Casa Nostra by Chris Sarracini and Nick Kilislian

Casa Nostra by Chris Sarracini

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


*I received this book from Udon Entertainment and Netgalley for an honest review*

This is an annoying book from beginning to end. From the super slow snail pace, to the many times flashbacks interrupted the story; to the many times some random scene would suddenly occur and there’d be no explanation or the sudden change in plot line until much later. Biggest problem, though? The art was such that I had trouble telling the characters apart. This ‘matched perfectly’ with the text that liked being vague about who was who and what was going on. Like how the book opens with a prologue, some unnamed ungendered narrator talking about papa the criminal. Long after the fact we learn that the narrator is 26, a woman named Claire, and half-Italian, half-Japanese.

Story: A graphic novel set in 1933, mostly in Indiana, with occasional trips elsewhere, like into Chicago.
As noted, the story opened with someone telling about the first time they heard their father's name. Not that the reader knew the narrators name until much later. Nor did the reader actually learn the father’s name (unless it was in some section I couldn’t read). Narrator, Claire, had something of a tough upbringing, tough childhood I mean. What with the criminal father, and having the police routinely stop by to beat up her mother to try to get her to tell where father was. Not that she ever did talk

After that beginning bit, we get to 'I'm 26 now and still wonder if he is still robbing banks' (not an exact quote - it's hard to get the book to work on my system, so I can't really get back to get exact quote). So the 'meat' of the story starts when the narrator is 26. We still didn't know gender by the time the book moved to 'present time' (1933). Though the book description had me assuming that we were learning about the daughter of this bank robber. Assumption was correct. Narrator is 'Claire' and female.

Claire, with four other women, runs a 'safe house' where criminals hide from the law. They’ve been doing it a while, and set things up with the Chicago Syndicate. So the criminals know not to break the rules (don’t touch the women; turn over firearms; etc.) or the Syndicate would get them (not that all criminals obeyed – I mean, we are talking about criminals here). Things were going well enough with Claire and the safe house until the ‘golden boy’, Capone’s favorite guy Rizzo, started to go insane and kill women. And the Syndicate wanted to stay at the safe house. Naturally Claire wanted no part of it and naturally she couldn’t’ say no. And naturally things didn’t go well. What with Rizzo having a history of going around being a serial killer and killing women.

There's a lot of backstory in this book, by the way. Even after we got to present day, we still had bits of the past being spilled on the reader. Not my favorite thing to have happen.
One of the problems with the book is that the art makes it hard to tell who is who. Like, somewhere along the way one criminal kills another - I could tell the two apart because one was fat. A cleaner came and cleaned. Then . . . some story about a man killing a woman (this would be Rizzo and some random woman, though the reader doesn’t know this at the time, learns after the fact). Just . . there. Is that the cleaner? Claire the narrator? Didn't know immediately because all the women look the same (for the most part, okay, not really, but it isn't easy to tell them apart), and the men aren't that distinctive either. More impressions of men and women than exact representations. So, I couldn’t always tell what was happening because I couldn’t always tell which characters were doing stuff (seriously, I’m not just saying that – the woman in the snuff piece? Looked like Claire – at least to my poor eyes; or at least close enough to possibly be sister or mother). I couldn’t tell what was going on despite this being a graphic novel - and I could literally see them doing stuff. But . . . which vaguely Italian looking guy is this? The one I already meet? Someone else? Which vaguely mixed race woman is this? Claire? One of the other women who work in the safe house? Some completely different woman? As could be seen from my description of the beginning - the text itself doesn't help matters. Since I didn't even know the narrator's name or gender for a good portion of the time until we finally got to 'the present' (of 1933). Sooo hard to tell what's going on.

This happens several times. 'This' being random scenes suddenly interrupting the flow of the story. Giving information about a new character. Quite annoying and quite breaking the flow of the super slow, very very slow story. This thing was on snail time.

Tough story to tell what was going on – more because I literally couldn’t tell the characters apart. There are large pieces of the story I am unclear on because of that factoid, though I know/picked up the major pieces.

An okay story, I suppose. Just . . . difficult to read.

Rating: 2.6

March 5 2018




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Perdition (A Nell McGraw Investigation, #2) by R. Jean Reid

Perdition by R. Jean Reid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in return for a fair review.*

This is both the second book in this series, the Nell McGraw series, and the second book with this author’s name on it. Which is important to note, the name part, because this is also the 13th book I’ve read by this author. The other 11 books (which includes two rereads) were put out under the J.M. Redmann byline.

This book here is a mystery – like all of Redmann/Reid’s books. Specifically one that stars Nell McGraw – a relatively recently widowed newspaper owner/editor and single mother of two children.

So, naturally, I was really eager to read this book, another mystery by an author I’ve rather enjoyed. I stress this because the prologue is kind of tough to get through. Because of the subject matter – very tough to get through. Sexual and physical abuse of two youngsters by a very bad man – their father. It is quite possible that if I hadn’t read and enjoyed (for the most part) 11 books by this author (under two different names) I might have stopped reading before I even got to the non-prologue part.

This is a good competent enjoyable little mystery. Solid characterization. Surprisingly there are even some background LGBT people – quite important to the story they are.

The mystery involves several murdered young children who had been found over a longish period of time in the small Mississippi town (well the outskirts of the town). The first one was put down as a unsolvable – she had just been in the water too long to determine if foul play was involved in her death (did she slip in by accident? Murdered? The evidence is no longer there). That was the young girl –I note because the rest of the murdered children were boys and at least one person thought that only boys were being targeted (for reasons).

It’s unfortunate when you meet and get to know someone before they are killed. Happened twice in this book – a third person is also talked about and meet but the reader doesn’t really get to know them before they die. Unfortunate in that I get to know them, feel them, get attached to them, and not want them to die. But die they did.

Several complications pop up in this book – 1) someone, probably the murderer, has taken to calling Nell late at night (or very early in the morning) – putting Nell on edge and stuff; 2) the local police forces are currently in something of a macho pissing contest when the story starts – the long time sheriff and the relatively new police chief do not really get along, both personally and professionally (for example: the sheriff set up a roadblock in the police chief’s jurisdiction and didn’t tell the chief that he was doing that); 3) one of the police officers that had popped up in the prior book, and is one of those kinds of people who really shouldn’t have been given the badge and uniform – ends up kicked off the force and blames Nell – adding more stress and complications to her life (since that officer, ex-officer, came within inches of physically attacking Nell and appears to be still hovering around the edges of her life, watching, waiting to attack again).

I liked the book though I had certain issues with it. A) couple of issues with word choice and formatting that I assume will not actually show up in the final published version (like Nell’s male child, Josh, once or twice gets referred to by the wrong name – once as Tom); B) Nell seemed to alternate between being annoyed with having a teenage daughter (anticipating her being bad and stuff), and forgetting she exists (several occasions finds the child locked out of the house because Nell simply forgot . . . well that she existed – constantly worrying about Josh, constantly forgetting her daughter existed unless she wanted to complain about her (to herself or others); C) this author seems to have a tendency to kill certain types of characters – when writing as Redmann and writing Lesbian fiction, it isn’t as . . . annoying, when writing mainstream ‘straight’ fiction as Reid – those kinds of deaths seem to be blinking neon exclamations and not in a good way (view spoiler)[like seems to happen in popular entertainment, though more in the television world, certain types of characters end up being . . . quite killable – namely lesbians (or, on occasion, gay peeps). Somewhat ‘easier’ to see that in a lesbian fiction series since the focus is already on the LGBT community, not easy, just easier; here? Well . . . the LGBT people seemed to be introduced so they could be attacked. And, to a certain extent, show how ‘progressive’ Nell is by thinking certain thoughts (instead of thinking of different thoughts; Nell is oddly quite prejudiced – like against the ‘good-old-boy sheriff’ and towards the ‘city-breed police chief’). (view spoiler)[For ‘reasons’ the LGBT people who die have deaths that do not seem . . . not sure how to put this. The deaths seemed to both ‘fit’ the story and ‘advance the story’. It’s just unfortunate I wanted to read about one of them in something like a romance book, not as the victim in a murder mystery book. (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]. LGBT characters – dying for the growth of straight people/for the advancement of plot in straight books/television shows. Unfortunate. D) I can't really mention D. Because . . . spoiler reasons. Trying to be as vague as possible - some of the clues that were dropped in the book do not match up 'correctly' ((view spoiler)[I'm putting this here just to remind myself and for those who already read the book(view spoiler)[the killer, it is presumed is the same person who 'starred' in the prologue. Except . . . when a background check was completed on several of the characters in the book - the murder's background didn't match up with the 'killer' who starred in the prologue(view spoiler)[in the prologue, among other things, the young man killed (accidentally) his brother and (on purpose) his father. That - father and brother dying, more matches up with one of the other characters in the story ('his father died shortly after this incident, and his only brother was killed in an accident when they were teenagers') that's the non-murderer; no the actual killer's background had him down as a single child. (view spoiler)[(view spoiler)["He was an only child and his parents died young" (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]).

Despite some of the things I’ve noted in this review, this was a good solid book that I enjoyed reading. I will note that it is better to read the first book in this series before reading this book here – for many reasons. Least of which, of the reasons, being the changing dynamic of the characters present in the series.

Rating: 3.88

April 19 2017



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Under Parr by Andrea Bramhall

Under Parr by Andrea Bramhall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Ylva Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book with two main points of view (other than the prologue, there really are only two). Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon and Gina Temple.

Plotlines
Major Plots:

1) Police investigating a mystery

a) Skeleton found in a WWII bunker that got sealed by a storm that hit December 5 2013. While investigating the skeleton several other crimes were discovered and investigated
b) The police force, or at least the task force dealing with ‘the case of the skeleton’, has a certain ‘issue’ with one of their members. Personality clash? Bad cop? Something’s going on.

2) A mother and daughter attempting to deal with traumatic issues

a) Due to the nature of the events of the prior book, the townspeople and their children torment Sammy, Gina’s daughter; plus Sammy is still suffering mentally/emotionally
b) Due to the nature of the events of the prior book, the townspeople glare at and act mean towards Gina; plus Gina is still suffering mentally/emotionally

Subplots

1) Romance

a) Trouble in paradise? See: Gina and daughter suffering from the traumatic events of last book
b) Someone stalking/romancing/something Gina

2) Gina’s estranged mother pops up during the police investigation

a) Complications related to the mother being back in the picture.
b) ?

First off, though, I need to note that unlike some mystery series that involve the police, you really do need to have read the first book in the series before reading this book here. Since one of the story lines is more or less directly tied to the prior book – a reaction to the events that occurred in that prior book.

This book starts six weeks after Collide-O-Scope - well, no, literally the book starts before that first book, but that’s just the prologue. The prologue is set in December 5, 2013, when an old man stumbles around a nursing home, spots someone doing something wrong, stumbles out into a storm, and ends up in a WWII bunker. When the book moves to the main part, out of the prologue, it’s about four years later (or three?) and a skeleton has been found inside a WWII bunker on the North Norfolk Coast of England. The people from the first book fall into similar rolls as before, for the most part (and even when they don’t physically appear, they pop up in conversation, like Inspector Savage).

Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon, one of the two main points of view, works the skeleton case while her boss, like in the last book, goes off to deal with a different case (the boss, by the way, being Detective Inspector Timmons). Working with Brannon is Detective Sergeant Stella Goodwin, who both head of the investigation. Meanwhile Detective Constable Jimmy Powers is Brannon’s assistant until he is replaced by Detective Constable Gareth Collier (because of a personality clash between Collier and his partner). Len Wild and Dr. Ruth Anderson also return.

While Brannon is following the mystery angle of the book, Georgina ‘Gina’ Temple follows the PTSD angle. As in, her daughter had found a dead body in the prior book – her best friend, (view spoiler)[ and for three days she, the daughter – Sammy – had thought she had killed her friend (hide spoiler)], and Sammy also happens to go to a school where all but maybe one of the other children there were deeply impacted by the prior book ((view spoiler)[one or more parents ending up being out of work, and/or facing long jail time for the (view spoiler)[drug smuggling ring (hide spoiler)] [events] found in the prior book (hide spoiler)]) and the children blame Sammy. Bully her mercilessly. Meanwhile, Gina herself has her own emotional and physical scars to try to overcome – recall it’s only been six weeks. And so that’s the second track/plot line/angle – a mother and daughter attempting to fight the demons created by the prior book.

That second plot line is interesting, in its way, though ultimately I find/found it to be a distraction I did not wish to read. It got in the way of the mystery, unfortunately. There was even one section that I ended up skipping (until I remembered I was reading an ARC so went back and read it; normally I’d have skipped certain paragraphs/sections/etc.).

The book was interesting – following the police as they investigate one thing, a skeleton found in a WWII bunker, which leads to even more things to investigate. The mystery itself was a good twist on the standard murder mystery; the interactions between the police and others (and amongst themselves) was good. If the book had just been the Mystery, I would likely rate this book highly. But it isn’t. Frankly, while well written and seeming as if it’d make a good book on its own, the PTSD plot was, as noted, distracting to me and might have been less ‘boring’ if it had been its own book. Potentially. I mean, I’ve read PTSD books before – where that’s the main and mostly only focus.

Publication Date: May 17 2017 (though you can purchase the book now from the Ylva Publishing website).

Rating: Mystery: 4.3; Other Stuff: 3.3 = 7.6/2=3.8 overall rating of 3.8.

May 12 2017

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The Devil's Due by Ali Vali

The Devil's Due by Ali Vali

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ack. I forgot to write a review and now . . . hmms.

1) There is a short story in Girls With Guns that I strongly encourage people to read before reading this book here. A few new to the series characters make their first appearance in that short story and they have a somewhat significant impact on the story-line in this book here.

2) I rather liked this specific book, hence the 4.5 rating. Though it is hard to discuss (beyond the note in 1, and noting rating) as this is a book late in a series in which each book before it matters to the one that comes after it (or, in other words, I kept 'spoiling' myself just from looking at the book
descriptions). So what can I really put here?

3) I like the characters that appeared in this book. Solid characterizations.

4) Strong solid plot.

5) There are, as may or may not be expected - since this is more of a slice of life type book about a criminal than a mystery, romance, or anything else - so there are things that occurred before this book that are of importance, and things that are of importance that are still 'dangling' at the end of this book (hence that 'slice of life' tag - it's a look in on a character as they go about their life - not a recap of their entire life).

6) Odd how basically everyone whose sexual preference is made known is a lesbian except for, maybe, two women in New Orleans.

7) I didn't particularly care about some of the subplots - like the one involving Marisol (or however Hector's daughter's name is spelled) and the one involving Nicolette (again, however that is spelled); or, for that matter, the one involving Stacey .. . um . . something or other - Hector's mistress (and even though that's a MF relationship, there was one specific scene when Stacey thought to herself about a lost opportunity that involved another woman - am I reading into that? Any other book I'd say yes. Here where 99.9% of New Orleans is a lesbian? No, probably not reading more into that thought than I should).

Rating: 4.5

January 5 2017



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Blackmailer by George Axelrod

Blackmailer by George Axelrod

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I’m not sure if it is somewhat negative of the time period, negative of now, or what exactly, but I’m sure that my comment, which I’ll make in a moment, is negative – just not sure how. That comment: This book has a rather modern feel to it – in that it feels as if it was written in, say, 2007 and set in the 1950s (there are things that link it to the 1950s – mention of films; the somewhat causal mention of how a beautiful actress looks plain and unsexy in Technicolor (a film actress is one of the characters in this book – a new musical of hers came out during the course of this book – another character casually mentions that she looks bad in it – that Technicolor makes everyone look fake and overly painted – that kind of sounds like something someone from the 1950s could put in a book and people then would immediately have a reaction (good or bad) about it – someone could have a reaction to that now, but I’m not sure an author would think to make that comment (I’m not going by myself on this, but I will say that yes you can see Technicolor films today – as in the films from the 1950s that used that colorization process, and you can see how the colors kind of look . . . off)).

Mostly, though, I wanted to say that I had this vague feeling that this book felt somewhat modern with some odd little things here and there that seemed . . . off. Not the Technicolor thing, no it was everyone calling each other baby and darling. For the most part, the only think that I’d want to check after I finished the book – if it actually been written in 2007 and set in 1952, is when microfilm came out – but I do not need to check, since the book isn’t an historical – but a contemporary – written in 1952, set in 1952 (Microfilm came out in 1935 (well, Kodak began using it to put the New York times on it in 1935, and it was endorsed in 1936 by the ALA; the first actual ‘microfilm’, or as it was called ‘microphotograph’ came out in 1839 – but it was a ‘personal hobby’).

For example of one of the ‘off things’, and I’ll need to create the scene: Jean Dahl (sp?), one of the two main women in the story, enters Dick Sherman’s office to offer him a book by a prize winning author – someone up there with Hemingway. The guy is dead now, so any new book by him – something he wrote but didn’t get published before his death, would be quite valuable to a publisher – regardless of the books quality. Throughout Dahl seemed to use baby in every sentence. Something like ‘Hello, baby, I’m not an author’s wife. Baby. I’ve got a book. You’ll want it. I’ll sell it to you, baby, for $50,000.’ And this comment was responded to by Sherman with something like ‘You are out of your mind, baby. Submit the book through the normal means and we might take a look at it, baby. But there’s no way we’d give you a $50,000 advance, baby.’ ‘Ah, but baby, I know you’ll give me that. This is the last work of a Nobel Prize winner. Who is dead, baby.’ (for those coming along behind me thinking of reading or not reading this book – yes, that is something that keeps up, though it tended to only pop up when Dick was talking with women; though he tended to use ‘baby’ with Dahl (both used it), and ‘darling’ with Janis Whitney (sp?) (the other main female character – the actress) – though he used baby with her as well. There might even be a sentence that went something like ‘Janis, baby, you know I love you darling, I always have. We don’t change, baby. That will never change, darling’. *shrugs* take it or leave it if that would annoy you too much to read the book).

Right, so – this book is about a book publisher who normally deals with ‘author’s wives’ who have complaints. A woman drops by demanding to see Dick Sherman. Sherman, thinking it’s an author’s wife, allows her in and immediately launches into several ‘canned’ responses to normal ‘author’s wives’ questions (by the way, the bestselling author for their company is a woman, so that ‘author’s wives’ thing . . . is vaguely confusing). That woman, though, notes that Dick is a moron – she isn’t an author’s wife. She has a book. No, idiot, not her own – the last book written by a prize winning author. And she has proof – the first page in its original form.

By a weird coincidence, Dick Sherman used to work for a different publisher, one who dealt with and published that author’s work – so he would recognize that guy’s work. And he does – it looks like the product of that dead dude. So he is both excited and confused. Excited to be able to get that work. Confused as to why it is being offered to him; and how he can be sure that there actually is more than that one ‘example’ page. The woman tells him that he has until that night for a response.

Fifteen minutes later, Dick receives a letter. From an agent. Offering up the same book. Two different people appear to be attempting to sell him the same book – a book he didn’t know existed (and while the author had boasted of being in the middle of writing a book for six years before his death, no book was found in his estate after his death). Naturally Dick is confused.

Before he can think too hard, one of the authors comes by – the top one – and he has to deal with her. Then he spots an old love - the love of his life. So he is now drunk (that author’s meetings consist of going on ‘lunches’ and drinking, like, 800 glasses of .. .um, rum or something), and distracted by sighting his old love – who left him to become a movie star (which she succeeded to do (that would be Janis Whitney (not sure I have her last name correct)). So, like I said, distracted.

It’s past the time to respond to the odd offer from the woman, but he’s in luck. She turns up at his apartment. They promptly go back to saying stuff like ‘baby’, he acts like a dick (she asks for something to drink, he says no, tell me what the fuck is going on, she gets herself a drink, he slaps it out of her hand – see, a dick), but before anyone gets anywhere, two thugs turn up and do stuff. Like tear apart the apartment, strip the girl, beat into unconsciousness the man (Dick), stuff.

Dick, naturally, hasn’t a clue what the fuck is going on. So he attempts to 1) get back his health; 2) continue with his life. But he gets pulled back into things. He spots Jean at a party, then spots Janis, and then people are rolling around naked and stuff. Then the lights go out and . . well, you get it. Stuff happens.

It’s an interesting book. Seemed somewhat more competently written for a guy who seems to have mostly written screenplays – not weird ass noir stuff. There were some downright stupid stuff done by the guy – but then I recalled this wasn’t some private dick but a book publisher. He may or may not be smart, but he hasn’t been trained to be smart in this particular type of situation.

Rating: 3.4

December 2 2016




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Little Lies by Lila Bruce

Little Lies
by Lila Bruce
Pages: 228
Date: October 14 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.00
Read: November 17 to 19 2016

It is hard to write something when I went on 'vacation' some point between reading this book and the time to try to write something.

Probably doesn't mean anything, but my 3 rating here now moves this author into 1 position way from 'hitting' all the possible stars. My take on the author is all over place. Four books read by them now, and 1 was 2 stars, 1 was 3 stars, 1 was 4 stars, and 1 was 5 stars. As I said, probably doesn't mean anything. Except that I'll probably be more tentative about trying my next book by this author.

Cover - Before, during, and now - seeing that cover? I imagine that the book will be, is, and was a western. That cover would be perfect for a Annie Oakley type (not Annie Oakley herself, as she didn't use a pistol, had long 'largish' hair (well the real one, not the who turned up in movies and the like - who, oddly, looks like a match to the cover here (other than color of hair).



Right, so - a woman long long ago had, in a fit of whatever married a guy. Almost immediately divorcing him. Amicable split. Though she hasn't seen him in a longish time and only then because that guy's grandmother had died. She hasn't see him in a long time, doesn't know what he did with himself after they split, and has no clue where he is located or how to contact him - they have no remaining connections.

The book opens with that specific woman resting on the ground in a bank. Because she was shot - by bank robbers. She is helped by a woman who happened to be there - a woman she recognizes from seeing her at a coffee shop. That woman helps slow/stop the bleeding and helps keep her alive.

Unknown to shot woman, Lia Broddock, the 'helper woman', Dylan McKenzie, is actually Special Agent Dylan McKenzie - an FBI agent whose 'target' is Lia Broddock - as in, she's been assigned to watch her in case that woman's ex-husband just happens to stumble nearby.

The ex-husband's been a bad boy - he went to work as an accountant for a specific firm and somewhere along the way picked up a specific special client - the head of a mob family.

For 'reasons', that guy, the ex-husband I mean, had looked at two people on his internet before going into hiding - which is why the FBI was/is watching Lia. Specifically Dylan and a man named 'Brock'.

That whole FBI thing was super weird - the boss was always screaming at Dylan, and the partner is a smug bastard (yet, for unknown reasons, Dylan seems to still respect and like both). Apparently the boss would have preferred that Dylan have let Lia die instead of helping her when she got shot - at least that's the impression I got from the screaming. That boss, Henry (or was it Harry?) sure seems incompetent - I mean, the FBI wish to know where that ex-husband guy is because he has information that will help take down a crime family. Someone who isn't a suspect for anything, other than a potential source of information on that ex-husband. And instead of seeing it as a good thing that an FBI agent has successfully injected themselves into the 'target's life, he instead sees it as this super bad thing that should never have happened. And has to be talked into taking advantage of the situation that has developed - the situation of having an FBI agent get close.

The characterization for both lead women is odd - there's a kind of rich/poor dynamic that gets built up but . . . neither of them actually are poor; neither of them are 'resting' on money - neither are living a live of high expense or luxury. Yet there's still that dynamic there. What with Lia constant squeaks of surprise when she learns of Dylan's 'rich' background - not in a 'what is a rich person doing as an FBI agent' but in a 'what is this rich person doing near me?' - yet, Lia herself seems to not care particularly about money - I mean, she herself was married to a guy who apparently was the only living relative to two people who had mounds of cash. She's been around money. Bah. Again bah. It's hard to think about that I could possible be meaning here. mmphs.

Okay then - I've babbled incoherently long enough - book was okay, nothing overly great about it. Couple of moments of annoyance felt by me about the events occurring. I would neither recommend nor not recommend this book. It was . . . there and I read it and now it is done.

November 20 2016

Wildling Rider by Helena Maeve

Wildling Rider
by Helena Maeve
Pages: Unknown
Date: November 9 2016
Publisher: Less than Three
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.25
Read: November 1 2016

*I received this book from NetGalley and Less than Three in return for a fair review.*

Four reasons why I wanted to read this story. 1) Read this author before in a short story collection and liked what I saw (to the score of 4.65); 2) was curious about seeing this author in longer form; 3) had been interested in reading some form of biker story for a while now, and the ones I’d circled in the past seemed to have too much of a ‘male jackass’ vibe drifting off the pages; 4) it’s a lesbian story set in Scotland with bikers, werewolves and a mystery, what more could I ask for?

Oh, I don’t know, maybe a character who I wouldn’t want to strangle with my bare hands might have been nice. From beginning to end, Abigail – the main character (and only POV), annoyed the hell out of me. Judgmental, nosey, bitchy, stubborn, a little too close to the ‘airhead’ her ex called her at one point (though she, the ex, had also included things that implied bubbly – Abigail was far from bubbly/happy go lucky/pleasant to be around. Far.) The little too close has to do with observable intelligence levels. Which isn’t exactly horrible in and of itself for a character – I mean for a character to be somewhat dim – might even make an interesting book. Here it just annoyed me.

I need to interject one thing here though, somewhat out of order – you know that ‘too stupid to live’ concept that pops up in fiction? TSTL? I do not believe I’ve ever seen a character described that way who wasn’t female, but let’s not dwell on that – point being that the character is, as the words suggest – way too stupid to live, yet they do. Well, to be fair to this character here – Abigail – while there were a few moments that edged in that direction, she never tipped that way completely. No, she kept getting injured, hurt, etc., mostly through the fault of others and not because of her own stupidity. Either she was with someone who would normally be able to protect her, but couldn't, or she got hurt after that someone abandoned them (like, what the heck was up with her ex-girlfriend basically charging off and abandoning her in the woods? Right, sorry, getting ahead of myself there). Just mean to point out that my ‘lacking in certain level of intelligence’ (a phrase I never used until now) doesn’t mean that she’s ‘too stupid to live’ stereotype character.

Story started off similarly to that other story I’ve read by Maeve – as in right in the middle of the story. I think I used the word ‘story’ too much in the previous sentence, you’d think I could have come up with a different word, at some point, other than story. Hehe. *shakes self* Right, sorry. Point – previous story I had read was in Less than Dead and started off with a man battling hoards of zombies while listening to classical music (and telling his man-servant to change the song every once in a while). Never did learn exactly what was going on, but you don’t really need to in a zombie story. That didn’t really work this time around, unfortunately. Started off annoyed that I didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t get much better (the annoyance, I figured out what was going on – most of it – before the end of the story).

Right, so, this is set in Scotland. A woman is poking her nose into ‘things’ and asking questions people do not wish to answer (interject here – near the beginning Abigail says something like ‘—my good old RP accent was, for the first time in my life, a source of derision.’ RP accent? What the bloody hell is an RP accent? It’s not a posh accent, because she made fun of/mocked Georgia for having that. So. RP. “Received Pronunciation, often abbreviated to RP, is an accent of spoken English. Unlike other UK accents, it’s identified not so much with a particular region as with a particular social group, although it has connections with the accent of Southern England. RP is associated with educated speakers and formal speech”. So says Google. And, what? Seriously? The first time in her life a source of derision? Guess my vague impression that I had picked up along the way that ‘experts’ are derided in England at the moment was just that, an impression, a wrong one at that (ah, but does an expert specifically have an RP accent? Just because there is that ‘associated with educated speakers and formal speech’ part? *shrugs. No idea. Shesh this is a long aside. I do not even remember what paragraph I am in now.)

*pretends previous paragraph doesn’t exist*

Right, so, book is set in Scotland. A woman from London famous for making videos of fashion is poking her nose in a small village in Scotland. Apparently she heard that a woman went missing. So she took a train five hours up (I think) to look around. She admits that people go missing all the time in London. But – she just knows no one cares about this ‘Candice Sharpe’ person, and therefore she needs to go up there and look around. Except she actually knew another woman who had gone missing. And that’s the real reason she’s up there. Except that person went missing before she was born. See, confusing.

Well, there is this woman named Abigail and she’s poking around this Scottish village with her ex-girlfriend who is both a biker and a werewolf (the local biker gang are werewolves; or – the local werewolves ride motorcycles). The story is set in that type of universe. One with bikers. Also, werewolves. And vampires. And witches. And people who have been born again (not that way). Though only werewolves and those who have been reincarnated actually pop up in this specific story here.

My review is confused because I’m quite off my game at the moment. The fact that the book itself is also confusing is just a coincidence.

Characters –
Abigail - 30 something woman from London who is poking around in Scotland for a missing woman. Speaks with an RP accent. Has been described by one ex-girlfriend as being a bubbly airhead.

Kayla - Abigail’s biker ex-girlfriend who is also a werewolf and lives in the same town Abigail is wandering around in softly calling out the name ‘Candice’ to see if Candice turns up.

Candice Sharpe - a woman who has gone missing who Abigail thinks no one cares about. Is described as both a junkie and a groupie (groupie of the werewolf bikers).

Georgia - a woman Kayla claims is Candice’s friend. Though Abigail scoffs at the idea. Since Georgia is just so gosh darn posh. Too posh to be friends with trash like Candice. Or something like that (did I mention yet that Abigail is judgemental?).

Jensen - head of the Wildlings – the biker motorcycle club that Abigail’s ex-girlfriend, Kayla, is a member of.

Nettie Jensen - Jensen’s long dead mother. Knew Swedish.

Plot - English woman wanders Scotland looking for a missing Scottish woman who she doesn’t know, nor had ever heard of before that woman went missing. The town is very tight lipped and strongly suggestive to Abigail that she should make a hasty departure. Backed up by gunfire. That English woman has some connections with the people found in the town that would not normally be expected, definitely not expected if this wasn’t a fantasy. Motorcycles are ridden. Driven. On roads. On paths. Over rocks. Whereupon they flip through the air and land on riders. Much stuff occurs.

Overall - interesting story. Wish I hadn’t been somewhat confused in the beginning. And/or that I didn’t come to basically dislike 99.9% of the people involved.

Rating: 3.25

November 1 2016

Sigil Fire by Erzabet Bishop

Sigil Fire
by Erzabet Bishop
Pages: 104
Date: June 8 2014
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Sigil Fire (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 3.23
Read: October 26 2016

This book stars a succubus and a vampire/blood witch. And, depending if you consider someone with a POV as a star or not, others. One issue with this book is the huge number of POV's involved.

So - someone or something has been killing women - sucking them dry (of soul). Fairly quickly (as in immediately) it is realized that all of the women have at least one thing in common - all of them were supposed to be immortal - all of them are succubus demons (in the past I've seen people get around the question of 'what is the plural of succubus' but having singular or plural forms of demon; here, if I read things right, they go with succubi).

Several succubus demons pop up in this story - Jeannie, Gina, um, others, but most importantly - Sonia (one of the two main stars). Jeannie and Sonia were linked as 'almost girlfriends', though being succubi, both still needed to feed off of humans - though Sonia tried as hard as she could to limit her feeding. Gina and Sonia are linked as being friends. All but Sonia seemed to be there so they could pop in for a minute or two, say 'hi', then go and die. Ah sorry, forgot Charley. She's also a succubus, but unlike all the others (except for Sonia who works as a fetish model), Charley works as a homicide detective (the others work in either a strip club or strip clubs - we only seemed to see the one club so unclear).

Charley's partner is a vampire. And while both are in the story, pop up, do things, and stuff, neither are as important to the story as expected.

Then there's Fae - tattoo artist, lesbian, witch (blood), and - not to be forgotten - vampire. She's the other main character.

I was enjoying the book, liking most of the people I came across until something snapped. Not exactly sure what, exactly, but suddenly Fae's making mean nasty comments about everyone around her (mostly about the succubus demons) and other characters started doing mean things. And the story took a turn for the worse because of that. Oh right - Sonia, despite everything, suddenly started being flippant, and acting all 'I don't need to follow your advice, it's stupid' and stuff.

This is the fifth story I've read by Bishop, and the first separate thingie (all others were short stories in anthologies). I, in general, have liked the stories I've read, but had been reluctant to read a book by Bishop because there seemed to be about 8,000 of them (well, really "94 distinct works"), and many seemed to look, on the surface, like they might be MF. Or MM for that matter. So I was happy enough when I saw that Ylva had a sale going on based on Halloween - the second story in the series was free (and I picked it up immediately), and this one here was $0.99. I didn't pick it up immediately (for reasons - mostly involving how Ylva requires payment via Paypal (it's true you can 'use your credit card', it's still through Paypal, and I don't want anything to do with Paypal), but I eventually went ahead and got it.

There's a vague and weird connection to another series - that being Loreli Brown's Belladonna Ink series - mostly because both series seem to be internally linked (as in the stories inside the individual series) through tattoos (though I still don't see how exactly the first book in that Belladonna Ink series has anything really to do with ink, but whatever). Random thoughts that occur - two different lesbian series that appear to have stories that are linked based solely on ink (well, also being in the same internal universe (as in, the two series themselves are not linked to each other).

Wow, I got way off the story there. Right, so - okay story. Lots of characters. Not really sure why there were so many, they got their brief moments to shine - show characterization, then fade into the background to not be worthy of further story or die.

I'll read the next story in this series, though somewhat more because I've liked stories by Bishop before, and I already own it.

Rating: 3.23

October 26 2016

Requiem for Immortals by Lee Winter

Requiem for Immortals
by Lee Winter
Pages: 295
Date: August 17 2016
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3
Read: October 1 2016

I was, tentatively, excited about this book. But what I was looking for and expecting wasn't there (a hard nosed assassin assassinating people; what I got was someone with a mommy complex who failed to do the job given to her).

I didn't need or want the change in POV. The icky lust for mommy was off putting (sure, not biological mother but still icky). The issue of accidentally targeting the wrong person was vaguely not believe able - at least not for this super assassin.

The various sex scenes were also borderline icky. Especially the one in public with the other assassin during a fight scene.

Batgirl, Vol. 2: Family Business by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr (Illustrations)

Batgirl, Vol. 2: Family Business
by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, Babs Tarr (Illustrations)
Pages: 168
Date: February 17 2016
Publisher: DC Comics
Series: Batgirl (Fourth series, Volume 7 in series; 2 in newish reboot)

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: August 13 to 20 2016


The Batman Universe has gone all weird on me (though I knew that since this is the second 'Volume' since the change). Batman is dead or gone (I'm not sure if I ever knew). Batgirl's father is the new Batman in an ultra power suit. Batgirl herself is a hipster, and surrounded by a bunch of people I do not recognize (other than Nightwing - who is supposed to be dead (though I've read the series where it came out why he is pretending to be dead - he is working as a spy); despite being 'dead', he sure pops up a lot - and is super icky creepy around Batgirl, interrupting her date, being all clingy, trying to kiss her - then the ending made it look like he was about to kidnap her, though book ended before we find that out; Batwing (though he is operating as Lucius Fox - opening his own company, retiring Batwing); and Papa Gordon (though he is acting as Batman instead of police commisioner).

Plus there was a lesbian wedding. Considering everything, I should have been all over that, right? Lesbian wedding in comicville? But . . . I've no clue who these people are - other than one or the other are supposedly friends of Barbara Gordon (though neither know that she's also Batgirl) - and I believe one is an ex-roommate).

The wedding involving two women (or just a wedding in general) should matter more to me. But I'm too disconnected to the people in this series and I kind of had a meh feeling. Meh, two people getting married - Dick Grayson is interrupting it and acting like a dick; oh they married now (the two lesbians) and . . . fade to Batgirl in bed sleeping. Meh.

Several 'mysteries'/'crimes' are investigated by Batgirl. The one that sticks in my mind is the one involving a tiger wandering around killing and eating people. And I've a vague idea that Batgirl wandered over to Gotham Academy for a spell or too for whatever reason. Meh.

If it hasn't come across yet - the whole thing was kind of meh to me. I doubt I'll continue this series. Then again, I know they just had yet another reboot (DC Comics) so if I did continue, I might find yet another new version of Batgirl. Not actually sure - haven't been paying attention.

August 21 2016

The Devil Unleashed
by Ali Vali
Pages: 175
Date: December 1 2006
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Cain Casey (2nd in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 30 to 31 2016

Book two in this series follows directly upon the close of book 1. As in book 1 ends with some ‘actions’ being taken by a rival gang. And book 2 started . . . with those same actions occurring.

There are several relationships that fluctuate in this series. Mostly involving Casey Clan members.

So – book one involved Cain and Emma circling the idea of getting back together, somewhat tentatively agreeing on that; while book two has, for the most part, moved on from that ‘tentative’ nature, and moved into ‘back together – solidly’. So, that’s one relationship.

Another involves cousin Muriel Casey and some tentative inching between her and Shelby Daniels that began in book one – very tentative, and then imploded. Implosion due completely to the part wherein Daniels is an FBI agent watching the Casey clan, while Muriel is that clan’s ‘legitimate’ representative (and, specifically, their lawyer). I was kind of hoping to see more of a connection this book, since a big deal was given to having Shelby have a point of view, but, alas, there’s that FBI thing. Though the possibility of a relationship is not dead yet.

Strangely, somewhat out of the blue, a relationship for Merrick occurred with yet another Casey cousin, this one being a ‘hidden’ cousin, a cousin that most do not know is a cousin. Both work security. For the most part, I do not have any inherent desire to have the amount of knowledge I now have about Katlin Patrick and Merrick; nor to read more about them. But they continue circling in this book. (Well, not continue, start . . and more than circling).

Wow this little bunch of words of mine came out really roughly. Like pulling teeth. Mmphs. Odd considering how I thought I was going to enter by noting that I rather like these books by Vali, and have, to a certain extent, finally found why the author is liked by so many. Instead I awkward stumble along.

Plot wise the book involves a gang war between the Casey gang and the Bracato gang. On the side are two other gangs loyal/in a good relationship with Casey; and the FBI, who are watching all of them. Somewhat ineffectively.

Fun exciting series. First book I couldn’t get myself to actually write anything. Second took me a while to get anything down. And painfully at that. Maybe by the end of the series I’ll actually write coherently. This is what the series deserves, the coherent part, since it is rather well written.

The Darkness Knows by Cheryl Honigford

The Darkness Knows
by Cheryl Honigford
Pages: 352
Date: August 2 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Series: Viv and Charlie Mystery (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 28 to 29 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley, and Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review

A quick addition to the book for those coming across my review through a feed or other means - this book is: Historical Fiction Mystery, and any and all romance is M/F.

As I noted in a status update, I initially was made aware of this book when I happened to notice it being recommended to me by GoodReads when I was on the GoodReads page for Strivers’ Row Spy. This book, out of all the ones being recommended to me, looked interesting enough to examine closer. For it reminded me, at first glance, of a show I had watched long ago which also involved a radio station slightly before then during the second world war. That one, though, was set in Pittsburgh (‘Remember WENN’), while this one is set in Chicago.

This book specifically follows a woman named Vivian Witchell (‘I prefer Viv) as she attempts to advance in her career as an actress on the radio. Certain things get in her way of being successful, or at least get in the way of her ability to concentrate, like finding dead bodies in lounges. For you see, Vivian stumbled across the dead body of Marjorie Fox – much beloved radio star (and much hated coworker by everyone who knew her).

A letter is found along with Vivian’s body. A letter implying that Vivian’s life might be in danger as well. So, since she happens to work on a show, The Darkness Knows, that has a private detective as a consultant, that detective is hired to work as Vivian’s bodyguard. So, private detective Charlie ‘don’t call me Chick’ Haverman appears on the scene.

Vivian and a somewhat reluctant Charlie then attempt to solve this specific murder.

I was surprised when I happened to look at the author’s page on GoodReads and saw that this book had started life as a Nanowrimo novel – for it is quite well written, very interesting, fun little book. It’s not that I can’t imagine such a book coming from Nanowrimo, I just imagine that forcing yourself to cram a full book length work into a month of writing somewhat diminishes an author’s ability to massage the work into a readable lovely work. Which this one is, a quite, as noted, well written book.

I have/had certain issues with some of the characters, but then I remind myself that it is the late 1930s, and a character that literally faints, is something of an odd mix of weak and strong, and who keeps almost collapsing because her knees grow weak in certain situations, might just be period accurate.

My knowledge of P.I.’s come from before (mostly the 1920s) and after the war (with the exception of one German P.I. who operated pre-WWII, during, then post WWII), and so I cannot say anything, really, about how the P.I. in this book is depicted. Though he does seem to be something of a cold, smug, smirking dick.

Regardless, despite saying what I say about the characters, I, for the most part, liked them well enough.

I do, though have two major issues with the book that adversely impacted on my enjoyment of the book. (1) the book includes some tense moments involving Charles and Vivian that are defused by the simple fact that this book is listed as being the first in a Viv and Charlie mystery series (two-fold issue – I know that they have to have some form of relationship, friend, other, something, for this book to be the first in said series and there’s this moment wherein Vivian begins questioning Charles motives and the possibility that he might be the killer; before I even reached that specific scene I had some issues with Charles – specifically the part wherein he is supposed to be acting as a bodyguard, yet he kept disappearing on Viv – several (numerous?) scenes during which Viv is frantically searching for Charles and can’t find him – making him both not that great at being a body-guard, and something of a suspect; (2) I do not particularly like Charles and his smirking attitude (Vivian has some troubles at work, in a ‘I might have been fired’ way, and Charles just laughs at her and says she deserved it; which leads directly to – Charles has been acting like a dick to Viv and the only reason I can imagine her rushing to his side at one point is because he ended up in a hospital bed. ).

Despite the preceding paragraph, I again note that I enjoyed this book. And look forward to future books by this author.

July 29 2016

The Devil Inside by Ali Vali

The Devil Inside
by Ali Vali
Pages: 240
Date: January 1 2006
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Cain Casey (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 29 2016

The book opens somewhat abruptly, or, I mean, after the ‘action’ has already started.

Four years ago, after a mistaken impression of how events unfolded, Emma Verde fled back to her parents’ home in Wisconsin. Leaving behind her son and partner (wife, if it had been legal for her to be wife). For, while she understood the concept that Cain Casey might be operating on slightly the wrong side of the law, she didn’t realize blood might be involved. A realization developed when she literally saw Casey covered in blood – at least her hands were. She just . . . Emma just couldn’t stay, especially when Casey lied to her face as to what whether or not she happened to have killed someone (it is not spoiler to note that Casey did not in fact kill this individual, since it is revealed more or less immediately when the issue comes up).

Somewhat out of the blue, Emma has contacted Casey. She wants to make amends, though to the son left behind. For the sake of Hayden and any potential future relationship with his mother, Casey allows Emma to take Hayden back to Wisconsin for a visit. Where Hayden meets a real nasty bitch by the name of Carol (Emma’s mother), and a rather great guy (Ross, Emma’s father). And lots of cows.

Meanwhile the FBI is monitoring Casey, since she runs a criminal organization in New Orleans (mostly importing/distributing cigarettes (and other tobacco products) and alcohol without paying the tax on them). She also happens to run one or more bars.

So, Hayden and Emma, and her family spend a little bit of time in Wisconsin. Somewhat earlier than expected, Casey is called upon to come get her son – mostly because of a mention of Marie – Casey’s sister/Hayden’s aunt, who had just recently been brutally killed.

To a certain extent, considering everything that had happened, the reconciliation between Emma and Cain Casey seems a little farfetched. What with Emma running off on Cain. After having begged Casey not to kill someone. Which Casey obeyed. Allowing said individual to, about 4 years later, brutally kill Casey’s beloved somewhat mentally challenged sister. That’s kind of a heavy burden to overcome. And then there’s the second child that Cain and Emma had; who Cain has no knowledge about, since Emma, when she fled, had fled while pregnant. So: 1) Emma ran off after begging Casey not to kill someone, Casey doesn’t kill that person; 2) That person who Emma kept Casey from killing goes on to, later, kill Casey’s beloved sister (last remaining immediate family member still alive, what with brother Billy, father Dalton, and mother Theresa having been killed a long while back); 3) Emma ran off while pregnant and took four years before allowing Casey to know that she has a daughter; 4) Emma brings in the FBI to try to allow them to ‘catch’ Casey so that Hayden would end up needing to be with her (Emma). Ah love. They allow you to . . . overcome so much, eh?

Action takes place in New Orleans and Wisconsin (Haywood Wisconsin to be exact, if you want to be exact).

I liked the book, despite some of my off ball comments.

August 1 2016

The Job by Jove Belle

The Job
by Jove Belle
Pages: 264
Date: October 13 2014
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 25 to 26 2016

This is my second book by Jove Belle. Loved the first. This one not so much.

Let me see what I can say: there are two stories going on in this book, the story of an undercover FBI agent, and the story of two women who had had a romantic relationship a while back in college (there are actually more than two stories, like Torrence’s interactions with the bank as a manager, etc; but two main ones).

I had issues with both main story lines.

Sera Warren, the undercover FBI agent, is not exactly seen in the greatest light here, and I’m specifically referring to how unperceptive she is in terms of the people she is investigating (at one point, Sera thought something like ‘Bob is a stronger person than she had given him credit for, she had just labeled him as one of Marcus’ henchmen and hadn’t looked closer; and Marcus seems smarter and more together than I had thought’ – (a) Bob is not the actual name used; (b) hmms, underestimating Marcus is, I suppose, a risk that can occur – there is not enough information given to know if this was a gut reaction, a split second decision, or a long thought out deeply examined analysis that lead to the beliefs regarding Marcus’ abilities; not thinking of someone beyond ‘hmm – that’s a henchmen, let’s move on to other matters now’ is kind of . . . dim. And for the love of pickles, why the fuck did she keep trying to enrage Marcus? I put the deaths of at least one of the civilians on her head because of her inability to stop poking him, especially as she knew he was deranged and a hair from doing rage-y stuff

The other story line interfered with the terrorist/undercover story line in two ways – it literally interrupted the flow of the story so that a not needed and not very exciting flashback to college could occur. And, secondly, in the ‘current’ time line, that relationship kept causing Sera to do stupid shit. Like, say, in the middle of a tense hostage situation, fondle and kiss the ex-girlfriend.

In terms of plot holes, two come immediately to mind: 1) it was mentioned that the head of security was this knowledgeable ex-cop – except for certain ‘issues’, he was basically ignored while Sera tried to figure out what to do and what positives she had to use to help the situation - the biggest role he played in the tense situation was to get knocked out and, later, use his handcuffs - note, he was awake and alert when Sera was examining what resources she had available ; 2) Tor is the head of the bank. Knowledgeable. Capable. Etc. And yet, certain stupid things occurred. I’ll also put that behind spoiler tags but first – other than a somewhat stubborn need to put herself in danger, she was kind of spineless –

During the ‘situation’, no one knew Tor was there because she was up in her office. So, she hits the little emergency button and . . . proceeds to walk down the stairs so that the bad guys can ‘take her’. Um, wha? She could have tried calling someone, or . . . um, anything else beyond walking down the stairs. I do not understand what happened there. It seemed to be a situation wherein the author wanted to have this ‘moment’ and an excuse to have Sera point a gun at Tor. But whatever.

Second issue with the bank manager issue – during the tense situation, while Tor and Sera are scrambling around, they end up in a back area with a bunch of doors (4 I believe). At one point Sera turns to Tor and asks what is behind two of the locked doors. To which Tor responds something like ‘I do not know, I rarely come back here; I think they are storage rooms.’ Um . . . did I misunderstand what Tor’s job is? The concept confuses me that the bank manager has areas of their ‘control’ that they have no clue what is in that area.

Ah, third plot issue – a) bank vault just sits there open for anyone to enter and take money from; b) hallway with storage rooms, HVAC, and other building maintenance type rooms are in a super secular area that requires special keys to enter – the kind wherein only three people have keys. I . . . what? The bank vault is just open to all, but some area that Tor doesn’t’ even have a clue what’s in there, but isn’t anything valuable or precious or whatever the fuck, is behind super secure . . .um security?

So. The romance annoyed me. There were bits of the terrorist plot that annoyed me. And there were bits of the undercover (as in the character of that undercover agent) that annoyed me. And yet I gave/give a rating of 3 stars. I might be mental.

July 26 2016

Uptown Thief by Aya de León

Uptown Thief
by Aya de León
Pages: 352
Date: July 26 2016
Publisher: Dafina (Kensington Books)
Series: None

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: July 5 to 11 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Kensington Books for an honest review.

I read something somewhere, in a review?, in a book description? That said something like ‘Ocean’s 11 with women.’ Do not go into this book thinking that or you will be disappointed.

There’s another book that had that tagline attached to it. It was a Michael Crichton book from long ago, released under the John Lange name. That one is both a lot closer to being ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’ than this book while also being incorrect. There the storyline involved a group of people setting up to rob a hotel (I think it was a hotel). The book followed them as the planned, then as they robbed the place. It was actually quite neat. Just one thing – everyone in that gang in Lange’s book were men. So, why that tagline of ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’? Because there was in fact a group of women who robbed the place. They just did it under the noses of the male group – but it is something of a ‘disappointment’ in that the story didn’t follow them so much as it followed the male gang.

Right, so this book here. For one thing, the action that occurs does involve and follow women, so that’s one up on that unnamed Lange book. But the book is not a group of women who rob some location and go through thrills, suspense, and the like. No, the book is about a latina woman named Marisol Rivera who had a rotten childhood (mother died, father wasn’t around, then grandmother died; got left with an uncle, who sexually abused her; she, Marisol, did what she could to protect her sister; which included, once the uncle was gone, becoming a prostitute at the age of 17 to get enough money to pay the rent and bills. She, Marisol, is now in her 30s (or is it 40s? I got confused about her age) and is the executive director of a health clinic in Manhattan. Serving the poor, specifically (has this reputation though I’m not sure it is actually part of their official motto) sexual workers. Also, because the economy went into a downturn, and various grants and the like dried up or were pulled, Marisol again needs a way to pay her bills. So, she opens an escort service. Rich people can ‘donate’ to the clinic, get a tax write-off for that, and then get a ‘gift’ from the clinic (as in an escort).

Somewhere along the line that ‘Ocean’s 11’ has to come in, right? Well, that has to do with two facts. The escort service is not able to cover all the bills, and Marisol spots a few people she wants to ‘punish’. Rich CEO’s who were involved in a Mexican sex traffic ring – got put on trial, and got off (I think the judge dismissed the case or something). So, she robs them. Right off the bat that’s different from Ocean’s 11 – where a gang robs a casino. Here the ‘gang’ (a small group of Marisol’s most trusted people) robs several locations. As quietly as possible. And there’s a ton of other stuff happening in this book. So, if it had been a series of robberies, I might stretch things to include this under some altered tagline of ‘Ocean’s 11 with women’, but no, it isn’t that. It’s more of a slice of life book that just happens to have, as the main character, someone who robs rich assholes.

So, Marisol – because of the abuse from the uncle, and because of the fucking for money, she is not one who has the ability to have a natural relationship from men. She does have an ‘itch’ though. A huge number of times, she’ll head uptown to an immigrant area, pick up a man, and fuck him. With her in control.

Both of her criminal and relationship life is put in jeopardy, though, when a man from Marisol’s past turns up in the form of Raul. A man who grow up in the same neighborhood (which reminds me – for the shit life Marisol had growing up, she sure has a lot of nostalgic feeling for her ‘old community’).

When a pimp wandered near waving a gun and calling for his whore to come out, things got complicated at the clinic. At a benefit for the clinic, Marisol mentions needing some extra security. Raul steps up and offers his services. He becomes a temporary security guard. He has a certain background, being that he had been a NYPD officer. He’s an ex-cop now, though. One that still consults with the city. Which is part of the complication on the criminal side – Marisol robs people, an old friend begins working at the clinic and is an ex-cop. Then there’s the romantic side – for the first time in maybe ever, Marisol might be willing to try a relationship, she has lustful feelings toward Raul. Though there are complications – he’s an ex-cop, she’s a criminal, and she also has that past sex worker history (and current, for that matter).

One of the neat things about this book is how LGBT friendly the book is. Two of Marisol’s top friends/thieves/escorts are lesbians (they are each other’s girlfriends). And another character in the book, much less important character-wise, is transgender.

Marisol, though, is very much heterosexual and spends a lot of time, and I mean a lot, humping men. Well, I do not mean to make that seem like it goes to porno levels. She humps men. Every once in a while. And, at times, graphically.

To a certain extent this book took me somewhat longer than normal not because of anything to do with the book itself, I mean quality wise, but because it involves MF relations. I had to ease my way in, and then through at times. Taking breaks here and there.

There is one very big flaw/problem with the book that could have had something like a negative impact on the star rating, if the book was not an arc. Because it is, I do not push up or push down the rating in any way because of it. ‘It’ being the part wherein the formatting in the copy I read is kind of messed up. As in, it isn’t really formatted. Sentences/paragraphs/etc. are smashed together or have double spaces within the same sentence as in:

Not an exact quote:

‘That taco is very

hot don’t you think?’

While at other times I was not always certain who was saying what because of things being mushed together, as in:

Again, not an exact quote:

“How are you doing?” She looked at the floor. “Are you doing that thing later?” She asked.
“The tacos are hot.” She moaned.

Most of the time I could tell, in context, that ‘Are you doing that’ was actually someone else speaking; though occasionally I wasn’t certain.

Again, though, I do not – because it is an arc – remove anything from the rating because of that issue (though I would if this wasn’t an arc). I assume that I got a digitalized version of the paperback, as opposed to an ebook file.

One last thought – language. I began reading this one at the same time I was reading Clare Ashton’s Poppy Jenkins. Which I mention for one reason – while I was reading ‘Poppy Jenkins’, people I know who were reading it at the same time were making comments about all the Welsh words popping up. And I? I was reading that and this book here. No, there are no Welsh words popping up in this book, no there were instead a bunch of Spanish words. I probably should have mentioned that any way – the part where a bunch of Spanish gets used. But I specifically am mentioning it here for a reason I once mentioned in another book with mixed languages (not the Poppy book, but a Heyer book).

I have no inherent problem with a book filled with mixed languages; characters speaking two or more languages at the same time in the same sentence. The specific problem I had was, like in a book by Heyer about the British fighting in Spain, this book here included several occasions when a character would start talking and the author included helpful notes like ‘in Spanish’. As in, the character was speaking in Spanish, but the words were printed on the page in English. I liked the fact they were there in English so I could read along. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was the part where, remember the reader has already been told that the characters are speaking in Spanish, Spanish words would begin to appear in the sentences.

How exactly am I supposed to ‘take’ that? Spanish words popping up in a Spanish conversation that has already been specified to be translated into English. Are those words extra Spanish-y? So that’s why they appeared in Spanish? And to clarify, I’m not talking about the Spanish words that pop up before and after this specific event I’m talking about. I’m specifically talking about when the main character went to Cuba, and several occasions conversations occurred during which the author noted that the conversation had been translated from Spanish into English . . . yet still contained, here and there, Spanish words (Note: until I went to look for examples, I had forgotten that ‘in Spanish’ actually popped up in previous sections to the trip to Cuba; there are 17 occasions when ‘in Spanish’ is used in the book).

Quote from book:

“Quieres otra?” he asked
“No thanks,” she said in Spanish. “But I’ll buy you one.”
He raised his eyebrows, but then leaned back and smiled “Como no?”
She told the bartender in Spanish. “A rum and Coke.”

1) Why are his words in Spanish? Well, no. Both of their conversation are in Spanish. Why are his words only in Spanish, while hers, which, remember that ‘in Spanish’ part, are also in Spanish, but get translated?
2) Why does ‘in Spanish’ keep getting repeated?

By the way ‘Quieres otra’ apparently means ‘do you want another’. And ‘Como no?’ means . . . I don’t know what it means. Google translate is telling me it means ‘as?’. Hmm. Okay.

“I need to be on top,” she said in Spanish. “Bueno,” he said. me talking now – this is an example where the formatting got messed up – both of their lines are right after each other without a break

Here it makes sense to mix things up. I would not have known what ‘necesidad de estar en la cima’ (I have a large feeling that isn’t what ‘I need to be on top’ is in Spanish, but that’s what I get from Google), but do know Bueno = good.

Though here is what I meant specifically about mixing:

“Welcome to Cuba!” he said in Spanish, kissing her check. “Sorry we couldn’t . . .”
“our house is no Hotel Palacio, pero mi casa es tu casa.”

Gah. Okay, the mixing took place several paragraphs later. Still, same talker, I assume he is still speaking in Spanish after that ‘in Spanish’ mention, especially as they are in Cuba and everyone there speaks Spanish. So, why is pero mi casa es tu casa in Spanish in a part that is already supposed to be translated into English from Spanish? I know, from here or there, that ‘casa es tu casa’ is ‘my house is your house’ (or something like that), though I didn’t realize it needed the mi to make it ‘my’, and had no clue what pero was until I looked it up (means but – as in ‘but my house is your house’).

*shrugs* I never learned Spanish, so 99.9% of the stuff in Spanish just flies over my head unless there is some mention of what it means (several occasions someone will say something in Spanish, then within a paragraph or two, what they meant is said in English – somewhat rare, though).

I liked the book. I recommend this book. Do not expect constant action and thrills and suspense. Or, for that matter non-stop sex (there’s plenty of graphic sex, just not non-stop – oh, and, other than kissing, I believe all the sex is between a man and woman; no lesbian sex here; bah, I just recalled that there was one incident when the two girlfriends got busy while their ‘dates’ were asleep. I forget how graphic that scene was, though. Looking for ‘in Spanish’ is easy; searching for ‘lesbian sex scene’ to see if it is graphic or not does not actually work, heh).

Overall – An enjoyable book. I liked it. Just be aware that there’s graphic depictions of male-female sex, and that it isn’t a ‘thrill-a-minute’ type of book, but more of a ‘slice-of-life that occasionally includes robberies; and those robberies can occasionally be suspenseful’.

July 11 2016

Bitter Root by Laydin Michaels

Bitter Root
by Laydin Michaels
Pages: 240
Date: August 16 2016
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 2.0 out of 5.0
Read: June 29 2016 to July 3 2016

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

Location New Iberia Louisiana.

Characters
Two point of views. Adi Bergeron and Griffith McNautly.

Merley Adison ‘Dinks’ ‘Adi’ Bergeron Nerbass - chef of a small restaurant in Louisiana named ‘Boiling Pot’. Ran away from home when she was 14. Is now 22.

Griffith McNaulty - is a reporter. Her reputation is currently smeared due to something that happened with an interview subject (something to do with a 'Tabitha Moore' who was a 'criminal' and had 'deliberatly subverted the truth' and her article had 'cost innocent people their life savings'. She is looking for more than just a puff piece.

Bertie Durall - is a 74 year old woman who found Adi curled up next to a dumpster outside the Boiling Pot. Calls Adi Dinks. Took Adi in as her own, taught her how to cook.

T’Claude Michaud - owner of the restaurant Adi works in.

J.B. Nerbass - the big evil step-father. Mixed up with criminals. Is a killer.

Plotline
At the age of 14, Adi ran away from home. Her mother was a bitch – the kind to slap her around; the father was a step-father – and connected to criminal elements. In the prologue, 12 year old Merley Adison Nerbass accidentally walks in on her step-father, J.B. Nerbass, doing something bad. J.B. gathers his step-daughter to him, puts a gun in her hand, and helps her pull the trigger. Some guy named Ransom is now dead (I say some guy, he is known to Adi as the father of two kids she knows and sees in school). J.B. praises Adi for her killing ability.

From that moment on, J.B. included Adi in his criminal activities. Without her desire to be included. Her life is hellish. This proceeds for two years when finally Adi knows she has to just leave or she is going to end up dead – either by J.B. or from her soul withering away.

Chapter one opens 8 years later. Adi goes by a different name (though one that’s basically her old one minus Nerbass and reintroduction of her real father’s last name - Bergeron, perfect disguise, eh? – it’s true that Bertie calls her Dink, but she’s the only one to do that), and is now the chef/waitress in a restaurant. She was saved by the head person at that restaurant, one Bertie. Bertie took Adi in as her own.

Things heat up when two people from a magazine pop in (one named Dawn Chapman). They didn’t plan to be there exactly, but got lost. They sample most of the food on the menu. Decide to feature Adi for their chef of Louisiana (there’s this thing they are doing, no matter). Adi wants nothing to do with it. T’Claude, the owner of the place, loves the idea. Adi is basically forced to go along.

So – the magazine reporter shows up, one Griffith McNaulty.

Potential Issues
1) Not sure if it is an issue or not – the restaurant that Adi was found curled up outside of was called Boiling Point - supposedly the same restaurant she works in now. But the current restaurant is called Boiling Pot. Not sure if there was a name change or if there was a mistake and it was always Boiling Pot.

2) Okay, I get it already. Either the author, or the character - Griff, really dislikes Los Angeles (And Griff is from Los Angeles). Based on the 8 billion times things are compared with Los Angeles, and Los Angeles is found to be the lessor of whatever is being compared.

Some Thoughts
I dragged my feet on this one. I really did not wish to be the first to say anything about this book here. So I slowed myself down. Which meant both that reading this book took longer than it normally would have and I absorbed more of the words as they flashed past. No, that's not right. I normally absorb the words; I had more time with them I guess you could say.

I could probably go either way, but I basically liked Adi. Everyone else gave off creepy icky vibes.

It's a book about someone who ran away from a very bad situation (step-father was/is a very bad man in the killer/criminal way). Got found sleeping next to a dumpster. Got taken in by the woman who found her who gave her a job and a place to live. And now it's roughly 10 years later and a reporter is interviewing the chef at a dumpy-looking restaurant who serves outstanding food. That cook being Adi.

I understand that the author wanted to set up a situation wherein the reporter would just need to dig deep into Adi's background. But . . . the way things came about is annoying. Like - she got burnt by a prior story she did and now her name is mud. So, she's doing this freelance story about a chef. And she doesn't want to be 'burnt' again so she . . . . needs to know the truth about every second of Adi's life. Not finding out that the woman - the chef, had come from a bad background and that her story might have consequences is a real issue. And, quite frankly, one that does not really have a real solution. Digging deep into her past isn't a solution. The only real solution is to not publish any story (or not use Adi's name, but the article is about Adi; or giving Adi some code name - which would be odd, considering, again, the article is about Adi).

Whether or not the big baddie, step-pops, would read a magazine about cooking, there is the unfortunate part wherein Adi did change her name. By dropping her first and last name. And retaking her biological father's last name. And putting her middle name in front of it. As in . . . evil step-pops, seeing someone they vaguely recognize in a photo in a magazine would see a name they do recognize next to it.

So, the reporter really really needs to know all about Adi's past. Because otherwise her name is mud. But . . . um . . starting a relationship with your interview subject who is ten years younger than you is okay? I'd think that would be even more of a hindrance to repairing your reputation than failing to know Adi's backstory. (That and the out and out lying she does on the story - during the interviews, etc. is on a disturbing level).

I mentioned that all but Adi is creepy/icky. Then only mentioned how the reporter is icky/creepy. Indirectly. Well, Bertie, the woman who found Adi, is icky/creepy in a overly . . . . hmm . . . possessive way. And, if she didn't have the personality she has, she'd be an evil-step-mother type. She has Adi working basically 11 hours a day; she's super pushy and constantly bringing up issues Adi does not wish to discuss; and she's super-naive for a 74 year old (what bad could happen to have your story come out; so what if your super-evil-let's-kill-everyone-who-irratates-us step-father learn of where you currently are - nothing bad can happen from that). Plus - she never plans to retire, despite the fact that Adi has been waiting for Bertie to retire before moving off to some other city so that she can 'live'. Be openly lesbian. She can't in her current small town (she believes). The excuse pushy Bertie gives for getting Adi's story out there is because Adi needs to burst out of her shell . . . except that she's hindering her development by trapping her in the situation she currently is in. Just because she died doesn't take away the icky/creepy feeling

There are way too many story-lines here. It is a big ball of mess. If the 'two people meeting, realizing an attraction' had been followed, it might be an interesting book; or the mystery of whatever evil step-father had been followed alone, without the other baggage, or . . . .. But all together makes a mess of a book. Wordy. This would have been a hell of a lot better if this had just been a reporter doing a story that lead to an even bigger story. But as is, it's super annoying.

Long and short - there are several 'books' here, but it does not really work as one whole complete book. It's strange in it's way, but if each little plot line had been teased out and pushed into a separate book - they might have worked on their own, but all squashed together created an overwhelming wordy book.

July 3 2016

Lay Down the Law by Carsen Taite

Lay Down the Law
by Carsen Taite
Pages: 264
Date: April 20 2015
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Lone Star Law Series (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: May 26 2016

This is my fifth work I’ve read by Taite, and fourth book.

My favorite of the bunch still remains the first, the short story I’d read in that ‘Girls with Guns’ book. Which is strange, in its way, since that had actually been a short story that is both chronologically and by publication date, something that had occurred after the Luca Bennett trilogy.

This book here is not actually the fifth work I’d started by Taite, though. No that would have been ‘Above the Law’. Which I only realized after I’d read 12% that I didn’t have a clue what was going on - because I was reading the second book in a series. So I paused my reading of that second book.

Dale Nelson is in the first book, but is very much something of a side character. Important, but I’m not sure that I’d even put her up to even third most important in the book. No the two most important would be those with points of view. That would be Peyton Davis, and Lily Gantry.

Peyton Davis is an assistant USA attorney (AUSA). A US Attorney is president appointed (as in USA President), and is the chief federal law enforcement officer within their jurisdiction. An Assistant USA Attorney is not president appointed and could be among as many as 350 AUSAs who work for a particular US Attorney. Peyton grew up on a ranch in north Texas, and wandered off to college and law school before joining the government as a AUSA in Washington DC. The book opens with her return to her hometown as a local AUSA.

She’s back to head up a task force focused on a Mexican crime cartel. Even before she can get herself settled, and before she is even supposed to report to work for the first time, Peyton is called in to visit a crime scene. A trailer full of dead bodies. The mystery part of the story has begun.

Lily white - adjective meaning ‘pure or ideally white. Without fault or corruption; totally innocent or immaculate’. I’m not sure what Lily Gantry’s birth name had been, it might have even been Lily. But it hadn’t been Gantry, and, to put it crudely, Lily’s coloration is a topic of concern for her personally. In that her family are all quite pale in coloration. She? She’s quite a bit darker, brownish. Definitely not ‘lily white’. For she was adopted into the family. A off-spring of a woman from Mexico had been adopted into the oil rich Gantry family. She sees her parents as hers, they’ve treated her as such, and, other than the obviousness of her ‘difference look’, she’s their daughter, even if not by blood. Not that everyone in the extended family, or, for that matter, others in her class (specifically one Virginia Taylor - but then the Taylor’s are also in the oil business, and rivals with the Gantry oil company - they probably would not have been best friends anyway).

Lily has been out of the country until about six or so months before the start of this book. She’s highly educated with a degree in engineering, and with several patents in alternate fuel sources.

Peyton and Lily circle each other, and something of a budding romance begins . . . before it abruptly and rudely stops. Is interrupted. Some words that convey this idea. Interrupted by events. For, as noted, Peyton is a AUSA. Head of a task force. And her first taste of that case lead her to a crime scene involving a trailer filled with dead bodies. A trailer that is later found out to be owned by Gantry oil. In and of itself not a ‘interrupting’ type of event. I mean, they had reported the trailer stolen. No, it’s the part where this revelation that the trailer is Gantry owned, lead to Peyton learning that there’s a case currently being worked on in her office against the Gantry family. Kind of puts a different twist to a budding romance, hmm?

I’ve read books before where two circle each other, even if they shouldn’t, because of ‘cases being worked on’. But this one has an interesting twist on that theme - Peyton and Lily were circling each other before Peyton even learned of there being any case that may or may not involve the Gantry family.

So - that’s going on. A mystery involving a Mexican cartel, a Texas oil business, and a budding romance. Plus, not yet mentioned, a big old ‘family issue’ taking place within Peyton’s own family involving her family farm and her family. Her dad has health issues, and the oldest son has taken it upon himself to take charge. Despite the fact the mother is still there and technically is the owner of the place. And despite the fact that his ideas do not mesh with family heritage and desires. So, that’s in there as well. Family drama circling both of the main characters.

Oh, and one last bit - I’d mentioned that Lily was adopted, well that is a theme in the book as well - and more than just the part wherein Lily is browner than the rest of her family. No, there’s also this ‘family trust’ issue that comes up in the book, and certain potential ‘issues’ that crop up.
An enjoyable book. The Dale character is kind of thin, though has some meat - but as mentioned, she might star in the next book, but isn’t even third most important in this book. Peyton and Lily seem well formed.

A good solid four star book.

May 27 2016

Collide-O-Scope by Andrea Bramhall

Collide-O-Scope
by Andrea Bramhall
Pages: 390
Date: April 10 2016
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: Norfolk Coast Investigation Story (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.70 out of 5.0
Read: May 3 to 4 2016

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Ylva Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second book by this author. I rather enjoyed the first book I had read by this author.

Location
A small village, Brandale Staite, in North Norfolk England. A place of 39 year round residents (there had been 40, but Connie’s dead now). The village swells to four hundred ‘in season’. ‘The campsite holds six hundred people per night.’

Note: there is a map at the front of the book. It shows King’s Lynn (where Kate lives and where a second murder investigation takes place off-scene), Hunstanton (where the police work out of while investigating) but does not show Brandale Staite (unless that is also called Brancaster?).

Main Characters
There are two points of views in this book.
Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon is relatively newly promoted to her position (three weeks before the beginning of this book), and relatively newly arrived in the area (moved to Kings Lynn from Norwich at same time as promotion). Though she grew up in a small village like setting near the sea. Nearish to an oil rig. This is important since her pop worked on one. Before it burned – it and him on it. Mother died when Kate was young. So she was raised by her grandmother, but she’s passed on now as well (when Kate was 17). Kate is currently 35. Drives a BMW Mini.
Of Importance: There is a question that Gina asks Kate, something like ‘will someone miss you when you die?’ the answer is ‘no’.

Georgina ‘Gina’ Temple is a woman who works as the second in command at Wells campsite (the manager). She is a mother of 9 year old Sammy, who she had when she was 17, making her 26 when the book opens. Had liked drinking a bottle of Shiraz with Connie. Also drinks Rioja.
Of Importance: Sammy (daughter), Matt Green (father of her child), and Connie Wells (boss and friend).

Secondary Characters
NOTE: Since this is a mystery and ‘everyone’s a suspect’ I’ve attempted to add people as their names came up the first time. Not by order of importance.

Police
Inspector Savage is the person in control of the crime scene where Wells body was found. He is meet at the beginning of the book, and mentioned several times thereafter but has little to no interaction with the story after the beginning.

Detective Inspector Timmons is Kate’s direct boss and would have normally lead the investigation of Wells death but for a slightly higher priority murder investigation involving three women in a ‘the middle of King’s Lynn.‘

Dr. Ruth Anderson is the medical examiner.

Sergeant Stella Goodwin is ‘an experienced sergeant’ who will handle the inside the office stuff, while Kate handles the outside the office investigation. Technically she has been 'left in charge' when Timmons goes off to attempt to solve some other 'more important' case. I say technically because Goodwin and Brannon more often work together than have Goodwin dictate what Brannon will do.

Detective Constable Jimmy Powers is Kate’s assistant. ‘A guy in his late twenties.’

Police Constable Collier is a newbie partnered up DC Brothers. Both working on the investigation.

Detective Constable Tom Brothers works on the investigation. Makes jokes a lot. He ‘looked a little like a panda in reverse.’

Len Wild is the head of the forensics team working on the murder investigation.

Villagers
William Clapp is a worker at Wells’ campsite. He is a ‘thin, blonde guy’ with a ‘diamond earring . . . in his left ear.’

Leah Shaw is Connie’s ex. Described as being the people person of the relationship, though that is not in evidence in the book. Leah is currently bunking with Ally Robbins.

Matthew ‘Matt’ Green is the father of Sammy Temple, and works for Sands. Lives in ‘Pebbles Cottage, Brandale Staithe.’

Ally ‘the Cat’ Robbins works on a lobster boat (or a fishing boat at least). Has a reputation of being ‘a tramp who’ll sleep with anything that doesn’t say no.’

Edward and Rupert Sands are the people that own half the village. Something like bitter rivals of Connie Wells.

Murder Victim
Connie Wells is/was a woman who ran the successful camp site in the village – the one that, in season, provides a great deal of support to the rest of the business in the village. The campsite is called ‘Brandale Backpackers and Camping.’ She was formerly attached to a woman named Leah, but sometime in the past, prior to the start of the book, they had split apart (six months prior?). Everyone, including the ex, but not including Gina and Sammy, describes Connie as being a bitch. And kind of disliked her. Medical examiner gave an approximate age for Wells of between 30 and 40.
Of Importance: Merlin (dog), Leah (ex.), workers of her business, villagers

Plot
The book opens with a prologue. One that I see occasionally and kind of dislike for one specific reason. It allows the reader to see the character alive and bouncing around as a fully realized character. Then kills them. There’s a reason I stopped reading so many mysteries. Gets depressing – that.

Well, so, the book opens, and a woman is out walking her dog along a particular path near a marshy flood plain. She has her camera with her and is taking pictures. Unlike most of her times taking pictures, she is less focused on nature and the like, and more on what is happening involving some lobster traps.

Gun shots go off. Merlin, Connie’s dog, squeals in terror. The birds flee. Connie shrugs. The noise makers have gone off – sounds that are made in the morning by farmers to drive off birds.

Connie raises her camera and focuses. Another shot goes off.

Chapter one finds a Detective Sergeant Kate Brannon heading to a crime scene. There’s a frantic dog being held by a police officer, a crime scene inspector, and police. The police do not yet know who the victim is, since she does not have any identification on her, and she is missing her face.

The book proceeds with following Brannon as she investigates. Timmons, her boss, would normally be the lead investigator, but another case comes up of slightly more importance.

Relatively quickly, like in the first chapter (I think I recall), the identity is revealed to the police, though, of course, the reader already knew. Connie Wells has died. By gunshot.

Wells, it turns out, has a business in the village, or on the outskirts, that involves a seasonal campsite. That campsite adds a ton of business to the village, and, as some note, the village itself would greatly suffer if that campsite were to close. Which, as it turns out, Wells was within a week of doing. And the whole village knew about this issue.

Meanwhile, Wells has an ex-girlfriend who has made threats against her.

The richest family, or at least the one that owns half the village (I rephrase as I do not know how wealthy Connie might have been), also despise Wells. It was mutal.

So – everyone wanted her dead. Well . . . not exactly. One at least wanted her dead. The rest? Baring a few here and there (including Gina and Sammy Temple, and possible one or more of her other employees), just thought she was a bitch.

So Brannon must first determine who the victim was, then who killed her.

Overall
There are many types of police books – a few of the varieties include (1) those that are mostly about the crimes and the people who investigate them (emphasis on investigation – police procedural – ‘just the facts’); (2) those that are like 1, but include a heavier emphasis on characters; (3) similar to 2 but injects romance while still focused mainly on the investigation; (4) like 3 but focus is mainly on the romance, while the investigation takes something of a back seat; (5) those which are mostly romance in nature, maybe mixed with danger, but the focus is heavily focused on the romance; plus a million and one other variations.

This book is one that leans between 2 and 3 above – the book is heavily into the murder investigation (Kate), with some character development stuff (Gina), while having a bit of romance floating in the air . . . lightly in some places (beginning), a lot heavier in others (80%+) (Kate, Gina).

I was thinking, while reading this book, that it reminds me of reading a Peter Lovesey book. I did not have a fully developed thought when I was thinking of Lovesey – beyond the idea that, unlike many/most lesbian fiction mysteries that involve the police, this specific book had a Lovesey vibe. This means nothing to those who have no idea what I’m talking about, of course. See, not fully developed thought. My point of thinking of him, had to do with emphasis – a lot of the lesbian fiction mysteries I’ve read have had romance be something of much greater importance than the mystery (at least those that include the police – there are many wherein it seems as if the characters in the story forget that there’s actually a mystery to solve, in favor of . . . um . . humping); while this book here gives greater importance to the mystery.

Still, no inherent reason to bring Lovesey up. It was just a thought that had crossed my mind at some point. Lovesey’s books, specifically those that involve Peter Diamond, are ones that involve murder investigations set in England which is a more leaning 2 (depending on book and scene) with occasional dips into injecting romance. As in there is a lot of importance on characters.

Right. No idea why I had that thought. Let’s move on.

This book was a rather thrilling exciting mystery that included the right mix of romance. Granted, those who look for romance, as in capital R Romance, should probably look elsewhere, but there is a flavor of it here.

There is one slight issue I have with the book. Though it is hard to indicate my 'issue' when it occurs so late in the book that I can't really mention it. I'll just say that there is something of a cliche in lesbian mystery books that pops up near the end. Though, to be fair, I've seen the scenario play out similarly in 'mainstream' fiction. I've just seen it more often in lesbian mystery books for whatever reason. Also, to be fair, this "cliche' is handled quite well in this book.

Despite my 'issue', this a rather good book. Quite enjoyable. I would probably give the book a relatively solid rating of 4.70.

May 4 2016