Mysteries Galore.com

Reviewed by Teri Davis

What college students wouldn’t want to stay the night in a haunted cabin? When six students who are volunteering at a raptor center hear the legend of the Fiddlesticks’ cabin, they can’t wait to find out if there is a legendary ghost. With the legend of a woman and her lover being murdered in the cabin years ago, that just makes it more appealing and an adventure for the students who plan to videotape the entire event.

What the students didn’t plan on happening was one of their own being brutally murdered outside the cabin. What was even stranger were the unusual and unrecognizable carvings or writings all over her skin. Is the killer trying to send a message?

To complicate things, the victim just happens to be the only daughter of the former governor of North Carolina. He public ally challenges the local law enforcement to make an arrest, maybe even before all the facts are discovered. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

How many people are convicted only on circumstantial evidence? How many people are convicted because the accuser has money, power, and influence?

In the book Free Fall, Christine happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people. Being a home health care nurse, frequently places her in a situation where people are more at risk to die. However, did she help any of her patients along the journey towards death?

Detective Danny Boyle along with his new partner, Salvaore Santucci are called to a house by a 911 call. The caller is a young teen in a wheelchair whose mother is fighting with his nurse to the level that the mother is actually choking the nurse. When the officers stop the fight, the old woman immediately accuses the nurse of attacking her. However, the nurse, Christine, has finger marks on her throat that are visible enough to be photographed. Danny recognizes the nurse as being a close friend of his deceased fiance and agrees to assist her in moving her personal items out of this house. Since Christine was a live-in nurse, now she has no place to live. Danny calls a friend who can give her temporary shelter.

Since leaving the hospital, Christine has both a day and a night job. Thee older gentleman that she cares for during the day is found dead from poison that was in his medication. Guess who administered the daily medication?Yep, Christine, again. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

For those who read Vince Flynn and are aware of Mitch Rapp, the CIA trained weapon, who has been in many of Rapp’s books here, is the opportunity to see how it all began. Who really is Mitch Rapp and how did he ever get started in his avocation of routing out America’s enemies and disposing of them?

American Assassin tells how Irene Kennedy and Thomas Stansfield found Rapp. It then tells in detail how they put Rapp and several others under the tutelage of Stan Hurley so they can rebuild a secret super group of operatives who do Uncle Sam’s dirty work without getting any blame placed against the CIA or other intelligence groups. Kennedy, Stansfield, and Hurley began or at least furthered their careers in the CIA but they are now need to work outside the boundaries and go where others are not supposed to go and do things that others are not supposed to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

The Body in the Piazza, the twenty-first book in the Faith Fairchild series, finds Faith and her husband Tom on an anniversary trip to Italy. Regular readers of the series may recall that the previous book, The Body in the Boudoir, was written in the timeframe of the couple’s flight to Europe of this very trip. Written as Faith reminisced about her engagement, wedding and a couple of other matters, it was a departure from what readers have grown to expect from the series. What it did do though was set the stage for this book.

Our story picks up where the previous book left off with Tom and Faith landing in Rome. They have come to celebrate their anniversary and to attend the first week of their friend Francesca’s cooking school. The art, food and history have Faith so excited that she doesn’t even want to take time out to rest, so while Tom is resting from the flight, Faith goes up to the rooftop terrace of their hotel and meets an interesting gentleman who gives her a few tips of things to see and things to avoid. He ends inviting the couple to dine with him. Over dinner they discover that Freddy, their new found friend, knows their friend Francesca. Was their meeting him fate or coincidence? This is the first of several things that leave Faith and Tom debating that point. Unfortunately their new found friend is also the first of several misfortunes to occur on the trip. The next morning when Tom and Faith are eating breakfast, they watch in horror as Freddy is chased then stabbed to death on the plaza in front of their hotel. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Myers is well known as the author of two light mystery series-the Den of Antiquities set in North Carolina and the Dutch Inn series set in Pennsylvania. These are both fine series, but readers are missing something special from this author if they don’t give Myers’ African series a try. Set in the Belgium Congo in the 1950s, this series has a depth that can only happen with first hand knowledge. The author was born and spent her childhood in the Congo. This first hand experience shines through on every page. That she grew up as the daughter of Missionaries shows up in the plots for the books. It is often said that authors should write what they know. Myers clearly knows the setting and subjects of this series-so much so that the books are nearly autobiographical. The Girl Who Married an Eagle is the fourth book in this series.

Julia Newton, a young woman from Ohio, travels to the Belgium Congo on a mission trip. She knew it would be different from anything she had ever experienced and was looking forward to the adventure of teaching in Africa. What she didn’t count on was her assignment placing her in the middle of the Congolese struggle for independence. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

When Officer Danny Boyle, of the Sea Haven Police Department, receives a 911 call, he rushes to the destination to find that a good friend Christine Lemonopolous is in a knock down drag out fight with Shona Blumenfeld Oppenheimer. Shona is the mother Samuel Oppenheimer who is in a wheel chair. Christine is his nurse but when war broke out between the two women Samuel made a call to the police. Danny and his partner Salvatore Santucci break up the fight. Christine had been staying at the Oppenheimer residence and Ms. Oppenheimer immediately evicts her. Christine agrees to leave and Danny and his partner write up a report on the incident. Christine informs Danny that she also nurses for Dr. Rosen and she feels sure he will allow her to stay at his residence.

Detective John Ceepak, Danny’s former partner, calls Danny in for assistance on occasion. Danny gets a call and finds out that Christine has slept in her vehicle rather than ask Dr. Rosen to stay at his home. Neighbors called the policy and Detective Ceepak suggested that rather than allow Christine to be arrested for vagrancy Danny turn over his apartment to Christine until better accommodations could be found. Ceepak suggested that Danny stay with him until Christine got settled. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Allen Hott

With a descriptive picture of a casino/bank robbery in Atlantic City, Roger Hobbs begins his story of Ghostman. He really paints an engaging, exciting picture of the robbery. And for those who do not know, large casinos in the United States actually operate as banks for the Treasury. They receive shipments of cash via armored trucks and the cash is packaged in much the same way as when banks receive. The stacks of money are packed a certain way and they not only have a packet of explosive ink and a GPS but they are armed with an additional explosive charge that after a certain period of time will detonate and destroy the currency.

This way the Federal government can write off the cash as paper destroyed and not actually destroy the currency that would be added to the federal debt. Thus robberies of casino deliveries much like those of bank deliveries must be very carefully planned and executed.

In this instance two gentlemen having been given all the background information on the shipment by Marcus Hayes who is one of the top drug-dealing gangsters in the U.S. Hayes has an organization that was made up of drug dealers and also top of the line bank robbers. These robbers each have their own skill. Some are wheelmen, some are shooters, and a select few are Ghostmen. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

In Simon’s third book with Animal Behavioralist Pru Marlowe, Pru has her hands full with two very different problems. But as Pru gets more involved, she discovers some startling connections between her two cases.

An elderly woman dies in her nursing home room leaving behind her pet African Grey Parrot. Her children are beside themselves trying to decide what to do with the parrot because he is constantly throwing out zingers that are colorful enough to make a sailor blush. They hire Pru to retrain the bird’s vocabulary. While she is working with the parrot, she realizes the bird may be trying to tell her what he saw the night his owner died. She also realizes there are probably some people who would like to shut the bird up permanently-and not because of the cussing.

Meanwhile, a young raccoon has moved into and been removed from the attic of a condo twice. Pru goes out to the condo complex to try and figure out how the raccoon is getting in. She speaks with the grounds keeper about closing the hole, but is frustrated when he seems more interested in having the raccoon destroyed than working to repair the hole. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Ghostman introduces one of the most unusual characters to appear in the mystery/thriller genre in years. As the shadow behind the scenes for criminals, the Ghostman is virtually invisible to the world. He lives off the grid, has multiple identities, keeps on the move and in nearly impossible to contact. The voice of the narrator, Jake Weber, is perfect for the character. His deep voice reading the story with very little expression really got across the “ghost” persona of the main character. He’s there, but as a reader, you just can’t quite get a hold of him. It seems as though he’s hollow inside almost souless.

As the book opens, Ghostman receives an email from the one person he will answer and so the story begins. A casino heist has gone seriously wrong and the boss wants Ghostman to find the missing crew and most importantly to find the money. There is a 48 hour time frame to find the cash before it literally explodes. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Teri Davis

By being a part owner of an advertising business, if a former employee is murdered, you know that your business will be involved in the investigation. So what is the wisest thing to do? For Donna Leigh that answer is to just solve the murder with the help and resources of the business. Is that the smartest thing to do though? Are you endangering yourself and your co- workers? Only after finding the murderer will anyone know if that is smart, if she lives long enough for that conclusion.

When Claire Dockens was found dead, no one was really surprised. The woman had the bad habit of creating enemies. Unfortunately for Donna Leigh, her advertising agency had been one of Claire’s stepping stones on her quest for riches with many wounded co-workers along the path.

A former employee, Clovis, firmly believes that she is the most likely suspect to be the murderer. With her flair for the overly dramatic, flamboyance, and being extremely self-centered, she made the book believable as well as comical. Her intention is for Donna to stay in constant contact with her on every development. Read the rest of this entry »