Tropical Delusions……

Alter Ego – Brian Freeman

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Lieutenant Jonathan Stride and Detective Maggie Bei are back again in this fabulous new novel from Brian Freeman!

It’s winter time in Duluth, Minnesota, and one of Hollywood’s A-list actors is in town filming a movie based on a case that Jonathan Stride would rather forget. Dean Casperson is a legend and is playing the role of the detective in ‘The Caged Girl’, a screenplay crafted by the actual murderer’s son.

The story opens with a chance death on a snowy highway, and it’s thought to be nothing more than a fateful accident, until a recently fired gun is found in the wrecked vehicle. As Maggie Bei attempts to identify the body, they realize that the ID the victim carried belonged to a man who died several years prior. So, who is he?

Stride visits the set of the movie during filming and meets his ‘alter ego’ in the film – the great Dean Casperson himself, along with his look-alike stuntman Jungle Jack. While on set, he inadvertently learns that a young stagehand, Haley Adams, has gone missing. Believed to be a Florida native, attending college in Duluth, her identity becomes a puzzle, as the search for her intensifies.

As the investigations continue and eventually merge, Stride learns that Hollywood isn’t all that it seems, deception is rampant, and even the most beloved of actors may be hiding something sinister, and will do anything to protect his reputation.

And then another girl goes missing…

Freeman has done it again, and I found this book to be un-put-downable!! I’ve been hooked since I picked up his very first Stride novel, and this latest installment keeps me desperate for more!! You will NOT be disappointed!! If you love Harry Bosch, Mac McRyan, Lucas Davenport and Tracy Crosswhite, you’ll LOVE Jonathan Stride!

And All The Phases Of The Moon – Judy Reene Singer

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Aila Cordeiro is a young widow, living alone on the shores of Cape Cod sound, as she runs her fathers little general store and tries to pick up the pieces of her life. After losing both her husband and father in a storm at sea, along with caring for a mother with Alzheimers who’s now in a home, she finds comfort in the familiar routine of the business, and she measures her life by the steady waxing and waning phases of the moon.

When an injured, emaciated dog starts following her, and eventually finds it’s way into her heart and home – in spite of herself, Aila starts to feel again… Then she meets Sam Ahmadi, a Navy war veteran, wrapped up in blankets, sleeping on the pier of her beach. The nephew of a local townswoman, Sam and Aila find a shared comfort and understanding in one another’s painful experiences.

Then, out of the blue, a chance encounter, lead to false accusations surrounding Aila & Sam and those she cares about – pitting neighbors and community against those she loves.

An appealing story about love, loss, healing, secrets, and learning to love again. This book was a sweet surprise for me and had me turning the pages in anticipation of what was coming next. I read it in one sitting and didn’t want it to end!!

A Merciful Silence – Kendra Elliott

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

Mercy Kilpatrick is back for more, as this time, on a rainy Oregon eve, a police officer out checking mountainous roads for washouts, discovers instead a human skull in a washed out culvert. As the site is assessed by the team, a total of 5 skulls are found, some of them children, reminding investigators of some similar murders years ago, where the lone survivor was an injured child.

Meanwhile, Truman Daly pulls over a young teenager, who claims to be a sovereign citizen, alerting Truman to the fact that there may be more of those ‘citizens’ operating in the area. While assisting in breaking up a bar fight, Truman finds another “sovereign’ citizen in one of the fighters , although the Moody brothers, Ryan and Clint pass it off as a joke.

And so starts off Mercy’s latest adventure as she and Truman work to identify the culvert victims, and link past and present cases together. A search for the lone survivor of the murders years ago, leads the team to a young woman, who has just relocated back to the Oregon area, which has Mercy wondering if the events are all connected somehow, and a jailhouse interview with the convicted killer of the earlier cases has Mercy wondering if the wrong man is behind bars. Truman also gets more than he bargained for as he attempts to prosecute young Joshua for forgery and distribution of ‘sovereign’ identification materials. To say more would definitely adding spoilers!

For those who love mystery/adventures stores, please don’t pass by Kendra Elliot, or this series. This was a great read, with non-stop action, great characters, twists that you won’t see coming, and I promise you will NOT want to put it down! This is the fourth book in the Mercy series (all can be read as stand-alone novels) – I am hopeful that there will be many more to come!! Fabulous!!

Jar Of Hearts – Jennifer Hillier

I was fortunate to receive this novel as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

This is one of those books that you just cannot stop reading because you HAVE to get to the end – yet you don’t want it to ever end – it’s THAT good!!

Georgina Shaw, Angela Wong & Kaiser Brody were best friends in high school. Angela was the beautiful one, the ‘queen’ of the high school, popular, and a star cheerleader. Georgina, ‘Geo’ to her friends, beautiful in her own right, but often hidden behind Angela’s glamour, was always at her side, and Kaiser, young, struggling with his own adolescence, was an unlikely, but well-loved addition to the trio.

One fateful day, after a daily excursion to the local convenience store for a beverage purchase, the trio meets Calvin James – an older guy, 21 to their 16, and he seemingly only has eyes for Geo, much to Angela’s chagrin. Despite her misgivings, Geo & Calvin become a couple…

This novel opens with Georgina ‘Geo’ Shaw testifying in a trial about her complicity in the death of her friend Angela Wong, who died at the hands of Geo’s then boyfriend, Calvin James, 14 years ago. Calvin has been identified as the Sweetbay Strangler, charged, and now sentenced to 4 consecutive life sentences for the murders. Georgina is sentenced to five years in nearby Hazelwood Correctional Institute – all after Angela’s body was recently unearthed in nearby woods. Shortly thereafter, Calvin escapes from prison, and the murders begin again – but THIS time they’re a little different…

As Geo settles into prison life, her present situation, along with the past stories of Angela, Kaiser & Calvin are told in snippets as Georgina drifts between her past and how she came to be here in the present in this situation. There are multiple complex layers to each individual, and those layers are slowly unwrapped, chapter by chapter, as the story continues. You’ll think you know what’s coming, but you don’t…not until it does…

A brilliant MUST read! But be sure you have plenty of time ahead of you because you will not want to put this book down!! It I could give it 6 stars, I would!! Fabulous!!