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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2340 KP) rated Something’s Guava Give in Books

Feb 27, 2025 (Updated Feb 27, 2025)  
Something’s Guava Give
Something’s Guava Give
Carrie Doyle | 2022 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Death on the Beach
New York transplant Plum Lockhart is beginning to get some traction for her new villa brokerage agency on the Caribbean Island of Paraiso. However, trouble comes knocking in the form of her former colleague Gerald who insists Plum go help out his boss’s daughter who is being held by the resort’s security. Plum regrets getting involved when Arielle is found murdered the next morning. Now Gerald is insisting that Plum help him solve the crime, and he’s shown up in person. Will Plum solve the case before her patience with Gerald runs out?

I struggled a bit with the first book in the series, but I’m glad I gave the series a second chance. Plum was a much better, more relatable character. Gerald still annoyed me, but the rest of the cast were fun and did a good job of keeping me guessing. The mystery was strong. A couple things seemed a little rushed, but overall it was good and reached a logical solution. Reading this book made me want to hop a plane for a tropical resort. I’ll definitely book time for the final entry in the series.
  
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
2019 | Action, Crime, Thriller
John Wick Chapter 3 picks up immediately after Chapter 2, which I liked, so it got going right away. The fighting is so well choreographed, and my favorite section of fighting was with the book in the New York Public Library. You apparently can kill someone with a very weighty book.
This chapter provided much more information on the Continental/High Table mythos, which I thought was cool. Asia Kate Dillon was stone cold as the Adjudicator, and I can't wait to see more of Dillon in Chapter 4.
I could have done without Halle Berry being in the film. She really didn't add anything, and both my father and I were annoyed that it cut away from Keanu fighting to show her, when frankly, the only person I really want to see kicking ass is Keanu.
  
With fall in the air, Julia must make decisions about her future with the family clambake. Will she stay or return to her job in New York City? That gets put on the back burner when the body of a potential competitor is found on an abandoned boat and the police begin to question her brother-in-law, who is clearly hiding something.

The book started off strong and never slowed down. There are plenty of secrets, clues, and twists along the way to a fantastic ending. The characters were strong and that made me care about the solution to the mystery that much more.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/05/book-review-musseled-out-by-barbara.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
The Stepford Wives (1975)
The Stepford Wives (1975)
1975 | Drama, Thriller
Bryan Forbes' SF-horror-satire has left a cultural impression out of all proportion to its original box-office success. Nice modern couple leave grimy New York for idyllic small town of Stepford, where everyone seems happy and the women are thoroughly domesticated. What on Earth can the secret of the place be...?


 Subtle storytelling and fine performances do a good job of masking the fact that the premise of the story is basically a paranoid fever-dream; oddly, some people interpreted the film as being anti-feminist and actually misogynistic, when it is actually about male objectification of women and fears of the same (maybe also has stuff to say about consumerism too). Perhaps a bit overlong, but the slow aggregation of details adds a lot to a convincingly unsettling atmosphere. An entertaining horror fable.