Tag Archives: mystery

Provided for Review: And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling

They thought he was a helpless old man. They were wrong.

When two teenagers break into a house on a remote lake in search of prescription drugs, what starts as a simple burglary turns into a nightmare for all involved. Emmett Burr has secrets he’s been keeping in his basement for more than two decades, and he’ll do anything to keep his past from being revealed. As he gets the upper hand on his tormentors, the lines blur between victim, abuser, and protector.

Personal tragedy has sent former police officer Ben Packard back to the small Minnesota town of Sandy Lake in search of a fresh start. Now a sheriff’s deputy, Packard is leading the investigation into the missing teens, motivated by a family connection. As clues dry up and time runs out to save them, Packard is forced to reveal his own secrets and dig deep to uncover the dark past of the place he now calls home. 

This book was provided for review by NetGalley. Thank you!

Trigger Warnings: Drug use/abuse, alcohol use/abuse, mentions of rape/sexual assault, kidnapping, mention of animal death, mention of animal abuse

A cold rainy night, a couple of teenagers, and what was supposed to be a simple burglary. Events however take a dark and sinister turn when the homeowner decides to protect himself and his secrets. He’s kept things hidden for over 20 years and he isn’t about to let things become known now.

Such starts the well-written and riveting And There He Kept Her by Joshua Moehling.

And There He Kept Her is the kind of novel that can be referred to as a reverse police procedural. In it, we the reader know who the bad guy is already and we get to follow along with the police as they piece the clues together. We see the wrong turns they take and the wrong paths they go down as they figure everything out.

And even though we the reader know who the villain is ahead of time, it’s still very satisfying when the police catch up with them.

Anyone reading And There He Kept Her will likely recognize it as what will hopefully be the first in a series. Not only are we introduced to Deputy Ben Packard, but we are also introduced to an array of colorful characters that inhabit the small town of Sandy Lake. There are also tantalizing hints of darker secrets from Packard’s past in the tiny town.

Moehling has done very well with And There He Kept Her, especially considering this is his debut novel. Not just in writing a book that I found incredibly difficult to put down but in setting up what could be a very entertaining series. I personally am looking forward to more from this author.

Provided for Review: The Three Locks (Sherlock Holmes Adventure #4) by Bonnie MacBird

A heatwave melts London as Holmes and Watson are called to action in this new Sherlock Holmes adventure by Bonnie MacBird, author of “one of the best Sherlock Holmes novels of recent memory.”

In the West End, a renowned Italian escape artist dies spectacularly on stage during a performance – immolated in a gleaming copper cauldron of his wife’s design. In Cambridge, the runaway daughter of a famous don is found drowned, her long blonde hair tangled in the Jesus Lock on the River Cam. And in Baker Street, a mysterious locksmith exacts an unusual price to open a small silver box sent to Watson.

From the glow of London’s theatre district to the buzzing Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge where physicists explore the edges of the new science of electricity, Holmes and Watson race between the two cities to solve the murders, encountering prevaricating prestidigitators, philandering physicists, and murderous mentalists, all the while unlocking secrets which may be best left undisclosed. And one, in particular, is very close to home.

This book was provided for review by the kind people at NetGalley. Thank you!

The Three Locks is the fourth installment in Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures series. Set during the late summer of 1887, in it Holmes and Watson find themselves tackling three different cases. At first, they seem unrelated but as time goes on and the clues are gathered things are more closely related then they seem.

Bonnie MacBird has once again done an admirable job in bringing the familiar world surrounding 221B Baker Street to life. Her handling of the characters shows a deep love for them, as does the way she is able to craft a story that is engaging and entertaining. Her style of writing is very reminiscent of the original Doyle stories only updated for a modern audience.

Practically every Sherlock Holmes fan has a favorite version of the iconic character. From Benedict Cumberbatch’s modern Holmes to Jeremy Brett’s penultimate Holmes, there is a version for everyone. And in The Three Locks, the same can be said. There are little touches that evoke certain versions of both Holmes and Watson. I personally found it very entertaining to try and figure out which version MacBird was referencing where.

Fans of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson would do well to check out MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes Adventures series. While it doesn’t need to be read in order, I do recommend my fellow fans and readers to read it all.

The Strings of Murder (Frey and McGray #1) by Oscar de Muriel

Edinburgh, 1888. A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. Black magic symbols cover the walls. The dead man’s maid swears she heard three musicians playing before the murder.

But with no way in or out of the locked practice room, the puzzle makes no sense…

Fearing a national panic over a copycat Ripper, Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Frey to investigate under the cover of a fake department specializing in the occult. However, Frey’s new boss – Detective ‘Nine-Nails’ McGray – actually believes in such nonsense.

McGray’s tragic past has driven him to superstition, but even Frey must admit that this case seems beyond reason. And once someone loses all reason, who knows what they will lose next…

Trigger Warning: Murder, general gore, death of an infant

Set in the Victorian Era, The Strings of Murder follows Inspector Ian Frey as he is sent to Edinburgh to investigate the brutal murder of a well-known violinist. Upon his arrival, he is paired up with Detective McGray, a local detective who has also been selected to investigate. Immediately the two men butt heads; their personalities could not be any more different.

With McGray’s fervent belief in the occult and Frey’s skepticism, I was reminded of another pair of investigators – the X-Files Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Though I never wanted to slap Scully as much as I did Ian Frey.

Frey’s penchant for what could only be considered whining was irritating and quickly became tiresome. McGray wasn’t nearly as bad but sometimes he felt more like a stereotypical caricature of a Scotsman and less like an individual.

The actual resolution to the murder itself though was a unique one. Locked room mysteries can be solved in so many different ways and de Murial was able to accomplish it in a way I had yet to encounter.

Final thoughts: Good mystery, satisfactory ending, incredibly irritating characters.

A Dark Anatomy (Cragg & Fidelis Mystery #1) by Robin Blake

The year is 1740.

George II is on the throne but England’s remoter provinces remain largely a law unto themselves.

In Lancashire a grim discovery has been made: a Squire’s wife, Dolores Brockletower, lies in the woods above her home, Garlick Hall, her throat brutally slashed.

Called to the scene, Coroner Titus Cragg finds the Brockletower household awash with rumor and suspicion. He enlists the help of his astute young friend, doctor Luke Fidelis, to throw light on the case. But this is a world in which forensic science is in its infancy, and policing hardly exists. Embarking on their first gripping investigation, Cragg and Fidelis are faced with the superstition of witnesses, obstruction by local officials, and denunciations from the Squire himself. 

Long time readers of this blog will likely have realized by now that the majority of what I read falls in to the fiction category. And of those quite a few fall under historical fiction. It is a genre I greatly enjoy and one I enjoy finding new authors in.

Sadly though, I do not believe I will be adding Robin Blake’s Cragg & Fidelis series to my list.

Like most mystery novels, A Dark Anatomy opens with a grisly murder. Dolores Brockletower has been found in the woods near her home. Her throat has been brutally slashed but other than that she is untouched. Her fine clothes, her jewelry, all is as it was when she was last seen leaving Garlick Hall for her morning ride.

While this is certainly an intriguing enough lead up, sadly the follow through is rather lacking. Told from perspective of lawyer and coroner Titus Cragg, we the reader are subjected to long stretches of novel that more often that not have little affect on the overall story. While Cragg is supposedly a well renowned lawyer, he spends a good deal of the narrative stumbling from one person to the next. The clues are so blatant that any reader paying attention would likely have figured things out in the first fifty pages.

Though the prose itself is at often dry and bland, what I truly found upsetting was the way the characters themselves were handled. Generally the first book in a series is used to introduce recurring characters to readers. To endear them to the reader so that they care about what happens to the characters in subsequent books. This unfortunately was not done very well in A Dark Anatomy. Instead of introducing us to the main characters of Titus Cragg and Dr. Luke Fidelis, rather they are plunked down in front of the reader. We are given little to no information on them and as such it is hard to care about them in any way.

I will give Blake points for illustrating just how deaths were investigated in England before the advent of a true police force. When local persons were often forced to play multiple roles. That in itself was interesting. The rest of the book though? Sadly, not so much.

Provided for Review: Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power

Ever since Margot was born, it’s just been her and her mother. No answers to Margot’s questions about what came before. No history to hold on to. No relative to speak of. Just the two of them, stuck in their run-down apartment, struggling to get along.

But that’s not enough for Margot. She wants family. She wants a past. And she just found the key she needs to get it: a photograph, pointing her to a town called Phalene. Pointing her home. Only, when Margot gets there, it’s not what she bargained for.

Margot’s mother left for a reason. Was it to hide from her past? Or was it to protect Margot from what’s still there?

The only thing Margot knows for sure is there’s poison in their family tree, and their roots are dug so deeply in to Phalene that now that she’s there, she might never escape.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing this book for review.

Trigger warnings: Emotional manipulation, Emotional abuse, Mentions of gaslighting

For as long as Margot can remember, it’s just been her and her mom. The two of them just managing to scrape by. The struggle to make it from one day to the next becomes more and more difficult and at times the line between who is mother and who is daughter is blurred.

Desperate to try and stay in her mother’s good graces, Margot decides to try and buy back some of their things from the local pawn shop. Buried at the bottom of a box, Margot finds an old bible and tucked among the pages is a photograph. On the back is a name and a phone number as well as the name of a town – Phalene.

As pieces begin to come together, Margot believes she’s found what she’s been wanting her whole life. A family. It is only that the longer she spends there, the more she realizes not everything is as it seems. Even perfect families have their secrets.

Burn Our Bodies Down by Rory Power is one of those books that while the subject matter made it difficult to read at times, neither could I put the book down.

In the first chapter we are introduced to Margot and her mother Jo, and it is here we get our first glimpses of how dysfunctional their relationship is. Their relationship is not a good one, it could easily be described as toxic. A truth that Power does not shy away from and instead lays bare. In showing the dichotomy between Margot and her mother, we see the abuser and the abused. One feeding in to the other in a never ending cycle.

Burn Our Bodies Down is not an easy book to read. While classified as Young Adult, the subject matter might be a little too difficult for some readers. Truthfully, some adult readers might have trouble as well as some scenes could be considered triggering.

This does NOT mean that Burn Our Bodies Down is a bad book – the truth be told, I thought it was a very good book. It is only that a handful of scenes may hit a little too close to home for some readers and would thus take the enjoyment out of an otherwise enjoyable book.

Under most circumstances, I finish my reviews with the answer to the question of whether I would recommend this particular book to my readers or not. With Burn Our Bodies Down, I do recommend it but I also advise my readers to not go in blind.

Book Tour Review: The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

She came from nothing.
Avery has a plan: keep her head down and work hard for a better future.
Then an eccentric billionaire dies, leaving her almost his entire fortune. And no one, least of all Avery, knows why.

They had everything.
Now she must move into the mansion she’s inherited.
It’s filled with secrets and codes, and the old man’s surviving relatives –
a family hell-bent on discovering why Avery got ‘their’ money.

Now there’s only one rule: winner takes all.
Soon she is caught in a deadly game that everyone in this strange family is playing.
But just how far will they go to keep their fortune?

This book was provided by the author as part of a book tour with The Write Reads. Thank you!

Trigger Warning: Physical and emotional abuse (Avery’s sister Libby receives a black eye from her boyfriend) both past and present, alcohol consumption, mentions of stalking

“…Hawthorne loves a good puzzle as much as he loves a good whiskey. And he loves his whiskey.”

Avery Grimes is your typical teenager. She studies hard and works hard, all with the aim of giving herself and her half sister a better life. So what if she has to sometimes sleep in her car because her sister’s boyfriend is being a jerk again? Avery knows that one day things will be better.

Avery’s “one day” happens sooner than expected. A well tailored, handsome young man comes to Avery’s school, informing her that he comes on behest of his family and she is wanted in Texas for the reading of a will. Avery doesn’t know any one in Texas, least of all any one who would be naming her in a will…

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the first book in the series with the same title. Much like the acclaimed movie Knives Out (great movie, btw), it centers on a ridiculously rich family and the patriarch’s Last Will and Testament.

The Inheritance Games is a tense, puzzle filled, nail biter of a story. Everyone seems to have a hidden agenda of some kind. With nearly every person holding on to one secret or another, Avery (and the reader) have a hard time knowing who to trust. Even Mr. Hawthorne himself though he’s dead. The puzzles he’s left behind seem to point at something but no one is sure of what.

I deeply enjoyed reading The Inheritance Games. Because of how it is written, the reader goes along with Avery as she tries to unravel the clues and puzzles left behind. We learn the answers as she figures them out – and she is very good at figuring puzzles out.

I wasn’t too fond of the love triangle Barnes introduced between Avery and two of the Hawthorne grandsons. Such a thing seems common in many YA books, so much so as to have become a kind of trope. However since it was such a small part of the overall plot and didn’t really figure in to the story, it was also easy to overlook and ignore.

On the whole I quite enjoyed this book. Not everything was tied up neatly at the end, leaving it open for the next book in the series. It is something I am eagerly looking forward to and will likely review it here given the chance.

A Debt of Survival by L.F. Falconer

A Debt of Survival cover

The summer of 1969 sees Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. In California, the Manson family commits bloody murder. A half million people descend upon Woodstock in New York. And in Diablo Springs, Nevada, something evil crawls out of the earth.

Fifteen years in law enforcement never prepared Sheriff Don Lattimore for this. Suspecting his daughter is involved in satanic activity within an abandoned house on Redwing Lane, he soon finds himself mired in an investigation straight from the depths of Hell. A wave of destruction sweeps over the county and the death toll rises daily.

Plagued by a mentally unstable witness, a crumbling marriage, and the war-born ghosts of his own past, Lattimore no longer knows where to turn in his battle to preserve his community. Then a stranger comes to town, offering deliverance. Now Lattimore faces a horrific decision. Is he willing to sacrifice a child for the greater good? Even his own? (via Goodreads)

The year of 1969 was, historically, a year of changes. The country itself was in transition, moving from one school of thought to another. And it is in this changing setting that Falconer sets her novel.

A Debt of Survival is not for the faint of heart. It is dark and gritty and at times quite violent. A few scenes are even hard to read simply because they lay the truth of war bare. War, regardless of the time or place, is not pleasant. It doesn’t matter who is on what side, or if those fighting are even human; it is nasty and cruel and Falconer does not shy away from this.

On the surface, A Debt of Survival seems like a rather straight forward horror type novel. It is only as one reads further and gets to the real meat of the story do we realize that not everything is as black and white. That maybe those proclaiming to be the ‘good guys’ aren’t all that good. Or maybe they are but only for their definition of good.

This book had me practically from the first word on the first page up to the final phrase. It kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning the page in an effort to find out just what happens next. The ending is and isn’t satisfying and is a set up for what I sincerely hope will become a series. I would love to find out what happens to these characters down the road.

Provided for Review: Death of an Eye (Eye of Isis #1) by Dana Stabenow

Alexandria, 47BCE: Cleopatra shares the throne with her brother Ptolemy under the auspices of Julius Caesar, by whom Cleopatra is heavily pregnant with child.

A shipment of new coin meant to reset the shaky Egyptian economy has been stolen,and the Queen’s Eye has been murdered. Queen Cleopatra must turn to her childhood friend Tetisheri, to find the missing shipment and bring a murderer to justice

I was provided with this book from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Thank you!

As much as I claim to enjoy the adventures of one Sherlock Holmes and anything set in the Victorian era, there is another era of time that has had my interest for just as long – that of Ancient Egypt. So when I saw this book listed on Netgalley, I immediately put my name in to request said book.

I am so glad my request was granted and I was able to read this book because I personally enjoyed it from cover to cover.

Set in the ancient city of Alexandria, Death of an Eye follows the young Tetisheri as she attempts to solve a murder on behalf of her queen. The Queen’s Eye has been murdered – an average woman who lives and works in the city and is charged with keeping tabs on certain individuals and reporting back to Cleopatra – and a large sum of coins has been stolen. Finding out how the Eye was murdered is simple enough, finding out who would want to murder her and why is another matter.

Stabenow has a masterful grip of the language as she creates the various settings in the novel. From the back streets of Alexandria to the home of Cleopatra herself, Stabenow’s writing makes it easy to envision these places. This however is also a drawback because with so much put towards setting the scenes, there is little left for the actual mystery itself.

Names of characters can also be a bit problematic as many of them use nicknames and Stabenow uses the given names and nicknames interchangeably. There were a few times I found myself having to reread a passage just so I could get a better grasp of who was talking.

On the whole, I enjoyed reading Death of an Eye. With Elizabeth Peters’ passing, there is precious little fiction dedicated to Egypt and Ancient Egypt in particular. Death of an Eye is a promising start to what I hope is an enjoyable series. Readers who liked Elizabeth Peters’ series should definitely check this one out.

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Nora hasn’t seen or spoken to Clare in ten years. Not since they were both in high school.

Not since Nora walked away one day and never looked back.

Until, one day an unexpected e-mail arrives. Clare is having a hen do and Nora is invited.

Reluctantly, Nora agrees to go and at first all seems well. But as the weekend goes on, things start to go wrong. And when Nora suddenly wakes up in a hospital with no memory of what happened, she desperately needs to remember because one of the guests might be a killer and she might be next on their list.

In A Dark, Dark Wood is supposedly a dark thriller, but I would be more likely to describe it as a light mystery. Based on the cover and the blurb on the back, one would expect something deeper and far darker than what is delivered. Yes, there is a bit of mystery involved, and yes someone does die, but the actual build up and final resolution left me wanting more.

The characters themselves were difficult to develop any kind of emotional attachment to. Several times I found myself wanting to give the main character Nora, a good shake. For a supposed crime novel writer she can be quite blase at times. Add to that the fact that she doesn’t have a very large online presence. In this day and age of social media, an author like her would at least have a Facebook or Twitter. It comes across that she has nothing like that. She also admits to only looking up her old boyfriend ONCE in the 10 years since the separated. That too I find hard to swallow, especially if we are to believe that they were a very close couple.

While In A Dark, Dark Wood started strong, by about halfway through it began to slow down tremendously. And while Ware tried to set the narrative to point to one character as the baddie, it didn’t quite work. I was able to guess the ending far before the big reveal. It was almost anti-climactic.

Ruth Ware has written some excellent books – her The Death of Mrs. Westaway has garnered some major acclaims. And while there are some readers who enjoyed In A Dark, Dark Wood from beginning to end, I was not one of them. While it started very strong, it finished weak. This isn’t one I would recommend to every one, but if you’re looking for a fast read with a touch of mystery, you could certainly give this a try.