Category: Contemporary

Little Black Book by Kate Carlisle

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Little Black Book (Bibliophile Mystery, #15)Little Black Book by Kate Carlisle
Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Bibliophile Mystery #15
Publication Date: 6/29/21
Period: Contemporary
Number of Pages: 384
** 5-Stars **

The action, intrigue, and adventure begins with the first word on the first page and doesn’t let up until the last word on the last page in this wonderfully well-written book. Expert bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright and her handsome, hunky, international security expert husband take us through San Francisco, to Dharma in the wine country, and all the way to the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland with murder and mayhem following all the way. Be sure to choose your most comfortable reading chair and have all of your snacks, drinks, etc. nearby because you won’t want to put the book down once you start reading.

Brooklyn and Derek have just returned home from a short vacation in Dharma where they are building a nice vacation home near both sets of parents. They are relaxed and ready to get back to work the next day – until Derek brings all of their mail back from their neighbor’s apartment. There is a package – and both are sure the package contains a book – but it is addressed to Derek and not Brooklyn. Uh-Oh. Just after they open the package and discover that it does indeed contain a book – a rare and valuable copy of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca – the entry buzzer sounds. Oh! No! All of their adventures seem to revolve around a rare book – and now they have one – and there is a stranger at their door.

Their caller was Claire Quinn who had worked with Brooklyn on several episodes of the antique show, This Old Attic, and she was inquiring about a package they may have received from her aunt in Scotland. Claire is in danger! Her home has been broken into, her aunt is missing, and Claire is sure someone is stalking her. The adventure really begins in earnest with the discovery of a body in Brooklyn and Derek’s garage and it continues with more bodies as they retreat to Dharma to elude the villains – and then on to the lovely Scottish village of Oddlochen on the shores of Loch Ness.

Where is Claire’s aunt Gwyneth? Is she still alive? What do these villains want with Claire? What does the book have to do with anything? Who is the villain behind it all? Is it the handsome laird of the castle? Is it the equally handsome estate manager? Is it some of Claire’s father’s old associates? Is it the mob to whom the laird’s father owed money? Is it aunt Gwyneth’s nasty antiques competitor? So many suspects! What is the treasure they are seeking and can their copy of Rebecca tell them the answer?

This author never fails to write an interesting and exciting book. The characters are unique, interesting, likable, and you’d love to meet them all. It was lovely to see that we had a full contingent of recurrent characters with Gabriel, Dalton, Robin, Robson, and Brooklyn’s parents. We also met a couple of characters I’d love to see in future books as well. Claire was really interesting and I liked her a lot, so I’d love to see her featured in future books. Since there was a hint of a budding romance for her, I’d love to see that come to fruition in a future book – maybe while working on yet another adventure with Brooklyn and Derek.

I can definitely recommend this book, this series, and this author. I hope you’ll give it a read and love it as much as I did.

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

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Murder In Galway by Carlene O’Connor

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery2 Comments

Murder in Galway (Home to Ireland Mystery #1)Murder in Galway by Carlene O’Connor

Series: Home to Ireland Mystery #1
Publication Date: 4/28/20
Period: Contemporary – Galway, Ireland
Number of Pages:336

I am an avid reader of this author’s Irish Village Mystery series and was very excited to see she has started this new series – also based in Ireland. I believe the author splits her year between living in Ireland and living in the United States.

Tara Meehan has come to Galway, Ireland to spread her mother’s ashes and to carry a message from her mother to Johnny Meehan, her mother’s estranged brother. Tara doesn’t even know if her uncle Johnny is alive. She’s never met him, never corresponded with him – no contact, ever. She has no idea what caused the rift between her mother and her uncle, so she has no idea what kind of reception she’ll get from him. Almost as soon as she arrived, the box containing her mother’s ashes was ripped from her hand by a street juggler and ended up opened and covering a stranger who had tried to retrieve it for her – then, directly on the heels of that, she discovered a dead body in the doorway of her uncle’s cottage. What a way to begin her stay in Galway!

Believing the body belonged to her uncle Johnny, she called the Garda (Irish police) and told them she’d found the body of Johnny Meehan. She also told others that she’d found Johnny’s body and nobody seemed surprised. Evidently, her uncle wasn’t an esteemed member of the community. When the body is officially identified, it isn’t Johnny Meehan but his best customer, Emmett Walsh, and her uncle Johnny is the suspect in the murder. With Uncle Johnny missing and the police not looking for other suspects, Tara believes it is her family duty to show that her uncle isn’t guilty – or – if he is, to help find him and turn him in.

The mystery is a good one with lots of potential suspects and victims. I was pretty sure who the culprit was almost as soon as they graced the page, but I certainly had no clue why that would be the case. There are many red herrings, many possible scenarios for the murder to have happened, and some really strange happenings going on in Johnny’s life. Tara finds yet another body, and this one had her uncle’s business card lying right there in the blood. Goodness wasn’t that convenient. The Garda doubles down on Johnny as the prime suspect and tells Tara to leave Ireland immediately – for her own safety of course. Can Tara and her uncle’s employee, Danny O’Donnell, solve the mystery before Detective Sergeant Gable finds and arrests her uncle? Danny is not a willing participant in the investigation, but he does what he can to help Tara.

This book just didn’t reach right out and pull me into the story. I didn’t care for any of the characters other than perhaps Danny. I also didn’t care for the anti-American sentiments which seemed to be espoused by the residents of Galway. I’m sure there are probably those with the anti-American sentiments in the real Galway, but I’d wager it isn’t as prevalent as the author intimated it was. With so many suspects, red-herrings, and things going on I would have thought the book would be fast-paced and suspenseful, but I actually found parts of it a bit dull.

While I wasn’t in love with this first offering, I’ll definitely try the next book in the series to see where things go. The first book in a series often isn’t the best the series has to offer because it has to fill so many functions – such as introducing us to the characters, setting up the series’s premise, etc., and providing a compelling story. If the second book is like this one, I’ll probably not follow the series, but I’m sure I’ll become a series fan if it picks up the pace.

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