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Murder in the Tattoo Parlor
Murder in the Tattoo Parlor
Elizabeth Perona | 2021 | Mystery
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Murder Leaves a Permanent Mark
Francine and Charlotte have agree to go with Joy to her appointment to get a tattoo. Yes, it’s on Joy’s bucket list, but she’s not so sure she’ll actually follow through. They show up for the late-night appointment only to find the tattoo artist dead. The new police chief wants them to stay far away from the case, but Francine can’t help but start investigating. Her biggest surprise is that none of her friends seems that interested in helping with the case since they all have their own distractions. Can Francine figure out what happened?

I thought this series had concluded years ago, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the authors have self-published a couple of additional entries. I’d forgotten about a storyline that enters the paranormal realm that I wasn’t a fan of, yet I’m curious where it is going in the next in the series. While the plot started well, Francine spends a lot of time going in circles. Parts are obvious early, yet the climax still feels rushed. On the other hand, I still enjoy the characters and liked spending time with them again. I’ll probably pick up the next just to see where the story is going. The authors do have me curious about that.
  
A Christmas Candy Killing
A Christmas Candy Killing
Christina Romeril | 2022 | Mystery
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Sweetly Festive Debut
Identical twins Alex and Hanna have made a life for themselves in a small Montana town, where they have opened Murder and Mayhem, a combination mystery bookstore and chocolate shop. In the time they’ve been here, Alex has become friends with Jane, one of their neighbors. Jane invites Alex over to view a true crime show because she believes that one of their neighbors is the killer still at large at the end of the episode. But when Alex arrives, she finds Jane’s dead body. The police think it was a robbery gone wrong, but Alex wonders if Jane was really onto something. Can she find the killer?

Between the culinary cozy theme and the Christmas setting, I have to give this debut a chance. I’m glad I did. The first couple of chapters had a bit too much background on Alex and Hanna, but once the murder happened, things picked up. I appreciated how the clues were folded into the story. Not that I figured out the killer using them. The characters are good, but they could be a little stronger. Likewise, the setting is good, but could be a little stronger. Both of these are minor complaints since I am definitely ready to visit my new friends and this location again soon. I enjoyed the Christmas timing as well. This is a delicious debut.
  
40x40

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2623 KP) rated Death on the Set in Books

Sep 1, 2022 (Updated Sep 1, 2022)  
Death on the Set
Death on the Set
Rose Kerr | 2022 | Mystery
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Cooking Competitions are Killer
After losing her husband and her job, Brenna is back in her hometown trying to rebuild her life. Thanks for a friend who works at a temp agency, she’s landed a job as a production assistant on a cooking competition show being filmed in town. On her first full day of work, she shows up early to find the dead body of one of the contestants on the set. Since Brenna is a suspect, she starts investigating. Can she figure out what really happened?

The book jumps into the main mystery pretty quickly, just giving a brief mention to Brenna’s backstory. Yes, it is expanded on later, but I appreciated that we didn’t get a data dump, which would have been tempting. Unfortunately, the pacing of the mystery was still off; we got more details about Brenna’s job than I really needed. Still, there is a good mystery here, and I appreciated how the climax played out. Also, I liked that Brenna was mostly quick to share with the police anything she learned. There were a couple of continuity issues early on, but those disappeared as the book progressed. Brenna was a charming main character, and she is surrounded by a cast I enjoyed spending time with. There’s definitely potential for this to turn into a fun series.
  
Only Daughter
Only Daughter
10
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Kat experiences every mother’s worst nightmare when her little girl is found dead. And then the police add the word ‘suicide’. But Kat refuses to believe them.
Even when they show her the familiar looping handwriting and smudged ink on the note Grace left behind. She knows her bubbly, bright daughter would never take her own life.
But as she searches Grace’s perfume-scented room, filled with smiling photos, she uncovers secrets her daughter had been hiding. Secrets that make her wonder how well she really knew the woman her only child was becoming.
Kat’s determined to find out what really happened to Grace on the night she died, even if it means confronting her own troubled past. But as she gets closer to the terrible truth, Kat is faced with an unthinkable question: there was no way she could have protected Grace – or was there?

This book was filled with so many twists, turns, and shocks that had me hanging off of every page.
This is the story of Kat, wife, mother, sociopath. Her teenage daughter has just been found dead at the bottom of a quarry, and the police are calling it a suicide.
The writing is superb in this compelling story and the characters are totally believable and seem so believable as they have their faults and secrets also.
There were jaw dropping twists and I truly felt like I was on this emotional roller coaster with Kat.
The opening of this book is just heartbreaking and I cannot imagine anything worse than the loss of my child and some of the story description of events was just so emotional.
This story is an emotional look at the relationships between mother and child, wife and husband; very heart wrenching at times but what a ride it was!
Only Daughter is a riveting read filled with twists and turns at every corner that I couldn't put down. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.