Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs

Description taken from amazon blurb:

Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, Tempe is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and when Tempe delves into the property’s history, she becomes suspicious about the ownership.

The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and, sensing a good story, Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the 1930s and ’40s the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. While interesting, this fact seems irrelevant—until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attack? So many questions.

As Tempe and Ivy dig deeper, an arrest is finally made. Then another fire claims one more victim, and slowly, Tempe’s instincts begin pointing to the obvious. But her moves since coming to Washington have been anticipated—and every path forward seems to bring with it a lethal threat.

 

This was my first Kathy Reichs novel and I saw a lot of reviews saying this was not her best. Based on what I read, I don’t think I’d deliberately go out to look for another. I’d probably only read one if I had nothing else to read (and who has that?). There was nothing inherently wrong with it. In fact, the way she finishes off chapters definitely makes you want to read one more and then one more. I guess it was the explanation of every acronym/abbreviation or technical term (even though it’s woven into thoughts or speech) and maybe just too much info. I didn’t connect with the story and never felt invested in finding out who actually did it. When it started and the girl was on the phone with 911, I felt there was going to be something great behind this, but as it went on and the history was looked at over and over, it just felt like it went on for too long. I started jumping sections and I didn’t even really read the epilogue.

 

I never connected with any of the characters, either. Not sure if it’s because I came in late in the series, or if they didn’t make a mark on me. From the detectives to the boyfriend to the telejournalist or to the MC. As for the twins – really?

 

I was looking forward to the forensic parts of the book but even those felt forced. The solution to the whole thing was odd. And the twist? Well, you could see that coming a mile away. Nope, very sad to say this was not for me.

The Grave Artist by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado

Grief is what drives him. Grief felt by the relatives and friends of the victims. So Homeland Security Investigations agent Carmen Sanchez and her partner, security expert Jake Heron, find out when the suspect dubbed the Honeymoon Killer strikes again. Not killing for the sake of it, but to feed off those left behind after a bride or groom is killed on the wedding day.

 

Their search takes them between continents, but as more sides to this seemingly clearcut puzzle appear, it seems they might be the ones taken down next. Add in office politics and family members who have their own agenda based on a suicide that may just be murder, well… it’s going to be a ride.

 

I did not read the first book in the series (darn timing was just out!) but it wasn’t 100% necessary in order to understand the backstory here. It would have helped with the familial connections and understanding the Intrusions Investigations as well as a previous nefarious tech character, but otherwise it’s a pretty solid thriller.

 

Lots of twists and turns, the pacing was smooth, and the romantic connection moved the story forward. The things that I didn’t like were the fact that every character had to have some story in the bigger picture – it seemed no one was just a side character – and the fact that sometimes there were too many bows that tied things up. You got fed an idea that something bad would happen or someone would die. But… The fact that you got to know the killer upfront and the reasons behind some behaviour was a good lead in, and the teaser about the blades was intriguing. Then the killer’s romantic connection and the killer going after the killer… too many storylines. The Italian side felt a little added in without being fleshed out and sometimes I got too many Rhyme vibes off this.

 

But in the end, a good thriller, well written, with a bit for everyone, I suppose!

The Way (Book#1) by Mary E. Twomey

The world is divided into three continents and people into blood types where A-class are the workers in The Way. A place where labour is what counts and where you are eliminated once life expectancy has been reached. On the opposite side are the B-bloods – the Vemreaux - who are granted extra life years after being dipped in the Fountain but then need O-blood to keep them going. The B-bloods are being killed by something called the Predator, but there is a prophecy that someone called “The Light” will be the one to bring it down.

 

Blue Anders and her brothers, Baird and Griffin, work in The Way and Blue has a secret. She has a destiny to fulfil and Baird is going to make sure she succeeds no matter what. No matter how much brutal physical training he puts her through. No matter how much mental anguish he heaps on her. No matter how much love he withholds from her. When Baird and Blue are bought and manage to leave The Way, they come across some influential people who may be able to help them in their quest. But since this might mean a profound death, will it solve the problem?

 

This idea was something I’d not come across before and the way Baird treated Blue in a place I couldn’t quite get my head around drew me in to try to understand why. This then led to wanting to know more about the prophecy, so I soldiered on. The POV jumps didn’t really bother me, and yes, this is definitely YA because some of the characters were so stereotypical it was laughable. Yet when I really looked at how Liam, for example, spoke and viewed the world, it was through the lens of royalty and showed how out of touch he really was.

 

The book is longish and many places feel drawn out and rather a setup for later things. I kept looking at the pages left and thinking that there would be some sort of climax even if it did lead into the next one but when the end came all too quickly, it was as though the whole first book just got Blue ready to head off. While that in itself is not a bad thing, it leaves me feeling like the idea was unfilled and something needed to be “finished” in this book.

 

Many of the characters I “got”. I understood their motivations and frustrations. Apart from Grettel. And don’t say she came into herself when Stephanie allowed her to see the possibilities. Nope. Just a crier who I was getting so annoyed at reading when the tears rolled down her cheeks or sat on her eyelashes or whatever. As for Blue being able to get around and waitress with “a curtain of hair covering her face as she looked down subserviently at her feet”. Hmm.

 

The book had some proofing issues but nothing that was too jarring. The biggest thing was probably questions left open. Not necessarily about the lead into the next book, but the bits of info missing like other blood types, or more about WW3. And I want to know what goes into Baird’s drinks to make them so successful.

 

It’s a good book with an intriguing premise and the cover on Amazon is beautiful. I’d recommend it just because of Blue’s journey and the fact that she is able to be a badass while still embracing her vulnerability. I do want to find out what happens to her!

Death of a Ghostwriter by Gaynor Torrance

Death of a Ghostwriter is a cosy mystery set in the fictional village of Monksworthy.

 

Sylvie is a happy wife and loves her job running the local tea room surrounded by the most scrumptious pastries day after day. When her husband, Albert, leaves on one of his working weeks, she kisses him goodbye and wishes him a safe trip. But Albert doesn’t make it to his destination. Not long after he leaves, he is involved in a fatal car accident. And when Sylvie arrives at the mortuary to identify the body, her world is thrown into turmoil when she finds out that two other women are claiming Albert as their husband. Then the police reveal that it looks as though Albert’s brakes were tampered with. The plot thickens!

 

The premise sounded great and the idea of the wives all finding out about each other and the possibility of murder made for a story I wanted to dive into. The subtle clues about the ending are only hinted at in the beginning, which is good. The story starts off quickly and straight away you want to find out why it happened and who these other women are. But the pace slacks off and you find yourself having to read for the sake of reading to get to the next book.

 

The style is very light but tended towards being too much in places. And by that I mean it felt forced and as though the scene was pushed at you rather than you being in the scene. Some conversations felt unnecessary and for sixty-something year olds they tended to speak a lot younger and a lot more energetically (if you can imagine a bunch of girls squealing and gushing over something). There was a lot of eating and drinking involved in this too for some reason.

 

Now, while I understand that a cosy mystery has the characters investigating, it seemed the police did very little in this and that the ladies were able to find out far too much by themselves. That they could get in touch with “all” the people of a certain money class seemed a stretch too. And since the title had ghostwriter in it, there was actually very little to do with this. It felt like a missed opportunity for a subplot. And then the ending. All of that and it was over so quickly? I don’t mind a build-up but to just have action, action, action and then “cut”? Left me wanting more.

 

It’s a good book but not enough that I’d read it again. If you need a rainy day afternoon read then this is for you.

 

Thanks to NetGalley, Joffe Books, and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

Downstate by Jeffery Deaver

Constant Marlowe is back! And she returns with her impressive investigative instincts as well as her boxing skills. This is the second novella in the series and it does help to have read the first one just to understand her story. Luckily, I had!

Constant is after “Mr X” who she is hoping to turn witness in a case. But when she lands up in pokey Downstate, she stumbles across a case that, at the outset, seemed cut and dry, but has tendrils that extend from robbery to as far as human trafficking. And every time you think you can see the plot twist coming... you can’t!

As always, I loved the author’s style of writing. It’s physical and cerebral and as though each angle is dissected and brought to you. Like watching a movie but really having to think about why each thing is happening. Small interactions that you take for granted as moving the story along actually turn out to be something important. So this really is a quick read as you can just fly through it to get to figure out the why and who.

I had two gripes. One was the bow that was a little too neat at the end. I’m all for her to take into account all the aspects of the investigation, but when the bow is double knotted and sparkly after ALL the action (and there was a LOT) that took place... um... okay... The second gripe is entirely on me and it’s just something my eye kept noticing. When dialogue opened a chapter, the opening quotation marks were missing off the drop cap. I know some take this as a style issue but it was enough to make me pause for a second and I don’t like doing that when reading!

Overall a great story with info and action galore. I look forward to seeing where Constant and her “I’ll do it my way, thanks” is going next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

All I Need to Know I Learned from the Golden Girls by T Ann Pryor

 All I Need to Know I Learned from the Golden Girls is the author’s love letter to the show, if you will, of her life experiences and what she took from them based on how the Golden Girls had dealt with it. She incorporates the scenes with her events and examines life from their view. Each Golden Girl is studied and their positive and negative escapades compared to how we can all deal with life.

I went into this book with a very open mind as I was a big fan of the Golden Girls way back when and I wondered about the “all I need to know” part, considering some of Blanche’s exploits. What makes me laugh now when I look back at the show is just how times have changed in the way people look. Everyone besides Sofia was meant to be in their fifties and yet if you look at a lot of fifty-year-olds now, there is a huge difference!

The book is very short, which makes it a quick read. I liked the quotes that started the chapters off and many of the stories brought the characters’ voices back to me so I could hear it like a movie.

The story is written from a very chatty perspective and is not a tale from outside looking in at the author, but more like a sharing from the inside out. She holds nothing back when she wants to admit something and even if it’s a little more out there, it’s not sugar-coated. It could have used a good edit though as there are punctuation errors like missing quotation marks, lines are repeated, and the flow of the info sometimes doesn’t work. By this I mean she will be in the middle of a story and the next thing she goes back to something she was speaking about ages ago. It becomes rather confusing.

As a quick read I enjoyed its humour but I didn’t feel it was quite what its title said. The author did not really say they were prepared for a situation because of a lesson learnt from the show. It was more of a “Oh and something similar happened when...” A fun book, but not one I would read again.

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.

The author has since assured me that the incorrect version was uploaded and that all editing and formatting issues were sorted out.

You Wanna Put What, Where? by Brian Fasterling

As the author began his tale with the image of tomato juice being the result of a “Number 1”, I could just imagine the horror and worry that this must have caused. To take the subsequent events and treat them in such a light-hearted manner showed the author’s grit in sharing what could potentially have been devastating news to create a story to perhaps help others.

A lump in the renal system that turns out to be a polyp and leads to a stent and a biopsy and further surgery (that goes wrong but eventually right) and and and forms the basis of this medical mayhem.

The editing overall was good but there were some odd punctuation errors where unnecessary commas were placed after dialogue already closed with the correct punctuation mark. The writing style flowed well and was easy to read as the author tried hard to take a subject that was serious and unnerving for him and make it less medical and more humorous. To me, this worked, but it also didn’t. I understood and appreciated the humour but found it became a bit too much. It felt as though every single incident had to be made fun of, which didn’t allow for a change in tone and kept the reading on a constant “snark alert”. Don’t get me wrong, many incidents needed the lightening up, I just wanted to take a break every now and then.

 Especially when there were literal LOL moments like the urine bag falling out of the bottom of the tracksuit pants’ leg. And I felt a little vindicated when he finally realised the indignity of stirrups and what women feel.

 The length was good so that it didn’t go into too much jargon and kept the reader wanting to find out how it ended. I would love to have found out a bit more about his wife and how she coped with it too. A fun read and a good lesson in how we are all connected by our unpredictable bodies and how grateful we should be for medical professionals. 

Thanks to Reedsy Discovery and the author for the opportunity to review the book.