#BrimstoneHollow – Rosepoint Publishing

Still continuing with wet and wild weather, currently in a cool to cold pattern. We always get this setback going into Spring, but it’s annoying when you want to start the gardens. As if I didn’t already have enough, I’ve started a small water garden—really just a 26” bowl—should be deeper but couldn’t find one. At 26” though, I should be able to have a couple water lilies and an iris or two along with the free floaters. Preparing the water takes more time than expected. Once again, a big learning curve! I mentioned last month we were taking down the old tree in front of the kitchen window. This will fill in that void. (Too cold for the plants.)

water bowl with a couple baby plants

Still going to our YMCA three times a week for exercise and to mark our insurance calendar. The Y continues to invent activities for us seniors—gotta keep us busy, I guess, but the cooking class was fun and now supplies me with fresh veggies once a month for several months, Bingo, a painting class for the CE, and my book club, of course. Hard to get our reading done, though, there are many opportunities for listening!

The CE and I read or listened to a total of fourteen books in April. As always, the major source of our books is the library (audiobooks and ebooks). (We still obtain ARCs from NetGalley (though not as often) and author and publisher requests.) The links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase information.

Iron Curtain by Russ Stone (CE review)
Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood
Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan
Fool by Mary Lawrence (5*)
Midnight Patriots by Paul Levine (CE review-NG-5*)
And Now, Back to You by B K Borison

Audiobooks

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams
The Last Word by Taylor Adams
Free Ride by Noraly Schoemaker
By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Favorite Book of the Month

Both the CE and I each had one five-star read in April, but I happen to know he felt a bit of slowing in the middle of his book. Therefore, the favorite book for April and my only five-star review is:

Favorite for April – Fool by Mary Lawrence

My Reading Challenges page…I keep hoping to catch up. My Goodreads count is still off, and the landing page shows 53 of a challenge of 175 with one book owing a review from April and four books behind schedule. Oops.

To all my dear readers and fellow bloggers, thank you so much for taking the time to check out my posts and reviews. I’m trying to up my bloghopping and hope to see yours soon.

overloaded desk

Book Blurb:

Following her powerful debut in The Witch’s Orchard, private investigator Annie Gore returns in Brimstone Hollow, bringing readers back to the mountains that author Archer Sullivan, a ninth-generation Appalachian, knows so well.

There isn’t much that happens in the Appalachian Mountains that Private Investigator Annie Gore hasn’t seen. Before she was an Air Force Special Investigator, she was born and raised in those rolling hills, and lately Annie’s cases have called her away from her Louisville office and closer to the small towns of her youth than she ever anticipated. But when her newest client asks if she’s ever been to a snake-handling church, Annie knows she’s about to enter unknown territory.

Katie May has been estranged from her father—one of Appalachia’s last infamous snake handling preachers—for twenty years. But when Katie finds out he’s been fatally bitten, and a funeral was held within twenty-four hours, she questions whether someone deliberately rushed the process. Despite Annie’s doubts, she takes the case. After all, when she looks at Katie, she sees a version of herself: a girl who needs to understand her father in order to understand herself.

As she navigates the hidden hollers and dangerous secrets of this insular Eastern Kentucky town, Annie works fast, hoping to find the truth in record time for her client—and before too many memories from her own childhood surface. But it soon becomes apparent that someone wants Annie’s investigation to stop—by any means necessary.

His Review:

Annie Gore has been a police officer and investigator but is now on her own in private business. A distraught girl has been estranged from her father for over 20 years but needs to get in touch with him. She hires Annie to investigate and locate her father. He happens to be a very famous snake-charming evangelist. His church is located near Brimstone Hollow.

She teams up with Detective Dishman of the Brimstone Hollow Police Department but things go south very fast. People associated with Annie’s father wind up being murdered. The plot thickens as there are now three bodies! Meanwhile, the preacher is away giving tent ministry displays in another county. When he returns to the church, disaster happens. What can Annie report back to the minister’s daughter regarding her father?

This story has a whirlpool effect as everyone associated with the pastor seems to be winding up dead or a very viable suspect. The author has woven a very intricate plot with sharp turns and deaths whenever someone gets too close to the church and its’ pastor. Read and enjoy, it is a well contrived story. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. Any opinion expressed here is my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Witch & Wizard Mysteries, Private Investigator Mysteries, Small Town & Rural Fiction
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: August 11, 2026
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Kobo

The Author: Archer Sullivan is a ninth generation Appalachian. She’s moved thirty-seven times and has lived everywhere from Monticello, Kentucky to Manhattan, New York and from Black Mountain, North Carolina to Beverly Hills, California. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough, Shotgun Honey, Reckon Review, Rock and a Hard Place, and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024. Connect with Archer Sullivan at his website. [Goodreads]

#SundayRead