All Those Who Came Before is the sixth book in the Spookie Town Murder Mystery series by Kathryn Meyer Griffith. I don’t know how she keeps coming up with such amazing, fresh stories for the series, but she has been doing a smash up job.
Green skies…do you know what they mean? A storm is coming…
A short cut home…
An abandoned house…calling to her. Town folks thought it was haunted because of the family that was murdered there. In Spookie town, I have no doubt of it. BUT, Kathryn Meyer Griffith gives me more than I expect when I crack open one of her books and that makes me happy.
Along with getting updates on what’s been shaking in Spookie Town and the characters that live there, we have a couple of mysteries going on and lots of danger. We have soooo many people to worry about and I am very worried. I have grown to love and care for them and wish them only the best….but…well, you know, we gotta have action. I won’t say who I am most worried about, but I will recommend not putting things off when something doesn’t feel right.
I have a good idea of what the mystery is, but boy oh boy, Kathryn Meyer Griffith pulls out all the stops and gives me those twists, turns and book surprises that I look for to make a book stand out.
A past mystery will be solved, an injustice righted and a wedding celebration is in order.
There seemed to be some repetition, but the story kept flowing and my interest never waned. Good times, bad times, Kathryn Meyer Griffith left me with a smile on my face, hoping for more mysteries and laughter with these fun and quirky characters.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of What Lies Beneath by Kathryn Meyer Griffith.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
This sixth Spookie Town Murder Mystery belongs primarily to Abigail and Frank Lester, my two main characters in the six book series. It’s their turn. First off, it at long last solves the enigma of Abigail’s first husband Joel Sutton’s disappearance, and death, a decade before…the tragic event that sent Abigail to Spookie in the first place to begin a new life. The new life that would grow so big as to include a new love, a new family, quirky, but well-meaning friends, and the strange murder mysteries her new friends would drag her into over the years. As an unsolicited, and unwanted, envelope arrives from Abigail’s now dead detective she’d hired a decade before to find her missing first husband, its contents sends Frank searching for the truth. The envelope’s files are full of disturbing facts concerning the unsolved crime and it piques Frank’s interest. Soon, against Abby’s wishes, he’s on the cold trail of what actually happened to Joel Sutton–had he been a victim of just an accident, as some have always believed, or did someone murder him? In his search for the truth, Frank ends up in lethal danger when the investigation comes to a violent conclusion. This story is also about an infamous haunted house at 707 Suncrest, in the woods; about the cold blooded murders of a whole family that occurred there forty years before. Is the house on Suncrest truly haunted by the ghosts of the dead family? Is it dangerous? When Abby decides to paint a series of canvases of the spooky old house, she’ll find out. Then along with those two new mysteries to unravel, of course, all of Spookie’s quirky town characters have returned to irritate, amuse and sleuth with Abby and Frank. Will they get out of these new mysteries alive, too? Perhaps.
ABOUT KATHRYN MEYER GRIFFITH
Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been a writer
for over forty-nine years now and has had twenty-nine novels and thirteen short
stories published since 1984. She began her writing career as a paperback
horror author in 1984 with Leisure and Zebra Publishing, but has since moved on
to write paranormal horror, romantic historical time-travel, suspense, romance,
thrillers, and murder mysteries. Her horror novel The Last Vampire, and her
thriller Dinosaur Lake (now a best-selling five book series), were both Epic
eBook Awards Finalists in 2012 and 2014. Kathryn Meyer Griffith rdgriff@htc.net
NOVELS: Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart
of the Rose, Blood Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 Epic
eBook Awards Finalists in their Horror category), Witches, Witches II:
Apocalypse, Witches plus Witches II: Apocalypse, The Nameless One erotic
horror short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (1st Spookie Town
Murder Mystery), All Things Slip Away (2nd Spookie Town Murder Mystery),
Ghosts Beneath Us (3rd Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Witches Among Us
(4th Spookie Town Murder Mystery), What Lies Beneath the Graves (5th
Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Those Who Came Before (6th Spookie
Town Murder Mystery); soon, a 7th, When the Fireflies
Retuned, out in December 2020, Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice
Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, A Time of Demons and Angels, The Woman
in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories Collection,
Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story,
Dinosaur Lake (2014 Epic eBook Awards Finalists in their
Thriller/Adventure category), Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising,
Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation and Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars,
Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors, Memories of My Childhood, and a biographical
short story Christmas Magic 1959.
I have been reading the Selkie Moon Series by Virginia King for a while now and loving it. Planting Pearls is taking us back to the beginning of Selkie’s journey. If you would like to meet her, pick up Planting Pearls for FREE.
I have read the first four books in the Selkie Moon Series, and Virginia King is taking us back to the beginning of Selkie Moon’s journey in Planting Pearls. If you are up for a ghostly mystery, this may be a book for you.
Sneaking away while her ex is out of town, Selkie Moon hops a plane and lands in Hawaii.
Through a series of coincidences, Selkie ends up at The Pearl and finds herself a roommate in Wanda, a friend in Derek, and a ghostly mystery to solve.
As she sits feeling a bit sorry for herself, she realizes after 20 years under Andrew’s thumb, things are falling into place with her. He is a nasty piece of work and dogs her every step, doing his best to ruin her life and drive her back into his arms.
I have grown to love the characters that Virginia King has created and by going back to the beginning and learning how they all came together, whether through Fate, Karma, or luck, I have only grown to care for them more.
In Planting Pearls, I have met Sage, a sweet, sophisticated, young girl who is very mature for her age…and I love her. She is not a character that continues in the series, but she sure stands out in Planting Pearls.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Planting Pearls by Virginia King.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
When Selkie Moon escapes her controlling husband to start a new life in Hawaii, she’s under pressure to support herself with her new business, stay hidden from her ex, and trust her new friends.
She doesn’t expect to get tangled in a so-called haunting!
What happened at the old Honolulu house back in 1961, when Elvis was shooting Blue Hawaii?
Do the weird experiences of the new owners and their five-year-old daughter mean they’ve interrupted a ghost?
Or could something else be going on?
As she helps to unravel the mystery, Selkie gets caught up in something that’s way beyond her skill-set. Will her amateur ghost-hunting put her and everyone else in danger?
ABOUT VIRGINIA KING
When a voice wakes you up in the middle of the night and tells you
to write a mystery series, what’s a writer to do? That’s how I came to
create Selkie Moon, after a massage from a strange woman with gifted
hands was followed by this nocturnal message. I sat down at the
keyboard until Selkie Moon turned up — a modern woman with a mythical
name. Soon I was hooked, exploring far-flung places full of secrets
where Selkie delves into psychological clues tangled up in the local
mythology.
Before Selkie Moon invaded my life, I’d been a
teacher, an unemployed ex-teacher, the author of over 50 children’s
books, an audio-book producer, a workshop presenter and a prize-winning
publisher. These days I live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney
with my husband, where I disappear each day into Selkie Moon’s latest
mystery. Bliss.
Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea.
Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack.
That same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results
in international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an
attempted terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the
three incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra
Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s
security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered
and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.
In Israel, meanwhile, legendary anti-terrorist fighter Lia Ganz
launches her own crusade against the perpetrators of that attack which
nearly claimed the lives of her and granddaughter. Ganz’s trail will
ultimately take her to Washington where she joins forces with Brixton to
uncover an impossible link between the deadly attack on Caesarea and
the attempted Metro bombing, as well as the death of the vice president.
The connection lies in the highest corridors of power in Washington
where a deadly plot with unimaginable consequences has been hatched.
With the clock ticking toward doomsday, Brixton and Ganz race against
time to save millions of American lives who will otherwise become
collateral damage to a conspiracy destined to change the United States
forever.
Praise :
“Jon Land is one of the best thriller writers in the business, and
the Capital Crimes series is in superb and skilled hands with him.
Nobody does pacing better than Land, and MURDER ON THE METRO starts with a bang and keeps on going at breakneck speed. If you haven’t read this excellent series, start with Land’s MURDER ON THE METRO.” —Lisa Scottoline, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Book Details:
Genre: Thriller Published by: Forge Books Publication Date: February 16th 2021 Number of Pages: 288 ISBN: 1250238870 (ISBN13: 9781250238870) Series: A Capital Crimes Novel, #32 Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Tour Info:
Book Formats: Print, Netgalley Hosting Options: Review, Interview, Guest Post, Showcase Giveaway: There will be a PICT Giveaway More: According to the author Murder on the Metro does not
include: Excessive Strong Language, Graphic Violence, Explicit Sexual
Scenes, Rape, or other trigger situations. It does contain what some may
consider to be: Steamy Clean (mild language, mild sexual tension and
innuendo, no sex scenes) content. PICT staff have not read this book,
however and cannot give additional information.
Read an excerpt:
CHAPTER 1
Washington, DC; the next morning
Not again . . .
That was Robert Brixton’s first thought when his gaze locked on the
woman seated across from him in the Washington Metro car. He was riding
into the city amid the clutter of morning commuters from the apartment
in Arlington, Virginia where he now lived alone, his girlfriend Flo
Combes having returned to New York.
Former girlfriend, Brixton corrected in his mind. And Flo’s return to
New York, where she’d opened her first clothing boutique, looked very
much like it was for good this time.
Which brought his attention back to the woman wearing a hijab and
bearing a strong resemblance to another Muslim woman who’d been haunting
his sleep for five years now, since she’d detonated a suicide bomb
inside a crowded DC restaurant, killing Brixton’s daughter Janet and
eleven other victims that day. He’d seen it coming, felt it anyway, as
if someone had dragged the head of a pin up his spine. He hadn’t been a
cop for years at that point, having taken his skills into the private
sector, but his instincts remained unchanged, always serving him well
and almost always being proven right.
But today he wanted to be wrong, wanted badly to be wrong. Because if
his instincts were correct, tragedy was about to repeat itself with him
bearing witness yet again, relocated from a bustling café to a crowded
Metro car.
The woman wearing the hijab turned enough to meet his gaze, Brixton
unable to jerk his eyes away in time and forcing the kind of smile
strangers cast each other. The woman didn’t return it, just turned her
focus back forward, her expression empty as if bled of emotion. In
Brixton’s experience, she resembled a criminal who found strange solace
in the notion of being caught after tiring of the chase. That was the
suspicious side of his nature. If not for a long career covering various
aspects of law enforcement, including a private investigator with
strong international ties, Brixton would likely have seen her as the
other passengers in the Metro car did: A quiet woman with big soft eyes
just hoping to blend in with the scenery and not attract any attention
to herself.
Without reading material of any kind, a cell phone in her grasp, or
ear buds dangling. Brixton gazed about; as far as he could tell, she was
the only passenger in sight, besides him, not otherwise occupied to
pass the time. So in striving not to stand out, the young woman had
achieved the opposite.
He studied her closer, determining that the woman didn’t look tired,
so much as content. And, beneath her blank features, Brixton sensed
something taut and resigned, a spring slowly uncoiling. Something,
though, had changed in her expression since the moment their eyes had
met. She was fidgeting in her seat now, seeking comfort that clearly
eluded her.
Just as another suicide bomber had five years ago
If he didn’t know better, he would’ve fully believed he was back in
that DC restaurant again, granted a second chance to save his daughter
after he’d failed so horribly the first time.
***
Five years ago
What world are you in? Janet had asked a clearly distracted Brixton, then consumed by the nagging feeling dragged up his spine.
Let’s go.
Daddy, I haven’t finished!
Janet always called him “Daddy.” Much had been lost to memory from
that day, forcibly put aside, but not that or the moments that followed.
It had been the last time she’d ever called him that and Brixton had
fought to preserve the recording that existed only in his mind
resolvedly ever since. Whenever it faded, he fought to get it back,
treating Janet’s final address of him like a voicemail machine message
from a lost loved one forever saved on his phone.
Come on.
Is something wrong?
We’re leaving.
Brixton had headed to the door, believing his daughter was right
behind him. He realized she wasn’t only when he was through it, turning
back toward the table to see Janet facing the Muslim woman wearing the
hijab who was chanting in Arabic.
Janet!
He’d started to storm back inside to get her when the explosion
shattered the placid stillness of the day, an ear-splitting blast that
hit him like a Category Five wind gust to the chest and sent him
sprawling to the sidewalk. His head ping-ponged off the concrete,
threatening his grip on consciousness. Parts of a splintered table came
flying in his direction and he threw his arms over his face to shield it
from wooden shards and other debris that caked the air, cataloguing
them as they soared over him in absurd counterpoint. Plates, glasses,
skin, limbs, eyeglasses, knives, forks, beer mugs, chair legs and arms,
calamari, boneless ribs, pizza slices, a toy gorilla that had been held
by a child a table two removed from where he’d been sitting with Janet,
and empty carafes of wine with their contents seeming to trail behind
them like vapor trails.
The surreal nature of that moment made Brixton think he might be
sleeping, all this no more than the product of an airy dream to be lost
to memory by the time woke. He remembered lying on the sidewalk, willing
himself to wake up, to rouse from this nightmare-fueled stupor. The
worst moment of his life followed the realization that he wasn’t asleep
and an imponderable wave of grief washed over him, stealing his next
breath and making him wonder if he even wanted to bother trying for
another.
Brixton had stumbled to his feet before what moments earlier had been
a bustling café filled with happy people. Now, bodies were everywhere,
some piled on top of others, blood covering everything and everyone. He
touched the side of his face and pulled bloody fingers away from the
wound. He looked back into the café in search of his daughter but saw
only a tangle of limbs and clothing where they’d been sitting.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered, his senses sharpening. “Janet!”
Washington’s Twenty-third Street had been crammed with pedestrians at
the time of the blast, joined now by people pouring out of office
buildings and other restaurants nearby, within eye or earshot of the
dual blasts. Brixton’s attempts to get closer to the carnage, holding
out hope Janet might still be alive, were thwarted at every turn by
throngs fleeing in panic in an endless wave.
“My daughter! My daughter!” he kept crying out, as if that might make the crowd yield and the chaos recede.
***
It wasn’t until Brixton reached the hospital that he learned Janet
hadn’t made it out, had been declared one of the missing. Having served
as an agent for a private security agency out-sourced to the State
Department at the time, he knew all too well that missing meant dead. He
had another daughter, Janet’s older sister, who’d given him a beautiful
grandson he loved dearly, but that was hardly enough to make up for the
loss of Janet. And the guilt over not having dragged her out with him
when she’d resisted leaving had haunted him to this very moment, when
instinct told him many on this crowded subway car might well be about to
join her.
Thanks to another woman wearing a hijab, but it wasn’t just that.
Brixton had crossed paths with an untold number of Arab women in the
five years since Janet’s death, and not one before today had ever
elicited in him the feeling he had now. She might’ve been a twin of the
bomber who’d taken his daughter from him, about whom Brixton could
recall only one thing:
Her eyes.
This woman had the very same shifting look, trying so hard to appear
casual that it seemed she was wearing a costume, sticking out to him as
much as a kid on Halloween. Brixton spun his gaze back in her direction,
prepared to measure off the distance between them and how he might
cover it before she could trigger her explosives.
But the young woman was gone.
Brixton looked down the center aisle cluttered with commuters
clutching poles or dangling hand-hold straps. He spotted the young woman
in the hijab an instant before she cocked her gaze briefly back in his
direction, a spark of clear recognition flashing when their eyes met
this time.
She knows I made her, Brixton thought, heavy with fear as he climbed to his feet.
He started after her, heart hammering in his chest, the sensation he
was feeling in that dreadful moment all too familiar. He couldn’t help
but catalogue the people he passed in the woman’s wake, many of whom
were either his late daughter’s age or younger. Smiling, gabbing away on
their phones, reading a book, or lost between their earbuds without any
knowledge of how horribly their lives might very well be about to
change. If he needed any further motivation to keep moving and stop the
potential suicide bomber though any means necessary, that was it. Doubt
vanished, Brixton trusting his instincts in a way he hadn’t that tragic
day five years ago when he was still a de facto agent for the US
government.
Janet . . .
In Brixton’s mind, this was no longer a Metro car, but the same
restaurant where a suicide bomber had taken a dozen lives and wounded
dozens more. And he found himself faced with the chance to do today what
he hadn’t done five years ago.
Stop!
Had Brixton barked that command out loud, or merely formed the
thought in his head. Other passengers were staring at him now, his surge
up the aisle disturbing the meager comfort of their morning routine.
Ahead of him, the woman wearing the hijab had picked up her pace,
Brixton spotting her dip a hand beneath a jacket that seemed much too
heavy for the unseasonably mild Washington, DC spring. His experience
with the State Department working for the shadowy SITQUAL group, along
with that as a cop, told him she was likely reaching for the pull cord
that would detonate the suicide vest concealed under bulky sweatshirt
and jacket.
If you could relive the day of your daughter’s death, what would you do?
I’d shoot the bitch before she had the chance to yank that cord,
Brixton thought, drawing his Sig Sauer P-226 nine-millimeter pistol. It
had survived his tenure with SITQUAL as his weapon of choice, well
balanced and deadly accurate.
He could feel the crowd around him recoiling, pulling back, when they
saw the pistol steadied in his hand. Several gasped. A woman cried out.
A kid dropped his cell phone into Brixton’s path and he accidentally
kicked it aside.
“Stop!”
Shouted out loud for sure this time, the dim echo bouncing off the
Metro car’s walls as it wound in thunderous fashion through the tube.
The young woman in the hijab was almost to the rear door separating this
car from the next. Brixton was close enough to hear the whoooooshhh as
she engaged the door, breaking the rule that prohibited passengers from
such car-hopping.
“Stop!”
She turned her gaze back toward him as he raised his pistol, ready to
take the shot he hadn’t taken five years ago. Passengers cried out and
shrank from his path. The door hissed closed, the young woman regarding
him vacantly through the safety glass as she stretched hand out blindly
to activate the door accessing the next car back.
And that’s when she stumbled. Brixton was well aware of the problems
encountered by this new 7000 series of Metro railcars after federal
safety officials raised repeated concerns about a potential safety risk
involving the barriers between cars that were designed to prevent blind
and visually impaired people from inadvertently walking off the platform
and falling through the gap. The issue initially was raised by
disability rights advocates, who argued the rubber barriers were spaced
too far apart, leaving enough room for a small person to slip through.
The young woman wearing the hijab was small. And she started to slip through.
Brixton watched her drop from sight an instant before an all-too
familiar flash created a star burst before him. He felt light, floating
as if there was nothing beneath his feet, because for a moment there
wasn’t. The piercing blast that buckled the Metro car door blew him
backward, the percussion lifting him up and then dropping him back down,
still in motion sliding across the floor amid a demolition derby of
commuters crashing into each other, as the train barreled along.
Separated now from its rear-most cars, what remained of the train
whipsawed through the tube with enough force to lift this car from the
rails and send it alternately slamming up against one side and then the
other.
Brixton maintained the presence of mind to realize his back and
shoulders had come to rest awkwardly against a seat, even as the squeal
of the brakes engaging grew into a deafening wail and his eyes locked on
the car door that to him looked as if someone had used a can opener to
carve a jagged fissure along the center of its buckled seam. The car
itself seemed to be swaying—left, right, and back again—but he couldn’t
be sure if that was real or the product of the concussion he may have
suffered from the blast wave or upon slamming up against the seat.
Unlike five years ago, Brixton had come to rest sitting up, staring
straight ahead at the back door of the Metro car currently held at an
awkwardly angled perch nearly sideways across the tracks. He realized
that through it all he’d somehow maintained grasp of his pistol, now
steadied at the twisted remnants of the Metro car door as if he expected
the young woman to reappear at any moment.
Janet . . .
A wave of euphoria washed over Brixton as, this time, he thought he’d
saved her, making the best of the do-over fate had somehow granted him.
The Metro car floor felt soft and cushiony, leaving him with the
dream-like sense he was drifting away toward the bright lights shining
down from the ceiling.
And then there was only darkness.
***
Excerpt from Murder on the Metro by Jon Land. Copyright 2021 by Jon Land. Reproduced with permission from Jon Land. All rights reserved.
JON LAND is the USA Today bestselling author of over fifty books,
including eleven in the critically acclaimed Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong
series, the most recent of which, Strong from the Heart, won the 2020
American Fiction Award for Best Thriller and the 2020 American Book Fest
Award for Best Mystery/Suspense Novel. Additionally, he has teamed up
with Heather Graham for a science fiction series that began with THE
RISING (winner of the 2017 International Book Award for best Sci-fi
Novel) and continues with BLOOD MOON. He has also written six books in
the Murder, She Wrote series of mysteries and has more recently taken
over Margaret Truman’s Capital Crimes series, beginning with Murder on
the Metro in February of 2021. A graduate of Brown University, he
received the 2019 Rhode Island Authors Legacy Award for his lifetime of
literary achievements. Land lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
YAY!. Another fabulous romantic suspense novel by Jane Blythe, Saving Ryder, Book I of the Saving Seals series did not disappoint. It starts out strong, keeping me rapidly ‘flipping pages’.
How Jane Blythe manages to come up with a different twist on an oft told tale, never ceases to amaze me.
What romance lover doesn’t love a hunkalicious Navy Seal and a damsel in distress?
Abby and Ryder already knew each other. In fact, he had broken it off with her twice. When his team of Navy Seals are sent to rescue a group of children who had been taken hostage, Ryder found Abby, who had been missing for fourteen months. It was a surprise to him, but she had never given up hope that she would be rescued.
She had suffered through months of torture and near starvation, but even she didn’t know how bad it really was. The truth comes out slowly…and, this time, Ryder will be by her side every step of the way. BUT, why was she taken?
Saving Ryder has all the goodies: a damsel in distress, some hunkalicious Navy Seals, mucho danger from a psychopath, and sweet romance.
Jane Blythe creates a fabulous story with lovable and loving characters. Every time I read a book like Saving Ryder, I have to remind myself how much her writing and creativity give me the suspense and thrills I am looking for. After all the books I have read of hers, she still manages to surprise me and leave me wanting more.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Saving Ryder by Jane Blythe.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
He’s left her twice before why should she believe this time is any different?
Abigail McNamara feels like she always has to prove herself and could never live up to her family’s expectations. Her grandfather was a SEAL, her father was a SEAL, her brother is a SEAL, and, oh yeah, her brother’s ridiculously hotter than hot hunkalicious best friend is also a SEAL. She’s loved Ryder since she was twelve but he’s broken her heart twice already and she’s vowed she won’t ever trust him again.
Every guy knows the code you don’t have sex with your best friend’s little sister. If you do you don’t get caught. If you fall in love with her you don’t break her heart. And if you earn her trust back you don’t walk away. Unfortunately Ryder “Spider” Flynn did all that. When Abigail is abducted and help prisoner for fourteen months by a sadistic sociopath that changes everything. Now all bets are off but he has to keep her alive long enough to prove to her he deserves a third chance.
ABOUT JANE BLYTHE
Jane
has loved reading and writing since she can remember. She writes dark
and disturbing crime/mystery/suspense with some romance thrown in
because, well, who doesn’t love romance? She has one completed series,
Detective Parker Bell, and one new series, Count to Ten.
When she’s not writing Jane loves to
read, bake, go to the beach, ski, horse ride, and watch Disney movies.
She has a black belt in Taekwondo, and a 200+ collection of teddy bears.
She has the world’s two most sweet and pretty Dalmatians, Ivory and
Pearl. Oh, and she also enjoys spending time with family and friends!
We have a new character, Evelyn, Myrtle’s grandniece. She is living in Evelyn’s home, fixing it up and collecting the homeless kitties, like Evelyn used to do. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Glinda is a psychic, and quickly makes many friends since her move to the small town of Spookie, where danger stalks the characters, like the ghosts in the fog. Is the fog your friend or is it out to get you?
Frank is a murder mystery writer since his retirement from the police department, but he needs more. He becomes a consultant for the Chicago Police Department, and it’s a good thing he did. He will need those resources when his daughter, Laura’s, safety becomes an issue.
There is so much more going on than just the mystery about the buried treasure. Kathryn Meyer Griffith manages to have multiple mysteries going on so there is never a dull moment.
What a fabulous cast of characters. I love their uniqueness and quirkiness. Their willingness to go above and beyond for those around them, whether two footed or four footed.
Myrtle still remains my favorite. I love this crusty old bird, eccentric, gruff, but, as we pull away the layers, like peeling an onion, her heart is exposed. And it is a big one!
We’ve had adventures in Spookie, with kidnappers, serial killers, missing people, ghosts, witches and now, treasure hunters. It amazes me that Kathryn Meyer Griffith is able to create so many different and wonderful scenarios. I can hardly wait to find out the next one:
All Those Who Came Before…
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of What Lies Beneath by Kathryn Meyer Griffith.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
The 5th Spookie Town Murder Mystery is finally out. Who wouldn’t want to find a chest of buried treasure, ancient gold coins and exquisitely priceless jewelry, on their land? A treasure a sailor dead for over seventy years once found in the shallow waters of a distant island and later buried, hid, the remnants of at the end of his tragic life. The townspeople of Spookie have been searching, fighting and killing each other over it, for decades and no one has ever unearthed it. Abigail, Frank, Myrtle and her psychic grandniece, Glinda, are on the hunt for the treasure…and they might just find it with Glinda’s and the dead sailor’s help. For Frank, ex-Chicago homicide detective, there’s also a new and dangerous case that brings him temporarily out of retirement and back to Chicago because it threatens his adopted daughter Laura’s safety at the art college she is attending. There are three missing college students, young women, one a close friend of Laura’s, and the Chicago police force is feverishly searching for them before their abductors kill them. Can Frank, with a little help from Glinda’s visions, and his old partner Sam Cato, locate the abducted girls in time and save their lives? All the rest of the quirky characters are also back again to share in the adventures, the mysteries, and the small town life of foggy Spookie. Come join them.
ABOUT KATHRYN MEYER GRIFFITH
Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been a writer
for over forty-nine years now and has had twenty-nine novels and thirteen short
stories published since 1984. She began her writing career as a paperback
horror author in 1984 with Leisure and Zebra Publishing, but has since moved on
to write paranormal horror, romantic historical time-travel, suspense, romance,
thrillers, and murder mysteries. Her horror novel The Last Vampire, and her
thriller Dinosaur Lake (now a best-selling five book series), were both Epic
eBook Awards Finalists in 2012 and 2014. Kathryn Meyer Griffith rdgriff@htc.net
NOVELS: Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart
of the Rose, Blood Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 Epic
eBook Awards Finalists in their Horror category), Witches, Witches II:
Apocalypse, Witches plus Witches II: Apocalypse, The Nameless One erotic
horror short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (1st Spookie Town
Murder Mystery), All Things Slip Away (2nd Spookie Town Murder Mystery),
Ghosts Beneath Us (3rd Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Witches Among Us
(4th Spookie Town Murder Mystery), What Lies Beneath the Graves (5th
Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Those Who Came Before (6th Spookie
Town Murder Mystery); soon, a 7th, When the Fireflies
Retuned, out in December 2020, Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice
Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, A Time of Demons and Angels, The Woman
in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories Collection,
Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story,
Dinosaur Lake (2014 Epic eBook Awards Finalists in their
Thriller/Adventure category), Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising,
Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation and Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars,
Dinosaur Lake V: Survivors, Memories of My Childhood, and a biographical
short story Christmas Magic 1959.
Too bad Seb didn’t have the magic eight ball before he met with Ling and all hell broke loose. He took his chances in Vegas. If it wasn’t for bad luck, he’d have no luck at all and it will take his Hellcat Charger to survive.
Bloody and fleeing for his life…
I love that Jason Parent adds some humor to his horror and he is not afraid to kill off a character or two or three…His characters are quirky and his scenarios keep me wondering. The minute I think I know how the story will end, he throws in a surprise or two making me say…WTF.
WOW…Eight Cylinders was one wild ride with some of the worst characters being the best. This may be a novella, but it was filled with danger, otherwordly, nail biting, edge of the seat suspense and thrills.
Good job Jason. You had me going. The ending was worth a star itself.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Eight Cylinders by Jason Parent.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Sebastian “Seb” McAlister has run out of luck in Vegas. Cornered by a trigger-happy gang and shot through the stomach, he makes a desperate escape in his supercharged Hellcat. Fate guides Seb safely out of Sin City and into the desert, but as his wheels fade into the horizon, he fades into darkness.
He awakes among a tiny community in the middle of nowhere. A mountain range circles the hodgepodge of shacks like prison walls looming high. And the warden that resides in those mountains is big, ugly, and deadly—a creature straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare.
If Seb hopes to escape that wayward way station, he’ll need enough cunning to outwit a force beyond comprehension… and a fast car. With a little luck and a ragtag group of would-be monster mashers racing alongside him, Seb just might have a shot of making it through the mountains alive.
ABOUT JASON PARENT
In
his head, Jason Parent lives in many places, but in the real world, he
calls New England his home. The region offers an abundance of settings
for his writing and many wonderful places in which to write them. He
currently resides in Southeastern Massachusetts with his cuddly corgi
named Calypso.
In a prior life, Jason spent most of his
time in front of a judge . . . as a civil litigator. When he finally
tired of Latin phrases no one knew how to pronounce and explaining to
people that real lawsuits are not started, tried and finalized within
the 60-minute timeframe they see on TV (it’s harassing the witness; no
one throws vicious woodland creatures at them), he traded in his cheap
suits for flip flops and designer stubble. The flops got repossessed the
next day, and he’s back in the legal field . . . sorta. But that’s
another story.
When he’s not working, Jason likes to
kayak, catch a movie, travel any place that will let him enter, and play
just about any sport (except that ball tied to the pole thing where you
basically just whack the ball until it twists into a knot or takes
somebody’s head off – he misses the appeal). And read and write, of
course. He does that too sometimes.
Such a pretty cover for Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane. Little Deadly Secrets was originally published as One Perfect Morning in Great Britain in 2020 by Harper Collins Publishers.
Little Deadly Secrets is not my first novel to read by Pamela Crane, but it is my first one to review. I enjoyed A Second Hand Lie, so when I got the opportunity to read Little Deadly Secrets, I was more than happy to.
Three women: Lily is a born leader, Robin is an organizer and planner (I can relate to that) and MacKenzie is always there, rock solid. They met in college and became best friends. They called themselves the Spicier Girls. Lily is the Adventure Spice, Robin is the Homemaker Spice and MacKenize is the Doctor Spice. They are bonded for life…by a secret. But, we all know, secrets do not stay buried. They have a way of coming back and biting you…
“With this bracelet I do vow
To these two girls forever bound.
Through life and love, through thick and thin Until that day when death will win
When I got to Chapter 4, a light bulb went off. I think I know where this is going and I am engrossed. Betrayal, grudging discontent. So much going on. Not sure if I care for one of the adults and the jury is still out on the kids…at least one of them. I love characters that evoke emotions of any kind, even the bad kind. What a bunch of messed up people and I love it.
Pamela Crane is great at throwing in those ‘little’ things, like Nico.
To sum it up, these are some of the most damaged people I have met, but the resolution of the story can give us all hope. Even though it is so far out there, sometimes I had to keep reminding myself it was fiction. It is not a new storyline for me, but I loved it.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
From USA Today bestselling author Pamela Crane comes an addictively readable domestic suspense novel…
Mackenzie, Robin, and Lily have been inseparable forever, sharing life’s ups and downs and growing even closer as the years have gone by. They know everything about each other. Or so they believe.
Nothing could come between these three best friends . . .
Except for a betrayal.
Nothing could turn them against each other . . .
Except for a terrible past mistake.
Nothing could tear them apart . . .
Except for murder.
ABOUT PAMELA CRANE
PAMELA CRANE is a USA TODAY best-selling author and professional juggler. Not one who can toss flaming torches in the air, but a juggler of four kids, a writing addiction, and a horse rescuer. She lives on the edge (her Arabian horse can tell you about their wild adventures while trying to train him) and she writes on the edge…where her sanity resides. Her thrillers unravel flawed women who aren’t always pretty. In fact, her characters are rarely pretty, which makes them interesting…and perfect for doing crazy things worth writing about. When she’s not cleaning horse stalls or changing diapers, she’s psychoanalyzing others.
I am a huge fan of Jon Land, so when I was given the chance to read his first book of Margaret Truman’s Capital Crime series, I was eager to begin. It is different from the Murder She Wrote series and Caitlin Strong series and I loved it and I do love a series where each book can stand alone.
I have been reading Jon Land’s books for decades, but have never read any of Margaret Truman’s Capital Crime series, until now. This was different from the Murder She Wrote and Caitlin Strong novels Jon writes and I loved it.
We start out with Lia and her granddaughter enjoying the beach…until the drones come and the bullets begin flying. It was a miracle they were still alive. Lia had retired from her job in the Elite Special Ops of the Israeli Army after suffering wounds that kept her at her desk. She feels she has no choice but to get back in the game.
Thousands of miles away, in Washington D C, Brixton is on the Washington Metro when his senses go on high alert. He spots a woman wearing a hijab. She brings to mind the woman responsible for his daughter’s death. The flash told him he was too late to stop her, but his actions saved many lives.
The VP has heart issues and I love the frightening stance Jon Land took with the issue. I love that his mind is able to conceive of such realistic scenarios.
Lia and Brixton carefully and quietly try to discover what is really going on and the danger mounts. If they weren’t so highly thought of and had a track record to prove it, some might have thought they were paranoid. What’s the saying…You’re not paranoid if they are out to get you. Others are drawn in and it becomes too big to keep secret.
Jon Land quickly captures my attention and it never lets up. I love reading about conspiracies. When Jon has the characters talking about the NSA having access to all the cameras, like the ones at gas stations, traffic lights, tolls, it made me think of the TV show, Person of Interest. Like all things, it can be used for good or evil.
What do a nun, an Israeli Mossad agent, and an international American Private Investigator have in common? This is power gone wild and it will take all of them to stop it.
WHOA! Murder on the Metro goes so far over the line, it frightens me. Is it possible? I believe most anything is possible in the electronic age we live it.
Talk about political machinations, Murder on the Metro seems all too real. From current events, we can see some leaders will go to any extreme to accomplish their goals. The steps they will go to to keep and have the ultimate power is an ultimate betrayal.
Jon Land wrapped up the story in spectacular fashion, leaving me hopeful for our future. I do think there are more good than bad people, though at times it’s hard to keep that in mind, and his writing is so realistic, I believe it could really happen.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Murder On The Metro by Jon Land.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
In Margaret Truman’s Murder on the Metro, Jon Land’s first thrilling addition to the New York Times bestselling Capital Crimes series, Robert Brixton uncovers a sinister plot threatening millions of American lives!
Israel: A drone-based terrorist attack kills dozens on a sun-splashed beach in Caesarea.
Washington: America awakens to the shattering news that Vice President Stephanie Davenport has died of an apparent heart attack.
That
same morning, a chance encounter on the Washington Metro results in
international private investigator Robert Brixton thwarting an attempted
terrorist bombing. Brixton has no reason to suspect that the three
incidents have anything in common, until he’s contacted by Kendra
Rendine, the Secret Service agent who headed up the vice president’s
security detail. Rendine is convinced the vice president was murdered
and needs Brixton’s investigative expertise to find out why.
In
Israel, meanwhile, legendary anti-terrorist fighter Lia Ganz launches
her own crusade against the perpetrators of that attack which nearly
claimed the lives of her and granddaughter. Ganz’s trail will ultimately
take her to Washington where she joins forces with Brixton to uncover
an impossible link between the deadly attack on Caesarea and the
attempted Metro bombing, as well as the death of the vice president.
The
connection lies in the highest corridors of power in Washington where a
deadly plot with unimaginable consequences has been hatched. With the
clock ticking toward doomsday, Brixton and Ganz race against time to
save millions of American lives who will otherwise become collateral
damage to a conspiracy destined to change the United States forever.
ABOUT JON LAND
Jon
Land is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of 36 books,
including the bestselling Caitlin Strong Texas Ranger series that
includes Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break,
Strong Vengeance and, most recently, Strong Rain Falling. The Tenth
Circle marks the second return engagement of his longtime series hero
Blaine McCracken on the heels of last year’s Pandora’s Temple which was
nominated for a Thriller Award and received the 2013 International Book
Award for Best Adventure Thriller. Jon’s first nonfiction book,
Betrayal, meanwhile, was named Best True Crime Book of 2012 by Suspense
Magazine and won a 2012 International Book Award for Best True Crime
Book. He is currently working on Strong Darkness, the next entry in the
Caitlin Strong to be published in September of 2014. He graduated Phi
Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, where he continues
to maintain a strong volunteer presence, in 1979.
Unicorn Island by Donna Galanti is a beautifully written coming of age fantasy for a young girl looking for her place in the world…and she finds it in the most unlikely place. It was easy to like Sam and when she looks out at the view from her attic bedroom window in Foggy Harbor, I felt like I would enjoy living there too. I love when an author gives me more than I anticipated and leaves me with a smile on my face.
At the end of the book, Donna Galanti shares some history on unicorns, wyverns, veterinarians, the pirates of the Carolina’s and Ocracoke and Assateague Islands, where the wild horses roam free.
I loved this wonderful story and am so glad there is more to come.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Unicorn Island by Donna Galanti.
4 Stars
SYNOPSIS
Beyond the mist lies a magical secret waiting to be discovered. Unicorn
Island is a middle-grade illustrated novel series about a young
girl who discovers a mysterious island full of mythical beasts and darker
dangers! When Sam arrives in Foggy
Harbor, population 3,230, all she can see is a small, boring town that’s way
too far from home. And knowing that she’s stuck there all summer with her
grumpy Uncle Mitch only makes things worse. But when Sam discovers a hidden
trapdoor leading to a room full of strange artifacts, she realizes Foggy Harbor
isn’t as sleepy as it seems. With the help of a new friend, Sam discovers an
extraordinary secret beyond the fog: an island of unicorns whose fates are
intertwined with hers.
“An accessible and fast-paced magical adventure.” – Kirkus
Reviews
“An all-too-human, enchanting middle grade fantasy novel.” –
Forward Reviews
“What begins as realistic fiction turns to a fantastical
tale of magical rescue. Fans of unicorns and magic in the real world will enjoy
this adventure.” – School Library Journal
In New York
City, lights twinkled across Sam’s ceiling all night long. She had never felt
lonely there,
knowing the
city was awake with her. She could already tell Foggy Harbor was different. It
looked like
the loneliest
place ever. Why would anyone live here on purpose? she wondered.
The driver
pulled into the bus station. A neon sign that should have flashed Foggy Harbor
Parking
was missing
most of its letters. BOR . . . ING. Some sign, she thought. I’m
already bored here.
“You got someone
picking you up, Miss?” the driver asked as he pulled her suitcase from the
luggage compartment.
Her t-shirt
clung to her in the heavy, muggy air. Sam checked her phone for the address Mom
had given her: 1 Foggy Way.
“My uncle lives
a block from here,” she said, pointing at the street sign.
The driver
nodded and pulled out of the station, leaving her under the broken sign. Sam
texted Mom one word out of duty: ARRIVED. With no choice but to find her new
home, she adjusted her backpack and popped up her suitcase handle, dragging it
along. It clickety-clacked all the way down the quiet street.
Uncle Mitch’s
stone house sat at the end, alone and secluded, hugging the ocean. Its sloped
roof pierced the murky sky. One light glowed in a back window. Crickets trilled
around the house, creating an eerie buzz as waves lapped the shore.
Sam crunched
over the walking path made of shells, then thumped up the front porch steps and
rang the doorbell, eager to escape the empty night.
After a few minutes,
the door was yanked open. A tall man with curly black hair and a bushy mustache
loomed over Sam, the porch light deepening his frown. “Yes?”
Sam swallowed
hard. “Uncle Mitch?”
His eyes grew
wide and he pulled her inside, slamming the door. “Samantha? What are you doing
here?”
Cool air washed
over her from a ceiling fan that whirred above, and she shivered, shrinking
under his glare. Then she remembered what Mom had said: He’s the only family
we’ve got.
ABOUT DONNA GALANTI
Donna Galanti is the author of the bestselling paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine, a writing contest judge at nycmidnight.com, and regularly presents as a guest author at schools and teaches at writing conferences. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna also loves teaching writers about building author brand and platform through her free training series at yourawesomeauthorlife.com. Visit her at donnagalanti.com.
Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler is my introduction to his writing and I am so happy to have met him and his characters. I loved the book and look forward to reading more of his work. I think I waited to long after reading Knight’s Ransom to write the review, because I don’t feel it reflects how I truly felt.
Ransom had been taken hostage by King Gervase. Now, the king is dead and he’s going home. He had met Claire while he was a hostage and she is the one who gave him his name, Ransom. The king had raised them both as if they were his own. Claire is very outspoken and I think Ransom will have his hands full with her. Will they become a couple. I don’t know yet, but I am going to find out.
The point of views bounce back and forth between Ransom and Claire.
Ransom wants to become a knight and leader, but the path will be fraught with danger and intrigue.
There is something special about Ransom and when he is at his lowest, something good comes his way.
So much betrayal, political machinations, kings fighting, always fighting. Seems to me they need to find something else to do. Maybe they have too much spare time and desire to dominate.
Ransom makes difficult choices, but his loyalty can never be questioned. He is caught in the courtly machinations going on, young royals being easily manipulated, then betrayed, sons going to war to depose their father as king, brothers fighting each other.
There are many characters and not all will survive, but this is Ransom’s story and it will be told over several books. I do like when an author is not afraid to kill off his characters, though some will be missed, others I will be glad are gone.
Medieval history is stretched and twisted in this brutal world, brilliantly spelled out through Jeff’s words. I am hooked and can hardly wait for the next book.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of Knight’s Ransom by Jeff Wheeler.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. A brutal war of succession has plunged the court of Kingfountain into a power struggle between a charitable king who took the crown unlawfully and his ambitious rival, Devon Argentine. The balance of power between the two men hinges on the fate of a young boy ensnared in this courtly intrigue. A boy befittingly nicknamed Ransom.
When the Argentine family finally rules, Ransom must make his own way in the world. Opportunities open and shut before him as he journeys along the path to knighthood, blind to a shadowy conspiracy of jealousy and revenge. Securing his place will not be easy, nor will winning the affection of Lady Claire de Murrow, a fiery young heiress from an unpredictably mad kingdom.
Ransom interrupts an abduction plot targeting the Queen of Ceredigion and earns a position in service to her son, the firstborn of the new Argentine dynasty. But conflict and treachery threaten the family, and Ransom must also come to understand and hone his burgeoning powers—abilities that involve more than his mastery with a blade and that make him as much a target as his lord.
ABOUT JEFF WHEELER
Jeff Wheeler took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to write full-time. He is a husband, father of five, and a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeff lives in the Rocky Mountains. His books have been on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller list 5 times (for The Thief’s Daughter, The King’s Traitor, The Hollow Crown, The Silent Shield, and Prism Cloud) and have sold more than 4 million copies. His novels have also been published or will be published in many languages: Italian, Chinese, Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Spanish, Russian, and German.
He is also the founder of Deep Magic: the E-zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction (www.deepmagic.co), a quarterly e-zine featuring amazing short stories, novellas, and sample chapters.
You can usually find Jeff at Emerald City Comic Con, New York Comic Con or at writers conferences.
He welcomes hearing from readers: jgwheels /at/ gmail dot com
If you are interested in purchasing signed
copies of his books for friends, family, or your own collection, please
e-mail: WOJWbooks /at/ gmail dot com
