Hope Island (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 3) by Jackie Elliott – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Hope Island by Jackie Elliott

Book Blurb:

Andrea “Andi” Silvers is starting to feel like this tiny fishing village of Coffin Cove, on the Vancouver coast, just might be home. She’s living with Hephzibah and sort of dating Harry. Her job at the Gazette is going well. Things are looking up.

Then the body of a young woman is found on nearby Hope Island, where Hephzibah and Harry’s mother moved to when they were children.

Andi sets out to get the scoop on the story. She wants to be the one to identify the body and to find out what happened.

Meanwhile, Inspector Vega is on holiday in the Yukon, and finds himself caught up in a murder investigation there. A woman has been killed and her husband clinging to life in hospital.

It soon becomes clear that there’s a link to Coffin Cove. The man grew up there and left after his first wife disappeared.

Could the body found at Hope Island be his missing wife?

The stakes ramp up when Harry and Hephzibah’s dad is discovered murdered on his boat.

Did he know something he shouldn’t? The deeper Andi digs, the more dirt she uncovers. But are any of them ready for the truth?

Discover a web of murder and mystery laced with humour and a thread of romance in this fast-paced whodunnit set on the gorgeous coast of Western Canada.

My Review:

Andi Silvers has settled in Coffin Cove and is working on the local paper as a reporter. Then some remains are found at a demolished cottage in the picturesque little settlement in Northern Canada, obviously forty or fifty years old.

Digging for info on the remains, old secrets begin to rise to the surface, and certain more powerful people would prefer the secrets stay just that—secret.

Given that this is my first in the series and this is Book 3, I seem to be missing a little backstory. I was busy sorting out main characters with the support characters when more were added, including PC Beth Stanton. (New to the story and new to the team?) Inspector Vega is supposed to be taking a break, but that isn’t working out well for him. The switch to the Yukon characters was a bit disorienting.

I’m not sure why I struggled with this novel. Perhaps an inability to engage with the protagonist, the confusion of multiple characters, or a switch of locations. The investigation continued but didn’t seem to make much headway and as the plot swung into the conclusion became more brutal to the point of gratuitous violence and disbelief. I couldn’t buy survival of that last horrific scene.

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: Three Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Noir Crime, Serial Killers, Serial Killer Thrillers
Publisher: Joffe Books
ASIN: B09VCPJ4Y9
Print Length: 318 pages
Publication Date: April 7, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Hope Island [Amazon]

The Author:

Jackie Elliott - author — Jackie Elliott

[No bio info evident.]

©V Williams

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay – #BookReview – #policeprocedurals

The Night Shift by Alex Finlay

Book Blurb:

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey, four teenagers working late at the store are attacked. Only one inexplicably survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive.

In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who’s convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller who must delve into the secrets of both nights―stirring up memories of teen love and lies―to uncover the truth about murders on the night shift.

Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

His Review:

A youthful crew works at the Blockbuster Video and the unbelievable happens. They are all slain except one, in a brutal manner. Ella Monroe is the sole survivor and has suffered from trauma amnesia for many years. She has selected a career in law enforcement and still searches her memory to recall all of the details of that night.

Fifteen years later a similar crime occurs, so very reminiscent of that tragic night. Ella works with her fellow law enforcement team including FBI and local law enforcement. The similarities are bewildering and again three young girls have been taken from the community. The difference is that the current loss is at a Subway sandwich shop and not a video rental store.

Both crimes have occurred in the late evening on the three to eleven shift and are eerily similar, so much so that it seems the killer has revisited the community. How is this possible? All of the victims are young females with a very promising future ahead of them!

The author combines tense situations with the disbelief that comes from people in a small town doubting that any of their neighbors could do such a thing. A number of people are suspected, but the prime suspect is let out of jail on a technicality and has totally disappeared. Frantic searches lead nowhere and the family of the prime suspect is shunned by the community. The suspect’s father disappears at approximately the same time. What is going on?

I applaud the author and his manipulation of the plot. A very entertaining and engaging read and a page turner. The conclusion was a twisting surprise and I expect anyone who reads this narrative will agree with me. Enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Small Town & Rural Fiction, Serial Killer Thrillers, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Minotaur Books

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250268885
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250268884

Print Length: 320 pages
Publication Date: March 1, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): The Night Shift [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alex Finlay is the pseudonym of an author who lives in Washington, D.C. His 2021 breakout thriller, EVERY LAST FEAR, was an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thriller of the year. Alex’s work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television. Learn more at https://alexfinlaybooks.com/

©CE Williams – V Williams

Darkness Falls: A Kate Marshall Thriller by Robert Bryndza – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.

Kate Marshall’s investigation into a journalist’s disappearance sends her down an unexpectedly twisted path in a riveting thriller by the author of Shadow Sands.

Kate Marshall’s fledgling PI agency takes off when she and her partner, Tristan Harper, are hired for their first big case. It’s a cold one. Twelve years before, journalist Joanna Duncan disappeared after exposing a political scandal. Most people have moved on. Joanna’s mother refuses to let go.

When Kate and Tristan gain access to the original case files, they revisit the same suspects and follow the same leads—but not to the same dead ends. Among Joanna’s personal effects, Kate discovers the names of two young men who also vanished without a trace.

As she connects the last days of three missing persons, Kate realizes that Joanna may have been onto something far more sinister than anyone first believed: the identity of a serial killer hiding in plain sight. The closer Kate comes to finding him, the darker it’s going to get.

His Review:

Joanna Duncan, a promising town reporter is missing. A twenty year old cold case because there is nothing but her old cell phone left. Kate Marshall and her brother Tristan are hired as private investigators to solve the mystery. Joanna’s mother could get nothing but condescending lip service for her daughter’s disappearance.

Mr. Bryndza spins an interesting tale which includes some exploration into the male sex scene in rural England. The main focus of the story is to actually find out the reason for the disappearance. Why would an investigative reporter have disappeared in rural England? The police had finally thrown up their hands.

The investigation exposes the ugly truth of the plight of young male exploitation by well to do citizens. One of these winds up as the focus of the investigation. The author seems to turn over each clue with a more onerous one being under the last. I found it hard to set this book down.

Starting an investigation agency in rural England has many pitfalls. Most of the cases include philandering wives or husbands and catching them in ill advised deeds.

A cold disappearance is a whole other endeavor. The tenacity required to delve into a 20 year old case is intriguing. The author handled the case with clever feints and dodges that kept me reading until the end. The ending was particularly unexpected–very clever twist. Read this book and see if you do not agree! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions. Currently on pre-order

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Private Investigator Mysteries, Serial Killer Thrillers
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: ‎ 1542005736
ASIN: B08KQ1Z155
Print Length: 303 pages
Publication Date: December 7, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(S): Darkness Falls [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble

The Author: Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over four million copies in the English language.

His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).

Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller.

Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 15 countries. The second book, Shadow Sands was published in November 2020.

Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.

You can find out more about Robert and his books at http://www.robertbryndza.com