Night of Miracles

Title: Night of Miracles
Author: Elizabeth Berg
Published: November 13th 2018 by Random House
Format: eBook, Hardcover, 288 pages
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Arthur Truluv #2

Continuing from ‘The Story of Arthur Truluv’, Elizabeth Berg recreates her magic with Lucille’s story. Now living in Arthur’s home and teaching the love of baking from her kitchen, she has found her place. Startled awake by an unknown visitor, Lucille has come face to face with her own Angel of Death. She is not ready and asks for more time since she has not yet received her miracle and a person cannot die without first receiving a miracle.

There is a sub-plot involving Monica, a waitress at the local diner, and her crush on a customer, but that part of the story did not grasp me as much as Lucille and the thwarting of her nightly visitor, and Iris, who is restarting her life in a small town as Lucille’s assistant. Both women grate on each other from time to time, but that is how great friendships start so I was intrigued by this interaction.

What did twist the heartstrings was the family across the street and a sudden diagnosis and how a family can be pulled and tugged but will always finds their way back to what is important. Even if the family sees sugar as poison and Lucille, a semi-reluctant babysitter, decides to share her creations and perhaps a miracle with a family that needs a little of both.

Each person reading this will come away with a different feeling for which Elizabeth Berg was trying to convey. Is it family, friends, or even baking that brings people together. Does a person’s age, weight, or position in society define them? Is it important who says sorry first or where a person finds a home? Most importantly, does it matter where a person is married? Or do you do the next best that you can and bring the wedding to them?

This is a book of memories, a book of triumphs, and a book of forgiveness.

The Crooked Street

Title: The Crooked Street
Author: Brian Freeman
Published: January 29th 2019 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: eBook, 362 pages
Genre: Police Procedural / Suspense
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Frost Eastman #3

You knew that there was going to be a twist at the end of this book. You were not quite sure which person was going to be the one that would blow Frost Eastman’s world apart and to be quite honest, when it happens, you are not fully prepared for it. Yet it happens, the plot was set and though Frost will be in for a showdown in the next book, you know that there will be no coming back.

Lombard is not just a street in San Francisco, it is also folklore that the police department has kept going for years. A mystery along the lines of “the bogeyman”, the one blamed when there are no other suspects or there is a need for deception.

When Frost’s old business partner shows up near death on his doorstep, Denny Clark is only able to utter one word “Lombard”, before he dies. This one utterance spirals Frost Easton, Detective with the San Francisco Police Department, into a high stakes game of finding the next victim before they becomes a victim and a red spray painted snake, in the shape of the most crooked street in the world, is found near the body.

Turns out that the infamous Lombard just might be real and has been in control for years with the police department either being inept and not relating the murders or there is an inside person purposely diverting the investigations. Either way, Frost is going to lay his life on the line to protect the last known survivor to have witnessed the Machiavellian goings on when a ship returns to shore and there is a person missing.

With subterfuge and espionage, Frost is beginning to believe that he can trust no one. Yet he has to trust and right now, that falls on the shoulders of his brother and his new girlfriend Tabby. They are the only two people, that is besides his street smart buddy Herb, in his life, but of course, Frost might have messed that up when one night his attraction to Tabby goes too far and his brother witnessed their spark.

The only thing that kept bothering me in this book was every operative had a unique code and when meeting someone would say, “identification”, which was supposed to cause them to snap to attention and spout information, like a soldier obeying orders. This was too much along the lines of “play Manchurian with me”, which was dominant in the Dean Koontz /Jane Hawk series and had me wondering if there could have been another way around that did not overlap.

Believe Me

Title: Believe Me
Author: J.P. Delaney
Published: July 24th 2018 by Quercus
Format: eBook, 400 pages
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

If you are drawn to psychological thrillers that are a cat and mouse twist’em-up leaving you unsure of everyone and anything, then ‘Believe Me’ is the answer to your late night reading.

JP Delaney claims that ‘Believe Me’ was actually a first novel, but rewritten for a new release. In a way, I can see that since as they say an author spends a lifetime on their first book and six months on their second. That makes sense since this book is hands-down better than ‘The Girl Before’.

Claire Wright, a British actress living in the United States without a green card, finds it hard to get work on the stage. Unable to land the work that she loves, she takes on a side job working for a divorce firm setting up wayward husbands.

Claire becomes the suspect when a wife is found dead and the primary suspect is the man that had refused Claire in a bar. This is no ordinary man; he is a college professor specializing in Charles Baudelaire’s writings. Writings that have a very specialized following and which will lead Claire into a world that is both terrifying and mesmerizing. Convinced to go undercover, and playing the role of a lifetime to reveal the professor’s character and previous crimes, the table soon turns and it is Claire that is fighting for her life, her name, and even her sanity.

Told with screen narration, JP Delaney takes the reader through the harrowing mind of a sociopath, but there are parts that are so twisted that you lose track of who is the prey. There are parts intentionally left out in the telling of this story, and it is not until the end, when the reader realizes the full scope of this story, that the truth of who the unreliable narrator is trying to convince.

The Case of the Hidden Daemon

Title: The Case of the Hidden Daemon
Author: Lucy Banks
Published: October 23rd 2018 by Amberjack Publishing
Format: eBook, Paperback, 300 pages
Genre: Supernatural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Dr Ribero's Agency of the Supernatural #3

Is there such a thing as a cozy supernatural ghost story? Considering that I am still confused as to which genre this series belongs – it seems too simple to be an adult book, but at times, too much for a young adult, so I continue to question where it belongs.

Dr. Ribero’s Agency of the Supernatural once again bumbles their way through a case that began in the last book, ‘The Deadly Doppelganger’, and jerkily moved the plot forward. This time with added intrigue of an odd cult that teams up with an old and formidable daemon that has inhabited more than one person and is on the lookout for the next.

Using anagrams, which I am not totally convinced were not used during the writing of other parts of this book, Lucy Banks reveals the secrets of who the daemon is and what his plans are. It takes the mind of the least likely band of characters of the Agency to figure out the code, but in doing so, realizes that he has been played and that once again, his heart has been broken.

Though I keep reading, I am not one-hundred-percent sold on this series. There seems to be something missing, that magical quotient that makes for the quintessential cannot put down series.

A Grave Peril

Title: A Grave Peril
Author: Wendy Roberts
Expected Publication January 21st 2019 by Carina Press
Format: eBook, 230 pages
Genre: Suspense
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Bodies of Evidence #3

Once you get past Julie Hall’s (yes, she changed her name back) whining and histrionics, you can suss out an interesting , though twisty, kidnapping and murder involving her boyfriend FBI Agent Garrett Pierce and his need to help his ex-brother-in-law.

To be honest, I would have preferred her dowsing for bodies instead of tracking down her boyfriend in an overly dramatic way, but having to deal with what Wendy Roberts wrote, I trudged on to the end. Apparently, the drug cartel does not like it when people get in the way of a drug shipment and since they have gone to great lengths to guarantee that the authorities do not find the date of their new delivery, they are not going to tolerate a nosey girlfriend getting in the way.

Garrett had left messages and avoided all contact, but no, Julie cannot leave well enough alone and it is not until everyone’s life is in danger before the truth comes out and their relationship is left in tatters.

It is sad that when a series, which started out with such promise, has been reduced to my only liking the dog. Wendy Roberts -- grow this character up and bring her back to searching for bodies.

Swallow the Hook

Title: Swallow the Hook (re-released as The Lure)
Author: S. W. Hubbard
Published: May 25th 2004 by Pocket
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Genre: Mystery
Series: Frank Bennett Adirondack Mystery Series #2

S.W. Hubbard is an undervalued writer. In this tightly plotted novel, the reader follows the story of Mary Pat Sheehan and the people of Trout Run, New York. Police Chief Frank Bennett, after leaving his position in Kansas City and following the death of his wife, thinks that nothing much can happen in this remote mountain village, but that quickly changes when a car crash reveals that the victim actually died from the complications of childbirth. Turns out that no one knew this affable single woman was dating anyone let along pregnant.

If she was pregnant, where is the baby? This is the twisty road that Chief Bennett must maneuver as he tries to find the child, find those that helped Mary Pat give birth yet did not care enough for her to make sure that she was ok. Add in a community that is rocked by secrets, environmentalists trying to shut down a local attraction, bullets flying at innkeepers, a romance on the side, and a little girl growing up in the wrong family that will break the reader’s heart and make you want to reach into the book and take her home with you.

There is pain in this book. When you have what you want at your fingertips and it is brutally ripped away, there is no limit to what you will do. You cannot judge, yet you feel for all those involved. When this book was over, I missed this little town and the good people that are just trying to make their way and possibly a child that will bring families together.

Iced Inn

Title: Iced Inn
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: December 17th 2018 by Gray Whale Press
Format: eBook, 58 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Gray Whale Inn

Oh, the simplicity of short stories. Those little installments that bring you back to a series without having to invest more time than you actually have over the holidays.

As Natalie, the owner of the Gray Whale Inn prepares for her niece’s wedding, complete with bickering soon to be in-laws, a sudden uptick in thefts have taken over the island. The items taken were for an upcoming island auction so it did not make sense why they were the focus until a crush is revealed and the perpetrator is discovered.

There are a few bumps in the story and quite a bit of repetition but Karen MacInerney does set a memorable image of the perfect winter wedding on Cranberry Island.

The Whispered Word

Title: The Whispered Word
Author: Ellery Adams
Published: November 27th 2018 by Kensington
Format: eBook, 306 pages
Genre: Cozy Myster
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Secret, Book, & Scone Society #2

I am not a big fan of this series. There is something too simple about Nora Pennington of Miracle Springs and her healing way with the right book for the right ailment. Granted, I do love the titles and authors that she mentions, which bring back memories of when I too had read them, but for the most part, the ladies of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society are not memorable.

When Abilene shows up in Miracle Springs wearing a hospital gown and no other identification, the ladies take her under their wing. When it is discovered that this mystery girl also has ties to a recently deceased woman with a valuable book collection, the ladies try to put all the pieces together only to discover that too many people have secrets and ulterior motives and only a set of keys can truly reveal who Abilene is and why she was kept hidden for most of her life.

Not everyone is who they pretend to be. The adage of hiding in plain sight comes to mind, and Nora is faced with this reality when her own life is held in the balance by a person that she had discounted and learned almost too late was the real mastermind behind the deaths and the reasons for manipulating those in this trusting town.

The Coloring Crook

Title: The Coloring Crook
Author: Krista Davis
Published: November 27th 2018 by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Format: eBook, Paperback, 304 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Pen & Ink #2

Florrie Fox, manager of the Color Me Read in Georgetown, has once again gotten herself into a mess when a friend has brought her a copy of a rare manuscript. A coloring book of sorts called The Florist that not only has a cult following, but also people desperate enough to kill for it.

The story gets a bit twist and if it was not for Ms. Davis explaining the rational of the criminals involved, I am sure that I would have gotten a bit confused at the ending. Sometimes crimes can be over thought, but in doing so the story of Dolly Cavanaugh, and her love of estate sales, ends up with her death, a body in a wall, stories of multiple dead husband’s, a supposed college student in his own search, and a group of friends that each in their own way, help to find a killer and return a treasure.

There is a great deal thrown in with an endless stream of characters that might be off putting for some, but once you get the flow, the story takes off. Though a part of a series, the author goes into detail explaining who everyone is so do not feel that you have to start at book one to understand where everyone is within this story. I do hope that the butler, Mr. Dubois, will be a steady recurring character since he is the one bright and shinning character that has stayed with me throughout.