The Mirror by Nora Roberts – a Review

The Mirror by Nora Roberts – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:
When Sonya MacTavish inherits the huge Victorian mansion on the coast of Maine, she has no idea that the house is haunted. The footsteps she hears at night, the doors slamming, the music playing, are not figments of her imagination. In her dreams she sees glimpses of the past. In the present she finds portraits of brides. And when she has visions of an antique mirror, she is drawn to it, sensing it holds dark family secrets.

Then one night the mirror appears and Sonya glides through this looking glass, into the past—and sees a bride murdered on her wedding day, the circle of gold torn from her finger. It is a scene that will play out again and again—a centuries-old curse that must be broken—and a puzzle she must solve if there is any hope of breaking the curse.

 

 

Review:

The Mirror by Nora Roberts is the 2nd book in her The Lost Bride Trilogy. The Mirror picks up immediately after the ending of the first book, Inheritance. Sonya MacTavish, our heroine, begins to settle into her daily life with her best friend Cleo; as they both adjust to the ghosts of brides, as well as the evil murderer Hester Dobb, who murdered all 7 brides.

Trey and Sonya are even more romantic now, as their relationship become more serious.   Cleo and Owen also became a couple; especially with all four of them constantly together. The Lost Bride Manor includes many deaths, with all the brides killed on their wedding day, centuries ago.  Now in present time, Sonya is determined to find a way stop Dobbs, and find all the missing rings from each bride, to force the end of the curse.  Other than Dobbs, the other ghosts are always helpful with both Sonya and Cleo; one sings songs, someone else makes the beds, cleans the kitchen, and even a young boy ghost, loves to play with Sonya’s dog.  Dobbs was always causing temper tantrums, with slamming doors, loud noises, her evil laughter and flying objects.

Sonya will learn more about the history of each bride, especially when she gets to enter into the mirror, finding herself decades in the past, witnessing live the happy days of each bride, before it ends in tragedy at the murderous hands of Dobbs.  Sonya also got to see Dobbs ripping off each of the wedding rings from each of the brides.

Sonya and Cleo were both strong and independent women; I loved their friendship, as they were always, they’re for each other.  I also loved both Trey and Owen, as they made wonderful couples, with the men both sweet and supportive. I adored the dogs that played a major part of the story, with Yoda, Mookie, Jones and Pye, Cleo’s kitten who became part of the group.   

The Mirror was another fantastic addition to this trilogy, with suspense, paranormal, romance, ghosts, supernatural, and an evil murderer. The Mirror was so very well written by Nora Roberts.  I loved the book, and cannot wait for the final book in the Lost Bride series.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

Share

Mainely Mayhem (Goff Langdon Mainely Mystery 6) by Matt Cost

Mainely Mayhem (Goff Langdon Mainely Mystery 6) by Matt Cost-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 13, 2024

Things are not right in Brunswick. Chabal is wracked by the nightmare that was the Wendigo. Langdon is hired to investigate the questionable moral integrity of one of Brunswick’s favorite sons and gets thunked in the head and left to die on a boat mooring in the Atlantic Ocean. And that is just the beginning of the bad.

Judge Cornelius Remington is being fast-tracked to be a Supreme Court Justice. Why?

After only a five-day investigation of Remington, Langdon is pulled from the case, suggesting that the judge had already been rubberstamped and that the White House staff and FBI were just going through the motions. But there are questions about the man’s past that Langdon can’t shake, a past that might still live in the present.

Welcome to Maine: The Way Life Should Be. Or so the billboard reads upon entering the state. But that was before MAYHEM seeped in and tainted the idyllic nature of the place. A corruption that was born in Brunswick has seeped throughout the state and is threatening the entire nation.

It is up to Langdon to find and stop MAYHEM before it is too late. And the clock is ticking.

••••

REVIEW:MAINELY MAYHEM is the sixth instalment in Matt Cost’s contemporary, adult GOFF LANGDON MAINELY MYSTERY suspense series focusing on fifty something part time PI / book store owner Goff Langdon, and his motley crew of friends and family. MAINELY MAYHEM can be read as a stand alone but some of the events of Mainely Mayhem are connected to the events of book five Mainely Wicked. MAINELY MAYHEM advances the series a little over one year.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be trigger for more sensitive readers.

Told from third person perspectives MAINELY MAYHEM follows several paths in the wake of the potential nomination of a local judge for the SCOTUS. Goff Langdon has been hired by the FBI to investigate Judge Cornelius Remington but five days into his search, the investigation is closed without resolution, and Goff begins to consider the reasons why. All of Goff’s information leads to a troubling past for the supreme court nominee, and when anyone connected to the judge disappears or is found dead, all is not as is appears to be when Goff becomes a target because of a job he was hired to do. No one in Washington appears to care about the past, a past that is taking aim at Goff Langdon.

Meanwhile, Goff’s wife Chabal is struggling in the aftermath of her abduction and assault by a Satanic cult, who used Chabal as their unwilling sacrifice. With issues of PTSD, and emotional trauma, Chabal is spiraling even with the help of her family and friends.

MAINELY MAYHEM is another detailed and intriguing story of suspense, secrets and lies. Once again, the premise is edgy, dark, and startling; the characters are eclectic, larger than life and determined. MAINELY MAYHEM is another thought-provoking tale that makes you reconsider what secrets lie behind the people at the top.

 

Reading Order and previous reviews
Mainely Power
Mainely Fear
Mainely Money
Mainely Angst
Mainely Wicked

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

 

Follow: Goodreads / Website / Twitter / Facebook/

Over the years, Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.

Share

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch – a Review

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:
In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.

Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with the only little girl he ever loved, Penny, who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years.

Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her are the memories of her precious, rebellious pony.

Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.

This acutely observant feel-good mystery reveals the humanity of animals and beastliness of humans in a rollicking escapade of epic proportions.

 

 

Review:

Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch is a unique standalone novel about a Pony and his former owner, Penny.  Years have passed, and Penny has never forgotten her childhood memories of her love for her Pony, when she was 12 years old: she is now 37 years old.   The story opens when Penny opens the door, and the police are arresting her for a murder, that she may have committed when she was 12 years old.  She is whisked back to Ithaca, NY, where she grew up. 

Pony has constantly been passed over from many different owners, and now he is fed up, determined to find the only girl he ever loved; Penny.   Pony busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to find her. Pony can talk to all animals, and gets help from them, but the mission that he embarks on is a long-drawn-out journey.  It was fun with Pony being one of the narrators, and listening to him talk to the other animals; dog, birds, rat, sparrow, goat, butterflies and other species, who will eventually lead him to where he can find Penny.  Each animal has a distinct personality; including other horses who give Pony advice. Pony will also learn along the way, that Penny is in danger, and he needs to save her.   

Penny works with a law student, as her actual attorney only appears in the courtroom. Slowly, Penny’s memories begin to remember that day 25 years ago, when someone else committed the murder.  Pony also remembers when another horse played a prank on Penny and the boy she was riding with, leaving both stranded in the woods.  Of course, Pony feels guilt, as he is determined to rescue Penny; since she was attacked, and someone was killed; but Penny was not the murderer.  The family moved away, and Penny never was able to say good-bye to her wonderful Pony.

Penny’s daughter pays a big part closer to the end, as she finds Pony, and together they will help Penny discover the two villains who were the true murderers. I really loved Pony, and his friends who helped him to find Penny, and the real culprits. This was a wonderful ending.   Pony Confidential was an interesting and different kind of story, which was so very well written by Christine Lynch.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

 

 

Share

Secrets in the Water by Alice Fitzpatrick-review

Secrets in the Water (Meredith Island Mystery 1) by Alice Fitzpatrick-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 1, 2024

Emma Galway’s suicide has haunted the Meredith Island for fifty years. Back on the island to lay her grandmother to rest, Kate can’t avoid reflecting on the death of her aunt. Learning that her late mother had believed Emma was murdered and had conducted her own investigation, she decides to track down her aunt’s killer. With the help of her neighbour, impetuous and hedonistic sculptor Siobhan Fitzgerald, Kate picks up where her mother had left off. When the two women become the subject of threatening notes and violent incidents, it’s clear that one of their fellow islanders is warning them off. As they begin to look into Emma’s connection to the Sutherlands, a prominent Meredith Island family, another islander dies under suspicious circumstances, forcing Kate and Siobhan to confront the likelihood that Emma’s killer is still on the island.

•••

REVIEW:SECRETS IN THE WATER by Alice Fitzpatrick is a contemporary, murder-mystery story line focusing on a fifty year old murder on Meredith Island.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including fifty-three year old Kate  Galway, SECRETS IN THE WATER follows Kate  in the wake of her grandmother’ Lilian’s death and funeral on the Welsh Island of Meredith. Still struggling with the secrets behind the presumed suicide of her Aunt Emma more than fifty years earlier, author Kate Galway begins an investigation of her own only to discover the secrets buried with her aunt refuse to go quietly. Having always believed Emma’s death was a murder, the family kept track of the people on Meredith Island, and Kate, with the help of neighbor Siobhan Fitzgerald were about to upset a hornet’s nest of secrets and lies.

SECRETS IN THE WATERS is a story of power and control, betrayal and vengeance, secrets and lies, jealousy and murder, seduction and love. The three Sutherland spinsters, along with their artist brother David have long held court over the people and residents of Meredith Island, and in this, Kate begins to unravel a family history that hits too close to home. But as murder seems to follow in the wake of Kate’s investigation, her own daughter becomes victim to a someone desperate enough to keep the past in the past. Everyone becomes suspect as Kate digs deeper into the lives of the people on Meredith Island

An intriguing and entertaining story, SECRETS IN THE WATER is a dark, dramatic, edgy and thought provoking story of jealousy and murder.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

A Requiem for the Dead (Benoit & Dayne4) by Winter Austin-review

A Requiem for the Dead (Benoit & Dayne Mystery 4) by Winter Austin-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Apple / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 2, 2024

The dead can no longer keep their secrets …

On a cold February morning, ME Olivia Remington-Thorpe’s severely beaten and bleeding husband stumbles onto Sheriff Elizabeth Benoit’s retreat. Before slipping into unconsciousness, he begs her to find Olivia. Hours later, Deputy Detective Lila Dayne discovers a mysterious boneyard with dark secrets.

The timing is catastrophic. Still reeling from the horrific events of the past autumn, the deputies of Eckardt County are spread thin, and tempers are short. Elizabeth’s relationship with her lead investigator is sour. Still worse, her ex-husband moved back to Iowa with a devilish deal.

As Elizabeth and Lila race the odds to uncover the truth of the skeletal remains and find their missing friend alive, Olivia seeks a way to escape from an abductor who is proving that she didn’t know her husband as well as she thought.

More bodies turn up, mysterious visitors arrive in Juniper, and one mistake from the Eckardt County Sheriff’s team will spell their own deaths in their most dangerous murder investigation to date.

••••

REVIEW:A REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD is the fourth instalment in Winter Austin’s contemporary, adult BENOIT AND DANE MYSTERY DAYNE murder, suspense thriller series focusing on small-town Sheriff Elizabeth “Ellie’ Benoit, and former Chicago police officer turned deputy Lila Dayne. A REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading the series in order for back story and cohesion as there is an ongoing premise throughout.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including Lila and Ellie, A REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD follows numerous intersecting pathways that will coalesce into a murder investigaton. Medical examiner Dr. Olivia Remington-Thorpe has gone missing; her husband and surgeon Dr. Dominic Thorpe is found critically injured; and Sheriff Elizabeth Benoit is reluctantly recovering in a secluded cabin, guarded by her former husband Joel, and his brother Rafe. A jeep crashes nearby, the victim is someone they all know, and Ellie is about to return to work whether she is ready or not. When Deputy Lila Dayne comes across a makeshift graveyard, a field of bones scattered amongst the debris and detritus , everyone must come to terms with a possible serial killer or something more sinister when several more sites are found scattered throughout the neighboring states. As Ellie and Lila work from different points of the investigation, a warning comes to back down and walk away.

The world building is detailed and complex following several paths that weave and wind, back and forth . From the outset the two investigations couldn’t be more different but the secrets and lies reveal a connection no one saw coming.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and charismatic secondary and supporting characters including Ellie’s former husband Delta Force Operator Joel Fontaine, and her new lover, Joel’s brother and Ellie’s Undersheriff Raphael ‘Rafe’ Fontaine; Ellie’s embattled sister Marnie: Deputy Kyle Lundquist; former sheriff Kelley Sheehan; fixer Horatio Johnson; and deputies Cory Young and Brent Meyer. The requisite evil has many faces.

A REQIUEM FOR THE DEAD is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, betrayal and vengeance, murder and madness, family and forgiveness. The premise is intriguing, dramatic, raw and twisted; the characters are determined, edgy and tragic.

 

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Killer in Me
Hush, My Darling
Straight for the Kill

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

FOLLOW: GOODREADS / Website / Pinterest / Facebook / Instagram / Tule Author page

A lifelong Mid-West gal, Winter rediscovered her love of her beloved Iowa with its hot summers and snowy winters. She grew up listening to the captivating stories told by relatives around the table or a campfire. Since becoming a published author, she learned a mindset of a glass half-empty personality makes for a perfect suspense/thriller author. Taking her ability to verbally spin a vivid and detailed story, Winter translated that into writing deadly romantic thrillers. Combining her love of all things rural, agricultural, and military, she’s turned her small town life upside down.

Share

A Grim Reapers Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara-Review

A Grim Reapers Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara-Review


Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:
Sometimes it takes working with the dead to start living.

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex’s baby. She’s also a modern-day grim reaper employed by S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), but frankly that’s the easiest part of her life right now. Or at least it was, until her latest client’s soul goes missing.

When she finally tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he angrily denies he died of natural causes, despite what his file says. He insists that someone at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him, and he demands Kathy find out who and why.

Kathy has only forty-five days to figure out what happened to Conner and help him move on before the boy’s soul is doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever. She’s forced to rely on the help of her retired mentor, her almost ex-husband—and some sneaky moves by Conner himself. This is the wildest case of her career. . .and one wrong move could cost Kathy her job, not to mention her life.

 

 

Review:

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxi Dara is an exciting paranormal story.  We meet Kathy Valence, who is 42years old, and in the midst of a divorce, even though her husband, Simon is thrilled that she is pregnant.  She is a modern-day grim reaper, who works for SCYTHE (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences (souls)). Her job is to collect a newly deceased person’s soul for processing to the afterlife; she is very successful at her job.

Kathy is assigned to case number 507032, who is known as Conner Ortiz, who was killed.  Conner is 17 years old, and Kathy cannot find him.  When she eventually discovers him, he tells her that he was murdered by someone wearing a SCYTHE badge. Connor at first was hostile, but in time, he was willing to work closely with Kathy, and find out who murdered him. Kathy’s mentor Jo, as well as her ex-Simon will also help her find out what is going on in the SCYTHE offices. Time is of essence, as Connor has a 45 day window, where if he doesn’t make it, his soul would be doomed to roam the Earth as a ghost forever.

I really liked Kathy, as well as Simon, who was very much still in love with Kathy, especially now that she was pregnant.  Her mentor Jo, was also lots of fun.  Kathy and Connor did become close, as she was determined to find a way to save him. They are racing against the clock, with Kathy, Jo, Simon and Connor investigate those who may be from the SCYTHE people; as she uncovers clues that could reveal what is happening.  I do not want to give any more information, as it could ruin the story for you. 

What follows is an exciting tense climax, with a few twists and turns along the way.  A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer was a fun story, with some humor, mystery, suspense and a bit of romance.  A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer was very well written by Maxi Dara.  As noted, this was a fun enjoyable story line, which I suggest you read.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

                                  438 Melrose Court

I tapped the address in my file with the lid of the pen I’d been chewing on. Beside the front door of the sandy beige new build, swirly metal numerals confirmed my location. Four three eight. Weird. Definitely the right number, but this was all wrong. I turned from the house and glanced down the manicured lawn to the street sign across the road. It promised in no uncertain terms that this was Melrose Court, just as it was supposed to be. I shut my file with a defeated sigh and went back in through the open door a second time.

“Hello?” I called yet again as I stomped through the kitchen. It was a kitchen that belonged on a show about kitchens more than in somebody’s house: clean and white and open-concept, leading out into the high-ceilinged living room beyond. The “after” on a home renovation show. Not even a spoon in the sink or a crumb on the countertops. Which made the body sprawled across the tiled floor look even more out of place.

Now, slap a corpse on the floor of my dingy apartment kitchen and you wouldn’t bat an eye, at least in my line of work. But in a place like this, a dead body really spoils the ambience.

I rounded the island and reopened my file.

Case # 507032

Conner Mateo Ortiz

Age: 17

Cause of death: Seizure

Time to Collect: 4:30 p.m.

“Conner?” My voice ricocheted off the stainless steel and marble surrounding me. I crouched by the body and attempted to hover in a squat, but my left knee protested my weight with a defiant pop, and I wobbled forward. “Nope, nope, nope,” I muttered to myself, “no falling on bodies today. Not after last time.” I lowered myself to my steadily widening bum by 507032’s head. His rich brown locks fell over one closed eye, a spattering of freckles on his nose. I sighed, one hand at my stomach. Poor kid. He looked younger than his age lying there, long lashes pressed above bronze cheeks still full with the last remnants of baby fat. I’d found his basement bedroom not ten minutes earlier; a gallery of posters and mess and potential. It always felt wrong when they were young. Like their bodies should still have some life left in them. But of course, they didn’t. That’s why I was there.

Still, he was going to make me late, and the last man to make me late was the very reason I needed to get back to the office and then on my way home on time.

“Conner?” I tried again. Nothing. The house shuddered at my voice and fell still.

My phone vibrated in my back trouser pocket and I nearly puked, though I wasn’t entirely sure the two were related. I scrambled for the phone and hauled myself to my feet.

Simon. He got the table for six thirty instead of seven. Of course he did. Shit. If we weren’t already in the middle of a divorce, I’d consider filing over this.

This wasn’t the way it normally worked-the way it always worked. Death, for all its unpredictability and unknowns, was remarkably routine on my end. It was one of the things I loved most about my job. Someone under my department’s jurisdiction dies, I get the paperwork, carry out the collection, write up a report for Stu, and am on the couch watching Family Feud with a bowl of canned tomato soup by five thirty. That’s how it was, how it always had been for the six years I’d been a Collections Agent with S.C.Y.T.H.E. But somehow today was different. Case 507032 was different.

I glanced back over the boy. My client files were always pared down to need-to-know information, and in my position, there isn’t much I need to know. But it seemed clear enough from the body-long-limbed and dressed in faded jeans and a gray hoodie-that aside from his family’s apparent wealth, 507032 was your average, unremarkable teenaged boy. So the question was, why wasn’t he here?

I did a second tour through the house, Conner Ortiz’s name bouncing back to me in my own voice from the high ceilings of every starkly furnished room. By the time I’d circled back into the kitchen, it was after five.

“Conner,” I said into the definitively empty house, “I’m sorry.”

I closed my file for the last time and left 438 Melrose Court.

Excerpted from A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer by Maxie Dara Copyright © 2024 by Maxie Dara. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

 

Share

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel – a Review

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel – a Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:
Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner, and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with fifty crows.

To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in sixteen years, not after what happened.

But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it.

After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.

 

 

Review:

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel is an exciting, intense suspense novel. We meet Alfred Smettle, who is the founder, and owner of The Hitchcock Hotel; a Victorian house in the White Mountains, which is also close to the college that he and his friends went to. Alfred is fanatic on anything by Alfred Hitchcock, making the hotel a masterpiece dedicated to his favorite director; with pictures, paraphernalia and special themed rooms. 16 years have passed since his college days, and Alfred decides to have a reunion at his hotel. He sends an invitation to 5 of his friends, who are now adults.

Zoe, who is a successful chef, has a problem with being sober.  She also dislikes Alfred, suspecting he did something bad in the past. TJ, works as a bodyguard, having added muscle over the years, he secretly is involved with one of the females.  Julius was always nasty to Alfred during their school days. Samira, is happily married with children, and runs a sex toy business.  Grace is happily married with a wealthy husband, as she also holds secrets from the past. Then there is Danny, an elderly assistant to Alfred, who helps him execute his plans, as well as spy on the visitors; but she too has her own secrets.

At first, I thought the first half was a bit slow, but that did change in the second half, which turned into and exciting thriller, with some twists and surprises.  On another note, I frankly did not like any of the characters, as each had their own issues, and not really likeable; but I guess we were not supposed to like them. Lol   At the college, they all spent a lot of time partying, drinking and not really dependable; as there were POV’s for each of the friends, learning more about their days at the college.

What follows, especially in the second half of the book, are a number of red herrings, with twists and turns, as all of them had their own bad secrets.  Alfred intended to give his old friends a taste of the past. The big surprise happens in the middle of the book, taking everyone by surprise. But the end was a shock, even though I sort of suspected who the culprit was.  The Hitchcock Hotel was entertaining and intense, with by the end of the night, one doesn’t survive and the other is the murderer.

 

 

Share

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by CM Waggoner-Review

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by CM Waggoner-Review

 

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / Google Play / Apple / BAM / Bookbub

 

Description:

A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.

Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she’s concerned by just how many killers she’s had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count…but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town’s new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the “Demon-Hunting Society,” Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.

Never mess with a librarian.

 

 

Review:

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by CM Waggoner is a standalone paranormal mystery. We meet our heroine, Sherry Pinkwhistle, who is a 63years old librarian; she also solves murders in their small town.  Sherry is concerned, as the body count is rising; with her becoming convinced that there is something unnatural going on. Especially when her boyfriend is found dead, and her cat seems to be possessed, talking back to her.  Is there a demon in disguise?

Sherry is an unofficial consultant to the local Sheriff, as she is always investigating and solving the murders.   She is smart and self-sufficient and always creative in working with the sheriff, and the towns people all know that Sherry will find the culprits. She also realizes that a real demon is revealed, and Sherry will have to find a way to defeat the demon once and for all.

There were a number of great characters; including Sherry, the detective, the new priest, her two female friends (grieving widow and BFF). Of course, the cat, Lord Thomas, who became possessed, and talked.  There were a mix of other famous books that gave some humor, such as Jessica Fletcher, Buffy, and Hercule Poirot. As we reach closer to the end, Sherry will call a meeting with her friends, and a number of possible suspects.  She gives her thoughts on each person who is a suspect, and reveals who the murder was.  This was a surprising and amazing revelations.

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society was a fun, bizarre, spooky, clever and entertaining story that kept me unable to put the book down.  Sherry was a fabulous character that turned into a wonderful detective. The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society was very well written by CM Waggoner.  If you enjoy mystery, librarian sleuth, and an enjoyable story, you should read this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

 

Share