Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger

 Fast paced and action packed suspense thriller was a fun read.

A celebrity influencer and owner of Extreme Games and Insane Challenges, Maverick Dillan, and his team are setting up another challenging game and looking for just the right contestants. This will be a hide and seek type of game with a million dollars as the prize. Those selected travel to the remote Falcao Island to a run down, old hotel crumbling into ruin at the edge of a cliff. But, aside from the game that will be live on WeWatch, there’s a hidden agenda for this stunt. 

Lots of interesting characters and points of view in the narrative with some time shifts. Some I liked, others were suspect, and a few I knew right off were bad news. I wasn’t quite sure how this was going to go and I’ve read a few of these that feature influencers going somewhere to compete in a contest. I wanted to like it, and I did. The writing was good and the atmospheric setting descriptions created the right mood for the story. Some of what happens was predictable but there were some pleasant surprises along the way to a satisfying conclusion. 

I listened to the audiobook while also reading the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. I enjoyed the narrator but she definitely lacked enough depth and range to do the many different characters. Most of the male characters all sounded the same and there were some sketchy accents, but in general, it was satisfactory. This is one of those that could really have benefited from a larger voice cast to enhance the production.

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

Tags - games, online games, social media, challenges, criminals, family

Crash Course: Accidents Don't Just Happen by Julie Whipple

 If you're about to take a flight, this is a book you might want to avoid. I admit to feeling some serious trepidation about my upcoming air travel.

In this day and age, airplane travel should be safe. Over the decades of improvement in quality and design of planes, intense training of pilots and crew, and a commitment to inspection and maintenance, we should be able to rely on a plane to take us from one place to another without incident. In light of recent events, yes there are things completely out of control of those in the air or on the ground, but most air accidents occur long before the airplane goes up. Pilots and crew are human, air traffic controllers make mistakes, and important fixes and directives don't get proper attention. The primary mission of the industry still needs to be focused on safety. Often it is not.

This book is mainly about a specific plane crash, the aftermath and effects on the survivors as the few litigants who weren't bought out line up to get justice. The tragedy ultimately is that not enough changes have been made by the airline companies to mitigate the potential for another air disaster.  

When United Flight 173 crash landed in a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, in December of 1978, 10 people were killed. The airline immediately leapt to the conclusion that it was pilot error as Captain Malburn "Buddy" McBroom indeed allowed the plane to run out of fuel. Was it because of defective gauges or was the main reason due to him being distracted by landing gear that he could not determine was locked and down. In any event, the drama surrounding the crash and the resulting legal case for punitive damages brought by one of the survivors kept the crash in the news for years. In a travesty of justice, awarded damages were overturned, lessening the sting for United Airlines and allowing them to sidestep major responsibility for the crash.

If you don't get angry when you read this and if your heart doesn't ache for all of the people on the plane and on the ground that night, then you didn't pay attention. It's the age old case of a huge company putting profits and the easy way out ahead of passenger safety. And the scariest thing is that none of us know, because of lack of transparency, whether or not the airlines are taking safety and maintenance as seriously as they must.

This was an excellent book narrated by Heather Henderson. She did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life and delivered the story with just the right touch of indignation and empathy. I believe the author is the daughter of one of the lawyers in the case brought against United Airlines on behalf of one of the survivors. 

This is a standalone nonfiction title. Not part of a series.

Tags - airplane crash, pilot error, technical details, investigation, legal case

Murder at the Loch (Ally McKinley #2) by Dee MacDonald

 

Amateur sleuth and bed and breakfast owner Ally McKinley is back in this second book in a new cozy mystery series set in the Scottish Highlands.

Out on a walk with her dog, Ally is stunned to see a body in the loch. The young woman was on her way into the village to marry a local bartender. Was this an accident or murder? Meanwhile, the local Earl, Hamish Sinclair, is introducing his fiancée as he announces an impromptu wedding up at the castle. A few close friends are invited to the actual ceremony, but most of the villagers show up for the after party. Even though Hamish is in his 70s and his beloved, Elena, is half his age, people are more or less pleased for him. Except perhaps for Hamish’s cousin who is in line to be the next earl bar Hamish having children with Elena. When she is dead under suspicious circumstances the morning after the wedding, the whole of Locharran is stunned and the gossips are trying to pin the murder on just about anyone in town. Are these two deaths related?

Ally is busy snooping around and asking lots of questions of the possible suspects. She’s aided by her boyfriend, Ross, as they attempt to solve the crime. I was way ahead of Ally and had the bad actor identified fairly quickly so this was quite predictable. 

The story line is OK but nothing extra special and although I like that it is set in current day and Scotland, the most interesting part is that the amateur sleuth is 68 years old. Some will find this far more entertaining and engaging. 

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the e-book ARC and offering this opportunity for a blog tour.

This is the second in a cozy mystery series.

Tags - older amateur sleuth, Scotland, murder 

Murder in the Scottish Highlands (Ally McKinley #1) by Dee Macdonald

 Murder mystery set in the Scottish Highlands and featuring a 60ish widow who has moved to the village of Locharran from Edinburgh. 

Ally McKinley decided she wanted a change after retirement and fell in love with an old malthouse. She had it made over into a bed and breakfast and is just having her first guests when one of them is murdered and left outside in the courtyard. Wilbur Carrington, an American, was found dead with a skean dhu (a dagger) in his back. He’d been investigating old church records because he believed he was the rightful Earl of Locharran. The current earl, Hamish Sinclair, isn’t too worried about the claim but the villagers are quite concerned about the possibility of losing their jobs and tied homes. So, who killed Wilbur and why?  Just as Ally begins her own earnest investigation, Wilbur’s brother, Tyler, and his fiancée, Mamie Van Nuyen, arrive on site to do their own sleuthing since the local police aren’t working hard enough to find the killer. 

This was OK but nothing unusual or remarkable. The story was predictable and not suspenseful. Of course Ally gets a pet — seems to be the current trope for all female amateur detectives to have an animal — and there’s even a romance. It’s set in modern day and the setting is interesting but the characters were uninspiring. Lots of small village gossip and stereotypes. This is the first in a series. I’ll try one more. 

Thank you to Bookouture for this ebook ARC to read and review.

This is the first in a series that should be read in order.

Tags - cozy, murder, amateur sleuth, sixties, romance, Scotland 

Message Deleted by K. L. Slater

 Psychological thriller and family drama.

Saffy Morris is waiting for an interview when she receives 3 messages from her old best friend, Leona. The messages sound like Leona is in trouble. But, then they all disappear and show as deleted. When Saffy rushes to the home of her friend, Leona says she doesn’t know what Saffy is talking about. She didn’t send any messages. Hmmm. But then later, Leona, her husband Ash, and their daughter disappear. The door is left open, the fire alarm is going off, and there’s blood on the floor.

This was a slow build with lots of back and forth narration between the 3 main female characters: Saffy, Leona, and Poppy (Saffy’s younger sister). They’ve all known each other since childhood and there’s a lot of past between them. Some of it connected to what is happening in the now. So multiple narrators and time shift make this a bit unevenly paced. The history is dangled without full reveal until the very end in a somewhat underwhelming conclusion. There are some twists along the way and the reader gets a feel for where this is all going. 

I never really felt too invested in the story as it was all so contrived. I didn’t like any of the characters really so there was that lack of empathy as well. The whole “why” and “who” just fell flat for me especially for the motivation. I’d say this was OK but definitely not gripping and it took me a couple of days to get through it because I just wasn’t that interested.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this ebook ARC to read and review. 

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

Tags: revenge, drama, psychological thriller