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Keep Your Family Close–sisters and friends
Keep Your Family Close
by Annette Dashofy
With murders and multiple disappearances, this mystery will keep you turning pages. You’ll have to pay attention to figure out who did what to whom. Once you figure something out, you may need to double check your work, just as the detectives had to, because you may not have it right. Also, there is always the issue of who is telling the truth and what motivations the characters have for what they say and do. There is one egotistical, abusive man that the detectives (and I) would like to pin a murder on, but they have to stick to the evidence. If he did commit the murder, can they prove it?
Emma was a potential romantic interest for Detective Matthias Honeywell in the first book. She reappears in this book, and her focus is still on locating her sister Nell who has been challenged with drug problems since the death of their parents. Both women have found themselves in difficult, abusive situations. In this book we meet their childhood friend Eric who will do anything for them. Also returning is Kari, a yoga instructor, who becomes a good friend to Emma. Emma puts herself in dangerous situations by going to some seedy bars and a homeless tent area looking for Nell and following leads on the murderer.
I enjoyed Keep Your Family Close and look forward to the next book in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Fiction, Mystery
Notes: #2 in the Detective Honeywell Mystery Series. When I read the first book in the series, I suspected I would see some of the characters again, and happily I was right. You could read Keep Your Family Close as a standalone, but I felt more grounded having read the first in the series.
Publication: 12/8/2023—One More Chapter (Harper Collins)
Memorable Lines:
Carlisle turned his fierce glare on Matthias, who met it with the one he’d mastered long ago. No twenty-something with a trendy haircut could outlast Matthias where intimidating looks were concerned.
Dearly Beloved Departed–danger for Christmas Eve grooms
Dearly Beloved Departed
by Nancy Lynn Jarvis
Pat, a former law librarian, is beginning work as an independent Private Investigator. She is engaged to marry Tim, a Sargent in the Sheriff’s office. She is hired to do background checks on the fiancé of a lawyer’s daughter. He had gang affiliations and certainly seems to be trouble. Before Pat can finish her investigation, the young man is shot and killed. There are a number of people with motivations to kill him. More shootings follow, all injuring grooms with Christmas Eve wedding plans. What an odd assemblage for serial killings except the only victim who actually died was the first one. Finding a motivation that would include all the victims is difficult. When you add opportunity to the sorting process, the puzzle is even more contorted.
This is an interesting cozy mystery and would make a good casual read. Two of my favorite characters are Dot, Pat’s Dalmatian, and Whimsey, her cat with an attraction to Christmas trees. On several occasions, Pat tricks suspects to determine their innocence or guilt. Her shenanigans with her best friend Syda who is always ready for a creative adventure keep the reader engaged as do her methodical and logical efforts to sort out the facts and ferret out the murderer.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #4 in the PIP Inc. Mystery Series, but it worked quite well for me as a standalone.
Publication: March 2023—Good Reader Publishers
Memorable Lines:
“Syda, how would you feel about doing an undercover operation with me?” “Will we be pretending we’re old ladies, or jewel smugglers, or ooh, ooh hookers? I have fishnet stockings I’ve never worn, a padded pushup bra…and black leather hot pants.” Syda gushed.
Ashley used a remote on the table to turn on the television and the twins quieted down as the first stanza of the Sesame Street theme music began. Ashley took a deep breath and sighed, “Ahh. I love Big Bird almost as much as I love my husband.”
“I’m so frustrated. There’s something that I almost know right there on the edge of my consciousness, but I can’t reach it.”
The Silent Sisters–extracting spies from Russia
The Silent Sisters
by Robert Dugoni
Spy thrillers are not my go-to genre, but I read The Last Agent, the second book in the Charles Jenkins Series, thinking it was a standalone. I was hooked. I returned to read the third in the series, The Silent Sisters, when it was published recently. Both were page turners.
Charles Jenkins, the protagonist, is a semi-retired spy with quite the reputation in Russia where The Silent Sisters takes place. It is Putin’s Russia so the book brings together some of recent Russian history with current events. Moscow is covered with cameras as Jenkins goes in to rescue the two remaining deep undercover plants known as the Seven Sisters. Before he begins his mission, he works with specialists in disguise techniques at Langley because, as a large Black man on Russia’s top 10 kill list, he is easy to spot, especially given their expertise in facial recognition technology. His perhaps fatal error is trying to help an abused stranger in a seedy bar on his first night there. His principled act begins a manhunt by the police, the Russian spy agencies, and the mafia.
At home in Washington state, he has left a wife who formerly worked for the CIA, two children, and a retirement he hasn’t really gotten to enjoy yet. Thoughts of his family keep him going when things get brutal.
Descriptions of the physical settings and the atmosphere of suspense and tension are achieved with excellence. The reader is immersed in each setting from the Trans-Siberian train making its way to freedom to the offices where directors of intelligence agencies compete for power and for their lives. Each setting has its own gripping tenor.
Author Robert Dugoni is a master at keeping all the balls in the air until it is time to draw things to a conclusion. Then he works the circumstances to arrive at a satisfactory ending that is hopeful, but realistic.
I believe this set of books was originally conceived as a trilogy. The author hints in the Acknowledgments that his upcoming trip to Egypt could be the impetus for more adventures featuring Charles Jenkins. I hope so!
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Thomas & Mercer for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thriller
Notes: 1. #3 in the Charles Jenkins Series, but could be read as a standalone.
2. There is some Russian included for atmosphere, but unless the meaning is obvious, it is seamlessly translated for the reader in the text.
3. There is a small amount of swearing, including one word in Russian.
4. It is a spy novel involving Russian agents and the Russian mafia so you can expect some torture, but the descriptions are not detailed or extensive.
Publication: February 22, 2022—Thomas & Mercer
Memorable Lines:
The pain shattered his skin like splinters of broken glass passing through his body.
She’d learned long ago, when her father had died, that vengeance did not bring satisfaction. It didn’t even temper the pain of death. It would not temper the pain of Eldar’s death. It only let others know that killings would come at a heavy cost. Retribution. An eye for an eye.
When you can have everything, you appreciate nothing.
Penned–animals play important roles in this mystery
Penned
by Eileen Brady
A clever murderer is on the loose and his endless killing seems to extend over the years. How do you stop a murderer who is a master of disguise? What do you do if you feel like someone is watching you—only to have him disappear? Dr. Kate in Eileen Brady’s Penned, after briefly befriending a senior with a memory for faces who is in the beginning stages of dementia, has to confront these questions.
Dr. Kate gets along well with the residents of Oak Falls where she serves as veterinarian, taking over an established practice for a year. The book has interesting characters and some romance, but the true focus is the mystery. I thought I had solved the crime only to be surprised at the end. I highly recommend this page turner.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Poisoned Pen Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #4 in the Kate Turner, DVM Mystery Series, but works well as a standalone.
Publication: October 9, 2018—Poisoned Pen Press
Memorable Lines:
“I don’t make any money. I’m a writer. The only people who are poorer than writers are actors. One night I calculated all the hours I put into my last book and how much I made, minus the cash off the top that my agent and publisher took. I would have been better off working at McDonalds.”
“What idiot uses a match to kill a tick? You could have set our dog on fire and burned down the house.” “I blew out the flame before I squished it,” Amos countered. This time I swear the dog rolled his eyes.
I remember arrogantly thinking I knew the answers to everything when I was a in my teens, and now…now I realize I hadn’t even understood the questions.
Lowcountry Bookshop–good intentions
Lowcountry Bookshop
by Susan M. Boyer
In Lowcountry Bookshop, Susan M. Boyer outdoes her last cozy mystery which I thought was good. In this book Liz Talbot and her husband Nate, both private investigators, are hired anonymously through an attorney to prove the innocence of a very sweet mail carrier who stopped at the scene of a hit and run. The plot is very complex and involves a group of women who try to help victims of domestic violence.
Watching Liz and Nate go about their business of investigating the crime and the people involved is very interesting. They have tools, disguises, and methods that they use to pursue the truth regardless of where it leads them.
In the middle of some pretty intense scenarios, there is a little comic relief as Liz’s family deals with a situation involving a Bassett hound, a pig with a broken leg, three escape artist goats, and a backyard dug in preparation for a swimming pool. As you can imagine, “Mamma ain’t happy” and everyone knows it.
Set in the Charlestown area of South Carolina, Lowcountry Bookshop features heat, humidity, and Southern charm. This mystery will keep you on your toes as you follow its complexities and guess who did it and why—right up until the end.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery
Notes: 1. #7 in the Liz Talbot Mystery Series but works as a standalone
2. Slight paranormal aspect: One character is a helpful guardian spirit. Frankly, she contributes little to the solving of the mystery and could easily be removed without harming the plot.
Publication: May 29, 2018—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
Sunday morning arrived on air as thick as mamma’s gravy.
At five in the morning, it was already eighty-three degrees.
Everyone had baggage. Some of us had heavier bags than others.
education pathways 