Follow Me down by Sherri Smith

Standalone Thriller
352 p.
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 3/28/17
Source: From publisher for review

Mia Haas has built a life for herself far from the North Dakota town where she grew up, but when she receives word that her twin brother is missing, she’s forced to return home. Once hailed as the golden boy of their small town, Lucas Haas disappeared the same day the body of one of his high school students is pulled from the river. Trying to wrap her head around the rumors of Lucas’s affair with the teen, and unable to reconcile the media’s portrayal of Lucas as a murderer with her own memories of him, Mia is desperate to find another suspect. 

All the while, she wonders, if he’s innocent, why did he run? 

As Mia reevaluates their difficult, shared history and launches her own investigation into the grisly murder, she uncovers secrets that could exonerate Lucas—or seal his fate. In a small town where everyone’s history is intertwined, Mia will be forced to confront her own demons, placing her right in the killer’s crosshairs.

My thoughts:

I have to admit I didn't like Mia for half of the book. I didn't connect to her and she kept making stupid mistakes. Then she had to complicate those mistakes with prescription drug abuse. I just kept wondering why she was making it harder for her brother to exonerate himself if he was innocent. If he was guilty, she seemed to be throwing away the key to any sort of fair trial. It was frustrating.

Then the middle of the book happened and I just became swept up into the thriller aspect of the book. I really became interested and invested in the outcome. I wanted to know who killed this girl and why so many things happened. Parts were still disconnected for me, but it no longer mattered... I had to know who done it.

There were several twists and turns in the book and things became clearer despite Mia's bungling. It also became more harrowing and while I did fall for the red herrings, I did suspect that the true culprit had something to do with the murder. It was an interesting ride.

I give this book 3 stars. If you stick with this one (and not everyone who reviewed it felt the same as I did about the beginning), there is a good payoff in the end. I am curious about this author now and I would read another thriller by her.

💊

The Awakening by Amanda Stevens

Series: Graveyard Queen #6
416 p.
Publisher: Mira
Published: 3/28/17
Source: NetGalley and publisher for review

Shush…lest she awaken…

My name is Amelia Gray, a cemetery restorer who lives with the dead. An anonymous donor has hired me to restore Woodbine Cemetery, a place where the rich and powerful bury their secrets. Forty years ago, a child disappeared without a trace and now her ghost has awakened, demanding that I find out the truth about her death. Only I know that she was murdered. Only I can bring her killer to justice. But the clues that I follow—a haunting melody and an unnamed baby's grave—lead me to a series of disturbing suspects.

For generations, The Devlins have been members of Charleston's elite. John Devlin once turned his back on the traditions and expectations that came with his birthright, but now he has seemingly accepted his rightful place. His family's secrets make him a questionable ally. When my investigation brings me to the gates of his family's palatial home, I have to wonder if he is about to become my mortal enemy.

My thoughts:

The last book! I'm happy and sad about that. I've loved this series so much (if you haven't read it before, you SO need to read it) so I'm sad to see it go. I'm happy because I know I'm going to get most of my questions answered. I also know I'm going to get an adventure getting there.

I was not wrong! I really loved this book and this is a series I know I will read again one day. The atmosphere was like the others and it kept me engaged and unwilling to put the book down. I got most of my answers especially the big one about John. I'm not going to tell you if it was good or bad, but it was an answer! Unfortunately, I did end up having a couple of questions that I had specific to this book I wanted answered and one small disappointment in the end. I cannot say what those were without spoiling the book, but they were minor in the whole of the story and really just made me wishing it was a longer book. To be honest, I'd probably wish that anyway. I will say that the last line was perfect.

I give this book 4 stars. I know that some people avoided this series because it is scary. I'm a total wimp when it comes to horror and I will admit this one is scary in parts (do not read at night especially when a neighborhood cat makes noise outside your window when you are reading about scary noises in the book... *cough* just sayin'... not that I jumped or anything... LOL) but it is the characters and the mystery that will hold your hand through those parts and compel you to continue with the story. So, try it! If you have, then I have no doubt you are right with me and are so sad to see this one go and anxious to see what else this author comes up with for us in the future.

👻

Speakers of the Dead by J. Aaron Sanders

Series: A Walt Whitman Mystery
320 p.
Publisher: Plume
Published: 3/1/16
Source: First to Read and publisher for review

Speakers of the Dead is a mystery novel centering around the investigative exploits of a young Walt Whitman, in which the reporter-cum-poet navigates the seedy underbelly of New York City's body-snatching industry in an attempt to exonerate his friend of a wrongful murder charge. 

The year is 1843; the place: New York City. Aurora reporter Walt Whitman arrives at the Tombs prison yard where his friend Lena Stowe is scheduled to hang for the murder of her husband, Abraham. Walt intends to present evidence on Lena's behalf, but Sheriff Harris turns him away. Lena drops to her death, and Walt vows to posthumously exonerate her.

Walt's estranged boyfriend, Henry Saunders, returns to New York, and the two men uncover a link between body-snatching and Abraham's murder: a man named Samuel Clement. To get to Clement, Walt and Henry descend into a dangerous underworld where resurrection men steal the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical colleges. With no legal means to acquire cadavers, medical students rely on these criminals, and Abraham's involvement with the Bone Bill—legislation that would put the resurrection men out of business—seems to have led to his and Lena's deaths.

Fast-paced and gripping, Speakers of the Dead is a vibrant reimagining of one of America's most beloved literary figures.

My thoughts:

I have to admit that at first I wasn't happy to have Walt Whitman as this character. It just didn't mesh with the picture in my head. However, reading the notes by the author at the end really brought it to clarity for me. He tells that he took an aspect of Walt's life and then built a mystery around it. It made so much more sense to me and really changed how I saw this book.

It took a while for the mystery to really congeal in my head. It seemed to be a bit disjointed but as the story became less a horror story (it felt that way at first) and more a mystery it really caught my attention. By the end I really wanted to know what happened and who did it. AND even at the point where everyone knew who the culprit was, it was so entwined with other people we really didn't have one person to accuse. While this does not work for every book, it works here and it keeps a thread open for more mysteries.

While this isn't a romantic type of book, the romance between Walt and Henry really pulled at my heartstrings. It was sweet and really the one aspect that pulled me through the beginning of the book. I think romance lovers will love and hate that aspect of the book (I will not say why, but you will get that statement when you read it).

I give this book 4 stars. It is a good mystery and even a thriller where no one is safe and the ending is messy but complete.

A Murder in Mohair by Anne Canadeo

Series: A Black Sheep Knitting Mystery #8
304 p.
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 12/1/15
Source: From publisher for review

In Anne Canadeo's cozy eighth Black Sheep Knitting Mystery, a cold-hearted murder in Plum Harbor leads the knitters to investigate a new psychic who may be far more dangerous than she seems… 

When Jimmy Hubbard, the manager of the local cinema, is murdered in a robbery gone wrong, the residents of Plum Harbor are mystified. Everyone liked Jimmy, and the struggling theater seems an unlikely target for burglars. 

The Black Sheep Knitters are surprised and saddened by the crime, but are more suspicious of psychic-medium Isabel Waters, who has recently set up shop in town. Isabel has hoodwinked one of their friends into shelling out big money every week to keep the memory of a lost loved one alive. Determined to reveal Isabel as a fraud, the knitters are pulled in the web of Isabel’s world and find themselves in a tangle of secrets and lies. They must solve two murders before the truth about all of Isabel’s clients—past and present—are revealed. 

As in her previous books A Dark and Stormy Knit, The Silence of the Llamas, and Knit, Purl, Die—which Publishers Weekly praised for its “fast-paced plot that will keep even non-knitters turning the pages”—Canadeo brings her trademark style to this entertaining mystery that will psych you out and leave you wanting more.

My thoughts:

I haven't read the other books, but often you can come into a middle of a long running cozy mystery series and not feel too far behind. I felt that way here. While it was obvious that I missed some other shenanigans that happened to the group (or specific individuals) I didn't feel lost and so enjoyed the murder mystery unfolding in front of me.

The first murder happened and I immediately knew that several members of the knitting group involve themselves into what goes on in the town. Not just because it is a cozy mystery and that kind of thing is standard, but because the town's police were both at once annoyed, cautioned, and curious about what these ladies would think. They didn't want them involved but at least listened to a sound theory. I liked that because either the police seem to be totally bumbling and don't know what to do with a donut or so hard that you cannot like them. This was a nice balance in a small town where everyone seems to know everything.

The mystery doesn't twist too much that the end is unbelievable but it doesn't quite flow with the rest of the mystery. It does make sense but it just feels like there wasn't enough connection to those that "did it". Perhaps this is where reading the earlier books in the series would come in handy, but it also seemed that the characters most involved had just come to the town in the book previous to this one. At least that is what I lead to believe. However, despite this, I did enjoy the twist ending.

I give this book 3 1/2 stars. It is a good cozy and even though it is a knitting group, food is a big part of the story so those who love recipes at the end of the book will not be disappointed.

Blog Tour: Orient by Christopher Bollen

Standalone
624 p.
Publisher: Harper
Published: 5/5/15
Source: From TLC Book Tours for review
Purchase Links: Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
Author Links: website

As summer draws to a close, a Small Long Island town is plagued by a series of mysterious deaths— and one young man, a loner taken in by a local, tries to piece together the crimes before his own time runs out. 

Orient is an isolated hamlet on the North Fork of Long Island—a quiet, historic village that swells each summer with vacationers, Manhattan escapees, and wealthy young artists from the city with designs on local real estate. On the last day of summer, a teenage drifter named Mills Chevern arrives in town. Soon after, the village is rocked by a series of unsettling events: the local caretaker is found floating lifeless in the ocean; an elderly neighbor dies under mysterious circumstances; and a monstrous animal corpse is discovered on the beach not far from a research lab often suspected of harboring biological experiments. Before long, other more horrific events plunge the community into a spiral of paranoia. 

As the village struggles to make sense of the wave of violence, anxious eyes settle on the mysterious Mills, a troubled orphan with no family, a hazy history, and unknown intentions. But he finds one friend in Beth, an Orient native in retreat from Manhattan, who is determined to unravel the mystery before the small town devours itself.
Suffused with tension, rich with character and a haunting sense of lives suspended against an uncertain future, Orient is both a galvanic thriller and a provocative portrait of the dark side of the American dream: an idyllic community where no one is safe. It marks the emergence of a novelist of enormous talent.

My thoughts:

I was in the mood for a good thriller/murder mystery when this one came up for review. Unfortunately it wasn't everything I wanted in a thriller but the mystery was pretty good.

The book mainly contains a lot of worldbuilding of a small town who are known to not like "outsiders" living in their pristine town. While I can appreciate the attention to detail, it felt as if the mystery got a bit lost for the bulk of the book and it slowed the story down so much I can't call it a thriller. However, I totally agree that the expectation of a thriller was of my own making. That may have colored my view of the book. In the last quarter of the book, the mystery really perked up and I honestly didn't know who the killer was until the very end. My guesses kept getting twisted but it made sense in the end. It does however have an open ending even though it is a standalone. Normally this would bother me but I saw an open ending coming because of the prologue. I had a feeling it wouldn't end like these books normally end. I think that knowing ahead of time helped me to not hate the ending.

I give this book 2 1/2 stars. The worldbuilding and multiple POVs seemed to really slow down the plot of the book. I do recommend this book on the mystery. The ending was good and I did enjoy the twists. I also think that others will appreciate the details given in the book. It does lend a leisurely pace to the bulk of the book which does counter the twisty end. It just wasn't what I personally wanted in a mystery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Christopher Bollen

Christopher Bollen is an editor at large for Interview magazine. He is the author of the novel Lightning People, and his work has appeared in GQ, the New York Times, the Believer, and Artforum, among other publications. He lives in New York.

Find out more about Christopher at his website.

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Tour schedule:

Tuesday, April 7th: No More Grumpy Bookseller

Wednesday, April 8th: My Bookish Ways

Thursday, April 9th: Ace and Hoser Blook

Friday, April 10th: As I turn the pages

Monday, April 13th: BoundbyWords

Tuesday, April 14th: Bibliotica

Wednesday, April 15th: A Bookworm’s World

Thursday, April 16th: Living in the Kitchen with Puppies

Monday, April 20th: The Discerning Reader

Tuesday, April 21st: Books and Things

Wednesday, April 22nd: From the TBR Pile

Thursday, April 23rd: A Dream Within a Dream

Monday, April 27th: Open Book Society

Tuesday, April 28th: Kissin Blue Karen

Friday, May 1st: Wordsmithonia