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Book Review: Edited For Death by Michele Drier
Book: Edited For Death
Author: Michele Drier
Publisher: Mainly Murder Press
Genre: Mystery
Blurb:
Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator’s family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures, including a Holocaust survivor who’s spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. It’s a complex and dangerous puzzle, but Amy can’t walk away until she solves it.
What I Have To Say:
“Edited For Death” is your classic, loveable mystery novel but with an interesting spin (I can’t share what this ‘spin’ is because I won’t give away spoilers). I love it when mysteries are engaging enough to keep you guessing the identity of the killer even when you aren’t reading the book, and this did that for me. I found myself constantly considering the plot of this book and weighing the likeliness of each suspect against one another. I continually narrowed down my suspect list as the book progressed and am pleased to announce that I picked my killer correctly (I’m pretty good at that). I am an avid mystery reader and enjoyed that this book brought back the classic structure to mystery fiction because it has been a while since I read a book like that. The characters in “Edited For Death” – especially the protagonist, Amy – were very believable and all had unique personalities. I liked reading a book from the perspective of a reporter for once rather than a detective. That being said, the author did a wonderful job of encorporating the point of view, although not directly, of the police through Amy’s boyfriend who is a police detective himself. I loved this intricate plot which was riddled with suspense, plot twists and, of course, mystery. My only complaint is that it was difficult to keep track of everyone and everything in the beginning of the book because the reader was immediately introduced to a number of characters and two murders occured almost instantaneously. I wish the author took a little more time to introduce the characters because I felt that the plot took off before I was ready. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will certainly read more by the author. “Edited For Death” is a compelling mystery novel with strong characterization, an intricate plot, and twists that will keep you up all night reading.
BOOK REVIEW: Death’s Hand by S.M. Reine
Book: Death’s Hand
Author: S.M. Reine
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Blurb:
Policing relations between Heaven, Hell, and Earth is messy and violent, but Elise Kavanagh and James Faulkner excelled at it– until coming across a job so brutal that even they couldn’t stand to see one more dead body.
Now they’ve been pretending to be normal for five years, leaving their horrific history a dark secret. Elise works in an office. James owns a business. None of their friends realize they used to be one of the world’s best killing teams.
After years of hiding, something stirs. Bodies are vanishing. Demons scurry in the shadows of the night. A child has been possessed.
Some enemies aren’t willing to let the secrets of the past stay dead…
What I Have To Say:
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was a well-written and engaging read but I found it lacking the sense of uniqueness which I believe solidifies such a novel.
At first, I was enlivened by the detailed fight scenes which the author did such an excellent job of capturing but about five fight scenes later, they became very, very repetitive and the drama evaporated. I found myself eventually skimming over them in a desire not to read the same fight scene yet again. The characters were not much to marvel at either. I like Elise, at least I tried to, but I never really felt that connection to her which I so dearly wanted simply because I couldn’t relate to her. She is an interesting character, yes, but there is nothing different about her, no authentic quality that really sets her apart from all of the other dark fantasy protagonists in the world. She is a secretive person with a hazy history involving some sort of saving the world through magic who is being targeted by an old rival who she throught she killed and will have to fight for a final time. Redundant, huh? Although the character and the storyline are intriguing, I have read this same thing numerous times and I don’t believe that this is the best rendition of it. I really wanted the author to add an element that put her own spin on this book, but I never came across such a thing. On the bright side, the ending was a very dramatic and suspenseful conclusion that had me begging for more.
All in all, this was an okay book. It was engaging and well-written and I found it something that kept me interested throughout but it became repetitive at times and was not unique enough to be seperated from the hundreds of renditions of this same storyline. Was it worth the read? Yeah, I guess. Would I recommend it? Possibly, depending on the person. Maybe I’m being too harsh or just missing something but this is simply not a book that stands out to me. Although it was intriguing and for intervals had me on the edge of my seat, it is really no different (I’m sure others would disagree) – the characters and the plot – from the next dark fantasy. And the next. And the next.
Best of the Bunch Award: Mission Road by Rick Riordan
Lyrical Reviews hosts an award ceremony at the end of each month, called “Best of the Bunch”. Each participating blogger is required to submit a post about his or her favorite book of that particular month.
Although I have read this book long before September, this is my first time participating and I feel as though I should share thois book with you, as I commonly regard it as a favorite. Don’t miss the ceremony on their blog on tomorrow, September 30th, and remember to participate in the October ceremony!
Mission Road by Rick Riordan
About:
“The past collides explosively with the present in Edgar-winner Riordan’s sixth Tres Navarre novel (after 2004′s Southtown) when
Navarre’s boyhood friend, reformed criminal Ralph Arguello, appears on his doorstep wearing a blood-soaked guayabera barely one step ahead of the San Antonio police. The cops believe Arguello’s wife, cold case detective Ana DeLeon, is about to name her husband as the prime suspect in the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Franklin White, son of a local organized crime boss—and, more
incredibly, that Arguello shot her to slow down the investigation. Arguello convinces Navarre he’s being set up, and the two of them struggle to evade a citywide manhunt and discover the real killer’s identity. Riordan jump-cuts between the present and the mid-1980s to tell the story of White’s murder and to provide background for the main characters, including Ana’s mother Lucia, one of the city’s first female cops.”
If you haven’t read any of Riordan’s Tres Navarre novels yet and you are a crime fiction fan, drop everything and read one of them right now. Any of them. Each book in the series has it’s own unique qualities, each one with a shocking revelation at the end, and each one deserves a five-star review. Mission Road is probably my favorite in the series, but each book is so great that there is only a slight difference in quality.
From the explosive, breath-taking opening, this book gripped me and it didn’t let go until I reached the shocking conclusion. It seemed pretty straightforward at first and I had my eyes set on a potential killer from the very beginning. As the novel progressed, this killer began to appear more and more guilty to the point where – with one chapter left – I was certain that it was this particular killer. And with about three pages left, this killer was finally revealed and I discovered that my suspicions were correct. Okay, right? WRONG. I was busy basking in my own success in selecting the killer at the time and I decided to read the last three pages just for good measure. At the final few sentences, my heart was pounding as new knowledge was revealed, so much to the point that I couldn’t believe the words I was reading. I won’t spoil anything, but in the final sentence, the true killer is revealed and it is the person who you least suspect… I read this entire novel in hardly over one sitting since it was so intense and I simply could not put it down! The plot was totally unique and extremely riveting, the characters were all realistic and had a certain compelling vibe to them, just your classic Riordan. Driven by Riordan’s strong, sarcastic yet powerful voice and his rich prose, this book is not only well written but enthralling as well. I would recommend Mission Road to all crime fiction/thriller/suspense/mystery fans or really anyone who would like to experiment with the best in a new genre. It certainly deserves this month’s Best of the Bunch Award!
