Derailed by Mary Keliikoa
Read as part of CBR13Bingo: New Series. The Kelly Pruett series debuted in 2020. Book two came out this year. In the “About the Author” section, the reader learns that Mary Keliikoa didn’t get the chance to publish this book until she was 50, despite trying to begin a writing career in her 20s. Things like family and work (she is, or was a lawyer) kept getting in the way. I appreciate that story a lot. And perhaps it made me appreciate her debut effort […]
The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
Before I get into this review, I think it’s important that I tell you I was born and raised in Mormonism and spent a great deal of time in Utah. So the polygamy of it all is extra interesting to me. That’s right. The title of this novel refers to “plural marriage,” which is what fundamentalist Mormons call (and called) polygamy from the 19th century to today. Thursday is the second wife of a man who is married to three women. His first wife, Monday […]
Stray City by Chelsey Johnson
Have you ever had a thing that’s so much yours that you’re prickly about it? A hobby that you’re into so much more than just casually that you can’t listen to other people discuss it casually? Something you feel protective of, defensive about, proprietary toward? That you can’t discuss with (almost) anyone else because they will not be on the same level as you and that’ll make you feel weird? And you feel almost angry if you hear someone else talking about like it’s theirs […]
This is my second Annabeth Albert novella. I really liked it, although not nearly as much as the first. She packs a LOT of angst into this one. Angst is not my preferred flavor, but I still enjoyed it, and read it very fast. Like the other novella, the set up for the story is very straightforward, and both characters likeable. Robby is a Portland hipster who owns his own coffee cart. He has a crush on David, a daily regular customer. They dance around […]
The fifth in a series of thrillers about Portland Detective Archie Sheridan and his arch-nemesis and former lover Gretchen Lowell is both grisly and well-written: two crucial elements in a thriller worth the read. The essence of the plot is that horrendous murders are happening in apparently random ways, with only one linking piece of evidence that no one as yet understands. Detective Sheridan receives a summons to visit Gretchen, also known as the infamous “Beauty Killer,” a sadistic serial killer who is doing life […]
