Book Review: Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices

by Karen Randau

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GENRE: Mystery/Thriller

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BLURB:

In book 3 of the Rim Country Mysteries, an elderly woman stumbles into the campsite as Rita, Cliff, and Rita’s long-lost mother Willow enjoy s’mores and folk music around the fire. The action heats up when Willow falls for the key suspect, Rita’s old friend and mentor. Rita discovers her mother isn’t the woman she thought she was, and Rita must overcome a spate of life-threatening obstacles before anyone else dies.

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EXCERPT:

“You’ve become an accomplished musician.” I envisioned Willow sitting in a circle with other artists who lived at the commune where she retreated after my father’s death.

We all leaped to our feet when a gunshot sounded in the distance.

“What was that?” Willow looked like a spooked gazelle ready to sprint to higher ground.

“Someone’s target practice, I imagine.” Cliff used his calming police detective’s voice but took a step toward the trail where Lucy McMann had gone earlier.

“So late at night?” Willow sounded unconvinced.

“Yeah.” Cliff rolled his tongue against the inside of his cheek. “Seems strange.”

I hoped my smile wasn’t too taut to hide my concern from Willow. I stood beside her and watched the beam from Cliff’s flashlight as he walked several yards down the trail. When he returned, he tried a nonchalant tone to ask for another s’more. Despite emoting confidence, he sang with less gusto, often squinted into the surrounding darkness, and monitored the path leading into the forest.

An hour later, I heard a feeble cry for help and stood to face the trailhead.

A white-haired woman in a red gingham shirt stumbled from the forest. She collapsed next to our tent and rolled to her back. I gasped at the arrow protruding from her chest. Light from the fire flickered on the arrow’s bloody shaft.

Cliff rushed to her. “It’s the woman we met earlier. Lucy McMann.”


My Review:

Deadly Choices is book three in the Rim Country mystery series. Our heroine Rita is at it again with her detective husband Cliff. The mystery to be solved this time includes Rita's mother Willow who has some major revelations to share. I think Deadly Choices is a good read. I liked the main characters and the way they related to each other. It's nicely written and kept me turning the pages to find out what happens next. In one place Rita was in hot water for sure, and I was so into the story that I became anxious for her and read ahead to see how it ended. It's a nice read that I think you'd enjoy. 5 stars. 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

A native of the southwest U.S., Karen Randau pens the Rim Country Mystery series set in the quaint fictional mountain town of Rim Vista, Arizona, below the Rim of the Colorado Plateau.

The series features fast-paced stories with intricate plots, lots of action, and a pinch of romance, told from the point of view of protagonist Rita Avery.

Karen has traveled internationally and witnessed famines, violence, and hopeful people working to overcome abject poverty. She draws on both her creativity and personal experience to weave together an interesting cast of characters with rollercoaster-like twists and turns.

Links:

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074187YT7/

Website: http://www.karenrandau.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/karenrandauauthor

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/klrandau

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Karen Randau will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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Deadspeak 2

DEADSPEAK 2

by Ruth Bainbridge

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GENRE:  Mystery/thriller

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BLURB:

DEADSPEAK2. The chilling new entry in the Deadspeak Mystery Series

Things look different when you're dead.

It’s Halloween and a group of teens throw a party at Harbinger Falls’ most celebrated haunted estate. It’s all fun and games until a session with a Ouija board guides the partygoers to the body of a young girl hidden in the attic. 

Detective Kimberly Trent is assigned the case and quickly discovers that all is not as it seems. First, there’s the connection between the death and a string of petnappings terrorizing the neighborhood. Then there’s the suicide note that only leaves more questions than answers. A visit from Kimberly’s ghostly friend Griff Lindon sheds an unwelcome light. It seems she’s had a run in with the newly deceased who tells her she’s been murdered. 

This is the second in The Deadspeak Mysteries. The entries are meant to be read in sequential order and do not standalone. In each book, you’ll find a new murder for Kimberly Trent to solve. You’ll also find the continuing search for who murdered Kim’s sister Elizabeth. Each book will take you closer and closer to finding out the identity of The Hex Killer, the serial killer who ended Elizabeth’s short life. It will also bring you to the heart of the evil that’s come back to life to wreak revenge. 

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EXCERPT:

“No, you can’t come over to explain! I know what I saw!”

Mia Chaukes, the pleasant girl with the quiet demeanor, was shouting. It was unusual for the sixteen-year-old to raise her voice or be this upset, but she wasn’t backing down. She couldn’t. Not after what she’d witnessed.

It went against everything she believed in.

Her eyes traveled the length of the pink walls. It had been her favorite color when she was younger and always put her in a good mood, but would it still work today?

She sought comfort from the color—and from the shelves lined with the vestiges of her past. Unicorns, teddy bears, and other stuffed toys were there with sunny smiles and arms outstretched for a hug, but they only served as a reminder that things had changed and would never be the same.

“Don’t you dare tell me that!” she blasted as more desperation came through the receiver … desperation and elaborate excuses.

Anything but the truth.

She wouldn’t be lied to … not anymore.

“Don’t you dare tell me I’m imagining things! I’ll hang up … I mean it!”

What would have happened if she hadn’t taken that way home? Or if she’d left earlier or later? Endless possibilities, one worse than the other, shot through her mind, each making her sick to her stomach. But before the nausea disappeared, an equally disturbing question rose to the surface.

What did happen?

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Born in the idyllic, sleepy town of Ithaca, NY, Ruth Bainbridge has been a lover of mysteries for her entire life.

Ever since a child, she has consumed detective stories at regular intervals, becoming enamored with all the superstars of crime. She loved nothing more than to match wits with the likes of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Thomas Pitt, Lord Peter Wimsey, Richard Jury, and Edward X Delaney, becoming inspired by their brilliance. Hoping to emulate her writing idol’s achievements in dreaming up such characters, she started composing her own short stories.

However, life interfered with her plans of becoming the next hopeful to try a life of crime—on paper at least. Devoting herself to her marriage and the raising of four children, the empty nest syndrome gave her the impetus to return to her first love—murder.

Amazon Author Page: bit.ly/bainbridgeauthorpage

Website: http://tinyurl.com/ruthbainbridgenewsletter-com

Twitter: @Ruth_Mysteries

Website: http://ruthbainbridgemysteries.blogspot.com/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

The author will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly chosen commenter. Please use the following Rafflecopter.

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The Devil Orders Takeout

THE DEVIL ORDERS TAKEOUT

by Bill A. Brier

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GENRE: Mystery/Thriller

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BLURB:

A tax attorney with integrity...a powerful mobster determined to bend his will...

Grayson Bolt isn't about to compromise his integrity to help a notorious crime boss escape the cross-hairs of the IRS. But there's a steep price to pay for defying The Man--Grayson's beloved wife and older son.

There's only one way for Grayson to prevent his younger son, Jim, an innocent golf prodigy, from also being taken out: play a dangerous game of cat and mouse. And what will Jim be forced to do when the woman he loves gets ensnarled in a web of betrayal and deceit?

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EXCERPT:

“I’m afraid you’re going to get it hard, Mr. Bolt.” Costanzo had that fatherly tone of this will hurt me more than you. “Did you ever stop to think that there’s only one way of being dead, but many ways of dying?”

Grayson felt something cold touch his spine, all the way down. “I don’t follow.”

“Take your man Stockard. He killed two of your beloved family members, wife and eldest son. Isn’t that right?”

A strangling tightness gripped Grayson’s throat. “That— that’s right.”

“Wouldn’t you say a part of you died too?”

“What’s your point?” Grayson’s voice erupted in suppressed panic.

“You don’t have to die to feel dead. I’m going to kill your other son. That’ll be your punishment.”

The blood drained from Grayson’s face. Just like that. Most people held the basic principle that no man should be punished for the deed of another. Costanzo was not one of them. Grayson would be cut right to the bone, and his son would be the sharpest knife Costanzo could use. Costanzo had spelled out the thought in invisible brushstrokes. It was there and Grayson had tried not to see it.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Bill grew up in California and went to Hollywood High School, then served in the Air Force as a combat cameraman.

After hiring on at Disney Studios as a film loader, he soon advanced and moved on to other film studios.

He earned a master’s degree in psychology. A big help when working with Trumpish Hollywood producers. You're fired!

During his more than twenty-five years in the movie business as a cameraman, film editor, and general manager, Bill worked on everything from the hilarious, The Love Bug, to the creepy, The Exorcist, to the far out, Star Trek and Battle Star Galactica.

Eight years ago, Bill switched from reading scripts to writing thriller/mysteries and driving racecars. After completing three award-winning novels, he signed with Black Opal Books. His first novel, The Devil Orders Takeout, is about a devoted father and husband who makes a deal with a real-life devil to protect his golf-prodigy son after his wife and older son are killed in a mysterious accident — and pays hell for it.

Bill’s second mystery, The Killer Who Hated Soup, is Book One in the 1950s The Killer Who series, and it launches this Summer. The Internet? Never heard of it. Smart phones? Who you kiddin’?

Energetic and eager to make his mark on what Time magazine called the next great boom town, Bucky Ontario leaves his daddy and little sister in Louisiana and rides a bus to Defiance, Oklahoma, a town not particularly adverse to murders, just the embarrassment of them when committed by high officials.

Book Two, The Killer who Wasn’t There, will be on bookshelves this fall.

Bill writes every day and golfs infrequently (that damn right knee!). His five children and eight grandchildren keep him busy going to birthday parties, and he never misses a one!

The Brier Patch is Bill’s wildly entertaining blog about his shameless early days in Hollywood. It’s on his website, billbrier.com, along with a contest linked to The Devil Orders Takeout, which will award the grand prizewinner $1,000.

Bill is a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Bill’s USA Today revealing interview:

http://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2017/04/24/bill-a-brier-interview-the-devil-orders-takeout/

Bill’s website with blog: billbrier.com

https://www.facebook.com/Bill-A-Brier-Author-1651581281813646/

https://twitter.com/billbrier

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16577326.Bill_A_Brier

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

The author is awarding a randomly drawn commenter a $25 Amazon/BN GC:

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Review: The Diamond Head Deception

The Diamond Head Deception

by James Blakley

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GENRE: Mystery/Thriller

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BLURB:

After putting Iowa crop insurance cheats out to pasture, independent insurance fraud investigator Luna Nightcrow heads to Hawaii, but not for a vacation. The Shilpa, an Indian ocean liner, sinks and Luna is hired to determine if it still carries "Pacific Splendor" (a rare diamond insured for $15 million). The trouble is that Luna's not the only one looking for the diamond. Secessionists, sportsmen, and other suspects might sink to any depths to recover or smother Pacific Splendor.

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EXCERPT:

Rupee suddenly stopped and look around suspiciously. “Perhaps it is no longer safe to talk here.”

Luna cast an eye over the lounge and noticed a hefty, Hawaiian-looking man standing in the far corner behind them. He wore a tuxedo and was probably just checking out Rupee’s. But the scowl that he shot at them meant that he either didn’t like Rupee’s taste in tux or his taste in women. This might turn out to be a dangerous drink! Luna worried. But looking back at Rupee, she saw that he was still visibly shaken. I’ve got to be the strong one, Luna decided. So, she dragged a red fingernail up and down the back of Rupee’s hand. “Where do you suggest we talk, if not here?”

Rupee’s eyes widened. “Well, this is a hotel; so, it does have rooms,” he suggested.

Luna’s eyebrow cocked curiously. “Where’s yours, Rupee?” she asked softly.

A smile returned to Rupee’s face and he answered, “It’s a big one, Luna, way up high.”

Just what a girl likes to hear! Luna thought.


My Review:

After I finished The Diamond Head Deception, I looked at Mr. Blakley's bio to see if he'd ever been a screenwriter. I felt like I was watching TV scenes the entire time. I expected the Hawaii Five O people to make an appearance any time. I liked that in this book the character that saved the day is a woman, and she isn't the police. She's an insurance investigator with plenty of smarts and determination. The mystery is good and not exactly what I expected so it kept me guessing as I read. The characters were interesting too. Not everyone is who they seem to be. All in all, it was a pleasant read that I'd give a solid 4 stars.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

James Blakley was educated at Missouri Western State College and Washburn University. While at MWSC, he was a local and national award-winning columnist and section editor of "The Griffon-News." Blakley worked 10 1/2 years as a page and as an Assistant Librarian for the River Bluffs Regional Libraries of St. Joseph, MO. He currently lives in Topeka, KS where he worked for The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and several years in clerical and customer support capacities for international computer companies, such as EDS and HP.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4678133.James_Blakley

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Head-Deception-James-Blakley/dp/1629012475/ref=sr_1_1

Inkwater Press: http://inkwater.com/books/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1352&search=the+diamond+head+deception

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

James will be awarding a $50 Walmart gift card to a randomly drawn winner (US ONLY) via rafflecopter during the tour. Use the following link to enter.

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Everything to Lose

Title: Everything To Lose

Series: A Lucas Holt Novel

Author: JP Ratto

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Release Date: December 29, 2015

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR LUCAS HOLT IS ON A MISSION…

Lucas Holt specializes in kidnap recovery. Ex-Delta Force and a former NYPD detective, he has spent the last fifteen years burying himself in case files to cope with the unsolved abduction of his daughter, Marnie.

JANET MAXWELL JUST CAN’T LET GO…

After the death of Janet’s husband and son in a tragic car accident, she hopes Holt’s expertise can locate the daughter she gave up for adoption seventeen years ago. Janet knows her actions will have explosive repercussions for the girl’s father— presidential candidate, Todd Grayson. With no family, hope of finding her only daughter is all she has left. Or is there a more sinister motive?

THERE’S NO GREATER INCENTIVE FOR A FATHER THAN PROTECTING HIS DAUGHTER…

On a mission to bury the constant reminder of his failure to recover Marnie, Holt agrees to Janet’s proposal. But at what cost? When his inquiries lead to news of the death of another woman, Holt can’t shake the feeling something is off about the whole case. And when new evidence surfaces about Marnie’s disappearance, finding her and finding Janet’s daughter become the same treacherous mission.

Crooked candidates, hired mercenaries, and his own life on the line—will Holt find it inside him to risk everything in the line of duty?

THERE’S NO TELLING HOW FAR YOU’RE WILLING TO GO WHEN YOU HAVE…

EVERYTHING TO LOSE.

JP Ratto is a husband and wife collaborative writing team. EVERYTHING TO LOSE is the first of a three-book series featuring private investigator Lucas Holt.

Judy began writing full time six years ago. She attended Hofstra University’s Writing Intensive in the summer of 2010, and participated in a Hofstra-sponsored writing and critique group from 2009 to 2012. She has written an upper middle-grade fantasy adventure and a children’s mystery chapter book. Judy also does free-lance editing.

Pete Ratto, a former member of the U.S. Navy serving half his enlistment with the U.S. Marine Corp, is a retired corporate accountant and is now writing full time.  

Both are avid readers of mysteries, thrillers and suspense. Active in a critique group made up of local authors, they enjoy discussions on all aspects of the craft of writing. Pete enjoys photography, writing and going to the beach. In her spare time, Judy paints watercolors and to her husband’s delight, cooks an occasional dinner. They have a son and a daughter, both grown and living in New York. Pete and Judy live in southern Florida with their cat, Gillian.

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