#bookreview – Page 90 – Rosepoint Publishing

#AmReading – Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates

Welcome to my #AmReading feature! I am highlighting an author and their book currently visible in the “Fair Weather” widget celebrating blue skies, following seas, and my Goodreads (currently reading) list.

This week I am presenting Christopher J. Yates and his book Grist Mill Road. I requested this download from NetGalley. The book will be released on January 9, 2018, by Picador. Amazon classifies the novel as a mystery, thriller & suspense, and crime and is only 352 pages.

I will be presenting my review on Monday, January 8, 2018. Krysten Ritter, whose book Bonfire I read and reviewed last year, had this to say about Yates sophomore novel, “Dark, intense, and disturbing, Christopher Yates’ Grist Mill Road begins with a shock and keeps the suspense burning page after page. A thriller with imagination to spare. Highly recommended.”

It’s beginning to sound pretty scary and the book blurb on Amazon isn’t quelling the nerves. Gulp…but looking again…it’s not supposed to be horror…right?

Book Blurb: Christopher J. Yates’s cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates’s new book does not disappoint.

Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends―Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah―are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again―with even more devastating results.

About the Author:

(From Goodreads author page) Christopher J. Yates was born and raised in Kent and studied law at Oxford University before working as a puzzle editor in London. He now lives in New York City with his wife and dog. ‘Black Chalk’ is his debut novel. You can read his blog posts on his website

The Last Homecoming – a #BookReview

Title: The Last Homecoming by Dan Chabot

Genre: Currently #41837 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Publication Date: October 12, 2017

Source: Request from author

Title and Cover: The Last Homecoming – Beautiful cover relates story setting

Chabot’s book is divided into sections that tell the story of each of the four families that lived in this 90-year-old house they called home. It’s a heavily nostalgic book mourning innocent times in a quickly changing country set in a rural area of Michigan they call the U.P. (Upper Peninsula). Nettie, the current and last owner, has invited one of each generation who has strong, loving memories of their childhood home to celebrate a last Christmas there before it is demolished for a bridge. Continue reading “The Last Homecoming – a #BookReview”

#NoTurningBack – a #BookReview

Title: No Turning Back by Nancy Bush

Genre: Currently #537 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers

Publisher: Penguin Random House Publisher

Publication Date: December 26, 2017

Source: Zebra – Penguin Random House Publishers and #NetGalley

Title and Cover: No Turning Back–Compelling cover, complements title–not so much the content.

No Turning Back was originally released twenty years ago and is now being released with a new cover and some internal revamping. Also, I was a little disappointed to note that there is more on the romance side of the thriller and suspense than I expected from the blurb.

Continue reading “#NoTurningBack – a #BookReview”

Splintered Silence – a Book Review

Title: Splintered Silence (A Bone Gap Travellers novel) by Susan Furlong

Genre: Currently #956 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Women Sleuths

Publisher: Kensington Press

Publication Date: December 26, 2017

Source: Kensington Press and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Splintered Silence – Backwoods road, country setting

Former Marine MP Brynn Callahan and Wilco (her cadaver dog) have returned to the Appalachians of Tennessee to stay with her grandparents who raised her after three tours with the Marines. Brynn and Wilco (Will Comply) are both suffering from PTSD after an IED explosion ended their tour. Splintered Silence is the first in the Bone Gap Travellers Mystery series, featuring the Irish Travellers. Often in conflict with the “settled” of the nearby town of McCreary, the Irish Travellers prefer to keep to themselves as a strong knit clan. Brynn’s Human Remains Detection (HRD) dog reverts to his training when he detects a body in the nearby woods. Continue reading “Splintered Silence – a Book Review”

Smoke – a Book Review

Title: Smoke by D. B. Borton

Genre: Currently #19277 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Women Sleuths

Publisher: Boomerang Books

Publication Date: November 20, 2017

Source: Direct request by author

Title and Cover: Smoke – Great cover showing frame painting

Backstory during the Iranian revolution at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art sets the plot of stolen masterpieces, some of which later turn out to be fakes.

Decades later, Marge Smith, as an active agent of Quixote, Ltd. is sent to The Elms to recover from a broken leg received in a motorcycle accident when she is swept up in a geriatric production of Macbeth. The production introduces her to three friends starring as witches, each on short term in the nursing facility, when suddenly one of the witches dies unexpectedly. Continue reading “Smoke – a Book Review”

The Wild Road to Key West – a Book Review

Title: The Wild Road to Key West-The Cave of the Stars by Michael Reisig

Genre: (Historically listed as Literature & Fiction, Historical Fiction, Men’s Adventures, Travel, and Sea Adventures)

Publisher: Clear Creek Press

Publication Date: December 15, 2017

Source: ARC from Author

Title and Cover: The Wild Road to Key West – Cover continues the series brand

You know you can’t go wrong with a new offering from Michael Reisig in his Key West series and I’m excited to present: The Wild Road to Key West, The Cave of the Stars. This is the eighth of the series and finds the Hole in the Coral Wall Gang scrambling once again to duck in and out of the richly descriptive jungles of South America in one piece.

Reisig always sets a frantic pace in chapter one that will continue through his latest adventure. This one begins with the rescue an old friend, Captain O’Neal now of the South Florida DEA. He has tangled in the Venezuelan jungles with a powerful gem-mining warlord, Santiago Talla. They discover Arturio, who is given to unhealthy games of Russian Roulette in the local bar. He knows the area and becomes their guide. Continue reading “The Wild Road to Key West – a Book Review”

Stowed Away – a Book Review

Title: Stowed Away (A Maine Clambake Mystery) by Barbara Ross

Genre: Currently #30 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery

Publisher: Kensington Books

Publication Date: To be released December 26 2017

Source: Kensington Books and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Stowed Away – Cover promises cute cozy mystery

I love it when the cute and compelling book cover delivers on its promise to be a fun, sweet little ride. This sixth book in the series also makes you envy what appear to be a gorgeous Maine, Atlantic Coast blue skies, fair winds location and seaward lifestyle. And you know I’m all over that!

This little romp in the Maine Clambake Mystery series by Barbara Ross features versatile and capable Julia Snowden as protagonist and amateur sleuth. She is low-key, perceptive, and quick to catch any nuance. She is part of the Snowden family that offers an annual sail and clambake to their little tourist retreat on Morrow Island twice a day for the summer season. During the off-season, she is part owner of a little diner with Quentin Tupper in Busman’s Harbor, Maine. Continue reading “Stowed Away – a Book Review”

A Murder for the Books – a Book Review

Title: A Murder for the Books: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Genre: Currently #2672 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Books, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Amateur Sleuths

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Publication Date: To be released December 12, 2017

Source: Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley

Title and Cover: A Murder for the Books – Cozy Mystery cover hints at library setting

Seems like this is the third book I’ve read recently with a library setting. I had no idea that libraries could be such a hotbed of intrigue!

This particular plot centers around Amy Webber who has moved in with her aunt in rural, historic Taylorsford, Virginia where she becomes the library director. She is escaping a disastrous affair. She’s found a good friend at the library in Sunny, and is introduced to the new man in town, choreographer Richard Muir, who inherited the farmhouse next door. He’s on a quest to uncover some old history involving his great-uncle, Paul Dassin, from whom he inherited the old house. He engages Amy to help with research and she soon realizes some of the history may include her family history as well. Together, they shortly discover a murder victim in the archive section of the library. Continue reading “A Murder for the Books – a Book Review”