Category: Mystery

A Christmas Peril by J. A. Hennrikus

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A Christmas PerilBarbara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Theater Cop Mystery #1
Publication Date: 09/18/17

This book is exciting, interesting, filled with twists and turns and many well developed and likable characters. I believe this is either the first or second book by this author and it will be interesting to see how she develops as a writer as time passes. It certainly lays a great foundation for the series.

Edwina “Sully” Sullivan was once part of the state police of Massachusetts, but she is now medically retired and divorced from her unfaithful husband. She’s moved back to her hometown, Trevorton and taken on the job of General Manager for the local theater. Sully was surprised to find that her skills learned on the police force would serve her well at the theater, but they do.

Sully deliberately chose not to become a PI because she wanted to leave police and investigative work behind. That has worked for five years. However, when the town’s leading citizen is murdered and his son (who is Sully’s friend) is the main focus of the investigation, she has to at least look into it a little to see if she can help.

When she arrives at the police station to see what she can do for her friend, she finds he has a very good lawyer – Sully’s ex-husband. She’s not sure how she feels about that. There is a tingle of excitement at seeing Gus again – but – she doesn’t really want to be around him.

The investigation is filled with twists and turns, multiple murders and multiple perpetrators. One of those perpetrators is a surprise!

Sully is a very relatable character and you can just feel her being pulled by her interest in the case all the while she is trying to stay out of it. She’s also pulled to Gus and it is obvious that the softer feelings are still there for him. He seems to still be drawn to her as well – especially since he didn’t want the divorce – he wanted to work things out. So, it will be interesting to watch and see the romance grow throughout the series. I say that hoping that it will grow because I really like both characters and can see them working together really well.

“I requested and received this book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”

Walking On My Grave by Carolyn Hart

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Walking on My Grave (A Death on Demand Mysteries)Barbara’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars    Maybe even 2.5 stars

Series: Death on Demand #26
Publication Date: May 2, 2017

I absolutely cannot believe I’m giving this one three stars. This is the final book in the series and I would have hoped for it to end with a bang rather than a whimper. I would have loved it if Annie and Max had decided to close everything down and sail around the world or maybe they find themselves expecting a child – just something – rather than this non-ending ending. Max has deteriorated to the point that I almost didn’t recognize him – he is such a wimpy, uninteresting fellow. Annie too has become a wimp and has lost her determination. So, I guess I have to say that, given the quality of this book, it is time for the series to end and it is a sad ending indeed for a much-loved series.

The book is a normal size, but a portion at the end is taken up with the content of the Chapbooks that are being written by Henny, Laurel, and Emma. I will definitely NOT miss those three because they are becoming very tiresome. At the beginning of the book, you also have a number of pages taken up with a ‘Cast of Characters’ and a ‘timetable’ that is totally unnecessary. So, you have the middle portion left for the actual story.

The mystery itself is okay, but you just don’t come to care about the characters. In previous books you would have come to really know and understand the characters – maybe there were just too many suspects. For some of the suspects, we probably had a total of 5 or 6 lines dealing with them – Curt Roundtree is a prime example of that. Also, the first murder didn’t even occur until something like 100-pages into the book. As I said, the mystery was an okay mystery, but I just never felt invested in any of the victims or suspects.

Frankly, I almost felt that this book was written by another author – not only a different author who hadn’t written any of the previous books but one who hadn’t read them either. I was really disappointed in the wrap-up for the series.