Rosie’s Book Review Team (RBRT) – Booklist

Saint Vandal’s Day by D.E. Haggerty (Death by Cupcake, #7) (120 pages)

St. Valentine’s Day is THE perfect day for a wedding. Unless a vandal is trying to ruin your life that is.

Callie is finally getting her dream wedding. On St. Valentine’s Day no less. Only a vandal is determined to destroy her bakery before the wedding can occur. Anna, self-proclaimed best cupcake baker this side of the Mississippi, is not letting anything happen to the cupcake bakery. No way. Barista extraordinaire Kristie jumps at the chance to help as well. Together the three women launch a mission to find the jerk who thinks it’s okay to attack the bakery.

Will the gals of Callie’s Cakes find the vandal and save the cupcake bakery before Callie’s dream wedding is ruined?

Genre: Cosy Mystery

Format: Mobi / epub

Cyberblade: The City of Five Skies by William Z. Stone (408 pages)

Dive into the dystopian world of Neo Mars!
Lex, a part-time roboticist from a family of Empyrean refugees, is the lone hope of her family to overcome Graexian oppression and earn them a place above the steel skies, where the air is clean, and the people rich.
Yet when every door is shut, and every opportunity closed, Lex decides to forge her own path of blood and bone. With a talking battle-droid at her side, insane cyborgs in her way, and strange power awakening-Lex will either force the Graexian elite to treat her people with the compassion they deserve or drag the highborn deep down into the enginecity where they can burn together.

Cyberblade: The City of Five Skies, is a world inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, the Hunger Games series, and the author’s long period of isolation during the Covid-shutdown and Australian wildfires. William Z Stone aimed to turn the feeling of being indoors and days of ash-clogged skies into its own dystopian world, where the people live in city-sized engines, and the citizens treated as mere cogs to be used and replaced by those in power.

If a dystopian story, with deep-dive questions about self-identity and a cybernetics-fueled revolution interests you, then read Cyberblade now!

Genre: Ya Scifi / Dystopia

Format: Mobi

The Bird that Sang in Color by Grace Mattioli (393 pages) ARC now for January publication)

Part family drama and part self-actualization story, this is about Donna Greco, who in her teens, subscribes to a conventional view of success in life—and pushes her freewheeling, artistic brother, Vincent to do the same. However, he remains single, childless, and subsists in cramped apartments. She harbors guilt for her supposed failure until she discovers a sketch-book he’d made of his life, which prompts her own journey to live authentically.

While this textured story combines serious issues such as alcoholism, death, and family conflict, it’s balanced with wit and humor and is filled with endearing, unforgettable characters. The story spans decades, beginning in 1970 and ending in the present. Readers will be immersed in this tale as it poses an intriguing question: “What pictures will you have of yourself by the end of your life?”

Genre: Literary fiction / family drama

Format: Mobi

There Was Music by J.D. Grubb (244 pages)

She defied them with survival.
Prisoner 43-1-12 contends with the voices of her past, present, and future in the war-altered world of Illirium. From a ranch outside a rural town, to a prison formed from city ruins, and a wilderness marked by supernatural encounters, There was Music explores the struggle between identity and the cost of survival, the power of music and the hope of healing.
Warning: This story contains some scenes with non-graphic torture, sexual assault, rape, and suicidal thoughts.

Genre: Adult low fantasy

Format: Mobi or e-pub

The Chef Who Made Onions Cry by Chilli Kippen (170 pages)

As on all cruise ships, the most important person on board the Pacific Belle, apart from the Captain is the Master Chef. It is the quality and yes indeed the quantity of food that makes or breaks a cruise.

The reader is introduced to Master Chef Armand Barrique – twice Michelin starred – dreamt recipes, who is not only a Master Chef but also a man of sensitivity and devoted to his trainee expert truffle-hunter pig. Chef is also central to the plot and his planning and delivery of the spectacular Versailles dinner is a highlight, not only for the cruise guests, but also for the reader.

Our old friend Alexander Pushkin Goldfarb continues his run of luck in the ship’s casino as he observes the foibles of his fellow passengers while new characters such as Major Barbara Cock, a retired army psychiatrist and now assassin for hire, introduce elements of intrigue and revenge and somewhat paradoxically humour and sympathy for her cause.

As in her previous novel, as the plot twists and turns in Ms Kippen’s hilarious and deliberately absurd trademark style, she tackles another important social issue and delivers a powerful blow to the proponents of Live Animal Transportation. The marked contrast of sober descriptions of this cruel practice brings home the message that it must be stopped! Now!

Genre: Humourous fiction

Format: Mobi

The Shard by Jane Shand (274 pages)

Darkness is falling…

Something is happening to the children of the land. Slowly they are being turned, their magic twisted by the dark energy spreading its tentacles across the country, until what’s left is only a Darkling abomination. Only those in possession of a special Gift are immune and can drain away the energy to heal the children – but only as and when the Gift chooses.

Nalani has this Gift but considers it to be something of a curse. Believing it drove away her beloved father literally and her mother emotionally, she lives a lonely life doing what she can to help others. When the Gift suddenly demands that she journey to the mainland, the chance for escape, for a new life and purpose, beckons. And with both hands, she grabs for it.

Except as she settles into her new life in the city of Karas, she soon discovers more questions than answers when she stumbles across a series of magical experiments on creatures rumoured to have created the energy unique to the city. When she learns that this could be responsible for the dark forces sweeping the land, she decides this time she will take her life into her own hands. With the help of those she encounters including a Darkling boy and Luca, a young man whose research seems to hold the key, Nalani sets out on a path that will forever change her life. But will she figure out all of the answers, including ones shadowed inside herself, before the darkness overpowers them all.

With its young adult protagonist and themes of self-discovery, coming of age, and setting out on one’s own, this novel should appeal to adults and YA alike.

Genre: Fantasy

Format: Mobi

Unnatural, Erica Rosen MD Trilogy, Book 1 by Deven Greene (ARC now for Jan 7th 2021 publication)

Dr. Erica Rosen, a San Francisco, California pediatrician, is perplexed when she sees a young Chinese girl with blue eyes in her clinic. The girl’s mother, Ting, is secretive, and Erica suspects she has entered the United States illegally. Later, Erica encounters Ting’s son and discovers he has an unusual mutation. Erica learns that Ting’s children underwent embryonic stem cell gene editing as part of a secret Chinese government-run program.
The Chinese government wants to murder Ting’s son to prevent others from learning about his unusual mutation and the secret gene-editing program. At Ting’s urging, Erica heads to China to expose the program and rescue the infant Ting was forced to leave behind, all while attempting to evade the watchful eye of the Chinese government.

Genre: Medical thriller

Format: Mobi or epub

Ghost (The Justice Chronicles Book 1) by Michael Jack Webb (382 pages)

Enter a world where nothing is what it appears to be, and every clue leads an extraordinary young woman deep into the heart of darkness and beyond. 

Kate Justice, FBI’s youngest Profiler, is assigned to find a serial killer with supernatural abilities.

The killer is elusive, cunning, and seemingly invincible.

Kate races against time to discover who or what is behind the gruesome murders and prevent another brutal killing.

She soon fears she’s in over her head as stunning revelations about her mysterious ancestry surface.

Hunter becomes the prey as the Ghost in the Darkness killer plays a vicious cat and mouse game, drawing Kate into a deadly confrontation.

Uncovering the truth will challenge her beliefs about the world around her and her understanding of what is real, what is a myth, and what is something in between.

Genre: Thriller

Format: Mobi / epub

Writedown: Lockdown in the Galloway Glens at the Time of Covid – Antholgy (178 pages)

Writedown provides a unique record of life in Galloway, south west Scotland during lockdown through the work of 22 writers in a collection of lyrical poetry, desperate rants, humour and quiet endurance. They tell the story of a community encountering unprecedented times.

Genre: Anthology

Format: Mobi / epub

Everything That Came Before Grace by Bill See (ARC now, for publication early December)

A music obsessed, wannabe writer and single-father comes of age as he discovers whether it’s love or fatherhood that could save him. Haunted by his mother’s death and a series of serendipitous events from his past, Benjamin Bradford desperately tries to keep his mental illness under control while raising his daughter Sophia. Set against the iconic streets of Los Angeles, there’s music always playing, heavy therapy sessions and private emails to discern, shattered friendships and betrayal, and the specter of a true love that got away. Think: Silver Linings Playbook meets High Fidelity with a dash of Eighth Grade. Can Benjamin find redemption? Can he escape his demons and find love again? Come along for the ride and find out.

Genre: Coming of age

Format: Mobi or epub

The Shade Under the Mango Tree by Evy Journey (244 pages)

After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference. She travels to a foreign place where she gets more than she bargained for.

Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. He has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it. But they don’t stop him. His decision to go on reading changes his life.

Months later, Luna and Lucien meet at a bookstore where Luna works and which Lucien frequents. Still hurting from her losses, Luna finds solace in Lucien’s company and his tales of world travel.

Inspired by Lucien, she goes to Cambodia. What she goes through in one of its rice-growing villages defies anything she could have imagined.

An epistolary tale of courage, love and loss, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.

Genre: Contemporary fiction

Format: Mobi / epub

Psychopath’s Diary Vol.I: Inner world of a serial killer through his own bloodthirsty entity by Kirill Khrestinin (268 pages)

It was a cold, rainy night when I came home and found a package on my front porch. The sender’s name and address were missing from the label. I opened the package and discovered inside of it a manuscript titled “Psychopath’s Diary Vol. I” I was instantly pulled into the mind of a serial killer and introduced to a reality that far surpassed any definition of normal in today’s society. “Psychopath’s Diary Vol. I” is the essence of taboo. It can only be described as a poetry of violence. A symphony of torture. A tale of sexual deviance with a drop of incest and necrophilia. You want to stop reading, but you simply cannot. It is like taking a bite out of a forbidden fruit even if the taste of it spoils the sensitive stomach of our morality.
One question ran through my mind over and over, why me? Why did the killer send his confession of the crimes he had committed to me? I searched for an answer within the pages of the manuscript, but could not find one, not even a hint. There is something that has to link him and I, but what?

Genre: Psychological/crime/horror fiction

Format: Mobi

The Sum Of Our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey (450 pages)

In an idyllic suburb in Northern California, tragedy strikes the Sheppard family when Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is killed in a car accident. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car with her mother and survives without physical injury but remains deeply scarred on the inside.

Dalton tells Lily, his eldest daughter, that she must sacrifice long-awaited college plans and put her life on hold to take care of her sisters. Lily is torn between her devotion to family and an increasing need to find her place in the world — but how can she leave, knowing her family may crumble? Will her presence eventually cause more problems than it resolves?

The Sum of our Sorrows reveals how the aftermath of a family tragedy can precipitate sorrows never imagined. It is a tale of grief, hope, healing, coming-of-age, friendship, and survival. It is also a love story of two broken souls living through pain in search of better days and the renewal of one’s spirit.

Genre: Family drama

Format: Mobi

Jane In St. Pete by Cynthia Harrison (153 pages)

Widowed art lecturer Jane Chasen is not an impulsive woman. Why, then, does the formerly methodical workaholic quit her job, sell her house, and move from Detroit to Florida? Instead of pondering her atypical behavior, she takes a closer look at a neighbor’s intriguing outdoor art installation. Days later, Detective Jesse Singer discovers the murdered artist in his studio. With Jane’s help, Singer finds the victim’s bloody shirt, inexplicably located within Jane’s gated community. Singer knows nothing about art, and as he closely questions Jane, she offers to help with the art angle of the case. Singer soon takes Jane up on her offer. Then, Jane begins to receive anonymous threats. Singer, determined to protect Jane, keeps her closer to his side than ever—she’s not complaining.

Genre: Cosy mystery

Format: Mobi or e-pub

His Castilian Hawk by Anna Belfrage (355 pages)

For bastard-born Robert FitzStephan, being given Eleanor d’Outremer in marriage is an honour. For Eleanor, this forced wedding is anything but a fairy tale…
Robert FitzStephan has served Edward Longshanks loyally since the age of twelve. Now he is riding with his king to once and for all bring Wales under English control.
Eleanor d’Outremer—Noor to family—lost her Castilian mother as a child and is left entirely alone when her father and brother are killed. When ordered to wed the unknown Robert FitzStephan, she has no choice but to comply.
Two strangers in a marriage bed is not easy. Things are further complicated by Noor’s blood-ties to the Welsh princes and by covetous Edith who has warmed Robert’s bed for years.
Robert’s new wife may be young and innocent, but he is soon to discover that not only is she spirited and proud, she is also brave. Because when Wales lies gasping and Edward I exacts terrible justice on the last prince and his children, Noor is determined to save at least one member of the House of Aberffraw from the English king.
Will years of ingrained service have Robert standing with his king or will he follow his heart and protect his wife, his beautiful and fierce Castilian hawk?

Genre: Historical Fiction / Historical Romance

Format: Mobi or e-pub

Apparent Horizon by Patrick Morgan (322 pages)

On the eve of his best friend’s wedding, Michael is warned by an old classmate, now a NASA scientist, that a gamma ray burst from a nearby exploding star will hit the Earth the following morning at 11:13 a.m. – an incident that will irrevocably destroy the ozone layer, disrupt the food chain, and ultimately prove cataclysmic for all life on the planet.

Michael and the groom-to-be, Drew, laugh off the prediction as a demented joke. However, at precisely 11:13 a.m. the next day, a blinding light in the sky disrupts Drew’s wedding. News media outlets dismiss the cosmic event as a harmless phenomenon, but Michael knows better. Wrestling with the burden of his truth, uncertain of how much time he has left or just what to do with it, Michael finds himself alienated from everything and everyone he’s ever known.

Under Drew’s influence, Michael begins to transform his rather mundane life, previously shackled by powerlessness and fear, into something more unrestrained and ultimately dangerous. Feeling the weight of an unseen doomsday clock ticking his final days away, he pushes the moral envelope further and further on a quest for control over his own reality – no matter who might suffer for it.

APPARENT HORIZON explores the capacity for good and evil within the average human being, examines ethical behavior in a world without consequence, and probes the gray areas of power, abuse, belief, and fear, all against the backdrop of an engaging and suspenseful narrative.

Genre: Conspiracy thriller

Format: Mobi

The Sins Of Others by Florian Schneider (376 pages)

1993. The war-torn Bosnian countryside. Jane Abbott, a seasoned British conflict zone photographer who is no longer easily surprised, is surprised. Stunned, in fact, to’ve come across the son of the notorious Ingrid Heimlich—who, until her traceless disappearance twenty years ago, had been the world’s most infamous leftist terrorist. Ben Heimlich, the stranded German kid and wannabe reporter she has picked up by the roadside, is either fearless or incredibly naïve—though probably naïve—and were it not for the platoon of Serbian partisans who intercept them on their way, she’d pestered him incessantly with questions of his mother’s whereabouts.

1994. Still reeling from the horror he had seen in Bosnia—and, as ever, wondering where in the world his mother is—Ben Heimlich moves to the United States and settles in the local neighborhood and global allegory known as Hollywood. As he gets older and, eventually, successful and more affluent, Ben realizes that, no matter what he buys, drinks, achieves or snorts, he can’t escape his always lingering anxiety and deep despair.

When he meets Isabel, who’s left her own traumatic early life in Mexico behind to make a new beginning in Los Angeles, his self-destructive life takes a dramatic upward turn.

Chapter after chapter, Ben and his mother’s backgrounds and personae are illuminated from a multitude of angles by, among others, a former student activist aboard a hijacked airplane on a dusty stretch of tarmac in the capital of Libya in 1971; an aging homeless actor in Los Angeles still waiting for his break in 1994; a shell-shocked German girl who stumbles through the smoldering ruins of Berlin in 1945; a US State Department operative who interferes with sovereign states all over South America; the involuntary teenage wife of an imperious Sinaloan drug lord who attempts to flee her gilded cage; and the ninety-something-year-old son of German immigrants who’d fought for the United States against his parents’ onetime countrymen in World War II.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: Mobi

Hire Wire In Nuala by Harriet Steel

Much to the delight of the locals, a colourful Russian circus rolls into Nuala, but the fun ends abruptly when, on the opening night, a tragic accident takes place.
Shanti de Silva and his wife, Jane are among the crowd to witness the accident. Or was it an accident? Inspector de Silva senses murder, and soon, he’s juggling with the evidence. Will the trail lead to the circus’s dashing stunt rider and master of horse, Alexei Goncharov, or to Alexei’s brother Boris, its boisterous ringmaster? Throw a string of jewel thefts and some deadly snakes into the mix and the list of suspects grows.
De Silva will need to keep his wits about him to unravel yet another absorbing puzzle in this charming and addictive mystery series set in the 1930s in exotic Ceylon.

Genre: Murder Mystery

Format: Mobi

My Hands Are Tied by Sean Campbell (ARC now for November publication)

When a murder is committed on the grounds of a cult’s premises, and Morton’s estranged son becomes the prime suspect, the choice is simple: sit back and let another detective work to imprison his son, or work outside the rules to clear the family name.

As if he had any choice.

My Hands Are Tied is a standalone crime novel set in DCI Morton’s London. Jump right in with this seventh instalment, or try one of the earlier books first: every story is self-contained.

Genre: Crime Fiction

Format: Mobi

The Hunted Jo McCready (161 pages)

On the vast Buchanan Estate in the wilds of Scotland, tech billionaire James Sullivan dies a suspicious death. Rookie agent RJ Rox is drawn back to a homeland to which she’d sworn she’d never return. She soon realizes the present is far more threatening than her past as she hunts the killers and the powers that unleashed them.

The close-knit community surrounding the estate is the perfect place to hide secrets and lies. RJ finds herself searching for the weakest link that will allow her access into Buchanan’s sinister world.

Thrown together with a partner who clearly hates her makes RJ even more determined to prove herself to the elusive Kingfisher organization.

Remote, desolate, and beautiful, the hills hide a killer lying in wait. Can RJ close the case before anyone else is subject to the same fate as Sullivan? Before she is hunted herself?

Genre: Thriller

Format: Mobi / epub

Grace & Serenity by Annalisa Crawford (286 pages)

Living on the streets is terrifying and exhausting. Grace’s only comforts are a steady stream of vodka, and a strange little boy who’s following her around.

At nineteen, Grace has already had a child and endured an abusive marriage. But she’s also had her baby abducted by her vengeful husband and been framed as a neglectful mother. Even her own parents doubted her version of the story. So she did the only thing that made sense to her—run away.

The streets are unforgiving. Winter is drawing in. And Grace isn’t prepared for the harsh realities of survival. At her very bleakest, a Good Samaritan swoops into her life and rescues her. With a roof over her head and food in her stomach, she longs to see her baby again
.
But nothing ever comes for free.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Format: Mobi / epub

Historical Stories Of Betrayal Anthology

Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy—all names for the calculated violation of trust. And it’s been rife since humans trod the earth.

A promise broken
A mission betrayed
A lover’s desertion
A parent’s deception
An unwitting act of treason
Betrayal by comrades
Betrayal by friends

Could you resist the forces of misplaced loyalty, power hunger, emotional blackmail, or plain greed? Is there ever redemption, or will the destruction visit future generations and even alter history? These questions are still with us today.

Read twelve tales by twelve accomplished writers who explore these historical yet timeless challenges from post Roman Britain to the present day.

Genre: HistFic

Format: Download from Bookfunnel

Synthetic Selection by Arda Karaca (255 pages)

When billionaire Daniel builds the world’s greatest supercomputer, which calls itself Galileo, the world begins to change. During his first public address, Galileo explains to humanity that the only course of action is for all humans to adopt ‘Synthetic Selection’, a process whereby humans would exchange their outdated forms for a robotic body that would never deteriorate. This causes a division in the world, between those who decide to become ‘superhumans’ and those who wish to retain their human forms and lifestyles.
İn the middle of this division, Ari and Lil fall in love but little do they know how their destinies are going to change the course of humanity, even the universe, after meeting another super being called a wanderer, Al.

Genre: Scifi

Format: Mobi

Ascension of the Phoenix by Jessica Piro (371 pages)

To rise from ashes, one must be a phoenix.
Detective Leila Wells has apprehended every criminal to cross her path, except for one. And when Bryan Foster returns, he devastates her world. To cope, she finds release in street fighting. Successes with her fighting partner grant them an invitation to participate in the Rulers of the Realms Fighting Tag Tournament. But as she fights, a power begins to rise within her—a dark and angry blaze urging her toward revenge.

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Format: Mobi

 

The Silent Bluebird by Elle M Holmes (188 pages) (ARC now for Nov 17th publication)

The stories we read have the power to change our lives.

Sadie Smith lives an ordinary life, unlike the extraordinary ones of the characters in the books where she finds an escape.

Until one story changes it all.

The story of the impetuous Killian Quinn: an agent for the Zeta Defense Agency, determined to avenge his fallen partner. As she follows him further down the rabbit hole, worlds collide when she awakens with her hands tied to a chair in the face of armed men. Sadie finds herself dropped in the middle of a battle between secret agencies she didn’t even know existed, but maybe where she’s belonged all along.

Genre: Speculative fiction

Format: Mobi or epub

The Lumbermill by Laya V. Smith (333 pages)

Los Angeles, 1954.
Sending a pair of mass murderers to the chair got his name in the papers, but veteran fighter pilot turned detective, Augy Small, couldn’t celebrate. The culprits confessed, but the cops only ever found one body. Who had the killers died to protect?
Katya Tyler, a Russian enigma with a wad of cash in one hand and a hit list in the other, claims to have the answers. First, she wants Augy’s help to bring down a massive underground network of human traffickers.
As the case unfolds, every clue is an echo of his past. The horrors he experienced in the Pacific, shadows of scars he still carries, and rumors of a place long since destroyed. The Lumbermill is back in operation. Every day more innocents are harvested, their screams muffled in darkness. And the only way Augy can stop it is to go back into the nightmare he thought he’d escaped forever.

Genre: Dark neo-noir thriller

Format: Mobi / epub

Of Magpies And Men by Ode Ray (312 pages) ARC now for Feb 2021 release)

Can any good come of longings that a person can never satisfy? If so, good for whom?

At the heart Of Magpies and Men are impossible yearnings and an illicit confession that will transform the existence of many in its path…
Two corpses wash ashore in a picturesque Italian village, the violence that put them there is bound to a long held secret and two strangers living worlds apart with seemingly nothing in common.
Benedict Grant a high achiever, wealthy Londoner, leading a lonely life.
Marie Boulanger a nurse and single mum, struggling to make ends meet in Marseille.
However, a mother’s revelation will set in motion a chain of events that will reshape their identities, stir poignant family affairs and delve into the by-products of lawless decisions.

Discover a captivating and moving story weaving mystery, drama and romance peppered with humour. A tale that will stay with you long after its final page and a twist you won’t see coming.

Genre: Mystery / family saga

Format: Mobi

Birds Don’t Fly by Sandy Day (181 pages)

Sometimes sisters and brothers don’t get along – even when they’re middle aged.

Kaffy Sullivan lives and works in the business her grandparents began in the 20th century. Reclusive and offbeat, Kaffy hopes to inherit the inn and, with the help of her sister-in-law, operate it for the rest of her life.

When an important publication makes a reservation, Kaffy is under pressure to get Sullivan House spruced up in time for the review. But Sylvia, who Kaffy depends on, has disappeared. She hasn’t shown up for work, and Kaffy’s bad-tempered brother doesn’t seem to care that his wife is missing.

Cracking under the pressure to get the inn ready, and more urgently, find Sylvia, Kaffy struggles through a harrowing nest of repressed memories and traumatic family rivalries.

For readers of women’s fiction and domestic thrillers, Birds Don’t Cry is a page turner that drops you directly into one family’s conflict and search for survivors.

Genre: Domestic thriller

Format: Mobi / e-pub

Prey For Me by John Casti (ARC now for Sept 15th publication) 296 pages

World renowned scientist Victor can’t resist his attraction to Alex, a brilliant financier – and his addiction to her touch drives him over the edge.

The two are thrust together as business partners in the risky world of London finance, complicating and raising the stakes of their personal game playing. As Alex’s behavior becomes increasingly violent, Victor suspects that she is behind sinister actions involving others in the firm.

Victor’s intellectual curiosities and desires are also piqued by this added dimension of mystery and danger.

Alex would play with his emotions like a well-played guitar. Then she would disappear.

Who will win this psychological game of sensuality and desire?

Genre: Dark romantic suspense

Format: Mobi / epub

One For The Money by D.B. Borton (188 pages) (ARC now for re-publication on December 1st)

Meet Cincinnati’s newest, oldest, funniest detective-in-training. After decades of marriage, motherhood, and grandmotherhood, Cat Caliban is looking for a new career. Private investigation seems a logical choice. After all, suspicion is second nature to any woman who’s raised three kids, and she has long experience of investigating domestic criminal activity. So, she sells her suburban house, buys an apartment building in a “transitional” neighborhood, and begins training to be a detective, only to discover a corpse in an upstairs apartment. What’s the connection between a dead homeless woman and the Golden Age of Hollywood silent movies? Cat must discover it before the killer strikes again.

Genre: Mystery

Format: available for request on netgalley or mobi