Uncle and Ants by Marc Jedel

Marty’s sister, Laney, is in the hospital. Marty cannot believe that a rogue drone crashed onto her car, almost killing her. Meanwhile, Laney’s two daughters, Skye and Megan, are now under Marty’s care. From taco with spaghetti filling to not wanting to eat yucky fruity, the girls give their Uncle Marty a tough time. Skye’s science project is about crazy ants while Megan’s science project is about milkshakes! Milkshakes!!

So, as an engineer working in the self-driven car company called Rover, Super Agent Marty decides to solve the mystery behind his sister’s accident. Why would he want to ‘solve the mystery’? Well, for starters, drones just don’t go rogue and fall from the sky! Plus, there’s this murder of Vietnamese lady in the hospital. The names were mixed up and someone killed the old lady thinking that she’s Laney!

The story includes some very crazy ants, stinky shoes, gangsters, self-driven cars and an overly strict school secretary. Uh huh!

Uncle and Ants is the first book in Marc Jedel’s Silicon Valley Mystery series.

The blurb of the second book in this series, Chutes and Ladders, caught my attention. It’s a Silicon Valley Mystery you see and the engineer in me said, read it! Lori Caswell will be hosting a blog tour on the second book and my stop is on the 4th of April. Since the first book was also available for those who were interested to read and review, I thought why not start from book #1?

Like I mentioned before, I am an engineer and I could totally relate to a couple of scenes described in this book. The pain in the neck boss (ahem!), an overly intelligent team mate – Raj, in this case, marketing and their expectations, rival companies and their super-duper cafeterias and many more!

I loved the essence of humor in the story. Marc is an excellent storyteller, that’s for sure. What do ants have to do with gangsters and murder? Well, according to the story, there is some sinister connection. FYI – the gangsters haven’t trained the ants to attack or murder people so puhlease, don’t let your imaginative mind do the guessing!

The characters are superb. Who is my favorite character, you ask? Super Agent Marty! The guy is a combination of Inspector Gadget and Indiana Jones and whatnot!Oh, and I am a great fan of Marty’s jokes. What do you call an aged ant? Tell me, Tell me!  As I was reading, I felt I saw a lot of me in Marty. Are all engineers the same? – Their brain is a circuit consisting of AND, OR and NOT gates! 😉

Marc Jedel’s done an excellent job in keeping his readers hooked on to the story till the end. I wish the story didn’t end, you know. Super Agent Marty’s adventures were really interesting and I wish he had gone on and on, wearing his stinky shoes and finding clues forever!

The story development was brilliant. Each and every bit of information made sense in the end – from Sergeant Mace Jackson to Fernando to rover cars to ants. Speaking of Mace Jackson, well the guy is one interesting character in the story. And Fernando, well, the guy does love rovers…

Uncle and Ants is a unique, hilarious and entertaining cozy mystery. It makes you laugh, it makes you bite your nails (bad habit this!) and it gives you a sneak peek into the life of an engineer.

---