A Slow Ruin by Pamela Crane – #Audiobook Review – #domesticthrillers

A Slow Ruin by Pamela Crane

Book Blurb:

April 1910. Women’s rights activist Alvera Fields mysteriously vanishes from her home one night, leaving her newborn baby and husband behind, and the case is never solved.

April 2021. On the anniversary of her great-great-grandmother’s disappearance, Alvera’s namesake, Vera Portman, vanishes in an eerily similar manner. Six months later, the police recover a girl’s body. While the family waits, afraid to find out it’s Vera, Felicity Portman clings to hope that her missing teenage daughter is still alive. Despite all odds, Felicity senses a link between the decades-apart cases — a mother feels such things in her bones. But all suspicion points to the last person who saw Vera alive: Felicity’s sister-in-law, Marin.

Marin, with her troubled past. Marin, the poor woman who married into the rich family. Marin, the only one who knows Felicity’s darkest secret. As Felicity makes a shocking discovery in Vera’s journal, she questions who her daughter really is. The deeper she digs, the more she’s ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed their ancestor in a terribly slow ruin.

My Review:

Quite the domestic thriller that spans almost 100 years, from great-great-grandmother to great-great-granddaughter. What in the world could tie the two over the span of a century?

My first experience with the author; didn’t have any idea what to expect. However, this turned out to be twisty and emotional with several red herrings. First, women’s rights activist Alvera Fields mysteriously vanishes from her home one night—there is NO way she’d have left her husband, let alone her newborn baby.

Then her namesake, Vera Portman vanishes similarly. Her mother rabidly hopes that the body they find six months later is not Vera. The family is very wealthy, but it doesn’t appear to have been a matter of money.

When a journal is found written by Alvera, Felicity devours its contents hoping for some hint as to what might have happened to her daughter. SOOO much going on, family secrets, lies, deception, and the one that might include Marin—Felicity’s sister-in-law. The journal reveals much more than anyone could have expected.

I was glad to have the audiobook to help with the many characters, the inflections in dialogue, the hidden nuances. A family dynamic run amok with the circumstances, the suspicious character the reader doesn’t much like. Is the mother over the top? This IS her daughter after all…isn’t it?

I struggled with it, at times too much detail, minutia, slowing the pace, multiple threads. And the surprise in the conclusion, although at this point, was it really? It is a slow burn mystery, a tad too slow to keep my engagement at an edge of chair level.

I received a complimentary review copy of this audiobook from the publisher and NetGalley. These are my honest thoughts, but I’m sure there will be other readers who will be thoroughly entertained.

Book Details:

Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Psychological Fiction
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC
ASIN: B09PQ6K6T2
Listening Length: 11 hrs 35 mins
Narrator(s): Angie Kane, Caitlin Cavannaugh, Lesa Lockford, Carolina Hoyos
Publication Date: February 1, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: A Slow Ruin [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Three-point Five Stars

The Author: PAMELA CRANE is a USA TODAY bestselling author and professional juggler of four kids, a writing addiction, and a horse rescuer. She lives on the edge and writes on the edge…where her sanity resides. Her thrillers unravel flawed women who are villainous, which makes them interesting…and perfect for doing crazy things worth writing about. When she’s not cleaning horse stalls or cleaning up after her kids, she’s plotting her next murder. Join her newsletter to get a free book and updates about her new releases at http://www.pamelacrane.com.

Rosepoint Publishing

Roaring Liberty: The Queenstown Series – Book 4 by Jean Grainger – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

in Historical Irish Fiction

Book Blurb:

New York City, 1922

Harp Devereaux is torn. Part of her desperately wants to return to Ireland to finish what she and her family and friends started, and to witness the departure of the British forces from Ireland after eight hundred long years. But the other part finds life in America during the Roaring Twenties too exciting to trade for the sleepy streets of County Cork.

She and JohnJoe are united and determined to sample all that life after the Great War has to offer, but life Stateside is not as free and easy as Harp first imagines and soon she finds herself longing for the simplicity of her homeland.

She wants to live life on her own terms but life is never simple, on either side of the Atlantic, and there are sinister forces at work, determined to bring them all down..

My Review:

Book 4 of the Queenstown series wraps it up in classic style, managing to resolve all the issues in a fast-moving and immersive conclusion.

While I was not able to walk in Harp’s shoes, I do so enjoy all the characters, especially JohnJoe and in this entry to the series Jerry, Elliot, and Celia. Harp and JohnJoe hesitantly form a vaudeville act upon the insistence of Jerry who will act as manager and promoter, as well as Elliot (on violin) and Celia, their bookkeeper and seamstress.

After Rose and Matt return to Ireland, Harp feels free to live as she wants to live her life and that’s as a performer—beginning in New York where they find a lucrative level of success, particularly after Elliot pens an original that is picked as a favorite in their venues.

But there are issues back home and Jerry opens an opportunity to play in Dublin allowing Harp to see her mother again. While in Ireland, however, they discover the tentative and long-awaited peace treaty with Britain divides their country between those who are agreeable to the terms and those who are not, creating a dangerous climate and turning former friends to enemies.

Also, there is the issue of the home that Harp inherited when her “father” claimed her as his heir, bypassing his own brother who took possession of Cliff House following their hasty exodus to the states.

The well-paced narrative slowed somewhat in the middle as issues having been introduced were more carefully examined and possible remedies posited, while song lyrics were introduced (including the iconic Irish ballad “Danny Boy” (which always brings tears to my eyes) or repeated. I must say the lyrics of Elliot’s “original song” “Your Heart Will Know” is absolutely, hauntingly beautiful.

There are themes of the struggle of women in society (“Until all women were free, none were”), lifestyle, as well as the continued troubles with the British and class distinction.

I am one of the lucky few to receive an advance reader’s copy of this author’s works. I’ve enjoyed all of them, including The Harp and the Rose, Book 3, and find each delightful, atmospheric, and educational as well as engaging and entertaining. Book 4, Roaring Liberty is out now and highly recommended although you might wish to begin (if you haven’t already) with Book 1, Last Port of Call.

Rosepoint Rating: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: British Historical Literature, Historical Irish Fiction, Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
ISBN: ‎B09QFC6LNB
ASIN: B09DBWW184
Print Length: 480 pages
Publication Date: January 17, 2022 – Just Released!
Source: Author request
Title Link: Roaring Liberty [Amazon]

The Author: JEAN GRAINGER – USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

SELECTED BY BOOKBUB READERS IN TOP 19 OF HISTORICAL FICTION BOOKS.

WINNER OF THE 2016 AUTHOR’S CIRCLE HISTORICAL NOVEL OF EXCELLENCE

Hello and thanks for taking time out to check out my page. If you’re wondering what you’re getting with my books then think of the late great Maeve Binchy but sometimes with a historical twist. I was born in Cork, Ireland in 1971 and I come from a large family of storytellers, so much so that we had to have ‘The Talking Spoon’, only the person holding the spoon could talk!

I have worked as a history lecturer at University, a teacher of English, History and Drama in secondary school, a playwright, and a tour guide of my beloved Ireland. I am married to the lovely Diarmuid and we have four children. We live in a 200 year old stone cottage in Mid-Cork with my family and the world’s smallest dogs, called Scrappy and Scoobi.

My experiences leading groups, mainly from the United States, led me to write my first novel, ‘The Tour’. My observances of the often funny, sometimes sad but always interesting events on tours fascinated me. People really did confide the most extraordinary things, the safety of strangers I suppose. It’s a fictional story set on a tour bus but many of the characters are based on people I met over the years.

My current series, The Queenstown Series, centres on twelve year old Harp Devereaux and her mother Rose and the first book opens on the day Titanic sails from Queenstown, Co Cork on her last fateful journey. It is a bestselling series and people really seem to connect to the precocious Harp and her hard-working mother as they battle to survive in a society where conforming and playing by the rules was paramount. It is so far a three book series, The West’s Awake, and The Harp and the Rose being the next two books but I’m currently writing book four…

[truncated…]

Many of the people who have reviewed my books have said that you get to know the characters and really become attached to them, that’s wonderful for me to hear because that’s how I feel about them too. I grew up on Maeve Binchy and Deirdre Purcell and I aspired to being like them. If you buy one of my books I’m very grateful and I really hope you enjoy it. If you do, or even if you don’t, please take the time to post a review. Writing is a source of constant contentment to me and I am so fortunate to have the time and the inclination to do it, but to read a review written by a reader really does make my day.

Read her complete bio on Amazon or visit her website at Jean Grainer.com

Big Lies in a Small Town: A Novel by Diane Chamberlain – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

North Carolina, 2018:

Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold – until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy Southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940:

Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and in great need of work, she accepts. But what she doesn’t expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.

What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

My Review:

WOW!

Just… WOW!

I listened to approximately 45 audiobooks in 2021 (four per month) and if I’d finished this one in time, it would definitely have been included in my favorites list for the year—audiobook or print.

Told from two POVs, in 2018, Morgan Christopher and 1940 Anna Dale. Morgan is sprung from the North Carolina Correctional Facility on a conditional release—the promise to restore a mural that was to have been installed in the Edenton Post Office in 1940. Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey won a national contest out from under the town artist—considered the shoo-in. From New Jersey! An abomination! What did she know about the south or the town that the mural was to represent? The south is an alien world to Anna and Edenton not exactly thrilled to welcome a northerner.

Morgan’s benefactor, however, is a famous artist, Jesse Jameson, who dedicated himself to young artists with a history. Morgan knew his work and seriously loved it. She dabbled—loved painting—but restoring a mural was something she knew NOTHING about.

Jesse was within months of completing and opening an art gallery at the time of his passing and Morgan’s time frame was two months but when she initially saw the mural, very old, flaking, dusty; she thought impossible.

Completing the mural will keep her out of prison AND she’ll be paid for her work. It’s seriously important. She finds an ally in the project manager and though he’s not an artist can provide some basic start-up instruction in art restoration.

We begin to get filtered narration by Anna, an enormously engaging and sympathetic character, young and naïve, definitely out of her element but very serious about providing the town with the best representation of the area she can. Then as the mural is gradually restored, painstakingly inch by inch, Morgan begins to uncover some disturbing and bizarre inclusions into an otherwise masterful mural. What happened to Anna? Did she go mad?

Anna’s story is mesmerizing, one you can’t tear yourself away from. I loved her philosophy, her openness, and the two boys she took in to help with the work on the mural; especially Jesse. He’s an enigma, a brilliant natural artist, obviously enormously talented. Coming from a “colored” family, however, holds no hope of an artistic career. His family needs his help on the farm and only his aunt encourages and supports his work with Anna. It’s 1940; in the south. And Anna is a white northerner.

What happens next is shocking. A quick intake of breath, a sharp refusal that this is how Anna’s story will end. What happens to Jesse? The mural?

Undeniably the greatest hold is Anna’s story. But Morgan keeps digging and now her heart and soul are in uncovering Anna’s story along with restoration of the mural.

The characters are extremely well developed, the heart goes out to Anna and Jesse, truly the force in this amazing narrative. Storytelling at its finest! From heart-thudding moments to anger, revulsion, and back again to tearful hope. Totally invested in Anna, Jesse, and to a lesser extent Morgan.

Themes of poverty, racism, violence, and rape. Easy to switch back and forth between the POVs, each advancing the tension, the questions swirling maddingly around the mind. How can this be resolved? Or CAN it?

And the conclusion: beautiful.

I read five final nominees in the Goodreads Choice Awards for 2020 and this was not even listed. If I have a problem with a book, I check to see if or why I’m off base in my assessment, pursuing both low and high reviews. It looks as if I’m in agreement with most reviews this time. So, what happened?

This is a truly immersive read from beginning to amazing end. Strong, individual and believable characters. The mural, during the restoration process, took shape and color in my mind becoming both awesomely jaw-dropping and then bewildering, confusing.

Brilliant! Did you read or listen to the audiobook? What was your reaction?

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Psychological Thrillers, Historical Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B07T8C3RT3
Listening Length: 13 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Susan Bennett
Publication Date: January 14, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Big Lies in a Small Town [Amazon]

The Author: Diane Chamberlain is the New York Times, USA Today and (London) Sunday Times best-selling author of 27 novels. The daughter of a school principal who supplied her with a new book almost daily, Diane quickly learned the emotional power of story. Although she wrote many small “books” as a child, she didn’t seriously turn to writing fiction until her early thirties when she was waiting for a delayed doctor’s appointment with nothing more than a pad, a pen, and an idea. She was instantly hooked.

Diane was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey and lived for many years in both San Diego and northern Virginia. She received her master’s degree in clinical social work from San Diego State University. Prior to her writing career, she was a hospital social worker in both San Diego and Washington, D.C, and a psychotherapist in private practice in Alexandria, Virginia, working primarily with adolescents.

More than two decades ago, Diane was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which changed the way she works: She wrote two novels using voice recognition software before new medication allowed her to get back to typing. She feels fortunate that her arthritis is not more severe and that she’s able to enjoy everyday activities as well as keep up with a busy travel schedule.

Diane lives in North Carolina with her significant other, photographer John Pagliuca, and their odd but lovable Shetland Sheepdog, Cole.

Please visit Diane’s website at http://www.dianechamberlain.com for her event schedule and for more information on her newest novel, Big Lies in a Small Town, as well as a complete list of her books.

The Narrator: [NOTE: I think this is the correct Susan Bennett. If it is not, please let me know and I’ll correct immediately.] Susan Alice Bennett is an American voice actress and a former backup singer for Roy Orbison and Burt Bacharach. She is best known as the female American voice of Apple’s Siri personal assistant, since the service was introduced on the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011. Wikipedia

happy thursday!

The Last House on the Street: A Novel by Diane Chamberlain –#BookReview – Women’s Historical Fiction

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

1965

Growing up in the well-to-do town of Round Hill, North Carolina, Ellie Hockley was raised to be a certain type of proper Southern lady. Enrolled in college and all but engaged to a bank manager, Ellie isn’t as committed to her expected future as her family believes. She’s chosen to spend her summer break as a volunteer helping to register black voters. But as Ellie follows her ideals fighting for the civil rights of the marginalized, her scandalized parents scorn her efforts, and her neighbors reveal their prejudices. And when she loses her heart to a fellow volunteer, Ellie discovers the frightening true nature of the people living in Round Hill.

2010

Architect Kayla Carter and her husband designed a beautiful house for themselves in Round Hill’s new development, Shadow Ridge Estates. It was supposed to be a home where they could raise their three-year-old daughter and grow old together. Instead, it’s the place where Kayla’s husband died in an accident—a fact known to a mysterious woman who warns Kayla against moving in. The woods and lake behind the property are reputed to be haunted, and the new home has been targeted by vandals leaving threatening notes. And Kayla’s neighbor Ellie Hockley is harboring long buried secrets about the dark history of the land where her house was built.

Two women. Two stories. Both on a collision course with the truth–no matter what that truth may bring to light–in Diane Chamberlain’s riveting, powerful novel about the search for justice.

My Review:

I am still gasping, trying to calm the emotions this novel rammed home. So much going on in my country, still shaking my head at the ignorance, wallowing in our own problems of 1965—the CE trying to graduate prior to being drafted (and sure to be sent to ‘Nam if he was). But my operation took him out of school and changed the trajectory of our lives; our upheaval cocooned in California was far from the events of the south. We only got a small taste of what that meant (and was appalled) when he was sent by the Navy to Pensacola, Florida for training in ’66.

This narrative divides into a dual timeline: 1965 and 2010. In 1965, Ellie, an idealistic, privileged white coed full of righteous indignation defied her family, her boyfriend, and her town by joining a Civil Rights crusade called SCOPE (Summer Community Organization and Political Education Project) volunteering to spend the summer living with Black host families so the members could contact one on one local families to educate them on the importance of registering to vote. Something long awaited, their right to vote, hanging on President Lyndon B Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act.

The mission is dangerous; seriously dangerous.

“I wasn’t just moving from one town to another. I was moving from one world to another…”

In 2010, Kayla has just lost her husband in a house they designed together on an exclusive end lot surrounded by trees. It’s ready for her and her small daughter to move in. She should be excited. The home is gorgeous, the first in newly created Shadow Ridge Estates, Round Hill NC, only a much older home on the same lane the owner having refused to sell to the developer. She views her new home with dread but has no alternative but to occupy.

It’s not long before she is confronted with shocking circumstances, innuendo, gossip regarding the lot, dark history of the area. Then she meets Ellie, now 65 living temporarily in the old home up the street who is caring for a terminally ill brother and elderly mother. She isn’t happy being back after living in San Francisco for decades.

The author alternates between first person accounts of the experiences of Ellie working to gain registered voters and that of the more contemporary Kayla trying to make sense of what is happening with her new home. The accounts as related by Ellie brings to life the circumstances of those she encounters, the friendships, social injustice, racial prejudice, and eventually forbidden love. Unthinkable then, interracial relationship. The reader is fed small impressions and stories regarding Ellie’s motivations.

Prejudices, suspicions, terrorist activities by the KKK spreading hate. The atmosphere is alive with tension, static, dread. A horrible time in our history.

The 1965 accounts are electric, pervasive, and lead the frank, mind-blowing plot. Gradually, the two main characters stories merge, peeling away minute reveals, building tension, heartbreak, fear. The descriptions of the window dominated house clashes wildly with the dark, invasive moss-covered forest surrounding it.

The storytelling is immersive, impactful, tragic. It’s a tough read and one that will play over again in your mind for some time to come. I highly recommend this novel, now on pre-order, and will be looking for other books by this author. I’m hooked.

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.

Book Details:

Genre: Women’s Historical Fiction, Mothers & Children Fiction, Family Life Fiction
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
ISBN: ‎1250283175
ASIN: B092T7TFP2
Print Length: 346 pages
Publication Date: January 11, 2022
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Diane lives in North Carolina with her significant other, photographer John Pagliuca, and their odd but lovable Shetland Sheepdog, Cole.

Holiday Reads

Deadly Little Lies: An utterly addictive psychological thriller by Stephanie DeCarolis –#BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

THE PERFECT LIFE

Juliana Daniels finally has the life she’s always dreamed of. A loving husband, a career as an attorney, and a cozy apartment in Manhattan to call home.

But when she gets a message from an old college friend, her blood runs cold. Remember me?

ONE DEADLY LIE

Juliana drops her phone as though she’s been scalded. The name Jenny Teller shines out from the screen… but Jenny can’t have sent that message.

Because Jenny is dead.

Juliana’s other college friends have all received the same message. The four of them are the only ones who know the truth about the night Jenny died. It’s a secret they have kept buried for thirteen years.

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

With ‘Jenny’ now blackmailing them and threatening to expose their secret, only one thing is certain. Someone else knows the truth about that night… or one of them is lying.

My Review:

Juliana Daniels (Jules) has managed to secure for herself a scholarship to a pretty exclusive university where she feels the deep divide between her middle class upbringing and that of her new monied classmates. It might have been a serious struggle had not Tori (her new roommate), Nessa, and Emily included her into their little clique.

Emily is the obvious alpha, taking Jules on quietly as a “project” and grooms her to be as narcissistic as herself. With her new status, she feels important, looked up to, and just as quietly abandons old friends, counting the minutes when the holidays with her parents are over and she can return to campus life where she’s learned to party hardy.

“It wasn’t enough to just be desired; if I was going to keep up, I had to learn to desire nothing in return.”

The narrative settles into chapters alternating between “Now” and “Then.” The Now describes her inclusion as a successful attorney, a Manhattan apartment, and a loving, attentive, supportive husband, Jason.

Then swings us back to her university years where she experiences something that will haunt her during the intervening ten years until she gets the same taunting message as her so-called snobbish, titled friends, “Remember me?” But it can’t be her—they all know that—because she’s dead.

UGH! I liked Jason. But Jules, Tori, and Nessa not so much. Emily was meant to be disliked and she was truly nasty, raising the blood pressure every time she had the focus. Their shared horrific event brought them together again, trying to discern who could possibly have sent the first and then additional messages, as well as intrusions into Jules home. And none of it shared with Jules’ husband. Oh, these deep, dark secrets!

As they are all summoned together for a tenth year reunion, matters come to a head, the pace escalates into the conclusion. There were twists and turns, some expected, some not, though I had not anticipated the final reveal.

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: Women’s Detective Fiction, Noir Crime, Domestic Thrillers
Publisher: HQ Digital
ASIN: B09HMNK836
Print Length: 378 pages
Publication Date: November 26, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Stephanie is the USA Today best-selling author of The Guilty Husband and Deadly Little Lies. She is a graduate of Binghamton University and St. John’s University School of Law, and she currently lives in New York with her husband, their two daughters, and their very spoiled cat.

Fallen Angel (Detectives Kane and Alton Book 13) by D K Hood – #BookReview – Organized Crime Thrillers

Book Blurb:

Hurrying along the dark, snow-covered path, she knows she’s not alone when she hears the light tread of someone behind her. Panic rising in her chest, she picks up the pace. But she doesn’t even have a chance to scream before everything goes black.

When a beautiful young woman is reported missing from her hotel room on the outskirts of Black Rock Falls, Sheriff Jenna Alton and her deputy David Kane are devastated to discover her pale, lifeless body trapped beneath a frozen lake nearby. It’s Jenna who finds the single pearl earring buried in the frosted grass that gives them their first lead.

Just as Jenna has the remaining hotel guests safely back in their rooms, the killer strikes again, and another victim is found in one of the hotel’s lakeside cabins. Next to his bloodied body is a second pearl earring. What does it mean, and why is the killer leaving them for Jenna to find?

Interviewing witnesses, Jenna discovers that both victims were seen arguing with other residents hours before their deaths. Could the murderer be out for revenge, and how many more bodies will follow before they are truly satisfied?

As a blizzard cuts the hotel off from Black Rock Falls, Jenna and her team are trapped with the killer. Then she receives a terrifying call from a teenage girl who thinks the murderer was in her room as she slept. Can Jenna save her from becoming the next victim? And how many more innocent lives will be taken before the snow thaws?

Fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot will love this gripping and addictive thriller from USA Today bestselling author D.K. Hood. Prepare to stay up all night!

His Review:

Mother was anything but a loving nurturer, she was a monster. And she allowed strange men to do things to her child for the shear joy of knowing it was happening! Could anyone fault the child for becoming what she had pre-ordained?

But the antagonist is a study in psychopaths and the reasons they become who they are.

D. K. Hood builds an interesting profile of the killer as an adult. Despicable and frightening.

Trapped in a snowbound ski resort with a couple of hundred writers and publishers is the perfect target element. The victims are chosen with relish, particularly those who have dismissed who is perceived a hack writer. Sure they have no redeeming qualities and wouldn’t know a good book if it fell off the shelf on them, oh yes, they have it coming!

Two of the local law enforcement members of a small mountain bound town are trapped in a blizzard when the deaths keep mounting up. The attendees at a writer’s teaching seminar are the targets of ire. In the beginning they believe that it is a game set up by the seminar sponsors.

I found the approach to the novel interesting in the authors’ attempt at getting into the head of the killer. The ending is poignant as the killer explains that the commission of these crimes fill a need more pressing than food!

Read and enjoy this book, but make sure you have the doors and windows properly secured. Checking and rechecking these items may give you a modicum of security! 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, this book releases next Tuesday (November 23^rd).

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Organized Crime Thrillers, Serial Killer Thrillers, Police Procedurals
Publisher: Bookouture
ASIN: B09CH7LYGF
Print Length: 346 pages
Publication Date: November 23, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Fallen Angel [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: D.K Hood is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY, and Amazon Bestselling Author of The Kane and Alton Series. She is a member of International Thriller Writers, Australian Crime Writers Association, and Sisters in Crime Australia.

Where Angels Fear and Her Broken Wings, are listed as the Best Thriller and Best Detective Books Of All Time by The Book Authority.

D.K’s books have been or are currently being translated into many different languages.

D.K. lives very quietly with her husband and enjoys a beautiful garden filled with wild birds and water dragons. The dogs and cats in her stories are reminiscent of the wonderful companions from her past.

She started her writing journey to assist with drug free pain management and has continued to use the stories as an escape from intolerable pain. She likes to highlight current themes in her books and is a strong advocate against all forms of abuse.

D.K says,

“Writing crime thrillers for Bookouture (Hachette) is a dream come true for me. I really love writing the Kane and Alton Series.

It’s great to “meet” so many wonderful readers from all over the world through my Facebook pages. Their support and friendship is inspirational.

I’m currently writing more books in the series.

I love writing about the rugged beauty of Montana and my interest in the development of forensic science to solve crime goes back many years. It was one subject I enjoyed studying and with the constant advances, it never gets boring.

With many stories, waiting for me to write, I’ll look forward to sharing more exciting crime thrillers with you.”

Join me for a chat:

Twitter

@DKHood_Author

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/dkhoodauthor

Web:

http://www.dkhood.com

Happy Autumn Weekend to you from Rosepoint Publishing

Déjà Boo: A Chantilly Adair Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series Book 6 by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson – #BookReview – #cozymystery

Book Blurb:

Sometimes, an innocent person is convicted of a crime they didn’t commit. And sometimes, after the real guilty person dies, they fess up.

To me…

Because I can communicate with the dead.

I try hard to help the restless dead find closure. And usually, I succeed. But this time my detective boyfriend is throwing a wrench into my efforts. I might be able to take the word of a dead guy, but the police sure can’t.

And as always, things don’t turn out as planned. Now I’m stuck in the middle of a double murder—one from the past—and one from now.

Because someone doesn’t want me to discover the truth…and it looks like they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure this secret stays in the grave!

My Review:

Well, phooey, coming late to the party again, starting with Book 6, and perhaps this is one series best begun from the beginning. Chantilly Adair can see (and sometimes hear) ghosts since she took a bad fall. She’s been helping those who contact her when they are stuck in limbo until something pertaining to their death is resolved. True to many cozy mysteries, her boyfriend Jack is a Castleberry police detective although in this case he has a new boss not hot to listen to his detective’s leads from a girlfriend’s ghost.

In this episode, she is told by a ghost that he is responsible for the death of someone that saw another taking blame and is now sitting in jail for the crime. Trying to take on the mystery of the ghost to set things right, another murder occurs that she is sure is linked to the old case. Of course, she is repeatedly told by her boyfriend to stay out of it. Which she doesn’t.

I usually enjoy some paranormal in mysteries, particularly cozy mysteries, but in this case had a problem with Chantilly’s attitude and never really did warm up to her. She apparently works at the local (Castleberry) historical society and has a number of pertinent contacts. Nor did I find the plot to be a barn-burner. There are numerous characters and flipping between the old case and new had my head spinning trying to remember similar names and relationships and not caring too much if I didn’t.

The author, however, does have an interesting writing style and I know the series is popular. I did note two interesting quotables, especially the first I can totally relate to:

“Del has a hard time letting other people do what she believes she does best.”

“People like you think the sun comes up just to hear you crow.” [ha! Now that’s funny!]

So there is a sprinkling of humor and the conclusion here was drawn quickly and neatly. No doubt her followers will enjoy this one; it just wasn’t my cup of cozy tea.

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: Mystery Series, Cozy Crafts & Hobbies Mystery, Amateur Sleuth
Publisher: Severn River Publishing
ASIN: B092MS48ND
Print Length: 178 pages
Publication Date: November 16, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link: Déjà Boo [Amazon]

The Author: USA Today Bestselling author Carolyn Ridder Aspenson writes cozy mysteries and thrillers featuring strong female leads. Her stories shine through her dialogue, which readers have praised for being realistic and compelling. Her first novel, Unfinished Business, An Angela Panther Mystery was a Reader’s Favorite finalist and reached the top 100 Kindle books sold on Amazon.

Prior to writing fiction, Carolyn was a freelance journalist covering local and national affairs in the metro Atlanta area.

Now an empty-nester, Carolyn lives in the North Georgia mountains with her husband, two Pit Bull-Boxer mix dogs and a cantankerous cat. You’ll often find her at a local coffee shop people watching and listening while she writes her next novel.

Like and chat with Carolyn on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/carolynridderaspensonauthor

Find Carolyn on BookBub at Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Visit Carolyn’s website and sign up for her newsletter at carolynridderaspenson.com

Follow Carolyn at CarolynRidderAspenson on Instagram

Count to Three by T R Ragan – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

For a private investigator on the trail of a missing girl, every second counts in a gripping thriller by New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

On her first day of kindergarten, five-year-old Tinsley disappeared without a trace…

Five agonizing years later, her divorced mother, Dani Callahan, is a private investigator. She and Quinn Sullivan, a promising young assistant determined to prove herself, are devoted to helping others find missing loved ones. And for Dani, finding Tinsley is still a never-ending obsession.

Their newest case is Ali Cross, a teenager who vanished off a Sacramento street while walking home. A troubled boy’s eyewitness testimony to Ali’s abduction provides their only clues. And as their search for Ali gets underway, new information about Tinsley’s disappearance begins to surface too.

As their investigations lead down two twisting paths, disturbing secrets are revealed and new victims find themselves in mortal danger. Time is running out, and the hunt is only getting grimmer.

His Review:

Dani considered herself a very good mother. So how had her daughter Tinsley disappeared so quickly? She had gone to elementary school to pick her up and she had been taken by another woman five minutes earlier. How could that be possible? Now the most important case of her young private investigator career was the recovery of her own daughter.

Ali is preparing to go into school and is abducted right outside the building. Quinn observes her being pushed into a white van but is unable to reach her in time to stop the abduction. Frantic searches are begun for both Tinsley and Ali. They have fallen off the face of the earth.

TR Regan has a great way of spinning a yarn. I found myself immediately invested in the struggles of Dani and Ali. The deeper into the investigation Dani goes, the more frustrated as a reader I became. Having someone disappear in broad daylight in downtown Sacramento seems incredible but certainly possible. Sacramento is a big city and people tend to mind their own business.

Missing persons are not always on the top of the investigator’s agenda. Murder and other violent crimes take center stage. The young senior in high school could have simply run away from an abusive home life. The cases soon go on the back burner of the investigators task list. Meanwhile the victims are suspended in the animation that is these types of crimes.

The perpetrators are two very different types of criminal but the resultant angst is very similar. As a reader I found myself wound up in the investigation and becoming very angry at the criminals. TR wraps them in the confusing morass that is their psyches.

Read this book and enjoy the way TR Ragan develops her villains. You will not be disappointed. 5 stars – CE Williams

We’ve both read T R Ragan books in two different series now and have never failed to love them (see our links to previous reviews below). 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 (this time). Currently on pre-order.

Book Details:

Genre: Kidnapping Thrillers, Women Sleuths
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
ISBN: ‎ 1542093945
ASIN: B08LD3LNS6
Print Length: 283 pages
Publication Date: December 14, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Count to Three [Amazon]

The Author: T.R. Ragan (Theresa Ragan) has sold over three million books and is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling mystery and thriller author.

Readers interested in signing up for a monthly newsletter or getting their name in a TR RAGAN book should check out her website at http://www.trragan.com

Facebook • Twitter • Instagram: @trraganauthor

LIZZY GARDNER SERIES
Abducted
Dead Weight
A Dark Mind
Obsessed
Almost Dead
Evil Never Dies

FAITH MCMANN TRILOGY
Furious
Outrage
Wrath

JESSIE COLE SERIES
Her Last Day (My 4.5 star review here)
Deadly Recall
Deranged
Buried Deep (My 5 star review here)

SAWYER BROOKS SERIES
Don’t Make a Sound – 6/20
Out of Her Mind – 11/20
No Going Back – 1/21 (His 5 star review here)