After a ten-year self-imposed exile, Brent Walker is returning home to Concord, a quaint town in central Georgia nestled close to the Savannah River. Two years ago his father died and now Brent, hired by Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company as its assistant general counsel, is returning to care for his ailing mother.For decades Southern Republic has invested heavily in Concord, creating a thriving community where its employees live, work, and retire. But the genteel sheen of this quiet town is deceiving, and when a list of cryptic code surfaces, Brent starts to see the cracks.Southern Republic’s success is based largely on a highly unorthodox and deadly system to control costs, known only to the three owners of the company. Now, one of them, Christopher Bozin, has had a change of heart. Brent’s return to Concord, a move Bozin personally orchestrated, provides his conscience with a chance at redemption. So a plan is set into motion, one that will not only criminally implicate Bozin’s two partners, but also place Brent Walker square in the crosshairs of men who want him dead—with only one course left available.Find and reveal the shocking secret of the list.
Book reviews of mysteries, historical fiction and graphic novels with a smattering of non-fiction books.
Friday, August 8, 2025
The List
Thursday, August 7, 2025
All The Words We Know
Rose may be in her eighties and suffering from dementia, but she’s not done with life just yet. Alternately sharp as a tack and spectacularly forgetful, she spends her days roaming the corridors of her assisted living facility, musing on the staff and residents, and enduring visits form her emotionally distant children and granddaughters. But when her friend is found dead after an apparent fall from a window, Rose embarks on an eccentric and determined investigation to discover the truth and uncover all manner of secrets…even some from her own past.
Sunday, August 3, 2025
The Patchwork Players
The cast of a smash TV show arrives at a quilter’s retreat for week of camaraderie and creativity that takes some surprising twists in this heartwarming new installment of Jennifer Chiaverini’s much-beloved Elm Creek Quilts series.Acclaimed TV actress Julia Merchaud almost can’t believe her good fortune. Her beloved historical drama, A Patchwork Life, revived her career and made stars of several younger actors. But Julia’s happiness turns to dismay when she learns that the hit show will have only one more season. Can she convince everyone to stay just a little longer?Inspiration comes after a conversation with Summer Sullivan, one of the expert quilters who helped Julia prepare for her role. When Summer confides that Elm Creek Quilt Camp is in financial trouble, Julia concocts a brilliant plan that will help the Elm Creek Quilters and herself.Julia sets about persuading the cast and crew to join her for what she promises will be a marvelous week at a luxurious nineteenth-century mansion amid the autumnal splendor of central Pennsylvania, a creative and dynamic working vacation they’ll never forget. Secretly, she hopes the bonding experience will convince them to abandon their other plans and sign on for another few seasons. But after several joyful days of quilting and camaraderie, Julia’s scheme takes an unexpected turn. Soon she’ll have to make hard choices about which matters more—career or friendship.
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Muybridge
Sacramento, California, 1870. Pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge becomesentangled in railroad robber baron Leland Stanford’s delusions of grandeur. Tasked withproving Stanford’s belief that a horse’s hooves do not touch the ground while galloping atfull speed, Muybridge gets to work with his camera. In doing so, he inadvertently createsone of the single most important technological advancements of our age―the invention of time-lapse photography and the mechanical ability to capture motion.
Critically-acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Hostage) returns with anotherengrossing foray into nonfiction: a biography about Eadweard Muybridge, the man whomade pictures move. Despite career breakthrough after career breakthrough, Muybridgewould only be hampered by betrayal, intrigue, and tragedy. Delisle’s keen eye for detailsthat often go unnoticed in search of a broader emotional truth brings this historical figureand those around him to life through an uncompromising lens.
Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall, Muybridge turns a spotlighton what lives in the shadow of an individual’s ambition for greatness, and proves thatEadweard Muybridge deserves to be far more than just another historical footnote.
The biography begins with Muybridge as an adult and continues until his death. He traveled to the U.S. west coast to take the first photos of Yosemite and American Indians and was known nationwide for his feats. He also traveled to Europe in order to obtain more job assignments. He married but was never home, always traveling to a photo shoot. His wife got bored and cheated on him, getting pregnant in the process. Muybridge exploded in rage when he found out. I was surprised by his anger because, after all, he could be away from home for as long as a year.
The art work was done in black and white drawings in comic strip panels. It was cool to see Muybridge's actual photos throughout the book too. The dialogue was spot on and showed how big Muybridge's ambitions were.
I enjoyed reading about one of our early pioneers in this field. I wish, however, that Delisle would write more travelogues. I loved reading them. 5 out of 5 stars.
Friday, August 1, 2025
An Inside Job
Sometimes the only way to recover a stolen masterpiece is to steal it back . . .Gabriel Allon has been awarded a commission to restore one of the most important paintings in Venice. But when he discovers the body of a mysterious woman floating in the waters of the Venetian Lagoon, he finds himself in a desperate race to recover a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.The painting, a portrait of a beautiful young girl, has been gathering dust in a storeroom at the Vatican Museums for more than a century, misattributed and hidden beneath a worthless picture by an unknown artist. Because no one knows that the Leonardo is there, no one notices when it disappears one night during a suspicious power outage. No one but the ruthless mobsters and moneymen behind the theft -- and the mysterious woman whom Gabriel found in a watery grave in Venice. A woman without a name. A woman without a face.The action moves at breakneck speed from the galleries and auction houses of London to an enclave of unimaginable wealth on the French Riviera -- and, finally, to a shocking climax in St. Peter's Square, where the life of a pope hangs in the balance. An elegant and stylish journey through the dark side of the art world and the Vatican's murky finances, An Inside Job proves once again that Daniel Silva is the reigning master of international intrigue and suspense.
Thursday, July 17, 2025
The Last Patient
THE LAST PATIENT is a sweeping historical novel that captures one family’s struggle for love, survival, and identity under the grip of Communism in Romania. Spanning fifty years of political upheaval, this saga explores how ordinary lives are shaped—and sometimes shattered—by extraordinary times.Kostea and Clara meet and fall in love shortly before World War II. As they get married, build careers, and raise a son, the world around them changes rapidly—and often violently. From the two-bedroom apartment they are “patriotically” forced to share with another family, to Bucharest’s rampant food shortages, Romania’s Cold War history plays out in their day-to-day lives.Kostea, a charming yet domineering surgeon, craves control in a place where party loyalists hold the reins of power. His pursuit of respect and authority threatens his promising medical career and his relationships at home, risking Clara’s love. While the temptation to break through the Iron Curtain is omnipresent, defection to the West comes with its own uncertainties. Ultimately, The Last Patient is a poignant exploration of the eternal tension between personal aspirations and love.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Edge of Honor
After six months abroad, America’s top spy returns to a new administration, a new set of global priorities, and a power struggle—the likes of which the United States has never experienced.
Drawn into a web of deceit and deadly politics, Scot Harvath is thrust into a high-stakes conspiracy that could change the course of history. A cabal of shadowy elites is maneuvering for control and if they succeed, they will bring the country to its knees.
When trust is fleeting and survival means making impossible decisions, Harvath finds himself at the precipice. The actions he takes will shape the future of America—and might cost him everything he holds dear.
With enemies at every turn, one wrong move could push the nation over the edge.
Sunday, July 6, 2025
Into the Leopard's Den
Bangalore, 1922: Pregnant and confined to the house by her protective mother-in-law, Kaveri Murthy has resolved to take a break from detection. But when an elderly woman is murdered at night and dies clutching a photograph of Kaveri while asking for her help—how can she refuse? Missing the assistance of her husband Ramu, who is working in Coorg, Kaveri investigates her new case with her able assistants, milk boy Venu and housemaid Anandi. They find a trail of secrets that lead them to suspect the killer may be in Coorg.Eager to be reunited with her husband, Kaveri sets off to Coorg to investigate. When she arrives, she encounters a thorny thicket of cases. Why does a ghost leopard prowl the forests at night, terrorizing the plantation workers? And who is trying to kill Colonel Boyd, the Coffee King of Coorg? She finds suspects in every coffee bush and estate—from Boyd’s surly plantation manager and security guard to the feuding brothers who own the neighboring plantation—and the many women the Coffee King has pursued and abandoned.When two vulnerable children appeal for her help, Kaveri is drawn deeper into the case, becoming emotionally involved in finding the killer. Soon, one murder turns into two—and then a few days later into three. Now the killer has tasted blood and needs to be stopped. Racing against time, Kaveri must take on her most complex challenge so far, with the assistance of Anandi and Venu in Bangalore, and with Ramu and Inspector Ismail in Coorg. In this stunning new novel by an acclaimed master of the form, the Bangalore Detectives Club must find and expose a brutally intelligent killer before they strike again.
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Part of the Solution
I received an advanced review copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on July 14, 2025.
It's 1978, and Jennifer Morgan, a sassy New Yorker, has escaped to the counterculture village of Flanders, Massachusetts. Her peaceful life is disrupted when one of her customers at the Café Galadriel is found dead. Everyone is a suspect—including the gentle artisan woodworker, the Yeats-wannabe poet, the town's anti-war hero, the peace-loving Episcopalian minister, and the local organic farmer who can hold a grudge.Concern for her community prompts Jennifer to investigate the murder with the sometimes-reluctant help of Ford McDermott, a young police officer. Little does she know that the solution lies in the hidden past.Part of the Solution blends snappy dialogue, unconventional settings, and a classic oldies soundtrack, capturing the essence of a traditional whodunnit in a counterculture era.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
The Master Jeweller
Harbin, China, 1925. Fifteen-year-old Anyu Zhang discovers a priceless Fabergé egg in the snow and returns it to the owner, Isaac Mandelburg, a fugitive and former master jeweler for Russia’s imperial palace. In gratitude, he leaves her his address in Shanghai and a promise of hospitality, forever altering her fate.A dazzling world of jewelry shrouded in secrecy and greed awaits, when later Anyu arrives at Mandelburg’s jewelry shop as an orphan. Single-minded and relentless, Anyu will stop at nothing until she masters the craft of jewelry making. But she soon finds herself entangled in the treacherous underbelly of the city, where violent gangsters stalk the streets, vicious rivals seek to exploit her, and obsessive collectors conspire to destroy the people she loves.From snow-crowned land to diamond-sparkling showrooms to a pristine island on the brink of war, The Master Jeweler chronicles an exciting journey of a bold prodigy artisan―including her losses and triumphs―in a glamorous yet perilous world of treasure.
The Story She Left Behind
In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, renowned author, Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Bronwyn stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation when she was just twelve years old. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. As the headlines focus on the missing author, Clara yearns for something far deeper and more insatiable: her beautiful mother.
By 1952, Clara is an illustrator raising her own daughter, Wynnie. When a stranger named Charlie Jameson contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara is skeptical. Compelled by the tragedy of her mother’s vanishing, she crosses the Atlantic with Wynnie only to arrive during one of London’s most deadly natural disasters—the Great Smog. With asthmatic Wynnie in peril, they escape the city with Charlie and find refuge in the Jameson’s family retreat nestled in the Lake District. It is there that Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind.
This was an intriguing story. The mystery to be solved concerns Clara's mother. Clara knows she is dead but hopes that she isn't. Clara also hopes to find the language that Bronwyn created so that she can translate Bronwyn's sequel. The details are revealed slowly. The author builds up the mystery with plenty of suspense that kept me reading until I finished the book in one sitting.
The setting description of London on the 1950s was awful to imagine. The air was polluted from the use of coal that people couldn't see more than 3 feet in front of them. Londoners always had handkerchiefs to cover their mouths so that they would not choke yo death. For our characters, Wynnie almost died twice. Clara had to give her injections of medicine to keep Wynnie's asthma under control. England's bad air is a historical fact and resulted in the Parliament enacting a clean air act in the late 1950s.
The story had a feel-good ending. I am happy that it ended this way because the author could have chosen a number of different endings that would be plausible. I loved the book and am rating it 5 out of 5 stars.
Tuesday, July 1, 2025
The Holy Roller
Kill Your Darlings
Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.Eventually we learn the details of what Thom and Wendy did in their early twenties, a secret that has kept them bound together through the length of their marriage. But its power over them is fraying, and each of them begins to wonder if they would be better off making sure their spouse carries their secrets to the grave.
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Bad Lands
In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found—and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands—lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods.
Is it suicide or… sacrifice?
Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found—exactly like the other—the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins, and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Lincoln's Lady Spymaster
Why would Southern belle Elizabeth Van Lew risk everything in order to spy for the Union Army? The answer was simple: freedom. Right in the heart of the Confederate capital, Elizabeth played the society lady while building a secret espionage network of slaves, Unionists, and prisoners of war.It would cost her almost everything. Flouting society’s expectations for women, Elizabeth infiltrated prisons and defied public opinion. Her story is filled with vivid personalities, including:Assassin John Wilkes BoothWashington socialite and Southern spy Rose GreenhowPrison escape artist Thomas RoseCavalry hero Ulrich DahlgrenCross-dressing intelligence agent Frank StringfellowFrom grave robbery to a bold voyage across enemy lines, Elizabeth’s escapades only grew more daring. But it paid off.By the war’s end, she had agents in both the Confederate War Department and the Richmond White House, and her couriers provided General Ulysses S. Grant with crucial, daily intelligence for his final assault.With extensive and fresh research, Gerri Willis uncovers the Southern abolitionist heroine that the Lost Cause buried—an unbelievable tale of one woman’s courage, resistance, and liberation. Heartfelt, thrilling, and inspiring, Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster restores a forgotten hero to her rightful place as an American icon.
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Save Her Life
The publisher's summary:
The tears fall down the girl’s pale face as she desperately tries to struggle free from the ties around her wrists. The only sound in the room other than her muffled cries is the ticking of a clock. Her mother has less than one hour to find her alive.
It’s been more than thirty years since Special Agent Sandra Vos’s twin brother was shot dead, an innocent victim caught in a kidnap gone wrong. It devastated Sandra’s family, but it made her who she is today, one of the FBI’s most successful negotiators.
After dropping her teenage daughter, Olivia, at school, Sandra is alerted to a potential hostage situation at her local grocery store and races to the scene. A man has pulled out a gun and is refusing to talk or let anyone out of the building until his demands are met. The fate of dozens of lives rests in Sandra’s hands.
But as Sandra starts to make a breakthrough with the hostage taker, she receives a call that makes her blood run cold. Someone has taken Olivia, and their demand will push Sandra to her absolute limit. If it’s not met within twenty-four hours, she will never see her daughter again.
Sandra knows she should step aside, letting her team take over, but she doesn’t trust anyone else to bring Olivia home alive. Breaking every rule in the book, Sandra is ready to go into her most personal negotiation yet. But how much will she have to sacrifice to save her daughter?
The story opened with Sandra attending a parole hearing for the man who killed her brother over thirty years ago. The man was denied parole. The story then moved to a hostage negotiation that Sandra lead. I don’t think I needed to read 80 pages of Sandra negotiating with a hostage taker to understand her job. It was overkill. Also, her daughter wasn't kidnapped until 40% of the way into the story. Since saving daughter Olivia's life is what the book is supposed to be about, I think the kidnapping should have occurred early on in the story.
The book concentrates more on procedure than relationships and I was somewhat bored. I did not connect with Sandra as a character. I felt more for the criminals instead. After reading other reviews of the book I am aware that my opinion is a minority opinion. Given that these criminals are not going to be involved in future stories, I don’t see much to entice me to continue to read the series. There aren't any secondary characters that were drawn upon either. We basically only read what their names are.
The plot was interesting but I had a few issues with the writing. I am rating the book 3 out of 5 stars.
Friday, May 23, 2025
Spent
Friday, May 16, 2025
The Retirement Plan
Three best friends turn to murder to collect on their husbands’ life insurance policies… But the husbands have a plan of their own in this darkly funny debut that will delight readers from the first laugh to the final twist.
After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages.
But when the women discover their husbands have seven-figure life insurance policies, a new dream forms. And this time, they need a hitman.
Meanwhile, their husbands are working on their own secret retirement scheme and when things begin to go sideways, they fear it’s backfired. The husbands scramble to stay alive…but soon realize they may not be quick enough to outmaneuver their wives.
I feel that the first few chapters were slow while the author set up her plot. There were alot of characters introduced as well as the backstory on the two retirement plans. This plot is the most ingenious plot I ever heard. I knew the book would be entertaining so while it began slow I kept reading and soon was hooked.
The characters are hilarious. The three wives and the three husbands behaved ridiculously. None of them could successfully carry out a plan and they all bumbled their actions. The person in the middle of it all is the barber, Hector, who just happens to be an organized crime killer from Central America. The story was revealed through four alternating points of view. The wives had one viewpoint, the husbands had theirs, the new manager of the casino where the husbands worked, Padma, had hers and then we have Hector's. The novel switches points of view frequently. And while I enjoyed the antics of the husbands and wives tremendously, I think my favorite chapters were probably from the perspective of Padma, the frazzled casino boss of two of the husbands with an overbearing mother. Hector is also a cool character to follow.
Humor exudes throughout the story because of the zany plot. You can't help but chuckle at everyone's antics. The Retirement Plan is the type of yarn that all will enjoy. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
The Great British Bump Off: Kill or be Quilt #1
When wildcat arson hits her new employer right where she lives, Shauna Wickle is drawn into the brutal and vindictive world of quilting, as sisterhood and community needlecraft deteriorate into internecine strife. With the promise of an end to all her financial worries, Shauna must cross enemy lines and infiltrate a cadre of “monsters in human skin”. But they seem…so nice
This is a light hearted cozy mystery in graphic novel format. Shauna Wickle is the main character. She is a bright, kind, peppy girl who embarks on a relaxing vacation, sailing down English canals in a boat she borrowed from her uncle. However, Shauna is not an experienced sailor and soon finds that the boat has run aground and needs to be fixed before Shauna can continue her vacation. She is lucky to land in Barton-on-Wendle, and gets a job working at a fabric shop in order to earn money for repairs. At the shop she learns what a fat quarter is and is delighted to see bobbins of thread organized by color. Because of her bubbly personality, the shop owner believes Shauna will scare off their customers. We have to wait for the next release to find out how she fits in with the employees.
Way, way over 5 out of 5 stars.