Category: Families

THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS by LISA JEWELL

The Family Upstairs

You thought they were just staying for the weekend. They looked harmless enough – with only two suitcases and a cat in a wicker box. But soon things turn very, very dark. It happens slowly, yet so extraordinarily quickly. Now you and your sister must find a way to survive…

It begins with a text. The baby is back. This psychological thriller was full of some very messed up people. From three different viewpoints, telling the past and present.

It’s been 25 years since the police walked into 16 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London to find the bodies of the wealthy Lambs along with an unknown man, laid out in the kitchen, an apparent suicide pact. The children are nowhere to be found. Except for a baby, alive and well in the crib upstairs.

The mansion has stood empty all these years. Until the baby turns 25. Libby has no idea what happened to her parents and siblings. Having been adopted into a loving home. She knew that something would happen on her birthday but had no idea it would be the mansion. Now she wants answers. What happened in this house? And where are the children?

I read this shocker straight through. Talk about a horror show! Any thoughts I had about who was who and what happened were blown out of the water quickly with the ending.

Fast-paced and horrific! It was wonderful!

NetGalley/ November 5th, 2019 Atria

 

 

EDISTO TIDINGS by C.HOPE Clark

The Edisto Island Mysteries #6

Police Chief Callie Morgan is back with another mystery to solve. It’s almost Christmas and Callie is busy getting ready for her son to come home and making sure the Island is safe. The tourists have gone home and things are pretty quiet with just the residents and a few families coming in for a holiday at the beach.

It’s also Callie’s birthday and her surprise party is just that! A surprise party at the new restaurant in town whose owner is quite hunky and mysterious and her former boss and friend, Stan isn’t filling her in on anything. Before she can even enjoy her own party, a body is found on a plot owned by local pain in the bum, Brice! And the dead man is Ben, his attorney and Callie’s kind of step-dad.

When renters begin reporting thefts of Christmas gifts, the town seems to want to ignore it. Turns out it is kind of a tradition. Edisto Santa, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. And when Callie demands the gifts be returned, she is suddenly the bad guy.

So what do the thefts and a dead man have in common? You will never guess!

I love this series. Mainly because my Momma is from Charleston and was born in Walterboro and my family still has property on Edisto. But the writing is so good. From the first page, we kick into high gear and never let up! There is no page after page of backstory, just my need to know who this Santa fellow is!!!

Great Tale!

NetGalley/BellBooks   October 21, 2019

 

 

 

 

A CATERED NEW YEAR’S EVE by ISIS CRAWFORD

isiscrawford

A Mystery With Recipes

Bernie and Libby are always a treat! Even their Dad. The entire family cut ties to their mothers Sinclair relatives after years of them borrowing money and never bothering to pay it back, so it’s a shock when one of the cousins shows up asking Bernie and Libby to cater her New Year’s Eve party in an attempt to lure out whoever killed Ada Sinclair’s father.

Intrigued, but cautious, the ladies hear her out. Her father and his business partner both died within hours of each other and both were ruled accidents. But Ava passionately believes otherwise.

Their father warns them not to get involved, but you know they will, so he helps behind the scenes.

Showing up at the event, they are met with hostility and some seriously weird family members. Ada has asked them to be there when she reads the journal she found in her father’s thing. Believing it will flush out the guilty party. Unfortunately for Ada, it just leaves one person dead and Ada in the wind.

They truly believe Ada and are going to find out the truth. Even if it kills them, Which it may!

I love the sisters. This one was a bit wordy in the middle, but the ending was quite satisfying.

Well Done

NetGalley/October 29th, 2019 by Kensington

 

 

SECRETS of the CHOCOLATE HOUSE by PAULA BRACKSTON

Secrets of the Chocolate House

In this second book with time spinner, Xanthe is back in her own time and modern-day Marlborough. She is still missing Samuel and wonders if he thinks of her.

Helping her mother in the shop and buying new stock, getting involved in the town and planning a special event for all of the shops.

While looking through the mountains of stock in the shop, Xanthe clearly hears something singing to her. An old and dented chocolate pot. When she holds it she immediately gets a vision of Samuel in danger. Knowing she must go back to the seventeenth century to save Samuel gives her some pause. Her mother is crippled, events are coming up and lo and behold the ex Marcus is in town.

This time Xanthe will learn what it is to be a Spinner of time. She will face a powerful foe and fellow Spinner. While Xanthe travels to put things right, This man wants power and he is willing to kill to get it.

No one does the slip time better than Paula Brackston. This is a series I hope will continue. The characters are so engaging and the mystery must be solved so you are turning pages to the very end. And now we wait.

Well Done!

NetGalley/ October 22nd, 2019 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

 

A Legacy of MURDER by Connie Berry

A Legacy of Murder (Kate Hamilton Mysteries, #2)

A Kate Hamilton Mystery #2

Kate Hamilton is back in the UK. This time our intrepid antique dealer from America is here to visit her daughter, the headstrong Christine, where she is serving an internship at Finchley Hall located in Long Barston.

With an empty room in the converted stables, Kate is happy to be here spending time with her daughter and with her boyfriend, DI Tom Mallory, whom we met in the first mystery.

Touring the rather neglected home and grounds, they find a young woman’s body at the edge of the lake. Dead. And this isn’t the first time a body has been found there. This particular body, however, is heading up the enormous task of inventorying the large collections that have been part of the family for generations. Including the rare ruby ring.

An odd household, to be sure, Mugg, the butler/everything else and one cook/maid/housekeeper, along with Lady Barbara. Elderly and with very poor vision, she depends on Mugg for everything.

There were several other plotlines and the bodies are still falling, when Kate’s own daughter is hauled into the station and questioned about the latest one.

I really don’t want to spoil any of the fun in this book. The characters are great fun and I can’t wait for Kate to be back in the UK!

Netgalley/ October 8th, 2019 by Crooked Lane Books

 

THE FURIES by KATIE LOWE

The Furies

Elm Hollow Academy is an all-girls school in a boring town by the coast with a rather dark past. Witch trials in the 17th century and one supposedly hung from a tree on campus. Theories abound about the school and the odd things that happen there.

Violet is sixteen and has already had her fair share of tragedy and loss. She is that character on the fringe. Even she isn’t sure she belongs here. Or anywhere.

The talk of the school when Violet arrives is the mysterious disappearance of Emily Frost. Said disappearance means there is an opening in a study group with their instructor, Annabelle. Mysterious Annabelle. She teaches the girls about the Furies and how they took revenge on the men who wronged them.

Only these girls aren’t taking notes, they are taking action and Violet is drawn into something deadly and it could get her killed. Not knowing who to trust, she trusts herself.

There are plenty of books dealing with angst-ridden teenaged girls at schools. This had less to do with popularity and boys and more to do with witchcraft.

It was really wordy and the middle got a bit old quickly. The end was unexpected and rather disappointing I thought.

NetGalley/ October 8th, 2019 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

TRAP LANE by STELLA CAMERON

Trap Lane (Alex Duggins Mystery, #6)

An Alex Duggins Mystery #6

Alex and her friends are back! Alex owns the popular pub, The Black Dog, with her mysterious but reliable manager, Hugh Rhys. Alex trusts Hugh completely.

But when Neve Rhys, as well as Sonia Quillam, arrives, Alex is seeing a side of Hugh she hasn’t seen before. Secretive, angry and even more closed-lip than usual.

Hugh has asked Sam, the locksmith, to change all the locks at Green Friday, after the last debacle and when Sam returns to tell Hugh and Alex that the door was open and there are blood and glass everywhere, they head over to investigate.

Are they looking for a missing injured person or is this a murder with no body?

After the police find Mr. Quillam dead in a pond on Hugh’s property, all eyes are on him.

Alex is torn between keeping Hugh safe and out of jail and being properly honest with the local police.

So many mysteries in this one! Bodies keep popping up and people keep disappearing and then popping up again. Everyone is keeping secrets and that is not helping Alex.

She is determined to find out what is going on and who is a killer!

This is a favorite series of mine. I was with them up until the end. Which was abrupt and confusing. I even asked a friend to read the last chapter and he kept trying to turn the Kindle page too. What was that all about?

NetGalley/Severn House October 1st, 2019 by Creme de La Crime