The Wedding Plot: A Mercy Carr Mystery by Paula Munier – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

The Wedding Plot by Paula Munier

Mercy & Elvis Mysteries #4

Book Blurb:

The Wedding Plot, USA Today bestselling author Paula Munier’s fourth Mercy Carr mystery, finds Mercy and Elvis at a deadly Vermont wedding.

Love never dies a natural death…

When Mercy’s grandmother Patience marries her longtime beau Claude Renault at the five-star Lady’s Slipper Inn, it promises to be the destination wedding of the year. Just as the four-day extravaganza is due to begin, the inn’s spa director Bodhi St. George disappears—and Mercy’s mother Grace sends Mercy and Elvis to find him. But what they discover instead is a stranger skewered by a pitchfork in the barn on the goat farm where St. George lived.

As Mercy tries to figure out who the victim is and where St. George is hiding, the bride and groom’s estranged relations gather for the first of the pre-wedding festivities. Long-buried rivalries and resentments surface—and Mercy realizes that they’re all keeping secrets that could tear both families apart. When Elvis interrupts the escalating melodrama to alert Mercy to an intruder on the estate, she finds a wounded St. George in the cottage where she and Troy are staying. St. George is not who he says he is—but when he escapes from the hospital and disappears again, Mercy thinks he’s gone for good. With the wedding imminent and the families at each other’s throats, she decides finding St. George will have to wait.

The big day arrives—but the danger is far from over. With the families and the festivities still under threat, it’s up to Mercy and Elvis together with Troy and Susie Bear to stop the killer and save the bride and groom—before death do they part.

My Review:

I really like Mercy Carr, formerly an Army MP and her bomb-sniffing Belgian Malinois, Elvis—a promise to his former handler to care for him. Highly trained and intelligent, Elvis is the star of the series, as well as her love interest, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Game Warden Troy Warner. He has a rescue Newfoundland Retriever mix, Susie Bear, who you just want to hug.

This entry to the series has Mercy participating (unwillingly) in her grandmother’s destination wedding at the luxurious Lady Slipper Inn, an over-the-top lavishly restored historical resort in the “Live Free or Die” state. Of course, the whole family is there and that is the problem, beginning with her mother, Grace, who is orchestrating the entire affair.

Mercy is thrown into the position of instructor for the wedding party’s yoga session, filling in for the missing spa director who is the manager of the adjacent goat farm, producer of award-winning artisan Cruyére cheese. But meeting Annie, owner and operator of the creamery, discovers with Elvis far more than a missing yoga instructor—a dead body. And it’s not the yoga instructor.

Nor will it be the only body Mercy and Elvis discover and as the wedding plans advance and guests begin arriving, complications set in.

I wouldn’t really call this novel a cozy mystery. I read the first and third (The Hiding Place), but still struggled with the sheer amount of characters. The main support character, Annie, was well fleshed and we did get additional background on Mercy. The Vermont descriptions were both delightful and terrifying, the storms enough to drive any Sunday driver into another state.

While the canines had an integral part of this narrative, it was the families of the wedding party and the clashes between them and their problem with Mercy and her chosen life path that took center stage. Finding and discovering ever-deepening and disturbing minutiae had the plot going in different directions, but always coming back to the next family conflict. Honestly, I thought the wedding would never happen.

The conclusion satisfies but the storyline bogged down for me this time to the point where it became slow going. No problem—Book 4 being a one-off for me. I’ll be looking for Book 5. I like the series and Mercy, Troy, and those amazing dogs.

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” – Mignon McLaughlin

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 point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Cozy Animal Mystery, Women Sleuths
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: ‎ 125082236X
ASIN: B09CNF3X3W
Print Length: 342 pages
Publication Date: July 19, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: PAULA MUNIER is a literary agent and the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A BORROWING OF BONES, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, and was recently named the Dog Writers Association of America’s Dogwise Book of the Year. The second, BLIND SEARCH, pubbed in November 2019. The third, THE HIDING PLACE, will debut in March 2021.

Paula was inspired to write the series by the hero working dogs she met through Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescues, Newfoundland/retriever mix Bear, Great Pyrenees/Australian cattle dog mix Bliss, and Malinois mix Blondie, and a lifelong passion for crime fiction.

Paula also written three popular books on writing: PLOT PERFECT, THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO BEGINNINGS, and WRITING WITH QUIET HANDS, as well as the acclaimed memoir FIXING FREDDIE: A True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle, and HAPPIER EVERY DAY: Simple ways to bring more peace, contentment and joy into your life.

She lives in New England with her family, her three rescue dogs, and a rescue torbie tabby named Ursula.

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Still Waters (An FBI K-9 Novel Book 7) by Sara Driscoll – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Still Waters by Sara Driscoll

An F.B.I. K-9 Novel, Book 7

Book Blurb:

A training session in the Minnesota wilderness becomes a fight for survival for FBI handler Meg Jennings and her K-9 partner . . .

Keeping their search-and-rescue skills honed isn’t just a job requirement for FBI Special Agent Meg Jennings and her Labrador, Hawk—it’s essential to saving lives. A water search training weekend in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota has attracted participants from all levels of law enforcement, each vying to win. The races are challenging, the rivalry is intense, and Meg is already under pressure when Hawk alerts to a scent in the water—and discovers the fresh body of one of Meg’s fellow competitors.

The contest is called off, but Meg’s still feeling the heat. The victim had made an unfounded complaint about her, one that could cost Meg her job and see Hawk removed from her care. The field of suspects is daunting, and all of them are experts in throwing others off the trail. And though Meg’s team flies out to Minnesota to help uncover the truth, they’re on unfamiliar territory, pitted against a killer with the skills, and the motivation, to stay hidden in plain sight . .

My Review:

I’m always thrilled to get the next book in this exciting series, as the last book read always leaves me looking forward to the next. And, of course, I’m partial to books about service dogs and their staunch loyalty to their handlers.

This entry to the series has Meg Jennings, a search and rescue dog handler for the FBI’s Human Scent Evidence Team off in remote Minnesota in a field competition for dogs training to perform underwater searches. Hawk is a Labrador, essentially a rescue, who performs beautifully on land, Meg having spent countless hours training, working with the dog, honing his skills both verbally as well as through hand signals.

The competition draws members of law enforcement from all over and while the rivalry is intense, Meg is not required to add the accomplishment to her jacket—she just wanted to expand on Hawk’s abilities. When Meg discovers a competitor mistreating her dog, Meg protects the animal. The handler, however, turns the table on Meg and files a complaint about her abusing Hawk. When Hawk discovers her body in 80 feet of water after the second trial, it’s Meg who hits #1 on the suspect list.

Meg is not alone, however, as she has her team including partner Brian and his dog, Lacey (best buds with Hawk), as well as her heart partner, Todd Webb (a firefighter/paramedic), and extended family Clay McCord (her sister’s partner and investigative reporter). Unfortunately, the accusation is very serious and could spell the loss of Hawk as well as her job.

Meg going pro-active can only work for so long, even given that the competition is shut down, as no one is allowed to leave and law enforcement establishes authority—a national park is also federal jurisdiction. I enjoy the teaching moments, the tidbits about the training of the canines, their instincts and how to use them, their abilities, and the symbiotic relationship with their humans.

This storyline dealt heavily with Meg’s feelings about her possible loss of Hawk and her job, the plans to surreptitiously “interview” the other handlers, and those who might possibly have known the victim or her previous bad experiences, providing a montage of suspects. While I enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of the cold Minnesota mountains (the camping…brrr…) and the land of a thousand lakes, I missed more active involvement with the dogs.

The conclusion swept the narrative into a climactic and dramatic operation that included both dogs and law enforcement and provided a satisfying closure to all open threads.

“Oregon Tuck: A method of floating or vertically rolling over a waterfall in a kayak or dinghy. Named for the many large waterfalls in the northwest United States.”

I’ve read most of the books in this series, enjoying each one, including the last one, Book 6, Under Pressure, and am always assured of a new, unique storyline while still involving my favorite characters, particularly Hawk. You could read this as a standalone, but then you’d miss a lot of good reading!

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author(s) and Kensington Books (thank you!) through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts. Currently on pre-order—go ahead and get on the list!

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Police Procedurals, Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 1496735064
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1496735065
ASIN: B09TX318L4
Print Length: 305 pages
Publication Date: November 29, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Authors: Sara Driscoll is the pen name of Jen J. Danna and

Ann Vanderlaan, authors of the Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries. Jen is an infectious disease researcher at a cutting-edge Canadian university near Toronto, but loves to spend her free time writing the thrilling and mysterious. Ann lives in western North Carolina with five rescued pit bulls, including Kane, now a certified therapy dog. She also trains with Kane for competitive nose work. You can follow the latest news on the F.B.I. K-9 Mysteries at SaraDriscollAuthor.com.

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Deadly Spirits by Mary Miley – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Deadly Spirits by Mary Miley

(A Mystic’s Accomplice mystery Book 3)

Book Blurb:

Medium’s assistant – and reluctant sleuth – Maddie Pastore is shocked when her long-lost sister is accused of murder, in this twisty, atmospheric mystery set in 1920s Chicago.

Summer, 1924. Young widow Maddie Pastore has been working for fraudulent spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for nearly a year – if ‘work’ you could call it. Investigating Carlotta’s clients, and attending seances as her shill, keeps Maddie and her young son Tommy fed and clothed, and she’s grown to love the kind, well-meaning spiritualist like family.

Still, Maddie – estranged from her abusive parents for over a decade – can’t help but wonder what fates befell her brothers and sisters. So when she lucks into two free tickets to a glamorous Chicago speakeasy and recognizes the star performer as her pretty little sister Sophie, she’s beyond delighted.

But before Maddie can meet with Sophie again, the telephone rings. It’s Sophie’s husband, calling in a panic to tell her that his wife is locked in the Cook County jail, charged with first-degree murder . . .

Enter a dark and deadly world of seances and speakeasies, populated by fake mediums, sultry singers and dangerous mobsters! An ideal pick for readers who enjoy glitzy Jazz Age mysteries with feisty female sleuths.

My Review:

What a pleasant surprise this turned out to be! I was sucked in because of the blurb and the cover and thought it would be one I’d like. And it is! It’s the wild and wooly early 1920s, a decade that can provide endless stories.

Maddie Pastore is the MC, a young widow working for spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for bed and board. Handy that Madam Carlotta loves Maddie’s fourteen-month-old son. She attends Madame Carlotta’s séances as a shill, but her real purpose is to research upcoming clients so she can feed info to Freddie who helps with “enhancements” to solidify the experience.

Maddie scores free tickets to a Chicago speakeasy and discovers the star performer is her own baby sister from a large abusive family where siblings scattered like the wind as soon as they could. But before she and Sophie really have a reunion and catch up, she is notified by Sophie’s husband that she’s in Cook County jail charged with first-degree murder.

You can’t scratch much of the surface of Chicago’s history without confronting the mobsters who populated the back streets and unfortunately Maddie has a bit of experience with that as it was what got her husband killed.

So here’s what I liked about the story: There’s history here, real history, lots of well-known names, the Chicago mystic, and iconic architecture. Lots of fascinating tidbits you might not have known about the area and the time. (Reversing the flow of the Chicago River, for heaven’s sake! Yeah, I’m still new to the area.)

In between working on finding a way out of jail for the sister she’s sure is innocent, she is given the names of new clients to investigate and these are interesting side stories uniquely fabricated into the narrative seamlessly. Her method of investigation is remarkable, not unlike a person searching ancestry info—sources readily (or not so) available to scour.

I like the characters, both the main characters and the support characters, most well fleshed, and the female detective (apparently drawn from history) a hoot, but I thought the baby might have been a little good to be true.

I had just a little problem with the climax (wondering about survivability) and the conclusion that pushed boundaries a bit. Otherwise, although this is the third in the series (and sorry now I missed the first two!), it can easily be read as a standalone. It’s gripping, evenly fast-paced, and has me ready to read the next.

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: Historical Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries, Historical Mystery
Publisher: Severn House
ASIN: B09XGRP2TK
Print Length: 259 pages
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: [Mary Miley] I’m an Army brat who has lived in Virginia most of my adult life. I received my BA and MA in history from the College of William and Mary and taught American history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University for thirteen years. I am the author of 200 magazine articles, most on history, travel, and business topics, and a dozen nonfiction books. The Impersonator (2013) was my first foray into fiction–and it won the national Mystery Writers of America award for Best First Crime Novel! Three others in the series followed: Silent Murders (2014), Renting Silence (2016), and Murder in Disguise (2017). More recently, my new Roaring Twenties series debuted in the U.S. in 2021. The Mystic’s Accomplice is set in Chicago and features violent gangsters, fraudulent Spiritualists, and a single mom with a new baby. Its sequel, Spirits and Smoke, was released early in 2022 and the third, Deadly Spirits, is scheduled for a fall debut. For me, the Roaring Twenties is the America’s most fascinating decade and the perfect setting for both my mystery series.

When I’m not writing or plotting, I spend a good deal of time at Valley Road Vineyards in Afton, VA, a winery that my husband and I own with 4 other couples. Last year we planted another 6 1/2 acres of vines and introduced several new wines–my favorite is the viognier. Already this year I’ve spent 3 days on the bottling assembly line, doing strenuous intellectual work like loading full bottles into cases and standing on a ladder to feed corks into the hopper. Visit us at Valley Road there in person or at http://www.valleyroadwines.com.
http://www.marymileytheobald.com
http://www.pinterest.com/mmtheobald/the-mystics-accomplice

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Goodreads Choice Awards–The Best of the Winners and Losers

Goodreads Choice Awards--The Best of the Winners and Losers

Most of my readers know I love keeping up with Goodreads stats. I’ve been known to join the Spring and Summer Challenges, set a new bar every year for the yearly Goodreads Challenge, keeping a tally in the widgets. Also, I like to check what I read against nominees and winners, as I did in 2020. (While we can vote our choice of the nominees, the nominees are all theirs.)

Okay—later this year. (Much later—I’ve been busy.) But the good news is that I was pleasantly surprised at the number of, if not winners in the category, at least nominees. Have you taken a look back?

I read from a sample of categories, including humor, memoir, and biography but of these had only one nominated in both 2019 and 2020 in Memoir (Maid ) and Greenlights). My favorites, of course, are Mystery & Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, and Debut novels.

There are a number of Hot Debuts you may be interested in—I already checked out Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (audiobook). My review on Thursday, July 14.

Among The Most Read Books of the 2022 Reading Challenge (So Far) are a number of books that I read years ago, some of which are included below in my listing of 2020 and 2021 (nine in my categories). I am not surprised, however, to see the number three spot: Where the Crawdads Sing. The movie is premiering this July 15 and I’ve been waiting for it since the announcement. Directed by Olivia Newman, the lead, Daisy Jessica-Jones (24), is an English actress playing Kya Clark.

The links below are to the Goodreads listings. Those with a thumbnail of the cover also have a link to my review.

2021 Goodreads Choice Awards

Nominees on my shelves:

Best Historical Fiction and Best Debut Novel

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

Also read:

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Best Historical Fiction

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Also Amazon editors’ #1 book of 2021) Totally recommended!

Goodreads winner: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Best Mystery & Thriller

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth

Goodreads winner: The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

2020 Goodreads Choice Awards

Nominees on my shelves:

Best Mystery & Thriller

The Searcher

Best Fiction

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Goodreads winner: The Guest List by Lucy Foley (read but didn’t vote it)

Best Historical Fiction

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

Goodreads winner: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

While I failed to choose any that were ultimately chosen #1, I did have my fair share of winners listed in the top twenty. Six in 2020 in three categories; six in 2021 in three categories.

How many of the above did you read? Do you look for ideas from the Goodreads winners? Will you be choosing one of the 2022 trending books? And, lastly—will you be going to the movie? You know I’ll be comparing it to the book.

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What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite Book 9) by Robert Dugoni – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

What She Found by Robert Dugoni

Book Blurb:

Solving a decades-old disappearance sets Tracy Crosswhite on a dangerous collision course with the past in a pulse-pounding novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has agreed to look into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress. Solving the cold case is an obsession for Lisa’s daughter, Anita. So is clearing the name of her father, a prime suspect who became a pariah. After twenty-five years, all Anita wants is the truth—no matter where it leads.

For Tracy, that means reopening the potentially explosive investigations Lisa was following on the dark night she vanished: an exposé of likely mayoral graft; the shocking rumors of a reserved city councilman’s criminal sex life; a drug task force scandal compromising the Seattle PD; and an elusive serial killer who disappeared just as mysteriously as Lisa.

As all the pieces come together, it becomes clear that Tracy is in the midst of a case that will push her loyalties and her resilience to the limit. What she uncovers will come with a greater price than anyone feared.

My Review:

What I love about the Tracy Crosswhite series? This is Book 9 and could still be read as a standalone. I popped into this series with Book 7 A Cold Trail, and then read Book 8 In Her Tracks. I feel I know Tracy pretty well, although as a complex, intelligent detective in Seattle there is always more that can be discovered. Lisa has been relegated to Cold Cases after a couple little disagreements with her former superior.

This entry to the series has decorated Detective Crosswhite looking into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress at the behest of her daughter, Anita, who was two years old at the time of her mother’s disappearance. After 25 years and the circumstances surrounding her departure though, there are few possibilities—none with what would look to have a positive outcome.

Lisa was full-tilt into an extremely dangerous investigation that certainly pointed to the circumstance of finding herself at risk. She was meeting someone in the middle of the night that might have exposed corruption within the department, a murder, and a crooked drug task force. It was Lisa’s husband, however, that became the local police focal point and they looked no further following scrutiny of their family life.

Chief of Police Marcella Weber may be a stumbling block in Crosswhite’s digging into the Childress case as her objective is positive public opinion and council approval and the desire to investigate only those cases where new DNA evidence is found that might lead to a resolution of the case.

Crosswhite still maintains a strong bond with recent partners from the Homicide Division, all strong support characters as well as maintaining a happy home life with a successful, supportive hubby and sweet baby girl. But she has a history and Crosswhite is driven to find the answers to the Childress case whether she secures approval or not.

I loved the direction it took, well-plotted, and the conclusion is very satisfying.

520 floating bridge into Seattle — Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Seattle, WA

Dugoni’s novels are well-paced and deliver leads that keep the reader engaged. I always enjoy references to the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge better known as the 520 bridge, bringing back memories of the sensation of riding over it on my motorcycle. These narratives are always intelligent offering learning opportunities as well as incite to strong characters and motives. Easy to invest in Crosswhite, follow her discoveries, look for the next, and applaud her victories.

I’ve also read the Charles Jenkins series (even started with Book 1 The Eighth Sister!) and now I’m thrilled to see a new Dugoni book come up, whether one of either series or a standalone; a go-to author. This is one you won’t want to miss! Currently on pre-order.

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

[goodreads]

Book Details:

Genre: Murder, Women Sleuths, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: ‎ 1542008328
ASIN: B08ZMWPP9Q
Print Length: 343 pages
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 8 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and the critically acclaimed, The World Played Chess; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Visit his website at http://www.robertdugoni.com, and follow him on twitter @robertdugoni and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertD

520 floating bridge attribute: Wikipedia

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What the River of the Cherokee Did Not Tell: Jonathan’s Story by James Short – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

What the River of the Cherokee Did Not Tell

Book Blurb:

Jonathan Asher hides in a hollowed log with his sister while his family’s cabin on the River of the Cherokee burns. There is complete darkness. Outside, a boy’s voice promises, “I’ll come back for you.”

This early memory haunts Jonathan Asher as he comes of age in the epic decade leading into the American Revolution.

Raised at the Asher Trading Post, his world changes with a blood payment for his life to the Seneca.

He takes to the road, first as an itinerant preacher, too young to be not led into temptation,

Then as a peddler and vagabond traveling through a country increasingly at war with itself.

His fortune turns. He becomes a merchant, smuggler, and friend of a fellow smuggler, Benedict Arnold,

And the beloved of a girl who wants to hear every story in the world.

Under the cover of a war profiteer, he offers to spy for the Continental Army in New York.

And before Jonathan becomes the avenger that he believes he must be, the boy, now a man, keeps the promise made on the River of the Cherokee.

My Review:

I enjoy books regarding the Revolutionary War and always appreciate the efforts of our great-greats back then to survive a war no one thought the colonies capable. This novel presents a tough scenario that hooks and leads into the story of Jonathan Asher as his brother enabled his survival first from Native American attack and later as a privateer.

My problem is that my interest lagged. I kept reading, waiting for the direction expected only to discover it wasn’t going there.

Jonathan first discovers God, then the realization of his lack of religious education. As a boy, he ventures where his nose points and discovers ways of living as a peddler and odd jobs. When he is introduced to Benedict Arnold, he discovers many more ways of survival—that of a merchant, smuggler, privateer, and later as a war profiteer.

Not that he’s happy with himself by working the latter. Through the latter, he is recruited to spy for the Continental Army in New York. He takes that job as a way of pursuing the vengeance he has sworn to avenge the torture and death of his beloved.

I’m not sure where the espionage comes in as most of the narrative focuses on his efforts at finding the three men responsible for her ultimate painful death.

He has, however, in the space of Book 1, managed to find one of the men. His older brother appears to be haunting him as well as he appears to surface at most agreeable times, though that thread does not end happily.

And then…”to be continued” appears. Well, talk about cliffhangers. Unfortunately, I was not able to engage sufficiently with Jonathan. The war is ugly and it would appear nothing changes from war to war; there are always those who would profit from the suffering of the many. I’m sure this odyssey will appeal to Revolutionary War buffs, the saga apparently continuing in Jonathan’s efforts to seek the remaining two of the three and there are still years of war to survive. Just not for me.

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-point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: US Historical Fiction, War & Military Action Fiction, Action & Adventure Romance Fiction
ASIN: B09TQ1Q7ZP
Print Length:368 pages
Publication Date: June 1, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s): What the River of the Cherokee Did Not Tell [Amazon]

The Author: For me, one of the great pleasures of writing is having a character come out of your head and begin to speak with a mind of its own. I’ve written WHERE FORTUNE LIES, a time-slip novel where the vehicle to the past is the human heart, which may be just as magical as stones or gems or other methods of transportation. As for my curriculum vitae, I graduated from UCLA with a bachelors in Spanish taking a circuitous route through the University of Santa Cruz and the University of Barcelona. In an alternate universe where my life has gone wrong, I would be devoting the time of my long prison sentence to translating Don Quixote into English. I’ve run my own business selling Spanish language gift items. I am married with two grown daughters.

Bayou Book Thief (A Vintage Cookbook Mystery 1) by Ellen Byron – #BlogTour #BookReview #Giveaway

Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron

I am delighted today to provide a review for you at my blog stop for Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour.

Scroll down to enter your chance to win the Giveaway!

Book Details

Bayou Book Thief (A Vintage Cookbook Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – New Orleans Louisianna
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Berkley (June 7, 2022)
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0593437616
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593437612
Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09FPJHVGK

Book Blurb

A fantastic new cozy mystery series with a vintage flair from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Ellen Byron.

Twenty-eight-year-old widow Ricki James leaves Los Angeles to start a new life in New Orleans after her showboating actor husband perishes doing a stupid internet stunt. The Big Easy is where she was born and adopted by the NICU nurse who cared for her after Ricki’s teen mother disappeared from the hospital.

Ricki’s dream comes true when she joins the quirky staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum, the spectacular former Garden District home of late bon vivant Genevieve “Vee” Charbonnet, the city’s legendary restauranteur. Ricki is excited about turning her avocation – collecting vintage cookbooks – into a vocation by launching the museum’s gift shop, Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware. Then she discovers that a box of donated vintage cookbooks contains the body of a cantankerous Bon Vee employee who was fired after being exposed as a book thief.

The skills Ricki has developed ferreting out hidden vintage treasures come in handy for investigations. But both her business and Bon Vee could wind up as deadstock when Ricki’s past as curator of a billionaire’s first edition collection comes back to haunt her.

Will Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbooks and Kitchenware be a success … or a recipe for disaster?

My Thoughts

It’s difficult to leave an old favorite like the Cajun Country Mystery series behind when the author pulls the plug and begins a new series.

But if we must, at least we get to enjoy her new series set in Louisiana, as the author favors us with the sounds, scents, and majesty that is the local mystic of New Orleans.

Ricki (Miracle Fleur di Lis James-Diaz) has returned to New Orleans where she was born after suffering the loss of her husband and a scandalous end to a job n LA in which she was a naïve and innocent pawn.

She has landed a position with the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum where she creates a gift shop containing vintage cookbooks and kitchenware. Unfortunately, a trunk containing a donation of vintage cookbooks turns out to contain a body instead. The body is that of a former Bon Vee employee fired for being a book thief and all-round scoundrel.

Becoming a little put off by the local detective, Ricki begins using her tracking skills to investigate on her own.

“NOPD stands for ‘Not Our Problem, Dude.’”

Ricki is a smart woman, although deemed less than confident after her recent losses, and treads lightly. There are some wonderfully diverse support characters, from Madame to Lyla and Cookie, the latter “a recovering children’s librarian.”

Little sub-plots or threads take the story in different directions and introduce the reader to some interesting practices in the book world. Lyla becomes a suspect, but then there are several lesser characters also vying for the position and it’s difficult to nail down who among them has the greater reason for offing not one, but a second, victim. Ricki’s imagination tends to go wild with motives most of which are tossed immediately.

The red herrings were narrowed and fed into the conclusion, which settled most of any loose threads remaining, and I must admit I was surprised by the culprit. As in most cozy mysteries, there is a fostering romance and one big thread strongly hinted that will be carried forward. It’s a douzy.

Also, as in many cozy mysteries, appropriate recipes, in this case vintage southern recipes are shared after the epilogue with this note that gave me a chuckle:

“Onions, celery, and peppers are affectionately known as the “holy trinity” in Cajun and Creole cooking.”

Giveaway

Sign up for your chance to win (1) PRINT COPY – Bayou Book Thief (A Vintage Cookbook Mystery) by Ellen Byron (U.S. Only) Rafflecopter giveaway

Ellen Byron - author — Ellen Byron – author

About The Author: Ellen’s Cajun Country Mysteries have won the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and multiple Lefty Awards for Best Humorous Mystery. Bayou Book Thief will be the first book in her new Vintage Cookbook Mysteries. She also writes the Catering Hall Mystery series under the name Maria DiRico.

Ellen is an award-winning playwright, and non-award-winning TV writer of comedies like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents. She has written over two hundred articles for national magazines but considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart. An alum of New Orleans’ Tulane University, she blogs with Chicks on the Case, is a lifetime member of the Writers Guild of America and will be the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster. Please visit her at https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Newsletter: https://www.ellenbyron.com/

Thank you for visiting my stop on the tour!

Thanks to Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this cozy mystery!

Pryor & Cummings: The GAIA Incident by Rod Pennington – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Late at night, a hacker sneaks into the subterranean lab of a celebrity scientist known as the “Earthquake Whisperer.” There he makes a startling discovery which gets him murdered. The police soon learn surveillance video shows no one had left the facility since the homicide and a thorough search for the killer comes up empty.

To solve this locked room techno-thriller-mystery, an old-school detective and his retired K-9 reluctantly partner with a young high-tech rookie. This quickly escalates from a cut-and-dried homicide to something much more ominous.

This story is populated with relatable characters with interesting relationships. The dialogue is witty, there are whiplash inducing plot shifts and it has a surprise twist ending you won’t see coming.

My Review:

This book starts out with quite the hook but then settled into the plodding of everyday investigative work. Of course, it’s a locked-room mystery, although that part is discoverable fairly soon and becomes a techno-thriller—which is okay by me—an opportunity to learn.

First, I had a problem with Pryor, mid-life macho coming off a suspension well deserved. He can be short, rude, and sometimes reminded me of the Bosch character in the TV series of the same name. Once linking that image, it was tough not to see Welliver in scenes involving Pryor.

I’m pretty torn on this one, about evenly distributed between liking and not. Interesting plot premise (note the cover), but since I wasn’t a particular fan of Pryor, it was tough to balance that with those characters I did like. Pryor is also ex-special ops military. Cummings is young, a grandson of Pryor’s academy instructor and, wait for it: formerly dated Pryor’s daughter. (How small IS this world?) Cummings is also sharp computer, technology generation. I had the promise of an active canine in the storyline as well, even if a retired police dog, and it wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped.

The murder of the hacker in the special underground computer lab links Pryor through the ownership of the lab, who is the second husband of his ex-wife. Just too many close links here to buy.

With any threat to the country, the FBI will get involved and because the consensus this might be (a threat), they did. More characters and they all tend to clash with Pryor. When the technology kicks in, I get a chance to read what currently exists and that projected. The plot steers into the future of bots and the manipulation we’ve confronted before. Then postulation goes beyond that.

I did enjoy some of the dialogue as it produces more than one chuckle and lightens the serious mood, although there again is tempered with soapbox discussions that veer into current political hotbed issues. Relationships tend to get entwined and there are plot puzzlers that eventually get channeled into a satisfying conclusion on a twisted plot course.

Interesting and well-paced, however, a protagonist not everyone will love with espoused philosophies sure to raise eyebrows.

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: Technothrillers, Hard-boiled Mystery
Publisher: Integration Press LLC
ASIN: B09T3VTLZP
Print Length: 267 pages
Publication Date: May 24, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Rod Pennington writes a mixed bag of suspense stories filled with quirky characters, rapid-fire dialogue and whiplash inducing plot shifts. With his off-beat sense of humor and original storylines that do not fit comfortably into any established genre, he has developed a hard-core group of fans.

In addition to fiction, Pennington has either sold or has had optioned seven screenplays and also writes regularly in national publications such as the Wall Street Journal.

You can reach Rod at AuthorRodPennington@Gmail.com

[truncated—see the list of Books by Rod Pennington in the author’s bio: The Fourth Awakening Series, The Family Series, Stand Alone Books]

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