Fourth of July Forgery

Fourth of July Forgery is the 6th Holiday Cozy Mystery from Tonya Kappes. It was published on June 29, 2023. The 7th book in the series will be published just one year from now on June 20, 2024. The Santa Claus Surprise will be the Christmas themed book in the series.

The publisher's summary:

Fireworks aren't the only things causing sparks this Fourth of July in Holiday Junction! The much-awaited sixth book in the Holiday Cozy Mystery series, Fourth of July Forgery, immerses readers in a mystery that's more intricate than a firework's design.

When the festive atmosphere is dampened by the grim discovery of a body on the shore, it's up to our firecracker reporter, Violet Rhinehammer, to fizzle out the truth. Delving into the shadowy world of art dealing and potential forgeries, Violet must crack this case faster than a skyrocket, all while trying to keep her relationships and reputation from going up in smoke.

As she navigates the labyrinth of deception and accusation, Violet realizes that even in Holiday Junction, secrets can still explode like a M80. Can she solve the puzzle before the last sparkler has fizzled out, or will the fuse on this mystery burn too quickly for her to handle?

This is a charming story that moved fast. Violet is a news reporter for the Junction Journal and the amateur sleuth for the story. She uses her job as a journalist to investigate the murder of art dealer Graham Winston, whose body was found during the annual fireworks display. The police have no involvement in searching for the perpetrator, which is a little odd. The only time the police chief is mentioned is when he drives a car in the town’s Fourth of July parade and when he arrests the perp. However, this suspension of belief did not bother me much because Violet's mind worked fast. As a result there was a new twist on just about every other page. The  reveal of the whodunnit was satisfying.

All of the characters were memorable. From Violet to her southern mother Millie Kaye, town gossip Goldie and the paper's newest journalist Radley.  Violet is a return character from a prior cozy series by the author. She is the main character in each installment of this Holiday Cozy Mystery series so I already know I am going to be reading all of them.

4 out of 5 stars.

Poison

Poison is the first book in The Cambridge Murder Mysteries series by Charlot King. As the series title suggests, these mysteries take place in Cambridge, England. The series features an amateur sleuth by the name of Professor Elizabeth Green. Other regular characters include her sidekicks Inspector Abley and grandson, Godric.

The publisher's summary:  

When junior lecturer Edward Wiley dies a horrifically painful death and police pathology cannot establish the cause of death, amateur sleuth Professor Elizabeth Green is desperate to help, especially with the crime scene being her own back garden by the river. A professor of poisons, Professor Green is determined to find the murderer before there is more death on the cobbles of Cambridge.

When the Dean of Bene’t’s College seems to be involved, when other Fellows keep tight-lipped, and even Inspector Abley is spending too much time on the golf course instead of investigating, it feels like the killer will strike again.

Following another grisly murder, a tense Inspector Abley realises he can't solve this crime without Elizabeth. With people dropping like flies and dead bodies increasing in number, Elizabeth's unbridled curiosity embroil this meddling sleuth right in the heart of this mysterious thriller of a case in this historic city.

And what of Professor Elizabeth Green? In her fifties, this female protagonist is quintessentially English. An eccentric professor in her ivory tower, she maintains a sharp wit, yet is flawed by her inability to connect well with people, instead giving off a cold, opinionated and sometimes acerbic air. Though very kind to all animals (dogs, cats and the rest!) - a vegan - and a great gardener, in truth she keeps her friends close, and only lets a few dear people into her world.

The Cambridge setting is what I loved most about this novel. Reading about my favorite places in Cambridge, such as Jesus Green, the architectural bridges, St. Mary's Church, and the River Cam, transported me back to a city I once visited. Cambridge is a photographer's paradise and as each area was mentioned in the story, I remembered the photos that I took there.

The mystery to be solved was entertaining but the progress of the investigation was slowed by all of the setting descriptions. For me this was not a negative but for someone unfamiliar with Cambridge this might be a negative. Also note that the author is British and, as such, there are plenty of British slang words used by her. Some I had never heard of but they added charm to the story. 

I loved all of the characters as they were the typical quirky and eccentric British characters we have come to expect from British literature. Elizabeth Green is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences but loves being an amateur sleuth. She annoys police detective Ably because she interferes in his investigations. Her grandson Godric brings us more up to date slang terms and adds his take on what happened to the deceased. The local M.P. Jonathan Smythe is also involved. Because I love everything British, I even love the politicians.

4 out of 5 stars.

Evil at Alardyce House

This is the fourth book in the Alardyce House series. It was just published on June 30, 2023. I love this series and couldn't wait for June 30 to roll around so it would appear on my Kindle. Please note this is an updated and extended version of the previously published The Ancestral Tides.

The publisher's summary:  

THE HISTORY OF THE ALARDYCE FAMILY IS FRAUGHT WITH SCANDAL AND INTRIGUE.

But after her eldest son Robert leaves the country, finally Amy Alardyce can enjoy some peace. Robert is wanted by the police for some unspeakable crimes, and his family hope he has run far enough and never looks back.

A decade after his disappearance, Robert has forged a successful life for himself, making his fortune from the diamond and gold mines of Africa. But when he sees a death notice in the newspaper, the call to go home to Scotland grows ever louder.

At Alardyce House, there are big changes too, and the fragile peace the family have enjoyed for so long is feeling more fragile than ever. And as the past comes back to haunt Amy and her children, will she have to finally accept that the curse of the Alardcye family can never be outrun…

I read somewhere recently that this was the last book in the series. I hope this is false because it has been wonderful to read these four books. The ending of Evil at Alardyce House was shocking and I cannot tell whether the author intended it to be final or not. Perhaps it will be spun off into another series as she has done in the past.

The intricate plot certainly notched up the suspense level. There were many, many twists and turns in the second half of the book. Everytime I thought that I had a handle on where the story was going, another unbelievable twist occurred. The twists came faster and faster as the plot progressed and they all were shocking. When the story finally ended I was stunned at what had happened. To say it was unexpected is an understatement.

I enjoyed reading about the estate setting. You can never go wrong with a Downton Abbey type home for a novel. At one point a character went missing and we found out that some parts of Alardyce House had not seen anyone enter for several months. I cannot imagine a house that big but I'm willing to live in one of them! 

If you haven't had a chance to read the series, I can highly recommend it to you. The first 2 books were published in 2022 and the last 2 this year. Check it out.

5 out of 5 stars.

Blood Oranges

Blood Oranges is J. M. Cannon's second novel. She writes crime thrillers and she is a fantastic writer. I was surprised at how complex the plot was given that this is just the author's second book. I loved Blood Oranges immensely.

The publisher's summary:

Money.

Power.

God.

Catherine Cross is the most successful female televangelist in the country. Her congregation in the western suburbs of Orlando one of the wealthiest. She's comfortable and charismatic in front of a camera, but when her youngest daughter goes missing not even she is ready for the media firestorm that follows.

With her mother more concerned about the family's public image than bringing her daughter home, it's up to Emily, the oldest child and black sheep of their christian family, to try to discover the truth.

But when a strange series of deaths on an orange orchard outside of town seems to be connected to her missing sister, the case is turned on its head, and Emily must face the shocking family secrets it took to build her mother's empire.

This book took me on a thrilling ride. I watched closely for any mention of blood oranges  because of the title. There was a little about them mentioned randomly until the final third of the book when it became apparent why they were integral to the story. 

As the summary says, Catherine Cross' daughter went missing. No one knew if her disappearance was related to the other murders but law enforcement believed it was related. I was stunned by Cross's reaction to her favorite child going missing. Since she was a televangelist, her church raised over ten million dollars in just a week. People across the country sent her money for no apparent reason and she refused to return the funds. Not only were the police suspicious but so was oldest daughter Emily.

The story was written from Emily's point of view and she was in most of the scenes. Emily was not loved by her mother which I thought was odd since her mom was a religious figure. I have that expectation that families of faith leaders would be close. Emily loved her sister and was heavily involved in the search for her youngest sister.  

The story is more of a whodunnit than a howdunnit although the how was rather interesting. It has a lightening fast pace and the short chapters created suspense that kept me reading until I had finished the book.

Blood Oranges is a must read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Final Call

Final Call is Alex Lake's eighth psychological thriller. Lake is a British writer who now lives in Maine. The book was published on June 8, 2023. 

The publisher's summary:  

They thought it was a simple flight home. The pilot had other plans…

A moment of calm

Heading home after a conference, the senior leadership of a global corporation relax on their private jet ahead of their Christmas break.

A flash of fear

But their peace is shattered when they realise their jet isn’t taking them home. Instead, it’s heading east—out over the Atlantic Ocean.

A journey of terror

And things go from bad to worse when their pilot tells them she is going to crash into the ocean if one of them doesn’t confess to murder…

Final Call is a spellbinding read. The author had my full attention from the first page. After beginning the story I did not notice the passage of time until I had already read half of the book. I finished it in one sitting completely enthralled by all of the suspense that I just lived through in this story. It is simply superb.

The main character is the villain. Stacy Evanston lost her daughter and husband in a fire that destroyed their home. The police thought she also died in the fire but didn't find her body. Her daughter Cherry became deathly ill at school and almost died from sudden onset liver failure. Three other children in her school also got infected from something but they passed away. Stacy believes that the fire was an attempt by someone to silence her from asking questions about what happened to the children. While Stacy is a victim of something, no one really knows what, she sets out to get revenge on whoever killed her daughter. 

I believe the CEO of a food company was a secondary character even though she made up much of the action in the story. The food company was based in Barrow, Maine where the Evanston family had been living. Stacy believes the food company is at fault for the children getting sick but does not know what or how they were involved.

The setting of a flying plane inched up the suspense. There is a limited amount of fuel on the plane so the occupants have to quickly figure out how to survive the flight. This is where the truth is finally revealed and believe me, this was one wild ride.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Strangler Vine

I selected this book because the title of it's sequel fits the requirements of the Color Coded Reading Challenge. I will be reading The Infadel Stain next month for this challenge. This series by M. J. Carter is a historical thriller series. 

The publisher's summary:

India, 1837: William Avery is a young soldier with few prospects except rotting away in campaigns in India; Jeremiah Blake is a secret political agent gone native, a genius at languages and disguises, disenchanted with the whole ethos of British rule, but who cannot resist the challenge of an unresolved mystery. What starts as a wild goose chase for this unlikely pair—trying to track down a missing writer who lifts the lid on Calcutta society—becomes very much more sinister as Blake and Avery get sucked into the mysterious Thuggee cult and its even more ominous suppression.

There are shades of Heart of Darkness, sly references to Conan Doyle, that bring brilliantly to life the India of the 1830s with its urban squalor, glamorous princely courts and bazaars, and the ambiguous presence of the British overlords—the officers of the East India Company—who have their own predatory ambitions beyond London's oversight

There isn't much of a mystery in this novel. I would say it is an atmospheric mystery where the setting is predominant over the action. We mostly read about the customs, sights and sounds of India. While I love India fiction, I also want a story. There is a murder to solve but it takes second place to the setting. 

The novel is described as a historical thriller. It is historical as it takes place in the nineteenth century. However, this is not a thriller. None of this bodes well for my reading and review of The Infadel Stain but since it's already on my Kindle I plan on reading it.

Sea of Greed

I chose Clive Cussler's Sea of Greed for the What's In a Name Challenge. The specific category this was chosen for was one of the deadly sins in the book title. 

The publisher's summary:

After an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico destroys three oil rigs trying to revive a dying field, Kurt Austin and the NUMA Special Projects Team are tapped by the President of the United States to find out what's gone wrong. The trail leads them to a brilliant billionaire in the alternative energy field. Her goal is the end of the oil age; her company has spent billions developing the worlds' most advanced fuel-cell systems. But is she an environmental hero...or a rogue genetic engineer?

The NUMA crew discovers that the oil fields are infected with bacteria that are consuming the oil before it can be pumped out of the earth--a bacteria originally lost decades ago when two submarines vanished in the Mediterranean.

With hired killers on his trail, can Kurt Austin locate a submarine that's remained hidden for more than fifty years? And even if he can, can the biological terror that's been unleashed be stopped?

The story opened with alot of action. Because it has been a long time since I have read a NUMA story, I did not remember who the main characters were. I was further confused in the beginning because the opening chapters were from different points of view. It was hard to follow. Once I understood who was who, the story was fun to read. The pace was extremely fast and more than held my interest.

The plot concerns drilling for oil. I thought it was creative to have a bacteria infect the oil wells. I don't know whether this is something that can actually happen or not but it was interesting to read about. I would imagine it's a real problem since Cussler writes about current issues. 

Aside from my confusion in the beginning, Sea of Greed is a fantastic novel. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars.

The Way of the Wicked

The Way of the Wicked is the second book in the Hope Street Church Mysteries by Ellery Adams. I loved the first book The Path of the Crooked. The amateur sleuth in the series is Cooper Lee who has an interesting job. She repairs copy machines. I love that the sleuth is a woman doing what is typically a man's job.

The publisher's summary:

Cooper Lee and her friends in the Hope Street Bible study group have just volunteered for a local charity, delivering much-needed food and cheer to shut-ins in their community. It seems like the perfect way for the group to do good, and to Cooper it offers the welcome opportunity to get out of the house and spend more time with her new boyfriend, Nathan. But when one of the charity’s recipients is murdered, the police have no choice but to single out the church group and their fellow volunteers as the prime suspects.

Determined to make sure no evil deed goes unpunished, Cooper and her friends decide to discreetly interrogate each volunteer in their search for the killer, even if it means putting themselves at risk in the process. And as serving the needy becomes more treacherous than any of them could have imagined, they just might discover that the road to murder is paved with good intentions.

The beginning of the book was slow because it took a long time for the murder to occur. The reader was introduced to several new characters and the Bible study group members became involved in delivering food to the elderly. The first fourth of the story was basically dialogue among them and not much happened. The action picked up and by the midpoint in the story the pace became fast.

The romance between Cooper and fellow Bible study group member Nathan heated up in this installment of the series. They are not yet a couple but both realize that they have feelings for each other. Also, there was religious material in the book as the study group met several times to study the life of the Biblical Joseph from Genesis. They saw a connection between the way Joseph's brothers treated him to the way the seniors were treated by volunteers of the charity that delivered meals on wheels. By the end of the story three seniors died in similar circumstances.

This was a charming story and I enjoyed it. I would have liked to see the murders occur in the first or second chapter so that the rest of the story could be about solving the crime. 3 out of 5 stars.

A Beautiful Blue Death

A Beautiful Blue Death is the first Charles Lenox Mystery.  Last year I read his The September Society and loved it. I decided to go back to the beginning of the series and read all of the books in order. 

The publisher's summary:

Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery.

Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death.

When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer?

What can I say? This book was just as good as I expected. Poison was the method of murder. It was quickly identified as bella indigo, known as "the beautiful blue," but during the time period of the story, the Victorian Era, there wasn't much known about it. Another twist was that there was arsenic on the bottom of the bottle of bella indigo. Part of the mystery that was being unraveled was who had access to it, how was it used and what it really did to people exposed to it. The middle of the story was taken up with this howdunnit. The latter third concerned the whodunnit.  

I learned from the novel how the British police became known as bobbies. Robert Peel founded the police department on 1829. New officers used a variant of his first name when describing themselves.  Alot had changed regarding policing during the time period of the story. I enjoyed learning how procedures came into being. This was another fascinating part of the story. 

I think I enjoyed the howdunnit more than  the whodunit. It cannot be beat. I am rating this magnificent novel 5 out of 5 stars.

The Jerusalem Scrolls

The Jerusalem Scrolls is the latest installment of Gary McAvoy's Vatican Secret Archives series. It is fantastic as are all of the books in the series and the initial Magdalene Chronicles series. McAvoy recommends reading the books in order but I have not followed this advise and I don't think I suffered from skipping between the novels. The only real change in the stories is how the friendship between main characters Father Michael Donovan and Hana Sinclair has grown.

The publisher's summary:

Two young Israeli boys discover an ancient red clay jar in a hidden cave tucked away in the Judean Desert near Qumran. Inside the jar are several scrolls written by the Essenes two thousand years earlier, before the Great Jewish Revolt, including one legendary scroll engraved on silver that speaks of what may be the great Lost Treasures of Solomon buried around Jerusalem—consistent with the predictions of the fabled Copper Scroll discovered in 1947 near the Dead Sea. But one of the overlooked parchments turns out to be far more pivotal to Christianity than anything ever before discovered—a startling manuscript written by St. Paul himself that could rewrite religious history.

Father Michael Dominic and his friends are called to Jerusalem to inspect the silver scroll, but others are trying to get to the precious manuscripts first—members of a little known sect called the Mithraists, the chief rival to Christianity up to the fourth century...a wealthy Texas televangelist...an Egyptian antiquities broker...Israeli Mossad agents...and a cast of rogues each out for themselves.

The fiction here is inspired by the question of what if more scrolls were found? What if the scrolls disputed everything Christians believe today about the Resurrection? The plot weaves together archeology, history and religion which I find fascinating. There many twists and turns in the plot with the Vatican, Mossad, and illegal antiquities dealers all vying to obtain the silver scrolls as well as the parchments supposedly written by St. Paul. After a brief beginning, the story quickly becomes a murder mystery, an archeological hunt, a race through the Middle East and America to find the missing scrolls. Along the way we read about the ancient cult of Mithraism. I had never heard about this cult before so the information about it was a fun learning experience for me.

I thought it was odd that Father Michael Donovan and Hana Sinclair did not work as closely together as they have in previous novels. They are the main characters in the series. Father Donovan was prominent in the search for the scrolls though. The story had quite a few bad men searching for the scrolls and initially it was difficult figuring out who they were. I stopped my reading and returned to the beginning two chapters to set them straight in my mind. There were no problems afterward deciphering the characters.   

I  have always loved these treasure hunt mysteries ever since Dan Brown wrote the DaVinci Code. Brown created a new mystery sub-genre with his books and I have been reading five new authors who began writing these stories. McAvoy's stories always have a fantastical element to them as the treasure his characters are seeking dispute the main beliefs of Christianity. I use the word "fantastical" because I am a Christian. Those who are not Christians won't have this impression toward McAvoy's books.

The next book in the series, The Galileo Gambit, will be published in a few days on June 12, 2023. I am looking forward to its release.

Ashes to Ashes Crust to Crust

Ashes to Ashes Crust to Crust is the second Deep Dish Mystery by Mindy Quigley. In this installment of the series pizzeria owner Delilah O’Leary is trying to keep her restaurant afloat in the picturesque resort town of Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. To boost her bottom line, she sets her sights on winning the $10,000 prize in the town’s annual “Taste of Wisconsin” culinary contest. In her corner, she has her strong-willed, “big-boned” cat Butterball, her wisecracking BFF Sonya, her cantankerous great-aunt Biz, and a new recipe that she calls her Pretzel Crust Deep-Dish Bratwurst Pizza. While Delilah and her team have been focused on pumping out perfect pizza pies, her ex-fiancé has cozied up to a new squeeze, juice bar owner Jordan Watts, Delilah’s contest rival. When one of Jordan’s juice bar customers is poisoned by a tainted smoothie, Delilah becomes a suspect. She must act fast to determine who put the poison in the smoothie.

I enjoyed this book. It's a good sequel to the first book in the series Six Feet Deep Dish. Delilah is becoming closer to police investigator Calvin Capone, the great-grandson of the mobster Al Capone. I am sure that they will become a couple soon and I would love to read more about their relationship. Right now, Calvin is irritated over Delilah's interference with his investigation. I wonder, though, how a police investigator and a amateur sleuth can be romantically together given their opposite roles in murder investigations. There is an attraction between them so I definitely see them growing into a couple.

There were a few new characters introduced in the series. Harold Heyer, president of the Geneva Bay Convention and Vistors Bureau. Molly McClintock, affectionately known as Mac, is Melody’s cousin. Jordan Watts, owner of Juice Revolution, and her employee Jarka, who was a doctor in Bulgaria but until her English improves and she can take the necessary tests she can only find work at a smoothie shop. Mac also works at the juice bar. All these characters had a role to play in the plot and they will be important in subsequent novels in the series because they provide for the possibility of more story ideas.

There are recipes in the back of the book for several gourmet doughs and a few pizza toppings. Personally I am not brave enough to make them but they are interesting to look at. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Stolen in the Night

I selected Stolen in the Night as my May book for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. While I have read earlier books by Patricia MacDonald, it has been awhile since I have read them. It is time I rediscovered her as I remember that I enjoyed those books.

The publisher's summary:

TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Tess’s heart pounds and she rubs her eyes, wondering if she is really awake or in a nightmare. Her sister Phoebe’s blue eyes are wide with fear, a dirty hand with ragged fingernails covering her mouth. Pressed against Phoebe’s neck is a knife that makes a dent in her skin.

“If you make one peep or tell anybody, I’ll kill your sister here. Do you understand me?” the man hisses at her.

Nine-year-old Tess DeGraff is the only witness to the knife-point kidnapping of her teenage sister, Phoebe, at the beautiful lakeside New Hampshire campsite where she’s staying with their parents and brother.

Phoebe’s body is found two days later and a local offender is arrested. The trial lasts only three days after Tess describes the abductor and points to him in court.

NOW.

Tess has finally got herself together. She has a beautiful home and her ten-year-old son is the light of her life.

But new DNA evidence exonerates her sister’s killer. Tess is left questioning everything she thinks she knows. If he didn’t do it, who did?

Tess must go back to where it all happened and find out what really went on that night.

The book is advertised as a gripping psychological thriller.  While the mystery of the whodunnit was compelling, I wouldn't say that the story was gripping in any sense of the word. I felt more affinity with the potential perps than I did with our main character Tess or any of her family members. Tess was a little dull and her accusations against this person and that person based on nothing realistic was annoying. She was an excitable character that I did not like. What kept me reading? I really wanted to know who killed Phoebe. 

Most of the twists and turns came near the end of the story and I felt that they were almost on top of each other. I had to concentrate hard on catching them as they came quickly. Also, some of the twists seemed far-fetched but maybe that is just a result of them coming all at the same time. It would have been better to have them equally placed throughout the plot. 

The whodunnit drives this story although the whydunnit was surprising. For this reason I am rating the book at 3 out of 5 stars.

Murder Under a Red Moon

Murder Under A Red Moon is the second Bangalore Detective Mystery. The first book, The Bangalore Detectives Club, was published last year and I loved it. As you would expect, the stories take place in Bangalore, India during the 1920s. Kaveri Murthy is our main character and she is the amateur sleuth of the series. While she has a group of women who help her with investigations, Kaveri is the star. Her group includes a street urchin, a nosy neighbor, an ex-prostitute and a policeman's wife.  In this installment of the series she is a fairly new bride with a domineering mother-in-law. After a murder occurs during the blood moon eclipse, Kaveri agrees to investigate. Against a backdrop of rising anti-British sentiment and a charismatic swami's influence, Kaveri's hometown of Bangalore is becoming more and more a dangerous place to live. Kaveri continues to investigate anyway, wearing her usual sari and driving her 1920s Ford. 

I loved that Kaveri always wore a sari. Even when it restricted her legs as she maneuvered through fields and muddy paths Kaveri always wore a beautiful sari. The Hindu faith tradition is a huge part of the story. Most of the characters are practicing Hindus whose insights into the why and how of the murder are influenced by their faith. As for Kaveri and her husband Ramu, a doctor, they are atheists. Food is another big part of the story. The author writes meals into her story which were both captivating to me and giving me angina at the same time from imagining the spiciness of these foods which I myself have eaten in the past. The investigation of the murder had twists and turns that I did not expect and I was surprised by the ending. The identity of the killer was not a surprise but why the killer felt the need to kill was a surprise. 

Murder Under a Red Moon was a satisfying read.  I highly recommend this historical mystery series to all mystery fans and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

His Fatal Legacy

 

This third book in the Alardyce House series ended with a cliffhanger just as the earlier books ended. Now I will have to wait until June for the next one to be published. Grrrr. The series is fantastic. It takes place in Victorian Edinburgh and features the Alardyce family as the main characters. Amy is married to Henry and is the mother of Robert. Robert is the villain. He has beaten, raped and killed several characters and is unable to stop his compulsion for violence. The family don't want him to hang so his crimes are covered up. 

The publisher's summary:

Amy Alardyce's once-perfect life is in tatters. Her eldest son, Robert, has come of age, become the master of his own home, and married his childhood love Jane.  But with maturity has come a terrible legacy, and the dark desires Robert inherited from his evil father Matthew, are fighting to get loose.

Whilst Jane is working hard to get her and Robert accepted into fashionable society, poor women are being hunted on the streets of Edinburgh, and Amy fears her son is to blame.  And once the infamous Inspector Murphy takes up the case, Amy has to face a stark choice - denounce her son as a monster or risk her own safety to protect him from the consequences of his lethal actions.

This series is remarkable. It has captivated me since I read the first two books last month. They all are page turners and His Fatal Legacy is no different. The Edinburgh setting is not prominent. The Victorian era is more of a setting here as the characters fumble under the era's strictures on life.  It is amazing to me that the Alardyce family is more concerned about their reputation than stopping one of their own from beating and raping women.  Every decision they make is centered around maintaining their social standing. Robert is the perfect villain.  We don't know why he kills other than a darkness coming over him before he strikes. It sounds like schizophrenia to me and a diagnosis for Robert in a future novel would be interesting to read about. His dark side was abated for a short while after the birth of his daughter which I did not believe would last. It didn't. Robert is a character that I enjoy hating. He does not like anyone in society, refuses to attend balls or parties with his wife and is generally disagreeable. 

His mother Amy metamorphoses quickly between motherly love and the desire to protect society from her son. While she has tried to help him, ultimately, she will protect him from himself.  I don't think her character, or Henry's, was as strong in this installment of the series as in earlier ones. This novel was primarily about Robert and his wife Jane. The arrival of Inspector Murphy brings suspense to the story because he is never far behind Robert and I thought that he would catch Robert in the act. 

The writing in the novel was suspenseful and with its quick pace is a fast read.  I highly recommend this historical mystery.  5 out of 5 stars.

Red Queen

Red Queen was written by the author in 2018 in his native Spanish language. It was translated into English by Nick Caistor in 2023. Gomez-Jurado is one of my favorite authors. In Red Queen he has moved away from his usual religious thrillers to a political thriller. While I loved his religious thrillers and wish he would continue to write them, Red Queen was a fabulous read.

The publisher's summary:  

Antonia Scott―the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother―has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment.

Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao―disgraced, suspended, and about to face criminal charges―is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case.

The case is a macabre, ritualistic murder―a teen-aged boy from a wealthy family whose body was found without a drop of blood left in it. But the murder is just the start. A high-ranking executive and daughter of one of the richest men in Spain is kidnapped, a crime which is tied to the previous murder. Behind them both is a hidden mastermind with even more sinister plans. And the only person with a chance to see the connections, solve the crimes and successfully match wits with the killer before tragedy strikes again...is Antonia Scott.

Antonia Scott is a lovable investigator regardless of her personality quirks. She has been chosen to be Spain's red queen, a titled bestowed on one brilliant investigator in each European country. Antonia relies on pills that her Mentor gives her to help her filter outside stimuli so that she can focus on what she is seeing at a scene. The pills only work for an hour so she has to be selective about when she takes them. Red Queen is a crime fighting organization in Europe, similar to Interpol. Her sidekick Jon Gutierrez had been seriously wronged by a former employer and I couldn't help but root for him. This team of crime fighters work amazingly well together which is a good thing as Red Queen is the beginning of the Antonia Scott series. 

Despite Antonia and Jon's differences they quickly begin working on tracking down a criminal named Ezekiel who has slowly drained the blood from a man's carotid artery.  There was no blood at the scene nor was there any blood in the victim's body. Ezekiel then kidnaps Carla Ortiz, the daughter of the richest man in the world. I saw shades of Bill Gates here.  Ezekiel is an interesting character. He frequently tells himself "I am a good person." He also uses a line from Psalm 23 to add his signature to each crime scene:  annointing the dead person's head with oil.

The story had a super fast pace and was unputdownable. If you decide to read this book, make sure that you have time to finish it in one sitting. You won't be able to stop reading. It seemed that each chapter had a new twist to add to the story and this created alot of suspense. The short chapters also helped me keep reading because what's a few more pages before taking a break. Right?  

The Red Queen is a must read. 5 out of 5 stars.

Follow You Home

Follow You Home is an eerie psychological thriller by Mark Edwards that was published in 2015. I selected it for the What's in a Name Reading Challenge and, boy, am I glad that I did. It was fantastic.  The story begins with Brits Daniel Sullivan and Laura Mackenzie traveling to Romania at the end of a two month trip through Europe.  Planning to marry and have children, they decide that they should have one last holiday together before family issues come in the way. They have already visited Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Hungary and Belgium and want to see Eastern Europe as a contrast to the traditional European sites. Daniel is an app developer and Laura works in marketing for a children's charity. After boarding a train to Romania, the couple meets Ion and Alina. Alina is a comic writer and Ion, well, he is a professional bully. When Ion convinces them to take a nap in a sleeping car that is unused, they wake up to find that their passports, credit cards, and phones are missing from their bags. Soon they are confronted by a train conductor who is checking tickets. After explaining that they were robbed, the conductor throws Daniel, Laura and Alina off the train. The terror begins but when the return to London, Daniel and Laura are emotionally unable to even mention what happened after they were let off that train in Breva, Romania. Laura begins to see ghosts and is the first to realize that something evil followed them home.

This is an atmospheric thriller. We don't know what actually happened in Breva until the midway point of the story when Daniel finally tells his psychologist what happened. I expected the couple to have seen something pretty horrific in order to substantiate their diagnoses of PTSD and Daniel's excessive drinking. Laura began seeing ghosts, something that she also dealt with in childhood. While it was bad, I expected more. The eerie atmosphere begins when they get home and Laura starts seeing Alina, who was killed in Breva, and other men whose faces they both remember seeing in Breva. Daniel believes that every person he tells about the horror he experienced is being murdered and he feels that all these events are connected. His psychologist is killed in a fire and his best friend kills himself one night when he was should actually be happy about getting a record contract. Connected? Maybe. I don't want to be a spoiler.  

I thought this was a fantastic story.  It kept my interest from the first pages all the way to the end. I am rating it only 4 out of 5 stars because I wanted the Breva horror show to be more dramatic.

The Path of the Crooked

The Path of the Crooked is a charming Christian cozy mystery. It is the first book in the Hope Street Church Mystery Series by Ellery Adams. It was originally published under the pen name Jennifer Stanley but the author revised the story and has published it under the pen name Ellery Adams. There were only three books in the original series and I am not sure whether she will continue to write novels for the series.

The main character is Cooper Lee. She is a copy machine repairman who has recently been dumped by her boyfriend of five years. While repairing a copier at a client's office Cooper meets Brooke Hughes, a member of the Hope Street Church. The two ladies have a short conversation wherein Brooke gives Cooper a church brochure and invites her to church. Cooper accepts the brochure and leaves.

Later that evening she considers whether to visit the church on the next Sunday. Her family sees the brochure and asks her if she will go. They also are devout Christians who hope Cooper will return to church after a several year absence. When she visits Hope Street Church a few weeks later Cooper meets the members of the Sunrise Bible Study group. During that initial meeting the news broke that Brooke Hughes had been murdered. Brooke's husband Wesley had been arrested for the murder and the group cannot believe that he killed his wife. They begin their own investigation hoping that they can free Wesley Hughes.

I absolutely loved this story. There were plenty of clues for the group to follow up on. I was surprised that the police did not play much into the investigation but perhaps they will in future installments of the series. The pace was perfect, not too fast and not too slow. The characters were memorable. Each Bible study member were quirky characters that made the sleuthing entertaining. Savannah is legally blind and is the leader of the group. Nathan is a love interest for Cooper. TV meteorologist Bryant, realtor Trish, Jake and Quinton complete the group. It was fascinating that the group did the sleuthing together. I have never read a book where there was more than one amateur sleuth. However, in this instance, it works. Cooper's family was also memorable. Her mother is constantly cooking and baking for people in need and reading about her foods made me hungry. There are recipes of hers at the back of the book. Cooper's sister Ashley is also quirky. Ashley is an overbearing lover of fashion, expensive restaurants and is a social climber. Cooper herself is interesting. She is a smoker who dresses in a masculine style and is fine to be by herself alot. All of these folks will contribute to fantastic storylines in the future.

The Path of the Crooked was an excellent read and I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Six Feet Deep Dish

Six Feet Deep Dish is the first book in a new cozy mystery series by Mindy Quigley. The main character is Delilah O'Leary and and she has just opened up a new pizzeria in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin. Funded by her rich fiance Sam Van Meter, Delilah is realizing her lifetime dream of owning a restaurant. To help her out is sous chef Sonya Dokter, a sassy, plus size woman who likes rockabilly fashion. The police detective is Al Capone's great-grandson Calvin Capone. A few other characters who work at the pizzeria round out the characters. 

Just after the restaurant's soft opening, Delilah's fiance dumps her and leaves her with their plus size cat Butterball. Delilah and Sam are polar opposites with Delilah being a type A person and Sam being laid back. Her aunt Biz and her caretaker Jeremy join the crowd on opening night. However, early in the evening Jeremy wheels Aunt Biz outside for some fresh air. Soon Delilah and her diners hear a gunshot and run outside. There they find Jeremy's body and a gun in Aunt Biz's hand. Aunt Biz denies killing Jeremy but doesn't know what happened. Detective Capone opens an investigation and threatens to run the new restaurant to the ground while pursuing Aunt Biz. In order to save her aunt, Delilah has to find out the identity of the killer.

This is an excellent start to a new series. There are several quirky characters to base future stories on. Sonya is always going to be the comedian with sassy remarks. I am going to love her the most. Detective Capone is a little stiff but I am certain that he will mellow out and probably be a love interest for Delilah. Daniel the bartender is a kayaker and Melody is the sacharine sweet hostess. Rabbit has just been released from jail and begged for a job to support his family. He's the dishwasher. I can think of many scenarios for future stories from this gang.

I love the pizzeria, Geneva and Chicago settings. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a well known weekend getaway for Chicagoans. The Chicago setting comes into play because Delilah decorated her restaurant with posters of Chicago mobsters. These settings alone will offer the author many plot premises.

The Six Feet story was well paced with plenty of twists and turns. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.

Good Friday

Good Friday is the third book in the author's Jane Tenneson Thriller series. I have never read anything by Linda LaPlante before and did not know what to expect. The book was selected as my choice for the Calendar of Crime Challenge for April. It was published in 2018.

The publisher's summary:

In the race to stop a deadly attack just pray she's not too late . . . March, 1976. The height of The Troubles. An IRA bombing campaign strikes terror across Britain. Nowhere and no one is safe. When detective constable Jane Tennison survives a deadly explosion at Covent Garden tube station, she finds herself in the middle of a media storm. Minutes before the blast, she caught sight of the bomber. Too traumatised to identify him, she is nevertheless a key witness and put under 24-hour police protection. As work continues round the clock to unmask the terrorists, the Metropolitan police are determined nothing will disrupt their annual Good Friday dinner dance. Amid tight security, hundreds of detectives and their wives and girlfriends will be at St Ermin's Hotel in central London. Jane, too, is persuaded to attend. But in the week leading up to Good Friday, Jane experiences a sudden flashback. She realises that not only can she identify the bomber, but that the IRA Active Service Unit is very close to her indeed. She is in real and present danger. In a nail-biting race against time, Jane must convince her senior officers that her instincts are right before London is engulfed in another bloodbath.

The story was well plotted and had a comfortable pace; Not too fast and not too slow.  It's a police procedural set in 1976 and is based on the IRA bombings in London. I was quite surprised that Jane's character was continually making mistakes during the investigation and was always being criticized by her male counterparts. I expected Jane to be a perfect investigator who was well respected by her peers. I cringed every time she said that she learned an investigative technique from her policing education. She really seemed like a beginner. Jane was a beginner, though. Her job in the novel was her first as a detective. I think that I missed alot concerning her character by not reading the first two books in the series. 

If you are interested in reading this book, I recommend that you start at the beginning and read all of the books in order of publication. It was hard to tell who Jane was as a character because she seemed to be a fish out of water in Good Friday. Still, the investigation was interesting and I enjoyed the setting of a British police station.

3 out of 5 stars.

Lemon Curd Killer

Lemon Curd Killer is the 25th installment of Laura Childs' Indigo Teashop cozy mystery series. As expected, it's a fantastic read. If you love afternoon tea, you will love this series. While the main character, Theodosia Browning, is an amateur sleuth, alot of the sleuthing takes place at her tea events. The reader gets to read about the foods offered at Theo's Indigo Tea Shop as well as the teas that her customers are drinking. It always makes me feel like I am there sipping and supping.

In Lemon Curd Killer, Theodosia has been tapped to host a fancy Limon Tea in a lemon orchard near Charleston, South Carolina. This event is the first event in Charleston's annual Fashion Week. However, when Theodosia retreats to the kitchen in order to get more lemon curd for the scones, she finds the body of one of the fashion designers with her head slumped over in to the lemon curd. The body belongs to Nadine, the sister of series character Delaine Dish. In the series tradition, a relative of the murdered woman asks Theodosia to investigate the death. Nadine's daughter Bettina has heard that Theodosia has solved several murders and asks her to look into her mother's death. With more tea events and fashion shows ongoing, Theo and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley begin observing and questioning Nadine's business partners.

I loved this story! I have always enjoyed the books in this seris and this one is one of my favorites. As usual, this book is a page turner. It is also a comfortable, easygoing read. I enjoyed visiting with the regular characters once more. They are always cheery and seem like old friends to me. 

Theodosia's investigation is spot on. She doesn't have much to go on other than gossip among the characters but Theo is able to think through the information that she is hearing and digest it properly. She is always asking herself if she is considering new information in the correct light. As another character is murdered, Theodosia is able to cut through all the unnecessary facts and figure out the identity of the killer.

One of the authors best!  5 out of 5 stars.