One of my favorite series

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this series, and this one was just great. Though it is a closed case, so a different set up between Hawthorne & Horowitz, it was a strong narrative with a great mystery.

I honestly simply loved it.

If you haven't read this series, you will need to start from the begining ("The Word is Murder") to truly appreciate this 5th one.

View all my reviews

Decent series start

Body and Soul Food by Abby Collette
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the premise, and liked the store Koby and Keaton have created. The mystery itself was compelling, and there were many decent suspects.

A few plot holes in my opinion, mostly with who was on the train and what the detective discovered (or apparently didn't). I felt Keaton in particular had various possible clues, but didn't follow up in any reasonable way. While that would typically cause me to give the book a 2, or possibly even a 1, I did find the writing decent enough to say I liked the book.

View all my reviews

Ending not great

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first part of the book was better than the conclusion.

I will admit the twist surprised me a bit. However, the actual resolution didn't really make sense. I think the police would have believed the scenario as it played out, so honestly that kind of ruined it for me. The police should have been called once Bel heard the truth.

The last bit of the book was entirely unbeliveable and unnecessary.

View all my reviews

Continuing this series

Murder Most Howl by Krista Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyable. I continue to like the characters, the town, and this book's mystery was a good one. I suspected who it was early on, but didn't know the motive.
This resolution was well thought out, and the red herrings were all developed nicely.

View all my reviews

Loved it

Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Truly loved this book. I thought the characterizations were great, and the differing timelines interesting. I felt the issues both women dealt with, whether it was racism, classism or misogny were handled realistically.

I liked the aspects of Raquel discovering who to trust in her life; who truly supported her and who didn't beautifully portrayed.

I have seen some reviews giving the book a 1 due to allegations that the author didn't discuss the novel with Ana Mendieta's (the artist whom Anita is based on) family. While I understand the family being upset by this, and I certainly am not a family member so can't speak to their views at all, I believe this book brings to light Ana's legacy to those of us who weren't aware of her.

I felt the writing was excellent, and I for one came to discover Ana as a result, and have been blown away by her art that I have found online.

I also enjoyed the supernatural aspects of this story, and understand others didn't

Books speak to each of us differently. I loved this one

View all my reviews

Really loved this as an audiobook

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I initially started this on my Kindle, but was reading late at night and at one point got confused by the time-frames (this was totally my issue with being sleepy).
Returned that version to the library, and waited for the audio to be available.
The narrator is great, I was listening while driving or doing chores, and didn't get mixed up with which time-frame I was listening to.

The characters are the heart of this novel. Rachel and her roomate James are best friends, and their relationship is realistically and wonderfully portrayed. The other characters are also well developed. At times heartbreaking, and others incredibly funny.

Truly enjoyed everything about this (keep in mind this is more character driven than plot, but there are twists and a good resolution)

View all my reviews

Great start to a series I will continue

The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the most recent in the series first (prone to this as I discover many series late in the game). I enjoyed that one so much I decided to go to the start.

I really enjoy the characters Shelton has created. This first mystery was a good one, and many of the characters in the most recent one, were with Delaney from the start of her Scottish adventure.

I did have to put aside the implausibility of her finding this interesting opportunity in Edinburgh, right after being laid off from a job in Kansas, but that's the beauty of fiction. When it is well done, you go with it.

View all my reviews

An easy read

The Truth about the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The premise was great, and I rooted for TJ throughout. However, I didn't quite buy the resolution. I am not writing any spoilers with my next bit, but in case some people feel they are I will hide it. (view spoiler)[Right away the reader knows John is up to no good. TJ makes many boneheaded decisions despite this. Throughout TJ is easily the fall guy, and folks buy into his relapsing readily without any direct evidence.

The family is hard to like, and it's really hard to believe them coming together in the end. The mom's excuses, John being a truly awful person and the dad being blind to it all. Gabby of course was decent, but I think she could have confided in TJ sooner. Regarding non family members, Stan's overreaction at the funeral etc. seems over the top. This whole turn of easily thinking TJ is a drunk ruining everything for Stan was hard to believe, unless Stan was part of the scam which he ends up not being.
It is clear TJ is a truly likeable guy (I mean quickly adopting the medically needy cat should have been a sign of innocence) based on his office interactions, and how people greet him who haven't seen him in a bit. So again, I didn't quite buy the family's supposedly being great when they quickly feel he relapsed, without any direct knowledge. (hide spoiler)]
I finished because I wanted TJ vindicated, but couldn't decide if this was a 2 or a 3 It is probably a 2.5 in all fairness, but that balance between ok and I liked it is somewhat nuanced. I went with a 2 because "it was OK" is a better way of saying what I felt about this book.

View all my reviews

Each related narrative was great

Weyward by Emilia Hart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three related women share their stories (various generations including one from the 1600's). Interesting stories, often grim. Great writing and a compelling plot. I find bugs creepy, but this made me think a bit more highly of them. Though I am sure if I see one or two suddenly near me, I will probably jump.

View all my reviews

Still enjoying this series

Decaffeinated Corpse by Cleo Coyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have started this series from the beginning, after initially reading the latest, #20. It has been fun to go back to see where the characters started.

This, book 5, was better than the previous 4 in terms of the mystery and the solution.

View all my reviews

Beautiful book, but you'll need kleenex

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Received this ARC from NetGalley. I absolutely loved this book. I loved Lenny, and many of the other characters. Of course there are awful characters too, but they were described perfectly.

I loved Malcolm the dog, Scrabble games with Monica, the word play Lenny does. She came to life for me. I feared for her, rooted for her, and was ultimately happy for her. This does deal with memory issues and trauma. It is heartbreakingly sad, but also uplifting.

I think it will be published in July, 2024

View all my reviews

Another Amnesia trope

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another book where the main character isn't sure if she murdered someone or not. An odd trope that has recently gotten more popular, or I have just discovered a few of these recently.

This was a decent one, with plausible suspects including the main character. Her sarcastic humor has helped her a bit as she reluctantly agrees to participate in a cold case podcast (I honestly thought to be a cold case it needed to be longer than 5 years, and not sure why the investigation didn't really seem to occur when it happened. I mean like seriously, that part was not explained at all. Everyone thinks it's her, but no arrest? Okay, maybe, but no explanation, no police reports, in fact Ben the podcaster doesn't ever interview anyone from the police dept)

The setting is a small town in Texas. The only notable thing about this particular small town is that affairs seem to take place constantly. It was actually pretty ridiculous to discover how many people had affairs and who they had them with. This was the main motive for the various red herrings, and I didn't buy it. But who knows, maybe a lot of people have that kind of energy and magnetism to have a ton of partners.

Overall I liked it because it kept me wanting to find out the truth, and the snarky humor helped as well.

View all my reviews

Cute Cozy

Ill-Fated Fortune by Jennifer J. Chow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This has a fun premise for a cozy mystery series. The characters are engaging, and the mystery was decent (though I had guessed an odd aspect to it, but thought it was too odd to be plausible). (view spoiler)[the bit about concrete being used in the fortune cookies hit me due to her fortune about suffocating in concrete, but really thought that was too crazy to be actually used. I would think it would cause even more harm to customers than it did with that party of Moana's (hide spoiler)]

I liked the focus on her friend Kelvin, the shops nearby and her family.

Will read the second one when it comes out.

p.s I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, and happy to have read it earlier than my hold at the local library would have allowed.

View all my reviews

Best of 3

The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This makes a trio in terms of recently read books dealing with haunted houses.
One I gave a 3 to, primarily due to the narrative voice and humor
The 2nd I gave a 2 since it was just ok, the major flaw being no true explanation or world building.

This one gets a 4 from me because there was an explanation, and world building. I also appreciated that the couple told their friends about the odd things happening in their house. It seemed realistic that they would tell people versus keeping it quiet. This also allowed them to have friends doing their best, in the end, to assist them (I won't share here how succesful this was or wasn't).

I haven't read previous books by this author, but he is on my radar now.

View all my reviews