Reflections of a Bookaholic: Mystery

Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Review: Love Me If You Must

Source: Book shelf

Love Me If You Must by Nicole Young
Series: Patricia Amble #1
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Christian Fiction
Pages: 379 (ebook)
Author's Blog
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

Professional renovator Tish Amble decided long ago that staying in one place is about as exciting as peeling wallpaper from plaster. So before the paint in each newly transformed home is dry, Tish is researching her next move. This time she chooses a small town in Michigan with a dilapidated Victorian that challenges her imagination. But Tish's idyllic small-town dream fizzles when she finds more in the creepy basement than what was revealed on the seller's disclosure-what looks like traces of foul play. With a hovering police officer living next door and a possible love interest just two doors down, Tish has her hands full. Will she discover the truth before it's too late?

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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Review: Backlash

Late at night on a notorious high-rise estate in the London borough of Hackney a white van is being driven erratically. The driver is pulled over by the police and questioned.

After a long night of drinking, a woman on the street never makes it home. A suspect...an arrest...a confession.... A case closed?

Five years earlier, a thirteen-year-old girl disappeared in broad daylight on a busy London street. Detective Chief Superintendent James Langton headed the investigation, but the case was never solved. It has haunted him ever since, but now there's a new confession. Is it too good to be true? When Detective Chief Inspector Anna Travis is pulled into the fray by her mentor and friend, she isn't so sure they have their man.

Then the suspect changes his story...

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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Review: June Bug

Source: Bookshelf

June Bug by Jess Lourey
Series: Murder-by-Month Mystery #2
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 229 (eBook)
Author's Website | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

Mira James never imagined life after college would be a doublewide trailer outside Battle Lake, Minnesota. Then again, maybe the North Country has more to offer than mosquitoes and broasted chicken. Local legend claims that a diamond necklace was lost nearly a century ago in Whiskey Lake, not far from the present day Shangri-La resort. Mira, a part-time reporter, goes fishing for the story behind the legend, but her dives turn up more than missing jewelry. Buoyed by frozen Nut Goodies and a diminutive circus performer, the exhilarating search leads to a new mystery to unravel, and puts her face to face with the surfacing of a menacing foe from her past.

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Review: If You Were Here

Magazine journalist McKenna Wright is chasing the latest urban folktale-the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenaged boy from the subway tracks, seconds before an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a short video snippet that purportedly captures part of the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.

She is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend who disappeared without a trace a decade earlier. Investigating her disappearance, the NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan-forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity-simply left town to start over again somewhere else.

But McKenna has always believed the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached, and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. Yet when she shares the image with her husband, Patrick, who was Susan's classmate at West Point, he isn't convinced.

What would have been a short-lived metro story sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman, a twisting journey through New York City that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home-to her own husband, who seems to know much more about Susan than McKenna could have ever imagined...

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Review: Never Tell

Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan town house, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insist that their daughter would never take her own life.

But Julia's enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of prescription antidepressants and ADHD medication ran rampant among students; an unlabeled bottle of pills in Julia's purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a search of Julia's computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying against an unlikely victim.

NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the truth. When the Whitmires use their power to force a criminal investigation, Ellie's resistance causes trouble for her both at work and in her personal life. As she is pressured to pursue a case she doesn't believe in, she is pulled into Julia's inner circle--an eclectic mix of overly precocious teenagers from Manhattan's most privileged families as well as street kids from Greenwich Village. But when the target of Julia's harassment continues to receive death threats, Ellie is forced to acknowledge that Julia may have learned the hard way that some secrets should never be told.

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Review: Dark Tide

I apologize for this late review posting. I honestly thought I had schedule this one for review. Wouldn't you know, it was still in draft form? Grrr...

The first time Genevieve saw it, she knew it was the one: Revenge of the Tide, "an odd sort of a name for a boat." Genevieve had finally escaped the stressful demands of her London sales job and achieved her dream--to leave the city behind and start a new life aboard a houseboat in Kent. She left the boat's name as it was. Revenge had character after all, and living in a marina made her feel a bit safer, a little less lonely; almost as if the boat looked after her, hid her away from view.

But her dreams are shattered the night of her boat-warming party when a body washes up, and to Genevieve's horror, she recognizes the victim as a close friend from nights dancing on-stage at a private members' club, the Barclay. She isn't about to tell the police, though; next to no one knew what Genevieve did every Friday and Saturday night to save money for her escape, and she sees no reason to reveal her past. The death can't have anything to do with her. Or so she thinks.

Soon the lull of the waves against Revenge feels anything but soothing, as Genevieve begins to receive mysterious calls and can't reach the one person who links the present danger with her history at the club. And then there is the parcel on her boat she's meant to be safekeeping for an old flame, which seems to be putting her in jeopardy. As Genevieve begins to fear for her safety, she recalls the moment when it had all started to go horribly wrong: the night she recognized her day-time boss in the crowd of customers at the Barclay. . . .

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Review: Paragon Walk

Paragon Walk by Anne Perry
Series: Charlotte & Thomas Pitt #3
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Pages: 248 (ebook)
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website | Blog
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

When innocent Fanny Nash of exclusive Paragon Walk dies in the arms of her exquisite sister-in-law, Jessamyn, Inspector Pitt is assigned to investigate her rape and murder. Every man of Paragon Walk is under suspicion, even Pitt’s brother-in-law, Lord George Ashworth, who was the last to have seen her. Could it be the charming, enigmatic Frenchman? Fanny’s cruel brother? Wealthy Dilbridge, who hosts wild, decadent parties? As Pitt digs deeper into the mystery, Paragon Walk’s aristocratic haughtiness gives way to fear, its calm to hatred. To keep her sister Emily, Lady Ashworth, company in this difficult time, inquisitive Charlotte once again finds herself in the midst of a deadly mystery. In the drawing rooms of her sister’s neighbors, Charlotte engages in witty and sharp-edged conversations that reveal unsavory intrigues and bitter rivalries. On Paragon Walk, Charlotte’s probing despite Thomas’s warnings may prove fatal.

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Friday, February 15, 2013

Review & Giveaway: A Land More Kind Than Home

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Monday, January 7, 2013

Review: The One I Left Behind

The One I Left Behind by Jennifer McMahon
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 432 (paperbook)
Source: TLC Book Tours - Thank you!
Author's Website | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

Bestselling author Jennifer McMahon is back with a gut-wrenching mystery about an architect whose troubled mother has been found 25 years after being kidnapped-by a killer who is still on the loose.

The summer of 1985 changed Reggie's life. Thirteen, awkward, and without a father, she finds herself mixed up with her school's outcasts-Charlie, the local detective's son, and Tara, a goth kid who has a mental hold over Reggie and harbors a dark secret. That same summer a serial killer called Neptune begins kidnapping women. He leaves their severed hands on the police department steps and, five days later, displays their bodies around town. Just when Reggie needs her mother Vera-an ex-model with many "boyfriends" and a thirst for gin-the most, Vera's hand is found on the steps. But after five days, there's no body and Neptune disappears.

Now a successful architect who left her hometown behind after that horrific summer, Reggie doesn't trust anyone and lives with few attachments. But when she gets a call from a homeless shelter saying that her mother has been found alive, Reggie must confront the ghosts of her past and find Neptune before he kills again.

With her signature style, Jennifer McMahon portrays the dark side of adolescent friendship and introduces characters who haunt the imagination, along with a disturbing web of secrets, betrayals, and murder.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012

Mini-Review: Immortal in Death

Immortal in Death by J.D. Robb
Series: In Death #3
Genre: Mystery, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 345 (eBook)
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

She was one of the most sought-after women in the world. A top model who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted -even another woman's man. And now she's dead, the victim of a brutal murder.

Police lieutenant Eve Dallas puts her life on the line to take the case when suspicion falls on her best friend, the other woman in the fatal love triangle. Beneath the facade of glamor, Eve finds that the world of high fashion thrives on an all-consuming obsession with youth and fame-one that leads her from the lights of the runway to the dark underworld of New York City, where drugs can fulfill any desire, for a price.

Quote:

“What other thing, Eve?"
"I love you. Sometimes it makes my stomach hurt, but I kind of like it. Tired now, come to bed. Love you.”

~Eve to Roarke

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Sunday, November 4, 2012

Review: Glory In Death

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb
Series: In Death #2
Genre: Mystery, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 296 (eBook)
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

It is 2058, New York City. In a world where technology can reveal the darkest of secrets, there's only one place to hide a crime of passion-in the heart.

Even in the mid-twenty-first century, during a time when genetic testing usually weeds out any violent hereditary traits before they can take over, murder still happens. The first victim is found lying on a sidewalk in the rain. The second is murdered in her own apartment building. Police Lieutenant Eve Dallas has no problem finding connections between the two crimes. Both victims were beautiful and highly successful women. Their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city. And their intimate relations with men of great power and wealth provide Eve with a long list of suspects-including her own lover, Roarke.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Review: Elegy for Eddie

In this latest entry in the acclaimed, bestselling mystery series, Maisie Dobbs takes on her most personal case yet, a twisting investigation that will take her across London, from her childhood neighborhood to the highest echelons of power.

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Saturday, October 27, 2012

Review: Naked in Death

I've been meaning to try this series for some time and when I started the readathon in the backseat of a car, leaving one of the saddest and heartbreaking funerals I had ever been to, a dystopia read was not an option. I just wanted something new. So here we are.

Naked in Death by J.D. Robb
Series: In Death #1
Genre: Mystery, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 294 (ebook)
Source: eLibrary
Author's Website
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

In hardcover for the first time, here is the novel that started it all-the first book in J. D. Robb's number-one New York Times-bestselling In Death series, featuring New York City homicide detective Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke.

It is the year 2058, and technology now completely rules the world. But New York City Detective Eve Dallas knows that the irresistible impulses of the human heart are still ruled by just one thing-passion.

When a senator's daughter is killed, the secret life of prostitution she'd been leading is revealed. The high-profile case takes Lieutenant Eve Dallas into the rarefied circles of Washing-ton politics and society. Further complicating matters is Eve's growing attraction to Roarke, who is one of the wealthiest and most influential men on the planet, devilishly handsome... and the leading suspect in the investigation

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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Review: Phantom Evil Review (Audiobook)

A secret government unit is formed under the oversight of Adam Harrison, famed paranormal investigator. The six members he's gathered know a little of the otherworldly--each has honed a psychic talent of their own.Jackson Crow, part English, part Cheyenne, heads the group. Haunted by his experience with an ancestral ghost who saved his life as a child, and the recent murders of two previous teammates, Jackson can't tell if Adam's demoted him or given him an extraordinary opportunity. Despite his link to the realm of spirits, he's well aware that the living commit the most heinous crimes, with spiritualist charlatans existing merely to fool and seduce the unwary.
To counterbalance Jackson's careful skepticism, Adam Harrison has paired him with Angela Hawkins, a young woman who learned the painful lesson of loss at an early age. A police officer utilizing her paranormal intuition in Virginia, she already has her hands full. But Adam's call to New Orleans is strong.
The case: In a historic mansion in New Orleans's French Quarter, a senator's wife falls to her death from a balcony. Most think she jumped, distraught over the loss of her young son. Some say she was pushed. And yet others believe she was beckoned by the ghostly spirits that inhabit the house--once the site of a serial killer's grisly work.
Whether supernatural or all too human, crimes of passion, greed and desire will cast the pair into danger of losing their lives...and their immortal souls

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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Review: Come the Shadows

Come the Shadows by Wendy Young
Series: The Campbell Creek Mysteries #1
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Pages: 232 pages (paperback)
Source: Author
Author's Blog | Twitter | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N

Description:

Campbell Creek, North Carolina has not seen a murder in seventeen years. When bones are discovered in the old bread factory Officer Will Harmon is determined to investigate, no matter who stands in his way. His wife Laura knows there is more troubling their town than one dead body, though, and the more she digs the more she finds. It's all up to them - and they will do whatever it takes to win against the darkness invading their town.

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Review: The Year of the Gadfly & Giveaway

Mariana Academy is a storied institution, built with gothic architecture, founded with a serious honor code and, for the most part, run by its students. But Prisom's Party, a secret society named after the school's founder, has been troubling these quiet halls, naming the student community code an empty motto—Brotherhood, Truth, and Equality for All—and exposing teachers, students, and the school for every indiscretion or dishonesty.

Taken by her parents from the familiar environs of Beacon Hill in Boston to escape the loss of her best friend, Iris Dupont is now living in small-town Nye, Massachusetts, and attending the hyper-competitive Mariana. Her only confidant is a chain-smoking, challenge-wielding spectre named Edward R. Murrow and when he tells her to stop moping and get out there in search of a story, she takes the charge.

Now Iris is on the hunt for a great story, one that will make her the youngest editor-in-chief in the school newspaper's history, but her research is leading her deep into the Trench (the school basement), toward the staff of The Devil's Advocate (the underground news organ of Prisom's Party), and to discovering all the secrets they both hold. Some of them seem to involve her favorite teacher, Mr. Kaplan. Some of them seem to point to the girl who used to live in her house—an albino named Lily Morgan who left the school abruptly twelve years ago and seems to have never returned. And everything seems to be connected to a rare book she found in her borrowed room, Marvelous Species: Investigating Earth’s Mysterious Biology.

Was all of this triggered by the string of incidents that set the school on high alert? Does it trace back to a scandal Mr. Kaplan is hiding in his past? What is the meaning of the strange symbol that keeps showing up in the wake of the Prisom's Party incidents? And when Iris gets deep into the story, torn by her allegiances, her reporter's instinct, and her yearning for a true friend, will it be enough for her to ask: What would Edward Murrow do?

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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Review: An Incomplete Revenge (Audiobook)

Maisie Dobbs travels to Kent to investigate, among other things, a series of fires, a family of Dutch bakers who were killed during WWI in a zeppelin attack and the theft of some silver. Hop-picking has brought everyone to the area, from Londoners to Gypsies. Orlagh Cassidy, who also read Messenger of Truth, not only captures a range of London and Kentish accents, but she also individualizes even the most minor characters. The lilt of a Danish luthier is perfect, and the dozen or so villagers interviewed by Dobbs have their own rhythms of speech and tone. Cassidy's rendition of Roma words comes across as authentic. This engrossing mystery will be hard to put down, and the listener will be sad when the final, lively strains of a fiddle are heard.

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Review: Come and Find Me

Come and Find Me by Hallie Ephron
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thrillers
Pages: 276 (Paperback)
Source: TLC Book Tours
Author's Website | Facebook
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo

Description:

COME AND FIND ME is a novel of suspense that tells the story of Diana Highsmith, a young woman who never leaves her home. Ever since her lover fell to his death while they were mountain climbing, she's been afraid to brave the outside world. She makes a living as a computer security expert with a virtual office on the Internet, barricaded behind layers of physical and electronic security. But when her sister goes missing, she's forced to face her inner demons and go out and find her. The journey brings her face to face with traumas from her own past.

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Monday, March 12, 2012

Review: Messenger of Truth

London, 1931. On the night before the opening of his new and much-anticipated exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare the fall an accident, but the dead man's twin sister, Georgina, isn't convinced. When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations and close the case, Georgina - a journalist and infamous figure in her own right - takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.

The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city's art world. And while navigating her way into the heart of the aristocratic yet bohemian Bassington-Hopes, Maisie is deeply troubled by the tragedy of another, quite different family in need.

In Messenger of Truth, Maisie Dobbs again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist's death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her.

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Review: First Grave to the Right (Audiobook)

First Grave to the Right by Darynda Jones
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery
Length: 9 hours 4 minutes
Narrator: Lorelei King
Source: eLibrary (overdrive)

From Audible:

A smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light”. But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life... and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Friday, June 28, 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

Monday, April 22, 2013

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Friday, February 15, 2013

Monday, January 7, 2013

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Monday, March 12, 2012

Sunday, December 4, 2011

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