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Book review fiction mystery reading Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Up Jumped the Devil” by Martha Reed

One of my latest reads was Up Jumped the Devil by Martha Reed. This is the second book in the Crescent City NOLA Mystery series.

Set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, Up Jumped the Devil is chock full of a host of well-developed interesting characters, intrigue, the lore of New Orleans, and a little bit of voodoo.

Jane Byrne is the Chief Security Officer working the graveyard shift in New Orleans’ famous St. Louis Cemetery. The story starts with Jane trying to catch graffiti vandals. With a bad knee, and a boss who wants the culprits caught yesterday, Jane enlists the help of her transgender friend, Gigi. When Jane and Gigi corner a vandal, Gigi realizes she has seen the trespasser before. When the two sleuths track the perpetrator down, they find themselves entwined in a kidnapping ring. Solving the mystery is a matter of life and death – possibly their own.

Some of the other characters are Gigi’s father, Ken, who is a musician, his wife, Leslie, and Aunt Babette, a NOLA voodoo queen.

In Up Jumped the Devil, Martha Reed’s research of NOLA shines. I enjoy Reed’s storytelling and her ability to transport readers with vivid descriptions into the story and keep them there long after they finish the book.

When book three in this series comes out, it will be on my TBR list.

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book club Book review crime fiction mystery suspense thriller Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Local Woman Missing” by Mary Kubica

This month’s book club read was “Local Woman Missing” by Mary Kubica. This is my first read by this author and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a gripping, page-turning, suburban thriller. Everyone in our book club gave it five stars.

I will admit that at first I almost didn’t continue past part one. It was disturbing and contained abuse of children. I continued, and I will say this book is one of the best recent thrillers I’ve read. Mary Kubica’s characters are well-developed and likeable. The story is fast-paced and filled with suspense, tension, mystery and an end plot twist I didn’t see coming.

It seems lately the thrillers I have been reading are told from multiple points of view and this one was as well. Local Woman Missing is told from three points of view and with 11 years before and now timelines. I still found it very easy to follow.

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find….

Wow!

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book club Book review crime fiction psychological thriller reading suspense Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Watching You” by Lisa Jewell

Watching You by Lisa Jewell is our book club’s October read. It is a psychological thriller published in 2018 and this author’s sixteenth book. She has twenty published novels.

This was my first read of her books.

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.

Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam.

The book starts out with a diary entry and a murder and then goes back to a narrative told in multiple points of view. It took me a while to get into this book. The beginning felt too slow and filled with the routine lives of the characters (some of them a bit creepy). Once the true action started, I found myself wrapped up under a blanket and reading for three hour stretches.

I did figure out who the killer was quite early on, but Lisa Jewell’s world-building and storytelling had me hooked and I continued to read to see how it would play out.

The author did a nice job of tying up all the loose ends and even pulled at your heart strings (slightly) for the killer.

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Book review crime mystery suspense Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Twenty Years Later” by Charlie Donlea

Suspense, mystery, plot twists, and riveting, well-developed characters with secret-filled pasts.

The story is told from several perspectives and has a dual timeline of then and now. Once the story and the characters came together, I could not put this book down.

Twenty Years Later centers around Avery Mason. She is seeking her next big story as she negotiates her contract for the popular primetime show American Events. When a bone fragment of Victoria Ford, a woman who perished in 9/11, is identified through new developments in DNA testing, Avery sees an opportunity to guarantee rating gold. While doing her research, Avery learns that Victoria Ford was to stand trial for the gruesome murder of bestselling author, Cameron Young when she perished on 9/11.

Things change for Avery when she meets with Victoria’s sister, Emma, who shares tapes of Victoria’s frantic calls from the World Trade Center declaring her innocence and her plea for her sister to clear her name. Avery realizes that her story will be much bigger than she had imagined. Walt Jenkins, the lead investigator of the murder case, comes out of retirement to help Avery. But what Avery doesn’t realize is Walt has reasons of his own for helping.

Some of Charlie Donlea’s writing was repetitive, but I think the author thought keeping all the characters and plot lines straight for the reader was necessary.

This is Charlie Donlea’s sixth novel and a great read that will keep you guessing throughout.

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Book review short stories Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Sidle Creek” by Jolene McIlwain

My latest read and recommendation is a book written by a member of my Sisters in Crime group. Jolene McIlwain’s Sidle Creek came out this year and is published by Melville House. It is a collection of short stories centering around the rural places and people of Pennsylvania. Sidle Creek is filled with 22 expertly crafted short stories. Jolene engulfs you in the lives of her characters and transports you through vivid imagery to the places they call home. She delves into hard issues with grace, understanding and empathy. This book and the stories within will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

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book club Book review history reading Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “The Only Woman in the Room” by Marie Benedict

Our book club’s latest pick was written by Marie Benedict, a fellow Pittsburgher.

The Only Woman in the Room is the story of the 1930s film star, Hedy Lamarr. She not only possessed stunning beauty but a brilliant mind.

A young, Austrian-born, Hedwig Kiesler is gifted numerous bouquets of flowers by an Australian arms dealer, Fritz Mandl. At the encouragement of her parents they meet. Hedy marries him but soon discovers that he only wanted her as a pretty face to accompany him to social engagements. During the abusive marriage, Kiesler and her husband host many dinners and social engagements involving high government officials. When Kiesler overhears the Third Reich’s antisemitic plans, she devises a plan to escape. Her escape lands her in Hollywood where she became Hedy Lamarr, screen star.

Hedy Lamarr made many movies, but what I found most interesting is how she enlisted the help of a composer to create an invention and attempted to patent it. This patent is the basis of modern cellphone technology. She is dubbed the “mother of Wi-Fi” and other wireless communication such as GPS and Bluetooth.

I found this book very interesting.

Some other books by Marie Benedict are: The Other Einstein, Carnegie’s Maid, Her Hidden Genius, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and Lady Clementine.

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Book review crime fiction mystery police procedural reading suspense Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) “Where the Guilty Hide,” by Annette Dashofy

Non-stop action in this well-written, heart-pounding, police procedural.

“Where the Guilty Hide,” a Detective Honeywell Mystery is the first in a new series by the proficient author, Annette Dashofy. This book is set on the shores of Lake Erie and told in third person with alternating chapters of Matthias Honeywell, a good-looking detective with demons he needs to overcome, and Emma Anderson, a freelance photographer who unknowingly takes a photo that could be sold to the highest bidder or could cost Emma her life.

When Detective Honeywell’s home invasion investigation turns into a murder investigation, he methodically tracks his leads. Each time, the leads bring him back to Emma Anderson. As the investigation continues and the home invasions and bodies pile up, Matthias and Emma race to catch the killer who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

This book also has an interesting, strong, supporting cast of characters and Dashofy’s plot twists are sure to keep readers turning pages until the final scene.

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Book review fiction mystery reading suspense thriller Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh

The Love of My Life, by Rosie Walsh was my book club’s April choice. It was also a Good Morning America Book Club pick.

Rosie Walsh is a New York Times bestselling author. Her other book is Ghosted.

The Love of My Life is a mystery-filled story of love, lies, and forgiveness. This book poses the question – Is it possible to love someone and not really know who they are?

The plot centers around Emma. She is an intertidal ecologist. Her adoring husband is Leo, an obituary writer.

Because of Emma’s tv star status, Leo is tasked with writing a stock obituary for her. He feels it is his place as he knows her best.

However, as the story unfolds and you turn the pages, we find out that almost everything Leo thinks he knows about his wife is a lie.

Leo tells us that “she studies the places and creatures that are submerged at high tide and exposed at low.”

He tells us how she adores their young daughter, Ruby, and their rescue dog named John Keats; that she’s also a former star of a BBC series on marine wildlife and a recent cancer survivor. Leo says,

“I think it was Kennedy who said we are tied to the ocean — that when we return to it, for sport or leisure or some such, we are returning to the place from whence we came. That’s how I feel about us. To be near to my wife, to Emma, is to return to source.

“So when I learn, in the days following this morning — this innocent, commonplace morning, with dogs and frogs and coffee … — that I know nothing of this woman, it will break me.”

This is a story told in alternating narratives with short chapters and constantly changing viewpoints and flashbacks.

There are questions of trust, betrayal, mental illness, trauma, and is it ever acceptable to hold things back from one’s spouse.

One of my favorite quotes from the book “I don’t know anything, other than that it’s only when something’s damaged beyond repair that we realize how beautiful it was.”

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Book review crime fiction mystery police procedural suspense Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Lie Down With Dogs” by Liz Milliron

This month I read “Lie Down With Dogs,” by Liz Milliron. This is the fifth book in her Laurel Highland Mystery series but can be read as a standalone.

A police procedural, twisty mystery, written from both of Milliron’s main characters in the series, Sally Castle and Jim Duncan’s POV, this novel is two investigations intertwined in the world of greyhound racing.

Jim and Sally are both starting new career paths.

It is Jim Duncan’s first day with the Criminal Investigation Division and in addition to the adjustment to the job, (wearing a suit instead of a uniform after fourteen years and being the new guy) he has a new partner. Jim’s partner refers to him as a “rookie” and seems to be scrutinizing his every decision on the case they are called to investigate – a murder scene with a badly decomposed body and an undernourished greyhound caged in the victim’s garage.

For Sally, she is contemplating leaving the public defenders office to give her the freedom to defend and seek justice for clients of her own choosing. She considers the offer of partnership with her college friend and gives it a test run. Her first case involves a client accused of embezzling from a greyhound adoption group. Sally soon finds out that the group may have ties to the shooting victim in the case that Jim is investigating.

Both Sally and Jim are dog lovers.

And then there is Sally and Jim’s love relationship. With Sally taking a new job without the security of a guaranteed paycheck and her lease coming up for renewal, Jim asks her to move in with him taking their relationship one step further.

Is Sally’s client innocent? Will Sally exonerate her of the charges?

Will Jim earn the respect he deserves from his partner and catch the murderer before he or she kills again?

And, what about the greyhound found at the crime scene and Sally and Jim’s relationship?

You are going to have to read the book to find out!

Liz Milliron is also the author of a historical mystery series, The Home Front Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II.

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Book review fiction reading Uncategorized

Read and Review (R&R) – “Wish You Were Here” by Jodi Picoult

This month’s pick for my book club was “Wish You Were Here,” by Jodi Picoult. Published in 2021, the rights have been sold to Netflix for film adaptation.

I have yet to read a Jodi Picoult book that I didn’t sit back and say, Wow! “Wish You Were Here,” brought me the same result.

This is the first book I have read with a setting during the lockdown of Covid.

Based on the true story of a traveler stranded on a remote island, and taking place in the early days of Covid-19, Picoult gives you a human look at the isolation, pain, loss, loneliness and grief that took hold of us as the world shut down.

The amount of research Jodi Picoult did in this book is much like her others, extensive.

Although the first half of this book moved slow for me, overall, as with all Jodi Picoult books, I enjoyed it, I learned some interesting info (no spoiler alert here), it made me think, and I will definitely pick up another of her stories.

Seeming to have it all, Diana is set to celebrate her 30th birthday with a vacation trip. But, what happens instead is she finds herself alone in the Galápagos islands, her boyfriend (a surgeon) thousands of miles away fighting to save people with COVID, when the island is put on lockdown. With no way to get home, Diana luckily is offered a room by a local and becomes immersed in the island culture and the locals’ way of living.

She then becomes involved in the lives of local businessman, Gabriel, and his daughter, Beatriz. Through these new friendships and interactions, she begins to question what she had thought she wanted from her life, the path she is on and whether it is the right one.