I'm an author, but I'm also a reader. From time to time, I'll share my reviews of present and past reads. My available time to read is limited because I write, but I love to curl up with a paperback or an eBook at night for the last hour of my day.
I tend to read what I write, but not exclusively. Besides
Romantic Suspense and mystery, I read crime and law novels, once in a while a
true story, WWII historicals, romance, and mainstream character driven books.
Here are some of the books I've read recently or in the not-too-distant past.
Maybe you'll discover a new book or author.
There wasn’t an honest bone in Buzz
Bixby’s body. The Encino High School’s head football coach was an
equal-opportunity scoundrel. Bixby cheated and lied his way to the top and
screwed anyone and everyone in his wake. So, the question wasn’t who wanted the
bastard dead. The question was, who didn’t?
Student reporter Hannah White’s interview with the coach is a nonstarter when
she discovers varsity football hero Dean Snyder standing over Bixby’s battered
corpse holding a bloody trophy. Despite how guilty Dean looks, Hannah is
convinced he’s innocent. When Snyder is arrested for Bixby’s murder, the
wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to flesh out the
real killer.
But the trail has more twists and turns than a slinky, and nothing turns out
how Hannah thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on
revenge.
My Review
Susie Black has launched a new cozy
mystery series with The Case of the Croaked Coach. At Encino High School, the
head football coach has collected quite a list of enemies. Who would like a
cheating scoundrel who lies, treats women badly, and steps on anyone who gets
in his way? When he ends up dead, murdered, and one of the football players is
the prime suspect, student reporter, Hannah White is on the case…with a little
help from her lawyer Uncle B and a female private investigator whose smart
mouth rivals Hannah’s.
I found Hannah a delight, and the seriousness with which she takes her position on the school paper fun. The amateur sleuth in this series might be a high school student, but I’m convinced from this first book, this is a full-fledged cozy that will give mystery readers hours of entertainment.
Ms. Black has established a cast of
characters that I’ll enjoy following in the next book and beyond.
In 1979, four teenage boys from an
elite private school sexually assault a fourteen-year-old classmate—and film
the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a
fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns
state’s evidence and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes
without a trace.
Now, it’s 1989 and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released
from prison. Moody, unrepentant, and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his
ever-watchful parents—until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom
demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help. As she is drawn
into their family drama, she keeps a watchful eye on Fritz. But he’s not the
only one being haunted by the past. A vicious sociopath with a grudge against
Millhone may be leaving traces of himself for her to find...
My Review
It’s hard to find fault with an
author who can crank out 25 novels around one detective, Kinsey Millhone. And
this is the fourth book in the series I’ve read, but not in order, so I have
enjoyed them. I enjoyed this one too, but found a little trouble following the
storyline a few times. She uses a flashback technique to slowly reveal what
actually happened in 1979. So we hop between that and her investigation in
1989. She also dropped in a villain who is after her from one of her other
novels. The problem could’ve been caused because I read in brief segments of
time before I go to bed…actually in bed. If I read for longer times, maybe I
wouldn’t have gotten lost. Regardless, it was an entertaining book. I’m sure I’ll
drop back and read at least some of the others in the series.
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