Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 261

Review: WILD CRIME by Julie Howard

Meredith Lowe was hoping that “her grandmother’s death might lift the veil on a few of their family mysteries.” Perhaps she could finally learn the identity of her father. There were so many unanswered questions. Why did her mother leave home? What else was her grandmother keeping from her? And what happened to her father? Could the answers be inside a box?
Suddenly, it becomes a mission to find her father. How far will she go to discover the truth?
It’s such a curious mystery—simple and captivating. It’s a simple basis of discovering the who, what, when, where, and why. Who was David Givens? What happened between her mother and grandmother? When did her mother leave? Where was her father? And why did her mother hate her father so much? So many questions. You can’t help but easily fall into this. Each clue was a key to the puzzle. Will she find answers? Or will this be another “dead end in her anemic family tree?”   
A well-written search for the truth!
My rating: 4 stars

Review: OUT OF THE NIGHT by Jonathan C. Blazer

“I can have no more blood on my hands.” (10)
James was a typical average man with a wife and kids. His aim was to do good in life—be good to his kids, be good to his colleagues, be good to mankind.
“What makes a person good is this: actively making a conscious decision to do what is right in spite of the consequences.” (15) It would seem that James had the weight of the world on his shoulders. But what would happen when your world is suddenly taken from you? That’s what happened to James when a dark figure emerged from out of the night, attacking his wife and daughter. Panicked and confused, James frantically pursued the attacker, doing everything to save his family. But it was too late. They were both dead…and James knew that this was all his fault. But what were these dark creatures out of the night?
Story was pretty good. It definitely gives the reader chills with these scary things coming after you. I especially like the psychology of fear—the fear of loneliness, the fear of darkness, the fear of death. And James fought so hard to face that fear.
It was literary horror at its finest.
My rating: 4 stars

Review: MALICIOUS MATES by Raz Andrews

The beginning of this takes off with Jackson spewing on what a nightmare his boss is. Evidently, he’s at some dreadful work function. Meanwhile, Chelsea is waiting for him. The whole time Jackson is trying to get away so he can finally go home to Chelsea. But circumstances beyond his control prevent him from doing so.
The writing doesn’t really capture the reader as much as it should. I found myself re-reading a lot of parts just to catch up and figure things out. I didn’t really enjoy this as much as I thought I would.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: HOMICIDE AND VINE by Mindy Glazer

Los Angeles: The City of Angels. This is more of a Hollywood story.
At first, the story loses the reader with its dazzling ambiguity and flowery monologues. You get lost in all these star-studded facets that it’s hard to pinpoint a direction for this tale. I didn’t even see any characters in this, much less a point to any of it.
A pointless read.
My rating: 1 star

Cover Reveal: NEVER ENOUGH by Kristina M. Sanchez

This cover reveal is organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kristina M. Sanchez will award a randomly drawn winner a $20 Amazon/BN GC. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

At thirty-seven, Valentin Belmonte returned to his mother’s house with his tail between his legs. No surprise there. His life had been a long line of bad choices, failures, and trouble. Also returning home, freshly graduated and on the hunt for a job, was Mina Toussaint, the orphan Val’s mother and stepfather had taken in when he was already grown. She’d been the only person who’d ever really liked him, but he’d screwed that up a long time ago.



Mina’s adoptive family had treated her like the perfect princess and little girl they always wanted. Val was the only one who’d ever seen her for who she really was; she’d never wanted to be a princess. But after what happened when she was sixteen, she thought she hated him. Now, six years later, things were different. She wasn’t the child she’d been when she got so angry. The trouble was that Val hadn’t changed. He still saw her.

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Review: BLOOD UNDER CHERRY BLOSSOMS by T.J. Holtz

 Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

It’s a slow summer for D.C. college professor Adelaide Patulski, until she discovers an old photo that could catch the killer in an infamous 1986 murder: A teenage boy sprawled under cherry blossoms, as his killer runs away.

A picture is worth a thousand words. But this photo is worth a lot more: it might cost Adelaide her life.

Suddenly her computer’s being hacked, she’s being watched and getting death threats.

Adelaide’s being hunted.

And the only way to save herself is to solve an unsolvable murder before she becomes the next victim.

If Adelaide can get her next-door neighbor, a cranky and recently fired Secret Service agent, to help her solve the case, she might actually have a shot.

But this is D.C. and the killer’s spent 35 years rising through the ranks. And Adelaide’s running out of time.

Can Adelaide catch the killer before he catches her? Or will this summer be her last?

Available on Amazon


 

Night of 1986: a boy named George was killed, his blood under the cherry blossoms.
Present: An adjunct professor named Adelaide was researching old crimes for her book and stumbles across an old photo, one that could be THE clue to a killer.  When she tried going to the police about it, no one would listen. What did she really have here? But the odd thing was that everything about this old case just vanished—research, Google articles, emails, everything. It was just gone. Spooky. Then things turn deadly when Adelaide starts receiving threatening messages. Was she in danger now? Were George’s killers still out there?
Can she finally close the case and put George’s spirit to rest?
Intriguing and compelling. There were some typos here and there, but it doesn’t deter from a fascinating case that hooks the reader. Adelaide was determined to find the killer no matter what, and you just had to know how it ends.
A quick and gripping read!
My rating: 4 stars


  Blood under cherry blossoms- excerpt
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Adelaide said. “Is there any way I could find out who lived in apartment 203, in 1986?”Ruth steepled her fingers. “That depends. Generally, that’s an invasion of privacy. Why would a professor need that information?”Adelaide leaned forward. “Remember that box of old photos you let me have? I found one that was taken of the Oakwood murder scene. Something I don’t think the police ever saw. And it has to have been taken from that apartment. It’s a longshot, but if we could find whoever lived there in 1986, and get them to talk to the police, it might uncover something that could finally solve the Oakwood murder.”Ruth studied Adelaide. “Hmm.”“Do you remember who lived there?” Adelaide asked. “Yes, actually.”Adelaide straightened. “Really? That’s amazing. If you could just give me their name–”But Ruth was already shaking her head. “I can’t do that. And if I did, that person won’t talk to the police, not for something as old as that.”“But if you could just give me their information, I can at least try–”“I said no,” Ruth said, raising her voice, and Adelaide stilled. It was the first time she’d ever heard Ruth raise her voice like that. She’d heard Ruth angry, heard her try to corral a crowd, but this was something different. This was fear. Ruth closed her eyes, took a deep breath. When she opened them, she was calm, and Adelaide was tempted to think she’d imagined the whole thing. “Ruth,” Adelaide says. “Is there more to this than just local history?”Ruth looked out the window. “Sometimes history is viciously ugly. And it only gets worse when you bring it into the light.” She sighed. “I never should have given you those photos.”And then she rolled her shoulders, shaking it off, and when she looked back at Adelaide her smile was bright. “You know about this weekend’s potluck right? Of course everyone in the building’s invited but I’m really trying to get you single people to come out. Leave your screens! Meet people! Y'all have too much time on your hands. If I get one more complaint about not using organic cleaning supplies, or offering an adequate meditation space…”Adelaide laughed politely, knowing she was being dismissed.But as she wrestled with the old fashioned elevator gate, and rode up to her fourth floor apartment, Adelaide felt the miscellaneous fear settle into cold hard certainty. This wasn’t in her head. Someone had scared Ruth, and probably others, out of talking about the Oakwood murder. When she got up to her one bedroom apartment, Adelaide dropped her purse, kicked off her shoes and cracked her neck. Then she ordered takeout, scooped her hair up into a bun, and sat down to her keyboard. Someone was trying to erase the George Oakwood’s murder from the Internet. And she wasn’t going to let them. Adelaide pulled up every cold-case website and message board she could find. And then she started posting everything she could about the Oakwood murder.By the time she was done, there wouldn’t be a cold case fanatic anywhere on the Internet who hadn’t seen the photo of George Oakwood’s killers, running away from what they’d done.

Review: MURDER MOST CHRISTIAN by Nicholas E. Watkins

Another bad cover with text color that you can’t really read on top of a gray photo image. Not visually exciting or readable. C’mon, you have to be able to read the title of the book.


As far as the story goes, there are too many characters overwhelming a very dull story. That’s it.


My rating: 1 star

Review: ARTFUL DODGER by Nageeba Davis

If you’re day couldn’t get any worse, try finding a dead body to clinch the deal. That’s how it started for Maggie Kean.  A dead woman was swimming in her sewage tank. But it wasn’t just any old lady—it was her meddlesome neighbor. Sure, she was annoying at times, but she meant well to Maggie. If only she didn’t have jerks for grandkids. Everyone in the community is a suspect, even her, especially after being named official handler of her $10 million dollar estate, making her suspect #1 with a motive. Of course, the worst part of it was being stuck with those spoiled, greedy grandkids. Oh no, not happening. Maggie needed to solve this case and fast.


Maggie is witty, sarcastic, and fun! I liked her style—simple, sensible, comfortable, and funny—and she had a real nose for sleuthing. Could a bad cop be involved?


A good, little mystery!


My rating: 4 stars

Review: I KNOW WHAT YOU SAW by Gillian Larkin

A recording from last night could mean something more. Could Maggie have accidentally caught a murder on tape? Could she have a murderer on her street? Did they see what she saw? And was she in danger now?


Although it sounded interesting, story kind of lags. Maggie makes herself crazy fretting and worrying over what she might’ve seen. In fact, she often doubts herself and goes into denial, thinking that there were no killers on her street. O-kay. But then she goes snooping around anyway, not spying very well, in my opinion. The read was kind of dull sometimes.


Interesting concept, okay read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: NOW SHE’S DEAD by Ben Cheetham

Jack Anderson’s wife was now dead. What happened? Did she kill herself? Did she slip and fall? Or was it something else?


This was VERY slow! First part mostly deals with his drunken grief, then he turns into a voyeur. The whole thing was kind of dull.


My rating: 2 stars