The Bark Before Christmas

The Bark Before Christmas Although I've certainly heard of this series, I've never actually read it. I enjoyed the information about how dog shows work, as I went to a dog show a few months ago and didn't understand the process. The plot was solid, but unfortunately get bogged down and as it went on, I found myself flipping through pages.  If you edited out all the bits about the MC's 2 year old, Aunt Peg, and everyone blaming the MC for the dog going missing and demanding that she find the dog, the book would only be about 80 pages long. So, just an okay book but didn't float my boat.
 
 


 

Just...meh.   I spent most of the book wondering what the point was and why I cared enough to keep reading.  Not terrible, just boring.  I did find the parts about Wahhabism very timely given the recent Paris attacks.
 
Overall, a bit of a grind.  I've noticed a lot of this series is on-again, off-again in consistency.  This is one of the off-again books.

Hooked On Ewe The second book in the Scottish Highlands series, Hooked on Ewe was just....okay.  I really can't put my finger on exactly what it was that rubbed me the wrong way.  It just seemed....distracted, I guess.  That's the best word I can come up with.  You know when you call someone on the phone and are trying to get information from them and you can tell they're doing something else and they're not totally with you?  That's how this book felt; like the author was busy playing Candy Crush on her phone while writing this. 
 
I figured out whodunit fairly early on in the book, and despite several red herrings (or attempts at red herrings) I really never wavered on it.  There's also a potential love triangle in the works, and the more-than-a-little-implausible-plot-thread where Eden is made a Constable.  You know, because it's commonplace to deputize a foreigner into the police force.
 
Not a bad book, and I enjoyed it for the most part but a lot of little things detracted from a mediocre plot. 

2 1/2 stars

This book was a Kindle freebie and had an intriguing premise but was ultimately lost. Usually, my most uttered phrase in reviews was that book could've been a bit shorter and it would be perfect. Not this time. If the author had spent more time developing the plot a bit more, it would've easily been at least a 4 or 5 star book. As it is, most of the book was taken up with Melody's move from the big city back to her tiny hometown. And as there was only 141 pages, that meant there was little or no attention paid to the plot, the victim or the suspects. In fact, there were no suspects. The murderer just randomly confessed to the deed, right in front of a news crew, no less. The plot, what little there was, could've spanned a cozy-length mystery very easily if expanded.

The MC seems like a cute little geek, spending her evenings at home with her mother playing her accordion. No, really. Melody's mother is an annoying shrew, goading her daughter to get married and have babies and trying to play matchmaker. Really didn't add anything to the story and I was kinda hoping she'd get killed. And really, I was a tiny bit disappointed when she wasn't.

There was also no time spent proofreading, given the typos and grammatical errors. A few typos, I can understand and forgive, but in this book, words were in the wrong place or the wrong word was used or misspelled. Ugh. Really bad. It read like a 9th grader's creative writing paper.

Overall, on the low end of mediocre, but very sad that the potential to be a great book was lost.

Trouble in Cochise Stronghold I signed up for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited and found this, the latest book in a novella series I enjoy.  Woo hoo!
 
After taking early retirement, Minnie is traveling around the US in her RV accompanied by her ghost companion Ben, who was a member of the Lewis & Clark party who died while exploring Washington state.  Minnie and Ben have a slightly creepy flirtation going.
 
In this, the 8th installment, Minnie is in Arizona and sets out to explore the Cochise Stronghold, a mountain encampment that Cochise and his men fought off the army for several years.  While on a hike, she discovers a dead body in a spring (well, more like a well run from a spring) and sets out to investigate. 
 
Just as with all all the other books in the series, this book is just shy of 100 pages and I'm always amazed at how well she can weave such great plots around so many characters and yet I've never felt that anything was left out or that it was confusing to keep track of so many characters.  Truly, the author is a master at writing a short story and leaving you feeling like you just read a full length novel.
 
I really recommend this whole series as a quick, light read that offers a little bit of American history, a little bit of mystery and, ok, a weensy bit of creepy.  But always a great read.
 

First, thank you to Kensington Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Flipped For Murder is the first in a new series located in small town southern Indiana. Robbie Jordan has just opened her new country store/diner, Pans & Pancakes (why not Pots & Pancakes? hmm.) when the mayor's assistant is found murdered.

There was a lot to like about the story; the characters were charming, a picturesque locale, and I enjoyed the local lingo. I live in Indiana and hear many of these phrases daily, so it made me smile. The plot was well-paced and had a lot of twists and turns to keep me guessing. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I look forward to reading more.

However, there were a few things that detracted from the story for me. I can suspend disbelief to a certain extent, but there's a limit, and for me that limit came when, right after the murder victim was found, the cop came around to question the main character and asked her if she killed the victim, then recorded it on his tablet. No. Just no. Even someone who has only watched an hour of Law & Order: SVU could tell you that you don't ask a question like "Did you kill the victim?" to a person who hasn't been Mirandized because nothing that is said is admissible in court, so there's no reason to note it. And don't get me started on the subject of direct evidence vs circumstantial evidence. In the acknowledgements section, the author writes, "Officer Garnet Watson helped out with a few questions of police procedure, which I might not always have followed." I would rethink that.

There was also a question of the back story, which is neatly summed up in the book's description but I think more details (or starting the story a little earlier than the store's opening day) might have eased the way into the story. Also, the reader doesn't really get a sense of the victim, other than what other people said about her, so there was a disconnect there. Starting the story a little earlier would definitely help set up some of the plot points a little more subtly.

I also felt like there was too much rehashing of each event after the fact. It started to feel more like filler and I found myself flipping through pages of it after awhile.

Overall, a charming start to a promising new series, and an enjoyable read. And I darn sure will be making those cheesy biscuits in the very near future!

The Casebook Of Forensic Detection As I said earlier, this was a fascinating book, it just felt like it took forever to read it.  And it was only 350 pages or so.
 
I liked the style of the book, a short summation of each forensic technique (time of death, fingerprints, DNA, etc) that gave a little bit of an explanation and a little history before delving into specific cases.  And a great selection of cases, from murder to forgeries to poisonings, all over the last few hundred years to show how each aspect of forensics moved the science forward.  Each case was given just a few pages to lay out the facts of the case and then another page or 2 to cover the science used and the outcome.  So each case was around 5 to 10 pages at the most. Which means there were a lot of cases, so much so that after a few, I was ready to move on to the next chapter, but unwilling to skip ahead and miss a good story. 
 
So I think that's why it felt like it took forever to finish the book.  It's not that it was dry and boring - far from it.  Just too much of a good thing, and I'm sure the author found it frustrating not to add "just one more case..."
 
Overall, riveting and fascinating read, but became overwhelming after awhile.  But if you love true crime stories and the science that goes along with solving them, then you will enjoy this book.

Struggling with how to rate this one.
 
Aunt Bessie accompanies Inspector Rockwell to look at houses, as he is divorcing his wife and wants to live in Laxey.  One of the houses they look at is the home of Bessie's friend from Book 5 (Aunt Bessie Enjoys) and Rockwell finds a body entombed between walls.  Soon another body turns up, and is probably related to the first body found. And so, Bessie is off to find another murderer.
 
On one hand, this is a fun series, and this book tied up a few loose ends from previous books.  On the other hand, this mystery wasn't solved, the murders were confessed by the killer.  I don't know if the author wrote herself into a corner or what, but it seemed like it was an easy way out and was kind of a let down.
 
Overall, an enjoyable book but I felt this book didn't quite measure up to the earlier books in the series.  But still a really great read.

Forensic Analysis and DNA I confess, I already know a good bit about forensic sciences, so I skipped the history and the science and jumped right into the cold cases.  While the cases were interesting, the delivery wasn't all that great.  At some points it felt like I was reading a term paper; in other places it read like a preachy old man. 
 
Overall, an interesting book, particularly if you're interested in the science and history of forensics and DNA in criminal investigations.