Whatever else you can say about appealing Penny, she doesn’t let romance distract her from her search for a killer....
Murder is an unintended consequence when Antiques Cymru comes to a Welsh town.
The denizens of Llanelen have been busy turning out their attics ever since they got the news that the popular TV appraisal show will come to their town. Canadian expat Penny Brannigan, who owns the local health and beauty spa, is helping to organize the event. When the great day arrives, Catrin Bellis is disappointed with the value of her quilt. Farmer Haydn Williams is amazed to find that his long-case clock, complete with half a hidden treasure map, is worth £12,000. The biggest shock comes for Florence Semble, who culled sketches from the trash when she worked at the Liverpool College of Art. Her drawings by Stuart Sutcliffe and John Lennon are assessed at £80,000. Even this excitement is soon overtaken by the discovery of Catrin Bellis dead in her home, her devalued quilt missing. Penny’s romance with DCI Gareth Davies may have faded, but he still values her opinions about crimes (Slated For Death, 2015, etc.). So when she’s out on a sketching expedition with her latest beau, art appraiser Michael Quinn, and they see a solitary woman Penny recognizes carrying the quilt, they give chase—only to get Michael injured by a careless biker. Even though she’s rumored to have been enjoying an affair, it’s hard to imagine who would kill Catrin. But Penny knows that something small was hidden in her stolen quilt and is mindful of the missing half of Haydn Williams’ treasure map. Could all these little clues add up to a reason for murder?
Whatever else you can say about appealing Penny, she doesn’t let romance distract her from her search for a killer. Information about appraisals and local color enhance the story’s charm but fail to make it very mysterious.Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-07423-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Like a popcorn action flick: fun but lacking in substance.
Two wolf shifters must catch a criminal in the midst of hazardous winter weather: Action, adventure, and romance kick off a new series by Spear (Falling for the Cougar, 2019, etc.).
Private Investigator Nicole Grayson has an edge that some of her colleagues don’t. She’s a gray wolf shifter, and her heightened sense of smell makes for excellent tracking abilities. When her latest assignment, investigating a fraudulent life insurance claim, leads her to an isolated ski lodge inhabited by a group of shifter brothers, Nicole realizes that this particular mission is different. Blake Wolff has finally found peace and quiet, as he and his brothers have turned their land into a sanctuary for wolf shifters like themselves. When Nicole turns up at the lodge, sniffing around and looking for answers, Blake volunteers to help. The sooner she wraps up her investigation, the sooner Blake can return to maintaining the calm community the Wolff siblings have built. The suspense never fully delivers despite the setup of dangerous situations and the characters’ ability to shift into wolves. Of course, the bad guys get caught and the good guys prevail, but the stakes never seem terribly high. With corny, on-the-nose details such as having Wolff and Grayson as surnames for gray wolf shifters, it's hard to tell if Spear is in on the joke or if some things sounded better in theory than reality. The brightest spot here, as in most of Spears’ books, is her dedication to writing strong heroines with interesting professions, and Nicole fits perfectly into that box. She’s capable, competent, and a force to be reckoned with in a difficult situation. Blake is happy to let her take the lead without any egos getting in the way, which is something all readers will appreciate.
Like a popcorn action flick: fun but lacking in substance.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4926-9775-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As tangled and turbulent as the hero’s nightmares, and that’s saying quite a bit.
Having survived his tempestuous debut, P.T. Marsh, of Georgia's Mason Falls Police Department, is back for more—including some residue from that first case that just won’t go away.
Dispatched like an errand boy to wealthy real estate mogul Ennis Fultz’s home to find out why he hasn’t joined his bridge buddies, Mayor Stems and interim police chief Jeff Pernacek, for their monthly game, Marsh and his partner, Remy Morgan, find Fultz dead in his bed. It turns out that his passing, devoutly longed for by so many of the people he’d crushed or outwitted on his way to the top, was helped along by the strategic dose of nitrogen somebody substituted for the oxygen he inhaled regularly, especially when he was expecting particular demands on his virility. Marsh and Morgan quickly focus on two candidates who might have made those demands: Suzy Kang, a recent visitor who was so eager to cover any traces that she’d been to Fultz’s house that she sold the car she’d driven there, and Connie Fultz, the victim’s ex-wife and perhaps his current lover, who acidly swats them away and tells them: “Look for some little gal who’s into bondage.” McMahon excels in sweating the procedural details of the investigation, which take the partners from a search for Suzy Kang and that missing car to a not-so-accidental car crash that’s evidently targeted a young girl who has no idea she’s implicated in the case. But he’s set his sights higher, taking in everything from a civil suit the relatives of the perp Marsh shot in The Good Detective (2019) have launched against him to a possible conspiracy behind the deaths of his deeply grieved wife and son, all of it larded with Georgia attitude and truisms, a few of which rise to eloquence (“I wasn’t good at faith. I was good at proof”).
As tangled and turbulent as the hero’s nightmares, and that’s saying quite a bit.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-53556-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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