Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

Title: Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide
Author: Rupert Holmes (yes, that Rupert Holmes)
Expected Publication Date: February 21st 2023 by Avid Reader Press / Simon Schuster
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 400 pages
Genre: Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: Forward: So, you’ve decided to commit a murder.

Blurb: Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: To say that this is reminiscent of a Harry Potter book would be an understatement. Think Harry, Ron, and Hermione, then add a sideways slant. Stir in a few oddly named professors and students, and you will have a Hogwarts for adults wanting to refine their homicidal expertise.

Not everyone is born with the right set of skills, and that is where McMasters comes in. The book was written tongue-in-cheek, yet there is a darker side. Once you get past the humor -- which I don’t think you really can -- the curious way of looking at quotes, and the end game, you will find a book that you will keep on your shelf, much like the Potter books, since each time you reread it, you will notice what you hadn’t before.

As the narration slows, Rupert Holmes will add a few eyebrow-raising comments that have the reader, once again, fully engaged.

The humor throughout is what will keep the reader turning pages. Unfortunately, the ending leads the reader to believe this will be a one-and-done novel. But then again, one never knows.

The Lies that Bind

Title: The Lies that Bind
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: December 26th 2022 by Gray Whale Press
Format: Kindle, 219 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Series: Snug Harbor #3

First Sentence: There is nothing more perfect than a Maine summer day, when the sun is bright in the sky, the water is the color of cobalt, and the breeze is perfumed with the scent of salt air tinged with roses.

Blurb: Bookstore owner Max Sayers of Seaside Cottage Books is starting to settle into Snug Harbor, Maine when a local playboy plunges to his death... and Max's best friend Denise is on the hotseat for murder. Denise is an obvious prime suspect—the dead man just nabbed the coffee house she'd been planning to buy for years right out from under her—and Max seems to be the only one in Snug Harbor who believes her friend isn't Maine's answer to Lizzie Borden.

To top things off, business at Seaside Cottage Books is not exactly putting the store at the top of the Snug Harbor bestseller list. Add in a challenging ex-husband, a mother who's fangirl crushing on her ex's new girlfriend, and a daughter who's boycotting the bookseller's own budding romance, and Max finds herself wishing she were buried in a book instead of a real-life murder mystery. Then Max stumbles across a second body... and realizes if she doesn't think fast, this new chapter of her life may come to a very sudden end.

My Opinion: I was hoping that Karen MacInerney would have hired an editor by now, but sadly, that is not the case. There are continuity issues that have the reader paging back and forth, wondering if they missed something or if it is just another case of the author/editor not remembering the details mentioned previously.

It is refreshing to find an amateur sleuth not being a step ahead of the local detective boyfriend. Not that Snug Harbor is large enough for one, but there is no back-and-forth bickering and threats between the two characters.

Is the perpetrator easy to identify early on? You will have your suspicions, but there is no definitive proof until the confession.

Overall, it is not a bad book, though there are a few annoying things -- flow interruptions, teenage angst, wondering if the author researched or just went with her gut to get the narrative where she needed it to go, etc. Are they forgivable? Since this is a cozy mystery, I think I should be more accepting.

NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority

Title: NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority
Author: Marshall Karp
Published: November 22nd 2022 by Blackstone Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 350 Pages
Genre: Police Procedural****
Series: NYPD Red #7

First Sentence: My phone chirped, and I looked down at the gray text bubble on my screen.

Blurb: Finding a single assassin in a city of nine million people is daunting. Finding five is a nightmare.

Lower Manhattan: A sniper's bullet ends the life of a high-profile New Yorker. Five miles uptown, a second prominent victim has his throat slashed.

And that's only the beginning. A network of professional assassins is on the loose in New York City. Trained by the US military, they're on their own now, with a new unit called Kappa Omega Delta. Killers On Demand. NYPD Red detectives Kylie MacDonald and Zach Jordan are called in to hunt them down, but these mercenaries are as gifted in the art of escape as they are in snuffing out lives.

It's the biggest professional challenge the Red team has ever faced, and before it's over, both Kylie's and Zach's personal lives will change. Forever. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: When I read a book title, I try to guess what the narrative will be about. I was way off on this one. The cover is a little misleading. The previous books in this series were a collaboration between Marshall Karp and James Patterson. This book is all Karp with a blurb on the front from Patterson -- of course, his name is in large font -- but only to tell the readers that he is excited to read the book without knowing the ending. Since this book does not skip a beat, the writing team is ok with missing one of the bit players.

I enjoy this easy-to-read series. There is humor, twists, and characters that are enjoyable to follow. One of the main twists, which is a bit out of left field, leaves the reader hoping that there will be more to the story and they will become a recurring character.

Murder at Haven's Rock

Title: Murder at Haven's Rock
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Expected Publication: February 21st 2023 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Haven's Rock, #1

First Sentence: Prologue: The longer Penny works on building this strange little town, the more obvious it becomes that the company is lying.

Blurb: Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know first hand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town's construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, well hidden with evidence of foul play, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman, and locate the still missing man. The woman stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see, and the longer Casey and Eric don’t know what happened, the more danger everyone is in. (Goodreads)

My Opinion: As the story gets twisty, you will need to get out the murder board and string to keep all the players straight.

As the story gets twisty, you are going to need to get out the murder board and string to keep all the players straight.

Unless I forgot something from the end of the Rockton series, I am still not sure why this is a sequel as compared to adding another book to the Rockton series. If Kelley Armstrong was only trying to clean house and attempt a fresh start to separate Haven’s Rock from the Rockton management, I would think there would be easier ways of doing it.

The previous series is rehashed throughout and a couple of old characters are mentioned while others have already returned. The flow and humor are there, which is what lovers of Rockton will enjoy. Unfortunately, there are many slow spots where Casey and Eric rehash, ad nauseum, what has happened so far instead of leaving it up to the reader to keep score and the players lined up.

Kelley Armstrong is my kind of author so of course; I will be awaiting each upcoming book in this new series.

Three Can Keep a Secret

Title: Three Can Keep a Secret
Author: M.E. Hilliard
Expected Publication: February 7th 2023 by Crooked Lane Books
Format: Kindle, 320 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Greer Hogan Mystery #3

First Sentence: Raven Hill Manor was silhouetted against a blazing scarlet sky.

Blurb: Greer Hogan is a librarian turned sleuth, an avid reader of crime fiction who possesses an uncanny knack for deduction—and now, she’s drawn into another murder case as late autumn slowly turns to winter in the idyllic village of Raven Hill. When Anita Hunzeker, chair of the library board of trustees, is run off the road and killed, no one seems all that sorry. Anita was widely disliked, and the townsfolk would just as soon be rid of her. But when a local professor turns up dead as well, his connection to Anita and to other local residents leaves the suspect pool covering the entire county.

Greer starts poking around, and the more she digs, the more it seems like everyone she knows is trying to hide something. When she unearths a clue in the old manor cemetery, she finally discovers the shocking truth—a cache of dark secrets stretching back decades that could rock the town to its core. Everyone who’s come close to the truth has ended up dead—and if Greer doesn’t tread lightly, she could be the next librarian to get archived for good.(Goodreads)

My Opinion: Unlike the previous books, Three Can Keep a Secret does not add the extra layer of the old house/library gothic ambiance that was a hallmark of earlier volumes.

There are tedious and repetitious sections, and it is not until the last twenty percent of the book that the story picks up steam. If the reader is unfamiliar with a particular rhyme, the ah-ha moment is a surprise. I wanted to think of this as a stretch, but in a way, it worked perfectly.

When it comes to the perpetrator, I cannot say that it was a surprise since early on there were clues. I just could not narrow it down to one due to the complexity and competing motives. Turns out it was not as straight of a line as I imagined. Yet it was interesting how Greer, a librarian by day, amateur sleuth by night, tied all the parts together.

In future books, I would prefer more creepy gothic tones and a few more bumps in the night.