#NewBooks – Page 6 – Rosepoint Publishing

I Have Your Back by Tom Sileo – #BookReview – #AfghanWarHistory

How an American Soldier Became an International Hero

Book Blurb:

The story of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis, who became an international hero for his courage and selflessness.

Ever since he was a young boy growing up on the streets of Staten Island, New York, Michael Ollis wanted to be a soldier. Inspired by his father, who fought in Vietnam, Mike’s deep desire to serve was cemented on the day his beloved city was attacked. From 9/11 onward, Mike’s one and only mission was to save lives.

After two tense combat deployments, Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis earned the US Army’s coveted Ranger tab and set his sights on the perilous mountains of eastern Afghanistan. On August 28, 2013, Mike was suddenly caught in the middle of a massive and unprecedented Taliban assault on a coalition military base. Rather than retreat to his bunker, Mike decided to fight. He then encountered a Polish army officer who needed his help.

Despite being surrounded by enemy fighters while running low on ammunition, Mike promised the foreign soldier that no matter what, he would have his back. For his final act of bravery, Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis would not only receive the Distinguished Service Cross from his own country, but the highest honor that Poland can bestow upon an allied soldier.

As an American warrior, Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis had all of our backs. This vivid and visceral account of Mike’s selfless 24-year journey will motivate us to “live like Mike” by always putting family, friends and country first.

His Review:

US Army Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis loved to play soldier as a boy. He loved his dad and wanted to emulate his successful career in the army. He rose through the ranks and became a very successful squad leader in Afghanistan. His primary focus was the mission and bringing all of his squad back safely.

The Afghanistan war was a direct result of the Taliban attacking our country on 9/11. The soldiers were assisting the Afghanistan army in learning how to protect their people and maintain their fledgling democracy. The Taliban hates us for this action and would dearly love to destroy our democracy and way of life.

Staff Sergeant Ollis was always drilling and reviewing tactics to keep his men prepared and safe. On the day he was critically wounded he got his men into a secure compound and left them to help secure the perimeter after a car bomb attack breached the perimeter. The action saved the life of a Polish soldier; Second Lieutenant Karol Cierpica.

The accomplishments of this Staten Island, New York native are stellar. Our country has been blessed with soldiers who gave their all that their fellow soldiers may live. Hopefully, Congress will review his file and upgrade his medal to the Congressional Medal of Honor. He deserves to be in the company of fellow heroes including Sergeant Audie Murphy. 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 opinions expressed here are my own.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Biographies of the Afghan War, Afghan War History, Afghan War Biographies
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
ASIN: B0CGRZJXLB
Publication Date: June 4, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Tom Sileo is author of the upcoming I HAVE YOUR BACK (St. Martin’s Press, 2024) and BE BOLD (Fidelis, 2022). He is co-author of THREE WISE MEN (St. Martin’s, 2021), 8 SECONDS OF COURAGE (Simon & Schuster, 2017), FIRE IN MY EYES (Hachette, 2016) and BROTHERS FOREVER (Hachette, 2014). Tom is represented by the WordServe Literary Agency. He is a contributing senior editor of The Stream and recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s General Oliver P. Smith Award for distinguished reporting. Follow Tom on Twitter @TSileo.

Blood Mountain by Alisa Lynn Valdés – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Jodi Luna Book 2

Book Blurb:

New Mexico game warden Jodi Luna disrupts a murderous wilderness adventure in this thrilling second installment from Alisa Lynn Valdés, New York Times bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club.

Former poetry professor Jodi Luna hasn’t quite adjusted to life as a game warden. Her boss thinks she’s better with animals than humans, and the man she’s seeing wants a real relationship. Still reeling from her husband’s death, Jodi has to admit that she keeps people at a distance.

After her new friend, wealthy actress Claudia Evans, gathers with family members in the New Mexico wilderness, Jodi gets some unsettling news—that Claudia’s brother-in-law is missing. Eager to help, Jodi ventures into the wild to investigate, only to be thwarted by a blizzard that leaves the entire group stranded at a fishing lodge.

Jodi is no stranger to extreme weather, but when these reluctant adventurers start turning up mauled around the snowed-in lodge, Jodi suspects the worst: This was no bear. This was murder.

And inside the snowy confines of this rustic hideaway, everyone is fair game…

…for a killer.

My Review:

Lest you assume this might be the ole people stuck in a blizzard and start disappearing you could be right.

With a couple caveats: Jodi Luna was raised in New Mexico and has returned to try and chill both she and her daughter following the death of her husband on the East Coast where she was a professor. Her fifteen year old daughter Mila, whether or not having witnessed the death of her dad, certainly sounds like a typical teenager to me and a pretty smart one at that. So it is her daughter who saves the day.

Hoping to turn their lives around, Jodi has gotten a job as the local game warden. She loves animals and knows how to handle most people and the situations involving them.

Her new supervisor assigns her a job requested by the governor as a favor and is clearly no request. She is to proceed to a ranch compound owned by a billionaire who is hosting his annual elk hunt on his palatial estate. Teddy Evans and his wife invited his brothers and a sister, and their spouses then splits leaving the guiding up to Jodi.

Of course, the siblings feel ridiculously entitled, are obnoxious, and the men less than thrilled over having a female guide. The wife just wants Jodi to help organize and keep them from killing each other.

Oops.

The property is massive, beautiful, and there’s a treacherous storm brewing that threatens to cancel the hunt (for animals anyway). They are high up in the mountains and isolated. Jodi brought her daughter along who transitions from Godzilla to brilliant loving daughter (I had a little disbelief there).

There is a little property that straddles the ingress/egress road to the ranch compound owned by a woman been there longer than dirt and has a pet bear. She can effectively stop traffic going through but there are far more reaching reasons why the billionaire wants her property.

Jodi seems pretty intelligent but makes a few decisions that I wondered whether might have been irrational. They discovered a body that appears to have been mauled and she is taking no chances and isolates everyone. Jodi is dealing with other issues as well and her job is in jeopardy.

So many conflicts, themes of family dysfunction, entitlement, greed, and trust are interwoven into a plausible plot. The storyline keeps a good pace, pushes some disbelief, throws in twists and adds complexity. It’s entertaining. The female protagonist reminded me a little of Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon series, although I think Pigeon is softer around the edges than Jodi who could become grating.

I enjoyed the book, it kept my interest. Thinking I’ll go back to Book #1 and catch up, although this could very well be read as a standalone.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Political Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: 1662507151
ASIN: B0BTJC7JFR
Print Length: 331 pages
Publication Date: April 16, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of many novels. Published in 11 languages and with more than 1 million books in print, Alisa was named one of the 25 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Time magazine; Latina magazine named her a Woman of the Year; Entertainment Weekly hailed her as a Breakout Literary Star; and Hispanic Business magazine has twice named her among the 100 Most Influential people in the nation. Alisa is a former staff writer for the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, and holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia University. Alisa is also a screenwriter and TV and film producer, and a playwright and composer with a bachelor’s from Berklee College of Music.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson – #BookReview – #HorrorSuspense

Book Blurb:

A teenager explores the darkness hidden within his hometown in this spellbinding supernatural thriller from bestselling author Scott Carson.

For a sixteen-year-old, a summer internship working for a private investigator seems like a dream come true—particularly since the PI is investigating the most shocking crime to hit Bloomington, Indiana, in decades. A local woman has vanished, and the last time anyone saw her, she was in the backseat of a police car driven by a man impersonating an officer.

Marshall Miller’s internship puts him at the center of the action, a position he relishes until a terrifying moment that turns public praise for his sharp observations and uncanny memory into accusations of lying and imperiling the case. His detective mentor withdraws, friends and family worry and whisper, and Marshall alone understands that the darkness visiting his town this summer goes far beyond a single crime. Now his task is to explain it—and himself.

His Review:

I remember the concern about the change from the 1900’s to 2000. Pundits predicted the economy would stop and business grind to a halt. It seemed that the inventors of computers and the programs did not take into account the underlying date sequencing in computers. It was a very big non-event on January 1, 2000, because everything just continued. However, in 1999 the threat was real and computer geeks shook in their boots.

Marshall is a 17-year-old making his way through school with all of the pressures and angst that only that age can conjure. His mother is a single mom doing the best she can and holding down three jobs to make ends meet. Marshall has no idea who his father is and is harassed continually by the bullies in his school in Bloomington, Indiana. His mom is his staunchest ally but she cannot keep him being a target.

His primary problem is that he has seen a ghost who threatens his life after a routine traffic stop. Add to that the troubles with his boyhood sweetheart.

A series of mishaps and life-threatening events are thwarted by the one person who might dislike him the most. He then befriends Noah who hires him for the summer and works to train him as a private investigator. The job is supposed to be boring but Marshall finds it extremely stressful and frightening. He keeps seeing the ghost who continues to make his life miserable. Add a repeating history of young girls mysteriously dying in the town since the early 1900s and the entire story takes on a terrible and foreboding patina.

I remember reading Edgar Allen Poe during my high school years and marveling at the twists employed in his books. Scott Carson has employed some of that style and the result is a myriad of unexplained deaths. Can Scott save his girlfriend and solve some of these questions? I could not put this book down and the twists and turns kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. These are my own opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Horror Suspense, Paranormal Suspense, Kidnapping Thrillers
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
ASIN: B0C7RNJ7H4
Print Length: 524 pages pages
Publication Date: March 26, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Scott Carson is the pen name of Michael Koryta, a New York Times bestselling author whose work has been translated into more than twenty languages, adapted into major motion pictures, and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A former private investigator and reporter, his writing has been praised by Stephen King, Michael Connelly, and Dean Koontz, among many others. Raised in Bloomington, Indiana, he now lives in Indiana and Maine.

Reading Ireland Month 2024

Obey All Laws by Cindy Goyette – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

A Probation Case Files Mystery

Book Blurb:

When Phoenix probation officer Casey Carson goes to work, she expects naked people to answer doors, meth-addicted clients to hit on her, and angry judges to chew her out in court. After a routine home visit with a client, a Diablo gang member, goes horribly wrong, she knows she must watch her back. Even she must admit that a one-eyed, bad-ass, angry gangster and his crew gunning for her is a bit more than she was trained to handle.

Casey has even more reason to fear Diablo when her cousin Hope goes missing, and it looks like their handiwork. With women vanishing at an alarming rate in the area, police treat Hope’s disappearance as a priority. Still, Casey can’t sit on the sidelines, even with her ex-husband leading the investigation. After she receives information that proves her suspicions about Diablo right, the gang will do anything to keep her from sharing it with police, even if that means taking her on a one-way trip to the desert.

My Review:

Well, here is a new and fresh take on a crime thriller coming from the unique perspective of a probation officer. Casey Carson is a seasoned, savvy PO officer. She is also a main character you can identify with. She’s smart when it comes to her job—well—not always as every main character I’ve ever known tends to go off by themselves without backup. As a reader, you can yell at them all you want. They won’t hear you.

Still, the author has packed some very likable characters behind her engaging main character, including an ex-husband, Barry Betz, that you keep asking why the “ex”?

“Detective Barry Betz that is, got out and walked toward me, shaking his head.

He looked good.

Damn it.”

From the opening action-packed chapter through the sub-plot with Casey’s cousin, the fast-paced narrative doesn’t lag or resort to constant repeats. It doesn’t help when Hope’s sister Joy arrives to help find her sister—only to heap on additional problems.

I love the dry sense of humor from the first person POV and the twists and turns, but no, didn’t need a new heat-inducing sexy neighbor clouding the issue with the ex. I liked the ex. But the new neighbor adds tension, suspicion, and a little fun.

So, really, this is a debut novel? I love the unique aspect and info coming from that side of the law. Since we lived for a short time just outside of Phoenix, I was fairly familiar with the area—and the heat—and descriptions give it an atmospheric and comfortably recognizable quality.

A great start for a new series and one I’m looking forward to.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my own thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Women Sleuths, CrimeThrillers
Publisher: Level Best Books
ISBN-10: ‎1685125344
ISBN-13: ‎978-1685125349
ASIN: B0CQ17GQ8V
Print Length: 310 pages
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Cindy Goyette is a former probation officer who had a front row seat to the criminal justice system. Her experiences helped her create fiction that mirrors real life situations. Her mystery, OBEY ALL LAWS, is part of a series published in January of 2024 by Level Best Books. Cindy lives in Washington state with her husband and two Cocker Spaniels.

The Millionaire by Keenan Powell – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

A Maureen Gould Legal Thriller

Book Blurb:

Is Truth for Sale?

“The Millionaire” is in jail on a murder charge.
Violent inmates beat him savagely, trying to extort money.
To save his life, Maureen Gould must find the truth and free her client.

When Maureen Gould’s former client, Tony Paredes, known as “The Millionaire,” is accused of killing his abuser, she believes he’s innocent. But the authorities don’t care. They throw him into jail with violent criminals who almost beat him to death to extort money he doesn’t have.

As he recovers in the hospital, Maureen must find the evidence that will convince a jury to acquit him. If he goes back, the next beating will surely kill him.

My Review:

My turn for a Keenan Powell novel. The CE read both Implied Consent and The Sorrowful Girl, the latter of which should have been saved for March and Reading Ireland Month. He loved both of them. It’s definitely my turn.

I love a good legal thriller and Book 2 in the Maureen Gould Series is just that.

Gould is defending Tony Paredes accused of murdering the coach who raped him when Paredes was involved in the chess club of a private school. While those closely connected with the original lawsuit that Paredes eventually lost against Oscar Wenderholm believe he murdered Wenderholm, Gould believes her client is innocent. The evidence appears to be mainly circumstantial—he’s an easy, obvious perp.

It’s a multi-layered plot, one that involves Gould’s own secreted experience as well as Paredes’s story. The author has packed authentic support characters around her, including a prosecutor hubby and a daughter who wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps. There is also a very intelligent kitty named Germaine Greer that at times I forgot was a cat.

As Gould picks away at what few leads she’s gotten, her client has been badly beaten in jail and is now in the hospital. If he’s sent back—he won’t make it out alive. In order to win his freedom, however, she’ll have to explode the case wide open, against a prosecutor who has never lost a case and it’ll cost the loss of her own secret in the doing.

It’s a multi-layered plot using Gould’s own secret and Paredes’ backstory that includes a court case he lost to jury tampering. While some of the evidence of the murder appears contrived, there seems to be a credible witness with the victim’s wife. But a gun planted in Paredes’ trunk? Come on…Every step forward leads to another twist and the biggest of all in the conclusion. Good storyline, great characters, and I love it when I get surprised.

I’ll be looking forward to her next installment—this one can be read as a standalone, but hubby really enjoyed Implied Consent—you may wish to begin with Book 1. (Books 1 and 2 are available as audiobooks.)

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Legal thrillers, Murder, Murder Thrillers
Publisher: Three Hooligans Press LLC
ISBN: ‎B0CS9R5BFS
ASIN: B0CK677XCP
Print Length: 285 pages
Publication Date: January 26, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Kobo

The Author: Keenan Powell is the Agatha, Lefty, and Silver Falchion nominated author of the Maeve Malloy Mystery series.
Despite being one of original Dungeons and Dragons illustrators, art seemed an impractical pursuit – not an heiress, wouldn’t marry well, hated teaching – so she went to law school. The day after graduation, she moved to Alaska.
She is the author of the Maureen Gould Legal Thrillers, the Maeve Malloy Mysteries and numerous short stories.

Where Butterflies Wander by Suzanne Redfearn – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Happy Release Day!

Book Blurb:

From the bestselling author of In an Instant comes the moving story of a family grappling with grief and a woman with the power to help them through it—or stand in their way.

After a tragic accident claims the life of one of her children, Marie Egide is desperate to carve out a fresh start for her family. With her husband and their three surviving children, Marie travels to New Hampshire, where she plans to sell a family estate and then, just maybe, they’ll be able to heal from their grief.

Marie’s plans are thwarted when she realizes a war veteran known by locals as “the river witch” is living in a cabin on the property, which she claims was a gift from Marie’s grandfather. If Davina refuses to move on, Marie won’t be able to either.

The two women clash, and battle lines are drawn within Marie’s family and the town as each side fights for what they believe is right, the tension rising until it reaches its breaking point. And the choice is no longer theirs when a force bigger than them all—fate—takes control.

My Review:

Marie Egide and her husband Leo have lost a little member of their family and reeling from the tragedy decide on a desperate move to New Hampshire to “start new” and claim an old inherited property. They’ll take the summer at the house to clean and repair and then sell and move to Farmington.

They hadn’t counted on Davina Lister, however, known locally as the “river witch.” Invited to stay on the property as long as she wished by Marie’s grandfather, Davina has made a comfortable home and local reputation for herself.

Marie takes an instant dislike to the woman although it’s clear from the beginning that surviving daughters Hannah and Pen have engaged with her very quickly. Son Brendon sides with his mother. He carries secrets that keep him in an agitated state and directs his anger to any who crosses his path.

“Mom said I should take up a hobby like guitar or painting. I’d rather watch cheese melt.”

Davina is an amazing character. A combat veteran, she received devastating and disabling injuries on her last tour of duty and for the most part tried to stay quietly away from the public. She has learned to stay pretty independent, living off the land with some animals, and developing an expertise with the local flora and fauna. She has developed a gratifying and generous history with her healing powers of elixirs and potions.

The POV switches between the characters including the children, each dealing with the tragedy in their own way, and it’s touching that Pen has taken refuge in believing she sees her sister Bee in the butterflies on the property.

Marie’s character develops as the novel antagonist, demanding Davina leave the property as she has no properly written legal document to support her position. Marie is caught in her position and must doggedly pursue legal action with only Brandon supporting her which inevitably escalates tension and culminates in creating additional serious problems.

I really loved Davina’s character. She is so inviting and immersive, it’s hard to see any way this could end equitably for anyone. Each in the family is harboring guilt of some nature in the death of their loved one—it’s crippling—and obvious that if it is not resolved here, they’ll simply carry it, festering, to their next location.

The author has an emotional, sentimental writing style that plucks at tender feelings and spears the appropriate moral objective (own the mistake, vow not to repeat, forgive yourself, move on?).

Although I’ve read several of her books, all good, including the Moment in Time (’22), Hadley & Grace (’21), and In An Instant (’20), my favorite is still Hadley & Grace. I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Friendship Fiction, Small Town & Rural Fiction, Women’s Literary Fiction
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
ASIN: B0BX4M26PV
Print Length: 298 pages
Publication Date: February 6, 2024 Happy Release Day!
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Suzanne is the bestselling author of five novels: Moment In Time, Hadley & Grace, In an Instant, No Ordinary Life, and Hush Little Baby.

Born and raised on the east coast, Suzanne moved to California when she was fifteen. She currently lives in Laguna Beach with her husband where they own two restaurants: Lumberyard and Slice Pizza & Beer. In addition to being an author, Suzanne is an architect specializing in residential and commercial design.

You can find her at her website, www.SuzanneRedfearn.com, on Facebook at SuzanneRedfearnAuthor, or on Instagram at SuzanneRedfearn.

#TuesdayBookBlog

Death in the Ozarks by Erik S Meyers – #BookReview – #TraditionalDetectiveMysteries

A Sally Witherspoon Mystery

Book Blurb:

A cross between Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and a Cheers bartender, Sally Witherspoon, a 50-something accountant turned biker-bar owner, loves solving puzzles. Up to now, she has focused on helping neighbors and friends find lost jewelry, lost pets, and lost loves.

But when she finds her best friend and business partner, Bill Arnold, dead in a dumpster behind her bar on a Saturday night, she needs all her wits and grit to find out who did it.

And she won’t stop until she does.

His Review:

Berry Springs is a small Ozark town and is usually very peaceful. However, all that changes with a sudden spate of unexplained deaths. Sally Witherspoon owns a club called “Sally’s Smasher.” Some evenings a large profit is made which then has to go into inventory for continued operations. Also, Sally envisions herself as a detective who can augment the local overworked police department.

When someone close to her and associated with Sally’s Smasher is suddenly and brutally killed, she feels that she is the one to assist the local law enforcement professionals. The town of Berry Springs has a very close-knit community and Sally cannot think of anyone who could be culpable, however, the culprit had used an unusual method of murder.

The local police department considers Sally’s investigation of the crime meddling. She is reminded that she may be charged with impeding an ongoing investigation. She volunteers what information she has gathered and the police chief grudgingly shares some of the department’s findings with her. The victims begin to mount up though and they are all people associated with her establishment.

Meddling in police work and crime investigation can be very dangerous as Sally soon finds out. Can she solve the mystery or will she become the next victim? Read and enjoy this thriller. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

The first in a new series with promise for compelling characters and location. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: Level Best Books
ASIN: B0CKWT4FY2
Print Length: 298 pages pages
Publication Date: December 12, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Erik S Meyers - author — Erik S Meyers – author

The Author: Currently in Austria, I’m an American abroad for years and years who has lived or worked in six countries on three continents, the longest in Germany. I’m an award-winning author and communications professional with 25 years of expertise in a variety of corporate roles, including a broad range of communications disciplines, technical writing and translation, and corporate strategy. Reading and writing are my passions, when I’m not hiking one of the amazing trails in Austria or elsewhere. My motto is “fight the hype” and I enjoy taking a unique, perhaps unorthodox, view of the current topics and trends.

https://www.erikmey.com

Up on the Woof Top by Spencer Quinn – #AudiobookReview – #AnimalFiction

Chet and Bernie Mysteries, Book 14

Book Blurb:

Chet the dog, “the most lovable narrator in all of crime fiction” (Boston Globe) and his human partner Bernie Little find themselves high in the mountains this holiday season to help Dame Ariadne Carlisle, a renowned author of bestselling Christmas mysteries, find Rudy, her lead reindeer and good luck charm, who has gone missing.

At Kringle Ranch, Dame Ariadne’s expansive mountain spread, Chet discovers that he is not fond of reindeer. But the case turns out to be about much more than reindeer after Dame Ariadne’s personal assistant takes a long fall into Devil’s Purse, a deep mountain gorge. When our duo discovers that someone very close to Dame Ariadne was murdered in that same spot decades earlier, they start looking into that long ago unsolved crime.

But as they reach into the past, the past is also reaching out for them. Can they unlock the secrets of Dame Ariadne’s life before they too end up at the bottom of the gorge? Is Rudy somehow the key?

Up on the Woof Top is a brand-new holiday adventure in Spencer Quinn’s delightful New York Times and USA Today bestselling series that the Los Angeles Times called “nothing short of masterful.”

My Review:

I’d forgotten the fun of listening to Chet (the dog) interpret his life with Bernie as they go about business in the Little Detective Agency. Chet is a police test failure. Chet very much, like all good dogs, lives in the present, although he does have a good memory for his history with Bernie and loves him like no other.

It’s the dog’s thoughts and memories from previous jobs that are called to mind, often humorously, as only a dog might view the world. While we humans tend to anthropomorphize our pets, the pets tend to view their human in terms of pack mentality. Hopefully, the human is alpha. In this case, Chet often reminds the reader how smart Bernie is. That’s good, because their new job is to find the missing pet reindeer of an aging author. Bernie’s client, Ariadne Carlisle, is experiencing writer’s block—a no-no for an author and it’s the reindeer who serves as her muse.

It’s Christmas time in the Colorado mountains, the author’s main theme. She owns Kringle Ranch and Rudy is one of nine reindeer. She figures surely Chet with his sensitive nose, will be able to find Rudy—money is no object.

When Chet and Bernie find her personal assistant at the bottom of a gorge, however, the case swings into an unsolved murder case—that of Carlisle’s only real love. The plot line has changed. But that isn’t the only surprise. There are twists and some amazing well-developed characters who provide a fast-paced multi-layered storyline. Things are changing.

There are moments of give and take between man and dog that melt the heart and act like a balm for those (like myself) who have recently lost their own fur baby. The serious is interspersed with Chet’s comic pearls of wit and wisdom as he navigates the mysterious and often confusing world of his human and those with whom they meet on their missions. If you haven’t checked out one of these uniquely narrated mystery installments, this would be a good one to start.

I’ve enjoyed the books I’ve read or listened to (not in any order), the last one The Dog Who Knew Too Much last year. Jim Frangione does a great job of narration. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point five stars

Book Details:

Genre: Animal Fiction, Animal Cozy Mysteries, Private Investigator Mysteries
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0C5P9QKV2
Listening Length: 8 hrs 13 mins
Narrator: Jim Frangione
Publication Date: October 17, 2023
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Up on the Woof Top [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo