Sign up
Search
Advanced search settings

Search only in certain items:

Search results
All (5000)
Content
People
Apps
Books
Orbs
Movies
Music
Podcasts
Shows
Tabletop Games
Tech
TV
Video Games
YouTube Channels
Videos
40x40

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2434 KP) rated Essentials of Death in Books

Sep 23, 2025  
Essentials of Death
Essentials of Death
Kim Davis | 2025 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Death of a Nemesis
Carissa Carmichael is frustrated to learn that the booth next to hers at a community event is being staffed by Lacie, her nemesis since the two were growing up in the town of Oak Creek Valley. True to form, Lacie makes the day miserable for everyone. But that night, Carissa stumbles on Lacie’s dead body. With the evidence pointing to herself, Carissa can’t help but jump in again. Can she find the killer?

It’s been a while since I read book one, but I didn’t have any trouble slipping back into Carissa’s world. I enjoyed the bonds the characters have, and the subplots that helped us get to know them better were great. The mystery itself started out a bit unevenly, with events driving things more than Carissa did. But as she began to take more of an active role, I got hooked, not wanting to put the book down. The ending was satisfying. And we get an essential oil recipe and an intriguing sounding cookie recipe. Here’s hoping we get to visit again soon.
  
40x40

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2434 KP) rated One Foot in the Grove (Olive Grove Mystery #1) in Books

Mar 9, 2018  
OF
One Foot in the Grove (Olive Grove Mystery #1)
Kelly Lane | 2016
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
After her second disastrous wedding happened without her getting married, Eva Knox retreated to her family’s plantation in Georgia. She’s hardly been back a week before she stumbles over a dead body in the olive grove. With the local gossip insisting she knows what happened, Eva starts poking around to figure out what really happened. Can she clear her name?

This debut was definitely a mixed bag. The plot had some nice twists and nice twists on the cozy formula, which I appreciated. On the other hand, Eva sometimes was just handed the information she needed or acted very stupidly to get it. Some characters were interesting while others are very cliche. If the premise sounds interesting, give it a shot, but it won’t be for everyone.

Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2016/11/book-review-one-foot-in-grove-by-kelly.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
  
40x40

ClareR (5996 KP) rated Watching You in Books

Jul 21, 2018  
Watching You
Watching You
Lisa Jewell | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery, Thriller
8
8.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well, this had me guessing right up to the end!
This has all the ingredients for a good thriller or mystery: a teenaged voyeur, a potentially unreliable witness with mental health issues, teenaged girls with a crush, career driven men, unfaithful spouses. Quite a lot for a book that's under 500 pages long!
An unspecified dead body appears in the first chapter, and the book then goes on to tell us the sequence of events that lead up to that moment. There are some interesting police interviews tucked in now and again too, that help to clarify (or sometimes obfuscate!) what is actually going on.
This was really good. There was no way that I was going to guess who was murdered and by whom, until the end - I liked that touch. The end was a proper bombshell moment. Great writing from Lisa Jewell!