Month: June 2023

Still Waters – Sara Driscoll

FBI’s Meg Jennings and her K-9 Hawk, along with partners Brian & K-9 Lacey, have been invited to participate in a water search and rescue training in rural Minnesota, where they are teamed up with the best of the best, in a spirited competition.  While some competitors are friendly, some are not, and Brian quickly notices some discrepancy in event outcomes when his personal timekeeping does not match the official scoring.  On a forest search, Hawk seems to lose a scent on and get sidetracked – something that has never happened to him – before finally zeroing in on his find with a somewhat delayed time.  That evening, Meg and Brian defuse a tense situation between two handlers, one of whom, Rita Pratt, makes disparaging comments about Hawk, which Meg does not take well, especially when she catches Rita abusing her dog a bit later, an action she fully intends to report. 

The next day involves a search for remains in the lake, and Hawk nails the exercise without difficulty.  As they are returning to shore, Meg notices Hawk staring intently into the distance with a stance she knows all too well. Hawk has alerted to something else in a different area of the lake.  A diver goes overboard to investigate, and reports there is a body is submerged – and it appears to be fresh. It is soon determined to be that of Rita Pratt – the same individual Meg confronted the night prior.  Soon after, she learns that Pratt made an erroneous complaint against her, resulting in a suspension, putting her at risk of losing Hawk – and unwittingly making Meg a prime suspect – and the sole focus of a young agent – in her murder. 

As Meg fights to prove her innocence and hang on to her beloved Hawk, an unlikely ally shows up – her SAC Craig Beaumont arrives in Minnesota to lend a hand and provide support. But as another body turns up, the situation heats up leaving it up to Meg and her friends to catch a killer…

This is one of a few K-9 series I’ve found lately, and I love them all! As I open the pages to Meg & Hawk, I feel like I’m settling into a grand adventure with some old friends.  Be sure you have a free afternoon, because it’s very hard to put this book down!  Suspenseful, descriptive, action-packed, beloved dogs – what else do you need for a first-rate novel?!  Then, knowing the next installment of adventures won’t be too far behind – it doesn’t get any better than that!! 

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Kensington Books in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Dead Man’s Wake ~ Paul Doiron

Mike Bowditch & fiancée Stacy Stevens are celebrating their engagement and impending nuptials with family lakeside in Maine, when Mike hears the unmistakable sound of a fast-paced boat motor striking some type of object.  A Maine Game Warden, Mike knows what the sound means, and he, Stacey & their respective parents head out on the lake to assess for injuries.  The boat had fled the scene, but much to Mike’s dismay, Stacey spots a dismembered arm floating in the lake, clearly the casualty of a boat propeller.  

As they await further assistance, they attempt to locate the body that the arm once belonged to, and Mike & Stacey, along with the Lake Constable Galen Webb, examine the arm.  On its wrist is a high-end Rolex watch, which Galen immediately identifies as belonging to the owner of nearby Mouse Island, a Kip Whitcomb. With further questioning, Mike learns that Kip often brought women to the island, despite being married.  After marking the area w/ a buoy, the group heads to Mouse Island to have a look around, quickly finding evidence that there had been a woman with the victim.  But where was she? 

State Police Detective Roger Finch arrives to assist, and the woman’s body is quickly located, with obvious evidence of homicide. The investigation kicks into high gear as the team looks for evidence – did Kip kill his lover and then go for a swim, only to be struck and killed by a boat, or was there something much more sinister at play?  Where is the boat that struck Whitman? Interviews with family members and locals close to the scene, while enlightening, lead to dead ends as obvious suspects are quickly ruled out. Meanwhile Galen Webb seems to turn up everywhere…is he a young deputy who is hoping to prove himself worthy of the Warden’s Service, or is there something else altogether at play??

Another fabulous read from the Mike Bowditch series!! As a former, short-term resident of the great state of Maine, I just adore this series, the characters and the familiarity of the areas used as a backdrop for some great fiction!   The Belgrade Lake area is absolutely beautiful – and I’d taken that ride more than a few times in my years there.  Awesome series, great characters, ingenious plots – I cannot say enough about these books!!

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Before You Knew My Name – Jacqueline Bublitz

“I think you generally experience memories from the outside in, like your old life is a movie you once starred in…” ~ 

As I start this review, my absolute only regret is that I did not get to this book sooner…. 

Alice Lee & Ruby Jones are two women, one from Wisconsin – the other from Australia – who arrive to New York City on the same chilly March day.  Alice, a budding teen-aged artist from Wisconsin, is running from an exploitative relationship, while Ruby is looking to forget the past and re-invent her life after being the ‘other woman’, watching her lover prepare for his wedding to someone else.  From the start, the women are connected spiritually somehow, as Alice will explain, but they have never met – not until Ruby finds Alice’s discarded, injured body by the river one morning…

It’s a stormy morning when Ruby, fresh off a fitful night of anger, decides to brave the weather for a run. As she takes a detour by the river, she catches a glimpse of purple, and then yellow by the rocks, being buffeted by waves at the river’s edge.  Traumatized by her discovery, a nameless girl left to die, Ruby finds herself irrevocably tied to Jane Doe and is obsessed with discovering all she can about the young victim. 

Told from the perspective of Alice after her death – who desperately wants to be remembered – the reader slowly unravels the stories of both women, the traumas that lead them to New York, the inexplicable ties to one another they both have, and the eventual discovery of Jane Doe’s true identity, and how she came to be found by the river….  

This book was absolutely incredible and is by far the best book I’ve read this year…. And it will resonate with me for a long time to come…  The prose is…almost lyrical…it is so beautifully written, with dozens of lines giving pause as they are thought provoking standalone quotes, with my favorite being the header to this review.  A heartbreakingly sad, yet amazing read that you cannot miss…  

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Atria Books in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Taken Girls – Carolyn Arnold

It’s a lazy Saturday morning in Prince William County and Detective Amanda Steele is bored. Both her boyfriend and adopted daughter have plans and are out of the house, and her much desired ‘alone time’ has her searching for anything to occupy her time – even cleaning the garage. As soon as she starts that task, the phone rings – it’s her niece, Ava, sounding very shaken, asking Amanda to meet her at a local park. 

When Amanda arrives, she meets Ava and her friend Nadine, where she learns that Nadine’s older sister Reese, a high school senior and elected prom queen, has been missing for a few days. While at the park, the girls found Reese’s cell phone in the river, which Ava then hands to Amanda. Nadine explains that Reese and her Mom had a huge fight the night Reese went missing, which has happened before. But Reese has always answered texts or calls from her little sister – but this time she hasn’t…  Amanda’s gut tells her that something is very wrong. 

As the search for Reese begins, Amanda pulls in partner Trent to assist as she interviews family and friends, slowly getting a sense of a popular, but self-absorbed young woman, but no clues as to her disappearance. Then a gruesome discovery at the prom venue on prom night changes things from a missing person case to murder – and Amanda will stop at nothing to catch a killer…  

I originally discovered this series thanks to Netgalley, and I absolutely LOVE these books! This latest installment is another home run, packed full with action and suspense, along with character growth – and perhaps some conflict. Amanda & Trent’s relationship seems…off a bit in this book, and I am still trying to warm up to Logan’s re-emergence in Amanda’s life as she continues to move forward after the loss of her family.  This can easily be read as a standalone, but the series in order will give the reader more insight into these characters and how they came to be…  Fabulous book, fabulous series!!  Now the wait begins for the next title in the series… 

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & Bookouture in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!