“SCENT OF MURDER”     by   Virginia Smith

Book Review #31

This book is a romantic suspense novel.


Main Characters:
Caitlin Saylor, flute teacher and part of a musical trio
Chase Hollister, candle factory owner

Jazzy and Liz are getting married, the musical trio is breaking up and moving away from each other, and...Caitlin’s boyfriend has left her. Everything is changing and Caitlin doesn’t like it one bit! The group’s last gig is another wedding in Nashville, Indiana. Caitlin decides to take a little vacation and heads for Nashville alone several days before Jazzy and Liz can get there.

On her way into Nashville, she sees a sign for a tour at a candle factory. Thinking this might lift her spirits, she turns in. Here she meets Chase Hollister, the handsome and charming candle factory owner. Although Caitlin has sworn to not date for 365 days (so that anyone she finds attractive will not become a rebound romance), she is immediately drawn to Chase. He has the same reaction to her.

After the tour, Chase gives Caitlin the gift of a very special candle. But there's something more to the candle than Caitlin or Chase suspect...something that puts Caitlin in danger. In order to save Caitlin, Chase must face a haunting crime from his past--and a deadly killer in the present.

This is an very interesting book with a very different plot. Even though I did figure out the killer before the end, I had to work at it! You’ll like this one.

Book Review #30 “J” is for JUDGMENT” by Sue Grafton

Main Character: PI Kinsey Millhone

Financier Wendell Jaffe has recently been declared dead, five years after his Real Estate Ponce scheme collapsed and he disappeared from his beloved 35-foot ketch off the coast, an apparent suicide. California Fidelity has just paid his widow $500,000. But then Jaffe is spotted in Mexico with another woman. Kinsey's investigation lands her in some tough spots--such as a drunken stranger's hotel room where she pretends to be a hooker. It gets her shot at and, finally, leads to a dramatic resolution at sea.

It also introduces her to a genealogist who requires Kinsey to revise her belief that she is an orphan and alone in the world. You will still see familiar characters such as, Kinsey's octogenarian landlord Henry, his older brother, William, and Rose, the neighborhood bar owner, but, not as much as usual. The spotlight remains on Kinsey who, without a love interest to distract her, sticks to the case at hand and tries, with limited success, to assimilate the existence of a not to distant family she didn’t even know existed before this.

A Library reviewer thinks “many readers are likely to feel as if all the bits and pieces of the confusing, meandering plot never quite come together”.
I agree. It’s not one of Grafton’s best books with Kinsey Millhone. Fans will read it anyway! I did!

"A TASTE OF MURDER"   by  Virginia Smith

Review #29

Main Characters: Jasmine Delaney and Derrick Rogers
Romantic suspense novel

Jasmine Delaney and her two friends come to Waynesboro, Kentucky to provide the string ensemble for a wedding…right in the middle of the Kentucky Bar-B-Q Festival!
When they check into the hotel, Jazzy finds a body, covered with Bar-B-Q sauce, in the bathtub. The body belongs to DJ Josh Kirkland who was scheduled to be one of the judges in a beauty pageant at the Festival.

In rapid succession, Jazzy meets the bride’s handsome brother, Derrick Rogers, she and her friends are drafted to participate in the judging of several Festival events, and she becomes a potential target of a murderer. Derrick fears Jazzy is the killer's next victim and promises to keep a close eye on her…too close sometimes for this very independent soul! There is an electrical attraction between Jazzy and Derrick that she keeps denying because she believes he is ‘not her type’.

All’s well that ends well and this one does, with a surprise ending!

Another good book by Ginny!

KISSER      by Stuart Woods



Review #28
Main Character: Stone Barrington, ex-cop, software creator, attorney and private investigator.

Stone Barrington has never wanted for female company, but it appears that he suddenly has more than usual: #1 aspiring actress, Carrie Cox, who recently moved from Georgia to New York City and is being pursued by her ex-husband who is mad about the enormous divorce settlement she got from him, #2 art gallery assistant Rita Gammage, #3 U.S. attorney Tiffany Baldwin, and #4 mentally unstable Dolce Bianci, to whom he was once, briefly, married.

A wealthy gallery owner, Philip Parsons, wants Stone to find a way to separate his daughter from her disreputable artist boyfriend, Derek. When Stone learns that Derek is not only a swindler but also a drug dealer, he is drawn into an elaborate police sting operation, and into bed with #5 undercover officer, Mitzi Reynolds.

In spite of all the female attentions, Barrington manages to shield Carrie from her ex-husband, protect young heiress, Hilly Parsons, from a con artist/drug dealer, and plot to take down Pansy scammer, Sag Larsen.

Barrington does not sail unscathed through encounters with women or criminals. There are plenty of snarls to provoke laughs and keep the action interesting in a series that excels at playing out male fantasies

There is language you might find objectionable and Barrington’s bedroom antics are a little over the top this time around but, readers looking for a fun, breezy page-turner will not be disappointed, and longtime fans of the series will have their curiosity piqued by Dolce's return.

DETECTIVE  by   Arthur Hailey


Review #27
Main Character: Detective Malcolm Ainslie

Miami Police Department Detective Malcolm Ainslie is almost out the bureau door when he takes one last call. It's the chaplain at Raiford Prison. Elroy Doil, a convicted serial killer awaiting execution, wants Ainslie, a former Catholic priest, to hear his final confession. Doil admits to another 10 murders, but he insists he didn't kill City Commissioner Gustav Ernst and his wife. In spite of Doil's obvious madness, Ainslie believes him and sets about to answer the obvious question: If not Doil, who? The investigation has to start with surviving daughter, Cynthia Ernst, Ainslie's former lover and now a Commissioner herself.

This thriller sweeps readers into a series of gory murders of older married couples in south Florida, the twisted mind of the killer, the intramural politics of the Miami PD and the truly horrible childhood abuse of a major character. Along the way, Hailey finds time for ample musing on the death penalty, Catholicism and the grand jury system

It has been many years since I read an Arthur Hailey novel. I thought I had read them all…The Evening News, Airport, Hotel, Final Diagnosis, Wheels, The Moneychanger, etc. However, while trolling through the library web site, I found a couple I had not read. This is one of them. Hailey is as wonderful a writer as he ever was. You will enjoy this book!

THE GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD
 Review #26

THE HISTORY CHANNEL asked Rick Beyer to create a series of “history minutes” marking the millennium. The stories in this book are out shoots of that request. Some originally appeared on THE HISTORY CHANNEL, some did not.

I have been reading this book for the past 6 months…over and over and over. My memory is such that I tend to forget things…so I had to go back and read them again and again! I love this book!

The Greatest Stories Never Told consists of 100-2 page tales about little known facts in history!

I am at a lose for words so…I am including the first paragraph of the book here.

“History is filled with unpredictable people and unbelievable stories. Consider: The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth because they ran out of beer. Annie Oakley almost shot Kaiser Wilhelm before World War I. Three cigars changed the course of the Civil War. The stethoscope was invented by a modest French doctor reluctant to put his ear to a female patient’s bosom. An Italian priest perfected the first practical fax machine in 1863. Teddy Roosevelt is the father of football’s forward pass. And, believe it or not, actress Hedy Lamarr not only appeared in the movies’ first nude scene, but also, later, patented an idea that formed the basis for cell phone encryption.”

If that doesn’t make you want to read this book….nothing ever will!

I was unable to find this book in the library but, amazon.com has them priced from $14.00 to used books for $4.00.

Rick Beyer also wrote:

The Greatest War Stories Never Told

The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told

The Greatest Science Stories Never Told

DIRT  by Stuart Woods


Review #25
Main Character: Stone Barrington, ex-cop, attorney, seeker of bad guys.

Stone Barrington, the suave ex-cop-attorney-hero gets involved in a blackmail scheme involving Amanda Dart, a much-feared, nationally syndicated gossip columnist. After Amanda is photographed in bed in a Manhattan hotel with a married real-estate magnate, a fax headlined "DIRT" and presenting both the photo and details of Amanda's tryst is sent to a weighty list of prominent people and major media outlets.

The DIRT fax-web quickly expands to snare the gay but closeted editor of a sleazy L.A. tabloid. When Stone is hired by Amanda to sniff out who's spilling the beans about these jealously guarded privacies, one of his operatives, a retired N.Y.C. cop, is murdered. The intrigue deepens when one of the suspects is identified as closely resembling a male model in a Vanity Fair cologne ad.

This is the usual good mystery for which Stuart Woods is known. However, I found more sex scenes and bad language than is usual in his books. It’s still a good twisty mystery and you can always skip over any objectionable contents you don't want to read.