A Muddied Murder

Title: A Muddied Murder
Author: Wendy Tyson
Published: March 29th 2016 by Henery Press
Format: eBook, Paperback, 288 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and Henery Press for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Greenhouse Mystery #1

I admit that I was a bit apprehensive when it came to yet another cozy mystery series by an unknown to me author. I tend to stick with those that I have liked in the past and a new untried writer was a pond that I did not want to step in to.

Wendy Tyson pleasantly surprised me -- she did not present the usual fluff that new writers to this genre tend to do. Her characters were engaging without being foolish. There were multiple plot lines that kept the reader engaged with an ending that was not apparent from the beginning.

Less than two years ago, Megan Sawyer was tied to a desk in Chicago defending big companies from environment claims. Today she is in Winsome, a rural Pennsylvania town where she is running an organic gentlemen’s farm and supplying the local farmers market and a new store and café with her goods.

Simon Duvall is found dead in her barn and word is trickling down to her that her farm, Washington Acres was supposed to be sold to the Winsome Historical Society. This was never in her plan, the farm had been in her family’s name for over seventy-five years and there was rumor that George Washington had once stayed on this property. With fingers being pointed and the identity of the killer in question, Megan is determined to figure this out and finally answer why her farm is being targeted.

As I said, the who and why in this story is not obvious from the start and the author does take the reader on a winding road, but in the end it was well explained and the reader is introduced to memorable characters that I hope will make reappearances in future books.

Rogue Lawyer

Title: Rogue Lawyer
Author: John Grisham
Published: October 20th 2015 by Doubleday
Format: Hardcover, 344 pages
Genre: Legal Thriller

This one did not work for me. I could not connect with Sebastian Rudd even though he was technically on the right side of the law; he still came across to me as a bit smarmy. Sebastian does not fit the typical attorney profile, there is no big office with shiny furniture and clients with the proper pedigrees – he represents the kind of people that forces him to work out of a customized bulletproof van with a driver that is also his bodyguard and paralegal.

The beginning of the book throws a couple of clients at the reader and you are not sure if these are characters that will stay or just a slight glimpse of what is to come. By the end, you will see that each case Sebastian takes is only a small vignette of his life. The cases and the people that make his life a bit unstable and the reason why his ex-wife is constantly dragging him back to court over custody of their son.

Rudd does not have to take the cases that he does, he is very talented but there is an adrenaline rush that he gets from taking on the dirtier sides of life. Much like the MMA fighters that he sponsors, the courtroom is his cage and this is where the adrenaline flows and he is able to prove his worth.

This is not Grisham’s best novel. There are better but still the reader makes it to the end. Take it for what it is – a legal thriller that only Grisham can tell.

The Murder House

Title: The Murder House
Author: James Patterson and David Ellis
Published: September 28th 2015 by Little, Brown and Company)
Format: Hardcover, 451 pages
Genre: Suspense

The locals know 7 Ocean Drive in the Hampton’s as the murder house. It has been the scene of multiple murders over the years. The most recent deaths involve a Hollywood producer and his girlfriend.

Jenna Murphy has returned to the area for a fresh start. She was a detective in New York City and after an unfortunate incident, the only job that she can get is with her uncle at the Southampton Town Police Department –the same jurisdiction as the murder house. The last time that she was here was as a young girl, she did not know why her family had never come back and no one thought to give her the answer. That is until after her uncle’s untimely death and the nightmares once again take over Jenna’s life.

Noah Walker, described as a combination of Matthew McConaughey and surfer Jesus, is charged with the deaths and as Jenna digs deeper, she realizes that the stories are not adding up. This writing team throws in enough twists that the reader begins to questions who are the good guys in this tale. Jenna tells us early on that she is always attracted to the bad boys, but with so with many to choose from, the reader is bouncing back and forth with multiple possibilities. From Noah, to Issac to Aidan to that other guy, the reader is constantly putting on their Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat trying to figure this all out.

As I reached the end, I was hoping for one last twist, one seemingly out of left field moment and I was not disappointed. I had wondered if this was a possibility, but thought that maybe there was something else. Something that could otherwise explain what had happened years before.

Patterson books can be hit or miss with me and this definitely was a hit. Good characters, good plot and just enough twists to keep me reading.

She's Not There

Title: She's Not There
Author: Joy Fielding
Published: February 23rd 2016 by Ballantine Books
Format: ebook; Hardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Suspense
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Taking its opening notes from the Madeleine McCann abduction of 2007, Joy Fielding takes her readers down a lackluster path of an abducted child while on a family vacation in Mexico.

From the outside, the Shipley’s appear to have it all, to celebrate their anniversary, Hunter has planned a dinner for Caroline with a few friends a short distance from their Rosarito hotel room. When their babysitter does not arrive, instead of canceling, Hunter convinces Caroline that their daughters will be fine in their room. They will check every 30 minutes and they can continue with their plans. Unfortunately, Hunter did not live up to his end of the bargain and as the couple returns to their room at the end of the evening, two-year-old Samantha has vanished without a trace.

Years of anguish and torment follow Caroline – that is until the fateful phone call. “I think my real name is Samantha. I think that I’m your daughter.” Caroline is now plunged back fifteen years. She has followed leads in the past, there is no reason to follow another, but yet, there is a pull here. Her daughter Michelle is trying to derail the inquiry and since she has always been a difficult child, Caroline is at a turning point. Does she take one more gamble and risk losing her remaining child or walk away as Michelle wants?

Maybe it is my overly inquisitive natures, but I thought that the responsible party was a little too obvious. Granted, I might have thought that it was the “other person” in the web, but I was darn close. Joy Fielding, gave you the clues all along, but it was not until the end that the full picture was drawn. Regrettably, it was too late. The road to the end was too long and meandering and there was not one character that I was drawn too. You would think that a mother could relate to the anguish of another, but I found myself bored.