Paying The Piper

Do you smoke? Get a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

Crave chocolate? Find a bag of M&Ms.

Enjoy wine? Open a new bottle. Wineglass optional.

Make yourself comfortable and get ready to lose yourself in a great story.

You may want to use the restroom before you start; putting this book down will be difficult.

Take a bucolic setting, toss in an acerbic police chief, a troubled rich boy, and a handsome newcomer. Add assorted small-town denizens, mix well, and voila! "Paying the Piper" is a delicious crime drama cooked just tight.

Ms. Drew has concocted a tale full of cliches that happen to work well together. The cheating wife, the town gossip, the bumbling nerd, and the hard-drinking bar owner are but a few of those stereotypes. A fast-paced thriller with just the right amount of humor provided primarily by the delightful Quent. For those seeking a deeper meaning, the effects of self-denial, misplaced guilt, and dysfunctional families will give you plenty to ponder.

It's rare for me to award five stars to a story but I didn't hesitate in this case. One of the most enjoyable offerings on GA.

Fantastic read! 

Don't start unless if you have something important on your schedule! You will read this straight through! 

Ha! This was great. My kinda cop Quent is! I read this today, just wonderful. tim said it was one of best on GA, aside from @AC Benuswork, and he is right. A very entertaining story.

Clever writing... witty dialogue. That’s all you need to know about this whodunit. Any story with scotch as a main character is aces in my book. A definite must read.

Great story telling. Well written, engaging characters, twists and turns, even a romance. Not sure why this story didn't receive much attention earlier.

This story is worth reading for Quent alone. What a brilliant lead character.

The mystery itself is well-paced, wrapping up its various threads along the way and not leaving too many loose ends for the final chapters. 

Highly recommend!

Just adding my two cents or in this case 5 stars. If you like a good murder mystery then you have come to the right place. The synopsis describes the story better then I can but out of many great characters in this story   the character Quent almost stole the show

I kept envisioning Clint Eastwood when I followed Quent interactions. Think Dirty Harry stuck in a small town. Because the town was so small Quent couldn't blow a bad guy or two every half hour like Harry does in his movies thats pretty much the only difference between Quent and Dirty Harry 

I guess GA was a different website when this story first appeared a lot have missed gem. I'm hoping with this author's more recent submissions which have been well recieved and after this review is posted it  will be the tenth 5 star review of this story

If you haven't read this yet then 5 stat reviews is hard to ignore don't  you think?

Paying the Piper is quite simply a super story. The main characters are both charming and  cantankerous. The plot is excellent and the writing flows beautifully.

The love story that develops between two of the characters is heart-warming. The chief of police, as ornery as he is, is a caring and competent man. 

With twists and turns along the way, Paying the Piper will keep you engaged and turning the pages. 

Interesting and unique plot.  Very well written with well-developed and believable characters.  This story really shines.  Well-edited with very few, if any, grammatical errors.   A pleasure to read.

Absolutely loved this story.

It was full of everything, grumpy Quent the cop, blackmail, killers, crazy people, and women who knit slippers. There is love, hate, guilt, humour and just excellent story telling.

I had a great time reading this!  To me, this story was very well written, some of the best I've read. Has to be right up there with the work done by @AC Benus

A well-written story with an excellent plot.  One of the best on this website.