Category: book review

Book review: Mystery of L’Inconnu by Dan Grylles

4 out of 5 stars

Mystery and crime readers who have wished for a return to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle style novels, you have caught a lucky break. Mystery of L’Inconnu by Dan Grylles is a well-researched, well-developed novel about tragedy on the high seas and how Lt. Detective Remington Ferguson and his team attempt to unravel the mysteries surrounding the ill-fated cruise.

From Grylles’ introduction of characters (you must include the yacht as one of those characters) to his character and setting developments, the reader will be reminded of the intelligent writing of the aforementioned staple crime writers. Grylles adds his own touch of technological panache that brings the mystery and crime genre into the 21st century.

L’Inconnu is a luxury yacht from the Royal Knight Cruise Line, which caters to the very wealthy who might like to purchase their own luxury yacht. The esteemed guests are invited to enjoy a five-day trip showcasing the possible life aboard a yacht that leaves its passengers wanting for nothing. Each crew member is selected by Royal Knight Cruise Line for their singular expertise to enhance the passengers’ experiences from cuisine to marine life to social excursions.

Throughout the four parts of the novel (The Discovery, The Deception, The Detection, and The Disclosure), the reader learns about what it takes to run and maintain a yacht such as L’Inconnu as secrets about its crew and its guests are unraveled. Nothing is what it seems as what starts off as a sales pitch for a beautiful yacht turns into a nightmarish fight for survival for all involved. The guests and crew start turning against one another, and what is left for Lt. Detective Remy to figure out once the yacht is discovered will take all the expertise of his crime scene team and help from the US Coast Guard.

While a lengthy read, the story is intriguing enough to keep your attention and wanting for a little more at the end. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr.

4 out of 5 stars

Stories of a Harlem Resident by Javier Sarmiento Jr. is a short yet powerful collection of poetry that gives us a look at everyday life in Harlem through the lens of poetic and descriptive language. The author uses his poetry to show his inspirational vision of making the world a better place, making his community stronger, and helping the world to understand a viewpoint they may not have seen before.

Sarmiento Jr.’s vision and passion for social justice shine throughout, especially with “Journeyman” and “The Blue Men.” He teaches us how to be kind, to listen to one another, and to make better informed choices, all while giving us descriptive snapshots of the struggles he has experienced.

I would have loved to see a few more poems further illustrating his vision of what helping one another looks like for him. His eagerness to impact the world is palpable, and I can’t wait to see what this author has in store for his readers. His gift of perception and description will continue to develop and aid his unique poetic voice.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: Death Date: Book One of the Rageblight Duology by B.Y. Simpson

4 out of 5 stars

Death Date by B.Y. Simpson is a rapid-fire page turner of a YA dystopian novel. The character and world development are intricate and lend to a fascinating story. I received an ARC, and pretty soon, you’ll be able to order it for yourself and dive in.

Nova James is brought up in a world where you receive your death date on your 18th birthday. Any of your previous actions up until that birthday can have an adverse or positive effect on the date’s proximity. As Nova’s 18th birthday approaches, the structured world she’s known and strived to understand her whole life changes, and chaos ensues. The novel follows Nova’s dangerous journey to find answers against all odds. Along the way, she suffers loss, makes new allies, explores her world, and finds that she is much stronger than she ever imagined.

What would you do to try to save the world if you only had some of the answers, and having those answers wasn’t always the blessing you thought it would be? Would you push forward or accept your fate? Death Date shows us the heroine’s struggle as she deals with just those questions. Death Date ends on a cliffhanger, leaving the reader itching to know how the rest of Nova’s journey will continue.

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Book review: The Doll by Laura Daleo

Laura Daleo’s science fiction novel The Doll grabbed my attention at the beginning and didn’t let go until the end. For a shorter work of fiction, Daleo packs in love lost and love found, AI, moral dilemmas, and liberty, plus much more.

Daleo approaches a subject that is especially topical at the moment (artificial intelligence or AI) and gives it a spin. While the AI in this novel is more advanced than what we currently are working with, there could be a time when sentient AI could become reality. And Daleo brings up some moral questions that we should ask ourselves before we get to that point. These questions make us delve deeper than just “Why create AI?” and “Should we create AI?”, though these questions are important as well.

Interwoven with the moral dilemmas of sentient AI are the topics of loss and grief on multiple levels. Loss of friendships and love are front and center; however, we are confronted with the possible loss of liberty and autonomy as well.

Jeremy Dillon is mourning the loss of his fiancée Jenna when he is approached by someone who knows The Dollmaker and is promised a way to lighten his misery. Jeremy calls the number on the card given to him and starts on an adventure that will take him and us readers through all the emotions of a roller coaster ride: excitement, fear, judging our decisions that lead us to a certain point, etc.

Jeremy makes new friends along the way, finding someone new for whom he could very possibly have feelings. While Carly is like Jenna in many ways, she is her own person. Her reactions to certain situations intrigue Jeremy and present him with a new way of looking at the world. Carly’s and Jeremy’s exploits with the government and the private sector keep the reader intrigued and questioning whether they would make the same decisions. Daleo presents us with possible answers from more than one point of view and presents us with what the power of choice really mean for both human and AI.

The novel works hard to deliver so much in a small amount of pages. I wish the ending was given a few more chapters to really connect with the characters and their decisions. Also, Jeremy’s friends provide an interesting backdrop and insight into his life with Jenna before she dies. There were a few moments with those friends that could have been explored further. There are some editorial errors, but they did not distract from the powerful storyline.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: The Intuitive Detective by Stacey Webb

I had the pleasure of reading The Intuitive Detective by Stacey Webb. It’s a highly digestible read with short chapters. With that being said, it is not lacking for wisdom packed into those short chapters. In fact, the chapter lengths lend to reflection after reading. When have you listened to your intuition? When have you ignored it? What were the differences in those experiences?

This memoir is divided into four parts: Following the Breadcrumbs, Leading Towards my Purpose, Seeds are Planted, and Waking Up to my Power. These parts follow Webb’s trajectory from school courses to college coursework to her various positions as a police officer and detective and how she learns about her intuition by both listening to it and ignoring it.

The Intuitive Detective is also a story of Webb’s family: growing up, how she met her husband, their children, and their lives together. These stories are artfully interwoven with her experiences on the police force and often demonstrate a different side of being human and listening to what speaks to us and through us.

There are a few areas that could use a little more context and description to smooth out the transitions Webb describes as she writes about her experiences. However, you can tell Webb writes about what she loves with a dedication you don’t frequently find. She has helped many people throughout her lifetime by listening to what they needed to say, both in and outside of her career.

Webb’s memoir is relatable and also lets us know that making space for ourselves and others is attainable if we put aside our judgements, pre-set notions, and negative thoughts. After finishing the book, I wondered how much could we accomplish as humanity as a whole if we listened more to ourselves and to each other?

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

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Book review: The Soul Collector by Laura Daleo

I read this supernatural mystery within 24 hours. The intricate storytelling in the Soul Collector drew me in and, in all honesty, I didn’t want it to let me go.

Johnathan Bayfield is a boxer who is beaten down in a match. Arielle Robbins is a rich socialite who drunkenly falls off her family’s boat. They both lapse into comas and end up at the same hospital. As they each have out-of-body experiences, they meet Drara the Soul Collector. She promises both Johnathan and Arielle protection over their earthly bodies as they heal in exchange for their signatures in her book of souls. Neither Arielle nor Johnathan seem to have other opportunities, so they willingly sign and wait for the next chapter of their lives to start.

While their earthly bodies heal in the hospital, their spirits meet, share adventures, discuss their predicaments, try to solve the mystery presented to them, and eventually fall in love. The hospital doctors are unaware of their patients’ spiritual meeting and attempt at mystery solving. The doctors do not know why Johnathan and Arielle are healing rapidly but only to a certain point. Johnathan and Arielle visit their bodies in the hospital and discover the partial healing. Did the sinister-looking Drara mislead them into thinking they would be fine after a while? Does Drara have evil intentions for their souls? Will they ever be able to reunite with their bodies?

For a short novel, 168 pages, the author packs a lot of action, intrigue, and love into the storyline. She weaves in supporting characters who advance the story and help to solve the mysteries surrounding Drara and her collection of souls. One of best features of this novel is the character development. There are quite a few relatable human moments for a supernatural story, and you can tell the author took care in shaping what makes the characters tick.

I would love to see this developed into a longer novel with a little more energy spent on scenery development and how it works with the story. There are some editorial mistakes throughout, but they did not distract me from the unique storyline and character descriptions.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5394899974

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Book review: A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming by Kerri Rawson

What would you do if you had an awkward FBI agent come to your apartment and deliver the news that the man who helped raise you and shape your general world views is really a serial killer? Kerri Rawson answers this question throughout this memoir when she is faced with the news that her father is BTK. It’s a complicated path laced with trauma, depression, repression, and ultimately confronting her PTSD. Rawson is helped on this journey with her faith journey and the love that she is shown throughout and that she gives to others. Overcoming such a realization is not an easy switch to say goodbye to everything she has ever known. Loss is complicated and can come in many forms.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It is about a daughter’s journey aligning the father she knew with the man who committed terrible crimes, as well as her journey in processing the information that was given to her throughout the years. I imagine she is still encountering new information that she has to weave into her family’s history.

There are negative reviews complaining that this is a book that focuses too much on Rawson’s faith journey with Christianity. Faith not only is part of the title, but it seems to be a large part of how Rawson finds her way through the depression, trauma, and PTSD that she deals with throughout her life. She reinforces the up-and-down battle that is her faith journey by repeating details or biblical quotes that are important to her. Very few faith journeys are linear without hills and valleys, and Rawson’s is no different.

Equally mentioned in the title are Love and Overcoming. Rawson shares different aspects of love: familial and marital, as well as her love of animals and nature. All of these add to her healing during different stages of self-discovery and I would argue, overcoming. Some of my favorite passages are her descriptions of hiking trails in the Grand Canyon with a cousin and her father, her brother later joining the hiking party. These details help frame the duality of her father’s personality and how others reacted to him.

If you are looking for an in-depth description of the grisly murders of BTK or a psychological analysis of why he committed these crimes, this is not the book for you. And as a memoir, it doesn’t fit into nice and neat chapters that make it easy reading. The content is raw and is presented as such. This book is part of Rawson’s healing journey, helping her weave the details of a man she did not know existed within her father into the history of her family and her life. It would not have been the same book if it had been neatly edited and meticulously trimmed. The reason I give it three stars is that it is a solid book that does exactly what the title describes. I didn’t pick this book to read because I expected award-winning prose that leads to enthusiastic epiphanies. I picked this book because we don’t often hear the side of the story of a serial killer’s family and all they lose to the actions of someone they once held dear. It is an interesting viewpoint, and I thank Kerri Rawson for sharing her part of the story.

And that leaves me to a final point. There are times when Rawson questions the harm it does to her family, especially in the chapter “175 Years is a Long Time.” Some reviewers have taken that to mean that she is self-centered or not caring about the loved ones of the murdered. She does state that the prosecution asked the victims’ families’ permission to present all of the details of the crimes at the sentencing, but the prosecution doesn’t ask BTK’s family’s permission. However, later on the same page, she states “In hindsight, I understand why the prosecution—the detectives—did what they did.” Rawson realizes that her discomfort does not compare with what the victims and their families went through. A few pages later she says “After he murdered, he should have turned himself in to the police. He should have been in jail the past thirty-one years. People should still be alive. But my brother and I wouldn’t be. I was okay with that—I’d trade my life for theirs.” And that is a powerful statement in the midst of a tumultuous journey.

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Book review: Raspberry Danish Murder by Hannah Swensen


I picked this book as a nostalgic read since my grandmother and I would read and discuss the early books of this series together. Granted, I could have gone in order of the last book that I read, but this one was on sale and thought it would be a pleasant read to pass some time in December.

Halfway through chapter 2 I was questioning that I had chosen the correct series because other than the baking and names of the characters, this book resembled very little of the books that I remembered. It seems that there are many more recipes and that the thoughts and actions of each character are overexplained as if the reader could not infer what was going on by simple context of the storyline. I remembered enjoying the at times quite witty writing in the earlier books. This novel lacked all wit and whimsy. It seemed that whoever wrote this (some reviewers are guessing ghost writers), enjoyed the experience even less than the readers who have been with Joanne Fluke since the beginning of the series.

As an avid reader, I very rarely have to convince myself to continue with a book. However, I wanted to know what happened so I dredged along. I finally finished the book today wondering why I wasted my time. The ending was not satisfying enough to justify reading all of the book. As my grandmother might have said, “It wasn’t worth the calories.”
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Book review: Origin by Dan Brown

“Well, science and religion are not competitors, they’re two different languages trying to tell the same story. There’s room in this world for both.”

“Origin” is the fifth book in the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown and follows Robert Langdon around the Basque region and other areas of Spain as he industriously tries to solve one mystery after another. This installation of the Robert Langdon series deals with big-picture questions in relation to technology, evolution, and religion: where do we come from and where are we going?

At the start of “Origin,” one of Langdon’s former students, Edmond Kirsch, invites him to an elegant event with a presentation that is geared toward answering these questions. Kirsch, who is an atheist, has made a discovery that he believes will change the course of mankind. Before the presentation is able to proceed, the night erupts in chaos. Thus begins the Langdon chase for codes, clues, and answers, this time with the director of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and princess-to-be, Ambra Vidal, as his cohort. For a large portion of the novel, Robert and Ambra race across the beautiful city of Barcelona and through the colorful and intricate architecture of Gaudí as they try to stay ahead of their pursuers. Meanwhile, Spain’s Guardia Real and the royal palace are trying to figure out how the king, his loyal friend Bishop Valdespino, and the prince might be implicated in the problems arising from Kirsch’s failed presentation.

Brown gives us his usual lessons in history, art, literature, religion, and architecture; however, this time he includes a lesson in technology past and present. “Origin” did not flow as well as the first three books of the series did. This novel seemed disjointed at times and appeared more like a whodunit rather than an complexly woven plot. At times the lessons felt heavy-handed and not always in sync with the quick rhythm of the action throughout. The stop-and-go effect this produces is a bit unsettling and provides the reader with a bit of a bumpy ride.

Flaws aside, “Origin” is an enjoyable read. It was good to read about Langdon’s adventures and near-death experiences.

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Book review: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

On the surface, “The Vanishing Half” is a story of the twin Vignes sisters, Desiree and Stella, and the separate journeys they take once they leave their hometown of Mallard, Louisiana, as teenagers for the big town of New Orleans. Mallard was created by and for light-skinned Blacks, but it did not provide Desiree and Stella with the futures they craved. Each sister has her reasons for leaving Mallard, their mother, and all they knew behind.

“The Vanishing Half” spans a half century and is about three generations of Black women and the consequences of their life choices. Brit Bennett deftly tackles the complicated relationships, or lack thereof, between the women and the intricacies and complexities of being light- or dark-skinned.

As much as “The Vanishing Half” is a story of loss: loss of family, loss of self, loss of identity, it’s also a story of gain. Desiree and Stella lose each other after Stella leaves her sister without a word to pursue a life of passing as white on the other side of the country. Each twin has a daughter: Kennedy is light-skinned and blonde who doesn’t know about her mother’s past and Jude is dark-skinned and who is a little more free in her knowledge of self and family.

The characters and their tumultuous journeys are richly described with a stunning prose that envelops the reader.

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