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.

17. First Sign of Danger by Kelley Armstrong

#4 Haven's Rock

listened on Libby - Borrowed from TTPL

337 pgs.

2026
Adult murder mystery
Finished 4/27/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Yukon middle-of-nowhere wilderness

My comments: I was afraid that some of the plotting was getting too similar to others in this and the Rockton series, but this one proved me wrong.  So much "adventure in the wild" in this one, especially listening to it on audio, raising the excitement of crazy things happening in the wild outdoors-in-the-middle-of-nowhere quite a bit!  A good one.  (This one was about lost hikers and the too close-by miner's camp.)

Goodreads synopsis: Author Kelley Armstrong continues the Haven's Rock series as Casey Duncan investigates a threat to their off-the-grid Yukon town.

Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed.

When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven's Rock--and their safe, secure new existence--are at risk.

7. Detour by Jeff Rake

listened on Audible (purchased)

320 pgs. (10:52)

2026 - published two weeks ago, brand new
Adult Science Fiction
Finished 1/27/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.86
My rating: 5
Setting: Various parts of eastern USA, outer space

My comments: So good, just the kind of science fiction that I love.  We get to know the six main characters really well, they travel together in a spacecraft for two years to leave a satellite on Tritan, one of Saturn's moons, leaving behind family, friends, loved ones, no one.....and when they return......WE HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT BOOK! Cliffhanger time. This one's only been out for two weeks, so the next one is not in very close sight.  Big sigh.

Goodreads synopsis:   space shuttle flight crew discovers that the Earth they’ve returned to is not the home they left behind in this emotional, mind-bending thriller from the creator of the hit Netflix series Manifest and the bestselling author of The Warehouse.

“If The Martian and The Twilight Zone had a baby, it would be Detour—a thriller that messes with your head as you scramble to piece together what’s really going on.”—Steve Netter, Best Thriller Books

Ryan Crane wasn’t looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt.

As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.

A devoted family man, Ryan is reluctant to leave on this two-year expedition, yet with the encouragement of his loving wife—and an exorbitant paycheck guaranteeing lifetime care for their disabled son—he crews up and ventures into a new frontier.

But as the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes.

When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, such as lavish upgrades to their homes, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.

Separated and suspicious, the crew must uncover the truth and decide how far they’re willing to go to return to their normal lives. Just when their space adventure seemingly ends, it shockingly begins.

6. Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

listened on Audible

340 pgs.  (9:39)

2026
Adult Mystery
Finished /25/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.98
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Baton Rouge, LA

My comments: 4.5  Very interesting story told in three voices (mostly) that although seems quite unbelievable in places, was an all-encompassing read that did just what a good story does on a blizzardy day in January.  Set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two very different women cross paths in an unusual way and their story keeps intersecting until the book's satisfying ending.

Goodreads synopsis:  Two women. One dead husband. And only one alibi.

Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price.

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth—and she may have found the best way in.

Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek.

Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

4. No One Knew by Kendra Elliott

#2 Noelle Marshall

listened on Audible

314 pgs.

2026
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 1/18/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Oregon

My comments: I've been reading too many books with similar settings lately as well as similar characters, and that's probably not a good idea.  This takes place in central Oregon where the lead detective and the FBI agent involved in the case are lovers.....and is about nasty redneck good-ole-boys in a militia.  So much rubbed me the wrong way.  Still decent writing from Elliot, but it's time for me to move on from these for awhile.

Goodreads synopsis:  For a detective and an FBI agent, two seemingly disparate murder investigations collide with a twist in an explosive novel of suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

In the crisp mountain air of central Oregon, a teenage girl’s search for discarded cans leads to a horrifying a body, brutally murdered and abandoned in the woods. The case falls to Deschutes County Detective Noelle Marshall, who finds herself navigating a community steeped in secrets, suspicion, and distrust of outsiders—especially law enforcement.

Miles away, FBI Special Agent Max Rhodes investigates a different kind of darkness—chatter about a violent uprising from a shadowy militia group preparing for war. The two cases seem worlds apart. But as Noelle digs into the murdered man’s past and Max closes in on the source of the terror plot, their paths begin to converge in a terrifying way. This was no random killing. It was a message. A merciless killer and a hidden army are operating in the same shadows, and finding the link between them is the only thing standing between a single murder and a full-blown massacre.