Book Review: The 19th Christmas by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro @JP_Books @littlebrown
The 19th Christmas
Women's Murder Club #19
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Little, Brown and Co., October 2019
Lindsay Boxer has only one Christmas wish: to spend the day with her husband, daughter and their beloved Border Collie. She's been with San Francisco Police Department long enough to know that "wish" is the right word.
Accustomed to the typical increase in crimes during the holidays, Boxer and her partner fully expect a frenzy the few days before Christmas. But, even their combined experience in law enforcement did not prepare them for the full-out chaos created by the most unassuming of men.
This recent addition to The Women's Murder Club Series by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro embodies everything I've come to expect from this righteous writing team. Flipping pages fast enough for paper cuts, I was mentally juggling the balls being hurled at Boxer—not in a confused way, but in a wholly engrossed, moral-support sort of way.
If you are already a fan of the four brilliant, hard-working women that make up the self-dubbed Murder Club, The 19th Christmas is sure to hit the spot when you reach for your next fast-paced, suspense-filled read. But, there's no need to have read the previous stories, this series can be started at any point…but you may not be able to stop.
Huge thank-you to Goodreads First Reads & Hachette Book Group for this copy!
Reviewed by jv poore, January 2020.
Posted in Full Reviews.	Tagged holiday season, homicide detective, Little Brown and Company, mystery, police procedural, San Francisco
Book Review: House of Desire by Margaret Lucke @MargaretLucke @OakledgePress1
August 4, 2020 by Lelia T
House of Desire
A Claire Scanlan Haunted House Mystery
Margaret Lucke
Oakledge Press, June 2020
A haunted house story is always fun, and when it's mixed with time-travel, murder, and ghosts, the whole spectrum is covered. In House of Desire, the precept is intriguing. A grand old Victorian mansion has passed into the hands of the present generation heirs. Though none want the house as a home, one wants to sell to a developer; one wants to sell to a museum that will preserve the house and its history; one doesn't know what to do. Her heart votes for the museum, her head tells her she needs the most money. Meanwhile, the sales reps negotiating for the museum are hosting a big bash to raise funds for the preservation, which the developer also attends. And then a man is murdered. The odd thing is, no one seems to have a motive.
Claire Scanlon is one of the agents advocating for the museum, but she is more than that. A psychic (although I'm not sure she meets the exact criteria for that) when she meets a young woman on the mansion's stairs, she soon realizes the girl, Roxane, is invisible to everyone but her. What is Roxane's story? Why is she here? Why is she wearing the same necklace Claire has on? And why is she so afraid? Claire will have to travel into the past to discover the answers to these questions, and discover the present day murderer.
The novel is written with four different points of view, something that occasionally becomes a bit clunky. Although this book is evidently part of a series, I didn't find Claire's character especially strong as the heroine. And although I went back and reread parts, the answer to how Roxane and Claire had the same necklace was never answered. Since I read an ARC, perhaps that is addressed in the final version. I hope so. Loved the setting of a house of ill-repute and found its denizens excellent; the current characters not so much.
Reviewed by Carol Crigger, July 2020.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester's Ride,
Hometown Burning and Five Days, Five Dead: A China Bohannon Novel
Posted in Full Reviews.	Tagged bordello, ghost, haunted house, mystery, Oakledge Press, psychic, real estate agent, San Francisco, time travel
Teeny Book Reviews: The Glass Thief by Gigi Pandian and Edisto Tidings by C. Hope Clark @GigiPandian @HeneryPress @hopeclark @Bellebooks
June 8, 2020 by Lelia T
The Glass Thief
A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery #6
Gigi Pandian
Henery Press, November 2019
When I read the first Jaya Jones mystery, I thought, "Aha, the lady version of Indiana Jones!" and I've been a big fan ever since. After that first book, I've gone on a number of adventures with historian Jaya and have enjoyed every one of them.
This time, our treasure-hunting, ghostbusting heroine gets dragged into a locked room mystery involving a French family with a sordid history of Cambodian treasure looting, a resident ghost and several murders that have all (coincidentally?) occurred in their mansion two nights before Christmas. Perhaps most puzzling, a famous novelist is writing a new book and needs her help in a very odd way. Not only that, Jaya's boyfriend, Lane, throws her for a loop and may have brought their relationship to an abrupt end.
The story takes place in San Francisco, Paris and the exotic land of Cambodia and I felt like an armchair traveler the whole time because Ms. Pandian is so good with settings. Jaya is on the hunt for the elusive Serpent King sculpture which has mysteriously vanished from the Delacroix home and the twists and turns abound, enough to keep me on tenterhooks as I waffled from one possible solution to another. That's another thing the author does well—dream up a boatload of threads that may or may not connect to each other.
As always, Jaya's friends are appealing and as well drawn as you could possibly want although Jaya is on her own through much of the tale. By the way, anyone with a taste for scrumptious food will be drooling over the dishes the author has everyone chowing down on—as I write this, I'm craving some mouthwatering Indian delicacies 😉
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2020.
Edisto Tidings
An Edisto Island Mystery #6
C. Hope Clark
Bell Bridge Books, October 2019
As you can see, I'm a little out of season with this book as the story takes place at Christmas but, never you mind, a good story is a good story no matter when, right?
And a good one this is. Police Chief Callie Morgan is called to the scene of a murder—or is it a murder? There's a body for sure, and it was found on a vacant lot owned by a contentious local, but there's a very personal twist in that the victim is her biological mother's husband. Obviously, Sarah, Callie's mother, has to be a prime suspect along with the lot's owner who also knew the victim.
Meanwhile, Callie also has to deal with a number of thefts that seem to be perpetrated by Santa. Somebody is stealing Christmas presents but might have an altruistic if criminal purpose. The resort town's short-term rental visitors will be leaving in a few days and, if any of them are involved in these crimes, Callie's timing had better be good. Fortunately, some of her friends are quite helpful when it comes to solving crimes and the police department staff is intelligent and reliable.
I really like this series, largely because Callie is so normal; she's not on a power trip, she has heavy-duty baggage but is coping as well as one could hope, she's smart as a whip and she cares about her job and the people she serves. Callie is a former big city cop so she has some skills not always easily found in small town departments but she also knows that the people of Edisto Island are not the least bit backward or dumb. In other words, she fits in well.
Posted in My Reviews, Teeny Reviews.	Tagged Bell Bridge Books, Cambodia, ghost, Henery Press, lowcountry, mystery, Oklahoma, Paris, police chief, police procedural, San Francisco, Secret Santa, South Carolina, St. Augustine, treasure hunt
Book Review: A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen @mikechenwriter @HarlequinBooks @MIRAEditors
A Beginning at the End
Mike Chen
MIRA, January 2020
An emotional story about what happens after the end of the world, A BEGINNING AT THE END is a tale of four survivors trying to rebuild their personal lives after a literal apocalypse. For commercial readers who enjoy a speculative twist, or their sci-fi with a heavy dose of family and feelings.
Six years after a global pandemic, it turns out that the End of the World was more like a big pause. Coming out of quarantine, 2 billion unsure survivors split between self-governing big cities, hippie communes, and wasteland gangs. When the father of a presumed-dead pop star announces a global search for his daughter, four lives collide: Krista, a cynical event planner; Moira, the ex-pop star in hiding; Rob, a widowed single father; and Sunny, his seven-year-old daughter. As their lives begin to intertwine, reports of a new outbreak send the fragile society into a panic. And when the government enacts new rules in response to the threat, long-buried secrets surface, causing Sunny to run away seeking the truth behind her mother's death. Now, Krista, Rob, and Moira must finally confront the demons of their past in order to hit the road and reunite with Sunny — before a coastal lockdown puts the world on pause again.
Most post-apocalyptic stories tend to give a wide view of the world after the critical event but Mike Chen chose to focus on just a few people, a compelling tactic. As much as I love PA, and I really do, it's sometimes a little difficult to form a connection with the characters but that's not the case here.
When the survivors of the pandemic begin to emerge into a new and unfamiliar, often frightening, society, their initial focus is on figuring out what to do now. It's only a few years into our own future and that gives the story an immediacy that's more than a little nervewracking, especially with the current news about the wuhan coronavirus. Yes, humanity is vulnerable to any number of possible end of the world as we know it scenarios but Mr. Chen chooses to look at the rebuilding of what we had, hence the very effective title.
Just four characters are the core of this story and, at first, only the father and his young daughter are connected. Later, fate brings them together with two quite disparate women; watching these four first form a tenuous friendship and then gradually become a semblance of family gives hope for their future. It also gives us hope that, given a similar deadly crisis, humanity will survive.
Apple Books // Books-A-Million // Google Play
Amazon // Indiebound // Harlequin
An Excerpt from
People were too scared for music tonight. Not that MoJo cared.
Her handlers had broken the news about the low attendance nearly an hour ago with some explanation about how the recent flu epidemic and subsequent rioting and looting kept people at home. They'd served the news with high-end vodka, the good shit imported from Russia, conveniently hidden in a water bottle which she carried from the greenroom to the stage.
"The show must go on," her father proclaimed, like she was doing humanity a service by performing. She suspected his bravado actually stemmed from the fact that her sophomore album's second single had stalled at number thirteen—a far cry from the lead single's number-one debut or her four straight top-five hits off her first album. Either way, the audience, filled with beaming girls a few years younger than herself and their mothers, seemed to agree. Flu or no flu, some people still wanted their songs—or maybe they just wanted normalcy—so MoJo delivered, perfect note after perfect note, each in time to choreographed dance routines. She even gave her trademark smile.
The crowd screamed and sang along, waving their arms to the beat. Halfway through the second song, a peculiar vibe grabbed the audience. Usually, a handful of parents disappeared into their phones, especially as the flu scare had heightened over the past week. This time nearly every adult in the arena was looking at their phone. In the front row, MoJo saw lines of concern on each face.
Before the song even finished, some parents grabbed their children and left, pushing through the arena's floor seats and funneling to the exit door.
MoJo pushed on, just like she'd always promised her dad. She practically heard his voice over the backup music blasting in her in-ear monitors. There is no sophomore slump. Smile! Between the second and third songs, she gave her customary "Thank you!" and fake talk about how great it was to be wherever they were. New York City, this time, at Madison Square Garden. A girl of nineteen embarking on a tour bigger, more ambitious than she could have ever dreamed and taking the pop world by storm, and yet, she knew nothing real about New York City. She'd never left her hotel room without chaperones and handlers. Not under her dad's watch.
One long swig of vodka later, and a warmth rushed to her face, so much so that she wondered if it melted her face paint off. She looked off at the side stage, past the elaborate video set and cadre of backup dancers. But where was the gaffer? Why wasn't anyone at the sound board? The fourth song had a violin section, yet the contracted violinist wasn't in her spot.
Panic raced through MoJo's veins, mental checklists of her marks, all trailed by echoes from her dad's lectures about accountability. Her feet were planted exactly where they should be. Her poise, straight and high. Her last few notes, on key, and her words to the audience, cheerful. It couldn't have been something she'd done, could it?
No. Not her fault this time. Someone else is facing Dad's wrath tonight, she thought.
The next song's opening electronic beats kicked in. Eyes closed, head tilted back, and arms up, her voice pushed out the song's highest note, despite the fuzziness of the vodka making the vibrato a little harder to sustain. For a few seconds, nothing existed except the sound of her voice and the music behind it— no handlers, no tour, no audience, no record company, no father telling her the next way she'd earn the family fortune—and it almost made the whole thing worth it.
Her eyes opened, body coiled for the middle-eight's dance routine, but the brightness of the house lights threw her off the beat. The drummer and keyboard player stopped, though the prerecorded backing track continued for a few more seconds before leaving an echo chamber.
No applause. No eyes looked MoJo's way. Only random yelling and an undecipherable buzz saw of backstage clamor from her in-ear monitors. She stood, frozen, unable to tell if this was from laced vodka or if it was actually unfolding: people—adults and children, parents and daughters— scrambling to the exits, climbing over chairs and tripping on stairs, ushers pushing back at the masses before some turned and ran as well.
Someone grabbed her shoulder and jerked back hard. "We have to go," said the voice behind her.
"What's going on?" she asked, allowing the hands to push her toward the stage exit. Steven, her huge forty-something bodyguard, took her by the arm and helped her down the short staircase to the backstage area.
"The flu's spread," he said. "A government quarantine. There's some sort of lockdown on travel. The busing starts tonight. First come, first serve. I think everyone's trying to get home or get there. I can't reach your father. Cell phones are jammed up."
They worked their way through the concrete hallways and industrial lighting of the backstage area, people crossing in a mad scramble left and right. MoJo clutched onto her bottle of vodka, both hands to her chest as Steven ushered her onward. People collapsed in front of her, crying, tripping on their own anxieties, and Steven shoved her around them, apologizing all the way. Something draped over her shoulders, and it took her a moment to realize that he'd put a thick parka around her. She chuckled at the thought of her sparkly halter top and leather pants wrapped in a down parka that smelled like BO, but Steven kept pushing her forward, forward, forward until they hit a set of double doors.
The doors flew open, but rather than the arena's quiet loading area from a few hours ago, MoJo saw a thick wall of people: all ages and all colors in a current of movement, pushing back and forth. "I've got your dad on the line," Steven yelled over the din, "His car is that way. He wants to get to the airport now. Same thing's happening back home." His arm stretched out over her head. "That way! Go!"
They moved as a pair, Steven yelling "excuse me" over and over until the crowd became too dense to overcome. In front of her, a woman with wisps of gray woven into black hair trembled on her knees. Even with the racket around them, MoJo heard her cry. "This is the end. This is the end."
People had been making cracks about the End of the World since the flu changed from online rumors to this big thing that everyone talked about all the time. But she'd always figured the "end" meant a giant pit opening, Satan ushering everyone down a staircase to Hell. Not stuck outside Madison Square Garden.
"Hey," Steven yelled, arms spread out to clear a path through the traffic jam of bodies. "This way!"
MoJo looked at the sobbing woman in front of her, then at Steven. Somewhere further down the road, her father sat in a car and waited. She could feel his pull, an invisible tether that never let her get too far away.
"The end, the end," the sobbing woman repeated, pausing MoJo in her tracks. But where to go? Every direction just pointed at more chaos, people scrambling with a panic that had overtaken everyone in the loading dock, possibly the neighborhood, possibly all New York City, possibly even the world. And it wasn't just about a flu.
It was everything.
But… maybe that was good?
No more tours. No more studio sessions. No more threats about financial security, no more lawyer meetings, no more searches through her luggage. No more worrying about hitting every mark. In the studio. Onstage.
In life.
All of that was done.
The very thought caused MoJo to smirk.
If this was the end, then she was going out on her own terms.
"Steven!" she yelled. He turned and met her gaze.
She twisted the cap off the water-turned-vodka bottle, then took most of it down in one long gulp. She poured the remainder on her face paint, a star around her left eye, then wiped it off with her sleeve. The empty bottle flew through the air, probably hitting some poor bloke in the head.
"Tell my dad," she said, trying extra hard to pronounce the words with the clear British diction she was raised with, "to go fuck himself."
For an instant, she caught Steven's widemouthed look, a mix of fear and confusion and disappointment on his face, as though her words crushed his worldview more than the madness around them. But MoJo wouldn't let herself revel in her first, possibly only victory over her father; she ducked and turned quickly, parka pulled over her head, crushing the product-molded spikes in her hair.
Each step pushing forward, shoulders and arms bumping into her as her eyes locked onto the ground, one step at a time. Left, right, left, then right, all as fast as she could go, screams and car horns and smashing glass building in a wave of desperation around her.
Maybe it was the end. But even though her head was down, she walked with dignity for the first time in years, perhaps ever.
Excerpted from A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen, Copyright © 2020 by Mike Chen. Published by MIRA Books.
Credit Amanda Chen
Mike Chen is a lifelong writer, from crafting fan fiction as a child to somehow getting paid for words as an adult. He has contributed to major geek websites (The Mary Sue, The Portalist, Tor) and covered the NHL for mainstream media outlets. A member of SFWA and Codex Writers, Mike lives in the Bay Area, where he can be found playing video games and watching Doctor Who with his wife, daughter, and rescue animals. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @mikechenwriter
By foregrounding family, Chen manages to imbue his apocalypse
with heart, hope, and humanity. Sci-fi fans will delight in this
lovingly rendered tale. — Publishers Weekly
Posted in Blog Tour, Full Reviews, My Reviews.	Tagged Mira, new family, pandemic, post-apocalyptic, rebuild, San Francisco, science fiction
Book Review: The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
The Silent Girl
A Rizzoli and Isles Novel #9
Ballantine Books, 2012
An interesting departure from the usual circumstances in this powerful series. The novel begins in San Francisco when an unknown woman stalks a teenaged girl. We learn quickly that the stalker has benign designs on the girl. She is challenged to become a warrior child.
The novel switches to Boston, home of the main protagonists of this series. Maura Isles faces an unusual situation. As the Medical Examiner for the city of Boston, she must testify against the actions of one of Boston PDs most revered officers, a circumstance which causes her considerable anxiety and difficulty with the thin blue line, as well as distance with her friend, detective Jane Rizzoli.
A local boy, Billy Foo, who chooses to conduct paid walking tours of the central city of Boston, often takes groups to the site of a nineteen-year-old multiple murder, the Red Phoenix restaurant. And then, as night falls, one of the tour members discovers a freshly severed hand, lying in the alley beside the building housing the closed Red Phoenix. Murder, mystery, perplexing clues pile up and the atmosphere woven by this master storyteller grab readers forcefully.
This story examines in a thoughtful way some of the interesting and complicated and ancient mythology of the Asian world. But it is important to note that the author has not fashioned a fantasy. This novel is carefully rooted in the real and dangerous world.
The principal characters, as always, are exceedingly well and carefully drawn, the action persists in a steady drumbeat of action and reaction, interspersed with quiet intellectual or social scenes. The result is a fine strong novel that should satisfy any Gerritsen fan and bring her new devotees.
Posted in Full Reviews.	Tagged Ballantine Books, Boston, detective, medical examiner, mystery, police procedural, San Francisco
Book Review: Tail of the Dragon by Connie di Marco—and a Giveaway!
A Zodiac Mystery #3
Connie di Marco
Midnight Ink, August 2018
Murder in the office place! Imagine that. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
That said, when the body of a prominent, though not well-liked attorney is found with his throat cut, with so many wronged people to choose from, the motive is hard to find. Enter astrologer Julia Bonatti, drawn into the investigation by chance when she agrees to fill-in on her old job during the boss's assistant's vacation. She'll try to discover the murderer at her boss's instigation by checking her astrology charts, but contradictory information awaits her there.
Slowly, Julia discovers several death threats have been sent to various people at the firm, including the murdered man. Even finding the connection between the three is tough, and as Julia, with the cooperation of an intriguing PI her boss hires, comes closer to getting to the motive, another attorney in the firm is murdered. Worse, Julia''s astrology charts indicate she may be next.
The motive may come as a surprise. So does the perpetrator. A surprise to Julia, too, which is a nice touch with so many possible killers out there. Shudders. Not a place I'd want to work.
If I have a complaint, it's that I'm not interested in precise street names and addresses. I don't even know if they're real for the city of San Francisco, so to me they were something to skip over. Other reader's opinions will, of course, vary. The book is well organized, well paced, and well written.
Reviewed by Carol Crigger, August 2018.
To enter the drawing for a very
gently used print advance reading copy of
Tail of the Dragon by Connie di Marco,
leave a comment below. The winning name
will be drawn on Sunday evening,
Posted in Contests/Giveaways, Full Reviews.	Tagged astrologer, cozy/traditional, law firm, Midnight Ink, mystery, private investigator, San Francisco
Book Review: A Dying Note by Ann Parker
A Dying Note
A Silver Rush Mystery #6
Ann Parker
Poisoned Pen Press, April 2018
This book finds former Leadville, Colorado, saloon owner Inez Stannert moved to San Francisco where she, with her ward, Antonia Gizzi, intend to start over and make a new life. Inez tows the mark, guarding her reputation as a widowed lady. But that is not true. She is a divorcee, which is almost a crime in 1881.
Inez, who plays piano with concert quality, is working her way to a partnership in a music store, where she keeps the books, makes sales, and teaches piano. The store's owner concentrates on building his reputation as a musician, playing for the upper echelon of SF. A good many musicians gather the in the store, and there is talk of forming a union.
And then a young violinist is murdered down on the San Francisco docks.
Meanwhile, an old business friend from Leadville, high class bordello owner Frisco Flo Sweet shows up. She's with another acquaintance from Colorado, who is looking for his son who seems to have jilted a fiancee and disappeared. Harry Gallagher wants Inez to find him, threatening her with exposure if she doesn't come through.
To this end, Inez is forced to work with Wolter Roeland de Bruijn, but it becomes an unholy mess when it's discovered the murdered violinist and Robert Gallagher are one and the same. Revealing the murderer puts all the searchers at risk, especially Inez and Antonia.
As always, author Ann Parker has written a tightly plotted mystery filled with excellent characters, and spiced the story with lots of history. Authors often describe women's clothing of the period, but this time readers will be delighted to learn what gentlemen of the era were wearing in old San Francisco. Recommended.
Posted in Full Reviews.	Tagged 1881, Colorado, divorcee, historical, missing person, music, mystery, Poisoned Pen Press, saloon owner, San Francisco