Review: Mushing is Murder by Patti Benning

Angie heads back to her childhood home in Alaska after troubles in her life as well as to help with her mother who has Parkinson's.  Her father raises, trains and runs dogs in sled races as well as running the family diner.  Soon after her arrival, a neighbor shows up in the Diner looking for her father because a sled team has shown up on his property without a driver.  She and the neighbor head out to find out where he is only to find his body.  After thinking it was an accident, the Sheriff comes around to question her dad as a possible killer since the victim was his best friend.  She starts asking questions to find the real killer.

I enjoyed the book a lot because of the setting, characters and yes - the dogs. LOL  the thing is the mystery part was really weak, but that's okay because I did enjoy it.  Maybe book two in the series will make up for it with a better mystery.  I think part of the problem was the length - a bit longer, more clues or suspects and motives could have been provided. 

Review: Teggie: Lucy's Story by Roger David Francis

I was really intrigued by this book.  I had never heard of the legend of Teggie in Lake Bala.  I have to say that this version of Teggie is truly horrifying and evil.  That part of the book was excellent, as was Ben's descent under Teggie's control.  Where the author lost me was Lucy.  It is her story - as she watches the man she loves obsessing over a monster and behaving in worse and worse manners.  A great story.  BUT.... She turned out to be a protagonist I truly despised.  She repeatedly made excuses for Ben, thinking he will "get over it", even as things progressed to more and more hideous violence.  Making excuses.  HOPING he would be able to fight Teggie's influence.  Passive and pathetic.  Even as Ben was nastier and nastier to her and others.  After crimes were being committed.  It was a visceral feeling. Grrr...  I was glad when it was over so I wouldn't have to deal with her any more. 

That said,  Ben's descent and Teggie were great.  Additionally, the book has many other Teggie/Lake Bala tales which were quite interesting as well.

Review: The Red Death by Brigitte Märgen

Cases start emerging in NYC where the victims are dying of a bacteria similar to the Black Death of the Middle Ages.  Only this pathogen is 100% fatal.  The CDC investigates and find an ancient bacteria that one professor's career had been destroyed over when no one believed his findings.  A search for a natural cure takes the Professor and a CDC researcher to the Amazon while the plague starts spreading quickly throughout the world. 

The story is told by multiple POVs including some of the first patients, showing the method of the spread.  It is a story that is chilling because of how easily we could see this happening today. 

Excellent read

Review: 13 Stolen Girls by Gil Reavill

After an earthquake in LA, Detective Layla Remington finds a large broken barrel with a body inside.  It turns out to be a missing actress and a HUGE missing persons case.  Only she sees connections to other missing girls' cases that none of the powers that be see.  As she investigates, she treads on some powerful toes in the Motion Picture Industry and gets in deeper than she expects.  

The story contains some really vile men based on a deep BDSM subculture where slaves asked to be killed.  Not for those who don't like their books DARK.

The interesting thing about the "Cor" series in this book is that it clearly is a nod to the old Gor books.  Nothing I ever liked, but I had a friend WAY back when (30ish years ago) who LOVED them and she started writing one of her own.  Early fan fiction I guess.I had forgotten all about that until reading this book.

Very suspenseful and interesting.  I really enjoyed it

Guest Blogger - Alice Duncan

February 2019 Mercy sakes, January’s over. That happened fast, didn’t it? The coming month will feature the eleventh birthday of my great-granddaughter, Kasumi. That happened fast, too. I remember visiting my grandson and his family shortly after Sumi’s birth, when they lived in Kansas. And now Sumi’s turning eleven. Worse, Andrew, her older brother, is going to be fourteen in May! Well, I don’t mean worse precisely, but I have almost-grown great-grandchildren, and that makes me feel old, which is only right since I am old. So I’m trying to remember my age in order to minimize falls, etc. I’m not used to being old, and I don’t like it. Too bad. So sad. Sigh. But enough of that. SHAKEN SPIRITS was released in January, which made me happy. People seem to appreciate the addition of Lou Prophet to Daisy and her gang. Old Lou is extremely fun to write, so I hope Peter Brandvold (who created him and writes about Lou when he was in his salad days) lets me keep him. So please go out and buy several copies! You know. For gifts and stuff. Here’s the cover and the Kindle link:  Shaken Spirits link Also, if you want to read about Lou Prophet when he was a young, vigorous, womanizing, hard-drinking bounty hunter (and still had two legs), please go and buy several copies of BLOOD AT SUNDOWN, too. It’s a great read, in my not-awfully-humble opinion. Here’s the cover and Kindle link for BLOOD, too. Hmm. That title doesn’t shorten awfully well, does it? But it’s a good book! Blood at Sundown amazon link My Daisy publisher, ePublishing Works, has also set up a pre-order page on Amazon.com for SCARLET SPIRITS, the next Daisy book, which I just finished writing. Yay, me! Haven’t a clue what the cover will look like, but here’s the Kindle link if you have a burning desire to pre-order it: Scarlet Spirits amazon link Two extremely good things regarding what I laughingly call my writing career happened in January, although I’m afraid I’ll jinx myself if I write about them here. But what the heck. If I’m jinxed, I’m jinxed. The first extremely good thing was that Five Star finally relinquished the rights to Daisy’s seventh adventure, SPIRITS REVIVED. Therefore, ePublishing Works (run by the fabulous Nina and Brian Paules) are going to reprint the whole series and number them correctly! That means the books will follow one another in a logical sequence, SPIRITS REVIVED will be #7, and the rest of the books will be numbered accordingly. I’m so happy about this I could squeal, but I don’t want to scare the dogs. The second extremely good thing to happen is that a person who hates to be thanked for anything and whose name I won’t mention here (Peter Brandvold. Okay, so I lied) told me about a publisher called Wolfpack run by a fellow named Mike Bray. Mean Pete suggested I send an email to Mike Bray with “Mean Pete Sent Me” in the subject line. So I did, and I included a list of all the books I’ve written (around 60-something). Mike Bray got back to me and said he’s extremely interested in re-packaging and re-publishing my entire back-list except the Daisy books (the ones to which I own the rights, I mean)! Wow. It would be spectacularly nice to make some money on books I wrote way back when, and I’m super-excited about this possibility. Wolfpack will probably begin by re-publishing either the Pecos Valley historical cozy mystery series (beginning with PECOS VALLEY DIAMOND, and going on through PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL and PECOS VALLEY RAINBOW) and starring Annabelle Blue; or my post-Titanic-disaster series, featuring three women who survived the sinking of Titanic. The books in order are A PERFECT STRANGER, A PERFECT ROMANCE (my personal favorite), and A PERFECT WEDDING. All three books feature Loretta Linden, a fabulously wealthy San Francisco woman who is bound and determined to help everyone around her, whether they want her help or not. The bitter truth about the Titanic series is that I loathed writing the first book (A PERFECT WEDDING). That’s because I thought Daisy Gumm Majesty was dead and floating belly-up in the goldfish bowl of publishing, and I only wanted to write more Daisy books. I got over it and enjoyed writing the second and third books. It probably helped a whole lot that Daisy got a new lease on life, thanks to Five Star. And now ePublishing Works has done a totally fabulous job on the entire Daisy series. In fact (this is embarrassing to admit, but what the heck), ePW is the very first publisher I’ve ever had (and my books have been published by most of them) that has ever made any money for me. I love Nina and Brian! Very well then, let’s get to the important stuff. The people who won copies of SHAKEN SPIRITS are: Meredith Hillenbrand, Tammy Corcoran (who lives in Minnesota, poor frozen thing), and Teena Stambaugh (who lives in Ohio. Not sure what the weather’s like there). I’ll get your books to you as soon as I can get to the post office, ladies. As for books I’ll be giving away at the end of February, lemme think for a minute. Okay, I’ll give away a copy of  PECOS VALLEY REVIVAL, a copy of FALLEN ANGELS and a copy of SIERRA RANSOM. SIERRA is an historical romance novel, but it’s pretty good anyway. Due to the high cost of postage, I’ll only be able to send physical books to people residing in the USA. However, if you live in a far-off place and win, I’ll be happy to send you an ebook (Kindle or Nook). Iris Evans and Leon Fundenberger founded a Facebook page called DAISY DAZE just for posting stuff from the 1920s that Daisy Gumm Majesty and her family might have used or seen or gone to or shopped at. It’s fun, and if you’d like to be a member, check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/905100189878318/ . If you’d like to visit my web page, here’s the link: http://aliceduncan.net/ . And if you’d like to be Facebook friends, please go here: https://www.facebook.com/alice.duncan.925 I think that’s it! Thank you!