mystery

Book Review: Rescued

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Rescued
Andy Carpenter #17
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a dead body is found inside a truck full of rescue dogs in a rest area parking lot, defense attorney Andy Carpenter gets a visit from the killer, except he says it was self-defense. But since the killer is the ex-fiancé of Andy’s wife Laurie, he’s not too keen to help him out…until Laurie asks nicely.

I always knew Andy was immature, but man does he hit a new low in this book. It’s totally in-character, but it’s my least favorite aspect of his character, so there’s that. On the other hand, the continuation of pod-Hike from the previous book is fun, as is the return of the Bubalah Brigade. The mystery surrounding the case sticks pretty closely to the formula Rosenfelt has used throughout the series, with enough deviations to keep it mostly fresh and as enjoyable as ever. Grover Gardner is always great at bringing Andy’s wit and sarcasm to life, and I recommend this book (especially the audiobook) for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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Book Review: Murder in the Mews

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Murder in the Mews
Hercule Poirot #16
by Agatha Christie
read by Nigel Hawthorne & Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

As I said in my review of the previous book of short stories from this series, there’s something to be said about the succinctness here. Oftentimes, what I dislike most about a Poirot novel is how bloated the plot feels, so it’s nice to get to the point a little more quickly. Though at least one of these stories felt too short, so there’s that. The story that I remember thinking was a little too short, though, is also the one that stood out to me the most. Though the ending seemed a little rushed, I liked the plot and the twist. Overall, I find that trying to guess at what’s going to surprise me at the end of a Poirot story (long or short) is what I enjoy most, and it takes less time to get there with these shorter stories. I was not a fan of the narrator of the first story, “Murder in the Mews,” which was Nigel Hawthorne, so it was a huge relief when it changed to Hugh Fraser, who has been my favorite narrator throughout this series, for the last three.

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Book Review: Collared

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Collared
Andy Carpenter #16
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a dog is brought to the Tara Foundation, it turns out to be a dog involved in a child abduction case, a dog presumed to be dead. The mother of the kidnapped child is a friend of defense attorney Andy Carpenter and his wife, and he reluctantly agrees to look into the situation, starting with the dog. But when he begins to believe that the man who has been convicted of killing the child may be innocent, Andy knows he may have grounds for appeal.

I’m definitely seeing a pattern, wherein the less section of 3rd-person narration showing us the more in-depth parts of the conspiracy involved in the plot there are, the more I enjoy the book. It’s not really surprising. I always prefer to stay with Andy and his crew anyway. I particularly enjoyed Hike in this book, surprisingly enough. I will say that I started to lose track of what was going on near the end, as the plot got a little too twisty for me to follow well while listening to the audiobook. I’m pretty sure I sussed it all out correctly by the end, but maybe it was a little more convoluted than it needed to be. Still, this book was a solid addition to the series. As always, Grover Gardner is the consummate Andy Carpenter, and I recommend this book for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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Book Review: Murder in Mesopotamia

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Murder in Mesopotamia
Hercule Poirot #14
by Agatha Christie
read by Anna Massey

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

Not my favorite of the Poirot stories I’ve listened to so far. A lot of it is personal preference, though, like the jarring change in narrator, which probably wouldn’t have been an issue if I wasn’t listening to the audiobooks and used to male voices. The setting and background situation in the story, an archeological expedition in Iraq (or something like that), could have been interesting, but it was pretty meagerly used. The resolution to this story was a little bizarre and not very believable. And man, did it feel like it took a really long time for Poirot to actually appear in the story (though this isn’t the first one that I felt that way about). Overall, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t live up to my favorites in the series so far.

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Book Review: Dogged Pursuit

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Dogged Pursuit
Andy Carpenter #31
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

In this prequel to the 30-book series, Andy Carpenter is a new defense attorney, making the change from prosecution, against the advice of so many. With his marriage a little uncertain and wanting to make further changes in his life, Andy goes to the shelter to adopt a dog and falls in love with a golden retriever named Tara. He doesn’t want to split her up from the dog she’s been sharing a space with, so he tries to adopt both Tara and Sunny. However, Sunny is mixed up in a criminal case with her owner, who is currently being charged with murder. Soon enough, Andy is mixed up in that criminal case too, as he ends up taking Sunny’s owner on as a client.

I’m never sure what to expect with a prequel, and I’ll admit that I was a little nervous going into this one. At the beginning of the book, there’s a note where Rosenfelt acknowledges that there is a continuity issue with Tara, mostly that he knows a golden retriever wouldn’t actually live as long as she does throughout this series. I wouldn’t have questioned that, but I did question the use of some side characters who, from what I can remember of when they were introduced in some of the earlier books in the main series, didn’t seem to have the history with Andy that this book showed.

Leaving aside continuity questions (which was not difficult for me to do, especially considering that I was sad about the potential loss of Andy’s team, yet several of them are still here), this book was a fun, new take on the series while still having the same cleverness and humor that I love about the series. The formula is mostly intact, even with this being a prequel. I could see this being a good place for someone new to the series to start reading, though it’s definitely more similar in style to the later books than the earlier ones. Either way, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, whether you’ve read any of this series before  or not.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Shell Shocked

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Shell Shocked
by Kathleen Welton

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA mystery

The synopsis I read for this book talked about turtles with strange markings on their shells, mysterious bioluminescence, and an investigation led by friends Alex and Avery. So I was expecting puzzles and detecting, but it was really just a long PSA about tourists and poachers endangering the environment. The bioluminescence is only mentioned maybe once, and the strange markings on the turtle shells are just…gashes made by boat motors? I think? It was really confusing. 

The author didn’t seem to pay much attention to her own book as she wrote. The turtle with strange markings on its shell is similar to one Alex saw in the rescue center she works at, which I thought would end up being part of the mystery, but by the next day, the turtle at the center is never mentioned again. Other elements are discovered and don’t go anywhere as well. And though I don’t mean to diminish the real-world plight of wildlife being poached and killed by careless people, the tone of the book was just so much more dire than I felt that the story required. In the end, this felt like a passion project for someone who has lived on or visited an island like that in the book and is concerned about the wildlife there, which is fine if you’re the right audience for it. I am not.

I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: The ABC Murders

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The ABC Murders
Hercule Poirot #13
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

The story of the magnanimous serial killer was one of the better Poirot novels I’ve read so far. Christie pulled me in and had me looking exactly where she wanted me looking, which was in the wrong direction. I did start to realize my mistake before the turn came in the book, and I was pretty excited to realize there was more going on. I didn’t guess the culprit or the motives behind the murders, though—my theories were pretty far off—but I still had a lot of fun coming up with them and then learning how wrong I was. It was also nice to see Hastings back. Though several of the Poirot books have been less enjoyable for me, gems like this make my quest to keep listening worthwhile.

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Book Review: The Inheritance Games

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The Inheritance Games
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: YA mystery, romance

When Avery Grambs finds out she’s been named in the will of a recently deceased billionaire, it turns her world upside-down, especially considering that she’s been practically living out of her car. On top of that, in order to be eligible to inherit, she has to live in Tobias Hawthorne’s massive estate for a year. The only problem is that the rest of his family still lives there, and for the most part, they aren’t happy with this young usurper. It doesn’t help that no one knows why the fortune was left to Avery at all. But one of Hawthorne’s grandsons explains his grandfather’s love of puzzles and suspects that Avery is just another puzzle to solve…if only she can survive long enough.

I went into this book expecting to be bothered by the teenage drama. I liked the idea of the mysterious inheritance and puzzles and such, but I’d read enough reviews to decide that it would probably be too angsty for me. Then my daughter got it for Christmas and read it and loved it, so…well, now I had to at least give it a try. And yeah, I got about what I expected. The story isn’t bad, but it’s so bogged down by the “romance”/love triangle. Every time Avery is in a room with one of the two middle brothers, she practically quivers. There is no chemistry or romance, really, just…way too much physical attention and tension for my preference. So since the actual story of why Tobias Hawthorne left everything to Avery takes a backseat to an aspect I didn’t like at all, it’s understandable that I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I could have.

Then the resolution to the mystery was incredibly lackluster—one might even say non-existent—so that detracted from my enjoyment even more. I think that some of the issue is that I thought the answer to why Avery was given the entire Hawthorne estate was the story goal for this book, but really, it turned out to be discovering who is behind some attempts on Avery’s life. But that means that either the set-up isn’t done very well, or I just didn’t follow along very well. I plan to keep reading the series, not so much because Barnes hooked me with this first book but because my daughter loves the entire series and says some of what I didn’t like about this one gets better later. For now though, it’s difficult for me to recommend this book to anyone, but I do think I might have liked it more if I’d read it as a teenager. And if you read my review and don’t feel that what bothered me would bother you and you’re interested in the story, you might consider trying it out yourself.

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Book Review: When Tides Turn

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When Tides Turn
Waves of Freedom #3
written by Sarah Sundin

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Historical Christian romance, mystery

Tired of only being used as a saleswoman in her job and wanting to be useful to the war effort, Tess Beaumont joins the newly established Navy WAVES program for women. She knows her tendency to be outgoing and peppy makes her look shallow to someone like Lt. Dan Avery, a deeply serious man who hopes to make admiral someday. Unfortunately, he’s been taken off the sea and assigned to a position that he doesn’t feel is as helpful to the Navy or to his own career advancement. As both Tess and Dan struggle to make themselves more useful, they also struggle to not be distracted by each other.

I’d put this book somewhere between the first (3 stars) and the 2nd (4.5 stars) in the series. Tess is a fun, energetic character, though difficult for me to identify with, since she’s far more outgoing than I am. I appreciated her desire to be known as more than just a pretty face (though again, I can’t identify, because that’s not an issue I’ve ever had) and actually be useful. Dan drove me crazy for a while with his strict workaholic ways, but I think that just made his character’s progression in the book that much more satisfying to me. I liked the emphasis on rest and integrity in his arc.

The mystery in this book was less engaging than the mysteries in both of the previous books. I think that was at least partly because it’s really just Tess alone working it out. Dan helps a little when he’s on land, but I like the way the mystery stretched across both MC’s stories in the previous book, and that didn’t happen here at all. In fact, after a while, I tended to start skimming during the scenes when Dan was at sea. I struggled to understand or frankly care about the work being done to help the Allies be able to find and combat German subs–not that that wasn’t super important work during WWII, but I’ve known Sundin to make history much more interesting in the past than this book did. That’s probably just personal preference though.

Overall, this is not my favorite of Sundin’s books or series. Still, I think many others wouldn’t be as bothered by those things that detracted from the book for me, so I do recommend it for fans of Christian romance, especially those set during WWII.

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Book Review: Outfoxed

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Outfoxed
Andy Carpenter #14
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a program to bring dogs into a prison for the prisoners to help train them results in convict Brian Atkins escaping, then Brian’s wife and former partner, whose testimony helped put Brian away, are found murdered, Andy Carpenter finds himself defending another fellow dog lover. But when the case inevitably turns out to be deeper than it looks on the surface, Andy may not be the only target this time.

There were a few new things about this book, enough to keep it fresh and keep me engaged. The basic formula is still intact, though, and in fact, this one seemed to have less of the 3rd-person narration showing us the more in-depth parts of the conspiracy. That’s just fine with me. I always prefer to stay with Andy and his crew anyway. I got a kick out of this technology-heavy case, because Andy is so out of his element, it’s endearing. If I ever go back through this series from the beginning (which I expect to do when I reach the end or catch up with new additions, because it has become a wonderful comfort read/listen for me), I may start keeping a tally of pocket-Marcus plots and Pete distrusting Andy, despite Andy being proven right so many times. I don’t want to make these sound like tired elements, though, because they’re part of what I love about the series. As always, Grover Gardner is the consummate Andy Carpenter, and I recommend this book for fans of mysteries and court dramas.

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