#mysteryread

[the-page-ladies]

Book Review…Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton Elise was a successful detective before a medical leave left her unsure if she would return. Now she spends most of her days watching the tensions grow in the seaside town of Ebbing. The weekenders are renovating the old homes & the locals do not like the changes. Everything comes to a head when a newcomer wants to have a giant music festival that will put the town on the map & two teenagers overdose. When a man disappears the first night of the festival it draws Elise back to work. But Ebbing is a town full of secrets & connections that run deeper & darker than Elise could have ever imagined. This was an intriguing mystery. When it first starts it seems like a straightforward mystery but when the lies, connections & twists come it becomes very complex. It's told from multiple points of views & the timeline moves from past to present. But the moving timeline just gives you a clearer picture of everyone involved. It has a lot of parts & a lot of characters but the author brings it together nicely. I like Elise's character. She's intelligent, strong & determined. & her neighbor Ronnie was a lot of fun. She added some humor to the story. The pace is one that speeds up as everything starts happening & coming together which leads to a satisfying ending! Meet the Author Fiona Barton's debut, The Widow, was a Sunday Times & New York Times bestseller & has been published in 36 countries & optioned for television. Born in Cambridge, Fiona currently lives in Sussex & south-west France. While working as a journalist, Fiona reported on many high-profile criminal cases & she developed a fascination with watching those involved, their body language & verbal tics. Fiona interviewed people at the heart of these crimes, from the guilty to their families, as well as those on the periphery & found it was those just outside the spotlight who interested her most #FionaBarton #LocalGoneMissing #mysteryread #books #read #booklover #RandomThingsTours #bookreview #berkleypub #booktours #reader #detectivestory #penguinrandomhouse #booksy #bookish #bookrecommendation #bookstagram #instabooks #instareads #readstagrammer https://www.instagram.com/p/CeyT0HDptIL/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[the-page-ladies]

When best-laid plans go awry… Hunter and Meera’s romantic plans come to an abrupt end when they stumble into the scene of a crime. A young woman was attacked in a hotel lift. She has traumatic injuries, but she clings to life. Hunter notes that her wounds are like those inflicted on two other women, who died from their ordeal. Can Meera keep the injured woman alive long enough for her to identify the assailant? Is the same person responsible for all three crimes? When Hunter is identified as a suspect, can he establish his innocence and lead his team to solve the crime and keep Edinburgh safe Hunter's Rules by Val Penny Release Date 1/1/21 by Darkstroke Books Crime – police procedural With the action and Hunter's personality this made for a great read for a Sunday afternoon! Hunter really is an awesome main character! I don't think there will be many people who read this book and not like him! The writing in this book is really good! This is the first book I have read of this series but I didn't feel like I was missing anything! But I look forward to reading more from this series! Thank you Rachel's Random Resources and Val Penny for sharing this book with me and for having me on the tour! #books #booktour #bookreview #bookrec #mysteryread #rachelsrandomresources #authorvalpenny #booklover #booknerd #lovetoread #igreads #igbooks #read #reader #booksbooksbooks #booktours #bookrecommendation #bookstagrammer #readersofig #huntersrulesbooktour https://www.instagram.com/p/CYzAAuKNz6F/?utm_medium=tumblr

[chairtoanywhere-blog]

Reunion by Hannah Pittard

Sometimes it's really liberating to go to the library and check out a book you know nothing about. It helps you explore new genre’s, meet interesting new characters, discover new authors, and can break up a reading slump. That's what I did with Reunion by Hannah Pittard. I didn't read the synopsis on the dust jacket (I bet that if I had, I would have put it right back down again). There is only one rule to this experiment - Finish the book no matter what. Simple, but with the potential to be quite challenging.

I knew I was in for a challenge of epic proportions when, in the first few pages, the main character, Kate, learns via a voice mail message from her brother that her estranged father killed himself and she inadvertently plays it for her fellow passengers stuck on a grounded airplane. Oh, and her marriage is falling apart due to her own infidelity. Also, she's ridiculously deep in debt. So right from the beginning you know this isn't going to be a "feel good" book.

The story plays out over the course of a few days. Kate maintains that she feels nothing for her father and she can't understand her older siblings’ grief for the man that they had so thoroughly cut out of their lives. They fly to their hometown and have a funeral and reunion of sorts with all of their odious step mothers and half siblings, of which there are many -- I didn't bother counting.

A lot of the story is devoted to Kate's reflections of herself, the lies she's told, and the secrets she's keeping. She's a compulsive liar so talented that she doesn't even realize that she's been lying to herself. By the end of the book it becomes clear that she still hasn't figured this out. She's also inappropriately competitive (for sympathy, for love). This turns out to be a family problem when, at their father’s funeral, one of her younger half siblings proclaims to another half sibling "Daddy loved me best."

All in all Kate is not an easy character to like or love, which might be a blessing in disguise because her theory of love leaves much to be desired. "Falling in love means being able to be the worst you and getting away with it." If love isn't an impetus for Kate to try to be the best her she can be, you have to wonder what would ever make her try to be a better person, a person more worthy of love.

All this self reflection made me feel that somewhere down the line Kate would have an epiphany, where she's shoveled all the bullshit aside and she can see herself more clearly. But after all that build up the epiphany moment never comes. Which, while realistic, isn't a very satisfying story element.

Side Note: Reunion introduced me to a new word, a word that I now loathe: mawkish. Hate it. It turned up way too often in Pittard's prose. That might just be the strongest reaction the story got out of me.