Showing posts with label mystery/suspense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery/suspense. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

BOOK TOUR AND GIVEAWAY: Overcast Sunset(Brynn Bancroft Mystery #3) by Joyce T. Strand


NEW RELEASE.....

Brynn Bancroft’s enjoyment at running her former husband’s winery is overcast by a rash of troubling burglaries and her inability to reconnect with her ex. When she receives an urgent phone call from an old college friend requesting that she speak to an investor, she welcomes the interruption. Unfortunately, her friend’s business activities intrude on her routine. Then her ex-husband threatens her marriage hopes when he considers selling the winery. When the burglaries escalate, a sense of foreboding plagues her, hinting at trouble to come.



Available to buy from....
Amazon.co.uk   Amazon.com   Barnes & Noble   Paperback    

About Brynn Bancroft
Brynn Bancroft evolved from the Jillian Hillcrest mysteries where she served as Jillian’s manager while Chief Financial Officer of Harmonia Therapeutics in Silicon Valley. A shapely blonde with a MENSA IQ, she had an affair with the CEO of the company.

Unfortunately for Brynn, the CEO’s wife figured out that the two were involved and asked Brynn to leave the company, which she agreed to do.

In the meantime, her husband, Liam—not unfamiliar with extramarital affairs himself but also understanding that Brynn grew up in an abusive household- grew tired of waiting for Brynn to commit to their relationship and asked for a divorce. At the same time, he solicited her assistance in developing his new winery in Sonoma County, Calif.

As the protagonist in HILLTOP SUNSET, Brynn begins to shed her past and her behavior of protecting herself by blocking emotions. We watch her transition from a shallow uncaring person to someone who starts to understand the emotions of friendship and love.

At the same time, much like Jillian—who occasionally shows up in the Brynn Bancroft mysteries—Brynn, too, attracts mystery and murders as she grows to enjoy life at her ex-husband’s Hilltop Sunset Winery.

Review: 


Although it is possible to read this book as a standalone, I would recommend that you read Hilltop Sunset and Landscape For Murder before reading this one. There are several references to people and events from the first two books, and you will be able to follow better if you have the background.

The mystery part of the story is very well written. Everyone is a suspect, and you'll be kept guessing as to the perpetrator and their motive until the big reveal.

Brynn is definitely a trouble magnet, but she manages to make dealing with all the obstacles in her life look easy. I found her character to be very likable and easy to relate to no matter what happens to her.

I received this book to review through Beck Valley Books Book Tours, all the opinions above are 100% my own.
 Rating:  Four stars

Also Available
Hilltop Sunset: A Brynn Bancroft Mystery
A mystery set in wine country pitting financial exec Brynn Bancroft against a determined stalker, a troubled love interest, and career clashes.

Brynn Bancroft learns that a former employee who beat her nearly to death has returned to stalk her and her friend, Jillian Hillcrest, also a former victim.

Recently divorced, Brynn turns to a new love interest only to encounter additional unwelcome issues. Meanwhile, short-timer Brynn, who has resigned from her Silicon Valley company, becomes bored fulfilling her remaining responsibilities there. She begins to prefer supporting the launch of her ex-husband’s new hilltop winery while waiting to move to her next position. Between her stalker and her new love interest, Brynn faces a series of life-changing events.
Read an excerpt here

Book available from....

Landscape For Murder: A Brynn Bancroft Mystery
A friend’s murder. An unconnected cast of suspects, including the victim’s missing adult daughter. As if that wasn’t enough, Brynn Bancroft’s winery has been broken into. Can she deal with her co-owner ex and help the police find her friend’s murder so she can finally overcome her own troubled past and enjoy family life with her teenage ward?
Book available from....
Amazon.co.uk   Amazon.com   Barnes & Noble   Paperback   






About the Author

Joyce T. Strand is the author of who-done-it contemporary and historical mysteries set in San Francisco, Napa-Sonoma wine regions of California, or Ventura, California.

Her most recent novels, Hilltop Sunset and Landscape for Murder, feature protagonist Brynn Bancroft, a financial guru in transition to winemaker from corporate executive. Brynn Bancroft is a minor character in Strand’s first three novels On Message, Open Meetings, and Fair Disclosure—three mysteries solved by Jillian Hillcrest, a publicist in Silicon Valley whose boss was Chief Financial Officer Brynn Bancroft.

Her first historical mystery, The Judge's Story, tells the story of a Superior Court Judge with a passion for social justice as well as the law who strives to discover the truth behind the mystery of a robbery-murder in a small California town in 1939.

All of her novels are inspired by actual events and/or real people, although they are definitely fictionalized.

Much like her protagonist Jillian Hillcrest, Strand headed corporate communications at several biotech and high-tech companies in California’s Silicon Valley for more than 25 years. Unlike Jillian, however, she did not encounter murder in her career. She focused on writing by-lined articles, press releases, white papers, and brochures to publicize her companies and their products.

She lives with her two cats and collection of cow statuary in Southern California, and enjoys exploring and writing about the growing wine region in the Ramona Valley near San Diego.

She received her Ph.D. from the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and her B.A. from Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA


Find the author on the following sites....

Follow the book tour

I received this book through Beck Valley Books Book Tours, I have volunteered to share my review and all the opinions are 100% my own.
NOW FOR THE AUTHOR'S GIVEAWAY
1st Prize - Win $50 Amazon.com GC / Paypal Cash (winners choice) 
2nd Prize - Win $25 Amazon.com GC / Paypal Cash (winners choice)
Open Worldwide
Ending on Sunday 11th December at 11.59pm EST


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Friday, July 22, 2016

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE: All Is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker #src2016 #bestsummerever

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genre: Mystery/suspense, psychological thriller
  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press (July 12, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1250097916
  • ISBN-13: 978-1250097910

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Synopsis: In the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut everything seems picture perfect.

Until one night when young Jenny Kramer is attacked at a local party. In the hours immediately after, she is given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. But, in the weeks and months that follow, as she heals from her physical wounds, and with no factual recall of the attack, Jenny struggles with her raging emotional memory. Her father, Tom, becomes obsessed with his inability to find her attacker and seek justice while her mother, Charlotte, prefers to pretend this horrific event did not touch her perfect country club world.

As they seek help for their daughter, the fault lines within their marriage and their close-knit community emerge from the shadows where they have been hidden for years, and the relentless quest to find the monster who invaded their town - or perhaps lives among them - drive this psychological thriller to a shocking and unexpected conclusion.
 


Review: TRIGGER WARNING - RAPE
Additional warning to anyone particularly sensitive to graphic scenes of brutal sexual violence.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to start this review by stating that I HATED the narrator through nearly all of the book---but I also think that the author intended us to feel deep emotions toward him. He is a psychiatrist who is having sessions with all three members of the Kramer family, and who uses those sessions to advance his own agenda, basically putting his needs ahead of those of his patient.

The good thing about this book is that it lends itself to a lot of "what would you do?" questions as you read. There are so many social/moral issues throughout the story, and they are covered in an amazing way. I can see this as a fabulous read for a book club, leading to a very spirited discussion afterwards.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating: Four stars

About the author
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Wendy Walker is a practicing divorce attorney in Fairfield County, Connecticut who began writing while at home raising her three sons. She published two novels with St. Martin’s Press and edited multiple compilations for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series before writing her debut psychological thriller, All is Not Forgotten.

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Glass Shatters by Michelle Meyers

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BOOK INFORMATION
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
  • Paperback: 228 pages
  • Publisher: She Writes Press (April 12, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1631520180
  • ISBN-13: 978-1631520181

Synopsis:  A man wakes up in a living room he doesn't recognize, unable to remember anything about himself. All he has are the few remnants of his identity scattered throughout the house clues to his past. He soon learns that he is Charles Lang, a brilliant scientist whose wife, Julie, and daughter, Jess, mysteriously disappeared several years ago. Soon, he begins to recover memories --memories that may or may not be his own and as he does, he realizes that only by uncovering the details of his former life will he have any hope of being reunited with Julie and Jess. A haunting tale of love and longing, fate and free will, and the easily blurred lines between fiction and reality, Glass Shatters explores the risks of trying to reinvent oneself, and the dangers of pushing science to its limits.

Review: This book most definitely lives up to its genre of thriller. There are surprises at every turn--just when you think you have a hold on what is going on, something happens that you were definitely not expecting and you are once again at a loss.

The book moves back and forth between the past and the present, as Charles has memories which may or may not be true.  It is a well-written mystery, a tragic love story, and a tale of scientific ethics. 

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys mystery, suspense and/or thriller. I also hope the author will have another book like this out soon.

**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.**

Rating:  Five stars

About the author
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Michelle Meyers is a fiction writer and playwright born and raised in Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Literary Arts and Theatre Arts from Brown University, where she studied with Brian Evenson, Michelle’s writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, DOGZPLOT, jmww, Grey Sparrow Journal, and Juked, and her flash fiction was selected for the Wigleaf Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions of 2014. Her plays have been developed and/or produced in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, the Berkshires, and elsewhere. Michelle is currently a 2015 PEN Center Emerging Voices Fellow in Fiction and is heading to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa this fall to begin her MFA in Creative Writing. Glass Shatters is her first novel.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Auditory Viewpoint by Lillian Melendez

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Book Information
Genre: Mystery/suspense
  • ISBN-10: 1612962114
  • ISBN-13: 978-1612962115
  • Publisher: Black Rose Writing (July 25, 2013)
  • Paperback: 248 pages
  • Also available for Kindle

Synopsis: Gloria Rank has lived her entire life in the dark. Blind since birth, she has made a name for herself as a respected talk radio show host in New Jersey. When her younger sister, Anna, has her identity stolen and a man is murdered outside her apartment, Anna becomes the prime suspect in an FBI investigation. But when bodies begin piling up around her, the FBI has to admit that she is being stalked by a murderer. 
With the FBI focused in the wrong direction, it is up to Gloria to teach Anna to use her other senses--hearing, touch, taste, and smell--which she never really had to completely rely on before to help uncover a ring of identity thieves and stop the killer from taking her life, and perhaps Gloria's as well! 

Their only hope for survival is an experiment in perception that will unearth heartbreaking secrets and catapult Gloria into a darkness of the heart beyond any that she has ever known.


Review: The concept of this book is totally original, not to mention fascinating. The main character, Gloria, is blind, and has had to rely on her other senses to learn about people and places. Through the course of this story, she finds herself having to teach her sister those same lessons so that they can solve a string of murders and stop a ring of identity thieves.

There is some very well-written dialogue in this book, and the suspense and intrigue are felt all the way through the story. The plot grabs you from the start, and never lets go. You will keep reading, wanting to find out how it all plays out. I did spot a few minor grammatical errors, but for the most part the book is well-edited.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys old-fashioned mystery stories.

Rating: Four stars

About the author
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Mystery novelist, Lillian R. Melendez was born in New York, and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. She began to publish her work when she was very young. The arts as a whole have always been an interest, but creative writing is her passion. She received a B.A. degree in English with a minor in Psychology from Trinity University in Washington, D.C. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America.