As Good As Dead – Holly Jackson ★★★★★

April 26, 2023April 26, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; The finale to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series. By the end of this mystery series, you’ll never think of good girls the same way again…

Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?

Soon the threats escalate and Pip realizes that someone is following her in real life. When she starts to find connections between her stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, she wonders if maybe the wrong man is behind bars.

Police refuse to act, so Pip has only one choice: find the suspect herself—or be the next victim. As the deadly game plays out, Pip discovers that everything in her small town is coming full circle… and if she doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears…

My Review; I have loved every book in this trilogy, but this has to be the best book out of the lot. Oh. My. God. This was such a fast-paced, suspense filled read. The fact that our main character faces death herself in this book just shocked me and made this book as good as it was. A story that will be hard to forget. It’s a jaw-dropping, heart-pounding read that finished this trilogy perfectly. It shows just how clever our main character is and determined until the end. Highly recommend. Brilliant author. Brilliant story. A well-deserved five stars from me.

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crime · Detective · mystery

Finlay Donovan Junps the Gun – Elle Cosimano ★★★

March 28, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she’s a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had “borrowed” in the process of saving the life of Finlay’s ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen’s police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay’s looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob’s clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero’s past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

My review; I feel really bad having to give this three stars as I loved books one and two, which I co read with Mel from Melanie’s Reads on all these books. We both felt the first two books were miles better than this one. This story for me was more comedy at first and actually made me laugh. It does get good towards the end by but then it’s too late. I still enjoyed the story, but I think after books 1 and 2, I expected so much more from this book. Little disappointed but still enjoyed it. Three stars from me.

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crime · Detective · Killers · mystery · suspense

BLOG TOUR Her Secret Past – Kerry Watts ★★★★

January 22, 2023January 18, 2023 bookclubbetweenthepagesLeave a comment

Blurb; Jean Angus pours the last of the lukewarm tea into her chipped cup, shivering as she looks outside into the dark night. Her eyes are drawn to a slow movement not far from her cosy farmhouse. She’s not expecting visitors. And as the back door opens with a bang, she doesn’t even have time to shout for help.

On a dark winter night, the bodies of Malcolm and Jean Angus lie cold and still in a pool of blood in their kitchen. Detective Jessie Blake is called in to find out what happened to the reclusive pair.

Searching the couple’s property, Jessie learns about a vicious dispute with a nearby landowner, Rachel Ferguson, and when Jessie looks into Rachel further, she doesn’t expect what comes up. Rachel isn’t the person everyone thinks she is and a previous murder conviction just made her Jessie’s prime suspect.

The small Perthshire town begins to gossip about the double murder and Jessie’s own past comes back to haunt her when her abusive ex-husband begins to interfere in her new life. As the town starts a witch hunt against Rachel, Jessie is under pressure to find out what really happened in the farmhouse that night. Because if it isn’t Rachel, then who is the murderer living among them, waiting to kill again?

My Review; This is book three in a series, but it reads perfectly fine as a standalone. It took me a while to get into this one as it flicks between the past and the present (two separate cases, but very similar). This is a who dunnit and race against time to stop the killer. I loved the main detective, Jessie, who is dealing with her own problems while investigating. It is a story packed with twists, turns, and suspense. I honestly thought I’d guessed the plot, but I was so wrong. A jaw dropping ending. I enjoyed reading this. A well-deserved four stars from me. Would recommend the series as a whole.

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