Review: Find the Girl - Book #5 Detective Morgan Brookes - Helen Phifer - January 2022 Hello lovely readers, grab yourself a cuppa and settle in, because today I'm sharing my thoughts on Find the Girl by Helen Phifer - another title found at the Xanadu Book Exchange in Papamoa and it's a mixed bag, if I'm honest with you! The premise genuinely hooked me from the very first page. That opening image a silk eye mask dotted with blood-red spots lying on an empty sleeping bag, the tent door fluttering open towards silent, dark woods  is the kind of atmospheric scene that makes you want to check you've locked the back door. Helen Phifer absolutely knows how to set a scene, and for those of us who love a good camping trip, it gives you serious second thoughts! Detective Morgan Brookes is a character I warmed to quickly. She's determined, instinctive, and carries just enough personal baggage to feel real rather than fictional. When she discovers that a missing woman's...

Review: First Girl to Die - Book #4 Detective Morgan Brookes Series - Helen Phifer - October 2021 You know that feeling when you settle into your favourite reading chair with a fresh cup of tea, crack open a new book, and somehow end up standing in the kitchen at midnight because you simply could not put it down? That was me with First Girl to Die. I genuinely had to remind myself to breathe. A little side note before I dive in,  this was another wonderful secondhand find from Xanadu Book Exchange in Papamoa. If you haven't browsed their shelves yet, honestly, what are you waiting for? So many of my best reads have come home with me from that place, and this one was no exception. This is the fourth book in Helen Phifer's Detective Morgan Brookes series, and while I'd recommend starting from the beginning just because Morgan is such a richly built character, you can absolutely pick this one up cold and be utterly gripped. Phifer is wonderfully generou...

Review: The Wrong Woman - JP Pomare - July 2022  Picked up at Xanadu Book Exchange in Papamoa one of my regular haunts for swapping reads. In fact, I'm heading back there tomorrow, and honestly, there's something extra satisfying about finding a great thriller in a secondhand pile, isn't there? Reid never planned to go back. Driven out of his hometown under circumstances he'd sooner forget, he'd made peace with the distance  until a PI job for an insurance agency pulled him right back to the place he'd left behind. He books a hotel, tells himself it'll be straightforward. An open-and-shut case. In and out. But life and small towns rarely cooperate as we all know being readers . What Reid walks into is a tangle of secrets that grows thornier with every thread he pulls. There's a Professor with a wandering eye, a car crash that raises more questions than it answers, and two missing teenage girls whose disappearances seem unconnected until they don't...

Review: Silent Night/Holy Night - Christmas Novellas - Colleen Coble - October 2014 Colleen Coble delivers a festive treat of mystery and romance in Silent Night, Holy Night , a heartwarming duo of Christmas novellas featuring beloved characters from two of her most popular series. This collection is a perfect seasonal read for fans of inspirational fiction, combining suspenseful plots with messages of faith, love, and resilience. In Silent Night , we return to Rock Harbor with Bree Matthews and her loyal search-and-rescue dog, Samson. As Bree and her husband Kade prepare for a cozy holiday, a call comes in about a missing parachuter near the icy shores of Lake Superior. Bree and Samson head into the snow-covered woods, racing against time and the elements to uncover the truth especially since it looks like it involves Kade's sister Laurie. The wintry atmosphere adds an extra layer of tension and beauty to this fast-paced mystery, and fans of the Rock Harbor series will appreciat...