Book Review: Desperation in Death by J. D. Robb

Desperation in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Series: In Death (Book 55)
Publication: St. Martin's Press (September 6, 2022)

Description: The #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a gripping new thriller that pits homicide detective Eve Dallas against a conspiracy of exploitation and evil...

New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a thirteen-year-old runaway who’d been imprisoned there, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who’d hatched the escape plan. Mina was the more daring of the two―but they’d been equally desperate.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get away fast enough. Now Dorian is injured, terrified, and wandering the streets of New York, and Mina lies dead near the waterfront while Lt. Eve Dallas looks over the scene.

Mina’s expensive, elegant clothes and beauty products convince Dallas that she was being groomed, literally and figuratively, for sex trafficking―and that whoever is investing in this high-overhead operation expects windfall profits. Her billionaire husband, Roarke, may be able to help, considering his ties to the city’s ultra-rich. But Roarke is also worried about the effect this case is having on Dallas, as it brings a rage to the surface she can barely control. No matter what, she must keep her head clear--because above all, she is desperate for justice and to take down those who prey on and torment the innocent.

My Thoughts: When Dallas is called in because the body of a thirteen-year-old is found impaled with a splintered stake, Eve has questions. Some things just don't add up. Why was the beautifully groomed child left in the park? Why does the blood on her clothes lead to another thirteen-year-old who's missing?

As Eve searches for the missing child and begins to discover facts that lead her to believe that someone is kidnapping and grooming children for the sex trade. Naturally, this brings back horrible memories from Eve's own childhood. But she has Mira and Roarke to support her as she investigates.

This was very much a police procedural as Eve and her team, with Roarke's techy help, gradually find information and put it together getting closer and closer to the villains. Woven in among all the police procedural elements are the strong emotions that Eve goes through as she sees so many parallels with her own past.

This was an excellent, fast-paced story filled with great characters. 

Favorite Quote:

She knew the expression was "finding a needle in a haystack," but that was bogus. Who the hell would put a needed in a haystack? Plus, she wasn't exactly sure what a haystack was, exactly.

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

Friday Memes: Desperation in Death by J. D. Robb

 Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is 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:

When they made the bargain, they knew they risked death. But living - if you could call existing in the Pleasure Academy living - wasn't much of a bargain.

Friday 56:

Desperate to ignore it, she jerked a thumb at the AC. "Want coffee?"

Suspicion flickered into his cop's eyes, but he stepped over to program some. When you got a shot at Dallas's coffee, you took it.

This week I'm spotlighting Desperation in Death by J. D. Robb. This was a "drop everything and read" title. I started it as soon as it downloaded to my Kindle on release day. 

Here is the description from Amazon:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a gripping new thriller that pits homicide detective Eve Dallas against a conspiracy of exploitation and evil…

New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a thirteen-year-old runaway who’d been imprisoned there, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who’d hatched the escape plan. Mina was the more daring of the two—but they’d been equally desperate.

Unfortunately, they didn’t get away fast enough. Now Dorian is injured, terrified, and wandering the streets of New York, and Mina lies dead near the waterfront while Lt. Eve Dallas looks over the scene.

Mina’s expensive, elegant clothes and beauty products convince Dallas that she was being groomed, literally and figuratively, for sex trafficking—and that whoever is investing in this high-overhead operation expects windfall profits. Her billionaire husband, Roarke, may be able to help, considering his ties to the city’s ultra-rich. But Roarke is also worried about the effect this case is having on Dallas, as it brings a rage to the surface she can barely control. No matter what, she must keep her head clear--because above all, she is desperate for justice and to take down those who prey on and torment the innocent.

Audiobook Review: Murder with Puffins by Donna Andrews

Murder with Puffins
Author: Donna Andrews
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Series: Meg Langslow Mysteries (Book 2)
Publication: Dreamscape Media (January 19, 2019)
Length: 9 hours and 19 minutes

Description: Meg Langslow and her boyfriend, Michael, are searching for some romantic alone time. She knows the perfect place for a private getaway: her aunt's cottage on the tiny island of Monhegan. But when a series of events leads to the couple being trapped in the cottage with her entire family, their private getaway vacation slowly turns into a disaster.

Meg doesn't think anything more could go wrong until a resident of the island with close ties to her mother is murdered. When her father becomes the chief suspect, she knows she can no longer sit by the cozy fireplace. In a dash to save her father and her weekend, Meg finds herself knee deep in murder once again.

My Thoughts: This second book in the Meg Langslow series has all the quirky characters of the first and the wonderful Meg too. 

Meg and Michael would like some alone time after being surrounded by her family since they met. Meg's aunt has a vacation home on Monhegan island off the coast of Maine which sounds like a perfect retreat. 

However, with a hurricane bearing down on the island, it might be just a little too fraught getting there for Meg's prone-to-seasickness self. And then once they do arrive, they find that Meg's parents, her brother, her aunt and Mrs. Fetterman are already in residence.

So much for alone time! 

When a famous artist who had a history with Meg's mother is found floating in a tide pool, Meg feels she has to investigate. After all, her father could be considered a prime suspect. It doesn't take much investigating to find that the artist had not endeared himself to anyone on the island. There are about as many suspects as there are island residents. 

With a hurricane isolating the island from help, it is up to Meg to find out who wanted the artist dead. Along the way she has to find a way to eliminate her father as a suspect and protect her mother's reputation. 

This story was a fun listen with Bernadette Dunne doing an excellent job with all the quirky characters. 

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

ARC Review: Sweetwater and the Witch by Jayne Castle

Sweetwater and the Witch
Author: Jayne Castle
Series: Harmony (Book 9)
Publication: Berkley (September 20, 2022)

Description: Welcome to the world of Harmony, where—despite its name, things are anything but—danger lurks just beneath the surface in this new novel by New York Times bestselling author, Jayne Castle.

If there’s something Ravenna Chastain knows, it’s when to end things. And after she almost winds up the victim of a cult that believes she’s a witch, it’s easy to walk away from her dead-end career, ready for a new start. But where to find a job that would allow her to use her very specialized skill set? The answer is clear: she becomes a matchmaker.

But even a successful matchmaker can’t find someone for everyone, and Ravenna considers Ethan Sweetwater her first professional failure. After nine failed dates, Ravenna knows it’s time to cut Ethan loose. But Ethan refuses to be fired as a client—he needs one final date to a business function. Since Ravenna needs a date herself to a family event, they agree to a deal: she will be his (business) date if he will be her (fake) date to her grandparents’ anniversary celebration.

What Ethan fails to mention is that attending the business function is a cover for some industrial espionage that he’s doing as a favor to the new Illusion Town Guild boss. Ravenna is happy to help, but their relationship gets even more complicated when things heat up—the chemistry between them is explosive, as explosive as the danger that’s stalking Ravenna. Lucky for her, Ethan isn’t just an engineer—he’s also a Sweetwater, and Sweetwaters are known for hunting down monsters…

My Thoughts: The story begins with Ravenna Chastain being held in a cage in an underworld cavern waiting to be executed for being a witch. She was supposed to be undercover for the FBPI but her backup seems to be delayed. It looks like Ravenna and her new dust bunny friend Harriet will have to rescue themselves. Using her psychic ability to create psychic fire, she manages to capture the main villain just before the FBPI finally arrives. 

Ravenna decides to change careers after her ordeal. After all criminal profiling and matchmaking aren't really all that different. But Ravenna has a new problem in an unmatchable client. Ethan Sweetwater has had nine unsuccessful dates and, while Ravenna wants to buy out his contract, he demands one final date - with her. 

Luckily, Ethan is a phlegmatic engineer with a hidden hunter talent, because when he comes to pick her up for their date, he finds that she has been attacked by the last person who was matched with her. He's come toting a gun and saying that she has to die so that he can preserve his business. Ethan rises to the occasion and takes care of things. 

However, that is just the first mishap the couple experiences. A number of attacks by hired killers give the couple a lot of chances for "bonding experiences." Through each of them the couple gets closer even though Ravenna is convinced, but not excited, that they are just fake dating. 

This was another great episode in the Harmony universe. Harriet the pen-collecting dust bunny is a great addition to the roster of dust bunnies who have bonded with the main characters in this series. I really like the dialog in this series and this one had especially crisp dialog, I liked the way Ravenna and Ethan came to trust and accept each other's foibles. 

Favorite Quote:

"What is that?" she asked warily.

"The universal solution to ninety-seven percent of life's problems. Duct tape. Hey, Harriet."

Harriet rose on her hind paws. The tips of her ears peeked out from her dryer lint fur. There was an air of alert readiness about her. She was ready for the next game.

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

ARC Review: Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Amanda Flower

Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Author: Amanda Flower
Series: An Emily Dickinson Mystery (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley (September 20, 2022)

Description: Emily Dickinson and her housemaid, Willa Noble, realize there is nothing poetic about murder in this first book in an all-new series from USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award–winning author Amanda Flower.

January 1855 Willa Noble knew it was bad luck when it was pouring rain on the day of her ever-important job interview at the Dickinson home in Amherst, Massachusetts. When she arrived late, disheveled with her skirts sodden and filthy, she'd lost all hope of being hired for the position. As the housekeeper politely told her they'd be in touch, Willa started toward the door of the stately home only to be called back by the soft but strong voice of Emily Dickinson. What begins as tenuous employment turns to friendship as the reclusive poet takes Willa under her wing.

Tragedy soon strikes and Willa's beloved brother, Henry, is killed in a tragic accident at the town stables. With no other family and nowhere else to turn, Willa tells Emily about her brother’s death and why she believes it was no accident. Willa is convinced it was murder. Henry had been very secretive of late, only hinting to Willa that he'd found a way to earn money to take care of them both. Viewing it first as a puzzle to piece together, Emily offers to help, only to realize that she and Willa are caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse that reveals corruption in Amherst that is generations deep. Some very high-powered people will stop at nothing to keep their profitable secrets even if that means forever silencing Willa and her new mistress....

My Thoughts: Soon after young Willa Noble gets a job as a maid for the Dickenson family in Amherst, she learns that her younger brother Henry has died in a stable accident. She is both heartbroken and unconvinced of the accuracy of this verdict. 

When the eldest daughter of the family, Emily, offers to help her investigate Henry's death, Willa begins something that will answer her questions and expand her life. Emily is not yet the famous poet, but scraps of paper all over the house and a unique viewpoint give hints about her future. Willa is dragged along as Emily takes them to the stable where Henry died and as far away as Washington, DC, in their search for answers. 

I thought the setting and time period were particularly well done in this mystery. I loved the descriptions of the train trip and the sites in Washington. Since this story takes place in 1855, it was no surprise that the Underground Railroad and the issue of slavery would be major plot points. I had the villain figured out pretty quickly but still enjoyed the journey to the resolution of the story. 

This was a slow-paced story with some interesting characters. I liked Emily. I had some trouble with picturing Willa as a detective even though she really wanted to know what happened to her younger brother. She seemed to live too narrow and safe a life. 

Fans of historical mysteries will enjoy this one.

Favorite Quote:

"There is always a reason to write," Emily said. "Words fall differently on the page than they do from the lips. There is more control, more thought, and more possibility."

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

Audiobook Review: The Silent Witness by Carolyn Arnold

The Silent Witness
Author: Carolyn Arnold
Narrator: Lisa Rost-Welling
Series: Detective Amanda Steele (Book 3)
Publication: Hachette UK - Bookouture (September 24, 2021)
Length: 8 hours and 49 minutes

Description: It’s four a.m. when her mom shakes her awake. “Get up baby, we’re going to play hide and seek.” The little girl presses back into the dark space, holding her breath as she hears the shots ring out. She knows she’s next....

When the bodies of a local family are discovered on a quiet street in the small town of Dumfries, Virginia, Detective Amanda Steele takes charge of the case. Brett and Angela Parker were shot three times each, leaving no hope of survival, and their tidy suburban home has been ransacked. But there is no sign of their beloved six-year-old, Zoe.

Zoe is the same age as Amanda’s daughter was when she died, and Amanda can’t bear the thought of another little girl in danger. She’s organizing a search for the child, when she notices something strange about the ottoman at the foot of the Parkers’ bed. She opens it to find Zoe, mute and traumatized, but alive.

With Zoe completely uncommunicative, Amanda must find another way to untangle what destroyed this seemingly perfect family. It’s clear that the killer is searching for something the Parkers had, and until she has this monster behind bars, Amanda fears that he may return for Zoe. When she learns that Brett Parker cut short the family’s recent lakeside vacation, she wonders why. What happened at that lake house, and did it ultimately get them killed?

Amanda heads out to Lake Chesdin on the feeling it might be key to the case, and when she finds a cell phone in the murky waters next to the Parker cabin, she knows she’s made a breakthrough. But then terrible news reaches her from Dumfries; Zoe has been taken from her school playground.

Someone wants to silence the Parker family for good, can Amanda catch them before the little girl she’s desperate to protect pays the price?

A completely gripping and addictive crime thriller that will keep fans of Rachel Caine, Lisa Regan, and Robert Dugoni entertained into the early hours.

My Thoughts: This was an entertaining audiobook though a little light on police procedures. Amanda Steele is a police detective who is called in when the bodies of two people are found after a home invasion. Their six-year-old daughter Zoe is missing. This brings back all sorts of memories for Amanda who lost her own daughter and husband in a car accident which also claimed the life of her unborn baby and robbed her of the possibility of more children. 

She immediately begins a search for the child. When Zoe is found hiding in a hamper in the bedroom where her parents' bodies have been found, Amanda is determined to solve the case and protect the child. Zoe probably saw the killers, but she isn't talking. Circumstances induce Amanda to take Zoe home with her to protect her from those who killed her parents which brings back all sorts of old memories.

Meanwhile, Amanda's mother is on trial for murder - a murder she confessed to Amanda that she committed - and Amanda learned that her father once had an affair which resulted in a child. The affair came out when it was revealed that one of the CSI who should have testified at her mother's trial had to recuse herself because she was the "other woman."

The story had a lot of rather unlikely events including a police chief and politician involved in a sex trafficking ring with only Amanda and her partner knowing about it. It was packed with high emotion though. I liked the character of Amanda and was curious about her past activities which I assume are detailed in the first two books of this series. 

The narration was well done. The narrator was good at all the accents and good at building the appropriate suspense.

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

ARC Review: The Forever Farmhouse by Lee Tobin McLain

The Forever Farmhouse
Author: Lee Tobin McLain
Series: Hometown Brothers (Book 1)
Publication: HQN; Original edition (September 6, 2022)

Description: A Chesapeake island homecoming—and a life-changing discovery...

When Ryan Hastings first came to Teaberry Island, he was a troubled teen on his last chance. He’s returning as a renowned scientist, checking in on his widowed foster mother. But one thing hasn’t changed—Ryan’s feelings for the girl next door who he loved…and left. Mellie Anderson has a son now, and a good life that Ryan believes he’s still too damaged to share. But he knows he can help young Alfie, who’s getting picked on at his new school.

Mellie is grateful her gifted son is getting extra support, and torn about where it’s coming from. Ryan has no idea he’s Alfie’s father. No matter how valid her reasons were, could Ryan ever understand why she didn’t tell him? But in this close-knit community, friendship and forgiveness are always near at hand, and forever love might be waiting just next door.

My Thoughts: This was a nice second chance romance filled with broken people. Ryan Hastings was a product of child abuse who finally found a home on Teaberry Island with Betty and Wayne. Mellie Anderson was the girl next door who had issues of her own taking care of her father and younger sisters when her mother left. They had a brief romance before fear of relationships sent him running from the island.

Ten years have passed. Betty is now a widow who is suffering from depression after the death of her husband. Ryan is a well-known scientist who wants to help out his foster mother and save the Chesapeake Bay. Mellie runs the local grocery store and keeps busy caring for her genius ten-year-old son Alfie who is Ryan's son.

With Ryan back on the island for some time now, Mellie is conflicted. She knows she ought to tell Ryan that she had his baby. But as he was leaving, he told her that he never wanted children and Wayne counseled her that he didn't think Ryan would ever be able to get over his childhood trauma and form a lasting non-abusive relationship.

There was a very emotional story. The characters traveled from fear and anger and had to deal with their own uncertainties about each other and themselves. I liked the relationship that grew between Alfie and Ryan. I also thought the progression of Ryan and Mellie's relationship was very realistic. 

Fans of second chance romances will enjoy this sweet romance.

Favorite Quote:

"You saved me as a teenager, you know," he continued, punctuating his words with tiny kisses. "I was so lost. You were something to grab on to. You anchored me."

Something about that didn't sit so well. She didn't want to be an anchor. That's why she cut him free.

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