the pacing was good, and the twist was actually well executed.

So, while Pains and Penalties is a short, quick read and the twist did catch me off guard, the depiction of the detective left a lot to be desired. I’ll still recommend it to cozy mystery lovers, especially for those looking for a light read, but don’t expect the police work to be top-notch in this one.