Murder mysteries are a dime a dozen these days but Charlie Hudson's "Shades of Gold" combines many hues to produce an intriguing blend of colorful characters. In Hudson's latest work, she weaves a complex yet coherent and comprehensive tale.

Hudson's style is reminiscent of a "CSI" episode with many subplots. Her character development is personable, describing not only their physical appearance, their vocations, and interpersonal relationships, but she allows you inside the character's head to see what makes them tick. All this could become very tedious but Hudson pulls it off with a cohesiveness of a consummate storyteller.

Drawing from her personal life experience as a U. S. Army veteran and avid scuba diver, she employs her knowledge to detail life upon the sea and beneath its depths.

The fictional town of Verde Key Florida comes alive with Hudson's vivid descriptions even as her characters perish. She wastes no time setting up her story, as someone is found dead in the very first sentence. Before long there are four dead bodies and detective Bev Henderson ceremoniously begins her unrelenting quest of trying to solve the mystery behind the four seemingly unrelated deaths.

From Boston to Chicago, LA to Miami, Bev leaves no stone unturned. She elicits the help of her friend Chris Green, dive instructor and owner of a local dive shop, who was hired to give lessons to a Hollywood star. Yes, Hollywood has come to town. Some consider it an invasion while others will prosper from the big spenders. But just as in real life some behind the scenes characters are not always as they seem.

What an adventure. From the wife-beater found with a butcher knife in his chest, to the town eccentric that apparently drowned in the mangrove islets, to the Hollywood film crew special effects member shot dead in the dive shop, to the estranged ex-convict husband tragically taken out by a police marksman, the action continues. What erupted in the quaint little vacation town? A story from the past, ghosts wandering the islands, a Hollywood movie on location, secret night dives, romantic and lustful interludes, all intertwine to reveal one most unexpected tale of fortunes lost and fortunes found.

This is the third book in the "Shade" series and has a delightful tone that blends well with the first two--Shades of Truth and Shades of Murder--while working well as a stand-alone book.