#nottobemissed – Page 29 – Rosepoint Publishing

A Sagebrush Soul by John Isaac Jones – #BookReview – #biographicalfiction

A Biographical Novel of Mark Twain (Great American Authors Series Book 2)

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

John Isaac Jones’s new biographical novel on Samuel Langhorne Clemens, A/K/A Mark Twain, brings the fascinating life of America’s most famous humorist to you in vivid, captivating detail.

His time – 1840s-1910 America. Westward movement begins; the trail of tears; telegraph is invented; California gold rush; War between the States; Lincoln assassinated; the golden spike; Custer massacred; invention of electric light, the telephone and the automobile; the Spanish American war; the tumultuous presidency of Teddy Roosevelt; events leading to WWI.

His loves – His strait-laced, highly-religious mother Jane who vowed he was “born to be hanged!”; Laura Hawkins, his childhood sweetheart whom he was unable to commit to; Ina Coolbrith, the beautiful California poetess and lover who vowed to hold him; his beloved wife Olivia who urged him to become “a serious writer;” his oldest daughter Susan whom he worshipped from the day she was born until the day of her death.

His genius – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, news reporter, steamboat pilot, gold miner, lecturer, world-traveler, adventurer, author of the classic Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books; the first man to circumnavigate the world on a steamship; singlehandedly invented the travelogue genre when he wrote Innocents Abroad; later books, including A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Roughing it, Life of the Mississippi and the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, earned him the title “The father of American literature.”

His Review:

Growing up along the Mississippi River, Samuel Clemens was always getting into mischief. He and a boyhood friend, Tom Blankenship, are always having problems. Finally, Sam’s parents determine that Tom is leading their son down the road of perdition and forbid him to have any further contact with him. This relationship was the basis for the character Huckleberry Finn.

Sam’s boyhood town, Hannibal, Missouri, is located on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. The town is a major port city and with deep water is able to take in many of the steamboats that ply the river. Sam falls in love with the idea of becoming a steamboat captain and sailing the route between New Orleans and Hannibal.

But he becomes a newspaper reporter and decides to head west to broaden his experience. He is swept up in the search for gold and he and a couple other guys search for the elusive metal near Carson City, NV and then the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The three manage to eke out $8.00 per day after grueling twelve-hour days and decide this is not for them. They take their hard-earned savings and try to double it in San Francisco.

Sam marries a young lady and they decide to move and live back east. Life gives him many harsh lessons including losing his daughters and ultimately his wife. Life is not easy for Samuel Clemens and his alternate ego, Mark Twain, who with an abundance of life experience to write about, then becomes a great traveling orator and humorist. This book, however, reveals the difficult life that this American legend lived and the many tragedies that he experienced. 5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction
Publisher: John Isaac Jones (1^st Edition)
ASIN: B0C55VKF7N
Print Length: 506 pages
Publication Date: May 12, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist and novelist currently living and writing at Merritt Island, Florida. For more than thirty years, “John I.,” as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world. These included local newspapers in my native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television. His latest book, A Quiet Madness, is a work of historical fiction about the life of Edgar Allan Poe, author of the short story classics, The Tell-tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. Jones is the author of ten novels, two short story collections and five novellas. You can find “John I.” on his website, johnisaacjones.com, or on Facebook at author john Isaac Jones.

Have a Great Sunday

The Final Frame by Harmony Reed – #BookReview – #PsychologicalLiteraryFiction

Book Blurb:

He sacrificed his family for ambition — but now they’re all he has left.

Cameron Parrish became Hollywood’s #1 action director by refusing to use AI-assist technology. Every film is a box office success, but neither fame nor fortune makes up for the fact that Cameron’s dying to make real cinema — an Oscar-worthy movie that will show the world he’s an auteur, not the clever hack that the critics make him out to be.

But mere hours after being greenlit for the film he knows he was born to shoot, director Cameron Parrish is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. There’s no treatment, and if he’s lucky, he might make it another year, but more likely, he’s got a few months left.

As word gets out about his illness, Cameron realizes he has no true friends. No real family either: his obsession with finding perfection behind the camera lens has long since alienated his ex-wife and his adult son.

Desperate to make his final days matter, he signs up for an experimental program that promises to help him discover the meaning of his life — and his death.

Accompanied by an artificial intelligence named Sofia, Cameron embarks on a bucket list journey — from the Maldives and Bhutan to Toledo and Morocco — designed to round out his unbalanced life and help him make peace with his impending death.

But what if it’s too late for Cameron to see the world through a new lens?

Eat, Pray, Love meets The Bucket List in this vibrant but poignant story exploring the possibility of second chances and the unexpected beauty of an imperfect life.

His Review:

Cameron Parrish is the premier director of films in Hollywood. Beyond the best in his own mind, he looked down his nose at anyone attempting to emulate him. After all, he had two Oscar-winning films to his credit. Everyone wanted to meet him and be involved in his next project.

But all of the fame in the world cannot overcome life’s cruel journey. Cameron is diagnosed with a very rampant stage 3 cancer which has no known cure. Yes, there are cures in the works but only signing up for experimental drugs may give him an opportunity for continued living. His doctor warns that the drug may cause side effects that will make his life worse than the disease itself. Cameron decides to forego the drug.

His final journey takes him to the far east where he makes the most out of every day he has left. His situation offers no future for any female unlucky enough to fall under his spell. The book is engaging and one cannot help but be sympathetic towards this total narcissist. Read and 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.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Publisher: Sterling & Stone
ASIN: B0BWPDYX4Y
Print Length: 297 pages
Publication Date: March 22, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Harmony Reed writes revelatory stories about what it means to live, how we can become more fully human, and how we can shed the lies we’ve been living by and embrace our truth. Her fiction melds the large-scale with the deeply-personal, yielding insight into the human psyche and the world we all must move through. If you enjoy authors like Michael Chabon and Jodi Picoult, movies like Big Fish and Little Miss Sunshine, or shows like Orange is the New Black and This is Us, you’ll love Harmony Reed.

Have a good Weekend!

Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? by Bill Heavey – a #BookReview – Atlantic Monthly Press

It’s that time of year when people are getting out and resuming favorite outdoor activities from hunting to fishing and just plain laid-back camping in the pristine wilderness where 3,000 other people are doing the same. I thought it was time to bring this post back from 2017 in case you might have missed it the first go-round.

Enjoy!

Title: Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? A Professional Amateur’s Guide to the Outdoors by Bill Heavey

Genre: Currently #171 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Books, Spots & Outdoors, Miscellaneous, Essays, and

#1136 in Books, Humor & Entertainment, Humor, Essays

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Publication Date: To be published December 5, 2017

Source: Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? – VERY neat cover in keeping with his brand.

I am not a reader of Field and Stream magazine where this author has been a featured writer for more than 20 years. Should the Tent Be Burning Like That by Bill Heavey is a compilation of columns or articles he has written for various publications during the last several decades. The book explores more than an erudite knowledge of his subject.

The amazing thing here is the manner of speaking, the sense of humor, and the down-home self-deprecating, ah shucks pattern in which he delivers his collection of little stories.

Continue reading “Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? by Bill Heavey – a #BookReview – Atlantic Monthly Press”

Hard Country by Reavis Z Wortham – #BookReview – #crimethriller

Book Blurb:

There is no peace in the hard country

Tucker Snow is as tough as they come, hardened by decades working as an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Through special dispensation from the governor, he and his brother Harley cut a wide swath through the criminal element of Northeast Texas. But tragedy comes calling after taking a dream job as a special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, when Tucker’s wife and toddler are killed in a horrific traffic accident caused by a drug addled felon. Close to breaking, Tucker sets his badge aside to move his surviving teenage daughter outside of Ganther Bluff, a quiet town with enough room for them to mourn their unexpected loss.

But peace doesn’t last long for a man like Tucker Snow. Instead of settling into small-town life to heal from such an unimaginable loss, a fresh kind of hell hits them with full force.

Crimes and secrets strangle this rural community, and when a new form of meth with the street name of gravel gets too close to home, it’s enough for Tucker to put his badge back on and call Harley for help. The town will ultimately be better off with him as a resident lawman, but this unforgiving landscape will threaten everything Tucker holds dear.

His Review:

Illegal drugs have hit every population in the world. Texas is no different and the law enforcement personnel in that state are charged with helping curb the epidemic. Riches can be made in drug dealing, however, and their primary goal is becoming rich. Human life means nothing to them.

Tucker and Harley Snow are agents swept up in trying to protect the public from these criminals. A new product enters the market with terrible social consequences, but dealers and distributors will kill to maintain their territory and income.

Tucker bought a beautiful spread in the panhandle and is settling in for a well-earned retirement. Since his wife and son were killed in a tragic car accident, he is left with his daughter Chloe on the ranch. His neighbor lives in a ratty mobile home and seems to have a very profitable business. He is not about to allow this lawman to come into his territory and destroy his enterprise.

This book is very well written and harkens back to some of the old Zane Grey’s westerns. The action is fast moving and at times very descriptive. The battle to control the effects on the American public of easily accessible drugs is similar to the wild west of a century earlier. Read and enjoy for there is never a dull moment. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

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: Murder, Police Procedurals, Crime Thrillers, Westerns
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
ASIN: B0BK2KDJYS
Print Length: (paperback) 400 pages
Publication Date: August 1, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: As a boy, award-winning writer, Reavis Z. Wortham hunted and fished the river bottoms near Chicota, Texas, the inspiration for the fictional setting for The Rock Hole and The Red River Mystery Series. He was born in Paris, Texas, but lived in Dallas. “We grew up in the city and went to school there, but every Friday evening my parents put us in the car and made the 120-mile drive to Chicota, where we truly lived at my grandparents’ place in the country until Sunday evening, when we came back to the city. Our real home was that little scratch farm in Lamar County.”

Author Reavis Z. Wortham’s first novel, The Rock Hole, is described by Kirkus Reviews as “an unpretentious gem written to the hilt and harrowing in its unpredictability.” Kirkus also listed it as one of the “Top 12 Mysteries of 2011.”

[truncated]

Reavis also penned Doreen’s 24 HR Eat Gas Now Café. More than 2,500 newspaper and magazine articles bear the byline of this award-winning Texas writer. The Rock Hole was a finalist in the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association, is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Writers’ League of Texas, International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch), and International Thriller Writers.

He lives with his wife, Shana, in northeast Texas.

Enjoy Your Sunday

Iwo, 26 Charlie by P T Deutermann – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

World War II Navy #10

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

T. Deutermann is a contemporary master of World War II military fiction: writing about the lives, deaths, dreams, fears, and combat experiences of sailors and soldiers, generals and grunts, captains and snipers, pilots and submariners, who served in the Pacific theatre war against Japan.

The island of Iwo Jima was the epic land and sea battle that produced one of the iconic images of WWII: the Marines raising the American flag on Mount Surabachi, an active volcano that was the site of intense hand-to-hand combat. In this gripping novel, Deutermann follows a young gunnery liaison officer, Lee Bishop, who during the ferocious battle for the island is pulled from his station aboard the USS Nevada to serve on-shore as a spotter, calling in coordinates for the ship to target with missiles.

But Bishop is completely unready for what he will witness and experience: a literal hell, during which 26,000 Americans are killed in a fight to the very last man, which culminates in the blistering, sulphurous tunnels of Surabachi itself, where an entire platoon of Marines is held captive. Iwo, 26 Charlie is a dramatic, utterly authentic novel by an award-winning writer.

His Review:

One of the most iconic images of the battle of Iwo Jima and World War II is the raising of our flag on Mount Suribachi. This is one of our country’s proudest moments during the war in the Pacific. This achievement took a lot longer than the citizens of our country knew. Most battles the U.S. Marines fight are in concert with the U.S. Navy. This is one of those stories.

There is a rivalry between these two branches of the U.S. military and also a bond of brotherhood. Lieutenant Lee Bishop goes onto the island with the intention to assist in firepower from the naval bombardment to “soften up” the island prior to the marine’s landing effort. The Japanese had prepared the island for the war with a myriad of caves and fortifications to thwart any attempt to occupy the island.

Lieutenant Bishop goes in to assist in fire control and direction to destroy the Japanese fortifications. His call name is IWO, 26 Charlie. The Japanese are extremely adept at killing any spotter who comes onto the island. The life expectancy of a spotter is estimated at 24 hours. The Japanese come out at night and kill anyone who is not fully awake or vigilant.

The USS Nevada has a myriad of weapons systems including 14-inch guns. Their fire control includes a rudimentary analog computer. Grids are utilized to give accurate coordinates for the placement of the ordinance. Most shells fired at the island were the 5-inch and 8-inch explosive types. The effect on the Japanese emplacements was generally minimal due to the excellent design and construction of the emplacements.

Anyone interested in the history of the Second World War will find this novel both interesting and amazing. I could not put the book down and I am sure most history buffs will have the same problem, which is a very one to have when reading! 5 stars – CE Williams

Last year I read The Last Palatine and found it absolutely riveting. I’ll be looking for anything released by this author going forward. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical World War II Fiction, WWII Historical Fiction, War Fiction
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
ASIN: B0BQGFM2HK
Print Length: 288 pages
Publication Date: November 28, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Peter Deutermann was born in Boston in 1941. His father was in the Navy, so he subsequently lived all over the United States and also in Argentina. He graduated from the naval academy in 1963 and served in the navy for 26 years, rising to the rank of Captain. While in the navy, he published one textbook on naval operations and several professional articles in navy-oriented journals. He held three commands: a Swiftboat in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, a guided missile destroyer in the Atlantic Fleet, and a destroyer squadron based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His last tour of duty was as the division director for chemical, biological, and radiological weapons arms control negotiations on the staff of the Joint Chiefs in Washington, DC.

He retired from active duty in 1989 and began his fiction-writing career. He has published twenty novels since 1992, all with St. Martins Press, including the just-released World War II navy novel, entitled The Commodore, and the Washington thriller, The Red Swan. He has completed his 21st novel, entitled The Iceman, a World War II navy submarine story, scheduled for publication in August, 2018. See all the books on his website at http://www.ptdeutermann.com

In addition to a BS in naval engineering, Mr. Deutermann holds an MA in public administration from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He is also a Member of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He is married and has two children. Mr. Deutermann and his wife of 50 years live in Rockingham County, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, on their family pony farm.

#TuesdayBookBlog

A Line in the Sand by Kevin Powers – #BookReview – Political Thrillers & Suspense

Book Blurb:

In this “spellbinding and totally original thriller” (Philipp Meyer, author of The Son) a lonely veteran’s gruesome discovery throws him right into the face of danger as a twisted investigation unravels the secrets of his dark past.

One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.

Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her newly minted partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the dead man’s pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman is by the Iraq War, who is investigating a corporation on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defense contract.

As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unraveling the truth and keeping Arman alive—even if it costs them absolutely everything.

His Review:

Life can be short in third-world countries. Arman had a lovely wife and daughter in Afghanistan during the war. He received fair compensation as an interpreter for the U.S. military. However, he lost both of them during the conflict and would never forgive himself for not staying there to protect them.

Sally was stationed in Afghanistan at the time and they became good comrades and associates. With his family gone and nobody left in his home country, he emigrated to the United States and worked as an informant with law enforcement. Sally considers him one of her best assets. Her record is exemplary and her boss is jealous of her successes and wants her fired from the police force.

People die with an alarming frequency in a usually quiet seaside town on the east coast. Sally realizes that her success in catching criminals is directly related to the intel that Arman provides. They have a mutual respect and admiration for each other; two loners navigating the sea of life with constant danger.

Kevin Powers presents the life of drug dealers and immigrants who are forced to become involved with them by necessity. Losing an entire family during a war and then being required to become engaged in illegal activities to survive is harsh. The refugee is subjected to the same pressures that the war placed upon he and his family in his own country. Eye-opening and an engaging read. 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 honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Political Thrillers & Suspense, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Military Thrillers
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ASIN: B0BD4G2Y5M
Print Length: 369 pages
Publication Date: May 16, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Kevin Powers is the author of The Yellow Birds, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and was a National Book Award Finalist. He was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the US Army in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, where he was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar.

Have a good Weekend!

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Best Literature & Fiction

Book Blurb:

New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
An NPR’s Best Book of the Year
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick!
The 2017 Girly Book Club Book of the Year!
A Summer Book Pick from Good Housekeeping, Parade, Library Journal, Goodreads, Liz and Lisa, and BookBub
In this enthralling novel from New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn, two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—are brought together in a mesmerizing story of courage and redemption.
1947. In the chaotic aftermath of World War II, American college girl Charlie St. Clair is pregnant, unmarried, and on the verge of being thrown out of her very proper family. She’s also nursing a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. So when Charlie’s parents banish her to Europe to have her “little problem” taken care of, Charlie breaks free and heads to London, determined to find out what happened to the cousin she loves like a sister.
1915. A year into the Great War, Eve Gardiner burns to join the fight against the Germans and unexpectedly gets her chance when she’s recruited to work as a spy. Sent into enemy-occupied France, she’s trained by the mesmerizing Lili, the “Queen of Spies”, who manages a vast network of secret agents right under the enemy’s nose.
Thirty years later, haunted by the betrayal that ultimately tore apart the Alice Network, Eve spends her days drunk and secluded in her crumbling London house. Until a young American barges in uttering a name Eve hasn’t heard in decades, and launches them both on a mission to find the truth…no matter where it leads.

My Review:

In gobbling up the books written by this author, it was inevitable I would chance on this audiobook. I’ve come to love the heroic women of both WWI and WWII (most read of the latter lately) and figured this would be the same. To a large degree, it was.

Written using the real-life memories of Alice Dubois from WWI, The Alice Network uses her story and expands to include a character of the second world war, Charlie—not a hero—but one looking for her long-lost cousin, Rose.

From a well-to-do family, Charlie is being whisked out of the US to take care of her “little problem” in 1947. She comes to feel she cares more about discovering what happened to Rose than eliminating the problem that appears greatly more her family’s embarrassment than would seem her own. Having frittered her college experience away being a spoiled, immature girl who slept around until it caught up with her, she is suddenly overwhelmed with the feeling she must know what happened when her cousin got caught up during the war years. Now that she is in France, it may be her own chance to find her.

When Charlie escapes the clutches of her mother, she blunders into the home of Eve using the few clues she has. Eve, now a senior and veteran of the Network named after her superior in the war during which she was groomed and proved an exceptional plant in France to spy on the Germans.
Eve’s backstory is revealed slowly when she and Charlie team with Finn, a Scotsman who has been employed by Eve to help her oversee her house and to a large extent herself. She proves a hard-drinking, extremely colorful, and outspoken profane leader as they first find Rose, then proceed to look for the profiteer who so cruelly ended Eve’s war experience.

Yeah, I didn’t like Charlie’s character at all and was at a bit of a loss as to the intensity of emotion regarding her cousin (well, okay—like a sister to her). Eve was twisted, said to experience PTSD, certainly could have been. Her experience was tension-filled and violent.

The conclusion was a bit much, predictable regarding Charlie, but at least satisfying regarding Eve. The book is a long one, but the narrator does a terrific job, and it’s really not too hard to breeze through—especially those chronicles involving Eve.

Am I the last to read or listen to this one? I see it was quite popular and as always with these stories, many disliked as well as appreciated at least the research and the story of the network. Have you already enjoyed this book? Did you love it?

A bit of a departure from my last Kate Quinn, The Diamond Eye, I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Military Historical Fiction, War Fiction, Espionage Thrillers
Publisher: HarperAudio
ASIN: B06Y4DMCTD
Listening Length: 15 hrs 7 mins
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication Date: June 6, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Alice Network [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Kate Quinn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of southern California, she attended Boston University where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. She has written four novels in the Empress of Rome Saga, and two books in the Italian Renaissance, before turning to the 20th century with “The Alice Network”, “The Huntress,” “The Rose Code,” and “The Diamond Eye.” All have been translated into multiple languages. Kate and her husband now live in San Diego with three rescue dogs.

The Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced audiobook narrator and voice-over actress based in New York City. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, Saskia’s voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials. She attributes her love and understanding of reading books aloud to coming from a large family where audiobooks were the only way to get through car rides without fighting! Visit saskiamaarleveld.com to learn more.

#ThrowbackThursday

Flop Dead Gorgeous by David Rosenfelt – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

An Andy Carpenter Mystery Book 27

in Animal Fiction

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Lights, camera, action in bestselling author David Rosenfelt’s Flop Dead Gorgeous, as Andy Carpenter goes bicoastal to prove an old friend’s innocence.

Retired lawyer Andy Carpenter remembers every dog that’s come through the Tara Foundation’s doors, but the most well-known alum of the dog rescue organization that Andy founded in Paterson, New Jersey, may be Mamie. Adopted by famous actress Jenny Nichols—Andy’s high school girlfriend—the miniature French poodle is now practically a starlet in her own right.

Andy doesn’t hold it against his friend. In fact, he and his wife, Laurie, have dinner with Jenny while she’s in town filming her next big hit. But after an eventful meal, there’s a plot twist the next morning that none of them see coming: Jenny’s costar is found dead, a knife in his back. It’s not long before Jenny is arrested for the murder and finds herself in need of Andy’s legal services.

While Mamie becomes reacquainted with Tara, Andy’s golden retriever, Andy digs into the lives of the rich and famous.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

Attorney Andy Carpenter is very wealthy and retired. Or at least he’s worked very hard at retiring, but it seems something always comes up that touches him personally and he has to, absolutely must, be involved in their defense.

This time, though, it really is personal, as the accused is an old high school flame, now a well-known movie star, Jenny Nichols. When back in Paterson, she adopted a mini-poodle from Andy’s Tara Foundation. So don’t you know he has an investment in seeing her found not guilty.

Andy has an amazing team, including his wife, an ex-cop and her K-Team which includes Corey and his retired police dog Simon Garfunkel. There are others, of course, including Marcus Clark, who is far more vocal this time than in previous installments. All work beautifully to round out an all-star cast of characters you come to know and love.

Now comes all the grunt work, meetings, assignments, and investigation. If Jenny didn’t do it, who did? Each well-developed character gets to shine, including the dogs—and we do love the dogs!

Andy is full of his snarky sense of humor as they weave through threads, twists, and misdirections.

These stories aren’t simple, they develop layers not always initially satisfied. I was surprised at the courtroom outcome this time. I don’t ever remember such a development before but remind you that these stories are all different. Author Rosenfelt always presents a new wrinkle.

Remarkable this is Book #27 and can still be fresh and unique. I’ve read or listened to most of this series and often fall back on an audiobook I might have missed, including my last Holy Chow. I love the banter, the investigation, and the courtroom footwork. This is one of my favorite series and I must assume yours as well. If not—check it out!

I received a complimentary review copy of this uncorrected digital galley from the publisher and NetGalley. Thank you, thank you! These are my honest thoughts and, as usual, looking for the next installment.

Book Details:

Genre: Animal Fiction, Traditional Detective Mysteries
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ASIN: B0B9KV1T2L
Print Length: 272 pages
Publication Date: July 4, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Flop Dead Gorgeous [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: David Rosenfelt, a native of Paterson, New Jersey, is a graduate of NYU. He was the former marketing president for Tri-Star Pictures before becoming a writer of novels and screenplays. “Open And Shut” was his first novel; “First Degree,” his second novel, was named a best book of 2003 by Publishers Weekly. He currently lives in Southern California with his wife and 35 dogs.