Category Archives: Rated C

April 12, 2021 · 12:01 am

Review: Bitterroot Lake by Alicia Beckman

Title: Bitterroot Lake by Alicia Beckman
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 326 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart, in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s suspense debut

Twenty-five years ago, during a celebratory weekend at historic Whitetail Lodge, Sarah McCaskill had a vision. A dream. A nightmare. When a young man was killed, Sarah’s guilt over having ignored the warning in her dreams devastated her. Her friendships with her closest friends, and her sister, fell apart as she worked to build a new life in a new city. But she never stopped loving Whitetail Lodge on the shores of Bitterroot Lake.

Now that she’s a young widow, her mother urges her to return to the lodge for healing. But when she arrives, she’s greeted by an old friend–and by news of a murder that’s clearly tied to that tragic day she’ll never forget.

And the dreams are back, too. What dangers are they warning of this time? As Sarah and her friends dig into the history of the lodge and the McCaskill family, they uncover a legacy of secrets and make a discovery that gives a chilling new meaning to the dreams. Now, they can no longer ignore the ominous portents from the past that point to a danger more present than any of them could know.

Review:

Bitterroot Lake by Alicia Beckman is an intriguing mystery with slight supernatural elements.

Within a few weeks of her beloved husband’s death, Sarah McCaskill Carter returns to Montana for a family visit. Her mom has requested her assistance in opening up the family’s historic summer lodge. Upon arrival, Sarah discovers her old friend Janine Neilson staying in one of the cabins on the lodge’s property. When Janine finally admits why she is in hiding, Sarah insists on calling her cousin, Sheriff Leo McCaskill to report the murder of lawyer Lucas Erickson. Janine calls their lawyer friend Nic for advice and she arrives with Sarah’s sister Holly. In between trying to figure out who killed Lucas, the women attempt to repair their fractured relationships.

Sarah’s family has a long history in her small hometown and they still own a thriving logging company.  Years earlier, she and her husband relocated to Seattle where they raised their two children who are now in college. Unsure what the future will hold for her, Sarah and the others delve into the history of the lodge. She also tries to understand the meaning of the nightmare she keeps having. Sarah also tries to uncover why she has the sensation someone is watching her.

Sarah, Holly, Janine and Nic remain at the lodge and their time together is fraught. Janine remains resentful of Sarah’s advice from twenty-five years ago. Holly is also at odds with her sister as hidden resentments begin spilling over. Nic is dealing with an issue at home but she is committed to protecting Janine’s best interests. Sarah is also wondering what is going on with her and Holly’s mom, whose behavior is a little troubling.

Bitterroot Lake is a slow-moving mystery with an interesting premise. Sarah is the story’s narrator and she is defensive with a bit of a hair trigger temper.  The isolated setting provides a spooky backdrop for the women to try to mend the rifts in their relationships. The busy storyline is occasionally a bit confusing and Lucas’s murder gets lost among the other dramas playing out. With the pacing picking up, Alicia Beckman brings the mystery to a satisfying conclusion.

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Filed under Alicia Beckman, Bitterroot Lake, Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Mystery, Rated C, Review

April 5, 2021 · 12:01 am

Review: Strongheart by Jim Fergus

Title: Strongheart by Jim Fergus
The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill
One Thousand White Women Trilogy Book Three
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical, Contemporary, Fiction
Length: 400 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Strongheart is the final installment to the One Thousand White Women trilogy, a novel about fierce women who are full of heart and the power to survive.

In 1873, a Cheyenne chief offers President Grant the opportunity to exchange one thousand horses for one thousand white women, in order to marry them with his warriors and create a lasting peace. These women, “recruited” by force in the penitentiaries and asylums of the country, gradually integrate the way of life of the Cheyenne, at the time when the great massacres of the tribes begin.

After the battle of Little Big Horn, some female survivors decide to take up arms against the United States, which has stolen from the Native Americans their lands, their way of life, their culture and their history. This ghost tribe of rebellious women will soon go underground to wage an implacable battle, which will continue from generation to generation.

In this final volume of the One Thousand White Women trilogy, Jim Fergus mixes with rare mastery the struggle of women and Native Americans in the face of oppression, from the end of the 19th century until today. With a vivid sense of the 19th century American West, Fergus paints portraits of women as strong as they are unforgettable.

Review:

Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill by Jim Fergus is a bit of a mystical novel that is the third installment in the One Thousand White Women trilogy. This newest release can be read as a standalone but I recommend the previous novels for important backstory.

In this outing, Chicago magazine publisher JW Dodd returns to visit Molly Standing Bear on the reservation. They easily pick up where they left off and enjoy one another’s company. Molly is quite mysterious and she is very likable. She again gives the JW diaries written May Dodd and Molly McGill. These diary entries pick up where the second book in the trilogy, The Vengeance of Mothers, leaves off.

May Dodd, Molly McGill and the other white women were traded to Cheyenne in an effort to for lasting peace between Native Americans and the rest of the US. The diaries provide an in-depth look into their lives on the plains.  These women are not only brave but they are a force to be reckoned with as they prove to be more than up to the task of adapting to their new lives.

This third addition to the series is interesting but a little repetitive. Although they endure many hardships and unimaginable loss, May, Molly and the others have close friendships and they are fiercely loyal. The plains are beautifully described and spring vibrantly to life. The storyline is interesting but some of the diary passages are sometimes a little too long.  Molly Standing Bear brings attention to the many Native women who disappear each year and the local authorities’ shameful disinterest in solving their cases.

Strongheart: The Lost Journals of May Dodd and Molly McGill is an intriguing novel that wraps up the One Thousand White Women Trilogy. Old and new fans will enjoy this final look into the fates of these strong women who were traded to the Cheyenne in exchange for horses.

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Filed under Fiction, Historical, Jim Fergus, Rated C, Review, St Martin's Press, Strongheart

March 15, 2021 · 12:01 am

Review: The Poet by Lisa Renee Jones

Title: The Poet by Lisa Renee Jones
Samantha Jazz Series Book One
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones brings a fresh, modern take to the thriller genre that will keep you guessing until the very end.

“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.” -Jean Cocteau

Some call him friend or boss.
Some call him husband or dad.
Some call him son, even a favorite son.

But the only title that matters to him is the one the media has given him: The Poet.

A name he earned from the written words he leaves behind after he kills that are as dark and mysterious as the reason he chooses his victims.

One word, two, three, a story in a poem, a secret that only Detective Samantha Jazz can solve. Because he’s writing this story for her.

She just doesn’t know it yet.

Review:

The first installment in the Samantha Jazz series, The Poet by Lisa Renee Jones is an intriguing mystery.

Detective Samantha Jazz inherits a murder investigation from another detective who is transferring to another city. She and her partner Ethan Langford easily pick up the investigation into Michael Summer’s murder. Her expertise with poetry is a large part of the reason she is assigned to the case. The victim was found with a piece of paper with poetry verses in the victim’s mouth. As Samantha tries to understand the killer’s message, the killer strikes again. With this victim hitting closer to home, Samantha realizes the murderer has been following her.

Samantha is brash, independent and impatient. She relies more on her gut than facts and she is easily annoyed when anyone challenges her suppositions. During the investigation, Samantha turns to her former boyfriend, FBI Agent Wade Miller for assistance.  Once she zeroes in on a suspect, Samantha defies her boss on more than one occasion while searching for evidence.

The Poet is an interesting mystery but the pacing is slow. Samantha’s abrasive personality and go it alone attitude make it difficult to like her. The investigation stalls out as she gets tunnel vision during the investigation. With unexpected twists and startling turns, Lisa Renee Jones brings this police procedural to a surprising conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Entangled: Amara, Lisa Renee Jones, Mystery, Rated C, Review, The Poet

March 12, 2021 · 12:01 am

Review: Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti

Title: Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Domestic Mystery
Length: 300 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Your daughter went missing twenty years ago. Now, she’s finally back. You thought she had returned a few times in the past, and your husband tells you she’s not the one, but you feel it in your bones.

Now, what will you do to keep her home?

Twenty years ago, Myra Barkley’s daughter disappeared from the rocky beach across from the family inn, off the Oregon coast. Ever since, Myra has waited at the front desk for her child to come home. One rainy afternoon, the miracle happens–her missing daughter, now twenty-eight years old with a child of her own, walks in the door.

Elizabeth Lark is on the run with her son. She’s just killed her abusive husband and needs a place to hide. Against her better judgment, she heads to her hometown and stops at the Barkley Inn. When the innkeeper insists that Elizabeth is her long lost daughter, the opportunity for a new life, and more importantly, the safety of her child, is too much for Elizabeth to pass up. But she knows that she isn’t the Barkleys’s daughter, and the more deeply intertwined she becomes with the family, the harder it becomes to confess the truth.

Except the Barkley girl didn’t just disappear on her own. As the news spreads across the small town that the Barkley girl has returned, Elizabeth suddenly comes into the limelight in a dangerous way, and the culprit behind the disappearance those twenty years ago is back to finish the job.

Review:

Call Me Elizabeth Lark by Melissa Colasanti is an engaging domestic mystery.

Twenty years ago, Myra and Herb’s eight-year-old daughter Charlotte vanishes from the beach where her older sister Gwen is supposed to be watching her. No trace of Charlotte is ever found and Myra remains convinced her daughter is still alive.  This makes it very easy for her to believe that Elizabeth Lark is her long-lost daughter. After years of abuse, Elizabeth and her five-year-old son Theo have finally escaped from their isolated cabin. Despite her guilt, she allows Myra and the rest of the family to believe she is Charlotte. But when news gets out she has returned, ominous occurrences start happening at the family-owned Barkley Inn. Is someone just trying to scare them? Or is there another far more sinister reason for the increasingly threatening behavior?

Elizabeth is breaking all of the rules of escaping an abusive relationship but she has to stop in her old hometown. She is exhausted and scared when she decides to stay at the Barkley Inn. Elizabeth could never have predicted Myra’s reaction and she uneasily continues to let them believe she is Charlotte. She needs to figure out if Peter is after her and Theo or if she can relax her guard. While Theo quickly settles into life at Barkley Inn, Elizabeth is growing increasingly anxious as she attempts to figure out her next move.

Myra absolutely refuses to allow Herb, their son Jimi and Gwen to shake her belief that Elizabeth is Charlotte.  They have reason to doubt her since she has mistaken strangers for Charlotte in the past. Myra expects a little too much from Elizabeth as she smothers her with attention. She is shocked at the troubling incidents that begin after Elizabeth’s arrival. But why would anyone be threatened by her daughter’s return?

Call Me Elizabeth Lark is an interesting mystery but parts of the plot require suspension of disbelief.  The various characters are mostly easy to like but they are a trifle under developed. The first half of the novel moves fairly quickly but the second half is not as fast paced. The story is mostly well-written but it is a little repetitive. With very unexpected twists and turns, Melissa Colasanti brings this intriguing domestic mystery to very convoluted conclusion.

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Filed under Call Me Elizabeth Lark, Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Domestic Mystery, Melissa Colasanti, Mystery, Rated C, Review

February 12, 2021 · 12:01 am

Review: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

Title: Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Publisher: Harper
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 347 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

A compulsively readable debut novel—spiky, sharp, intriguingly dark, and tender—about a woman on the edge that combines the psychological insight of Sally Rooney with the sharp humor of Nina Stibbe and the emotional resonance of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, the only person she knows without a PhD, a baby or both, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick—the kind who cooks, throws her birthday parties, who loves her and has only ever wanted her to be happy—has just moved out.

Because there’s something wrong with Martha, and has been for a long time. When she was seventeen, a little bomb went off in her brain and she was never the same. But countless doctors, endless therapy, every kind of drug later, she still doesn’t know what’s wrong, why she spends days unable to get out of bed or alienates both strangers and her loved ones with casually cruel remarks.

And she has nowhere to go except her childhood home: a bohemian (dilapidated) townhouse in a romantic (rundown) part of London—to live with her mother, a minorly important sculptor (and major drinker) and her father, a famous poet (though unpublished) and try to survive without the devoted, potty-mouthed sister who made all the chaos bearable back then, and is now too busy or too fed up to deal with her.

But maybe, by starting over, Martha will get to write a better ending for herself—and she’ll find out that she’s not quite finished after all.

Review:

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is a melancholy novel about a woman’s struggles with mental illness.

Martha Friel’s battle with mental illness begins in her late teens. Her family life is chaotic and dysfunctional due to her mother’s temperamental moods and excessive drinking. Her dad is her rock as is her sister Ingrid. Martha’s career choices are more accidental than planned and she is not exactly fulfilled. Her relationships suffer as she veers between deep depression, mood swings, and fits of rage. Ingrid is always there to pick up the pieces when her life spirals out of control. Martha reconnects with family friend Patrick Friel and he becomes her long-suffering husband who patiently stands by her side during all of their ups and downs.

Martha’s mental illness is not adequately diagnosed or treated until later in life. She is very angry with Patrick and the future of their marriage hangs in the balance. By this point, Ingrid is also losing patience with her sister. As Martha reflects back on her life, she tries to pinpoint the main source of her unhappiness. She also has regrets about the state of her marriage but will she be able move past her anger? And if she does, is it too late for her and Patrick?

Sorrow and Bliss is a well-written novel that provides a realistic and insightful portrait of living with mental illness. The storyline is interesting but the pacing is slow. Martha is a frustrating woman and her self-absorption and casual cruelty to her loved ones is difficult to watch. Ingrid is a wonderful person with a marvelous sense of humor. Patrick is likable but a bit underdeveloped until very near the story’s end. Both Martha and her mother undergo significant growth which is quite uplifting. Meg Mason  brings the novel to a slightly unsatisfactory but true to life conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Harper, Meg Mason, Rated C, Review, Sorrow and Bliss, Women's Fiction

February 1, 2021 · 11:59 pm

Review: The Unwilling by John Hart

Title: The Unwilling by John Hart
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical (’70s), Suspense
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Set in the South at the height of the Vietnam War, The Unwilling combines crime, suspense and searing glimpses into the human mind and soul in New York Times bestselling author John Hart’s singular style.

Gibby’s older brothers have already been to war. One died there. The other came back misunderstood and hard, a decorated killer now freshly released from a three-year stint in prison.

Jason won’t speak of the war or of his time behind bars, but he wants a relationship with the younger brother he hasn’t known for years. Determined to make that connection, he coaxes Gibby into a day at the lake: long hours of sunshine and whisky and older women.

But the day turns ugly when the four encounter a prison transfer bus on a stretch of empty road. Beautiful but drunk, one of the women taunts the prisoners, leading to a riot on the bus. The woman finds it funny in the moment, but is savagely murdered soon after.

Given his violent history, suspicion turns first to Jason; but when the second woman is kidnapped, the police suspect Gibby, too. Determined to prove Jason innocent, Gibby must avoid the cops and dive deep into his brother’s hidden life, a dark world of heroin, guns and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

What he discovers there is a truth more disturbing than he could have imagined: not just the identity of the killer and the reasons for Tyra’s murder, but the forces that shaped his brother in Vietnam, the reason he was framed, and why the most dangerous man alive wants him back in prison.

This is crime fiction at its most raw, an exploration of family and the past, of prison and war and the indelible marks they leave.

Review:

Set in Charlotte, NC in 1972, The Unwilling by John Hart is a family-centric novel  that is also quite suspenseful.

Following the death of his brother Robert, Gibson “Gibby” French’s parents are over-protective and controlling. On the cusp on graduating from high school, he is torn between following in both of his older brothers’ footsteps and joining the military. However, his parents expect him to go to college.  When his other brother, Jason, returns home, Gibby is finally ready to break free of his parents’ tight grip.  

A day with Jason and two young women, Tyra and Sara, is full of carefree fun but as the brothers know all too well, life can turn on a dime.  After Tyra is brutally murdered, Jason is the chief suspect.  His detective father is forbidden to work on the case, but his best friend, Detective Ken Burklow provides him with information about the investigation. When Jason is arrested and moved to the local prison, Gibby, his new girlfriend Becky and his best friend Chance try to find evidence of his innocence. However, unbeknownst to Gibby and their father, there is much more to Tyra’s murder than meets the eye.  Will Gibby save Jason before it is too late?

After Robert’s death in Vietnam, the French family has never been the same. The boys’ mom Gabrielle is not coping well and she alienates Jason while holding onto Gibby too tightly.  Hoping to keep his wife on an even keel, William does everything he can to placate her. Gibby readily agreeds to everything his mother insisted upon, but Jason’s return highlights just how little freedom he has. Gibby is thrilled to spend time with his brother but he is frustrated by Jason’s inability to reveal anything about himself. Jason is content to allow his family to think the worst of him, but will the truth about his past finally be revealed?

Set against the backdrop of unrest, The Unwilling  is an intriguing novel with a cast of colorful characters and plenty of action. While Gibby is a vibrantly developed, three-dimensional young man, some of the other characters are under-developed. While  the first half of the story is interesting,  the storyline quickly becomes overly complicated and unrealistic. The story arc in the aftermath of Tyra’s murder is violent and extremely far-fetched.  Despite the slow pacing, John Hart brings the novel to an exciting, yet somewhat unsatisfying, conclusion.

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Filed under Historical, Historical (70s), John Hart, Rated C, Review, Suspense, The Unwilling