Review: Last One to Die - Cynthia Murphy - January 2021 Niamh pronounced Neve has just arrived in the UK for a change of scenery and a chance of a lifetime as she has been given a spot on an elite drama program for the summer season. Her life is about to get crazy and dangerous as girls around her are being murdered and the scary thing is that they look like her and they are ones she has befriended. One minute they are here and the next they are dead. Who is killing the young woman and will Niamh and her new friend Jess - the daughter of the local librarian be able to solve the crimes before either Niamh or Jess becomes the next victim? Last One to Die by Cynthia Murphy is not just your usual YA thriller as the book takes a twist back into the past where we learn about a serial killer named Spring Heeled Jack, a factory worker, and a wealthy female Jane who looks like the spitting image of Niamh. Last One to Die was a good October aka Spooktober read as it moves from a thriller to a su...

Review: Gaslight - Miles Jorie-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard - September 2024 You know how as readers, we have those auto-authors - they are the ones that no matter what they release or have their name added to - we will always read and give it a go. For me Sara Shepard is one of those authors as over 20 years ago I fell in love with her Pretty Little Liars series which at the time I had read it - she had only written the first two books. I even had the opportunity in 2017 to meet Sara Shepard and of course, I got a few pictures with her as she was dressed as Red Coat "A". Gaslight starts with Becca having her old friend Dani turn up from her past. It's a life Becca wants nothing to do with as she escaped it and did her best to stay hidden, but now with her other friend Toby who also escaped dead. It's only a matter of time before they track down Becca and her oldest son. Growing up Becca's family was heavily involved in a religious cult and during her high school a...

Review: Ghost 19 - Simone James - October 2022 As readers know, one of my reading goals this year was to read the books published by Simone St. James and what I have noticed with her stories is she has a recurring theme in all of her books. They are also set in the past but with the feeling that it could be in the modern world if it wasn't for her writing some of the years as part of the chapters. You could think it was set in the present time. The other is that it involves ghosts, so if you are a spooktober reader - then Simone St. James is a good author to read during that month as her books tick all the boxes. In Ghost 19 which was a novella read and a quick read, which I didn't expect when I started it but it was over so fast. In Ghost 19 we have actress Ginnette Cox aka Mad Ginny, she is burnt out and after a meltdown- she is cast out and told to recuperate. She rents out a small house 19 Howard Avenue. This house though isn't for the weak as Ginette will realize t...

Shadows of the Past Pamela McCord (The Unfinished Business of Eliot Ness) Publication date: December 14th 2023 Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery, Paranormal A copycat serial killer and the ghost of Eliot Ness. Can two amateur sleuths, with the help of the famous ghost, stop the murderer before he kills again. A ghostly figure surprises India Bennett in her study. That’s unnerving enough, but said ghost leaves a book open to a page showing a mutilated body, a body which looks just like the body in a case Indy’s homicide detective boyfriend, Danny, is currently investigating. Standing next to the body in the picture in the mysterious book is a man Indy recognizes as the ghost she saw in her study. Danny points out to her that it would be impossible for her to have seen the man in the picture, the legendary lawman Eliot Ness. Despite Danny’s insistence, Indy knows what she saw, and she and her best friend Cara become friends with Eliot’s spirit. With ghostly assistance, the amateur s...

Review: The Weekend Retreat - Tara Laskowski - December 2023 Every year it has been a tradition that the birthdays of the Van Ness children, have been weekend extravaganza and held at their family vineyard. Six months ago, the matriarch of the family Katrina Van Ness passed away and now it is time for the oldest twins' birthday Richard and Harper. They are turning 35 years old. Elle - Richard's wife has tried to recreate the birthday events that Katrina was famous for, Harper- reluctantly attends with her husband Lucas and the youngest Zach is about to introduce his new girlfriend Lauren to the family. Lauren is nervous as she doesn't come from the world of wealth like the Van Ness's. The thing though is that this adventure will end in broken hearts and even death as the weekend's events end up opening up raw wounds, dark secrets, lies, and even betrayals. The Van Ness fortune has been built on lies and traces back to an event that happened in the early/mid 70'...

Review: The Summer She Disappeared - Carissa Ann Lynch - February 2023 One of my favourite suspense authors and one that I read everything she releases is Carissa Ann Lynch who funnily enough I discovered through another author whom I followed as Carissa at the time was published under her agency. I fell in love with her books and continued to follow her writing I have enjoyed all of her books and her latest one The Summer She Disappeared was no different. The other thing I loved about this particular book is that it follows one of my favourite tropes of a past/present mystery. Willow Roberts is back in the town her family used to summer in as they owned a lake house. With both of Willow's parents now deceased and recently divorced from her ex-husband she has decided to come back and renovate the Lake House to either live in or sell. It has been twenty years since she was last here, that was also the summer her best friend Ruthie disappeared without a trace. What happens though w...