Wedding Bride and Doom
5.0
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California wedding planner, Kate Ludlow, moves back home to New England after her marriage implodes....
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2400 KP) rated I’ll Bee Home for Christmas in Books
Dec 24, 2024
It was fun to get a Christmas themed entry in this series, and the nods to the season were fun. I did feel like the food themed got in the way of the mystery a bit, leading to some rushed elements in the book. However, there are still some interesting twists and a logical climax. We also get some great development for the characters and the arcs that we’ve been following. The fun and laughs from the earlier books are present again here. And we have lots of honey themed recipes at the end to make your moth water. Fans will enjoy this sweet entry in the series.
ClareR (5955 KP) rated To The Dogs in Books
Mar 26, 2024
Jim (James) Brennan is a criminologist professor, a vice chancellor of the local university. We meet him as he gets off a flight from Beijing in order to go to his local police station where his son is being held. Jim has tried hard to make his life as different as possible from the one he grew up in: his father was a local legend and hard man. Everyone was scared of his violence. It looks as though Jim’s son is determined to take up from where his grandfather left off.
Things go from bad to worse, when someone is determined to undermine everything Jim has tried to do for himself and his family.
I really enjoyed this. There’s never a dull moment (much to Jim’s detriment!), and Jim finds himself in a terribly awkward situation. He has to decide between his family and his reputation - or is there a way that he can protect both?
This is exciting stuff, and had me guessing up to the last page.
Map of My Escape
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The shooting of a homicide detective is captured on film by a mysterious figure from a second-floor...
Detective Mystery
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2400 KP) rated Puzzle Me a Murder in Books
Aug 2, 2024
Despite the fact that I’m not much of a jigsaw puzzle guy, I thought this sounded like a fun premise for a series. Sadly, I was wrong. I didn’t feel like the characters ever went beyond being types, and it felt like they had too many interests or skills in their background. It felt like the author was checking boxes instead of making well rounded characters. There wasn’t attention to detail, so these things bumped me out of the book. The novel could have lost 60 pages without losing anything, the pacing was that off. And the climax, while logical, seemed abrupt to me. I really did want to like it more, but I won’t give this series another chance.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2400 KP) rated Murder Runs in the Family in Books
May 1, 2025
I enjoyed a previous series from this author, but this one didn’t really work for me. I was put off by a negative attitude toward Christianity we get early on. I get it that this is a personal issue, but it did make me read more critically. The characters are thin and more caricature to drive the comedy. The plot is more events than mystery driven, although Amber does make some good deductions along the way. Still, there was an aspect of the plot that I didn’t enjoy. The book does provide some laughs, but over all, it didn’t work for me. This will probably be my only visit with these characters.
Resort to Murder
7.0
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When Emmy Cooper’s life in Chicago is turned upside down, the young interior designer retreats to...
Fatal Reunion
10.0
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As Monongahela County's new coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams gears up for a third day searching for a...
The Marlow Murder Club
10.0
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A delightfully clever new mystery from creator of BBC One's hilarious murder mystery series Death in...
Nothing But the Night (Basic Instincts #2)
10.0
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Be careful what you look for in the night. Three months after the death of his brother, Marc...
Contemporary MM Romance Mystery Thriller Suspense