Death at a Paris Hotel (Lady Swift #22) by Verity Bright

 

Blog Tour for Bookouture

Follow Lady Swift and her new husband, Detective Hugh Seldon, as they enjoy a honeymoon in Paris. 

The newlyweds are living it up in the city of love and have taken Clifford and Gladstone along to ensure the best time. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, their dinner toast is interrupted by the body of a man falling through the glass roof onto their table. Though Eleanor tries her best, the poor guy can’t be saved and he dies pressing a brooch into her hands. Now instead of sight seeing and other delights, Eleanor, Hugh, and Clifford become involved in the investigation into what seems to be theft from a museum and murder.

Now everyone knows that in the cozy mystery genre there’s a dead person in every story. So Eleanor has been quite busy for 22 installments in her story. But that’s the thing about a cozy. Everyone knows that the mystery will be solved and the good guys will come out on top and all the grisly details that many of us enjoy at times are absent. And that’s why we read them — it gives us a break and provides a sense of rightness and comfort. Eleanor and her cohort are just overly wonderful people so you totally know what’s coming but there is a sense of solace that all can be made right in the world.

I enjoy the golden age details with regard to the clothes, food, social customs, and the upper class lifestyle during that period in history. I do wish Eleanor and Hugh would have more to attend to at Henley Hall and I sense a shift in the series as perhaps they will form some sort of detective agency with Clifford. Who knows, but I look forward to whatever comes next for the happy couple and their entourage. 

Thank you to Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend. It’s a great series that should be read from the beginning for best experience.

This is part of a long series and I have read them all.

Genre- historical cozy mystery, 1920s, English Lady

Note: the wife in this husband and wife team unexpectedly died recently. Hopefully the series will continue. Of course it won’t be the same, but I hope to see more of Lady Swift. 

Hidden Daughters (DI Lottie Parker #15) by Patricia Gibney

 

Blog Tour Stop for Bookouture

Another exciting installment in this crime thriller series.

Detective Lottie Parker is off to a wedding in Connemara but soon becomes involved in a series of horrific murders there. She and Detective Sergeant Boyd are meant to attend his sister’s wedding, but it seems that Grace’s fiancé, Bryan, has a secret that might derail the nuptials. 

This episode details the horrors of the Magdalene laundries in one of the most disgusting and terrible periods in the Catholic Church in Ireland. Many young women and children were sent to convents. Some abandoned by families who couldn’t care for them or didn’t want them. Others were unwed and pregnant and sent there for their sins. Too many did not make it out alive. They were abused in every way possible and those nuns and priests were never held accountable for these crimes. It was evil and unimaginable — the stories told by the survivors are difficult to hear.  Imelda Conroy is in Connemara to product a radio documentary about those women who were basically locked away in a convent there in the 1970s and 80s. 

But someone doesn’t want Imelda to reveal those details. Women connected to the convent are being murdered, scalded and burned in fact. Even though Lottie is out of her home area, she immediately gets herself involved in the investigation along with local policeman, Detective Sergeant Matt Mooney. Lottie irritates everyone involved in this case. She enrages Grace and gets herself kicked out of their house, and Boyd is over it so their relationship hits the rocks. But, she continues her singleminded focus despite all.

I have to say that Lottie is definitely a person with whom it would be tough to be in a relationship with. I think Boyd’s words to her ring true and I hope she pulls herself together or gets some therapy so that she doesn’t ruin a good thing with him. If family is so important to her, she really needs to spend more time with her people.

I love the series and looks forward to the next installment. The plots are always complex and interesting. The author doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff. Thank you to Bookouture for the ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This is the fifteenth book in a series that should be read from the beginning, in order.

Genre - crime thriller, murder, Magdalene laundries, Ireland

Making a Killing (DI Adam Fawley #7) by Cara Hunter

 Entertaining crime thriller and police procedural. 

The first thing I should say is that this is the first of the series featuring DI Adam Fawley that I have read. So, coming in completely cold to the backstory and the characters. I didn't realize this was a followup to the first book. Regardless, I found it easy to follow even though the story twisted and turned.

The plot centers on the discovery that a child who had been considered dead, Daisy Mason, was possibly still alive and everything that the police had done prior was a mistake, including the conviction of Daisy's mother who had been in prison already for 8 hours. 

The narrative unfolds with transcripts of phone calls, interviews, emails, newspaper articles and other bits that make the procedural part of the investigation seem so much more real. There were a lot of characters that were hard to keep straight, but a helpful guide provided by the author was included at the start of the book. I thoroughly enjoy this mystery but am completely stymied by the lack of closure with that ending. If someone could help me, I'd appreciate it! yes, I like it all spelled out in a tidy conclusion. 

I was able to listen to the audio book while following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. I liked the multi-cast performance, but often times the narrator did not change their tone or voice, or use various accents, etc. to match the character. Some were fairly monotone actually. It is particularly hard when the male voice was reading through phone transcripts as both voices sounded exactly alike. Regardless, I do enjoy the listening while reading experience.

This is the 7th book in a series. I had not read any previous books.

Tags - police procedural, mystery,  

Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen

 Typical Hiaasen farce featuring satire, stereotypical wacko characters, and the absurd, exaggerated situations that make up his novels.

In this story, Twilly Spree, along with his love interest du jour, Viva Morales, take on right wing radicals who are dumber than rocks but bent on becoming famous since they missed out on previous insurrections. The two undermine sleazy politicians, inhibit corrupt developers, impede philanthropic billionaires who bankroll ludicrous projects to propel their true objectives behind the scenes, and protect those they perceive to be innocent. 

Except Twilly really isn't a nice guy, per se, and gets his hands really dirty while interfering in as much mayhem as he can. There are some funny moments, but sometimes the message got lost because of the many outlandish and over the top scenarios. It was predictable in the sense that the bad guys all got what Twilly thought they deserved but the people he liked made out OK. 

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC provided by the publisher. The narrator, Will Damron, did a good job of voicing the characters and using appropriate tone and inflection to provide the right note of comedy. The production enhanced my enjoyment of the book. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Tags - satire, right wing radicals, sleazy politicians, politics,  

Jill is Not Happy by Kaira Rouda

 Dark domestic drama — like a train wreck.

Jack and Jill, oh my. I challenge you to find two more despicable unlikable characters. These two were definitely made for each other. Jill knows that, but Jack must be having some sort of life crisis cause he’s gone off the rails. A new woman in his life? Jill thinks not. After all, Jill knows that this is a marriage made in heaven, well maybe not there, but she sure isn’t going to let anything break them apart.

There is so much in this novel where you just shake your head at the thought of people behaving like this. I couldn’t stand either Jack or Jill as each had bad intentions. Thank heavens Jill had her special notebook to ensure Jack follows the rules. Her rules. I am guessing that many felt bad for Jack and thought Jill the worst of the pair. I disagree. He’s one of those that garners sympathy and such because people feel bad for him. The daughter, Maggie, well I do not like when any parent commandeers a child and involves them in their adult relationship no matter how old they are. Bad on Jack. For awhile I was worried (yeah I know I’m always on the bad side) that they were both going to end up in jail or kill each other. But they truly do deserve one another.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. The narrator, Marnye Young. She was OK, but honestly, it was a huge disappointment as her male and female voice for Jack and Jill were interchangeable. She never sounded like a man. This is one of those that definitely would have benefited from having a male narrator. Usually the audio enhances my enjoyment of a book but this production was not as good as I’d hoped for.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre tags - marriage, drama, murderous couple, secrets and lies, manipulation, emotional blackmail

Brain Damage by Freida McFadden

 This was a great listen while I was sick. It was funny in places and fast paced, and then heartwarming with the romance, and it just hit the spot. I liked Charlotte McKenna even when she was acting more stupidly than her brain damage should have allowed. In fact, she was pretty lame before she got shot! But, the bullet to her head was definitely the best thing that happened to her after all.

From acute injury to months in rehab, Charly finds that her memory and her disability are not easy to recover and overcome. 

I noted this was published in 2016 so the author hasn't gotten to the completely outlandish over the top thriller stage. 

This audio book was narrated by Megan Tusing who did a fantastic job of voicing all the characters and giving a sensational bit of dramatic flair to the production. 

This is a standalone and not part of any series.

Tags - brain injury due to gun shot, rehab, romance 

Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson

 More domestic drama than murder mystery, this novel explores the history of a marriage.

Thom and Wendy have been married for over 25 years. He's a professor of English Literature and they have a grown son. Money is not an issue, they've plenty of that, and to casual observes, they seem like a close, loving couple. Except Wendy is done. She wants Thom gone. And the only way to make this happen is for her to murder him. 

The narrative is told in reverse, taking the reader backward though their lives and the different stages of their relationship. Everything hinged on something they did together back when they were in their early twenties and that secret has bound them together.  

So why does Wendy want to kill him now? 

I've long been a huge fan of this author and his twisty mystery thrillers so I expected a lot. For some reason this just didn't seem like the same writer as this story wasn't really very exciting or thrilling. I didn't care for either Thom or Wendy and honestly their lives seemed so boring as it seemed all Thom did was get drunk and act stupid. Neither had any direction or drive. Definitely both extremely self centered. I tried to get more invested, but ultimately I really didn't like it. Was there a bit of a surprise at the ending? Why, yes, there was, but it wasn't enough.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book, both provided by the publishers. The narrator, Steven Weber, is one of my favorites and he did an awesome job of finding just the right tone and voice for the characters. His dramatic flair made the characters some alive and definitely the production enhanced my enjoyment of the book. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Tags - genre - domestic drama, mystery, murder 

The First Gentleman by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

 A political and legal thriller that you won’t put down until the very last page!

President Madeline Parson Wright is about to reveal a legacy plan to overhaul the economic disaster facing the United States. As she’s scrambling to put last votes in line, her husband, the First Gentleman, is arrested and accused of committing a murder. Cole Wright, ex tight end for the Patriots, now avid supporter of his wife, is on trial for the crime committed against a former cheerleader, Suzanne Bonanno, almost 20 years ago when they were both connected to the team and they were dating, against team and NFL rules. 

Of course there are many who don’t believe Cole did it, but there are two people are determined to prove him guilty and who intend to write an expose nonfiction book covering the story. Brea Cooke and Garrett Wilson go behind the scenes, contact family and other people involved to create a narrative that will bring Cole Wright to justice. The trial promises to be epic.

There was so much going on in this book and so many different characters — some you’ll like and others who turn your stomach or rub you the wrong way. You may think you know where this is going, only to find a new twist or revelation popping up that sheds a new light on things. I loved the way the book was written and the style used by authors Patterson and Clinton to keep me hooked so that I read the book in a single sitting. Totally hooked and fully invested in the outcome. The trial scenes were great and I’m a sucker for the legal stuff so I couldn’t get enough. I’ve not read any other books by this duo but I plan to rectify that.

I was able to listen to the audiobook while also following along in the e-book ARC provided by the publishers. The four different narrators did a masterful job of bringing the story to life and the production was extremely well done. The tone, the dramatic flair, the accents, and the sound effects really enhanced my enjoyment of the novel. My favorite voices were those of the men and the voice of Brea got on my nerves at times, but overall I definitely recommend.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Tags and genre - legal and political thriller, murder, rape, courtroom, investigative reporting