#TuesdayBookBlog – Page 38 – Rosepoint Publishing

The Advice Column Murders – a #BookReview

Title: The Advice Column Murders: The Oakwood Mystery Series by Leslie Nagel

Genre: Currently # 235 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Traditional Detectives

Publisher: Alibi

Publication Date: To be released April 3, 2018 – Happy Publication Day!

Source: Random House Publishing Group-Alibi and NetGalley

Title and Cover: The Advice Column Murders – Attractive, compelling cozy mystery cover

My first introduction to this series, I found the novel on the more serious side of a cozy mystery. As the third in the series, the protagonist is Charley Carpenter who is the owner of a vintage shop she calls Old Hat Vintage Fashions. This is apparently meant to be a standalone, though characters are brought forward from the first two in the series, including the situation with her shop which is now undergoing a major renovation that she will call Old Hat New Beginnings. (This is also my third book in a row in which the female protagonist is a Charley, Charlie, or Charlee–it must be getting popular to call a female protagonist Charley!) Continue reading “The Advice Column Murders – a #BookReview”

Five Reasons Why Books Release on Tuesday–Does That Include Indie Authors?

Because it’s always been done this way. (?)

Oh really?! Why? Retailers call it Super Tuesday.

But Tuesday…Maybe it is just not as hectic as the first day of the week. Nor is it Friday when everyone is ready to flee to weekend outings. Tuesday is not yet Hump Day, not generally a payday, and very rarely a holiday. So why is it that I started having a problem with overlapping release dates–Tuesday–after I started receiving books from NetGalley?

Most sources, including Bob Mayer (one of my favorite authors), speculated it might be (1) because of the NY Times best-seller lists (and this seems to be a generally accepted opinion). “The NYT bestseller list is based on sales from Tuesday to Monday, tallied on Wednesday. The list for the following Sunday is actually compiled by the prior Wednesday evening.”

So what else are we looking at? Spy icon by Colourbox Continue reading “Five Reasons Why Books Release on Tuesday–Does That Include Indie Authors?”

If I Live – a #BookReview

Title: If I Live (If I Run series) by Terri Blackstock

Genre: Currently #6 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Religious & Inspirational Fiction, Christian, Romance, Mystery & Suspense

Publisher: Zondervan

Publication Date: To be released March 6, 2018 – Happy Publication Day!!

Source: Zondervan and NetGalley

Title and Cover: If I Live – Not sure how the cover conveys subject but links the trilogy with the other two covers

Protagonist Casey Cox is on the run, still, and doing a darned good job at evading capture. She has been doing this for awhile and is quite good at it, but she does have a person she can trust–if she can just connect with him. She has been accused of a murder she didn’t commit. Private Investigator Dylan Roberts, hired by Brent’s family to find the killer, has tried to connect with her. He has new information. POV switches first person from Casey to Dylan to antagonist dirty cop Keegan. Not just dirty–sociopathic scary icky.

Casey is in Memphis and desperate for money takes a job with slightly shady attorney Barbero. Dylan has investigated all the circumstances and comes to believe in her innocence and is working toward getting her to go safely back to Shreveport to clear her name. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to know who they can trust. Together, she and Dylan decide to take the evidence gathered to the DA. Dylan arrives at his office to present the case but dumbs down a bit and things go south. Just how deep is the Keegan quagmire? Continue reading “If I Live – a #BookReview”

Valley of Time – #BookReview

Title: Valley of Time: The Greatest Journey Ever Taken by Jeremy D Holden

Genre: Currently #4105 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, International Mystery & Crime

Publisher: Clean Publishing

Publication Date: November 5, 2017

Source: Smith Publishing, Cleaning Publishing, and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Valley of Time – Ethereal cover offers hints of subject

I can’t keep smacking my forehead with the palm of my hand and asking “What is this guy thinking??! Surely someone as smart as Mal couldn’t be this gullible twice?!

Is Valley of Time presenting much the same scenario as was posed in his first book offering, Sea of Doubt in which he barely escaped with his life? Much of the first half of this book is uncomfortably close. He has written about those experiences attaching threads to this sequel. Continue reading “Valley of Time – #BookReview”

An Eye For An Eye – a Book Review

Title: An Eye For An Eye (an Ellie Mathews Novel book #2) by Caroline Fardig

Genre: Currently #2077 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Police Procedurals

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC

Publication Date: To be released January 23, 2018 – Happy Publication Day!

Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title and Cover: An Eye For An Eye – Cover depicts scene from book

Ellie Matthews switched to teaching at her local college after leaving her criminalist position with former partner Detective Nick Baxter. Ellie carries a lot of baggage and prefers the quiet, quasi-anonymous position of the college professor. Then one of her sister’s college friends goes missing and she finds herself thrust right back into the fray. This is the second in the series. Continue reading “An Eye For An Eye – a Book Review”

Smoke – a Book Review

Title: Smoke by D. B. Borton

Genre: Currently #19277 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Women Sleuths

Publisher: Boomerang Books

Publication Date: November 20, 2017

Source: Direct request by author

Title and Cover: Smoke – Great cover showing frame painting

Backstory during the Iranian revolution at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art sets the plot of stolen masterpieces, some of which later turn out to be fakes.

Decades later, Marge Smith, as an active agent of Quixote, Ltd. is sent to The Elms to recover from a broken leg received in a motorcycle accident when she is swept up in a geriatric production of Macbeth. The production introduces her to three friends starring as witches, each on short term in the nursing facility, when suddenly one of the witches dies unexpectedly. Continue reading “Smoke – a Book Review”

The Compass Island Incident – a Book Review

Title: The Compass Island Incident: November 1963 by Wade Fowler

Genre: Currently #1551 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank for Kindle Store, Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers, Assassinations

Publisher: Sunbury Press – Milford House Press

Publication Date: November 22, 2017

Source: Sunbury Press – Milford House Press and NetGalley

Title and Cover: The Compass Island Incident – Compelling cover

I was excited to read this book for several reasons; one being yet another theory about the assassination of JFK, (2) it’s about one of our Navy ships, and (3) we certainly have history back then and can well remember the day. (Who can’t)

I’m sure we’ve never been satisfied with the findings of the Warren Commission that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It was too monstrous, too heinous, too difficult to imagine that one disgruntled ex-Marine could have pulled off that act alone. No one believed it and wasn’t particularly surprised when the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded in 1979 that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.” It’s not like the barn door has ever closed on that discussion.

Therefore, another conspiracy theory may be laid out as a compelling fictional story and I enjoy those ship details and vernacular, the stories at sea of the roiling mountains of salt water and survival. “The Compass Island was no scat back. Evasion wasn’t her running style.” Continue reading “The Compass Island Incident – a Book Review”

Series or Standalone? What Are You Reading?

After I released my grandfather’s books on the world, I started reading and then reviewing in earnest. It wasn’t long before I discovered BookBub, and I absolutely loved it, gleaned free books that for the most part turned out to be exceptional, fun, and compelling books. Shortly after came series–lots of them–and I proceeded to read books from one series or another, sometimes exhausting them and looking for more, which might be considered a “con.” The wait for the next in the series–sometimes up to a year–then will you have to get reacquainted?