Category: iRead Book Tour

Book Description: ​“I’m working on the greatest mystery ever,” was the last thing noted mystery novelist Mercedes Livingston said to seven-year-old Chris Matheson before walking out of Hill House Hotel never to be seen again. For decades, the writer’s fate remained a puzzling mystery until an autographed novel and a letter put a grown-up Chris Matheson on the trail of a cunning killer.

With the help of a team of fellow retired law enforcement officers, each a specialist in their own field of investigation, Chris puts a flame to this cold case to uncover what really happened that night Mercedes Livingston walked out of Hill House Hotel.

It can be difficult to jump into later entries in a series, but this one worked. While the characters are the same from book to book, the plot here stands alone and it’s a good one. Carr writes with tongue firmly in cheek and skillfully blends mystery, humor, and romance in an entertaining romp.

The inventive plot focusing on a missing author and her whereabouts for 40 years held my interest to the point that I got cranky when I had to put the book down. I enjoyed the characters and their quirks, but I will admit that I found the whole subplot about the German Shepard shenanigans silly and pointless. Other reviewers found it charming, so to each their own, right?

Lauren Carr has written a lot of books, many of them featuring the characters included here. I enjoyed this one so much that I plan on dipping into some of her other series. Recommended for mystery fans.

Book Details:

• Book Title:  The Last Thing She Said (A Chris Matheson Cold Case Mystery #3) by Lauren Carr
• Category:  Adult Fiction (18 +),  386 pages
• Genre:  Mystery Publisher:  Acorn Book Services
• Release date:   July 22, 2019
• Formats available for purchase:  paperback, ebook, audiobook (audible & itunes)
• Tour dates: October 7 to November 15, 2019
• Content Rating:  PG-13

Buy the Book:

• Amazon.com
• Add to Goodreads​​

Try these other titles by Lauren Carr!

Chris Matheson and the Geezer Squad, working under the guise of a book club, dig into the events surrounding his late wife’s supposed death halfway around the globe. A state department employee shoots himself in the back three times. A CIA operative goes missing. A woman is targeted by an international assassin three years after being declared dead in a terrorist attack overseas.  Nothing is as it seems.  In his most personal cold case, Chris fights to uncover why the state department told him that Blair, the mother of his children, had been killed when she was alive. What had she uncovered that has made her a target? Who terrified her so much that she had gone into hiding and why are they now after him?

​When Sandy Lipton and her unborn child disappeared, the court of public opinion found young Chris Matheson guilty. Decades later, the retired FBI agent returns home to discover that the cloud of suspicion cast over him and his family has never lifted.  With the help of a team of fellow retired law enforcement officers, each a specialist in their own field of investigation, Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on this cold case to uncover what had happened to Sandy and her baby and the clues are getting hot!

ICE is a strong start to a new series that will have fans of Lauren Carr thrilled to be introduced to another set of memorable and entertaining characters. Carr’s Geezer Squad has brought sexy back to mature men and women, whose kickass attitude and smarts sizzle as they melt the clues to those cold cases!
Laura Fabiani, Library of Clean Reads

Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Thorny Rose, Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries—over twenty titles across four fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns! Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Carr seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor. Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and two spoiled rotten German shepherds on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with the author:   Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook Instagram

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Parker Monroe is a tough-talking investigative reporter used to writing headlines, not being the subject of them. When a key source vanishes on a politically toxic story, this single mother of three finds herself at the center of a media storm and out of a job. Ready to reset, Parker moves her family back to the rural town where she grew up. But a gossip-filled PTA, a tyrannical school principal and a gruesome murder make adjusting to the “simple life” anything but. Parker Monroe is about to chase the story of her lifetime…

If you like your protagonists irreverent and bold, Parker Monroe is for you. She is confident and assertive, even in the face of the abject and complete failure she faces at the beginning of the story.

It’s interesting to see how the author takes the rough-and-tumble, take-no-prisoners Chicago journalist and plants her back in her small hometown where the most exciting and challenging project she takes on is reinstating the music program at her children’s school. Leave it to Parker Monroe, though, to turn that mundane task into something horrifying.

The story is a romp, full of larger than life characters. However, I found the author’s interpretation of how a woman speaks and behaves, even one as irreverent as Parker, to be a little off. I’ve been known to drop an F-bomb or two, but the author takes Parker to a whole other level of swearing that I find just a little unbelievable. Maybe I lead a sheltered life, but I have never said, nor heard any other woman exclaim “Are you butt-f-ing me” aloud in a coffee shop. Not even in Chicago. But despite the over-the-top vulgarity, this is still a fun and intricate story that will appeal to mystery readers.

Book Details:

• Book Title: Mayhem, Murder and the PTA by Dave Cravens
• Category:  Adult Fiction, 434 pages
• Genre:  Mystery / Thriller
• Publisher:  Amazon
• Release date:   May 20, 2019

Buy the Book: Amazon.com

Add to Goodreads

Meet the author!
As a child, Dave Cravens planned to grow up to be a superhero, the first person to capture Bigfoot and Nessie on film, pilot experimental aircraft out of Area 51, develop cold fusion, and star and direct in his own blockbuster action movies so he could retire at the ripe age of twenty-five and raid tombs the rest of his life. Instead, he got a degree in journalism, which he hasn’t used at all other than to justify his incredibly insightful and valid complaints about the state of journalism. During his twenty-two years in the video game business, he’s written for award winning franchises, directed TV commercials and movies, sprained his ankles numerous times in ultimate frisbee games and published three original novels.

Website | Twitter | Facebook  

Book Details:

• ​Book Title: The Great Jewel Robbery: A Front Page Mystery Book 1 by
• Elizabeth McKenna
• Category: Adult Fiction, 204 pages
• Genre: Cozy mystery
• Publisher: Elizabeth McKenna
• Release date: May 28, 2019
• Tour dates: August 19-30, 2019
• Content Rating: PG-13 (There is no profanity. There is drinking, desire, and a kiss.)

 Elizabeth McKenna’s love of books reaches back to her childhood, where her tastes ranged from Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Stephen King’s horror stories. She had never read a romance novel until one Christmas when her sister gave her the latest bestseller by Nora Roberts. She was hooked from page one (actually, she admits it was the first love scene). She combined her love of history, romance, and a happy ending to write the historical romance novels Cera’s Place and Venice in the Moonlight. Her contemporary romance novel, First Crush Last Love, is loosely based on her life (she eventually married her first crush)

The Great Jewel Robbery is her debut cozy mystery, and she hopes readers will like it as much as they have enjoyed her romances. Elizabeth lives in Wisconsin with her understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a sassy Labrador. When she isn’t writing, working, or being a mom, she’s sleeping.

Connect with the author: Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

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