Category Archives: Book Reviews

I have read and enjoyed every book in this series by Gretchen Archer. This latest entry, “Double Knot” picks up the action with hilarious adventures and misadventures of Davis Way Cole, security specialist and sleuth extraordinaire.

Davis is about six months along in her pregnancy (with twins) when she is called upon by her boss (Bianca Casimiro Sanders) to impersonate her on a cruise. Davis looks just like her boss – even down to the size of their pregnancy bumps. While Davis has a few months to go before the blessed event, Bianca is due any day and doesn’t want to put a toe let alone her entire body on a boat.

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“Don’t You Cry” is the first book I have read by this author so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I picked up the book on the basis that it was a suspense story. For the majority of the book, I thought that perhaps it had been mislabeled and was really a literature book. However, in the final few chapters, the suspense came out in full force and tied the book together fairly well.

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“See Also Deception” is the second in the series of mystery stories by Larry D. Sweazy involving Marjorie Trumaine. I was afraid that the second book might not be as good as the first (as so often happens) but it is every bit as good and advances the story in a real and meaningful way.

Marjorie is a farmer’s wife who has seen her share of troubles. Her loving and beloved husband is paralyzed from the neck down after a hunting accident. The farm is too much for Marjorie to handle on her own but a young neighbor helps her out with chores and running the land.

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“Mission Hill” was an interesting legal thriller. While I was able to figure out the surprise ending well before it was exposed in the story, I still enjoyed the story that led up to it. The only thing that didn’t ring quite true to me was the relationship between the main character, Abby Endicott and her boyfriend. There seems to be a missing link as far as why they are together when there are a lot of reasons for them not to be.

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“The Woman in Blue” is the latest entry in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. Ruth is an archeologist and has assisted the local police on a number of cases. This book involves much less of Ruth’s expertise and is more about religion (or lack thereof) that each of the characters espouses.

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“The Cracked Spine” is a good read and the debut book in a new cozy mystery series located in Scotland. There are eccentric characters, including our sleuth, who has characters in books talking to her. So far, the voices haven’t led her towards solving crimes but it may be that in the future this will happen.

A young woman, Delaney Nichols, packs up from her mid-west home in the USA and takes a plunge into adventure when she accepts a job at a bookstore in Scotland. Within a short time of her arrival, a murder occurs and most of her new friends fall under suspicion. Delaney decides to try to solve the crime to help her friends and ends up as a bit of a target herself.

The book was a little heavy on character description but that is to be expected in a new series as we are being introduced to each of the characters. They make for an interesting group. Each seems to have their own oddly different back story and that should make for good reads in future additions to the series.

I was provided a temporary digital advance reader copy of this book by the publisher, Minotaur Books, via Netgalley.

I’ve read a number of Lisa Scottoline’s books and have enjoyed them all – that is up until “Most Wanted.” The inherent problem is that the book really goes nowhere. It talks about issues with respect to infertility and that is interesting but those parts also read like a white paper on the discussion. It feels almost like the information has been picked up somewhere else and plugged into the book.

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I have read each book in this series and have come to enjoy each book more than the last. The stories are about an American expat gardener living in the UK.

Pru Parke is a Texan who has immigrated to the UK. She is now married to Christopher Pearse, a former Detective Inspector. They are living in country home of a friend who has graciously given them free run of the house and grounds while they are out of the country. Because of their generosity, Pru is able to work with her newly discovered brother, Simon, who is the head gardener on the estate.

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The idea of a mystery series set in old Hollywood was very appealing to me. I lived within a short stroll of the old MGM studio (now Sony Pictures) for most of my life, so I was hoping to read about some of the history of studios and personalities in this book. I was not disappointed. The writing duo responsible for this book is a husband and wife team (Rosemarie and Vince Keenan.)

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