Month: November 2021

Deadly Scandal by Kate Parker

On By BarbaraIn Audiobook, Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Interwar Period (Nov 1918 - Sep 1939), Part of a SeriesLeave a comment

Deadly Scandal (Deadly, #1)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: Deadly #1
Publication Date: 2/25/16
Period: 1937 – Interwar London
Number of Pages: 278 Print – I had the audiobook

Olivia Denis is in the morgue identifying her deceased husband. It just can’t be her Reggie lying there covered in blood! Sweet, sweet Reggie. Now, they are trying to tell her he committed suicide. Of course he didn’t! She knows he couldn’t have – wouldn’t have – just NO! Even though she takes all of their reasoning and turns it back on them to convince them it is murder, they won’t budge. Well, if they won’t investigate a murder, she will because Reggie definitely didn’t kill himself.

In the two years prior to the beginning of WWII, London was teeming with foreigners – those truly seeking refuge from the Nazi atrocities in Europe, and those seeking to garner information to pass back to Hitler to aid in his invasion of England. There were also Englanders whose sympathies lay with Hitler as well. There were spies everywhere – there was even a major leak coming from Reggie’s office and they had yet to discover his identity.

Was Reggie the mole who was funneling information to the Nazis? No, of course not. Olivia would never be convinced of that – even though she has just learned many, many, many shocking things about the Reggie she thought she knew. Does that mean that maybe Reggie discovered who the spy is? Could they have murdered Reggie to keep him quiet? Why has someone broken into Olivia’s apartment and ransacked it? What are they looking for?

When more deaths occur and Olivia is constantly being followed, she doesn’t know who to trust. Can the handsome Captain Adam Redmond, of Army Intelligence, be trusted? He certainly turned up at a time that would have allowed him to be part of the problem rather than the solution. Goodness help her – she’s learning to trust and lean on him – has she misjudged him?

You’ll love seeing Olivia come into her own during this time. She has a contentious relationship with her overbearing father and he is livid when she refuses to be a dutiful daughter and move back to his home after Reggie’s death. She compounds his anger when she actually goes to work in order to be able to afford to live in the flat she and Reggie had shared. There is more to her job than meets the eye, and she really begins to find her way – and her courage – as the investigation comes to completion.

I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook. Henrietta Meire, did a nice job with a smooth-flowing narration. While she did different voices for each character, they weren’t distinct enough that I would have recognized the character without having the author identify who was speaking. I think you’ll enjoy listening to the story should you choose the audiobook.

I can definitely recommend this book – and this series. I actually read the second book first because my library didn’t have this one available at the time. That means I can already tell you the second book is a good one as well – but I did like this one better.

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Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

Absence of Mallets (Fixer-Upper Mystery #9)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: Fixer-Upper Mystery #9
Publication Date: 12/7/21
Period: Contemporary Lighthouse Cove, California, USA
Number of Pages: 304

I love it when the authors I follow on social media post about their writer’s retreats, so it was great fun to see that this book featured writer’s retreats. As always, the writing is excellent and while the mystery isn’t terribly mysterious, it is interesting to see it unfold.

Between the last book and this one, Mac has moved in with Shannon and has turned his home, known as the lighthouse mansion, into a retreat for writers. Shannon and Mac are loving their lives and couldn’t be happier, especially with Mac’s writer retreats going so well. This latest batch of writers, however, seems very different from all of the others. There is an odd dynamic within the group and they are disrespectful of Mac and others within Lighthouse Cove. There is something – off – about them and they are definitely proving to be a handful.

Shannon and her crew are almost through with Homefront, the set of fifty tiny homes and service center dedicated to veterans. All of the completed homes are occupied and there is a waiting list for those on which the crew is still working. Shannon’s crew includes both her normal work crew and some of the veterans with building skills and they’ve really meshed into a finely tuned machine. With the homes going up at a rapid pace, Shannon adds a mosaic artist to the crew so the backsplashes in the last few houses will be something really special. Sadly, that artist is murdered before she’s hardly begun her work.

With a large work crew, a village full of veterans, the writers from the retreat, and the entire town of Lighthouse Cove available as suspects, it isn’t going to be an easy case to solve. Except, in her heart, Shannon is almost sure of who it is, but confirming that suspicion and finding proof that would satisfy a court will take the combined skills of Shannon, Mac, Eric (the police chief), and Chloe (Shannon’s sister).

BTW – I loved the new group of writers who come to the retreat at the end of the book. It is a group of successful, multi-published, Romance Writers known as the No Drama Queens.

I hope you’ll give Shannon and Mac’s adventures in Lighthouse Cove a read and that you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. Happy reading!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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