FMAM MOSTLY MYSTERY REVIEWS
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September 2008
Fractured Souls
T.A. Ridgell
Echelon Press,
$12.99, 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1590804711
Accidents seem to plague Dr. Benita Keyser’s geological team. At first they are petty annoyances but then they become more serious, including attempted murder. PI Sean Turner is sent to Sardinia to protect Dr. Ben Keyser without letting the doctor know how much danger he may really be in. Their first meeting is quite exceptional for when she sees someone sneaking around the cave with her rocks, she attacks him, stabbing him the thigh. Sean is taken aback by the force and strength of this very beautiful woman who has attacked him and even more shocked to discover that she is the Dr. Ben Keyser he has been sent to protect.
Sean a committed womanizer is smitten but when Beni invites him into her tent, he turns her down. She takes is as a sign of rejection, not allowing him to explain. He had a stalker if not worse to catch, and letting his guard down just then was not wise or safe.
Returning to the US, accidents continue to happen around Beni. Her car is keyed, her home is broken into, and more. But who wants to harm her? Her rocks – gems are safe. The men she was on the dig with were all men she has known and worked with for some time.
When Sean returns to the US, he is met with a surprise from his boss and good friend, Derek. Derek announces his engagement to the office receptionist Vanessa. Shocked, Sean can’t hide his dismay until Derek tells him Vanessa is pregnant. Sean is highly suspicious of this, but Derek tells him to leave it alone. Of course Sean cannot and through clever investigation Sean discovers that although Vanessa is pregnant she was inseminated and Derek is not and could not be the father. Derek promptly fires her. After a week of the two of them trying to run the office they bring in a mature older woman who sends Sean out on a divorce “bug” sweep where he is shot at the moment he gets out his car,
Who shot at Sean? Vanessa? Or is it related to Beni’s case? He and Beni were kinda dating, and when her home is broken in she calls Derek for someone to install am alarm. This act does jumpstart their relationship to a small degree but it doesn’t stop the attacks.
Is Vanessa trying to hurt Beni? Or is it one of the men she trusts? Someone does not only want her to fail, they want her dead.
FRACTURED SOULS is a fast, easy read. Beni is a physically strong and strong willed woman, an Indiana Joan, but she has her flaws. No man has spent the night or has he had sex in her bed. Sex has been in any other part of her home. She is a bit to trusting for a well educated woman who has a walk in safe she keeps her precious gems and rocks in. With such care on her mining and obtaining of her stones, you would think she would have checked out her team a little better than she did. All that aside, the story is good, and the book is enjoyable.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.8.
Killing Bridezilla
Laura Levine
Kensington Books,
$22.00, June 2008,
256 pages
ISBN: 0-7582-2043
Jaine Austen is a writer PI who struggles to pay the rent. She is excited to write old high school “friend” Patti Marshall’s wedding vows for $3,000. This seems great until Patti demands Jaine to rewrite Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Then Patti terminates one of her bridesmaids because she has gained too much weight and hires a model to take her place. Veronica, another high school “friend” caters the event, to be told to fire a waiter because his hair clashed with her décor! Bridezilla!
Patti taunts Jaine and teases her about not having a man and before Jaine knows it, she tells Patti about her neurosurgeon fiancée Francoise. Now to make matters worse, she doesn’t even know anyone who can fake it so she rents a gorgeous escort. But of course nothing goes as it should and Jaine’s gorgeous neurosurgeon is recognized as a stripper, in fact the one who had performed at Patti’s bachelorette party the night before. Jaine stays for the wedding anyway to have a bigger event than her humiliation occur. Dickie is Pattie’s intended and his ex wife Normalynne rushes down the aisle shouting I hope you fall to your death Patti. And while Patti is giving her vows her balcony breaks sending her to her death, speared on Cupid’s bow. It’s not long before it is determined that the balcony was tampered with. Not surprisingly, Normalynne is accused of Patti’s murder. Jaine does not think Normalynne did it and offers her services as a PI to help clear her.
Julio, the gardener claims to have seen a woman with a drill tampering with the balcony. But which one, so many hated Patti.
As Jaine embarks on clearing Normalynne we journey with her through a dork of high school boy who grew into a bigger dork of a man with a $29 toupee. We follow her through the questioning of the suspects which is fun and amusing and we get to watch her cat Prozac rule the home.
Ms. Levine writes in the first person in such a charming fun style that you feel as if you are walking beside Jaine with her. You can taste Veronica’s food as she prepares it. You can feel the hair on your arm stand up every time Jaine works with Patti. The storytelling is fun. The book is a fast, quick read. I was sorry to have it over. KILLING BRIDEZILLA is a delightful escape into the world of Janie Austen. I can’t wait to read more by Laura Levine; she has made a fan of me! I loved it!
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5!
Memory of a Murder
Earl Staggs
Tidewater Publishers,
April 2008, $13.95,
272 pages
ISBN: 978-0-87033-604-1
Twelve years previously, former FBI profiler Adam Kingston is in an accident that nearly kills him. Instead, when he recovers he finds not only does he regain his strength but he has a new gift; a gift of sight. He is now able to see things others can’t. Things plod along until Chip Weathers comes to Adam for help. Chip has amnesia but believes that he may be responsible for body found buried in a basement of a house. Chip who is homeless, in his cloudy way, thinks that he murdered this woman. He wants Adam to tell him the truth. Chip has read the articles NEWSWEEK about how Adam came out of the accident with his special gift and he feels that the only person who can see through him and give him the answers, good or bad is Adam.
On the other end is Brenda McCort trying to solve not only the woman in the basement case but others which lead right to Adam and Chip.
However, nothing is as it seems and shortly after Chip “hires” Adam they are shot out. Why would someone want to kill Chip, a homeless man who is convinced he killed the woman? Unless Chip is innocent? Adam’s visions lead them down a path of shocking revelations and surprises.
Earl Staggs weaves a frightfully well written paranormal thriller. I was hooked from page one. Earl’s ability to weave such a tale with twists and turns is exciting! He makes you feel like you are right there with them, side by side. You huff and puff as danger snaps at them! It is great! I loved it.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 5!
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