Murder In Training by Diane Weiner
When a retired teacher and her bestie join a training class with the goal of walking a breast cancer charity race, they run into a speedbump when a member of the group is murdered in the park. He had no shortage of enemies. Blackmail, harassment, and smuggling top the list of motives. Susan and Valerie both have detective daughters who for once request their mothers’ help. Their inroads with the training group put the amateur sleuths in a position to gather and pass along information. Meanwhile, Susan receives a mysterious gift on her doorstep and has no idea what it is or who sent it. Valerie questions whether or not it’s time to start dating again after losing her husband. And Susan’s daughter has a secret of her own.
My Review 
Murder in Training is a welcome addition to the Susan Wiles Cozy Series by Author Diane Weiner. I’ve read every book in this series. I anticipate and anxiously wait for the next one. I was not disappointed in the continuation of the series.
Each book takes you deeper into the background of the characters, drawing you in and making you care about their lives. I was hoped the author would keep the characters of Valerie and Jazzy from her previous book and she did. They are the perfect pairing for Susan and her daughter Lynnette, adding a level of friendship we all yearn for and can identify with.
As always, Susan and her friends are smack dab in the middle of trouble, sometimes involving their unwilling families. How many of us have experienced that? I’m not a walker and one thing this book made me want to do was join a walking club, not to get healthier but to experience the joys of the friendship it brought. However, I’ll not be dropping into any murders. Added to my enjoyment was the description of goodies to bake. I wish the author had included some of the recipes in the back of the book, perhaps in the future?
I recommend this entire series. It keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait to see what Susan Wiles is up to next.
About the Author
Diane Weiner, award-winning author of The Susan Wiles Schoolhouse Mysteries, The Sugarbury Falls Mysteries, and The Sara Baron Tuned-in Mysteries, is a veteran public school teacher and mother of four grown children. Being an animal lover, she is a vegetarian and shares her home with two precious cats—a calico named Callie and a gray tabby, Chelsea. In her free time, she enjoys running, shopping, attending theater productions, watching British mysteries on Britbox, and spending time with her family. A favorite way to destress involves turning down the lights, cranking down the air-conditioning (she lives in Florida), and getting lost in the scenery and mystery of Wales, Scotland, or England by watching shows such as Hinterland,Shetland, and Vera. To learn more about the author, visit her website http://www.dianeweinerauthor.com, or follow her on Facebook (dianeweinerauthor), Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub. Contact the author at dianeweinerauthor@gmail.com.
Diane Weiner can be found at:
If God is Love Don’t Be A Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans by John Pavlovitz
Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible.
Imagine for a moment what the world might look like if we as people of faith, morality, and conscience actually aspired to this mantra.
What if we were fully burdened to create a world that was more loving and equitable than when we arrived?
What if we invited one another to share in wide-open, fearless, spiritual communities truly marked by compassion and interdependence?
What if we daily challenged ourselves to live a faith that simply made us better humans?
John Pavlovitz explores how we can embody this kinder kind of spirituality where we humbly examine our belief system to understand how it might compel us to act in less-than-loving ways toward others.
This simple phrase, “Thou Shalt Not Be Horrible,” could help us practice what we preach by creating a world where:
- spiritual community provides a sense of belonging where all people are received as we are;
- the most important question we ask of a religious belief is not Is it true? but rather, is it helpful?
- it is morally impossible to pledge complete allegiance to both Jesus and America simultaneously;
- the way we treat others is the most tangible and meaningful expression of our belief system.
In If God Is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk, John Pavlovitz examines the bedrock ideas of our religion: the existence of hell, the utility of prayer, the way we treat LGBTQ people, the value of anger, and other doctrines to help all of us take a good, honest look at how the beliefs we hold can shape our relationships with God and our fellow humans—and to make sure that love has the last, loudest word
- ASIN : B08YJ6BTSZ
- Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press (September 28, 2021)
- Publication date : September 28, 2021
- Language : English
- Print length : 245 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0664266843
My Review
If God Is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans
If God is Love, Don’t Be A Jerk may hit you right between the eyes. No matter what you believe or what political affiliation you might identify with, this book should make you pause and examine your beliefs. I couldn’t put it down as the author seemed to be living in my headspace during these traumatic times.
John Pavlovitz will have you exploring your beliefs about God and religion and where they originated in your life. Were we blindly led along our path to believe what we do? Did we question and explore and challenge the religious authority in our lives that led us to where we are today? Is the way we treat people based on our religious background? Are we cruel in our judgment because we believe that is what God tells us to do? How do we interpret God’s love? Is it a love of inclusion or exclusion? If God is Love Don’t Be a Jerk should have us all examining how we live in the name of religion.
I would imagine the author is going to get flack over this piece of work because it goes against the norm of what we expect from books about Christianity. Finally, someone says what many of us have wondered but not dared to speak in our religious affiliations. John Pavolitz in If God Is Love Don’t Be A Jerk, Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Human Beings, challenges all of us to do better in our lives and our interactions with others.
About The Author
John Pavlovitz is a pastor, writer, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina.
In the past four years his blog Stuff That Needs To Be Said has reached a diverse worldwide audience. A 20-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice.
In 2017 he released his first book A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community, and his forthcoming book Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto, arrives November 6th, 2018.
Available in Print, Ebook and Audiobook. Publishes September 28, 2021
Find John Pavlovitz at: johnpavlovitz.com
The Lines We Cross by R. L. McCalla
The Lines We Cross by R. L. McCalla
If DNA is the blueprint of life, what happens when we change the instructions?
When deputy Sam Thurston responds to a report of a dead body on the side of the road, he’s completely unprepared for what he’ll find: a pregnant woman, womb cut open, baby missing. So soon after his own wife’s miscarriage, Sam is drawn in to the case. In his search to find both the baby and the young woman’s killer, Sam uncovers a hidden world of rogue scientists, genetic editing, and pregnant college students.
Meanwhile, Ava Newman learns she’s pregnant, accepts a scholarship to a school founded by a biotech billionaire, and unknowingly moves into the room previously occupied by the roadside victim. There, Ava discovers secrets about life and death and her own DNA.
In order for Ava and Sam to uncover what really happened, they must confront their fears, their families, and secrets someone is willing to kill for. Lives are not the only thing at stake. They’re fighting to determine what it means to be human.
MY REVIEW
The Lines We Cross is in my top twenty if not top ten books of the year. I loved this book.
I’m familiar with this author and read many of her previous works with Harlequin so The Lines We Cross was a surprise to me. It challenged everything I though I believed about DNA, science, gene editing and life. I came away from this mystery changing my mind about various scientific studies, and it left me with certain what-if’s.
I could not put this mystery down. When does science go too far? What are the repercussions on those left behind or those coming after us in the future? And then…what part does faith play in this? Can science and faith come together? Or is faith a separate entity? Who are we as people and what dictates the choices we make? Do we throw aside faith when questioning how far is too far if the end justifies the means and it makes a difference in our health and safety? I thought I was pat in my answers to those questions until I read this book and made me look at why I believed what I believed.
And yes, this is a mystery, and it is fiction and it is a page turner. Find out for yourself. So far, my best book of this year.
About the Author
Rachelle McCalla plays with words like some kids play with fire. When she’s not writing, she can be found digging deep research holes, setting up ideas like lightning rods to catch the next big bolt to shoot from the sky. Please use caution when picking up her books, as some may emit dangerous sparks.
Review – Rising Danger by Jerusha Agen
It’s up to a K-9 handler and her canine partner to stop a bomber before it’s too late.
Someone’s planting explosives on dams in the Twin Cities, and Bristol Bachmann and her bomb-sniffing dog must move quickly to find them before everything ends up underwater. That means relying on the dams’ supervisor—an ex-boyfriend Bristol never thought she’d see again. Hopefully Remington Jones has grown up from the rakish charmer she knew in her academy days. Because lives now depend entirely on them…
It’s an environmental terrorist who wants the dams gone, and his bid to set the waters free has lethal consequences. When he sees Bristol and her K-9 working to stop him, he sets his sights on them. Can they evade him in a lethal game of cat and mouse and protect the cities from devastating destruction before the clock runs out?
My Review
I chose this book because in the past I’ve been a fan of Harlequin and their Love Inspired Series. I was not disappointed in reacquainting myself with this genre.
I found the plot intriguing. The idea that our infrastructure is vulnerable to attacks and behind the scenes there may be heroes, human and canine working to keep us safe may give readers comfort. Rising Danger has strong, flawed characters at the center of the mystery. Who can’t identify with mistakes in our past that live on in people’s memories and change the way our lives unfold for ourselves and those around us?
Bristol Bachman is introduced to us as she and her black lab, Toby are thrown into the chaos of a bomb at Minnesota Falls. The first chapter throws us right into the depths and keep us mired in the mystery for the entire length of the book. Spiritual moments and some romance make this book a winner.
About Jerusha Agen
Jerusha Agen imagines danger around every corner, but knows God is there, too. So naturally, she writes suspense infused with the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ.
With a B.A. in English and a background in screenwriting, Jerusha is a speaker, writing instructor, and Fear Warrior who sounds the call to battle against fear in our everyday lives.
Jerusha loves to hang out with her big furry dogs and little furry cats. You’ll often find her sharing irresistibly adorable photos of them in her newsletter and on social media.
Get a free suspense story from Jerusha at FearWarriorSuspense.com and find more of her thrilling, fear-fighting stories at www.JerushaAgen.com.
A Death At Seascape House
With its sweeping sandy beaches and rolling emerald hills, the island of St. Morwenna is an idyllic escape. But behind the perfectly pruned primroses and neighborly smiles a killer lies in wait…
When librarian Jemima Jago is offered the opportunity to catalogue Cornwall’s largest collection of antique shipwreck records it is a dream come true. The only problem? The collection is housed on the island of St. Morwenna, the childhood home she left years ago and vowed never to return to.
Shortly after Jem arrives back in town, island busybody and notorious grump Edith Reddy is found dead, with duct tape clamped over her mouth and nose. Jem, caught seemingly red-handed at the scene of the crime, mistakenly becomes the police’s number one suspect. The handsome Sergeant Hackman in particular can’t seem to leave Jem alone…
Jem must take matters into her own hands if she wants to clear her name. Snooping around Edith’s once-grand home, she is struck by the mess before her. The bedroom is completely ransacked and in the living room all the photographs have been removed from their frames. Was Edith’s death simply a break-in gone wrong, or is there more to the mystery that the police are missing?
Jem has a sharp eye for a clue and she soon realizes that many of the island’s eccentric residents had reason for wanting Edith out of the way. Could Declan, the curious café owner, or Bart, the fishy ferryman have killed Edith? Jem won’t rest until she uncovers the truth, but doing so will put her right in the killer’s line of sight…
A totally charming cozy mystery from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Emma Jameson. Brimming with intrigue and warm humor, fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands will love A Death at Seascape House.
My Review
I wasn’t sure when I chose this book whether it would be my cup of tea perse. The plot intrigued me but I am on the fence when I read British Mysteries.. It is a personal taste or perhaps some of the ones I have previously read were not up to par. I took a chance and I was not disappointed. This is one of those British Mysteries that will hook readers and leave them wanting more.
Jemima Jago is a flawed person having been judged wild and unfit as a teenager. This wild teenager became a librarian and now returns to her hometown to catalogue Cornwal’s largest collection of antique shipwreck records. Small communities have long memories and are quick to point fingers when Jemima finds a body of a former nemesis.
A Death at Seascape House has strong characters with a history of heartbreak and friendship which weaves a tale of murder, mystery and human feelings drawing you in and keeping us reading long into the night.. This may be a work of fiction, but the real emotions will touch a readers life reminding us that we are all flawed with pasts that shape who we are, and if we can’t escape them, our destinies.
What more could we ask for with our reading pleasure?
About The Author
Emma Jameson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Lord & Lady Hetheridge cozy mystery series. Book #1, ICE BLUE, Book #2, BLUE MURDER, Book #3, SOMETHING BLUE, Book #4, BLACK & BLUE, Book #5, BLUE BLOODED, and Book #6, BLUE CHRISTMAS are available now.
Her newest venture with digital publisher extraordinaire BOOKOUTURE is the Jem Jago cozy mystery series. Book 1, A DEATH AT SEASCAPE HOUSE, will be published in April 2021.
Ms. Jameson is also the creator of amateur sleuth Dr. Benjamin Bones. Set in Cornwall during the Second World War, book #1 is MARRIAGE CAN BE MURDER; book #2 is DIVORCE CAN BE DEADLY. Dr. Bones fans will also want to read the companion series, Magic of Cornwall. This includes DR. BONES AND THE CHRISTMAS WISH and DR. BONES AND THE LOST LOVE LETTER, two charming novellas set in untamed, romantic Cornwall.
Links
Summer Club by Katherine Dean Mazerov
Murder meets the absurd in the sizzling thriller Summer Club, a new novel by award-winning journalist Katherine Dean Mazerov.
Normally, politics and parent drama, drunken soirees and sex-capades reign at Lydia Phillips’s swim and tennis club. Now, a strange car following the club manager, a break-in at Lydia’s home, and a shocking discovery on the club grounds have this stay-at-home mom dusting off her newspaper-reporting skills to unravel the mystery.
Then, a body surfaces in the river, and Lydia’s life gets a whole lot more complicated—and dangerous.
In one moment, readers of Summer Club will be laughing at the colorful characters’ outrageous antics. The next moment, they will be riveted as the story reveals a troubling, complex scheme involving fraud and murder.
Perfect for parents balancing career and family, Summer Club casts a beam of dark humor across the hidden reality that makes “domestic” life—raising children and volunteering for community and school groups—sometimes more harrowing than the most cutthroat of corporate jobs.
My Review
It’s not easy being a full-time volunteer, especially after one has had a successful career as a reporter and city editor. Lydia Phillips, questions her choice of becoming the Meadow Glen Board President as the intricacies of the job put her smack dab in the middle of shady happenings and a murder.
Summer Club was an easy read. It kept my interest, although I would have liked to see the murder earlier in the book as I kept waiting for it. The characters were solid and so was the setting. The author’s descriptions give the reader a good visual of what’s happening.
The name drew me in, and the idea of a lazy summer club. Basking in the sun, barbeques with friends and all things we associate with a relaxing good time. I had a relaxing good time reading Summer Club, and it had just enough mischief to keep me satisfied.
Meet the Author
Katherine Dean Mazerov
Career journalist KATHERINE DEAN (Katie) MAZEROV understands the power of stories that resonate with people, touch their lives. In her debut novel, Summer Club, she explores the complexities of life and foibles of human nature that emerge at rundown swim and tennis club rife with hilarious dysfunction and parent drama–and where a journalist-turned-stay-at-home-mom stumbles onto a dark fraud scheme. The award-winning newspaper reporter and editor has been a magazine writer, worked in corporate communications for a Fortune 500 company and written extensively on trends, market outlook and emerging technologies for the global energy industry. As an editor at The Denver Post, Katie was a member of the team that won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting. Like the protagonist in her book, she has experienced the challenges of balancing career and family. After putting her own career on hold to stay home, she did her fair share of volunteering—from the classroom to her own neighborhood swim and tennis club—which, she learned, can sometimes be more competitive and ruthless than even the most stressful work environment. Decades after launching her career path on the college newspaper, she remains passionate about writing, expanding her horizons along the way as a wife, mom, tennis player, skier, cyclist and world traveler. She can’t imagine a world without dogs. She lives in Greenwood Village, Colorado.
https://www.katherinedeanmazerov.com/
Legacy by Nora roberts
Legacy
The #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a new novel of a mother and a daughter, of ambition and romance, and of a traumatic past reawakened by a terrifying threat…
Adrian Rizzo was seven when she met her father for the first time. That was the day he nearly killed her—before her mother, Lina, stepped in.
Soon after, Adrian was dropped off at her grandparents’ house in Maryland, where she spent a long summer drinking lemonade, playing with dogs, making a new best friend—and developing the stirrings of a crush on her friend’s ten-year-old brother. Lina, meanwhile, traveled the country promoting her fitness brand and turning it into a billion-dollar business. There was no point in dwelling on the past.
A decade later, Adrian has created her own line of yoga and workout videos, following in Lina’s footsteps but intent on maintaining creative control. And she’s just as cool-headed and ambitious as her mother. They aren’t close, but they’re cordial—as long as neither crosses the other.
But while Lina dismisses the death threats that Adrian starts getting as a routine part of her daughter’s growing celebrity, Adrian can’t help but find the vicious rhymes unsettling. Year after year, they keep arriving—the postmarks changing, but the menacing tone the same. They continue after she returns to Maryland and becomes reacquainted with Raylan, her childhood crush, all grown up and as gorgeously green-eyed as ever. Sometimes it even seems like the terrifying messages are indeed routine, like nothing will come of them. Until the murders start, and the escalation begins…
My Review
Family dynamics are never easy, and Nora Roberts portrays this perfectly in Legacy. It’s a question we all ask ourselves at one time or another. Do we become our parents because of what is modeled to us or are the traits that shape our character ones we can’t escape because they’re in our genes?
A traumatic incident with her father when Adrian Rizzo was a child set the pace for her life. When she decides to take a different path after the death of her Grandmother, Adrian finds herself a new meaning of family in the community of Traveler’s Creek. Living with her Grandfather, having friends near, she finds life would be perfect except for the poems and the letters anonymously sent to her, reminding her she has a stalker.
Nora Roberts does not disappoint her readers in Legacy. It’s a well-written mystery that will tug at your heart and leave you reading deep into the night or all day long. Though the mystery is compelling I found the family and friends component, along with some romance, is what drew me in. Family changes, people evolve, and the key is forgiveness. The message is clear in the dynamics of this book. It has my recommendation. I gave it five stars.
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels, including Shelter in Place, Year One, Come Sundown, and many more. She is also the author of the bestselling In Death series written under the pen name J.D. Robb. There are more than five hundred million copies of her books in print.
Interviewing Lisa Kelley from Lisa K’s Book REviews
You can find Lisa at : Lisa K’s Book Reviews
Infinite by Brian Freeman
One rainy night, the unthinkable happens: Dylan Moran’s car plunges off the road into a raging river, his beautiful wife drowning as he struggles to shore.
In the aftermath, through his grief, Dylan experiences sudden, strange visions: wherever he goes, he’s haunted by glimpses of himself. Dylan initially chalks it up to trauma, but that changes when he runs into a psychiatrist who claims he’s her patient. She says he has been undergoing a unique hypnotherapy treatment built on the idea that with every choice, he creates an infinite number of parallel universes.
Now those parallel universes are unlocked—and Dylan’s doppelgänger has staked a claim to his world. Can Dylan use these alternate realities to get a second chance at the life that was stolen from him? Or will he lose himself…to himself?
My Review
Infinite by Brian Freeman
The first question I would ask Author Brian Freeman if I interviewed him in person is: “Can I crawl into your mind while you’re writing?” I have a feeling it would be an interesting place to reside as his words appear on the computer screen.
Infinite is twisted, and curvy and outright surprising. I held my breath in anxiety during many of the chapters. I wasn’t sure why, but that’s the way I was affected when reading, and for me that’s a good sign that I’m hooked. An unusual story of a man wrapped in himself. Was it real? Was it fantasy? I couldn’t put the book down until I found out.
It’s no secret Brian Freeman is now on my list of favorite authors. I am crushing on his writing. Like Forest Gump states, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna git.” I feel that way every time I read a Brian Freeman book. Brian Freeman’s books are like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna git.” I guarantee one thing, you will never be disappointed when reading one of his works. Infinite may just move to the top of your list of favorites in the world of Brian Freeman.
About Brian Freeman Brian Freeman is a New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author of psychological thrillers, including the Jonathan Stride and Frost Easton series. His books have been sold in 46 countries and 22 languages. He is widely acclaimed for his “you are there” settings and his complex, engaging characters and twist-filled plots. Brian was also selected as the official author to continue Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne series, and his novel THE BOURNE EVOLUTION was named by Kirkus as one of the best mysteries and thrillers of 2020.
Brian’s stand-alone thriller SPILLED BLOOD won the award for Best Hardcover Novel in the annual Thriller Awards given out by the International Thriller Writers organization, and his fifth novel THE BURYING PLACE was a finalist for the same award. His novel THE DEEP, DEEP SNOW was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 2021.
His debut thriller, IMMORAL, won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for the Edgar, Dagger, Anthony, and Barry Awards. IMMORAL was named an International Book of the Month, a distinction shared with authors such as Harlan Coben and Lisa Unger.
All of Brian’s books are also available in audiobook editions. His novels THE BONE HOUSE and SEASON OF FEAR were both finalists for Best Audiobook of the Year in Thriller/Suspense.
Find Brian at bfreemanbooks.com
The Pink Percolator 