Reading Fanatic Reviews
All Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller ReviewsCurtains for Romeo by Jessa Archer
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Curtains for Romeo*
Good World but Too Much Backstory
I usually enjoy the amateur sleuth mystery stories by this author. Even though this book is long enough to support a more drawn-out peppering of backstory all throughout, this book suffered from some large info dumps in the first part of the book. Don’t get me wrong; the backstory for this series is actually interesting. The amateur sleuth, Tig (a name I actually found annoying) is a former actress who once played a teenage detective on a TV show in the 1990s. She and her teenage daughter move from the west coast to North Carolina, where the heroine takes a job as a drama professor. Their new life is upended when the former professor turns up dead, making the heroine the number one suspect. Will her skills as a fake detective help her puzzle out the present? I actually thought the book was better written from the middle on, after the backstory had been fully disclosed. I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first. I did enjoy some characters and the world the author created. I look forward to the next book, hoping that it won’t be drowning at the start with too much history all at once.
Marked for Revenge by Jennifer S. Alderson
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Marked for Revenge*
Cross-Europe Art Heist Suspense
Oh, my! The author must have done much research for this book. So many topics were gone into deeply. It is almost overwhelming at times, as sometimes too much detail can bog down a narrative and distract from what is actually going on. (Or if you don’t have knowledge of an item or setting, the detail overload can make it seem more opaque.) This book ranges all over Europe and is a classic art heist thriller with the Croatian mafia thrown in along with the band of art thieves. I felt like I learned a lot about modern art and museums while reading this. In all, it was a solid page-turning thriller.
Enigma: What Lies Beneath by Ditter Kellen
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Enigma: What Lies Beneath*
Bonds Reinforced in Harrowing Circumstances
Abbie and Hauke have had a bond since they were children when he saved her from drowning. That comes alive when they meet again as adults when Hauke has been captured and is being kept for further study; he is due to be transported to Area 51. He is from an underwater race of beings that are unknown to humans. Abbie and Hauke are soon on the run, trying to protect each other and figure out all that is going on with the deadly virus. I like how this couple could communicate telepathically; the author made their bond, even before mating, seem very real. Abbie is a supposedly intelligent woman, but some things that she thought or said didn’t come across that way to me. I also thought that the beginning of the book was told in a too-detached fashion, almost clinical in places. The book is surprisingly sensual, and this is described in great detail. This is a very steamy read; it was a bit over-the-top on occasion. However, I enjoyed their relationship and watching the conflicts they faced unfold.
The Neglected Garden by Suzanne Winterly
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Paperback available at Thalia
The Neglected Garden*
Imbalance Hampers Story
Gilly the garden designer is asked to make a bid on a garden redesign for a swanky home. The relatively new owner lives there with his young son, and there are some apartments for tenants on the grounds. It’s a beautiful estate in County Kildare, Ireland, but danger and secrets lurk beneath its tranquil surface. A surprising amount of gardening talk takes up valuable story room. Clearly, the author either has a deep understanding of gardens and their designs, or she did a lot of research for this book. I found the level of detail perhaps to be a little too much. I don’t know enough about gardens and plants for the minutiae to make much sense to me without a Google search or five. I felt like the scenes at the beginning didn’t have enough motion; not enough happened or was revealed. They felt like slice-of-life moments and weren’t terribly interesting, which actually waste time in a story that supposed to have both romantic and suspense elements. I don’t feel that the romance was pulled off 100% successfully. I liked both Gilly and Marc as characters, but they just didn’t gel for me as a couple. All in all, I felt like it needed more romance and suspense and a little less gardening and day-in-the-life scenes.
Catnapped by Susan Golden
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, Smashwords, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, and Indigo (Chapters)
Catnapped*
Quirky Humor Falls Flat
I’m not quite sure what to make of this quirky little read. The cover itself is a little strange—suggesting a boudoir romance with a cat included?—but I found the book blurb suggested something more intriguing. Unfortunately, I think the author tries too hard at humor and can’t quite pull it off. This is meant to be a romantic “comedic” suspense, but the hero disappeared after showing up and was absent for a while. This made the timing and pacing of the book feel off to me, not allowing the romance to simmer and bubble. Too much of the book was just spent in the heroine’s head. Stories told in the first person can tend toward navel-gazing, and there was a little too much introspection and narrative prose at times. Some paragraphs themselves were exceedingly long, which I find hard to read. When he was there, I did enjoy Ryan as a character, perhaps more so than the heroine. The suspense part is told to us in the title of the book. The heroine is a pet sitter, and a cat gets taken. All in all, I found myself a little disappointed in this book.
A Mother’s Loss by Jo Crow
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A Mother's Loss*
How Many Twists of Fate Can One Woman Endure?
If you didn’t look and know that this is a thriller, the title of this book could make you think it is about grief and adjusting to loss. But, no, this is a psychological thriller that starts a little slowly as it sets the scene for the heroine’s life as a child psychologist who works with very troubled people. Her own life begins to unravel, and her past comes back to haunt her. How will she deal with this? The book is well written with some surprising twists and a suspenseful build to an unexpected climax. I can’t say I always agree with how the main character thought and acted up until the critical juncture, but I can understand her, given the intense pressures that her life had seemingly always been under. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, you might find this one to be a gripping read.
Murder in Downfell Manor
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Murder in Downfell Manor*
Mystery with a Little Magical Chalk Dust
This book is certainly not what I expected it would be. From the blurb, I thought that it would take place at least in part at a magical academy where the female protagonist was failing out. But most of the blurb is actually backstory for what the real story is. While the book had magical elements and was grounded in a magical world, it is written in a straight-up fashion. It reads more like a traditional fugative mystery that just happens to have characters like mages and elves who are involved in the murder plot. The books have some issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage, and this was a little distracting at times. I’m wondering on the national origin of the author because some of the words were definitely strange, and when I looked them up, and they seem to be of either South African or Australian etymology. I typically enjoy paranormal mysteries very much, but this seemed to be just a straight-up whodunit with magical chalk dust.
Eros Element by Cecilia Dominic
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Eros Element*
Fun Steampunk Romance
Oh, my gosh! What a fun book. This was my first foray into steampunk, though I had heard of the subgenre before. This particular author is able to convey her characters’ thoughts and words well, sometimes with gravity (when needed) and deliciously dry humor (most of the time). The characters are well drawn with very clear goals and motivations. There’s no gore or violence, and the plot did have some unexpected twists and turns. I think I especially appreciated the interactions between the characters. I loved the budding Romance. Just a delightful quasi-historical romantic read.
The Phantom of the Opal by Jessa Archer
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson
The Phantom of the Opal*
Not Much to It
I’m not quite sure what to think of this novelette. You can tell that it’s meant to introduce a new mystery series, even though there isn’t much of a mystery in it. To me, it felt more like an overlong short story, and there was no time to develop much of anything, and–given the “mystery”–there was not much to develop anyway. It seems more like a character and setting piece rather than a fleshed out story. Honestly, I don’t know if author–particularly mystery authors–are well served by writing a novelette like this. Because there is not much to it, it could just aggravate people who love to sink their teeth deeply into a juicy mystery. I thought, too, that there were way too many long and involved information dumps. Again, it seems like this existed just to set up the world for the series. I might check out the first book of the series and see if it is any good, as I have enjoyed longer stories by this author before, but this particular piece that is meant to whet the appetite for more actually left me feeling ambivalent.
A Seance in Franklin Gothic by Jessa Archer
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A Seance in Franklin Gothic*
Another Murder–Perhaps–In Thistlewood
In another trip to Thistlewood, there appears to be a little mysticism mixed up with a murder! The dead body is found in a circle of candles slumped over a Ouija board. When the body disappeared before the sheriff could get there, some thought it might have been a hoax or a prank. But with Ruth, Wren, and Cassie on the trail, it will be figured out!
I enjoyed this book like I have the others in this series. The author has an excellent way of showing us who Ruth thinks. I love that Ruth is an older heroine than we often see in books in general, and her age and profession give her a certain gravitas (while not being pedantic) The story is in the first person from her perspective, and hers is an interesting and mature head to be in as she tries to puzzle out what’s going on. I thought that, on occasion, there were a bit too many information dumps scattered throughout. It seems like the author is almost trying to summarize the previous books in the series here and there, when she could just get by with a little detail or two. I won’t spoil it, but the ending did surprise me, as it isn’t something we usually see in cozy mysteries. All in all, I enjoyed this installment of the series.
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