Category: Mystery

Book Notes: Lost Hours by Paige Shelton

Cheryl Russell

Lost Hours
Book Five in the Alaska Wild series
by Paige Shelton

Beth’s past collides with her present when a kidnap victim arrives in Benedict.

Summary

In this fifth book in Paige Shelton’s Alaska Wild series, readers return to Benedict, Alaska, an isolated town on the edge of the Alaskan wilderness. Beth Rivers has made Benedict her home to recover from a violent kidnapping months earlier. She’s decided to take a boat tour to see glaciers, but before she and her “man-friend” Tex can reach their destination the tour is diverted by a woman in distress on the shore of one of the islands in the area. She’s covered in blood and it’s obvious she needs help. Once she’s brought aboard, Beth finds out Sadie Milbourn, the rescued woman, is a kidnap victim. Her story is similar to Beth’s and it’s through that similar experience the two women establish common ground. Sadie reveals to Beth that Sadie is in witness protection and has lived in Juneau for the last six years. As the investigation into Sadie’s case continues, more questions than answers arise. Another kidnapping takes place. Beth suspects the two cases are connected but can’t find the answers she needs.

Lost Hours-Likes

The characters. Benedict is a small, isolated town on the edge of the Alaskan wilderness. The only ways in or out are either plane or ferry. Internet is spotty at best and any emergency help is hours, if not days, away. Because of the isolation, the people in and around Benedict are self-sufficient, but also ready to help anyone needing it. Beth’s estranged father has also moved to Benedict, and she’s still trying to figure out what kind of relationship to have with him. The relationships are complicated, changing, and greatly influenced by the setting.
The setting. The Alaskan wilderness. It’s beautiful but potentially deadly. Alaska is one of my favorite places, ever. (At least in the summer. I haven’t experienced winter. Yet.)

The mystery. The twists and turns in Lost Hours kept me on my toes and the ending was one I didn’t see coming. Well-done.

Lost Hours-dislike

The plot line that has been running through the series took a predicable turn. As I read the book, my hope was that particular plot point wouldn’t come into play, but it did, and I was disappointed.

Recommendation

I’ve read all the books in the series, usually ordering them as soon the pre-orders are available. The mysteries keep me guessing, the Alaskan setting and characters draw me into the books, the covers are gorgeous, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series.
If you haven’t read any of the other books in the series (Thin Ice, Cold Wind, Dark Night, and Winter’s End) you can read this as a stand-alone, but I would recommend starting with Thin Ice and working your way through the series.
4/5 stars.

 

Publishing Info

Imprint: Minotaur Books
Pub date: 12/5/2023
ISBN: 9781250846617
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 288

Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress for a copy of #LostHours. All opinions are my own.

Book Notes Review: I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died

Cheryl Russell

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died by Amanda Flower

I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

 

Book 2 in the Emily Dickinson Mystery series
By Amanda Flower

The way Amanda Flower writes it, before Emily Dickinson was a published poet, she was an amateur sleuth, solving murders in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, with her sometimes reluctant maid, Willa Noble.

Summary

In I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, the murder victim is Luther Howard, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s personal secretary. The eminent poet was invited to Amherst by Susan Dickinson, Emily’s dear friend and her brother, Austin’s, new wife. Things were going well with the visit; Emerson was a popular speaker with people flocking to hear his talks. Dinners were held at Austin and Susan’s new home, a wedding present from his parents. At dinner one night, Luther excused himself. He was acting oddly and was later found dead in the gardens at Emily’s father’s house, next door to Austin’s home.
When a suspect is arrested, Emily is certain the police have the wrong man. Emily and Willa investigate on their own and risk becoming a murderer’s next target.

My Thoughts

Even though the books are in the Emily Dickinson Mystery series, Emily isn’t the point of view character. Willa Noble, Emily’s maid, is the one telling the story, and through her eyes there is more to the books than just the mystery. The series is set in the years before the Civil War and class distinctions are firmly rooted in society. Maids, like Willa, are part of the working class and aren’t friends with their wealthy employers.
Emily refuses to acknowledge this distinction, even though the rest of her family and her friends don’t hesitate to remind Willa of her place. It is a friendship that frequently places Willa in awkward positions, which Emily doesn’t see. But Willa can also talk to people that, because of the class division, wouldn’t speak freely to Emily. Without Willa, Emily couldn’t solve any mysteries.
I also like the different, albeit fictional, take on Emily Dickinson. She is a woman before her time-independent, rejecting social expectations of women’s roles and class distinctions. This independent streak drives Emily to take the steps she does in order to solve whatever mystery she’s involved in. There were plenty of viable suspects for Emily to deal with and that kept me guessing the murderer’s identity up until the reveal. The killer was one I didn’t see coming.
I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died is a stellar addition to the Emily Dickinson Mystery series.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #StMartinsPress #MinotaurBooks for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Publishing Information

Penguin Random House 
Paperback $17.00
Nov 14, 2023
ISBN 9780593336960

 

Book Notes West Heart Kill

Cheryl Russell

West Heart Kill

by Dann McDorman

ABOUT WEST HEART KILL

LOOKING FOR AN ANYTHING-BUT-ORDINARY WHODUNIT? • Welcome to the West Heart country club. Where the drinks are neat but behind closed doors . . . things can get messy. Where upright citizens are deemed downright boring. Where the only missing piece of the puzzle is you, dear reader.

A unique and irresistible murder mystery set at a remote hunting lodge where everyone is a suspect, including the erratic detective on the scene—a remarkable debut that gleefully upends the rules of the genre.

An isolated hunt club. A raging storm. Three corpses, discovered within four days. A cast of monied, scheming, unfaithful characters.

When private detective Adam McAnnis joins an old college friend for the Bicentennial weekend at the exclusive West Heart club in upstate New York, he finds himself among a set of not-entirely-friendly strangers. Then the body of one of the members is found at the lake’s edge; hours later, a major storm hits. By the time power is restored on Sunday, two more people will be dead . . .

My Thoughts on West Heart Kill

This book isn’t what I expected, and that isn’t a good thing.

First, this isn’t a murder mystery in the traditional sense, which makes this book unique but also is its weakness. The book concentrates on how a murder mystery is written, and the mystery itself is secondary. Various points of view are also employed in the book-first person, third person, and what really put me out of the story-second person.  Second person is used to tell the reader what assumptions the reader is making and when those assumptions were wrong, it really disrupted what was already a complicated read. Another format used in the book was that of a play. Personally, I don’t like reading plays to begin with. The format was used to make the reader a participant in trying to solve, at this point, multiple murders, but it added another layer of difficulty in trying to keep straight what was going on.

A multiple number of identical characters also made for a difficult read. There is really nothing to distinguish one from another—they are all unhappy, can’t cope without alcohol or drugs or both, cheat on their spouses, and are just difficult to keep straight. I really didn’t care about any of them.

-Recommendation

This book wasn’t for me, but if it sounds like something you might enjoy, give it a try, maybe by borrowing a copy from the library or a friend.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, for providing a copy of the book. All opinions are my own.

Publishing Information
Hardcover | $28.00
Published by Knopf
Oct 24, 2023 | 288 Pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4| ISBN 9780593537572

 

Book Notes: The Cartographers Review

Cheryl Russell

 

The Cartographers
by Peng Shepherd

A map is much more than it seems. Also? I wished I had paid more attention to paper maps. 😮

About The Cartographers

What is the purpose of a map? 

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence…because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps…

Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V. E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

 

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this book-a murder mystery with magical elements. The story is told through several points of view from people who knew Nell and her parents when Nell was just a toddler, before everything went horribly, terribly wrong.

I also really enjoyed the magical elements, which are rooted in the history of map-making, corporate greed, and plagiarism.

This is also a story of obsession, sacrifice, and deeply held secrets that have the power to destroy…and to heal.

I pulled me in and held me to the end.

Recommended if you enjoy your mysteries with a bit of magical realism.

 

 

Publishing Information

ISBN: 9780062910707
ISBN 10: 0062910701
Imprint: William Morrow Paperbacks
Pages: 400 pages