ARC Review: Dark Horse by Felix Francis

Dark Horse
Author: Felix Francis
Series: A Dick Francis Novel
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (September 23, 2025)

Description: Sid Halley is brought in to investigate a stalking turned murder case in this thrilling addition to the Dick Francis novels, perfect for fans of Harlan Coben.

Imogen Duffy is an up-and-coming Irish jump jockey making her mark in steeplechase racing. But not all is well in Imogen's life. Jealous of her success, Imogen’s controlling boyfriend Liam is stalking her and when she tries to break it off with him, he turns violent. Fleeing to England, Imogen hopes to leave Liam behind. But Liam vehemently refuses to let her go–until he’s found dead, stabbed with a knife bearing Imogen’s fingerprints.

Imogen’s father, convinced of her innocence, seeks out Sid Halley to ask for his help uncovering the truth and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate. The case becomes all too personal soon after, when Sid realizes he is being stalked and threatened – is it the killer? With his life and reputation on the line, Sid races to solve the case before someone else ends up dead.

This pulse–pounding addition to the beloved series will enthrall readers, turning pages at a gallop to discover what the truth is–and who to trust.

My Thoughts: Imogen Duffy is an Irish jump jockey just beginning to make her mark on racing. She is also a young woman who has left an abusive boyfriend who isn't taking her defection well. Liam Carson is also a jockey but not a remarkable one. He invaded her parents' home and was beating Imogen when her father arrived home. The police don't seem to be taking her case seriously. Apparently, she wasn't hurt badly enough for filing an assault charge. 

Imogen wins a big race which makes her name known but loses her job with her trainer who happens to be Liam's father and has her reputation ruined by Liam's accusations that she is promiscuous. Luckily, she gets a call from an English trainer who wants her to ride for him. Imogen looks at the move to England as a chance to get away from Liam. 

She is still terrorized but tries to set that aside to build a new life. But Liam follows her to England and continues his stalking and harassment. He even tries to injure her when he is entered into the same race that she is riding in. The Stewards call her in for an inquiry where Liam lies his head off about his conduct in the race. 

Then Liam forces his way into her cottage in England and Imogen is only saved from another beating when a handyman comes to install a security chain on her door. She was in the middle of threatening Liam with a kitchen knife when the handyman arrives. Her new trainer takes her to the police to report Liam's home invasion, but it is Imogen who gets the caution for threatening Liam with a knife. 

She is arrested on way back to Ireland to spend some time with her parents while she is suspended from racing for a couple of days. Liam Carson has been found dead, and she is accused of murdering him by stabbing him with one of her kitchen knives. 

Part 2 has Imogen's father coming to Sid Halley to find out who killed Liam and to prove that his daughter didn't. Sid has long been out of the investigating business, but Imogen's father calls in a debt. Some years earlier he had saved Sid's wife's life.

Sid quicky finds out that all the evidence against Imogen is circumstantial. He also learns that her court appointed lawyers are eager for her to take a plea deal since they aren't at all sure that she is innocent. Sid looks into things and coaches her lawyers on their strategy.

Then things get twisty.

This was an enjoyable mystery. I liked catching up with Sid Halley. I was on the edge of my seat as Imogen was being stalked and terrified by Liam. I did feel that ending came rather quicky after the detailed build-up.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Dark Horse by Felix Francis

 Happy Friday!

Book Beginnings is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader. She asks that the first sentence is posted along with the author and title of the book and the reader's initial thoughts on the sentence, the book, or anything else it inspires. 

Carrie at Reading Is My Superpower.org also provides a linky for sharing first lines and connecting with others. This meme asks that the chosen books be PG or marked as Mature if they are not. 

Beginning:

"Don't you bloody touch me!"

Friday 56:

There were twenty-six runners still in the race, and closely bunched, as they jumped the Chair and the water, before setting out on their second circuit, with Hightown Harry still prominently placed in the leading half dozen.

This week I am spotlighting Dark Horse by Felix Francis from my Review stack. I was a longtime reader of Dick Francis and have read some of his son Felix's books. This one continues the adventures of one of Dick's characters Sid Halley. 

Here's the description from Amazon:

Sid Halley is brought in to investigate a stalking turned murder case in this thrilling addition to the Dick Francis novels, perfect for fans of Harlan Coben.

Imogen Duffy is an up-and-coming Irish jump jockey making her mark in steeplechase racing. But not all is well in Imogen's life. Jealous of her success, Imogen’s controlling boyfriend Liam is stalking her and when she tries to break it off with him, he turns violent. Fleeing to England, Imogen hopes to leave Liam behind. But Liam vehemently refuses to let her go–until he’s found dead, stabbed with a knife bearing Imogen’s fingerprints.

Imogen’s father, convinced of her innocence, seeks out Sid Halley to ask for his help uncovering the truth and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate. The case becomes all too personal soon after, when Sid realizes he is being stalked and threatened – is it the killer? With his life and reputation on the line, Sid races to solve the case before someone else ends up dead.

This pulse–pounding addition to the beloved series will enthrall readers, turning pages at a gallop to discover what the truth is–and who to trust.

ARC Review: A Dark and Deadly Journey by Julia Kelly

A Dark and Deadly Journey
Author: Julia Kelly
Series: An Evelyne Redfern Mystery (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (September 23, 2025)

Description: Evelyne Redfern returns in A Dark and Deadly Journey, the next book in international bestselling author Julia Kelly’s captivating historical mystery series.

After being sidelined for a pesky gunshot wound, typist-turned-field agent Evelyne Redfern is ready for her next assignment with Britain’s secretive Special Investigations Unit. When a British Intelligence informant in Portugal mysteriously disappears just after hinting that he has vital information about German plans that could tip the balance of World War Two, Evelyne and her dashingly irksome partner, David Poole, are sent headed to Lisbon to find him.

Once they land, Evelyne and David aren't even able to leave the airport, before she discovers one of their fellow aeroplane passengers murdered and uncovers a diary with a clear link between the victim and their missing informant. With their mission in jeopardy before it can truly begin, Evelyne and David fight to keep their cover intact as they descend deeper into the shadows that surround Lisbon’s glittering collection of wealthy expats and dangerous spies. This case will test Evelyne and David’s training, charm, and wit―and their growing attraction for one another.

My Thoughts: Evelyne Redfern's third mission for Britain's Special Investigations Unit pairs her with her partner David again as they travel to Portugal. It seems a confidential informant has gone missing, and they are tasked with trying to find him. Evelyne also has a secret mission given to her by her superior. She needs to track down her long missing father and try to convince him to work as an agent for the British.

Evelyne's investigation actually began in England when she received a safe deposit box key and a message written in code. They were sent by her estranged father. Upon opening the box, Evelyne discovers a cache of her mother's jewelry which she had been told her father at sold years earlier. The instructions were to take the unopened box to a London jeweler. However, when she arrives, all she finds is a ransacked shop. 

Things don't start well in Portugal. Returning to the plane for a book she left behind, Evelyne discovers a dead man with a broken neck. Portugal's police investigators are very suspicious of Evelyne's story and presence with the dead body. She had nothing to do with his death, but she did take a notebook from his body written in code. 

Between her secret investigation, the hunt for the missing informant, and the mystery of the man on the plane's death, Evelyne and David are kept very busy. Since, apparently, everyone in Portugal is an agent for one government or another, they spend a lot of time trying to figure out everyone's agenda. 

This was an entertaining historical mystery filled with interesting characters,

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Sophie Sullivan

You Make It Feel Like Christmas
Author: Sophie Sullivan
Publication: St. Martin's Griffin (September 23, 2025)

Description: All bets are off when a single-minded photographer and a professional hockey player are forced to spend a week together on his sister’s Christmas tree farm, perfect for fans of Jenny Holiday and Maggie Knox.

Maisie Smart doesn’t look back. Not on the choice she made to be a photographer, and not on the one-night stand she had six months ago. But sleeping with a professional hockey player who bolted the morning after is a whole new level of embarrassing. Now she’s about to spend the week at Tickle Tree Farms with her family this Christmas―and then the universe throws a Grinch in her festive plans.

Nick King is a mess. After a significant injury benches him, he has more time to dwell on his anxieties and the one-night stand he can’t get out of his head. With the holidays around the corner, he figures visiting his sister and nephew at their Christmas tree farm will be a good way to sort himself out. That’s impossible when he learns Maisie is there, still beautiful and justifiably angry about the way he left. But Christmas is the time for second chances, and the forced proximity may help Nick and Maisie unwrap feelings neither of them can walk away from twice.

My Thoughts: A dyslexic photographer and a professional hockey player with anxiety meet unexpectedly six months after their one-night stand when they get together for a family Christmas celebration. 

Maisie Smart joins her parents, older sister and older brother with the brother's husband's family to celebrate the holidays. She loves Christmas but she doesn't love that her mother keeps trying to encourage her to go back to school to get degrees and give up her "hobby" of photography. She also trying to deal with her broken heart after the one-night stand she fell for ghosted her.

Nick King is recovering from a knee injury and has some tough decisions to make about his future in professional hockey when he joins his sister and nephew for the holiday season. He's suffering from anxiety and rightly so as the injury joins the death of his mother and his sister's divorce in the worry column. He also can't stop thinking about the woman he met at a wedding six months earlier. 

They have a lot to deal with when they meet again at his sister's new tree farm. Maisie wonders of she can give him a second chance, and she wonders how their lives can possibly mesh with her in Seattle and him traveling with his hockey team. This was a great contemporary romance. I loved the characters.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Murder at Blackwood Inn by Penny Warner

Murder at Blackwood Inn
Author: Penny Warner
Series: A Haunted Dead and Breakfast Mystery
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (September 23, 2025)

Description: A haunted house and the occult are the least of Carissa Blackwood’s problems when her eccentric aunts are accused of murder in this cozy series debut by multiple award–winning author Penny Warner.

Ghostwriter Carissa Blackwood is having the worst year of her life. After leaving her cheating husband, she finally takes up the offer to help her two eccentric aunts manage the Blackwood Bed ’n’ Breakfast Inn in Pelican Point, California–a house they only recently inherited from their deceased father, Bram Blackwood. The old man dabbled in the occult, and his daughters haven’t fallen far from the family tree. Aunt Runa is into crystals and plans to hold séances at the reportedly “haunted” house. Aunt Hazel has an herbary and offers herbal cures for everything from headaches to paranormal visions. But it’s Hazel’s poison garden that really concerns Carissa.

When one of the townspeople dies from a poison that could have only come from Aunt Hazel’s garden, the town is quick to point fingers. It doesn’t help that one of Aunt Runa’s charms is found at the scene of the crime. With a little help from Noah, the mysterious and handsome handyman; Aiden, the charming newspaperman—and the ghost of Carissa’s grandfather—it’s up to Carissa to clear her aunts and find the real killer before someone else is checked out for good at the B&B.

My Thoughts: Carissa Blackwood has come to Pelican Point, California, to help her aunt's run their new bed & breakfast. Her aunts are a little eccentric. One is devoted to crystals and the other to herbs and poisonous plants. They have decorated their inherited Italianate mansion in a spooky theme. From a black, purple and green exterior to rooms decorated for famous horror movies, Carissa is wondering if she's making a right move after her acrimonious divorces and losing her job as a ghostwriter for a famous author. 

However, her aunts have decorated her room according to a Nancy Drew theme, and are supportive of her desires to write her own mysteries once the inn is up and running. 

The reception they are holding on the evening before their first guests arrive is supposed to introduce them to the locals. However, only five people attend and all have their own agendas from the other innkeeper in town who resents their competition to the next door neighbor wo worries that the odd color scheme will destroy his home's value to the real estate agent who has been trying to convince the sisters to sell out and buy a nice oceanside condo. 

Things go from bad to worse when the real estate agent is found dead in her bed the next morning with one of Aunt Runa's crystals under her bed. Further investigations lead to the conclusion that she was poisoned with belladonna which Aunt Hazel tends in her poisons garden. 

With the police focusing on Aunt Hazel, it is up to Carissa to channel Nancy Drew and find out who really murdered the realtor. 

This was an entertaining cozy mystery set in a bed & breakfast that I would like to visit. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: A Tour to Die For by Michelle Chouinard

A Tour to Die For
Author: Michelle Chouinard
Series: The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mysteries (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (September 23, 2025)

Description: In Michelle Chouinard’s A Tour to Die For, Capri Sanzio is back, giving a true crime tour her guests won’t soon forget. After all, a tour guide who specializes in serial killers knows better than most that San Francisco is a city with killer charm.

Capri Sanzio knows that when you give serial killer walking tours for a living, unexpected situations are more common than San Francisco's famous fog. So, when one of her guests claims to see a woman being attacked during a tour, Capri remains unphased. The police search the apartment in question and find no evidence of anything amiss, so they chalk it up to a false report from a true crime fanatic looking to be a part of a case. And Capri thinks they might be right, since lately her tours have been attracting even more obsessives than usual--as it turns out, finding the actual serial killer who committed the "Overkill Bill" murders didn't stop the constant questions about her grandfather's supposed crimes, it only intensified them.

But Capri would never forgive herself if someone is in trouble and she walks away. Plus, something about the whole situation has every one of Capri's investigative journalist instincts going haywire--why would someone lie about seeing an attack? So Capri starts to dig, and when her questions lead to a body, she finds herself at the center of another murder investigation.

My Thoughts: Capri Sanzio is an expert on murders in San Francisco. She even has a tour company that follows the paths of historical murderers. One evening, she's running her Barbary Coast tour when one of her tourists spots a woman being strangled in a lighted window. Capri calls 911 but the responding officers only find an empty, but lighted apartment. 

Lorraine, who is fifth grade teacher from a couple of hours away, is sure that she saw someone being strangled and encourages Capri to look into it. She even sends a scoop to the newspaper to try force Capri's hand. 

Capri is curious enough to explore more. She talks to the building's landlady who tells her that Leeya is a local artist who works with found materials. She also tells Capri that Leeya has a boyfriend along with a mother and a sister. Capri contacts, or tries to contact, all of them but none have seen Leeya. 

Then Leeya's body is found in a dumpster outside her rented studio and the disappearance soon becomes a murder. Capri's new boyfriend Homicide Inspector Dan Petito encourages her to keep her distance, but Capri is longing to resurrect a career as an investigative journalist that she set aside to marry and become a mother. 

This is Capri's second book. She's still dealing with the popularity she gained by solving the Overkill Bill murders. This led to a rift with her father, a successful podcast, and a book contract to write about Overkill Bill. 

She's investigating Leeya's murder while running a business, planning a new podcast, writing a book, and building a romance with a new guy. She's also dealing with her deadbeat ex who is trying to so some business with her daughter without telling her daughter that her ex is a deadbeat. 

This was an engaging story filled with all sorts of fascinating things about San Franciso. It was also a fast-paced mystery filled with suspicious characters and dangerous situations. I recommend it. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Murder in Miniature by Katie Tietjen

Murder in Miniature
Author: Katie Tietjen
Series: A Maple Bishop Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (September 23, 2025)

Description: The second installment in the Maple Bishop historical mysteries continues the adventures of intrepid amateur sleuth Maple Bishop.

Inspired by the real-life mother of forensic science, Frances Glessner Lee, this smartly plotted series will appeal to fans of Rhys Bowen.

In post-WWII Vermont, Maple Bishop has a thriving dollhouse business and a new career as a crime scene consultant for the local sheriff's office. On the surface, she seems to be doing well, but deep down Maple is still reeling from the death of her husband. When the body of an aspiring firefighter–who was close childhood friends with Kenny, the sheriff’s deputy and Maple’s confidante–is discovered in the charred remains of a burned cabin, Maple is called in to help determine whether the fire was an accident or a case of murder by arson.

Realizing there’s more to the crime than meets the eye, she sets out to unearth the discrepancies from the scene by re-creating the cabin in miniature. The investigation leads them to Maple’s old Boston neighborhood, forcing her to confront the past she’s desperately trying to forget.

As Maple and Kenny sift through clues, they uncover dark secrets that hit close to home, unraveling in unexpected ways—and putting their lives in danger.

My Thoughts: The second Maple Bishop mystery has her doll house business flourishing and a new consultant gig with the local police. She's called in by the Chief of Police to investigate the death of a young firefighter in a cabin. She's eager to do something out of the ordinary but sad at the death of her friend Kenny's childhood friend. 

She is determined to make four nutshells to recreate the crime scene to figure out the timing and accelerant used. She also goes back to Boston with Kenny to try to locate the victim's mother and inform her of the death. Going back to Boston encourages her to see if she can find some answers to her brother's death too. 

Maple has some decisions to make too. She's offered a position in the Boston prosecutor's office which would let her use her unused law degree. But it would mean leaving the life and friends she has made in Vermont. 

This was an engaging historical mystery set in 1950. I liked that Maple has gotten her first television but isn't sure that she will enjoy having it. I also like her growing circle of friends.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.