Author Sophie Katz owes her writing career to her mentor Melanie O'Reilly. When Sophie was going through the pain of dealing with her father's death, Melanie told her to write to cope with her feelings. Now Melanie needs Sophie's help. She needs her to spy on her husband Eugene who has been acting strangely since he has returned from his trip. Melanie is convinced her husband is cheating on her and wants Sophie to find out the truth for her.

Tragically, Melanie doesn't get her answers when the night ends with Eugene being killed in a drive by shooting. Melanie enlists Sophie's ex boyfriend, PI Anatoly Darinsky, to investigate the case. Since this case involves Sophie's friend and it was her case to start with, she insists on being part of the investigation.

Together Sophie and Anatoly discover that Eugene was involved in a political campaign with some very shady people. Could Eugene have known something that cost him his life? When another person is murdered and an old suicide connects the pieces to the puzzle, Sophie realizes she has a dangerous killer to find. Mix in a couple threatening phone calls and a group of ''furries'' and you have an interesting who-dun-it.

While working together on the case, Sophie tries to deal with her buried feelings for Anatoly. Will they get back together or will this case push them further apart? Who is making threatening phone calls to Sophie? Will Anatoly be able to protect her this time or will the killer claim another victim?

OBSESSION, DECEIT, AND REALLY DARK CHOCOLATE is a cozy mystery with a dash of humor. While the mystery aspects were interesting, the political talk bored me. The romance was minimal and some of the storyline wasn't very believable. I didn't particularly care for Sophie or Anatoly. Their personalities weren't engaging enough to keep me interested and their chemistry was non existent.

In one scene near the end of the book, something big happens but the author doesn't let the scene play out. Instead she states what happened in one sentence. I prefer for the actual action to happen, not to be told about it after the fact. It just takes all of the suspense out to do it in this fashion. While the story was written well, the characters and the plot fell flat for me. I hope the next book in this series has more romance and chemistry between the characters because this one left me disappointed.

Book Summary

Mind her own business? Leave it to the experts? Not a chance.

?especially when asked to spy on her friend's strangely behaving husband, Eugene, at one of San Francisco's hottest nightclubs. When Sophie shows up in a short red cocktail dress and the potentially two-timing hubby shows up dead, the would-be sleuth launches a full investigation.

Without warning, Sophie plunges into a world of political mudslinging and campaign cover-ups. She uncovers some pretty dirty secrets, including a certain conservative congressional hopeful's involvement in the "Furry" community-a group with a fetish for mascot-sized animal costumes. Sex and politics, wouldn't you know?

Sophie knows she needs help, and turns to P.I. (and ex-boyfriend) Anatoly Darinsky. Together they set out to discover who killed Eugene and why. Their professional relationship may be repaired, but what will this very unusual case do for their personal one?