The Blessed Bones
(Detective Clara Jefferies #3)
Kathryn Casey

The Wherryman
(DI Tanner #6)
by David Blake

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

‘I’ve never been much for lounging about in bed.’ ‘Not even after being shot at point-blank range?’ ‘It was only a sawn-off shotgun. Had it been a bazooka, I’d have probably stayed till after lunch.’

My Review:

Woohoo, another home run for the slick and wily wordsmith David Blake. He is a sly one and I adore his underhanded and cunning craftiness for unpredictable twists and turns. What guile!   I am beyond impressed and yearning for more. I am enamored with the walking wounded and scruffy DCI Tanner.

Horsey Mere
(DI Tanner #5)
by David Blake

It’s 1988. The era of young love, with Scott and Charlene melting hearts in Neighbours, and a new princess for the Royal Family. With Bros, Madonna, and Wet Wet Wet in the charts, and children hoping for Ghostbusters’ toys in their stockings.

But it’s not all fun for Belinda. If her life was a board game, she’s losing at snakes and ladders. Once she’d been working her way up one of those ladders but, thanks to her snake-like polytechnic lecturer, she’s toppled from the rungs. Now she works in an old people’s home, where her chief duties involve cleaning toilets and emptying commodes.

At least her lovely colleague, Joe, offers excitement in her otherwise dreary life. But Belinda can’t believe he’d be interested in someone like her. Not when her pretty friend, Tracey, only has to glance at a man to have him fall for her.

But just when it seems things are looking up for Belinda, the residents’ precious possessions start to go missing. Then she witnesses a disturbing incident and doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, Belinda has Joe to guide her – until she discovers that he’s hiding a secret, one that forces her to make an agonizing decision.

Will she continue to hide in the shadows, never speaking out – or will she put her future on the line to stand up for what is right? After all, she’s caring for a generation that’s lived through two wars. Now it’s time to fight for them.

When a search party trawling Salem Island finds a girl’s body curled on the damp earth, the hunt for missing waitress Emma Jacobis grinds to a devastating halt. The day before, Emma had come to Detective Charlie Winters convinced someone was watching her. In her trembling hand, she held a sketch of herself sleeping peacefully with the stuffed rabbit she’d had since she was a child. On the back, scrawled in black ink: You will be mine…

A box containing handwritten letters found under Emma’s bed is Charlie’s first lead. But the handwriting isn’t a match to the note left for Emma. With the help of her new assistant, a troubled girl eager to learn the ropes, Charlie’s only hope is to canvas the bar where Emma worked. There, she finds a woman with fear in her eyes and a terrifying story to tell about an encounter with a dangerous stranger. Is someone in this small town targeting vulnerable girls as prey?

Certain she’s found a twisted killer’s hunting ground, and with time running out before he strikes again, Charlie has no choice but to use her new assistant as bait to lure him out into the open. But when a scream pierces through the night, will Charlie survive the consequences? She has to, or there’s no knowing how many more innocent girls will die …

An absolutely nail-biting and completely jaw-dropping crime thriller. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Robert Dugoni, and Lisa Regan will be left reeling after reading in one sitting!

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

“Not bad for a last-minute costume,” she said. “I guess it’s alright,” Allie said with a sigh. “A little underwhelming in the bust department, if you ask me. You only have so many good boob years left, Charlie. You really should try to make the most of it.”

My Review:

I was sucked right into this intense, intriguing, and twisted tale. I was feverishly gripping my Kindle from beginning to end. This missive was ingeniously plotted, thrummed with tension, and was rather gruesome and chilling while oddly also wicked funny and packed with the dark wit and clever snark I’ve come to expect from this dynamic duo of raconteurs.

This sly pair of authors has uncanny word wizardry. Their writing style is of an unusual craft with emotive and evocative details that engage all the senses and pull vivid imagery to mind.   I could hear the characters’ labored breaths, see through their eyes, and absorbed their agitation, excitement, and exhaustion. Each scene was complete and kept the film reel scrolling smoothly through my rapidly sparking gray matter. I wanted to savor each word yet I couldn’t read fast enough to keep up with all the action.

The storylines were eventful and full of divinely riveting twists that kept me on edge yet there was also frequent smirking at the sardonic humor, that is, when I wasn’t anxiously gnawing at my cuticles. These two have mad skills!

Escape the rat race by heading to the Yorkshire Moors in Jane Lovering’s funny, warm and magical new novel.

Needing an escape, Dora swapped city living for life as a shepherdess on her grandad’s Yorkshire farm. More than a decade later Dora is still there, now farming the fifty acres and caring for the one hundred rare sheep by herself. She never hears the call of the city, but instead relishes the peace and simplicity of life on the Moors.

When Dora’s glamorous but quarrelsome sister Cass, her teenage nephew Thor and his handsome tutor Nat, turn up for an unexpected and unreasonably long stay, life on the farm is thrown into chaos. Cass brings with her unwelcome memories from the past, and of someone who once stole Dora’s heart. 

Dora takes refuge in the comforting routine of the farm, the sheep never allowing her too much time to dwell. But, as the seasons change, the snow starts to melt, and as lambs begin to fill the fields, Dora can’t keep hiding in the hills. Because even though she’s trying, Dora can’t run away from a love that never really let her go…

Let Jane Lovering whisk you away to the beauty and serenity of the Yorkshire Moors, far away from the noise of the city. Just right for fans of Emma Burstall, Holly Martin and Kate Forster.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

…my teenage years are so far behind me that they’re practically a history lesson.

The worst of it was that Cass had a point. And Cass hadn’t had much of a point since the javelin incident at school.

This can’t go on, Dora. I mean, it just can’t. You’re living like some kind of eighteenth-century peasant, only with less disfiguring diseases and more electricity.

‘Did Cass eat it?’ ‘I’m not sure your sister does eat. I think she lives off fury and human blood.’

‘You’ve watched too much Mrs Doubtfire,’ he said. ‘Of course I’m not Thor’s father. Besides, that would imply that I’d slept with your sister, and I think she might bite the heads off her men after mating.’

I couldn’t let an animal suffer. I said another few ‘oh bugger’s and a couple of ‘bloody hell’s, like a kind of anti-rosary, and pulled out my mobile to call the vet.

I wanted to say that the sun could die a thousand fiery deaths and he could be the only man left on earth and I still wouldn’t sleep with him again and if it was sleep with him or die I’d start choosing my coffin now. But his good-natured grin stopped me.

My Review:

I giggled-snorted, chortled, and laughed aloud while perusing this cleverly amusing book. It was good fun and full of keen wit and snarky observations.   I adored, savored, and marveled at every perfectly pitched scene and well-chosen word. I had reams of highlighted favorite quotes and found it quite painful to pare them down for this review.

The storylines were engaging, the writing was consistently on-point, and the characters were oddly intriguing and comically compelling with colorful  descriptions and vivid visuals. Jane Lovering is a gifted scribe as well as a comedic genius.

.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Propped against my headboard, snuggled under my down comforter, the air cranked a little too cold, I read while eating a healthy serving of chocolate. I’ve often wondered if serial killers eat chocolate, with the same conclusion. They do not, and perhaps that’s their problem.

Please don’t judge. That’s what God made my mother for.

Lang had followed him on a grocery run for milk and toilet paper, to which Lang had joked, “We’re so close, he’s shitting himself.” He’s classy like that and I love him for it.

The profiler is Judy Garland. For real. Her parents loved the movie star Judy Garland and named their daughter Judy. No wonder she chose to spend her days hunting killers. She needed to be bigger than the name.

Wade and I are in his fancy black pickup truck, the Texas version of a Mercedes…

“… she works downtown for some senator at the capitol building.” “But she was best friends with a call girl,” Lang says. “Interesting. What better place to get horny men with no morals than in politics?” I snort. “Truth.”

My Review:

This was exceptionally well-plotted and intriguing, I thought I had it solved but was so very, very wrong.   Lisa Renee Jones is quite the storyteller. Her plot and storylines were smooth and full of red herrings and Easter eggs as well as being well-crafted and intricately nuanced. Her characters were complicated, compelling, and an odd assortment of potential suspects.   No one was above reproach, but then again, I am a die-hard cynic. I am enamored with this crew and hope I’m paying attention when subsequent installments are released. I am hooked and definitely want more of Ms. Jazz.