Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery. Show all posts

September 29, 2025

Weekly Spotlight - Indie Mysteries

Vrooms, Brooms, & Heirlooms
The last time witchy car mechanic Victoria Fox did magic, she nearly blew up half a street. Oops. No more magic for her, but is a witch who doesn’t do magic still a witch?

Well, she does have a kitty familiar named Professor Studmuffin Salvitore III. She also has a knack for inviting magical trouble to her shop’s doorstep.

Like her business rival who shows up and offers her a deal. A tempting deal, but she shuts the door in his face anyway. Moments later, his star employee drops dead.

All roads lead to Victoria as the murderer. The problem? She didn’t do it. The other problem? Almost no one believes her.

It’s now up to her and her kitty familiar to prove she’s innocent. Tiptoeing closer to the truth could put them both in danger though. And it might just take a lead paw on the gas pedal to get them out.

 

  
The Paris Assignment
A courageous wife, mother, and resister confronts the devastation of World War II in a heartbreaking and hopeful novel by the bestselling author of The Venice Sketchbook and The Tuscan Child.

Londoner Madeleine Grant is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris when she marries charismatic French journalist Giles Martin. As they raise their son, Olivier, they hold on to a tenuous promise for the future. Until the thunder of war sets off alarms in France.

Staying behind to join the resistance, Giles sends Madeleine and Olivier to the relative safety of England, where Madeleine secures a job teaching French at a secondary school. Yet nowhere is safe. After a devastating twist of fate resulting in the loss of her son, Madeleine accepts a request from the ministry to aid in the war effort. Seizing the smallest glimmer of hope of finding Giles alive, she returns to France. If Madeleine can stop just one Nazi, it will be the start of a valiant path of revenge.

Though her perseverance, defiance, and heart will be tested beyond imagining, no risk is too great for a brave wife and mother determined to fight and survive against inconceivable odds.

 

 
The Muse
"What happens when Death is the Muse?"
On the first day of her nude modeling job, Elle deals with a corpse, an eccentric dark artist, his sexy brother, and a grandmother that can see someone's future by just touching their hands. Although these crazy distractions shove her on edge, it's just what she needs to mend her battered heart and forget about her ex-boyfriend. Besides, she does get to live in their castle for the whole three months.

Everything seems magical and perfect. Until more dead bodies are discovered.

There's something going on at night, right in the artist's garden. Under the moonlight, young women are being cut and sliced, and no one has a clue to who's doing it. And the more Elle is around the weird family in the castle, the more she realizes that they all are hiding secrets.
The Muse is a Sexy Multicultural Romance involving Love, Art & a Deadly Mystery

 
A Scone to Die For
FIRST IN A NEW SERIES!
When an American tourist is murdered with a scone in Gemma Rose’s quaint Oxfordshire tearoom, she suddenly finds herself apron-deep in a mystery involving long-buried secrets from Oxford’s past.

Armed with her insider knowledge of the University and with the help of four nosy old ladies from the village (not to mention a cheeky little tabby cat named Muesli), Gemma sets out to solve the mystery—all while dealing with her matchmaking mother and the return of her old college love, Devlin O’Connor, now a dashing CID detective.

But with the body count rising and her business going bust, can Gemma find the killer before things turn to custard?

July 27, 2023

Mister Magic


Mister Magic
 
by Kiersten White 

Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Del Rey
Pub Date: August 8, 2023 
Genre: Adult, Thriller, Horror, Mystery
Format: eARC 
Source: NetGalley 
Book Links: Goodreads Amazon  

Who is Mister Magic? Former child stars reunite to uncover the tragedy that ended their show—and discover the secret of its enigmatic host—in this dark supernatural thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hide. 

 
Thirty years after a tragic accident shut down production of the classic children’s program Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members have done their best to move on. But just as generations of cultishly devoted fans still cling to the lessons they learned from the show, the cast, known as the Circle of Friends, have spent their lives searching for the happiness they felt while they were on it. The friendship. The feeling of belonging. And the protection of Mister Magic. 
 
But with no surviving video of the show, no evidence of who directed or produced it, and no records of who—or what—the beloved host actually was, memories are all the former Circle of Friends has. 
 
Then a twist of fate brings the castmates back together at the remote desert filming compound that feels like it’s been waiting for them all this time. Even though they haven’t seen each other for years, they understand one another better than anyone has since. 
 
After all, they’re the only ones who hold the secret of that circle, the mystery of the magic man in his infinitely black cape, and, maybe, the answers to what really happened on that deadly last day. But as the Circle of Friends reclaim parts of their past, they begin to wonder: Are they here by choice, or have they been lured into a trap? 
 
Because magic never forgets the taste of your friendship. . .. 

 
 

My Review: I'm far from a Horror reader, but I will always grab something by Kiersten. Plus, her horror books are more of a page turner and edge of your seat rather than scare, so win-win!  

 

For decades Val has lived on the Farm. She helps with the camps and has a good life. Heading back to the cabin she notices that the door is open. It shouldn't be but she'll make a note to add locks where her dad can't reach.  But there won't be a need, she finds her dad has passed.  

 

The funeral comes and Val is in Gloria's house. They talk and Gloria mentions there will be more people attending because she mentioned it online. Val is worried, but she also isn't sure why. Why they showed up here, what happened when she was younger, why her dad was the way she was. Maybe he did something bad, maybe he was in hiding, but now the answers are gone.  

 

To add to everything, three guys show up. Calling her by her full name and Val is scared. She has no idea who they are at all, how they know her name, nada. So, bossy Val takes over and demands they go out outside and explain.  

 

 A brief explanation and suddenly, Val grabs her duffle bag, some cash and off she goes with these guys. Stranger danger, who? Oh, and they are on the way to a reunion for a show she has no clue about and someone she thought dead isn't actually dead.  

 

That's all just in the first three chapters and I feel for Val. She really has a lot thrown at her quickly, but she is strong, smart and just a wonderful character. People blame her, a woman even attacks her, and she still maintains such a strong character. She could easily lash out, scream to the world she hadn't a clue what happened back then. Yet, she remains strong, keeps her cool and even offers kindness.  

 

As the book continues on, so much more is revealed, and it really becomes a page turner that is impossible to put down. I've loved Kiersten’s work since Paranormalcy came out and her books continue to show why she has been one of my top authors for so long and will continue to be.  


 

My Rating:
✪✪✪✪✪

April 07, 2023

Dark and Shallow Lies

Dark and Shallow Lies
by Ginny Sain
 
Book: Stand Alone
Publisher: Razorbill
Pub Date: September 7, 2021
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Format: Hardcover
Source: Bought
Book Links: Goodreads  Amazon

A teen girl disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot, in this chilling debut supernatural thriller for fans of Natasha Preston, Karen McManus, and Rory Power.

La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.

This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World--and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey's best friend, disappeared six months earlier.

Grey can't believe that Elora vanished into thin air any more than she can believe that nobody in a town full of psychics knows what happened. But as she digs into the night that Elora went missing, she begins to realize that everybody in town is hiding something - her grandmother Honey; her childhood crush Hart; and even her late mother, whose secrets continue to call to Grey from beyond the grave.

When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou - a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town's bloody history - Grey realizes that La Cachette's past is far more present and dangerous than she'd ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn't know who she can trust. In a town where secrets lurk just below the surface, and where a murderer is on the loose, nobody can be presumed innocent--and La Cachette's dark and shallow lies may just rip the town apart.


My Review: I loved the blurb if this book and all that was to come with it. However, it is a very very slow start. You have to hold on through the halfway point. I almost gave up on this book until that point.

Grey's best friend is missing. While everyone talks about her in the past tense, Grey still talks about her as if she is still alive somewhere.

She comes back home for the summer after spending all year with her dad out of state for school. She loves spending the summers with Honey and cant wait to move back home for good. This visit is hard knowing her best friend, her twin flame is missing. 

Grey and her friends have gifts. Most do in this town. Grey didn't really notice/give into her gifts until she started to get flashes of that night Elora went missing. 

Grey wants so badly to believe her friend is alive and it took her a bit to start to realize that just maybe she really is gone. As she tries to figure things out a boy shows up out of no where who knows about Grey but more importantly he knows about Elora. This boy with those blue eyes has a history with the town and is one of the summer children. But where has he been all this time? Why is he here now? 

Grey and him spend time together and Grey learns about the things Elora told him and he eventually reveals who he is and why he came back. 

But the ending.... You know I wasn't expecting it to end how it did. Finding out the truth behind much more than just Elora and the who was unexpected, but the reasoning is cliché. I didn't love the ending but I didn't hate it either. 

Overall, I liked this book a lot once I had gotten halfway and the slow pace finally picked up. Really well done characters and story line. I would look out for more books by the author. 

 

My Rating:
✪✪✪✪