22. Dead of Night by Lisa Gray

listened on Audible

264 pgs.

2025
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/5/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.24
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Back & forth time periods, mid-80s, mid-90s, present time on the southern California coastline

My comments:    Pulled me in fast, at first reminded me of another book, especially the setting, but couldn't place it.  Good story, but that the protagonist stayed in this big old "Cliff House" even when she knew someone was sneaking in at night to terrorize her didn't seem very prudent...actually felt stupid.  It just didn't seem like something a real person would do.  Wrapped up very neatly at the end.  Would happily read another by this author.

Goodreads synopsis: A crime writer. A cold case. Will she survive to tell the story?

Since the sudden and tragic death of her partner, bestselling crime author Serena Winters hasn’t written a word. With deadlines looming, she packs up her grief and escapes from New York City to a secluded clifftop house in small-town California, hoping the change of scenery will cure her writer’s block.

But as news of her arrival spreads, Serena finds herself facing strange accusations that she’s here to cash in on the house’s history. When she uncovers the chilling story of a young family who mysteriously vanished from the very same house thirty years earlier, she can’t help asking more questions…

Someone in the local community doesn’t want the past dug up, though. Someone willing to push Serena to the limits of her sanity to keep the truth buried. Caught in a spiraling campaign of intimidation, and harboring a dark secret of her own, Serena soon finds herself in the kind of danger she usually only writes about…

21. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

listened on Libby

352 pgs.

2025
Mystery Thriller/CRF
Finished 5/12/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.37
My rating: 5
Setting: small community in Melbourne, Australia (with flashbacks to the 1950s)

My comments: What a wonderful, engrossing novel!  The characters were well-written and (mostly) endearing, the story held enough mystery to keep you interested and guessing, and the flipping back in forth in time helped SHOW instead of tell the story.  Three cheers!

Goodreads synopsis: Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.

When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?

My First MemoryDex Class at Joys

 These are the five I was happiest with on Tuesday night, 5/5/2026.  Really enjoyed it, wish it were more than every other month!

19. The Price of Honey - Lianne Moriarty

read on Kindle, then listened on Audible

34 pgs.

2026
Adult SciFi Short Story
Finished 5/2/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.49
My rating: 4
Setting: anywhere, perhaps 50-100 years in the future

My comments: Interesting, though predictable, short story about a new widow at her billionaire tech husband's funeral.

Goodreads synopsis: When a tech billionaire’s widow and ex-wives gather for his funeral, they witness a final reversal of fortune in this razor-sharp short story by #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty.

In the car on the way to her husband’s funeral, Honey Beckett still can hardly believe that Barney is actually dead. Granted, he was more than twice her age. But he was Barney Beckett, visionary tech genius, full of surprises—by turns romantic, inspirational, and controlling. Always in control. At the service, she impulsively goes to sit with the three ex-wives: practical Rita, fiery Svetlana, ambitious Meredith. Each broke up the other’s marriage in turn—and now, one final betrayal awaits.

Liane Moriarty’s The Price of Honey is part of the Deadly Ambition collection, stories about greed, control, and the sinister side of making dreams come true. They can be read or listened to in one bingeable sitting.