Crack in the Teacup

The Crack in the Teacup, by C.M. Albrecht, is a mystery fiction novel with a thin flavoring of romance and suspense to zest things up. The plot line is focused on in a little Californian town where an 11-year-old boy, Jerry Beakey, becomes missing on his way to a music lesson. Writer C.M. Albrecht skillfully takes the reader through every scene of the subject and what occurs in police departments, support centers and inside the family of the missing individual.

There are two primary characters in The Crack in the Teacup. Detective Steve Music and his colleagues butt-heads with the FBI while working on the case. Adorable, and likable, Shelly Lambert holds an awful secret and harbors a guilt that causes her to volunteer at the Missing and Exploited Children Coalition whenever she could get away from her job as a Notary.

Whenever Detective Music and Shelly get together during the investigation, something broader between them occurs. Neither of them appears to know what to do about it. Steve discovers Shelly’s secret when he looks into her past and produces a huge rift between them that could destroy their romance.

A standard mystery story written in the Agatha Christi style with a very strange motivation for child kidnapping. I suspected almost everyone involved at some place in the book and I liked that the characters stood for true society, with people of assorted races, ideals and backgrounds. The Crack in the Teacup has very little violence, but more mystery and a happy conclusion.

ISBN#: 1-59466-037-9
Author: C. M. Albrecht
Publisher: Port Town Publishing