Sunday, January 26, 2020

Book Reviews - Nothing More Dangerous, A Crafter Quilts a Crime, and Lock Every Door

Nothing More DangerousNothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Boady lives in a small town in the Ozarks in Missouri in the mid-1970s and he is saving money and dreaming of when he can run off and make a life of his own. Sure, he will miss his dog and his single mom, but life with her is stifling him since his father was killed some 10 years prior. Boady spends his days trying to be invisible at school, talking with his neighbor Hoke, and roaming the woods around his house. Then an African-American woman disappears along with a $100K from the local plant which is what keeps the town, and most of the people in it, afloat.

The plant sends in a man to begin an investigation into the missing money. The man is African-American and moves his family in across the the street from Boady's house and Boady and the son, Thomas Elgin, are the same age. Boady shows Thomas the woods around their houses and the boys become fast friends. Mrs. Elgin even befriends Boady's mom who starts to come out of her depression.

This is a very moving story about race relations during a tumultuous time in our country. Before The Elgins move in across the street, Boady has very little interaction with anyone who is African-American. He begins to see how people who appear different are treated differently.

Allen Eskins is a fantastic author! This is the third book that I have read of his and a first stand alone from the two series he has written. The pace of the stories is always great and the plot twists are always unexpected. I highly recommend this novel and his others!


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A Crafter Quilts a Crime  (A Handcrafted Mystery #3)A Crafter Quilts a Crime by Holly Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley for my honest review.*

Sammy is the owner of Community Craft in Heartsford, WI and came up with a live mannequin display for the Fire & Ice event in January. Everyone seems crazy about the idea so Sammy is pleased until the second live mannequin, Wanda, dies in the window. And then Wanda's husband goes missing and someone receives a ransom note for his return. The SHEs set off to clear Ellie's husband's name and to find out what is really going on.

This was my first time reading Holly Quinn and the Handcrafted Mystery series. Since this wasn't the first in the series, I wonder if I would've found it more enjoyable if I had read from the beginning. I felt that there were things that I would've known if I had read the first books - ie who was Brenda and why is everyone acting like Detective Nash is "back?" Also, there were times where Sammy seemed to be badgering people with questions and, when the next person got a chance to speak, they wouldn't answer or wouldn't answer everything. *I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley for my honest review.*

Sammy is the owner of Community Craft in Heartsford, WI and came up with a live mannequin display for the Fire & Ice event in January. Everyone seems crazy about the idea so Sammy is pleased until the second live mannequin, Wanda, dies in the window. And then Wanda's husband goes missing and someone receives a ransom note for his return. The SHEs set off to clear Ellie's husband's name and to find out what is really going on.

This was my first time reading Holly Quinn and the Handcrafted Mystery series. Since this wasn't the first in the series, I wonder if I would've found it more enjoyable if I had read from the beginning. I felt that there were things that I would've known if I had read the first books - ie who was Brenda and why is everyone acting like Detective Nash is "back?" Also, there were times where Sammy seemed to be badgering people with questions and, when the next person got a chance to speak, they wouldn't answer or wouldn't answer everything. I'm on the fence about going back and reading the other books in the series.


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My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jules is jobless and broke and just broke up with a cheating boyfriend so staying on a friend's couch. She answers an ad that turns out to be for an apartment sitter in the Bartholomew building in NYC and thinks that it is a dream job. Getting paid to stay in such a famous building while she job hunts feels to good to be true. As she starts to meet the residents and the other apartment sitter, she learns that it may not be the dream job she was expecting. And when the other apartment sitter disappears in the middle of the night, Jules starts to look into the disappearance and all of the strange things that have been happening.

To me, this book had a different feel than Sager's last books. I did not expect the twist - I thought it was going a different way. But thinking back, it all makes sense how it was laid out. For once, it was nice for a main character to have money stress as most characters seem to have an infinite source of income while hardly working. I think it made Jules' stress a little more real and easier to connect with her.



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