Mystery

Review – Somebody I Used to Know

~ Erika K ~ 10 Comments

Somebody I Used to Know by David Bell
Somebody I Used to Know

Genre: Mystery / Thriller
My Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I was provided a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***

Nick Hansen is a recently divorced social worker living alone with his dog Riley. His ex-wife is sure that he never stopped loving his college girlfriend Marissa, who was killed in a college campus house fire 20 years earlier, and that’s one of the reasons that they are no longer together. On his way home from work one evening, he sees a girl in the supermarket who looks so much like Marissa that he is compelled to speak to her. As soon as he asks about her family, she turns and runs from the store. The following day, police arrive on his doorstep to ask him if he knew a girl who has been found murdered at a local hotel. They show him a photo, and it is none other than the girl from he market. Even worse, she had his name and address on a slip of paper in her pocket when they found her.

Wanting both to clear his name and to lay to rest his suspicion that this could somehow be Marissa’s daughter, even though she would have been born after Marissa died in the fire, he enlists the help of an old college friend to investigate the girl’s death.

This was a great thriller! I had suspicions about some things (which I can’t mention because I don’t want to spoil anything!) early on, but only suspicions. The author keeps things moving at a good pace, and I felt as invested in Nick’s investigation as he was.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller. And you don’t just have to take my word for it – check out these reviews from The Hidden Staircase and Jewel’s Eclectic Books!

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Review – Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty
Crazy Mountain Kiss: A Sean Stranahan Mystery (Sean Stranahan Mystery, #4)
A Sean Stranahan Mystery – #4
Release date – June 9, 2015

My Rating *** (3 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

From Goodreads:
It’s April, but there’s still snow on the Montana mountains the day a member of the Madison River Liar and Fly Tiers club finds a Santa hat in the chimney of his rented cabin. With the flue clogged and desperate to make a fire, he climbs up to the roof, only to find the body of a teenage girl wedged into the chimney. When Sheriff Martha Ettinger and her team arrive to extract the body they identify the victim as Cinderella “Cindy” Huntingdon, a promising young rodeo star, missing since November. (read more)

Crazy Mountain Kiss takes place in the Crazy Mountains of Montana. The corpse of a young girl who went missing months earlier has been found in the chimney of a rental cabin. The sheriff and her team, along with Sean Stranahan, a private detective, investigate to discover where the girl has been since her disappearance, and the events that lead to her death.

There are almost as many people trying to impede the investigation in some way as there are individuals trying to locate Cinderella’s trail. A mix of law enforcement, ranch people, and  other colorful (and at times unsavory) characters keep the story interesting. The author does a good job of casting suspicion first one way and then another, keeping me guessing all the way through. I like mystery novels that manage to keep me from figuring out who the culprit is too soon in the story, but that haven’t kept some important detail hidden up to the end. This novel is like that. You are privy to every detail Sean Stranahan uncovers as he questions Cinderella’s family and acquaintances and searches for clues.

I did feel a little confused at the main characters relationships near the beginning, but since this is the fourth book in a series (but the first one I have read) that isn’t too surprising. The author does let you in on what is going on with the main characters, but I think I might have liked the story more and the characters might have mattered a little more to me if I had started at the beginning and had more backstory for them.

All in all, this was a good mystery. I would recommend it to fans of the Longmire series by Craig Johnson.

Warning: Mature content – some language and brief sex scenes

You can find purchase links and more on Keith McCafferty’s website

Audiobook Review – Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch

~ Erika K ~ 8 Comments

Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch

Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Audiobook Narrated by Adam Paul

Genre: SciFi (Cyberpunk) / Mystery
My Rating: **** (4 of 5 stars)

I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book at first because of the subject matter. The story is somewhat more disturbing than what I normally read, but it is a murder mystery as well as sci-fi, so you have to expect some unpleasantness. There are some terrible people doing terrible things. There are also some not so terrible, everyday people accepting, and occasionally even enjoying, terrible things. The worst (or best depending on how you look at it) part of it all is how believable everything is. In the end though, I did enjoy the book and decided that it deserves 4 stars. It is a very well thought out and well-written story that kept me listening every minute I could until it was finished.

Tomorrow and tomorrow is set in the not-so-distant future. People use implants called Adware to email and connect with other people they run into, and to deliver streaming content right to their eyes, 24 hours a day. The targeted marketing being used by the advertisers in this book will feel familiar to anyone who has ever browsed the web, and it’s so close to current reality that you never even question the technology.

In this future America, Philadelphia has been wiped out by a terrorist attack. John Dominic Blaxton, who lost his wife in the attack, works for an agency that researches deaths for an insurance agency. There are so many cameras everywhere, that a digital archive of the city has been created, and people are able to virtually visit the city and the people who once lived there. When a claim is made against a life insurance policy claiming that someone died in the blast, Dominic’s job is to go into this archive to find the person at the time of the explosion and prove that they did actually die when the bomb that took out the city went off.

In a nutshell (and to keep myself from giving away anything important), Dominic uncovers things he was never meant to find and ends up running for his life. While trying to stay alive, he is also trying to piece together the last moments of a murder victim’s timeline, and find the person responsible for deleting another woman’s images from the archive.

The narrator, Adam Paul, did a great job and I’m really glad I listened to this one. The first few minutes, I was annoyed by his voice, but it grows on you, and his style fits the story well. (If anyone has listened to William Gibson reading Neuromancer, you’ll probably understand what I mean!) He also did a great job of expressing Dominic’s anguish, shock, and frustration when appropriate.

Whether you prefer to read or listen to your books, I would recommend this one to scifi fans, as long as you don’t have a weak stomach. 🙂

WARNING (in case you prefer not to read this sort of thing): There are some graphic descriptions of violence, and graphic descriptions of corpses along with some vulgar language.

Visit Thomas Sweterlitsch’s website (be sure to check out the Adware page)

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What are you reading Wednesday – 5/27/15

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

What are you reading Wednesday – 5/27/15

whatareyoureadingwed

What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by Its A Reading Thing. To participate, just use the book you’re currently reading to answer these questions. If you have a blog, feel free to leave a link to your post so others can visit and see your post. If you don’t, you can just leave your answers in the comments below.

The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?

2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share one complete sentence.

3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?

My Answers this week:
1. Crazy Mountain Kiss by Keith McCafferty (Sean Stranahan Mystery #4)
Crazy Mountain Kiss: A Sean Stranahan Mystery (Sean Stranahan Mystery, #4)

2. She propped the book on her chest, thinking about Gallagher, who had the blackguard’s insolence and devilish looks, and wondered at the color of his heart.

3. If we can remove the murder and just talk about the setting, then yes, I wouldn’t mind living in or visiting the Crazy Mountains. They seem a bit isolated, but if it didn’t get too lonely, it would be a peaceful place to be. For a while, anyway!

Now tell me what you are reading this week! 🙂

May 2015 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

My shelves are all full and the TBR pile on my nightstand is about to topple over, but I just can’t help myself. I get excited over upcoming releases even though I don’t know when I’ll find the time to read them. Here are a few I’m looking forward to picking up when they are released next month.

I, Ripper by Stephen Hunter
Published by Simon and Schuster, release date May 19th
Mystery / Thriller
I, Ripper
A new twist on the Jack the Ripper tale, told from the perspective of both Jack and the Irish journalist who is tracking him.

Pre-order from the publisher

Kingdom of Darkness by Andy McDermott
Published by Penguin Random House, available April 28th (not May I know, but close!)
Mystery / Thriller
Kingdom of Darkness by
Another adventure in the Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase series. Is there a fountain of eternal life hidden in the tomb of Alexander the Great?

Pre-order from the publisher

Murder at Beechwood: A Gilded Newport Mystery by Alyssa Maxwell
Published by Kensington Publishing, release date May 26.
Historical Mystery

In this addition to the series, Emma finds an infant left on her doorstep and must try to locate the baby’s mother.

Pre-order links on the publisher’s site

Flourless to Stop Him by Nancy Parra
Published by Berkley Prime Crime, release date May, 2015
Cozy Mystery / Culinary Mystery

A Baker’s Treat Mystery, #3 – I haven’t read any in this series yet but I like the sound of this one. A dead man is found in a hotel room registered to the heroine’s brother, so she has to figure out who set him up. (while baking delicious goodies, of course!)

Pre-order links on the publisher’s site

Murder in Court Three by Ian Simpson

~ Erika K ~ Leave a comment

Murder in Court Three
by Ian Simpson

Murder in Court Three

Rating **** (4 of 5 stars)

***NOTE: I received a free review copy of this book from NetGalley***

The body of Farquhar Knox, QC, has been found in courtroom number three, pierced through the heart with an arrow. It’s up to DI Flick Fortune and her team to find the killer. Things are made all the more difficult when a Chief Superintendent shows up on their suspect list, and the local paper implies that the very pregnant Flick and her department may not be up to the task at hand.

This was a very enjoyable read. It’s the third in a series of traditional police procedurals from author Ian Simpson, but the first one that I had read. I was worried after seeing the long list of characters included at the beginning of the book that I might feel lost or have trouble keeping everyone straight, not having read the two previous books. This was not the case, however, and Simpson does a good job of making his characters distinct and recognizable. A very well-written mystery with several sub-plots and lots of red herrings, I would recommend Murder in Court Three to anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

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