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The Double-A Western Detective Agency
The Double-A Western Detective Agency
Steve Hockensmith | 2018 | Mystery
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Detectifying in the Old West Once Again
Cowboy brothers turned detectives Big Red and Old Red have started a new detective agency with Diana and her father, Colonel Crowe. There's just one problem, the lack of paying customers. So when they are hired to travel to DeBatge, New Mexico, and catch some cattle rustlers, Old Red reluctantly agrees to go even though it's not the kind of case he wants to take. With Diana tagging along, the brothers set out. However, when they arrive, they discover a town divided with tensions running high. The source of this powder keg? Their client. Then a dead body turns up, igniting the fuse. Can Old Red figure things out before the town explodes? Will the trio get caught in the crossfire no matter what happens?

I was so glad when I learned author Steve Hockensmith was writing a new adventure for these two cowboys. If you haven't yet had the pleasure of traveling back to the 1890's with them, you are in for a treat. The characters are wonderful. Since we don't have too many recurring characters, that leaves plenty of room for new characters, and figuring out if they are friend or foe drives so much of the plot. Yes, there is a mystery, and Old Red does a great job of figuring out what is going on. He was certainly several steps ahead of me. However, the added stress of the conflicts in town adds to the tension and puts Big Red and Old Red's lives in danger on a regular basis. The humor from the earlier books is still here as well and helps defuse the tension a little.
  
    My Town : Police

    My Town : Police

    Education and Games

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    It’s time to report for duty at the My Town : Police Station! Will you be able to catch the bad...

The Merchant's House (Wesley Peterson #1)
The Merchant's House (Wesley Peterson #1)
Katie Ellis | 2010 | Crime, History & Politics, Thriller
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
111 of 250
Book
The Merchants House ( Wesley Peterson book 1)
By Kate Ellis

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Detective Sergeant (and amateur archaeologist) Wesley Peterson hoped that a transfer from the lively but frantic pace of London to the bucolic river port of Tradmouth would have a positive effect on both his personal and professional lives. But Wes's first day on the job has hardly begun before he finds himself heading up an investigation into the murder of an unidentified young woman whose face has been brutally disfigured. And it's not long before Wes discovers that the Tradmouth force is as hopelessly overstretched as London's Met; in addition to the unidentified murder victim, the local police have been embroiled in a frantic search for a missing child. As Wes and his fellow detectives try to determine the identity of the young woman in hopes of catching her murderer, a strange parallel emerges between this case and a nearby archeological dig being conducted by Wes's college friend. Two skeletons have been unearthed in the ruins of a seventeenth-century merchant's house, one of them the apparent victim of a four-hundred-year-old murder. At first Wes is interested on a purely personal level, but strange connections between the murdered girl, the missing child, and the murder that occurred four hundred years ago soon begin to surface. Wes must act quickly to prove his suspicions, before another body joins those already residing in the dust of the merchant's house.


I struggled and struggled it had so many issues and the book was quite boring!
I will never encourage anyone to not read a book I think it’s important that people try as many books as possible. This is just my opinion.
  
The Heron's Cry
The Heron's Cry
Ann Cleeves | 2021 | Contemporary, Crime, Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
An excellent, complex character-driven mystery
Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a farm/artist retreat where Dr. Nigel Yeo has been killed. He's found dead in his own daughter's glassblower studio, stabbed with a shard of one of her vases. Dr. Yeo seems like a nice man: adored by his daughter and a public servant, working to help bring understanding between the public trusts. When a second body is found--killed in a similar way--Matthew realizes that he must dig deep into the secrets and lies of his community to find a killer.

I adore this series and the fact that Detective Matthew Venn, our lead, is a gay man. As with all of Cleeves' books, this is an excellent, solid mystery, with an interesting plot and a team whom you can easily become invested in. Each of her characters is well-written, strong, and original. It's so refreshing, honestly, to read a tale without a crazy unreliable narrator but instead one that simply relies on a strong story and excellent characters. There is a slate of people who could be potential suspects, and we also get backstories for our various detectives: Matthew, Ross, and Jen. Everyone is entwined in this small town (and honestly, if I were them, I'd be a bit worried how many people seem to die there! Cabot Cove, anyone?).

This book kept me guessing the entire time, which I love. I was constantly second guessing myself and wondering who killed whom. It was filled with twists, but nothing wild or unbelievable. This is easily becoming one of my new favorite series. 4+ stars.

I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Feb 24, 2023  
You have to check out the awesome cover for the police procedural mystery novel BRUTAL SEASON by Maryann Miller! Visit my blog for a looksee, and enter the amazing giveaway for a chance to win signed copies of all three books in the Seasons Mystery Series and a $50 Amazon gift card.

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2023/02/cover-reveal-pre-order-book-blitz-and_01323321514.html

**ABOUT THE BOOK**
Eighteen-year-old Jamel Frederickson is shot and killed by a white, rookie Dallas police officer. His crime? Being black and mentally ill.

Following that unwarranted death, anger, and violence erupts on the streets, leading to the murders of two protestors who were marching around the downtown federal building.

Detectives Sarah Kingsly and Angel Johnson are thrust into the investigation of those murders, while desperately clinging to the threads of their partnership.

The shootings also raise questions about whether the alt-right white supremacists that invaded the city with their guns and inflammatory rhetoric are responsible.

Will more people get killed?

Is there more than one person out there with an agenda?

When a member of the team, Ryan O’Donnell, is shot while attempting to prevent looting, the tension in the city, and the department, ratchets up even higher. And it deeply affects Angel who’s been pretending she really isn’t falling for this white man.

Angel joins the protests to take a stand against racism in the city and within the department; an action that puts her job, her relationship with Ryan, and her fragile partnership with Sarah at risk.

For her part, Sarah comes to realize that she is not as enlightened as she thought she was, and both women just hope they can come through the personal and professional challenges and end up with something that resembles a true partnership.

While catching the killers in the process.