Tag: Mystery

Book Tour, Cozy, Mystery, Partners In Crime

Color Me Dead by Teresa Trent

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

October 14 – November 8
Virtual Book Tour

Description

Artist Gabby Wolfe has the ability to see not only the beauty of the living but the despair of the dead. When she returns to her childhood home in Henry Park Colorado, she is forced to bring along her younger brother Mitch. He is on a “break” from college where he was majoring in wine, women, and song. If that isn’t enough they also have Mitch’s rambunctious beagle Luigi along who prefers to spend his days wallowing in junk food. When Gabby draws the death of a young woman before it happens, she knows she must tell someone and risk a new job and her professional credibility. Will she reveal her secret in time to save the woman in the water or will it be too late?

My Thoughts

Fans of lighthearted but inventive mysteries with a touch of the supernatural will enjoy this offering from Teresa Trent. Gabby, Mitch, and (of course!) Luigi make a memorable trio as they move back to a childhood home but find themselves right in the middle of an emotional mess.

Trent builds some nice relationships throughout the story which help settle Gabby’s place in Henry Park and suggest the possibility of future entries in a series. Gabby’s paranormal ability is interesting – I’ve only seen the concept of drawing the future done in one other book that I recall, so this was an entertaining element added to the mix of mystery and a little romance.

Clocking in at just under 250 pages, this one makes a very pleasant afternoon reading experience. Recommended

Book Details

Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Published by: Harbor Lane Books
Publication Date: September 24, 2024
Number of Pages: 260
Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Book Shortlinks

Author’s Website    https://pictbooks.tours/QlHeU    
Goodreads    https://pictbooks.tours/5snBD    
BookBub    https://pictbooks.tours/cqDZY    @TeresaTrent
Instagram    https://pictbooks.tours/LBycd    @teresatrent_cozymys
Threads    https://pictbooks.tours/f9Qqn    @teresatrent_cozymys
Twitter    https://pictbooks.tours/5bmK6    @ttrent_cozymys
Facebook    https://pictbooks.tours/UG65Q    @teresatrentmysterywriter
Books to the Ceiling    https://pictbooks.tours/k8J1l    
Amazon –    https://pictbooks.tours/H83bM    
Goodreads –    https://pictbooks.tours/Aj1S2    

Author Bio

Teresa Trent started out teaching English, but life and children intervened and she began writing mysteries starting with her Pecan Bayou Cozy Mystery Series. After that, she wrote the Piney Woods and the Swinging Sixties Mystery Series. Color Me Dead is the first book in her new Henry Park Series and while all her other books take place in Texas, this series is set in Colorado, where Teresa grew up. Teresa is also the author of several short stories and is teaching writing at her local library encouraging new writers. Teresa lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son.

Partners In Crime Book Tours
Mystery, Psychological, Suspense, Women

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for twelve hours each day.

Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge….

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.

My Thoughts

Paula Hawkins’ latest is a grip-the-book-so-hard-your-fingers-hurt kind of story. The premise is fascinating – the work of a deceased famous artist is discovered to contain a human bone and it just so happens her philandering husband disappeared from her remote island home years ago. Could it be him?

The story follows an inquisitive curator as he navigates the treacherous terrain of that island, now inhabited by the artist’s companion of many years and executor of her estate. While the outcome was apparent to me pretty early in the story, the tension Hawkins builds as she weaves the stories of both Vanessa and Grace becomes almost unbearable at times, and the ending! Oh, the ambiguous ending! Definitely the stuff made for book clubs to debate!

Hawkins is getting better and better at taking old tropes and breathing new life into them. As I read this, I was reminded of both And Then There Were None for the isolation and Misery for the core relationship driving the story, but Hawkins has made both her very own.

Readers who are triggered by domestic violence should be aware that is an integral part of this story. This will be one of the hot books of the Fall for sure.

Advanced Praise

“The best Paula Hawkins yet – by a tense and haunting mile.” – Lee Child

“An atmospheric, stylish puzzle box of a thriller… truly exceptional.” – Liz Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The God of the Woods

“A masterful exploration of the nature of obsession…I loved it.” – Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek

The propulsive and powerful new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

Publication Date: October 29, 2024
Published By: Mariner Books
Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the review copies

Book Tour, Mystery, Partners In Crime, Suspense

Autumn Embers by Tina deBellegarde

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

October 14 – November 8, 2024
Virtual Book Tour
A Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery

Bianca St. Denis travels to Kyoto to return a priceless artifact recovered in Batavia-on-Hudson during last summer’s flood. It’s late October and the city of 2,000 shrines is in full autumn splendor. While she’s in Japan’s ancient capital, Bianca visits with her son, a student at Kyoto University. Ian shows her the sights and introduces her to his circle of friends—his chosen family. 

On the night of her welcome party, Bianca thinks she witnesses a struggle in the garden, perhaps even a murder. When the police investigate and find no body, she is stumped yet alarm bells won’t stop ringing. She knows she’s witnessed something. 

When a dead body surfaces and suspicion falls on her son, Bianca’s maternal instincts spring to action to protect Ian and clear his name. Meanwhile, things in Batavia-on-Hudson are tense. Sheriff Mike Riley is losing his re-election bid while tackling devastating news about his dead partner, and wavering about his troubled marriage. 

Autumn Embers explores the malleable nature of our identities and reminds us that chosen families can be stronger than we think, and that true friendship can bridge any distance.

My Thoughts

As an Upstate New Yorker and loyal mystery reader, I have gravitated to deBellegarde’s Batavia-on-Hudson series and thoroughly enjoyed each one. She has built an engaging series featuring characters who become more complex with each book, especially Bianca who is navigating an entirely new world following the death of her beloved husband.

Autumn Embers is a bit harder-edged than previous entries in the series, bringing in more unsavory elements of the mystery/suspense genre like police corruption and organized crime. This seems to be a natural evolution for Bianca and Mike as they both grapple with major changes and challenges to their lives.

The plot here is intriguing, with deBellegarde delivering two stories of challenges – one with Bianca in Japan and one with Mike in Batavia-on-Hudson. The stories are very different but extremely unsettling for both characters and are delivered with wit and cleverness. The insights into Bianca’s relationship with her son and Mike’s past are woven into the larger story seamlessly.

The author secures her place among the best of New York State mystery authors with this one. Recommended.

Book Details:

Genre: Female Amateur Sleuth
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: September 17, 2024 
Number of Pages: 321 
Series: A Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery, 3
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop | Goodreads

Book Shortlinks:

Author’s Website    https://pictbooks.tours/fG4Mf    
Goodreads    https://pictbooks.tours/RffyP    
BookBub    https://pictbooks.tours/oOnWo    @tinadebellegarde
Instagram    https://pictbooks.tours/snnbX    @tdb_writes
Threads    https://pictbooks.tours/ON7mg    @tdb_writes
Twitter    https://pictbooks.tours/KWC5h    @tdbwrites
Facebook    https://pictbooks.tours/ldYoE    @tinadebellegardeauthor
Sleuths & Sidekicks    https://pictbooks.tours/HUgvj    

Batavia-on-Hudson Kindle Series    https://pictbooks.tours/mJ8P9    
Amazon –    https://pictbooks.tours/dQR74    
BN –    https://pictbooks.tours/qDwAj    
Goodreads –    https://pictbooks.tours/aLbxM    
BookShop.org –    https://pictbooks.tours/mxkpn    

Author Bio:

Tina deBellegarde

Tina deBellegarde’s debut novel, Winter Witness, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Dead Man’s Leap, her second book in the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery series, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. Reviewers have called Tina “the Louise Penny of the Catskills.” Tina also writes short stories and flash fiction. Her story “Tokyo Stranger,” nominated for a Derringer Award, appears in the Mystery Writers of America anthology When a Stranger Comes to Town edited by Michael Koryta. Tina co-chairs the Murderous March Conference and is a founding member of Sleuths and Sidekicks, where she blogs, tours virtually, and teaches writing workshops. She is a member of Writers in Kyoto and reviews books for BooksOnAsia.net. She lives in Catskill, New York with her husband Denis and their cat Shelby. She travels frequently to Japan to visit her son and daughter-in-law and to do research. Tina is currently working on a collection of interconnected short stories based in Japan.

Catch Up With Tina deBellegarde:
www.TinadeBellegarde.com
www.SleuthsAndSidekicks.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @tinadebellegarde
Instagram – @tdb_writes
Threads – @tdb_writes
Twitter/X – @tdbwrites
Facebook – @tinadebellegardeauthor

Partners In Crime Book Tours

1000 Islands, Mystery, Suspense, Uncategorized

The Coldest Case by Tessa Wegert

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

News of a missing Instagram celebrity brings Senior Investigator Shana Merchant to a frozen island community of just eight people. When the visit turns deadly, her hunt for a killer collides with a cold case she’ll never forget . . .

It’s February in the Thousand Islands and, cut off from civilization by endless ice, eight people are overwintering on tiny, remote Running Pine. Six year-rounders, used to the hard work, isolation and freezing temperatures . . . and two newcomers: social-media stars Cary and Sylvie, whose account documenting their year on the island is garnering thousands of followers, and thousands of dollars’ worth of luxury gifts.

The long-term islanders will tell you Running Pine can be perilous – especially for city slickers who’ll do anything to get the perfect shot. So when Cary doesn’t return from ice fishing one morning, his neighbors fear the worst.

With the clock ticking to find the missing influencer, a police team are dispatched to take the dangerous journey to the island . . . but Sylvie, his frantic partner, will only talk to one person: newlywed Senior Investigator Shana Merchant.

Where is Cary – and what is it that Sylvie’s not sharing? With aspects of the case reminding Shana of an unsolved homicide from her past that haunts her still, she risks her own safety to help. But little does she know that a storm is coming – and if she doesn’t solve both crimes soon, she may become the island’s next victim . . .

The latest taut, thrilling small-town mystery featuring New York State senior investigator Shana Merchant, and set against the beautiful backdrop of the Thousand Islands, is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Ruth Ware.

My Thoughts

A solid entry in Wegert’s Shana Merchant series, fans will eat this up and readers new to the series will want to go back and read the earlier entries, which are:

  • Death in the Family
  • The Dead Season
  • Dead Wind
  • The Kind to Kill
  • Devils at the Door

As a New Yorker who spends a lot of time in the NYS North County, I adore Wegert’s settings in and around Alexandria Bay and the 1000 Islands, and this one is no different. Fans of fast-paced, semi-hard-hitting police procedurals will enjoy the ice-covered ride of this story.

Publication Date: November 5, 2024
Published By: Severn House
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

British, Mystery, Short Stories

The Man in Black by Elly Griffiths

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume. There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.

In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk. Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.” In “Justice Jones and the Etherphone,” a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London. A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI. To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in “Flint’s Fireside Tale.”

The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths’s talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart. 

My Thoughts

I’m not sure exactly what I expected in this short story collection from Elly Griffiths, but I found an absolute treasure of a reading experience. This book is filled with lovely vignettes, some featuring characters well-known to Griffiths’ fans and others completely new.

I got the sense that some of these were written as exercises as she was planning out some of her books because many felt like there was more to the story. The inclusion of local folklore was especially interesting (a favorite is the St. Lucia Day story). All of the disparate parts come together smoothly in a collection of stories that feels like a hug from the author. Fans of Griffiths work will certainly enjoy this one.

Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Published By: Mariner Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Action Adventure

An Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

From Edgar Award–winning author Steve Hamilton, An Honorable Assassin is another terrifying thriller featuring the unstoppable Nick Mason.

He was released from federal prison to a second life as an unwilling assassin, serving a major Chicago crime lord until the day he finally won his freedom.

But that freedom was a lie.

Now Mason finds himself on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there’s only one name on his list: Hashim Baya—otherwise known as the Crocodile—international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol’s “Red Notice” list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced.

And for the first time in his career … Mason fails his mission. Baya gets away alive.

There’s only one thing he can do now: to save himself, his ex-wife, and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn’t alone in his search, because for Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason. And just as determined.

Never have the stakes been so high, the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown—and the one man in the world who can finally show Nick Mason the way to freedom.

My Thoughts

I’ve not read the earlier entries in the Nick Mason series, but that didn’t matter one bit with this powerhouse of a book. Fans of high-octane, action-adventure stories will gravitate to this tale of an anti-hero who kills (bad) people for a living but still clings to some semblance of his humanity.

What sets this apart from your garden variety adventure novel is Hamilton’s writing. His command of language and description results in a vivid and well-plotted tale.

My first experience reading Hamilton’s work was The Lock Artist which was on my “Best Of” list for 2010. Now that I know there are other Nick Mason books, I’ll be adding those to my TBR list for sure.

Fans of Robert Crais, Nick Petrie, and Tom Clancy will certainly enjoy this one. Recommended.

A Note from the Publisher

Steve Hamilton is the two-time Edgar Award–winning, New York Times bestselling author of the Alex McKnight series (with over a million copies sold), the Nick Mason series, and the stand-alone novel The Lock Artist. Two of his novels have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and he’s one of only three authors in history to win Edgar Awards for both Best First Novel and Best Novel. Other major awards include the Shamus, the Barry, the AMA Alex Award, and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller. He was born and raised in the Detroit area and attended the University of Michigan, where he received the prestigious Hopwood Award for Fiction.

Publication Date: August 27, 2024
Published By: Blackstone Publishing
Thanks to the Publisher for the review

Historical, Mystery, Romance, Women

The Story Collector by Evie Woods

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

An evocative and charming novel full of secrets and mystery, from the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop

In a quiet village in Ireland, a mysterious local myth is about to change everything…

One hundred years ago, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate fairy stories from Irish to English. But all is not as it seems and Anna soon finds herself at the heart of a mystery that threatens her very way of life.

In New York in the present day, Sarah Harper boards a plane bound for the West Coast of Ireland. But once there, she finds she has unearthed dark secrets – secrets that tread the line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen.

With a taste for the magical in everyday life, Evie Woods’s latest novel is full of ordinary characters with extraordinary tales to tell.

My Thoughts

What a lovely story!

The dual-time storytelling works beautifully here as we follow Sarah and Oran in the present as they learn about Anna and Harold in the past. There’s some suspension of disbelief needed here as we follow Sarah’s unexpected journey from NYC to Ireland and her discovery of Anna’s diary. However, every good story requires that suspension and it’s not hard to do here.

Woods spins a gentle but gripping tale of past small village intrigue with a modern tale of a woman examining her life and wondering how she got so off track. This will appeal to fans of Susanna Kearsley and those who enjoy dual-time stories.

Recommended

Mystery, Suspense

I Need You to Read This by Jessa Maxwell

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Her most important letter might be her last…

Years ago Alex Marks escaped to New York City for a fresh start. Now, aside from trips to her regular diner for coffee, she keeps to herself, gets her perfectly normal copywriting job done, and doesn’t date. Her carefully cultivated world is upended when her childhood hero, Francis Keen, is brutally murdered. Francis was the woman behind the famous advice column, Dear Constance, and her words helped Alex through some of her darkest times.

When Alex sees an advertisement searching for her replacement, she impulsively applies, never expecting to actually get the job. Against all odds, Alex is given the position and quickly proves herself skilled at solving other people’s problems. But soon, she begins to receive strange, potentially threatening letters at the office. Francis’s murderer was never identified, turning everyone around her into a threat. Including her boss, editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, who has a habit of staying late at the office and drinking too much.

As Alex is drawn into the details surrounding her predecessor’s murder, her own dark secrets begin to rise to the surface and Alex suddenly finds herself trapped in a dangerous and potentially deadly game of cat and mouse that takes her all the way from the power centers of Manhattan to Francis Keen’s summer house, where her body was found and where the killer may just be waiting for her.

My Thoughts

This is one of my few 5 star reads this year and it is spectacular!

This is a book full of tension that twists you up and an ingenious plot driven by a protagonist who alternately frustrates the hell out of you then has you pumping your hand in the air yelling “go girl!” Every character is well-developed and plays their part to perfection.

Maxwell perfectly blends the murder of Francis Keen with the dark, dark secret of Alex’s past, driving the story forward at breakneck speed.

A very nearly perfect book.

Publication Date: August 13, 2024
Published By: Atria Books
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Action Adventure, Mystery, Suspense

Arkangel by James Rollins

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

Currently in development as a TV series from Amazon MGM Studios, a story of a thrilling hunt around the globe, pitting nation against nation, as ancient myths of a lost continent prove all too real—the latest novel in the bestselling Sigma Force series from James Rollins, #1 New York Times master of international thrillers 

The execution of a Vatican archivist within the shadow of the Kremlin exposes a conspiracy going back three centuries—to the bloody era of the Russian Tsars. Before his murder, he manages to dispatch a coded message, a warning of a terrifying threat, one tied to a secret buried within the Golden Library of Tsars, a vast and treasured archive that had vanished into history.

As combative forces race for the truth behind this death and alarming discovery, Sigma Force is summoned to aid in the search—not only for this missing trove of ancient books, but to follow a trail far into the Arctic, to search for the truth about a lost continent and a revelation that could ignite a global war. But Sigma Force has its own difficulties at home after an explosive attack on the National Mall—one aimed at the heart of their covert agency—has left them vulnerable and exposed.

The growing conflict—both on Russian soil and deep in the Arctic—will reignite a centuries-old war between the newly resurgent Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican, while sabers rattle across the nations of the Arctic Circle, threatening to turn those icy seas into a fiery conflagration.

Facing enemies on all sides, it will be up to Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force to unravel a mystery going back millennia—and uncover the truth about a lost civilization and an arcane treasure that could save the planet…or destroy it.  

My Thoughts

James Rollins never fails to provide a pulse-pounding, nail-biting adventure. He is at the top of his game with Arkangel, which has nudged The Last Odyssey out of place in the list of my favorite Rollins novels.

Here, members of the Sigma Force team face treacherous demons from their past but also race once again to save the world, this time in the Arctic. One of the things that makes Rollins’ novels much more than the usual action-adventure story is his blend of storytelling, myth, and meticulous research, and he is at the top of his game here.

The incorporation of another aspect of Greek myth – the Hyperboreans – hooked me immediately. Merriam Webster defines them this way:

In ancient Greek mythology, the “Hyperboreoi” were a people who lived in a northern paradise of perpetual sunshine beyond the reaches of the god of the north wind. Their name located them within the Greek world; it combined the prefix “hyper-,” meaning “above,” and “Boreas,” the Greek name for the north wind.

If you grew up devouring mythological texts, you will most certainly enjoy this book. Just so, so good.

Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Published By: William Morrow
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy

Family, Historical, Mystery

The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames

Patricia McDonald Uttaro

Description

One unidentified skeleton. Three missing men. A village full of secrets.

The best-selling author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna brings us a sparkling—by turns funny and moving—novel about a young American woman turned amateur detective in a small village in Southern Italy.

Calabria, 1960. Francesca Loftfield, a twenty-seven-year-old, starry-eyed American, arrives in the isolated mountain village of Santa Chionia tasked with opening a nursery school. There is no road, no doctor, no running water or electricity. And thanks to a recent flood that swept away the post office, there’s no mail, either.

Most troubling, though, is the human skeleton that surfaced after the flood waters receded. Who is it? And why don’t the police come and investigate? When the local priest’s housekeeper begs Francesca to help determine if the remains are those of her long-missing son, Francesca begins to ask a lot of inconvenient questions. As an outsider, she might be the only person who can uncover the truth. Or she might be getting in over her head. As she attempts to juggle a nosy landlady, a suspiciously dashing shepherd, and a network of local families bound together by a code of silence, Francesca finds herself forced to choose between the charitable mission that brought her to Santa Chionia, and her future happiness, between truth and survival.

Set in the wild heart of Calabria, a land of sheer cliff faces, ancient tradition, dazzling sunlight—and one of the world’s most ruthless criminal syndicates—The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia is a suspenseful puzzle mystery, a captivating romance, and an affecting portrait of a young woman in search of a meaningful life.

My Thoughts

I always enjoy and appreciate a well-written story, and The Lost Boy of Chionia is certainly that.

This is a complex and layered story featuring a fairly remarkable character in Franca, or the maestra of this remote Italian village. I found the story slow to start, but the author clearly relished the opportunity to describe the isolated environment and its inhabitants which shape the story as it really gets going. The meandering pace is the only thing keeping me from really loving this book. I picked it up, put it down, picked it up, put it down so many times. But, I kept at it and was rewarded with a story that unfolded into one of the most interesting tales I’ve read this summer.

Grames is very, very good at writing characters where their true natures are sort of peeled back gradually. She clearly relished the opportunity to build a microcosm of a world in Santa Chionia – a village so remote that its residents might as well be on another planet. Agatha Christie based so much of her work on the premise that evil can exist anywhere, even in the tiniest village, and Grames writes that concept very well indeed.

If you like mysteries without the gore and that make you think, you’ll enjoy this.

Publication Date: July 23, 2024
Published By: Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor
Thanks to Netgalley for the review copy