Cold Wind by Paige Shelton

 

Beth Rivers moved to the small village of Benedict, Alaska, because she needed a place to hide where no one would find her, especially not the man who abducted her back in St. Louis. She can't remember much about him, but she fears he's still out there, hunting for her. But she feels safe in Alaska. Gril, the sheriff there, knows her story and keeps in touch with the police in Missouri. Beth's made a few friends in town, including Orin, the librarian, and Viola, who runs the halfway house where she rents  a room. She's even got a job putting out Benedict's newspaper, Petition. And she's writing her thrillers again. 

All is good until there's a mudslide outside of town and two young girls show up on Beth's doorstep, mute and covered in mud. No one seems to know where they belong. Then the frozen body of an unknown woman is found in a trapping shed outside of town. It looks like she's been dead for awhile, and that she didn't die of natural causes. And once again Beth finds herself involved in a murder investigation. 

I really enjoyed Paige Shelton's previous novel, Thin Ice, where I was first introduced to Beth and the town of Benedict, and I thought this second book was equally good. I liked how Beth is getting to know Alaska better and how she's fitting in with everyone in town, and I thought the two young girls were cute. (I liked their father, Tex, too.) The mystery surrounding them and the murdered woman does get a bit convoluted towards the end, and I questioned the killer's motive and some of the timing of everything, but overall I thought this was an entertaining book. And I'm looking forward to reading Shelton's next book set in Benedict, Alaska, which should come out this December. If you want to try this series, I recommend reading Thin Ice first.

Happy Reading!

Coming soon:

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme:  Books With Numbers in the Title.

I did a similar post called Reading by the Numbers a few years ago. So, this time around, I decided to go with books with numbers in the title that I've reviewed on my blog. I'm including a link to my original post of each book, so if any of these titles make you want to know more, click on the link and check them out.

Books With Numbers in the Title:

1. Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang

2. One Way by S.J. Morden

3. Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna

4. Girl 4 by Will Carver

5. Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

6. 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

7. Locker Nine by Franklin Horton

8. Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson

9. Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway

10. Escape From Camp 14 by Blaine Harden

There's a book for everyone on this list: Mystery, Suspense, End-of-the-World, Science Fiction, Action, Nonfiction, Urban Fantasy, and Romance. 

Happy Reading!

Bookish suspense...

 

Fallen is Linda Castillo's thirteenth Kate Burkholder mystery, and it's every bit as good as the twelve books that preceded it. I really enjoy this series. It's set in Painter's Mill, Ohio, a township of 5,300 people set in the heart of Amish country. Kate is the Chief of Police. She was raised Amish, but left the community when she was eighteen. Her ties to the Amish, and her understanding of their language and culture, is one of the reasons I enjoy reading these books so much. She has a close relationship with John Tomasetti, an FBI agent who sometimes helps out with her investigations.

This book begins with the brutal murder of Rachael Schwartz, another girl who was once part of Painter's Mill's Amish community. In fact, Kate used to babysit her. To have to investigate her murder now is hard for Kate. As she delves into Rachael's past, Kate discovers the once wild teenager had many secrets...and angered many people, both among the English as well as the Amish. And whoever killed Rachael is determined to keep Kate from learning the truth.

This is another solid offering from Linda Castillo. It's got good pacing, and the ending is very suspenseful. I guessed one of the twists early on, but the rest of the mystery kept me guessing. I liked this one. And I really like Kate and her small squad of police officers. Good characters and an interesting setting make this book another entertaining one by Linda Castillo. I'd give it 4 stars!

Happy Reading!

Other Kate Burkholder mysteries I've reviewed:

Gone Missing

Among the Wicked

A Gathering of Secrets

Outsider

September's Bookish Art...

 

Elizabeth Shippen Green -- The Library, 1905

"There is no greater pleasure than being surrounded by books."

--Tasha Alexander

Randomness...

 

I recently finished reading The Poet by Michael Connelly. This is the first book in Connelly's series that centers around Jack McEvoy, a news reporter who's beat is death. I could tell Connelly was writing from a lot of experience as someone who made a living writing for a newspaper for so many years because McEvoy felt very authentic. And I liked him. The case involving the supposed suicide of his brother was compelling, too. I look forward to reading the next Jack McEvoy book. (And the next Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller books, too.)

Here's my latest favorite cartoon from John Atkinson @ Wrong Hands.

Isn't this great?

It totally made me laugh.

So, I've never been a huge fan of pretzels, but I tried these Dot's Homestyle Pretzels the other day, and they are my new favorite snack! They're so yummy. And so addictive. I can't stop eating them. Which is bad. But they're just so good. 

My latest library haul:

1. Deception Cove by Owen Laukkanen

2 Return to the Center of the Earth by Greig Beck

3. Fallen by Linda Castillo

4. Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

5. A Dark Lure by Loreth Anne White

6. You're So Dead by Ash Parsons

7. The Book Collectors by Delphine Minoui

8. On Basilisk Station by David Weber

The free book I just won from Goodreads:

(Doesn't it look like a fun holiday romance?)

And my latest fun bookish tee:

Have a great week...and Happy Reading!

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

 

Reverend Jack Brooks, along with her 14-year-old daughter, Flo, just got reassigned to Chapel Croft, a remote, insular village in Sussex, England. When she gets there, Jack is surprised to learn that the previous vicar killed himself inside the church. Chapel Croft is also known for the Sussex Martyrs--eight protestants who were burned at the stake 500 years ago. And only thirty years ago, two teenage girls went missing from Chapel Croft. No one knows what happened to them, although the former vicar seems to have been looking into their disappearance.

While Jack tries to fit in to her new parish life, her daughter, Flo, is having her own troubles. She meets a lanky boy named Wrigley who she kind of likes, gets bullied by two local teens, and has a terrifying vision of one of the Sussex Martyrs burning. Is it a portent of what's to come? Jack hopes not. But there are strange things happening in the village. She just hopes it doesn't have anything to do with the old exorcism kit that someone left for her.

In The Burning Girls, C.J. Tudor weaves together a myriad of threads--past secrets, present lies, murder, an exorcism gone wrong, rumors of ghosts, and anonymous threats--into one suspenseful tapestry. I had no idea where this book was headed when I began reading it, but I was content to sit back and watch the events unfold one by one. Tudor writes so well! And she's created two very human characters in Jack and Flo. They're both unconventional and independent individuals; I really liked their mother/daughter relationship. Hints of ghosts aside, there isn't much of the supernatural in this book. It's mostly a mystery, with several good twists and turns along the way. I found it to be a very compelling read. And that ending! It blew me away. I liked how all the different pieces came together, even though I wasn't expecting half of the revelations. This was another fun buddy read with Melody. Be sure to check out her review.

Happy Reading!

Melody's questions to me about this book:

1. There's quite a few elements and layers that weave into this suspense thriller, such as the macabre history of the burnt martyrs, the disappearance case of Merry and Joy, and the apparitions that are believed to haunt the old chapel, in which not not one of these is fully explained or showed in tons in this story. Which one of these do you wish the author would write more?

I wish the author had written a little more about Merry and Joy and who they were, and about their disappearance. Especially since that story line figures so prominently at the end of the book. It would have been nice to have known a little more of their story a little sooner. 

2. In three words, sum up how you feel about this book.  Impressed, Entertained, & Satisfied.

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is supposed to be Fictional Crushes. But that really didn't work for me. So I tweaked it. Here's my list of....

Favorite Recurring Characters:

❤ Mercy and Adam

(Mercy's a coyote shapeshifter and Adam's an Alpha werewolf in Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson series--one of my all time favorite fantasy series.)

❤ Evan Smoak  (Aka Orphan X.)

What can I say? I love this series!

❤ Alex Verus

(A time mage in Benedict Jacka's awesome urban fantasy series. The last book comes out later this year and I can't wait to read it, although I'm very sad to see this series come to an end.)

❤ Mercy and Truman

(She's an FBI agent, and secret prepper, and he's the Police Chief in Eagle's Nest, Oregon, in Kendra Elliot's Mercy Kilpatrick mystery series.)

❤ John Taylor

(The man who can find anything from Simon Green's excellent Nightside series.)

❤ Mattie Cobb and her K9 police dog Robo.

(From Margaret Mizushima's Timber Creek K-9 mystery series.)

❤ Harry Potter & Co.

(By J.K. Rowling, of course.)

❤ Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage

(From Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby historical mysteries.)

These two make such a great team!

❤ Mercy & Travis and their dogs Elvis & Susie Bear

(From Paula Munier's K9 mystery series.)

 ❤ Peter Ash

(From Nicholas Petrie's adventurous and action-packed Peter Ash series.)

❤ Casey Duncan and Eric Dalton

(from Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series.)

Honorable Mention:  George Holloway!

(From Katie Ruggle's Gone Too Deep.)

Isn't it crazy how many characters named Mercy made this list?

Let me know who some of your favorite fictional characters are!

Happy Reading!