Guppy Book of the Month - Steeled For Murder - K.M. Rockwood

Guppy Book of the Month

Welcome to the next 'Guppy Book of the Month' post!  I'm very excited about highlighting the books that I'll be receiving as part of my special Live Auction win at Malice Domestic 30.  Each time I receive a book, I'll tell a bit about it and also a bit about the author.  No promises as to when I'll get it read and my thoughts shared, but if it looks great to you, check it out at your local library or bookstore.  Some of these books will be debuts and some will be from authors already established.

Steeled For Murder

by K.M. Rockwood

1st Jesse Damon Crime Novel

After serving nearly 20 years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon has been released, a home detention monitor strapped to his ankle. Determined to make it and mindful of his parole restrictions, he struggles with life outside prison. He finds a basement apartment, a job on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication plant and a few people who treat him like anybody else. Especially Kelly, a woman who works in the shipping department. He seems to be making it. Until Mitch, forklift driver on the shift, is found murdered in the warehouse. Investigating detective doesn’t want to look any further than Jesse to close the case He’s not fussy about the methods he uses to gather evidence. If Jesse isn’t going down for this, he will have to be the one to figure out who killed Mitch—and why.

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Info from the author's website:

KM Rockwood draws on a varied background for stories, among them working as a laborer in a steel fabrication plant, operating glass melters and related equipment in a fiberglass manufacturing facility, and supervising an inmate work crew in a large medium security state prison. These jobs, as well as work as a special education teacher in an alternative high school and a GED teacher in county detention facilities, provide most of the background for novels and short stories.

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I was delighted to receive yet another book this month.  Steeled For Murder seems a little outside my usual type of book, but I'm game for sure.  I will freely admit that I know nothing about steel fabrication or the fiberglass industry.  This author does and I've seen some great reviews of this series.  And this is the first book of six (to date).  I'm curious about the protagonist - was he wrongly accused?  In any case, this author also has other books and short stories.  Can't wait to try them!  Thanks so much, K.M.!  

Final Girls - Riley Sager

Final Girls by Riley Sager

First Paragraph(s):

The forest had claws and teeth.
     All those rocks and thorn and branches bit at Quincy as she ran screaming through the woods.  But she didn't stop.  Not when rocks dug into the soles of her bare feet.  Not when a whip-thin branch lashed her face and a line of blood streaked down her cheek.
     Stopping wasn't an option.  To stop was to die.  So she kept running, even as a bramble wrapped around her ankle and gnawed at her flesh.  The bramble stretched, quivering before Quincy's momentum yanked her free.  If it hurt, she couldn't tell.  Her body already held more pain than it could handle.

My Thoughts:

Final Girls got a lot of press last year when it was published.  It was recommended by many notable authors and my copy came from Book of the Month.  When I decided to read it this year, I also added the audio, narrated by Erin Bennett and Hillary Huber, from my library.  As the blurb says below, this book starts with a teen horror movie type beginning, a girl running through the woods after her friends have been killed at a remote cabin.  And the action continues from there.  Quincy, the girl running, becomes one of the so-called 'Final Girls', a term coined by the media for lone survivors of horrible spree killers.  Quincy does not want to be a 'Final Girl' and refuses to consider herself by that term.  Instead, she has a baking blog and a quiet life with Jeff - until she doesn't.

I liked this book and definitely wanted to know how it would end.  Quincy was interesting, if a little clueless about many things.  Samantha was strange and creepy.  The reader doesn't get to know much about Lisa, but what we were able to glean was positive.  Was someone trying to get rid of the three 'Final Girls'?  Well, I'll let you read the book and figure that out on your own.  There was a bit of drama about the author, Riley Sager, a pseudonym for Todd Ritter.  Some asked why he used such a gender-neutral name and there was discussion.  His next book, The Last Time I Lied, was published earlier this month and I'll likely be reading it soon. 

Blurb:

Ten years ago, college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie–scale massacre. In an instant, she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to—a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls. Lisa, who lost nine sorority sisters to a college dropout's knife; Sam, who went up against the Sack Man during her shift at the Nightlight Inn; and now Quincy, who ran bleeding through the woods to escape Pine Cottage and the man she refers to only as Him. The three girls are all attempting to put their nightmares behind them and, with that, one another. Despite the media's attempts, they never meet.

Now, Quincy is doing well—maybe even great, thanks to her Xanax prescription. She has a caring almost-fiancé, Jeff; a popular baking blog; a beautiful apartment; and a therapeutic presence in Coop, the police officer who saved her life all those years ago. Her memory won’t even allow her to recall the events of that night; the past is in the past.

That is until Lisa, the first Final Girl, is found dead in her bathtub, wrists slit; and Sam, the second, appears on Quincy's doorstep. Blowing through Quincy's life like a whirlwind, Sam seems intent on making Quincy relive the past, with increasingly dire consequences, all of which makes Quincy question why Sam is really seeking her out. And when new details about Lisa's death come to light, Quincy's life becomes a race against time as she tries to unravel Sam's truths from her lies, evade the police and hungry reporters, and, most crucially, remember what really happened at Pine Cottage, before what was started ten years ago is finished.

Bookish Nostalgia - July 2018

Welcome to Bookish Nostalgia for July 2018.  I've kept records of books I read for over 25 years and I enjoy looking back through my reading journals to see what I was reading 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago.  Let's see what I remember about what I was reading in those years:

July 1998 - Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske - A lot of my mystery reading was impacted by discovering other mystery readers on the internet.  In 1998, I was finding a lot of authors that I had not heard of or seen on my library shelves.  However, I'd read about them on the DorothyL list or on a YahooGroup (remember them?) and happily see if I could find the various books.  Jo Dereske's mystery series featuring Librarian Helma Zukas is one of those.  This is the first book in that series and I remember it was so much fun and Helma is an original for sure.  Now that these have appeared in e-book format, I ought to read them again.  

July 2003 - Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews - Another funny mystery and first book in a great series is Murder With Peacocks.  Donna Andrews is still writing this series and book #23 will be out in August.  Meg Langslow is scrambling in this one to be the maid of honor for three weddings in her home town - her mother's, her soon to be sister-in-law, and her best friend.  Each is different and each bride is relying on Meg for lots and lots of help.  Oh, and each bride keeps changing her mind about wedding details.  So many funny moments in this book.

  

July 2008 - Tilt A Whirl by Chris Grabenstein - Obviously, July is my month for starting fabulous, funny mystery series.  Here's another - Chris Grabenstein's first book in his Jersey Shore mysteries.  John Ceepak is a great cop - a little stiff, but perfect.  Danny Boyle is learning to be a cop, but in this first book, he's only part-time.  Ceepak and Boyle are one of the best cop duos around and this series comes highly, highly recommended by me.  So much fun and some serious issues as well.  If you haven't read it, I'll share a secret - the first three books in the series are available for only $.99 each on Kindle.  Just saying...

July 2013 - The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel - I've always been a bit fascinated by the wives of the astronauts.  I think that began when I saw the movie The Right Stuff.  And, of course, I'm from Texas and Houston has been a big part of NASA.  Anyway, I was excited to read a book about the Mercury 7 astronaut's wives.  I know this became a TV series, but I didn't watch it for some reason.  As we are now within a year of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing (July 20, 1969), I'm interested in this book again.  Honestly, I don't remember much detail about it, even though it's only been 5 years since I read it.  Did you read this book or see the TV adaptation?

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And so we end this month's Bookish Nostalgia.  Hope you'll join me again next month to see what August books I remember from my journals.  

The Chalk Man - C. J. Tudor

The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

First Paragraph(s):

The girl's head rested on a small pile of orange-and-brown leaves.
     Her almond eyes stared up at the canopy of sycamore, beech and oak, but they didn't see the tentative fingers of sunlight that poked through the branches and sprinkled the woodland floor with gold.  They didn't blink as shiny black beetles scurried over their pupils.  They didn't see anything anymore, except darkness.

My Thoughts:

The Chalk Man is C.J. Tudor's debut crime novel and it's a doozy.  I wasn't sure if that was going to be my final assessment, but by the end...yes, a doozy.  I listened to this book on audio narrated by Euan Morton.  I really liked his narration and will be looking to see if he's voiced other books.  So, this book has gotten a lot of press and hype or it did when it was published earlier this year.  It harks back to the 1980's and things present in that era - Stephen King stories and novels, music of the time, those movies with scary bits and teens in peril.  Told in two time periods, 1986 and 2016, it's about Eddie 'Munster' Adams and his friends, a gang of five.  It's also about a girl who was murdered.  It's about what happens to the kids at that earlier time and also what happens after they are grown up.  It's about their messages to each other, written in 'chalk code'.  It's about secrets, lots and lots of secrets.  Everyone has them, right?  Everyone....and that's all I'll say about the plot.

I liked the book, most of it anyway.  There were some grim and gruesome parts.  There were some parts that made you angry about certain issues and sad.  I guessed some things.  I didn't guess others.  I'm excited to know that C.J. Tudor will have a second book published next spring entitled The Taking of Annie Thorne.  I'll be watching for it. 

Blurb:

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he's put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

Waiting on Wednesday - Transcription

I'm posting a 'soon to be released' book on Wednesdays.  These will always be books that I am particularly looking forward to.  I'll be linking up to 'Can't-Wait Wednesday' hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and plan to take part in this each week.

It's been a long time since I read a book by this week's author.  Many years, in fact.  She's continued to write and I've meant to read more, but other books have caught my fancy.  The blurb for this book rather shouted at me - 'you'll like me!!' - so, this week I'm waiting on:

Transcription

by Kate Atkinson

Publication Date:  September 25th

In 1940, eighteen-year old Juliet Armstrong is reluctantly recruited into the world of espionage. Sent to an obscure department of MI5 tasked with monitoring the comings and goings of British Fascist sympathizers, she discovers the work to be by turns both tedious and terrifying. But after the war has ended, she presumes the events of those years have been relegated to the past forever.

Ten years later, now a radio producer at the BBC, Juliet is unexpectedly confronted by figures from her past. A different war is being fought now, on a different battleground, but Juliet finds herself once more under threat. A bill of reckoning is due, and she finally begins to realize that there is no action without consequence.

Guppy Book(s) of the Month - Land Sharks by Nancy Raven Smith and The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill by Bradford M. Smith, Lynn Raven & Nancy Raven Smith

Guppy Book of the Month

Welcome to the next 'Guppy Book of the Month' post!  I'm very excited about highlighting the books that I'll be receiving as part of my special Live Auction win at Malice Domestic 30.  Each time I receive a book, I'll tell a bit about it and also a bit about the author.  No promises as to when I'll get it read and my thoughts shared, but if it looks great to you, check it out at your local library or bookstore.  Some of these books will be debuts and some will be from authors already established.

Land Sharks

by Nancy Raven Smith

Lexi Winslow is a fraud investigator at a private Beverly Hills bank. As a favor to her boss, she's sent to fetch home the daughter of the bank's biggest client. So she's off to Sumatra, where the wayward daughter and her latest boyfriend were last seen. She has the added complication of having to take the boss' inexperienced son along for training. Once Lexi arrives at an isolated resort carved out of the remote Sumatran jungle, she discovers there are more deadly dangers inside the hotel than the crocodiles and head hunters outside. It is a hotel where women check in, but most don't check out. And of all the places in the world, Lexi runs into her ex-lover, who not only conned his way into her heart, but is always conning someone somewhere. Lexi is determined to find out what is going on and to get everyone out alive.

The Reluctant Farmer of Whimsey Hill

by Bradford M. Smith with Lynn Raven & Nancy Raven Smith

The hu-amorous true story of an animal-phobic, city robotics engineer who learns too late that his new bride's dream is to have a farm where she can rescue ex-racehorses. When the newlyweds take a Meyers-Briggs Personality Test for fun, it tells them that their marriage is doomed. There is only one problem: they took the test after the wedding. So whether he's chasing a cow named Pork Chop through the woods, getting locked in a tack room by the family pony, being snubbed by his wife's favorite dog, or unsuccessfully trying to modernize their barn using the latest technology, the odds are already stacked against him. It seems like everything on four legs is out to get him. Will the animals prove Meyers-Briggs right? Will he admit defeat, or will he fight to keep his family and the farm together?

Enjoy the true, warm, and frequently hilarious stories of a man's journey along the bumpy road from his urban robotics lab to his new life on a rural Virginia farm.

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Nancy Raven Smith sent me both of these books, along with some extra goodies for my mystery group, and I was so excited!  I've never read a book set in Sumatra and Land Sharks sounds like an entertaining mystery.  I understand there will be a second book as well.  Brad Smith's book, which was co-written with Nancy and their daughter Lynn, sounds charming.  Truly.  And I'm eager to tell several members of our mystery group about it because they are true animal lovers.  You can check out more about the authors on their websites, which I've linked to above.  Such a treasure trove!  Thank you so very much Nancy and Brad!

Since I promised a before and after photo - here's a personal update...

Today, I want to talk a little about my personal health journey.  I hesitated more than a bit about posting the 'before and after' shots.  It's hard (still very hard) for me to be comfortable with pictures.  Too many years of hiding behind the camera or other people.  However, I had shared a post at the end of April telling of my husband's amazing progress recovering from his surgery last winter.  I had also talked about my own weight loss quest.  At that time, I was 80 pounds less.  Now, I'm proud to say that I'm closing in on 90 pounds and am only about 15 pounds away from my ultimate goal.  For someone who has dealt with being overweight her whole life, that is a big accomplishment.  (It's also hard to give yourself compliments or take them, I'm finding!)

I am very proud though.  Really.  So, being 'brave', on the left is me at the Heceta Head Lighthouse in 2013.  On the right, me at the same spot, 2018.  My husband kept saying there was a big difference, but it took him putting these pictures together for me to really see it.   

I've done this with Weight Watchers (and, no, I don't work for them - LOL).  The first time I joined WW was in order to lose some weight before our wedding.  Well, next month, we will have been married 38 years.  It only took a 'little' while for me to 'get it'.  I think each of us has to figure out our own path in a journey to better health.  For some, it's earlier in their lives.  However, I don't think it's too late for anyone.  I know that I will never, ever go back.  I love being able to do so many more things.

As I said, it's been a bit scary for me to talk about this, but I hope that it will be an encouragement to someone else.  Honestly.  If anyone has questions or would like to talk about it with me, please feel free to reach out.  No pressure.  I want to help if I can.  I have a great WW group that I attend.  I'll be attending a group for the rest of my life.  I need that support and accountability.  And thank you all for being my friends!!

My promise to myself - NEVER QUITTING AGAIN!!

The Evening Spider - Emily Arsenault

The Evening Spider by Emily Arsenault

First Paragraph(s):

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

HARTFORD, Sept. 5, 1878--The dead body of Mary E. Stannard, 22 years old, was found at Durham, near the border of Madison, on Tuesday night.  She had been living with her father, and on Tuesday left home to go, as she said, into the woods half a mile away after berries.  As she did not return, a search was made and she was found dead in the woods, lying in a by-path on her back, with her hands folded across her breast.

My Thoughts:

The Evening Spider is the second book I've read by Emily Arsenault, an author who says she doesn't consider her books mysteries but more suspense or ghost stories.  I concur with that.  This book is rather interesting as it does include a real-life murder, the one mentioned above in the opening paragraph.  All the newspaper articles included in the story are real.  The Northampton Lunatic Hospital (later named the Northampton State Hospital) was also real and didn't officially close until the 1990's.  There are curious things in this tale told in two different time periods and featuring two young mothers who might or might not be suffering from some postpartum issues.  I listened to the audio and there were two narrators, which worked very well, Bernadette Dunne and Nan McNamara. 

I don't think The Evening Spider suited some readers - a lot of back and forth between time periods and characters and perhaps a less than satisfying ending for a few.  Maybe because there were two narrators, I found it easier to keep up.  Abby, in the current day, spends a lot of time going through the old journal/diary that she acquires and puzzling out what exactly happened to Frances, the young woman in the late 19th century.  Each woman was tired and exhausted, not sleeping well, and, of course, anyone who has had an infant knows that memories of those early days can be hazy because of the exhaustion.  I did like this book.  I liked the 'perhaps' supernatural aspects, but maybe they weren't - hard for a reader to decide.  The attitude in those earlier times and the way women were 'supposed' to act and be was sad and tiresome.  Frances loved science and was very analytical in her thinking, which was not a good thing for her era.  She wasn't emotional enough and felt just 'wrong' in her heart.  Abby, on the other hand, was maybe overly emotional about her baby and certainly was very protective and nervous about all kinds of possible 'dangers'.  They were quite a contrast.  Would I read another book by this author?  Yes, I would.  In fact, she has a new book, The Last Thing I Told You, that will be published next week.  I'll look forward to reading it soon.

Blurb:

Frances Barnett and Abby Bernacki are two haunted young mothers living in the same house in two different centuries.

1885: Frances Barnett is in the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, telling her story to a visitor. She has come to distrust her own memories, and believes that her pregnancy, birth, and early days of motherhood may have impaired her sanity.

During the earliest months of her baby’s life, Frances eagerly followed the famous murder trial of Mary Stannard—that captivated New Englanders with its salacious details and expert forensic testimony. Following—and even attending—this trial, Frances found an escape from the monotony of new motherhood. But as her story unfolds, Frances must admit that her obsession with the details of the murder were not entirely innocent.

Present day: Abby has been adjusting to motherhood smoothly—until recently, when odd sensations and dreams have begun to unsettle her while home alone with her baby. When she starts to question the house’s history, she is given the diary of Frances Barnett, who lived in the house 125 years earlier. Abby finds the diary disturbing, and researches the Barnett family’s history. The more Abby learns, the more she wonders about a negative—possibly supernatural—influence in her house. She becomes convinced that when she sleeps, she leaves her daughter vulnerable—and then vows not to sleep until she can determine the cause of her eerie experiences.

Frances Barnett might not be the only new mother to lose her mind in this house. And like Frances, Abby discovers that by trying to uncover another’s secrets, she risks awakening some of her own.

The Perfect Stranger - Megan Miranda

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda

First Paragraph(s):

The cat under the front porch was at it again.  Scratching at the slab of wood that echoed through the hardwood floors of my bedroom.  Sharpening its claws, marking its territory--relentless in the dead of night.
     I sat on the edge of the bed, stomped my feet on the wood, thought, Please let me sleep, which had become my repeated plea to all things living and nonliving out here, whatever piece of nature was at work each particular night.
     The scratching stopped, and I eased back under the sheets.
     Other sounds, more familiar now: the creak of the old mattress, crickets, a howl as the wind funneled through the valley.  All of it orienting me to my new life--the bed I slept in, the valley I lived in, a whisper in the night: You are here.

My Thoughts:

The Perfect Stranger was the second book I've read by Megan Miranda.  Her first adult thriller was All the Missing Girls and I remember liking that one, a story told backwards.  Some thought that was creative and interesting and some, I think, were just confused.  I thought it was clever.  I listened to The Perfect Stranger on audio, narrated by Rebekkah Ross.  It was a tense story with the reader not knowing which characters were reliable and which were not.  I'm usually fairly adept at spotting clues and twists, but I will admit that I was a bit baffled with who was a good guy and who was not.  Even the main protagonist, Leah Stevens.  She comes to rural Pennsylvania to be a teacher after her career as a journalist ends badly.  She wasn't fired from her job, but was forced to resign and really has to start over with a whole new life.  After her roommate disappears and a woman is attacked, Leah isn't sure if her troubles have followed her.  The police are initially helpful, but after Leah is unable to provide much information about Emmy, her friend, they aren't sure if Emmy is even real - and the reader isn't sure either.  That's all I'll say about the plot.  I liked it and I'll definitely be watching for the next book by this author.  The audio is well done and it's a good listen.

Blurb:

When Leah Stevens’ career implodes, a chance meeting with her old friend Emmy Grey offers her the perfect opportunity to start over. Emmy, just out of a bad relationship, convinces Leah to come live with her in rural Pennsylvania, where there are teaching positions available and no one knows Leah’s past.

Or Emmy’s.

When the town sees a spate of vicious crimes and Emmy Grey disappears, Leah begins to realize how very little she knows about her friend and roommate. Unable to find friends, family, a paper trail or a digital footprint, the police question whether Emmy Grey existed at all. And mark Leah as a prime suspect.

Fighting the doubts of the police and her own sanity, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name.

Waiting on Wednesday - Bone on Bone

I'm posting a 'soon to be released' book on Wednesdays.  These will always be books that I am particularly looking forward to.  I'll be linking up to 'Can't-Wait Wednesday' hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings and plan to take part in this each week.

I've said before that I love the books in Julia Keller's Bell Elkins' mystery series.  Set in West Virginia, Bell is a unique and interesting protagonist, and this author, having been born and raised in WV, knows about the area and the troubles that appear.  I wasn't sure there was going to be a 7th book, but here it is!  This week I'm waiting on:

Bone On Bone

by Julia Keller

Publication Date:  August 21st

How far would you go for someone you love? Would you die? Would you kill? After a three-year prison sentence, Bell Elkins is back in Acker's Gap. And she finds herself in the white-hot center of a complicated and deadly case -- even as she comes to terms with one last, devastating secret of her own.

A prominent local family has fallen victim to the same sickness that infects the whole region: drug addiction. With mother against father, child against parent, and tensions that lead inexorably to tragedy, they are trapped in a grim, hopeless struggle with nowhere to turn.

Bell has lost her job as prosecutor -- but not her affection for her ragtag, hard-luck hometown. Teamed up with former Deputy Jake Oakes, who battles his own demons as he adjusts to life as a paraplegic, and aided by the new prosecutor, Rhonda Lovejoy, Bell tackles a case as poignant as it is perilous, as heartbreaking as it is challenging.