REVIEW: Slay Bells Ring

Slay Bells Ring
Author: Karen Rose Smith

Slay Bells Ring is the 7th book in the Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mystery series. I enjoy this series and happily jumped at the chance to read Caprice's newest adventure. But even if I hadn't read prior books in this series, I think the incredibly cute, festive cover would have pulled me in! Such a Christmas-y happy cover! Love it! Cozy mysteries have the BEST titles and covers!

In this newest mystery, Caprice is hired to put a holiday theme in a historic home in Kismet, PA. Homeowner Chris Merriweather is a toy maker and has played Santa at the local park for years. Something seems a bit off with him this year though. He seems tired and just not himself, plus he shows up at the local community theater looking like he was just in a fist fight. His behavior seems strange. He and his wife, Sara, are at odds about selling the house as well. Then Chris is found dead, murdered on Santa Lane of all places. Caprice and her family are once again on the case to find out what happened to the Vietnam vet who loved to play Santa. Turns out he had a lot of secrets.....and enemies.

This story is a bit emotional, touching on the subjects of PTSD and other after effects of war, plus the pain of discovering dark secrets. It's a well-written and enjoyable cozy mystery though, with plenty of bits of humor and brightness among the more dark aspects of the theme. The mystery moves at a perfect pace, and there are plenty of suspects and twists along the way.  The ending wasn't a huge surprise. I had my suspicions earlier in the story, but it was well executed and a good ending for the story.

All in all, another great addition to this series! I like the characters and theme for this cozy series, and can't wait to read the next book!

For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: https://karenrosesmith.com/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: The Quiche and The Dead

The Quiche and The Dead
Author: Kirsten Weiss

Val Harris loves her bakery shop, Pie Town. It offers everything from mini pastries to quiche, and almost makes up for the disastrous last five months of her life. She expected to start a new life and marriage when she moved to San Nicholas, CA with her fiance, but now all she has from that relationship is a beautiful wedding gown she never got to wear. Val has been so busy starting her new business that she hasn't had a chance to make friends or really learn much about her new home, but she's hopeful that things will start to come together. When a personal trainer opens a gym next to her shop and shames her for selling products that promote obesity and a customer drops dead in her store while eating one of her breakfast pies, her future seems bleak at best. One of her employees, Charlene, becomes a suspect in the killing. Val realizes to help her and save Pie Town she needs to do some snooping around to discover the murder's identity.

I like Val as a main character. She is intelligent, resilient and spunky. I had to chuckle a bit each time she cringed at seeing her ex-fiance's face plastered all over local real estate signs. That would really suck. I would go around with a sharpie and draws horns on all of them. :) Not mature, I know....but therapeutic. Charlene is also a hoot with her belief in conspiracy theories of all sorts and her white cat that seems to go everywhere with her. The cat reminded me of the Boneless Cat from old Peanuts cartoons.

This mystery is a great start to a new series! It is a nice mix of humor and mystery. The story moved at a nice pace, with plenty of suspects and surprises. I will definitely be reading more of this series! The next book in the series, Bleeding Tarts, will be out in April 2018. :)

For more information about the author and her books, check out her website: http://www.kirstenweiss.com/

I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Kensington via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: How the Finch Stole Christmas

How the Finch Stole Christmas
Author: Donna Andrews

Meg Langslow's husband, Michael is directing the annual charity benefit production of A Christmas Carol. Instead of Michael's usual one man show, this time they have hired a big-name actor to star in the production, but Malcolm Haver has been a problem from day one. He's a raging alcoholic, chronically late, and just a complete pain. Both Meg and Michael hope that having Haver in the cast will boost ticket sales, if his out of control drinking doesn't wreck the entire production. Haver's contract prevents him from being fired so Meg and her extended family struggle to keep him sober enough to perform. This means following him around town and hiring a "minder'' to be sure nobody sells or gives him alcohol. Add in the annual Christmas pageant at church, the discovery of an animal smuggling ring, and her grandfather pestering everyone to foster finches seized from the smugglers, and the holiday season is keeping Meg extremely busy. When a dead body is discovered in the snow and their cantankerous star actor is a murder suspect, the holiday season gets even less jolly. Can Meg and her rag tag group of friends and family make sure the Christmas productions go off without a hitch, solve the murder and break the ring of animal smugglers before the holiday season becomes a complete disaster?

This is the first book by Donna Andrews that I've read. It's #22 in the Meg Langslow series, but I was able to jump in and enjoy the story without having read any of the previous books. I could tell that I wasn't up to snuff with some of the background or personalities of the characters from previous stories, but I was still able to very much enjoy this Christmas-y cozy mystery. My favorite character by far is Meg's grandfather. He is a side character and not as developed as some of the other more main players....but his personality is just delightful. His attempts to sneak multitudes of finches into the 12 Days of Christmas display at the theater and his habit of discussing inappropriate topics (like murdered hunters and how to fingerprint dead bodies bloated by laying in water for days) at the dinner table just made him the shining star of this book, in my opinion. There wasn't a single character I didn't like (well, except maybe for the horrific Malcolm Haver), and I liked the nice mix of mystery and humor. The plot moved along at a nice pace, and the mystery definitely had a few unexpected twists and turns. All in all, a very enjoyable cozy mystery!

I liked the fact that this book wasn't in a hurry to get to the murder. There was a nice bit of story before the body popped up. The side mystery of the animal smugglers didn't over-power the murder mystery portion of the plot.....the two intertwined to make a wonderfully complex investigation. The story moves along at a nice pace, and had several surprises! Nicely done!

This is a fun book to read. It's a nice mix of holiday theme, humor, fun characters and mystery. I will definitely be going back to read the earlier books in this series. I think this will be a cozy series that I will enjoy!

For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: http://donnaandrews.com/

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from St Martins Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

REVIEW: Wheel of Darkness

Wheel of Darkness
Author: Douglas Preston & Lee Child

Following the horrors of their last adventure, Special Agent Pendergast knows his ward, Constance Greene, needs a breather, a trip to renew her physically and psychologically. What better place to renew and become mentally stronger than a Tibetan monastery? Although the monks don't normally admit women, Constance is special. She learns much from them during her time there. Then the monks discover that a dangerous artifact that has been in their keeping for centuries has been stolen. They ask Pendergast and Charlotte to get it back for them because in the wrong hands the artifact could destroy humanity. The duo find themselves on board a cruise liner, The Brittania, searching for the artifact. Unfortunately, the passenger who possesses the cursed item is already attempting to use its power. Will Pendergast be able to retrieve the artifact before its evil is released on all of humanity?

Wheel of Darkness is the 8th novel in the Agent Pendergast series. I found this book to be a bit weaker than the others I've read so far. Still enjoyable.....but the story felt like a "mop up'' of the prior Diogenes-centered storylines. But, I do have to mention that I listened to an abridged audiobook version of this story. I am not sure how much was gleaned out to shorten this book to just over six hours, but my guess is about half of the story was removed. So it could very probably be that I felt this was a weaker story because I didn't get to hear the entires story the way Preston & Child wrote it. I don't like abridged audiobooks, but in this case, it was the only option I had at my local library. I enjoyed Rene Auberjonois as narrator. He reads at a nice even pace, and I like the accent he uses for Pendergast. But I don't like the fact that so much of the story was removed. In a few places it was quite obvious that portions of the storyline were absent.

Plotwise, I found the story interesting, and it was a bit of a departure from Pendergast's usual behavior. Although some of the differences were due to the effects of the artifact. The action being on a ship at sea made for some exciting suspense. I for one would not want to be in the middle of the ocean on a ship with a powerful and evil artifact causing mayhem onboard. That's a basic fear for a lot of people, I think. Being faced with danger and a possible excruciating, torturous death while stuck somewhere that prevents escape. You can't exactly jump off a cruise ship and swim for it. The setting really made this story a lot more creepy. For the most part, I enjoyed the book.....I just wish I had been able to get an unabridged version.

There are 15 books in the Pendergast series, with a new one scheduled for 2018. I already have the next audiobook on hold at the library (unabridged!!!!! yay!!!). I'm hoping to be caught up by the time the new book comes out!

For more information on the authors and their books, check out their website: https://www.prestonchild.com/

REVIEW: Subhuman

Subhuman
Author: Michael McBride

I have heard good things about Michael McBride's books, so when this popped up as available for review, I jumped right on it. The story premise sounded a lot like The Thing with a bit of Alien mixed in. Just the sort of scary, red mist horror I love in a monster thriller!

I am glad to say that I was not disappointed!

I got the same vibe from this book that I do from many of Michael Crichton's books. The first part of the book is heavy on set-up and science-y stuff. Then that lovely, complicated science does wickedly cool things, causing the monstrous horror to pop in for the last half of the book. It really is a lovely, suspenseful build, incorporating one of my favorite settings for this sort of story....Antarctica. How isolated and totally screwed can you be when you are stuck in a research center in freaking Antarctica....one of the most unfriendly environments on the planet. It's even more unfriendly when you add violent, crazy monsters to the subzero temps, ice and snow.

I don't know enough about sound, magnetic waves, DNA, etc to know if the science in this book is completely legitimate, but the bits here and there that I did look up were basically factual. If I had stopped each time McBride mentioned some sort of science fact or discovery, I would have spent more time on Google searches than reading. So I kept my curiosity under control and only stopped a few times to look things up. The science is incorporated into the story in an interesting way. I didn't feel like complicated facts were constantly zinging over my head. It wasn't confusing, but helped build the plot and introduce the characters that were about to meet a very monstrous, nasty, ancient set of messed-up humanoids with temper issues. Lovely!! Bravo! Awesome!

All in all, a great scary monster romp! I am so glad I finally read a book by McBride. I am definitely going to be reading more of his books! Fans of Crichton, the Alien series and similar stories will definitely love this book!

REVIEW: The Dry

The Dry
Author: Jane Harper

Federal Agent Aaron Falk returns to his childhood home to attend the funeral of his friend Luke Hadler. He and Luke were quite close as children, but grew apart over the years. The situation is emotional and tense because it appears that Luke may have committed suicide after killing his wife and their  young son. Aaron has a hard time believing that Luke would do something like that, so he agrees to stay in town to help a local detective do some investigation. The locals really don't want Aaron staying in Kiewarra. He and Luke were suspects in the drowning death of one of their friends, Ellie Deacon, 20 years ago. Aaron has no clue what happened to Ellie. It's still just as much a mystery as it was all those years ago. Could it be that Luke killed Ellie and that he also killed his entire family? Out of love for Luke's parents,  Aaron braves threats from locals, his own past demons and public suspicion to find out what happened that day on the Hadler Farm.

The suspense builds slowly, but convincingly in this thriller set in Australia. There are a lot of flashbacks to Aaron's childhood, and to the day of the killings. Small town gossip and politics make the investigation tense and exciting. At times, the plot moved along a little slowly but it made it seem a bit more realistic to me. They were investigating the deaths of 3 people with possible ties to a 20 year old murder....that isn't solved in a day. And a person doesn't work through 20 years of conscience, guilt and emotion without going through the wringer first. The story is well-crafted, realistic and develops at just the right speed to have full effect on the reader. I didn't see the end coming until it whacked me upside the head.....very well done! Subtle build up culminating in an exciting ending. Just the way I like it!

I listened to the unabridged audiobook version of The Dry. Stephen Shanahan narrates at a steady even pace with good tone. I have partial hearing loss and had no problem understanding Shanahan, even with his lovely Australian accent. The audiobook is just under 10 hours long.

The Dry is the first book in the Aaron Falk series. The second book, Force of Nature, will be released in February 2018. I can't wait to read it!

For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: http://janeharper.com.au/

REVIEW: A Stranger in the House

A Stranger in the House
Author: Shari Lapena

Tom Krupp comes home from work one night to find his wife is gone. He looks around the house. She couldn't have gone far. Her purse and cell phone are still in the house. So he waits. Maybe she had to run to the store. Perhaps she's over at the neighbors. As he begins to get nervous, the police come to the door. There's been an accident. His wife had a car accident -- hit a pole -- in a rough part of town. She's ok....but what was she doing there late at night? Even Karen Krupp isn't sure. She has no memory of the accident or most of that evening. But soon there is much more to the story than just a car accident. Maybe Tom doesn't know his wife of 2 years as well as he thinks he does. Funnily enough, Karen feels the same way. 

I checked this book out of my local library when I finished one of Lapena's other books -- The Couple Next Door. This book has a very similar vibe to it: a suburban couple's lives start falling apart when an event crashes through the facade of lies they have constructed around themselves. This story builds its suspense a bit slower than The Couple Next Door, but once it builds up steam....and the suspense builds up some pressure....it really packs quite a thrilling wallop. I had things partially figured out, but there were a couple twists that caught me by surprise. Just like bad guys in suspense movies are never dead the first time they seem to be.....a good suspense novel is never, ever over until the last twist. This one had some good late wrenches to it....nicely done!

I think what creeps me out most about Lapena's thriller novels is that they are realistic. What happens in A Stranger in the House could happen. There's nothing mystical, magical, supernatural -- it's all base human behavior, lies, cunning and survival instinct. It almost makes me want to start looking at my husband sideways ..... 14 years of marriage.....what's he hiding? Is he really who I think he is? What don't I know about him? My neighbors...extended family.....the in-laws....friends.....all the people I think I know......what are they hiding? What lies lurk in their past? Hmmmm. Maybe I need another lock on the front door. :)

Great thriller novel! I sincerely hope Lapena writes more!

For more information on the author and her books, check out her website: http://www.sharilapena.com/