Teaser Tuesday: A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser (from 10% on my Kindle):

"That's what I need to tell you." Tom's voice dropped. "Palmer's dead. He was thrown off a train two nights ago at Chumnley Bridge."

I caught my breath. Had I heard him correctly?

This week my teaser comes from A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden. I got this historical mystery for review from NetGalley. Here is the description from Amazon:

Following a humiliating fourth Season in London, Lady Elizabeth Fraser is on her way back to her ancestral country estate when her train careens off the rails and bursts into flames. Though she is injured, she manages to drag herself and her unconscious mother out of the wreckage, and amid the chaos that ensues, a brilliant young railway surgeon saves her mother’s life. Elizabeth feels an immediate connection with Paul Wilcox—though society would never deem a medical man eligible for the daughter of an earl.

After Paul reveals that the train wreck was no accident, and the inspector who tried to prevent it dies under mysterious circumstances, Elizabeth undertakes a dangerous investigation of her own that leads back to her family’s buried secrets. The more she learns, the more she must risk. Not only are her dowry and her reputation at stake; Paul’s very life hangs in the balance when he is arrested for manslaughter. As the trial draws near, and Parliament prepares for a vote that will change the course of the nation, Elizabeth uncovers a conspiracy that has been years in the making. But time is running out for her to see justice done.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 21, 2016)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading... 

It has been another week of changeable weather in Minnesota. One day I haul out the spring jacket, the next day it's back to the winter one. I am enjoying having more daylight at the end of the day but am still trying to catch up from the lost hour of sleep. We have three four-day weeks in a row coming up at work as we get Friday and Monday off over Easter and then have the following Monday for staff in-service before we begin our final quarter.

I am hoping to get a little extra reading time with a couple extra days off. I won't be traveling except for a few hours up to the Cities for an author event. A friend and I are taking that road trip next Saturday. I can't wait to take lots of pictures and meet authors I haven't met before.

Read Last Week

Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle was an entertaining romantic suspense title that begins a new series. The setting is the Colorado Rockies and the heroes are part of a Search and Rescue squad or some one associated with them. My review will be posted on April 2.

Luck Is No Lady by Amy Sandas was a historical romance. I really liked the characters in this one. My review will be posted on April 7.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts was an excellent romantic suspense title. It is typical Nora Roberts in that there is a strong sense of community and strong friendships built among the characters. I liked that neither the hero or the heroine were looking for love when it found them. My review will be posted on April 9.

Currently

Dying for a Taste by Leslie Karst is a cozy mystery that I got from Crooked Lane Books for review.

Next Week

Cold Girl by R. M. Greenaway is a mystery I got from NetGalley. I've had it since last October when it had an April 19 release date. It will be released on March 26 but my review will still appear in April.

'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick is also from NetGalley. I love this author's work no matter what pseudonym she is using and was glad when a publicist asked if I wanted to read it. It will be released on April 19.

The Black Dragon by Allyson James is from deep on TBR mountain. I got it January 18, 2008. I haven't had much chance this year to read or donate books added in 2008 but it is still a goal. (I still have 97 unread from 2008.)

Reviews Posted

• Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman
• The Drafter by Kim Harrison
• Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

After enjoying Nightstruck, I couldn't resist adding Dark Descendant by Jenna Black when it was a Kindle Daily Deal.

Magic & Manners by C. E. Murphy was recommended by an author I enjoy and is similar to some other books about magic in Regency England that I have liked. I had to buy it.

Added to the Review Stack was To Love a Wolf by Paige Tyler. I have enjoyed the rest of these books which have werewolves in a Texas SWAT team. It will be released on June 7.

State of TBR Mountain:

• Added this week: 6
• Total 2016 additions: 89
• Still to read from 2016: 58
• Total To Read Books: 1930

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.

Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop

I'm excited to be participating in the Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop hosted by BookHounds. I have two boxes of mysteries - a combination of finished copies and ARCs - to give away to two readers. Because of the cost of shipping, this giveaway is only open to entrants in the continental United States.

Enter here.

Check out the other participants.

ARC Review: Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Fool Me Once
Author: Harlan Coben
Publication: Dutton (March 22, 2016)

Description: In the course of eight consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, millions of readers have discovered Harlan Coben’s page-turning thrillers, filled with his trademark edge-of-your-seat suspense and gut-wrenching emotion. In Fool Me Once, Coben once again outdoes himself.

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

My Thoughts: This story begins at a funeral and ends at a birth - a reverse of the natural order of things. It was a fascinating story about a woman - Maya Stern - trying to solve the mystery of the murders of her husband and her sister. Maya has an interesting story. She is a former military helicopter pilot who served in the Middle East and was forced into taking an honorable discharge after some sort of incident that we find out about late in the book. She suffers from PTSD. Her main symptom is aural flashbacks, or maybe hallucinations. She is also the mother of a two-year-old daughter that she loves very much.

When her husband is killed in an attempted robbery, Maya gains the attention of the police. She was with him when he was killed but ran for help before the final shot was fired. Her husband was the scion of a very wealthy and private family. The kind of family that has hereditary servants. His childhood nurse's daughter is now his daughter's nanny. Maya and Joe met, fell in love, and married after a whirlwind courtship when Maya found herself pregnant with Lily. They were married about three years before his death but didn't spend much time together. Maya spent some time deployed.

Maya needs closure for both deaths and finds herself investigating. As she looks into her sister's murder she finds a number of connections to Joe and his family. The deeper she digs, the more questions she has. She also doesn't know who she can trust. She finds that her sister was working with the same internet whistleblower who brought forward the incident that ended Maya's military career. She contacts him to find out what secrets her sister might have been sharing. Her close friend from the military - Shane - helps her out but she doesn't share much with him in part because she wants to keep him out of it and in part because she is keeping secrets from him.

I got the feeling that Maya was an unreliable narrator early on but I certainly never guessed where the story was going. I found the ending stunning but reasonable when I looked back over the story again. The characters were fascinating and the mystery engaging. Fans of thrillers will enjoy this one very much.

I got this book from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

They buried Joe three days after his murder.

Friday 56 (location 560 on my Kindle):

Maya read somewhere that the average two year old has a vocabulary of about fifty words. That seemed about right. "More" was a big one on the little-kid list.

This week I am spotlighting the latest by Harlan Coben - Fool Me Once. I was offered this one for review by the publisher. Here is the description from Amazon:

In the course of eight consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, millions of readers have discovered Harlan Coben’s page-turning thrillers, filled with his trademark edge-of-your-seat suspense and gut-wrenching emotion. In Fool Me Once, Coben once again outdoes himself.

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

ARC Review: Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman

Tumbled Graves
Author: Brenda Chapman
Series: A Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery (Book 3)
Publication: Dundurn (March 22, 2016)

Description: A missing child. A dead mother. Kala Stonechild is about to discover what one betrayal can lead to.

When Adele Delaney and her daughter, Violet, go missing, Jacques Rouleau is called upon to investigate. However, struggling with the impending death of his ill ex-wife, he sends Kala Stonechild and Paul Gundersund instead. Stonechild has been trying to adapt to life as her young cousin Dawn’s guardian, and even though Gundersund has offered support, Stonechild is at risk of losing custody.

On the second day of the investigation, Adele’s body turns up, dumped on the shoulder of the highway with no sign of her daughter. Her husband, Ivo, denies any involvement with either his wife’s death or their child’s disappearance, but not everyone is convinced. As the investigation unfolds, Stonechild learns that Adele was once entangled with a Montreal biker gang and heads to Quebec to investigate further.

As Stonechild and Gundersund juggle personal troubles and a complicated, dangerous case, they find themselves piecing together a chain of disasters leading back to a single betrayal.

My Thoughts: I have come into this series at the third book but didn't have any trouble following the story and the relationships. The case has to do with a missing mother and child. When Kala Stonechild begins to look into it, she isn't willing to take the easy way out and blame the husband Ivo Delaney. The more she looks the more she uncovers the tangled past of Adele Delaney which leads her into the shady bar scene in Montreal. The case becomes even more complicated when the mutilated body of Adele Delaney is found but her three-year-old daughter Violet is still missing - presumed drowned in the river behind the family home.

While investigating the investigators' personal lives all intrude. Rouleau, who is Stonechild's friend and mentor, is dealing with the final illness of his ex-wife who is in hospice care. Stonechild is getting used to being the foster parent of thirteen-year-old Dawn whose mother, now serving time in prison, was a childhood friend of hers. Both Stonechild and Dawn and quiet, solitary, and introspective. Stonechild is afraid that she won't be a successful foster parent because of her own past in foster care. And Stonechild's partner Gundersund is dealing with a marriage that is troubled and a wife who is also a co-worker. Since Gundersund would like to begin a relationship beyond their partnership, a jealous almost-ex-wife isn't a positive. Kala isn't willing to step between a man and his wife and isn't easily able to trust anyone. Then there is the jealous co-worker - Woodhouse - who wants Stonechild out of the police largely because she is good at the job and he isn't.

This was an engaging police procedural with nicely complex people. Fans of mysteries will enjoy this story.

Favorite Quote:

She'd never put any stock in talking through feelings or blaming her childhood for current problems. Rehashing what happened from every pathetic angle seemed like a big wallowing waste of time. But now she had someone other than herself to consider. For the first time, she could admit that stoic denial might not be working.

I got this eARC from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Drafter by Kim Harrison

The Drafter
Author: Kim Harrison
Series: The Peri Reed Chronicles
Publication: Gallery Books; First Edition edition (September 1, 2015)

Description: In the first explosive book in the Peri Reed Chronicles, Kim Harrison, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Hollows series, blazes a new frontier with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Detroit 2030. Double-crossed by the person she loved and betrayed by the covert government organization that trained her to use her body as a weapon, Peri Reed is a renegade on the run. Don’t forgive and never forget has always been Peri’s creed. But her day job makes it difficult: she is a drafter, possessed of a rare, invaluable skill for altering time, yet destined to forget both the history she changed and the history she rewrote. When Peri discovers her name is on a list of corrupt operatives, she realizes that her own life has been manipulated by the agency. Her memory of the previous three years erased, she joins forces with a mysterious rogue soldier in a deadly race to piece together the truth about her fateful final task. Her motto has always been only to kill those who kill her first. But with nothing but intuition to guide her, will she have to break her own rule to survive?

My Thoughts: THE DRAFTER begins a new series set in Detroit in the year 2030. The main character is Peri Reed who is a drafter. She can change time but as a consequence needs an anchor to help her reconcile the two memories. She works for an organization called Opti which uses drafters and anchors to maintain political stability, fight terrorists, and do other things for the good of humanity. At least, that is what Peri believes is Opti's mission and she is proud to be one of their soldiers.

The Alliance is an organization of drafters and anchors who are trying to bring Opti down because they know that Opti is not working for the good of humanity but for the good of a handful of rich families. When Peri comes upon the Alliance in the person of Silas she comes to question the memories that she has.

This was a twisty story and, since it was told from Peri's viewpoint, we only know what she knows. Since her memory is being manipulated, what she knows keeps changing. I found it confusing at first but really came to like Peri who was trying so hard to find out what was real and to reclaim herself.

I will be eager to find out what happens next for her.

Favorite Quote:

"You're nothing but a little bitty girl," he said, reaching for her.

"I prefer the term fun-size."

I got a copy of this one from Glose.com. You can buy your copy here.