Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 297

Review: PLATEFUL OF MURDER by Carole Fowkes

As a girl, rather than play with dolls, Claire played “get the crook,” always believing that justice should prevail and the good guys should win. That’s why she became a detective.
What started off as merely taking incriminating shots of sleazebag cheats soon becomes too much to bear when murder gets involved. But the desire for justice and desperate need for money provokes her to pursue the case, even though she has no idea what she’s doing. No question that Claire was scared, which is why this book is part of the Terrified Detective series. She has fears—fear of going blind with too much hair spray, fear of not paying her debts, fear of getting big hips like her aunt, fear of getting killed on an investigation she has no business in.
I liked Claire’s witty side, especially with her metaphors. For example, “the case was like a puzzle, where you had the border pieces only but none of the inside ones, which made it impossible to make out the picture.”
Story was simple and witty, but it lagged sometimes and there were too many characters. What could be so interesting about investigating a pharmaceutical company? And the worst part was that even though Claire was an expert at crime shows and has wanted to catch the criminals since she was a kid, she was not a good sleuth. She had no experience, no clue, and no way to protect herself. Still, the book had charm, but the case wasn’t what I thought it would be. It just wasn’t what I was expecting.

My rating: 2.5 star

Review: MURDER SHE TYPED by Sylvia Selfman

Izzy is a modern-day aspiring writer. Then one day a Marilyn Monroe type saunters into her writing group and steals the show—maybe even her man, too.
Then the woman disappears and Izzy suspects foul play. Funny how she can get so wrapped up with her well-being, while, at the same time, she can’t stand the perky little broad with her perfect figure, perfect hair, perfect face, perfect writer.
Izzy is just a crazy old lady with too much time on her hands. It was sickening how these old geezers can think they can still get it on at their age.
Izzy and Flo were the sleuthing duo—the Lucy and Ethel with their cockamamie, harebrained schemes. It was funny, but also asinine! I mean, these broads are like in their 60’s!
Witty and humorous; relatable with whole writer’s dream and wanting to lose weight, which Izzy relishes with in half-hearted and snarky quips.
A cozy, quirky, little mystery.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: A BITTERSWEET MURDER by Cindy Bell

I love chocolate!
Ally Sweet is a professional chocolate-maker and is looking to expand by contracting with a hotel to distribute them on pillows.
On the way back from a meeting, she finds a dead body in her trunk. What? How did it get there? Suddenly, she and a friend are suspected in the death. Good thing she has a good friend that’s looking for a little more as a detective, even though the police think that he may have been involved, too.
With her trusty old granny and this hunk of a detective, Ally will stop at nothing to figure out this mystery.
A quick, easy mystery read!

My rating: 4 stars

Review: CABS, CAKES, AND CORPSES by Jennifer Joy

Jessica has gone to Baños, Ecuador, after experiencing a helluva journey to get there. At first, I could relate to Jessica’s traveling woes. I thought she’d be a quirky, witty character. However, story just kept on lagging and not going anywhere.

Apparently, the cab driver that picked her up from the airport is found dead in her cab. And, of course, everyone in town is a suspect because, evidently, nobody liked her and everyone thought she was mean. Not ever her own husband is showing any remorse.
This mystery just didn’t get going because the constant yack from the viejitas was getting in the way a lot. I wished they would shut up already.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: CUPCAKES, LIES, AND DEAD GUYS by Pamela DuMond

Annie Rose is an empathy that’s kind of psychic. One day, at the gyno, she receives a random envelope containing pictures of her naked husband with another man. Yikes!


At the same time, a dead “I Promise” guru turns into a ghost seeking help from the empathy, whose husband he was cheating with. This definitely opened up the forum for snarky wit, which there was plenty of; however, story tended to be fast and sporadic.


And where did Annie’s ability play in here? She was an empath, right? It was just pages and pages of mundane narrative. It was weird how we got the POV of the dead guy, too.


Such a long mystery.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: GOOD CLEAN MURDER by Traci Tyne Hilton

Jane is a goody-goody, God-lovin’ Christian housecleaner. A nice and naïve girl, she thinks that God can make everything perfect. Oh, Puhleeze!

Going to college for a ministry certificate was definitely wasteful. Seriously, who does that? Who believes in God that much? As you may have guessed it, I don’t. But that’s okay. I don’t have to believe in God to enjoy a good story, which this fell short of.
Jane’s struggle to make ends meet and pay her tuition is relatable. She’s a good girl, albeit annoying, with a compassionate heart.
The plot was slow to the point and there was too much talk on the bible. When Jane got evicted, I wondered if that was God’s “plan.” But when a successful burger mogul and his wife are found dead, she deems it her fate to help the grieving family and moves into their mansion. It was a heart attack that killed them, right? But what Jane hears behind closed doors may speak otherwise. Jane meekly listens and, in her introverted and prudent manner, follows the clues. She was no detective; she’s just a silly girl. Plus, the mystery was complicated and boring. My rating: 2 stars

Review: COLD-BREWED MURDER by Neila Young

This year, Blake Harper, owner of the Mystery Cup Café, was throwing the Halloween bash on the rooftop for the small town of Wilton, Missouri. Clowns are scary enough, but they’re even scarier when you see them stabbing someone.


Story certainly brings a variety of characters, but none were really favorable—in fact, they were too many to count. And, in a mystery, it’s vital to know the characters, especially since they’re the potential suspects. The whole thing moved pretty slow. Like cold-brewed coffee, it was much too stale for my taste. I just really couldn’t get into it.


My rating: 2 stars

Review: CRUELEST MONTH by Aaron Stander

Winter is starting to loosen its grip on Cedar County along the shores of northern Lake Michigan. The first hints of green are becoming visible on the edges of the receding snowpack. On the inland lakes, the layers of ice that started forming in late November and December are slowly subsiding. The search for morel mushrooms is still three or four weeks off. But this year there is other treasure to hunt. Vincent Fox, an octogenarian, has self-published a book, Al Capone’s Michigan: The Secret Lost Treasure. Following the descriptions in the book, some of the locals are beginning to scour the beaches with shovels and metal detectors. When Fox suddenly goes missing, Sheriff Ray Elkins and Detective Sue Lawrence are confronted by a complex web of fact and fiction to sort through, and along the way they discover new information to a decades old unsolved murder.



My thoughts: The story was slow and unimpressive with lengthy dialogue. It was a dull mystery with superfluous details and too much back story and protocol that goes nowhere.
My rating: 1 star

Review: REAPER by Jonathan Pongratz

It’s Halloween, and Gregory along with his little sister, Imogen, was free of parental supervision. At 13, he was finally man of the house.  Having to deal with his bratty, whiny sister was tough…until she mysteriously disappears. Was she playing hide-and-seek? Where could she have gone?
Then he notices the door to the basement was open. But that door was always locked. With a sinking feeling, Greg enters the bleak and dark corridor, heart pounding in his chest. What was that noise? Footsteps? Monsters? But, wait, monsters don’t exist…do they?
Weeks later, Greg is still baffled by the night his sister was taken from him. What was that hideous creature? And why won’t anyone believe his story? There had to be a way to bring her back. An interesting discovery was when he finds out a kid has gone missing every year around Halloween.
I enjoyed this book, which was a combination of Goosebump and Stephen King books. Greg was certainly an inquisitive and tenacious kid. He wouldn’t stop until he had answers. Story had horror, adventure, and mystery all rolled into one.
An interesting and scary tale—just the perfect Halloween treat.
My rating: 4 stars

Excerpt: SCREAMCATCHER: WEB WORLD by Christy J. Breedlove

EXCERPT:    
When the inevitable scene came to her, she gripped the covers, white-knuckled. It played out like a video, with her as the sole audience member. The silver Lexus locked up its brakes, skidded and plowed through the guardrail. It seemed to hang in the air for a very long time before the hood nosed over. The car picked up speed in a downward plunge. She could plainly see her parents’ faces through the front windshield, their mouths agape, eyes bulging. Jory screamed for them in the dream. It took so long for them to fall, that in the next moment, their faces relaxed before the canyon bottom rushed up to meet them. They joined hands—a fatal embrace—the pose that they were found in. Then the impact came, their bodies thrown forward into the metal, glass and rock.             Jory pulled the comforter down and cried out with a long, pitiful wail.             The room exploded with a jarring thunderclap. Jory pushed herself upward with a spastic jerk. Darcy screamed. In the next second the window blew inward, spraying shards of glass. The comforter flew off the bed and hit the wall. The mattress was knocked askew. An icy spray of raindrops blasted into the room while the drapes--shredded and torn--flipped crazily in the torrent. Jory leaped from the bed to land on a body that was just pushing up from the floor. She rolled off, hitting her head against the wall.             “Where am I?” It sounded like Lander’s voice below her.