31. The House on the Water by Margo Hunt

A Novella

listened on Audible
82 pgs.  (2:47)

2020
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 4/8/24
Goodreads rating: 3.51
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary beachfront rental home, Florida

My comments:  There were lots of twists and turns in this entertaining story, although none were particularly surprising.  An easy, enjoyable listen.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the author of Buried Deep comes a brand-new thriller about a summer vacation turned deadly and a group of friends trapped together until they can determine who among them is capable of murder.

Every year, Caroline Reed takes a trip with her best friend, Esme Lamont. They’re usually accompanied by their spouses - but this year, everything’s changed.

Esme has just gone through a bitter divorce, and Caroline is wondering if her own marriage is reaching its breaking point as she and her husband, John, cope with the discovery that their 19-year-old son has been abusing drugs. Still, the inseparable duo books a weeklong stay at a beach-front home in Shoreham, Florida, inviting Esme’s brother, Nick, and his new husband, Ford, in hopes that the additional guests will help lighten the mood.

After a blissful first night in the vacation home, tragedy strikes, and one of the houseguests is found dead. While it’s assumed at first to be a horrific accident, it quickly becomes clear that there’s something more sinister at play, and over the course of this fast-paced, deeply chilling novella, the potential motives of each guest are revealed - until a shocking conclusion is reached.

24. Tell Her Story by Margot Hunt

listened on Audible (Aud Original)
?? pgs. - audio only (2:52)

2022
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 3/23/24
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 3.75
Setting: 

My comments: Read by Dakota Fanning and a cast of others.  A journalist who has been fired from her job is living in her sister and brother-in-law's guest house in Florida and waitressing at her brother-in-law's tavern.  When her sister suggests that she start a podcast about the 20-year-old murder of a beloved high school teacher, she agrees, which sets off a series of events that eventually solve the cold case.  Quite a twist!

Goodreads synopsis: From the author of Buried Deep and The House on the Water comes a shocking thriller about a young podcaster who’s investigating a cold case in her hometown and determined to uncover the truth at any cost.

Paige Barrett was living her dream as a journalist in New York City, racking up bylines as a staff writer at The Razor, a cutting-edge online magazine. But when she’s suddenly fired from her job and dumped by her boyfriend, she finds herself back home in the quaint seaside town of Shoreham, Florida, waiting tables and living in her sister’s guesthouse.

Restless and itching for something meaningful to occupy her time, she decides to launch a true-crime podcast about the death of Jessica Cady, a beloved teacher who died mysteriously 20 years earlier. The case went cold with no leads and no suspects, but the more Paige digs into the woman’s death, the closer she comes to a killer. In a small town like Shoreham, it’s impossible to keep a secret forever. 

7. A Tail as Old as Time by Elle Hay

an Audible Original
narrated by Therese Plummer
Unabridged audio (1:32)
2021
100 pgs. ??

Finished 1/31/21

Goodreads:  3.48 - 116 ratings

My rating:  2
RomCom

My comments:   Two next-door neighbors chase their escaped darling dog and cat all around Coral Gables, only to discover they ran home again.  Love how they even get up and down on the elevator on their own (not!)  And of course the neighbors end up really liking each other.  Totally stupid from beginning to end.

Goodreads synopsis:  A rom-com novella that will warm every animal lover’s heart about two neighbors who fight like cats and dogs - but who can’t deny their animal attraction.
          Ever since Alana Diaz adopted her cat Furrari, she has found herself in a feud with her infuriating neighbor, whom she knows only by the name on the passive aggressive notes he leaves on her door - R. Jones. Alana works hard all day, and the last thing she needs when she finally relaxes on her balcony with a glass of wine and her new furry roommate is her neighbor’s dog barking his head off. The only solution is to retreat inside. So what if her neighbor has smoldering good looks? It’s ruined when he glares at her little fuzzball of joy for upsetting his dog Kevin. And who the hell names their dog Kevin, anyway?
          But when Furrari and Kevin both go missing, Alana and Jones are left with no choice but to team up. As their pets lead them through the beaches, fancy hotels, and more all over Coral Gables, two lonely, jaded people might find they've been chasing the wrong things all along.

66. Don't Even Breathe by Keith Houghton

listened on Audible
read by Karen Peakes
Unabridged audio (8:29)
2019 Thomas & Mercer
304 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished 7/22/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.99 - 1561 ratings
My rating: 3 (or less)
Setting: Contemporary Orlando, FL

First line/s: "Long before she'd agreed to go on a date with him, Tyler had known he would kill Lindy Munson."

My comments: An entertaining, quick read, but nothing new.  Contemporary Orlando, Florida was given a fairly decent portrayal.  The protagonist, Maggie, was an excellent cop....and she knew it.  She was keeping secrets from the reader, which was very apparent, and I hate that.  I think it's called an "unreliable narrator."  And from her bosses she kept a few secrets about how her past and her current case were related.  Unethical much?  Her relationship with her boyfriend was sketchy, though her relationship with her partner was pretty decent.  The story was supposed to be one twist and surprise after another, but there was enough foreshadowing that you could figure most everything out before they were revealed.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the bestselling author of Crash comes a riveting thriller rife with murder, misdirection, and ghosts from the past.
          Florida homicide detective Maggie Novak has seen hundreds of brutal murder cases, but when she is called out to investigate the charred remains of a young woman, in what appears to be a Halloween prank gone wrong, she is confronted with a twenty-year-old secret. The body is formally identified as that of school counselor Dana Cullen, but a distinguishing mark makes Maggie look again. She believes it is the body of her school friend Rita, who perished in a fire twenty years ago.
          Maggie’s hunt for the truth behind the murder takes her back to a cruel high school trick she’s desperate to forget. And when another body turns up, Maggie realizes she too may be the target of a sinister plot creeping toward its final act.
          Maggie needs emotional distance to do her job, but she’s so close to this case that she can’t even breathe. Will Maggie be able to uncover the truth of who wanted Rita dead? Or will her past mistakes catch up with her first?

42. Heartstopper - Joy Fielding

listened to audio cd on the way to Maine (and during some of my cross-country jaunt)
2007 Atria Publishing
387 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished 6/26/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.68
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Florida - a small town in Alligator Alley

My comments:  There were many things to like about this book and a few things to passionately dislike.  So which one should I talk about?  There are three major points-of-view in this story:  a high school English teacher, the chief of police, and the writings/braggings of the antagonist.  The setting, a small town in alligator alley in Florida, worked well. I don't like coming across teachers in books that are not good role models to the profession.  I'm appalled at the things that Sandy Crosbie allows her student to get away with - particularly being hugely mean to each other.  She wants her cheating husband back (he's a worm) even though he flaunts his new floozy right in front of her.  I have no respect for her at all, except, perhaps, in some of her parenting.  And then we have the chief of police.  What a piece of work he is!  It all come together, though, and even though I had a pretty good idea who the antagonist was, the mystery kept me enthralled for much of my cross-country journey.

Goodreads synopsis:  From the "New York Times" and internationally bestselling author of "Mad River Road" comes a spine-tingling thriller about a picturesque Florida town -- and the killer determined to prey on its teenage girls.Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. As Sheriff John Weber would attest, the deadliest predators to date in his tiny hamlet were the alligators lurking in the nearby swamps. But that was before someone abducted and murdered a runaway teenage girl...and before the disappearance of popular and pretty Liana Martin. The pattern is chilling to Sandy Crosbie, the town's new high school English teacher. With a marriage on the rocks, thanks to her husband's online affairs, and a beautiful teenage daughter to protect, Sandy wishes she'd never come to the seemingly quiet town with shocking depths of scandal, sex, and brutality roiling beneath its surface. And as Sheriff Weber digs up more questions than answers in a dead-end investigation, one truth emerges: the prettiest ones are being targeted, the heartstoppers. And this killer intends to give them their due....
     Alternating between the chilling journal entries of a cold-blooded murderer and the sizzling scandals of small-town life, "Heartstopper" is Joy Fielding's most exciting novel of suspense yet.

27. Twisted Innocence - Terri Blackstock

Audio read by Nan Gurley

6 Unabridged cds (&;28)

2015 Zondervan/Brilliance Audio

320 pgs.

Adult Mystery - Faith Based, I think you'd call it....

Finished 4/14/15

Goodreadsrating: 4.32

My rating: 2/It was okay

PBS trade

Setting; contemporary Panama City, FL

My comments: Three sisters - and three brothers (though one is deceased) - still trying to put away the drug lord that has paralyzed the family.  Cops, investigators, and lawyers, all rally around youngest sibling Holly as she tries to distance herself from her 4-week old daughter's father; Kathy as she tries to get her fiance a pardon from prison; and Juliet who is recovering from a bad marriage.  Then, all of a sudden, God is introduced, then slowly but surely the story includes talk of God and faith and gets a bit preachy - at least for me.  I actually don't think this was Ms. Blackstock's intention, but it became too overwhelming for me.  I believe there are a book or two that preceded this one, but I understood what was going on very well.  Some of the storyline just was a little unbelievable, but..... 

Goodreads book summary:  When Holly s secrets backfire, is the mess too big to unravel?
          Holly Cramer has worked hard to keep the identity of her daughter s father a secret, shamed and embarrassed by the one-night stand. But when the police knock on her door searching for Creed Kershaw, she realizes his identity isn t as hidden as she thought. The fact that Creed is a person of interest in a recent drug-related murder only increases her humiliatioWhen Holly s secrets backfire, is the mess too big to unravel?
          Holly Cramer has worked hard to keep the identity of her daughter s father a secret, shamed and embarrassed by the one-night stand. But when the police knock on her door searching for Creed Kershaw, she realizes his identity isn t as hidden as she thought. The fact that Creed is a person of interest in a recent drug-related murder only increases her humiliation.
          When Holly s and Creed s paths cross, Holly is unsure whether to be terrified of him or trust him. His tenderness with their daughter makes her want to believe his story that he had nothing to do with the murder. Then she discovers that Creed has a connection to Leonard Miller who killed both her sister s fiance and her brother-in-law, and kidnapped her nephews and things only become more complicated.
          Will Creed lead them to the man who has plagued her family, or become another of his victims?"
When Holly s and Creed s paths cross, Holly is unsure whether to be terrified of him or trust him. His tenderness with their daughter makes her want to believe his story that he had nothing to do with the murder. Then she discovers that Creed has a connection to Leonard Miller who killed both her sister s fiance and her brother-in-law, and kidnapped her nephews and things only become more complicated.
          Will Creed lead them to the man who has plagued her family, or become another of his victims?"

72. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming - Joshilyn Jackson

Audio read by the author

Unabridged cds (9:24)

2008

311 pgs.

Adult CRF/Mystery

Finished 11/30/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.43

My rating:   3.5 Liked it a lot

Contemporary Florida

1st sentence/s: "Until the drowned girl came to Laurel's bedroom, ghosts had never walked in Victoriana.  The houses were only twenty years old with no accumulated history to put creaks in the hardwood floors or rattle at the pipes."

My comments:  I really love Joshilyn Jackson's writing.  Her descriptions are .... elegant.
The way she writes her characters make it seem as if you know them, or someone like them.  Her plots are always interesting, woven in fascinating ways.  This one had an element of "ghosts" that were not real, just in the protagonist's head, much like they could be in anyone's head, whether we'd like to admit it or not.  But the icing on the cake?  Jackson, herself, was the reader of this audio book.  And she was just plain terrific.  She has become one of my very favorite writers.

Goodreads book summary:  Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty. Coming from a family with a literal skeleton in their closet, she's developed this talent all her life, whether helping her willful mother to smooth over the reality of her family's ugly past, or elevating humble scraps of unwanted fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. 
          Her sister Thalia, an impoverished "Actress" with a capital A, is her opposite, and prides herself in exposing the lurid truth lurking behind life's everyday niceties. And while Laurel's life was neatly on track, a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in lovely suburban Victorianna, everything she holds dear is thrown into question the night she is visited by an apparition in her bedroom. The ghost appears to be her 14-year-old neighbor Molly Dufresne, and when Laurel follows this ghost , she finds the real Molly floating lifeless in her swimming pool. While the community writes the tragedy off as a suicide, Laurel can't. Reluctantly enlisting Thalia's aid, Laurel sets out on a life-altering investigation that triggers startling revelations about her own guarded past, the truth about her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

25. The Shop - J. Carson Black

Audio read by Donna Postel

9 unabridged cds (10:45)

2012

325 pgs.

Finished 5/9/2014

Adult Murder Mystery

GoodreadsRating:  3.14

My Rating: 2/It was okay....I guess.....

TPPL - I think she's from Tucson, that's why I picked it up, but the setting was Florida (and a little bit of Aspen, CO)

My comments:  Well, I can't say that I'd recommend this one.  I didn't like one single character in it!  And in my opinion, the guy that ended up being the "good" guy (I'm getting the feeling that's what the reader was supposed to think all along) wasn't very "good" in my opinion.  I didn't care who made it and who didn't - including the protagonist!  Lots of senseless killing and fighting and mean people that had no consciences at all.  I couldn't wait until it was finished, but I didn't HATE it....exactly....

Goodreads Review:  In Aspen, Colorado, a pop star and her entourage are brutally murdered in their luxury chalet. The lead assassin, ex-Navy SEAL Cyril Landry, has no qualms about carrying out his mission until the instant before he kills the young star—an intense, shared moment that will ultimately drive him to find out why these people had to die. Landry transforms from mercenary to hunter as he delves into the depths of The Shop, the shadowy organization that has hired him to execute people across the country. 

          Thousands of miles away, in a seedy motel in Gardenia, Florida, a local police chief is found shot to death. The scene has all the signs of a romantic rendezvous gone wrong, but Detective Jolie Burke isn’t so sure. As she digs for clues, the tangled threads of evidence lead to a disturbing place: Indigo, the lush tropical estate of the powerful Haddox clan and home of US Attorney General Franklin Haddox. As Jolie continues to pursue the truth, she quickly discovers that Haddox will do anything to protect his country’s ugly secrets—even kill. 

          Landry’s quest to uncover The Shop’s motives throws him into the dark currents of Jolie’s investigation, and they find themselves working together as an unlikely duo: a cop and a killer, joining forces to expose a shocking conspiracy that ascends to the highest offices in the land.

MOVIE - Magic Mike

A very watchable film
Released 6-29-12
R (1:50)
Critics: 79% Critics 63%
cag:  It was good
Director:  Steven Soderbergh
Warner Brothers

Perfect thing to do on a Friday after \the first full week of school, including the bucket of popcorn and huge diet Coke.  Interesting movie.  I consider that it had two protagonists, though, Mike and Adam.  I love the way you watch Mike go through all his major life deliberations, but it mad me sad that Adam was left making really crappy decisions and I ended the movie feeling worried about how his future looked pretty dim....even while happy that Mike had finally figured out what's in store for him in life.

I was pretty impressed with the dancing and the comfort with their bodies that all the actors had....Channing Tatum (very buff), Alex Pettyfer (super cute), Matthew McConaughey (oh my, he's getting old....), Matt Bomer (so adorable), and Adam Rodriguez (who used to be on CSI Miami).....verrrrrry impressive!

51. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Nancy Travis
Hachette Audible Audio, 2005
5 unabridged cds
6 hrs.
224 pgs.
Rating:  4
Publisher Weekly starred review

1st line:  Be careful what you wish for.  I know that for a fact."

Setting:  a Florida college town, present
One-sentence summary:  A woman who has led a self-imposed solitary, invisible life (an "ice queen"), gets struck by lightning, which leads to her allowing herself to slowly melt.

Wow.  Incredible writing.  The first half - at least - was terribly depressing.  But mesmerizing, I couldn't stop listening.  Then, the second half.  Still beautifully written, sad, depressing, but mesmerizing.  Nancy Travis was an exceptional reader for this book.  What a picture these eloquent words painted.

Our unnamed protagonist, ever since making a child's self-absorbed wish when she was eight and then feeling it tragically came true, has become a self-made ice queen.  She is unhappy, makes crazy-wrong choices, and seems to stumble through an uninteresting life.  After any years as a librarian in a small New Jersey town, she moves to Florida to be near her brother, Ned, and his wife Nina. 

And then she is struck by lightning.  She loses the color red.  She hears constant clicking in her head.  She has to reteach her left side to move correctly.  And she becomes even more entranced with death.  She seeks Lazarus Jones, a man who was said to have been struck by lightning, died for 45 minutes, and then "come back."  

So much happens in this somewhat short book.  Sometimes our protagonist (I can't really believe that we never learn her name!) drives me crazy.  She is self-absorbed and single-minded about it.  The people she meets, pushes away, befriends, and loves without realizing she is loving, are well-flushed out and enticingly interesting.  Her brother Ned and his wife, Nina.  Her friend, Renny.  Her New Jersey cop lover and her Florida orange-grower, lightning-survivor lover... even her cat, Giselle.  Interesting twists and turns,  paths and fairy tales, butterflies and rain, fire and ice.

25. Forced Out - Stephen Frey

audio read by L. J. Ganser
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
10 unabridged cds (12 hrs.)
480 pgs.
Rating:  I'll settle for 2: see below

Hard to rate – the ending is bizarre and the characters are a bit ridiculous at times....

Jack Barrett, 63 years old…the “old” age thing is brought up over and over and over again, by him and by all sorts of people that he meets. Tiring. And ridiculous. He’s a grouch and way too proud, very unlikable through the first half of the book. He has been fired after many years as a scout for the NY Yankees. He’d been framed and let go but the whole story only comes out in bits and pieces. He now lives with his daughter, Cheryl, in Sarasota. They scrape to get by. She’s in her early 30’s and somehow keep picking lousers to fall in love with. She’s pretty desperate, but loves her father….for some reason…unconditionally.

At the same time, a hit man for a mafia family in NYC has discovered that the young baseball player who SUPPOSEDLY hit and killed the boss’ grandson has discovered his whereabouts and is after him. The story flip flops between characters, adding interesting, yet odd, bits and pieces along the way. Some are left unmentioned and unresolved, and the author throws in information about activities without detailing them…they just “happened,” while others are described in painful detail.

I’m not really thrilled with the writing or the plot. I almost stopped listened three or four times, but wanted to see how it was resolved. I wish I hadn’t wasted my time. Why Mr. Frey added the twists at the end are a mystery to me. Oh well. On to another story.

25. The Night Stalker - James Swain

Audio read by Richard Mover (he did a great job...)
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
8 discs, 9 hours
368 pages
Rating: 4.5

This is the second in a series, and I didn't realize this until after I'd read the book. No matter. Didn't need to read the first. This stood alone and was quite gripping and interesting. Jack Carpenter finds missing children. He used to be head of the Broward County, Florida Missing Person unit, but has parted ways with the police department and is on his own. Well, not completely, his sidekick is his dog, Buster, who has a prominent role in the story.

Abb Grimes is on death row for the serial killings of many young women. Now Abb's grandson, Samson, has been kidnapped because Abb is talking to the FBI. Jack is hired to find Samson. He has a keen nose for creepy bad guys, and the decisions he makes and the clues he follow are fascinating and believable.

Good story. Horrifying and aggravating, but reality. Jack Carpenter is a great character. Can't wait to read the sequel.

2. Dark of Day - Barbara Parker

Audiobook read by Elizabeth S. Rogers (beautifully)
BBC Audiobooks America, 2008
10 unabridged cds
11 hrs. 59 minutes
352 pgs.
Rating: 5

I listened to this on the train trip from Boston to Harrisburg, then on the plane from Dallas to Tucson, finishing up this morning as I knit many rows onto Brian's blanket. I figured out most of it quite early, the whodunit and the "secrets" that the protagonist kept, but it was told - and read- beautifully. The usual whodunit, the usual love-in-the-making story, typical good guys and bad guys....grittiness, not coziness...all that I love in a mystery. I read Barbara Parker's first Suspicion series book years ago on a 30-hour car ride to Florida, and remember it (I don't remember too many details, usually) because I liked the way that she told the story. She died last March at the age of 62 after "a long illness." Too bad.

This story is about a lawyer, C. J. Dunn, who works and is friends with the rich and famous of Miami. She knows how to manipulate the media to help her clients - and this is why she's hired to keep a U. S. Congressman, Paul Shelby's, name out of the papers when there's a possibility he'll be linked to the murder of a pretty actress wannabe, Alana Martin. Her actual client is Rick Slater, Shelby's chauffeur. An unlikely chauffeur, to be sure, his past is in the army and security. Of course, a bond forms between C.J. and this rough, tough cutie. A young friend of Alana's also takes a strong role, as well as C.J.'s best friend and investigator, Judy. Although there are lots of subplots and dips in the road, the story is easy to follow and interesting. It also showcases the rich and famous lifestyle of Miami.

Think it's time to get started (or REstarted) on the Suspicion series. And I've never been to Miami. That's where DEXTER is set. Next year's summer road trip???

13. The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer

AUDIO Read by Scott Brick
For: Adults
Book Pub: 2008
Audio:
10 discs/11.5 hours
352 pgs.
Rating: 2
Finished: Feb. 23, 2009

This was my first Brad Meltzer. I was not greatly impressed. Neither the story nor the characters were very engaging - I had no empathy for any of the characters, I never really felt like I got to know a single one of them. It switched around from one person's perspective to another. And there were an awful lot of "bad" guys. The protagonist is Cal Harper, whose father pushed and killed his mother when Cal was nine. After eight years in jail, his dad never came to find him. So now at 28 he lives his life in a beat-up van on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, helping and working with homeless people. Very noble. His partner, a black preacher named Roosevelt, is his philosophical friend. When they happen upon a shooting in the park and discover the victim is Cal's long-lost father, the mystery and flight after an unknown historical treasure begins. We hear from a guy named Ellis, who, with his dog, Benoni, is also after the treasure. Ellis works for a mysterious "Prophet." Cal's father is accompanied by a young woman named Serena - it's really quite foggy about how she came into his life- and then there's the law enforcement official, Naomi, who's after them all. She doesn't know who the bad guys are, and she thinks a lot about her adopted son, which seems really out-of-place. She's constantly on the phone with a wheelchair-boound guy named Scotty, and Ellis keeps calling an unknown judge. This, I suppose, is to keep the suspense high while wondering who the bad guy/s really is/are. Throw in Cain and Abel, Superman author Jerry Segal and his father, Mitch, a trip to Cleveland, Nazis and a strange group called The Thule, lots of tension between Cal and HIS father, Russia.....and lots of vague information. Get the picture? It's pretty foggy, eh?

My last impression was "who cares?" Not a good way to end eleven and a half hours of listening. It was not easy listening, either, because I really didn't care for the reader. He emphasized words in a way that I never would have if I'd been reading them myself. I went to the library this evening to pick up a new audio book and as I was walking toward the check-out I realized the reader was Scott Brick. I must admit, I turned around and found another book.