Friday Memes: All Eyes on Me by Linsey Lanier

 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:

He told her she was stupid. He called her a whore. He said she was ruined. He told her he'd given away her three-week old baby to strangers. 

Friday 56:

She sat up and pulled her bare feet under her as if she had to think about that. "Is he doing all right?"

This week I am spotlighting All Eyes on Me by Linsay Lanier. I bought the Kindle version and Chirp audiobook March 25, 2025. Here is the description from Amazon:

The Las Vegas desert.

A once famous pop singer lies dead.

The only clue to her murder—a bizarre disfigurement. Only one thing to do.

Call in Parker and Steele.

To avoid the hassle of a media frenzy, the local police sergeant decides contact his old mentor, Wade Parker, and ask him to consult on the case.

After nearly dying eight months ago, Miranda Steele can't wait to get back to real detective work. Nobody deserves to die that way.

But this one isn’t so easy.

If she can't solve this case, not only will she fail her destiny, another psycho killer might get away with murder.

Meanwhile, Parker harbors secret reservations about their new venture together.

Especially when he suspects there might be more to this murder than meets the...eye.

You’ll love this intriguing mystery full of twists and turns, because it’s the start of many more adventures.

Book Review: Booked to Die by John Dunning

Booked to Die
Author: John Dunning
Series: Cliff Janeway Novels (Book 1)
Publication: Scribner; Reissue edition (August 14, 2012)

Description: Booked to Die, the first book in John Dunning’s bestselling, award-winning Cliff Janeway series, is “a joy to read for its wealth of inside knowledge about the antiquarian book business and its eccentric traders” (The New York Times Book Review).

Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he’s an avid collector of rare and first editions. Bobby Westfall is a local bookscout, a gentle and quiet man who has sold enough valuable books to keep himself and his cats fed and housed. When Bobby is murdered, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect’s spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway’s wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.

Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop—all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. When prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now Janeway’s life is about to change in profound and shocking ways as he attempts to find out who’s dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.

My Thoughts: This book is the first in the Cliff Janeway series. It was first published in 1992. It tells the story of a homicide cop in Denver who becomes an antiquarian bookseller. 

Janeway has always been a book collector and been a peripheral member of the book trade in Denver. When a book scout named Bobby Westall is murdered, Janeway is sure that his nemesis local lowlife Jackie Newton has had his hand in it somewhere. Janeway has been trying to catch Newton at some chargeable wrong doing for years, but his high-priced lawyers have always been able to get him out of trouble. 

When he catches Newton abusing a woman, Janeway finally loses his cool and takes Newton out into the country and has a fight with him. This causes Janeway to lose his job with the Denver police and to be sued by Newton for millions. 

Janeway decides to open his own bookstore and hires a smart-talking Scottish immigrant to help him run it. Rumors of a particularly good collection have Janeway interacting with feuding siblings, a reclusive bookseller, and other book scouts. 

When there is another couple of murders, Janeway is determined to solve them and solve the mystery of the missing book collection. 

I enjoyed the information about the rate book trade. Janeway is an interesting character too being both hard-nosed and liberal in many of his social opinions. He's also a real book snob. This is the first book in a five-book series. 

Favorite Quote:

There's something seriously wrong with a society when its best-selling writer of all time is Janet Dailey.

I bought this one June 14, 2021. The audiobook was included with my Audible membership. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Booked to Die by John Dunning

 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. 

The Friday 56 was hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Bobby the bookscout was killed at midnight on June 13, 1986. This was the first strange fact, leading to the question, What was he doing out that late at night? To Bobby, midnight was the witching hour and Friday the thirteenth was a day to be spent in bed.

Friday 56:

I didn't think it would be hard to find them. Barbara had run without any money, it seemed -- her handbag was still on the table beside the radio. 

This week I am spotlighting Booked to Die by John Dunning. It is the first in the Cliff Janeway novels. I bought it June 14, 2021. Here is the description from Amazon:

Booked to Die, the first book in John Dunning’s bestselling, award-winning Cliff Janeway series, is “a joy to read for its wealth of inside knowledge about the antiquarian book business and its eccentric traders” (The New York Times Book Review).

Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he’s an avid collector of rare and first editions. Bobby Westfall is a local bookscout, a gentle and quiet man who has sold enough valuable books to keep himself and his cats fed and housed. When Bobby is murdered, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect’s spine. But the suspect, local lowlife Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding the law, and Janeway’s wrathful brand of off-duty justice costs him his badge.

Turning to his lifelong passion, Janeway opens a small bookshop—all the while searching for evidence to put Newton away. When prized volumes in a highly sought-after collection begin to appear, so do dead bodies. Now Janeway’s life is about to change in profound and shocking ways as he attempts to find out who’s dealing death along with vintage Chandlers and Twains.

ARC Review: City of Secrets by P. J. Tracy

City of Secrets
Author: P. J. Tracy
Series: The Detective Margaret Nolan Series (Book 4)
Publication: Minotaur Books (August 20, 2024)

Description: LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan returns in P. J. Tracy’s City of Secrets, the next book in the series praised by the New York Times Book Review: “Tracy seems to have found her literary sweet spot.”

Los Angeles Police Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner have worked a lot of different cases, ones where things aren’t always as they appear. And it’s Nolan’s job to find the truth in the darkness around her. When they’re called to the scene of what looks like a fatal car-jacking, Nolan soon realizes her victim was a founder of a company about to sell for millions, and within a day of his death, his partner’s wife is abducted. As Nolan learns more about the victim and his life, she gets pulled into a disturbing world of sex, violence, and big business; and an even darker world, where whispers of an "Angel of Death" are beginning to surface.

One of today's finest crime writers, P. J. Tracy has created a series that is a rich and authentic portrait of LA, filled with the tragedy and optimism of her multi-layered characters and a story guaranteed to keep readers enthralled.

My Thoughts: Margaret Nolan and her partner are called to the scene of what looks like a fatal car-jacking, but things aren't adding up. The victim is Bruce Messane, the owner of a multi-million-dollar pet food company that is on the verge of being sold for a huge sum. The neighborhood isn't one where that man would normally be found. 

Then, Bruce's former partner Rome Bechtold's wife is kidnapped. And shortly thereafter Rome is kidnapped too. 

Meanwhile, Nolan boyfriend Remy, who is also a homicide detective, is dealing with the self-inflicted death of a former plastic surgeon who lost his job for selling opioids. The dead plastic surgeon was a friend of Bruce Messane. 

This twisty thriller, told from multiple viewpoints, was a fast-paced story. I liked the way the various viewpoints came together to tell the story. I also liked that gritty nature of the story where drugs and crime were rife and where sometimes the police looked the other way in the name of justice.  

Favorite Quote:

Nolan scrolled through the Google search on her phone. What did cops do before smart phones and car computers? Unfortunately, the crime rate always seemed to pace advancements in technology, and the game of whack-a-mole continued as it always had. There was a conspiracy theory in there somewhere. 

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

Audiobook Review: Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni

Her Deadly Game
Author: Robert Dugoni
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Series: Keera Duggan (Book 1)
Publication: Brilliance Audio (March 28, 2023)
Length: 11 hours

Description: A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

My Thoughts: Keera Duggan was building a reputation as a Seattle prosecutor until her relationship with her boss went sour. Now, she's working for Duggan and Associates, a firm founded by her father and also staffed with two of her sisters. Her father is a noted attorney in town and an alcoholic who has messed up all of his kids. 

When the firm gets a call from Vince LaRussa, who is accused of murdering his wheelchair-bound wife, her older sister encourages her to take the case to build up the firm's failing reputation. Keera's eager in part because she'll be facing her old lover in court, and she knows his strengths and his weaknesses.

As a former chess prodigy Keera is used to sizing up her opponents. It is her client who seems the most obscure to her. She's having trouble getting to know and understand him. And when she starts getting anonymous emails from someone calling themself Jack Worthing providing information about her client's past her doubts are raised about his innocence. 

As she's preparing for the trial, following her mysterious emailer's directions, trying to build a theory that incorporates all the on-scene evidence, and playing a chess match with a person who plays under Black Knight, Keera is also dealing with her own problems with alcohol. 

With twists and turns and courtroom hijinks, this was an excellent thriller filled with intriguing people. 

I bought this one along with the Kindle copy for $1.99. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni

 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. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Seattle Violent Crimes Detective Frank Rossi drove over the street curb onto the Pioneer Square plaza pavers, the black Chevy's headlights reflecting the heavy rain, its windshield wipers slapping left and right in a futile effort to clear the glass. 

Friday 56:

Keera parked in her driveway adjacent to the elevated front walk leading to the nine-hundred-square-foot rambler she rented in the North Beacon Hill neighborhood once called Boeing Hill, because the homes were built in the 1950s and '60s for people going to work for the aerospace company.

This week I am spotlighting Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni. I recently got the Kindle and audiobook when they were on sale. This book begins a series. Here is the description from Amazon:

A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? A twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

Friday Memes: Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown

 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. 

The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda at Freda's Voice. This meme is currently on hiatus but many of us are still including a sentence from page 56 or from 56% of the ebook. Anne @ Head Full of Books is picking up the slack until Freda is ready to return. I think this link will get you to the correct place. 

Beginning:

Up until six minutes to sign-off, it had been a routine shift.

Friday 56:

Before he had even process all this, his father was on his feet, and he was on the receiving end of a backhanded smack that caught him hard across the mouth and split his lip.

This week I am spotlighting Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown. This book has been on my Kindle since August 18, 2009. Here's the description from Amazon:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seeing Red comes Hello, Darkness, a brilliant, fast-paced tale about a woman haunted by her past and caught in a nightmare that threatens to destroy her future.

For Paris Gibson, her popular late-night radio show is both an escape and her one real contact with the outside world. To her loyal listeners, she is a wise and trusted friend who not only takes their requests but listens to their problems and occasionally dispenses advice.

Paris’s world of isolation is shattered when one listener—a man who identifies himself only as “Valentino”—tells her that the girl he loves jilted him because of Paris's on-air advice. Now he intends to exact his revenge: first he plans to kill the girl—then he will come after Paris.

Joined by the Austin police department, Paris plunges into a race against time in an effort to find Valentino before he can carry out his threat. To her dismay, she finds that she must now work with crime psychologist Dean Malloy, a man with whom she shares a history. His presence arouses old passions, forcing Paris to confront painful memories that she had come to Austin to forget.

As the clock ticks down and Valentino’s threats come closer to becoming reality, Paris finds herself forced to deal with a killer who may not be a stranger at all.

Tense and compelling right up to the chilling climax, Hello, Darkness is suspense at its very best, by the author USA TODAY dubbed “a masterful storyteller, carefully crafting tales that keep readers on the edge of their seats.”

ARC Review: The Wrong Woman by Leanne Kale Sparks

The Wrong Woman
Author: Leanne Kale Sparks
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (February 8, 2022)

Description: The past is never far behind, as a string of murders threatens to unleash long-buried secrets in this pulse-pounding thriller for fans of Melinda Leigh and T. R. Ragan.

The only survivor of Denver’s notorious “Reaper” serial murders, FBI Special Agent Kendall Beck grapples with the ghosts of her past by seeking justice for victims of abuse. She’s neck deep in a particularly ugly case involving the disappearance of five-year-old Emily Williams—but her investigation is derailed when her best friend and roommate, Gwen Tavich, turns up dead floating in a nearby lake.

Devastated by the news of Gwen’s death, Kendall teams up with Denver detective Adam Taylor to find the killer. Gwen’s fiancé, Ty Butler, is being evasive about the last time he saw Gwen, and as the evidence mounts against him, he’s arrested for the murder. With every new clue, Kendall questions how well she really knew her friend. And when Gwen’s dark secrets begin spilling out one by one, she begins to understand the devastating magnitude of her murder. The Reaper has returned to Denver—and he’s not stopping at just one victim.

As the trauma of Kendall’s past comes roaring back, she and Adam have no time to spare before more bodies start piling up. And then Kendall makes a shocking discovery that reveals the horrifying truth behind Emily Williams’s disappearance. Now, Kendall must confront her darkest fears as she and the Reaper face off one more time.

My Thoughts: FBI Special Agent Kendall Beck is working a case of a missing child. What looks like a kidnapping at first turns out to be something else. The child is found hiding in a neighbor's garage and near to death from exposure. The story the little girl tells about what her father did to her changes the case to trying to prove that Scott Williams abused his young daughter. 

Meanwhile, Denver Homicide Detective Adam Tyler is trying to solve the murder of Jenny Rose who was found dumped on a golf course after being tortured and murdered. When he's the last one out of the office, his boss sends him to Kendell Beck's house because she reported her car stolen.

Kendell's housemate Gwen had borrowed the car and no one has since her for a few days. Her fiancé doesn't seem concerned, but Kendell is. when Gwen's tortured body is found a few days later, Adam and Kendell begin working together to find out who killed her. 

This was an excellent story. I liked the fast-paced action. I also really enjoyed getting into the mind of Kendell who is dealing with grief because of the loss of a woman who was like a sister to her. I liked her growing friendship with Adam. 

I enjoyed the way the various cases Kendell and Adam were working on came together and how the story was gradually revealed. Fans of fast-paced and introspective mysteries will enjoy this one. 

Favorite Quote:

Kendall laughed. She couldn't help it. Adam had the whole lost puppy dog eyes down, and it was just about the most pathetic thing she'd ever seen.

And it felt good, too. She rarely allowed herself to be happy these days. She had a death grip on her grief, never letting it get far away. It was the one constant in her life. The one thing she could control, and decide when to let it go. And it fueled her anger, which propelled her headlong into the investigation. 

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

Book & Audio Review: The Bookshop Murder by Merryn Allingham

The Bookshop Murder
Author: Merryn Allingham
Narrator: Charlie Norfolk
Series: A Flora Steele Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Bookouture (July 26, 2021); Hachette UK - Bookouture (July 26, 2021)
Length: 256 p.; 7 hours and 17 minutes

Description: Join Flora Steele – bookshop owner, bicycle-rider, daydreamer and amateur detective as she tackles her first case!

Sussex, 1955: When Flora Steele opens up her bookshop one morning she’s in for the surprise of her life! Because there, amongst her bookcases, is the body of a young man, with a shock of white-blond hair. But who was he? And how did he come to be there?

Determined to save her beloved bookshop’s reputation and solve the baffling mystery, Flora enlists the help of handsome and brooding Jack Carrington: crime writer, recluse and her most reliable customer.

The unlikely duo set about investigating the extraordinary case, following a lead across the sleepy village of Abbeymead to The Priory Hotel. When the hotel’s gardener dies suddenly, and they find out their victim was staying there, Flora’s suspicions are raised.

Are the two deaths connected? Is someone at the hotel responsible – the nervous cook, the money-obsessed receptionist, or the formidable manageress?

As the trail of clues takes Flora and Jack all over the village it becomes clear there’s more than one person hiding secrets in Abbeymead…

But does Flora have what it takes to uncover the truth – or will her amateur sleuthing put her in harm’s way?

My Thoughts: It's 1955 and Flora Steele is just opening the bookshop she and her aunt had developed together. Times are hard; England is still trying to recover from World War II. Flora has her own difficult recovery to accomplish too. Her aunt's illness and death had meant that Flora had to delay her dreams to travel and see new places. 

Flora's first customer of the day is recluse Jack Carrington who is a man who writes crime novels. This is the first she has seen of him despite him living just outside the village for five years. He usually sends an errand runner to pick up the books he orders. After Flora finds his books in the basement and goes to find him in the quaint old shop, she discovers that he has discovered the body of a young man back in the stacks. 

Flora had seen him before when he almost ran her and her bicycle off the road the previous day but has no idea why he would have been in her closed shop and certainly no idea why he might have died there. The police are quick to write the death off as a heart attack which seems unlikely in a twenty-one-year-old and fit looking man. When rumors start to spread that there must be something wrong with her shop and business, which hadn't been brisk. slows to a trickle, Flora decides that her only option is to find out how the young man died and clear the reputation of her shop.

Flora recruits Jack since she believes that a crime writer would be a useful partner in solving a crime. Since Jack is having difficulty with his current book and finds Flora intriguing, he agrees. Their investigation leads to the new hotel in town which used to be a stately home. The dead man was staying there. 

The investigation runs into roadblocks, takes strange turns, and turns dangerous when Flora and Jack are shot at with a crossbow and the former gardener also dies in a suspicious accident. Flora and Jack begin to think that the murder has something to do with a legend of buried Tudor treasure. 

There are a number of suspects and a number of interesting characters in the story. This is the first book in a series. It was narrated by Charlie Norfolk who did a good job making the various characters unique. 

Favorite Quote:

"German sniper," he said briefly. He wouldn't say more, Flora knew. People didn't speak of the war, particularly men who had fought their way across Europe. they barely mentioned what had happened to them in those long years of struggle. No one did, really. It was as though a huge schism had broken the country apart - a second appalling conflagration within thirty years - and everyone was now silently trying to knit the edges together. 

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.