Tips to get your manuscript ready to send to an agent are good, but I prefer a book where the tips are ordered topically rather than alphabetically. Dialogue, Plot and Show v Tell should all be sorted out long before you start writing the acknowledgements.

Duidelijke toelichting bij de WOR. In vergelijking is WOR Tekst en commentaar handiger in gebruik, vooral vanwege het veel kleinere formaat. Dit is meer een boek voor op het bureau.

Great fun.

I love a narrator with a little snark, particularly in cozy mysteries. And on that front Crash Robertson delivers. She's a great character. So is Bernie Sanders. He actually save the day, twice.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Hard to place this one. On the one hand it tries to be a crime caper where Ada and Eliot go to great lengths to break into safes and safety deposit boxes and save each other’s lives. On the other hand there are way too many people in this story that don’t think twice about blood splatters on the upholstery.

At least it didn’t end on a cliff-hanger.

I read an ARC through NetGalley and the author.

Chloe and Izzie, the sister sleuths, and their assistant Willow annoy me. And not just because all three of them happen to have the same nervous tic when they have to deliver some uncomfortable news. They annoy me because they keep calling their investigation into Lana’s death ‘the case’, as if they are actual detectives.

Chloe insists she wants to investigate because she’s a suspect herself, but other than the one mention from detective Winsell that she’s a suspect because she supposedly found the body, there is no further indication he suspects her of anything. Not even of potentially harmfully meddling in his case. After all, he asks her boyfriend to join his investigative team (no conflict if interest there), shares case details with her, and doesn’t even tell her off about removing possible evidence from the crime scene.

Chloe might have been able to claim wanting justice for her friend Lana, but (A) she never claimed wanting justice, and (B) there were so few memories of Lana that I had a hard time believing she and Lana were ever friends. So basically, Chloe is just another nosey person that thinks she’s better at detecting than the actual detectives.

I will say this for the story: there were a lot of red herrings. On the other hand: one of the possible suspects disappeared from the story for no discernable reason.

In all, I did not enjoy this book much, but kept reading for the killer’s reveal.

As a side note: chapter nine references some event (multiple times) that doesn’t happen until chapter ten. Chapter eleven has some mixed up scenes as well. This should have been picked out by proofreaders or editor.

Side note 2: anchoring fists to hips got to stop.

I read an arc through NetGalley.

beetje popi geschreven. Bevat wel nuttige inzichten voor de Nodeloze Redders.

Van Arnhem beschrijft elf redenen voor Nodeloos Redden. Maar voor de meeste (of eigenlijk alle) kun je ook de vraag stellen: los ik het werkelijke probleem op of bestrijd ik alleen maar een symptoom? Je bent een Nodeloos Redder als je denkt de werkelijke problemen te kunnen oplossen door de gevolgproblemen (de symptomen) aan te pakken, zoals het schoonmaken van de kattebak.

Neemt niet weg, overigens, dat mensen in Donkere Dagen soms gewoon behoefte hebben aan mensen die de kleine dagelijkse uitdagingen voor ze oplossen. Al is het beter om dat niet ongevraagd te doen.

Fijn overzicht van de hot topics in de pseudowetenschappen.

Af en toe wat overbodige herhaling (de term "publication bias" wordt twee of drie keer uitgelegd.)

I like Audrey. She’s a journalist, so she’s got a legitimate reason to be nosey.

I got to wonder how large Chattertowne is. I mean, town hall has a separate desk to apply for passports and there’s a receptionist manning that desk (meaning there is another person that takes the applications and hands out the passports?). What kind of traffic is the passport desk getting? Is it open for a only a few hours each week? Does the receptionist get very, very bored at her job?

Anyway, good mystery, lots of intrigue. Can be read as a stand-alone, but contains major spoilers for the first mystery in the series. Which is actually very realistic: the first book deals with a major scandal and multiple murders; people are bound to be still talking about that six months later.

Just one minor gripe: Cole, Holden and Levi all make Audrey focus by merely saying “Audrey”. There could’ve (should’ve) been more variety there.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

1.5* as I got annoyed near the end.

There’s a quick pace to this story. One moment Ginny is exploring the town of Moonstone Bay and follows her cat into a building, the next she’s renting shop space for a bakery. There’s not even time to introduce herself to the building’s owner. But she knows his name anyway.

As soon as Ginny leaves she starts to regret her decision to rent the place. More so the next morning, when she returns and finds a broken window.

Spoiler

When the glass is on the outside, the window was most likely broken from the inside. Just saying.

Inside she finds a dead body and a dead to the world Vince.

The sheriff arrives, arrests Vince and sends Ginny and Lois, the carpenter she had a meeting with, away until he has time to question them. Both women apperently have strong stomaches, because from the crime scene they go straight to the diner and order a meal. They don’t talk about the murder while they eat, which is a surprise because this is (A) a murder mystery and (B) just about the most exciting thing that has happened in Moonstone Bay in a decade.

Ginny believes Vince to be innocent of the murder. She’s talked to him for maybe 30 minutes, but she has the insta-hots for him, so that explains it.

Ginny annoys me, constantly claiming things don’t add up. Those are assumptions. As a lawyer I would expect her to be more careful about the language she uses. I’d rather she said: that doesn’t make sense to me. The moustach twirling town villain annoys me. The fact that some people don’t get a name annoys me. Beth’s son doesn’t get a name, not even when she talks about him. Alma’s mom is called Alma’s mom rather than Mrs Ramirez.

It annoys me there are two guns, but it is unclear from context which one they are talking about. An editor could have fixed that. An editor could have also fixed the repetition of actions: Lois climbing into the backseat and the next paragraph that action is mentioned again. Or when Vince and Ginny drive away from Alma’s mom’s house, but in the opening lines of the next chapter they haven’t even gotten to the car yet and a moment later drive off again.

And the mystery could have been more fleshed out. It’s quite obvious where things are headed from the first time Alma’s name is mentioned.

I read an ARC through Booksirens.