#TheMysteryWriter – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint Reviews - April Recap

I’ve always enjoyed May—still some transition weather—but generally warming and the kick-off of my gardening activities, both veggies and flower bed. (The fairy garden has been hit by gremlins.) I did manage to get in both seeds and seedlings. Unfortunately, that was followed quickly by a Spring freeze. I’ll be replacing tomatoes and peppers.

For those following Punkin the Pom, we are still one step forward, two back. This poor little thing…only Heaven (and the breeder) knows her history. Hoping she is gradually gaining a little trust in us while trying ever so subtly now to push her boundaries a bit as she still spends most of her days safely ensconced in her crate (almost seven months now). We took her to a groomer who cut all her guard hair off down to her undercoat. I told her I didn’t want it that short, but she now looks like a little puff ball.

This year is flying by; where did April go? We read and reviewed thirteen books in April. Leaning more heavily on audiobooks and burning through two to each I read. I’ll be catching up with a few of those reviews soon!

In the meantime, links on titles are to our reviews that include purchase or source information.

Rosepoint Reviews-April Recap

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
Down Range by Taylor Moore (audiobook)
Ahab and Jezebel by Joseph Bringman (CE review)
Blood Mountain by Alisa Lynn Valdés
The Hunter by Tana French (audiobook)
I Have Your Back by Tom Sileo (CE review)
Closer Than You Think by Jean Grainger
The Drifter by Nick Petrie (audiobook)
The Debt Collector by Steven Max Russo (CE review)
The Heaven Spot by Mary Frances Hill (book tour)
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger (audiobook)
The Boys Are Back in Town by Karl Kling (CE review)
The Wharton Plot by Mariah Fredericks

Favorite Book of the Month

I had several books that I just couldn’t quite give all five stars—but the CE thoroughly enjoyed one. So he gets the nod for favorite of April.

Book of the Month for April—The Debt Collector

My Reading Challenges page, as always, is behind. I’ll get to it after the garden is in. Not unsurprising, the Goodreads Challenge is five books behind schedule at 44 of 150. (See excuse noted above.)

May is solid and I’m planning on having a multiple review post shortly. Of course, I’m also looking forward to doing some bike riding. My first of the year ride had some muscles screaming at me—we lose it so fast in the winter—don’t we?

Welcome to my new subscribers. I’m loving getting in some blog hopping and looking forward to spending time with more of you.

k-luv-u-bye

Best Mystery, Thriller and Suspense

Book Blurb:

From 2023 Edgar Award nominee and bestselling author Sulari Gentill comes a literary thriller about an aspiring writer who meets and falls in love with her literary idol—only to find him murdered the day after she gave him her manuscript to read.

When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother’s doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer?

What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die.

My Review:

Well, phooey. Yes, I’ve read this author before, with mixed results, but thought I’d try this one. There were reviews that mentioned The Woman in the Library—read it—but preferred Where There’s a Will.

For some reason, this one started out slow for me. Theo Benton gives up on college in Australia to move to Lawrence Kansas where her attorney brother Gus lives. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t expecting her but appears to accept her with open arms and support her new desire to be a writer. To that end, he recommends she find an internet case where other writers may congregate.

That works, as eventually she meets Dan Murdoch, who turns out to be a bestselling author and he seems willing to mentor her. Yeah. Uh huh. I thought I could see where this was going—he had hit a wall(?) and her book premise sounded good. But then, he turns up murdered.

Whoa. I did not see that coming.

In the meantime, we’ve gotten to know Gus and his friend Mac. Mac’s family is off the rails, the plot veers the same direction, and Gus will lose his legal position, his rep, his income; good grief—talk about collateral damage.

I had problems with Theo from the beginning. She seemed a privileged princess and thank heaven for a brother who was willing to sacrifice. The boys circle the wagons when the police like Gus for the crime. Theo is trying to figure out what and why Murdoch was killed and there are jumps in the timeline that lost me as to purpose. The storyline takes another totally unexpected twist. The one character I really enjoyed was Horse—and his scenes provided humorous moments.

Somehow the story becomes so complex with conspiracy theories and doomsday preppers it just lost me in connection and believability. A weird one off.

Noted it was a final manuscript, it had numerous typos and missing words. These were intended to be corrected prior to release.

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: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction, Murder, Murder Thrillers
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: 1761152238
ASIN: B0C5K294D6
Print Length: 388 pages
Publication Date: March 19, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, Sulari now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW. Sulari is author of The Rowland Sinclair Mystery series, historical crime fiction novels (eight in total) set in the 1930s. Sulari’s A Decline in Prophets (the second book in the series) was the winner of the Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction 2012. She was also shortlisted for Best First Book (A Few Right Thinking Men) for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2011. Paving the New Road was shortlisted for another Davitt in 2013.

[Goodreads] Sulari lives with her husband, Michael, and their boys, Edmund and Atticus, on a small farm in Batlow where she grows French Black Truffles and refers to her writing as “work” so that no one will suggest she get a real job.

Hello Spring