City of Betrayal by Victoria Thompson

City of Betrayal
by Victoria Thompson

ISBN-13: 9780593440605
Hardback: 320 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Released: December 5, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
A year has passed since Elizabeth Bates ran her last con. Life has been simpler, although not nearly as exciting, but she has thrown herself into working to get the 19th Amendment ratified by thirty-six states to become the law of the land. Since every other Southern state has already rejected the amendment, it seems unlikely Tennessee will be an exception . . . but it's their only hope, so the suffragists descend on Tennessee for the final battle.

Elizabeth’s ability to interact with difficult men and to persuasively explain all the advantages of allowing women to vote—all skills she perfected as a grifter—have made her a valuable member of the team. But she would never have expected the lengths to which some would go to keep the vote out of women's hands.


My Review:
City of Betrayal is a historical set in August 1920 in Tennessee. This is the 7th book in the series. While you don't need to read the previous books to understand this one, the author did assume the reader had some familiarity with the main characters. So, there was no con. Elizabeth's father was working a relatively uncomplicated con in the background. It's mostly where she sent the names of anti-suffrage legislators to get some level of revenge since she had no time to participate in a con. I do hope that we get back to the cons in the future, though this was plenty suspenseful to make an exciting story.

The historical details were woven into the story to create a vivid sense of the specific time and place and brought the story alive in my imagination. Elizabeth, Gideon, and his mother joined the suffragists in Tennessee, thinking the vote would be over in a few days. But the battle to sway the votes stretched on for days and nights. Knowing cons, they were able to spot and stop a lot of the underhanded tactics used by the anti's. I was immersed in the story, uncertain of winning the vote and worried that yet another pledged "for" legislator would betray the suffragists. If you don't already know the details, don't look them up, just read this book.

There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this educational and suspenseful historical novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

A Twisted Skein by Sally Goldenbaum

A Twisted Skein
by Sally Goldenbaum

ISBN-13: 9781496729439
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Kensington Books
Released: Nov. 28, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Izzy Perry’s Sea Harbor Yarn Studio is heating up, thanks to an upcoming fashion benefit. The show will feature hand-knit garments, and enthusiastic knitters flock to the shop for supplies to create runway-worthy pieces. Yet Seaside Knitter Birdie is enjoying flocks of a different kind, thanks to a rekindled interest in birdwatching, a hobby she enjoyed with her late husband. Along with a small group of passionate birders, she often spends weekend mornings looking for warblers, or keeping watch for gannets and grebes. It’s a lovely, special time—until Birdie stumbles upon a fellow birder’s body.

At first, it appears to be an accidental fall, but an autopsy soon reveals that the victim died before hitting a granite boulder. When police discover a clue linking the victim to one of the Seaside Knitters, the web of suspicion grows. Before the knitters have cast off the final rows on their runway projects, they’ll have to unravel secrets and ties strong enough to bind friends and neighbors together.


My Review:
A Twisted Skein is supposedly a cozy mystery. At least in the Advanced Reader Copy, the mystery was never fully explained. It's the 17th novel in a series, but you can understand this story without reading the previous books.

There was so much that was never explained, like how the victim died. We're simply told that he was murdered. Near the end, they finally started asking people relevant questions, like who knew about the secret place where the murder happened and who might have known or guessed the victim would be there. But anything important that they learned wasn't told to the reader so that everyone in the story knew whodunit while the reader was left in the dark until after the arrest was made. And we never learn some of the 'hidden from the reader' things like the name of the mysterious hiker, which shocked our detectives.

Whodunit confessed to motive in general terms, but we never learned details about how (especially how someone could murder a healthy, relatively young man when whodunit must have made noise getting to the secret spot). So many details were glossed over, like how someone could so easily commit a series of financial crimes or what happened to the kid who was arrested.

Much of the story was knitting filler and about how the murder impacted the community. Though why people were terrified about possibly being the next victim baffles me since everyone knew it was a targeted killing, not a random one. The main characters got to know every detail about the victim's life, finding many people with possible motives. Then they simply dismissed many of them because they didn't feel like this person was lying and that person would have known they'd be a suspect, so of course they wouldn't do it. Hmm.

There was no sex or bad language. I'd recommend this book to fans of the characters--what's next in their lives?--but not mystery lovers.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

That Others May Live by Sara Driscoll

That Others May Live
by Sara Driscoll

ISBN-13: 9780593197882
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Kensington Books
Released: November 28, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
There are situations that fill even the most seasoned FBI K-9 handlers with shock and horror. Meg Jennings is preparing for another work day when she gets words of a catastrophic scene in downtown Washington, D.C. Part of a twelve-story condo building has collapsed, and the rest of the structure could soon follow. Every search-and-rescue worker and K-9 team is needed on-site immediately to find survivors—and assess the casualties.

Putting aside her fears for her firefighter fiancé, who’s already inside the unstable building, Meg turns to the task at hand. If anyone is still alive within the rubble, she and Hawk, working alongside other K-9 teams, must find them. Every hour, every moment counts—and a wrong move could trigger a deadly chain reaction for those buried beneath. But beyond the present danger is a deeper threat, as evidence indicates that this wasn’t a random tragedy, but an act of domestic terrorism.


My Review:
That Others May Live is a K9 suspense. This book is the 8th in a series, but it works as a stand-alone. The author wanted to write about what rescue personal go through when working a horrific building collapse. Most of the story involved Meg and the K9 team searching the fallen building wreckage while Todd, the firefighter/paramedic, first worked with those clearing what remained standing. While this was interesting, the building fell in a way that few people could survive and many of the remains were only identifiable through DNA (and it didn't get any more graphic than that). It's nitty-gritty depressing.

Their journalist friend and others at his newspaper gathered information about why the building might have fallen--bad design? terrorism? The last third of the story was uncovering what happened and the arrest of the bad guys. It felt to me like the author got her collapsed building research down, started writing the book, then couldn't figure out a good reason why someone would destroy a luxury apartment building full of people. So she went with: the bad guys were gullible, illogical, and believed a lie (which, however unlikely, wasn't actually proven to be a lie). There was no point in trying to understand their motive because it made no sense to logical, sensible types.

I was shocked when one of the FBI boss characters went so far as to say he hated conspiracy theorists, implying that anyone who believed one is illogical and potentially dangerous. Oh, so it's somehow logical to group together and vilify people with a wide variety of beliefs and personalities? And Meg's fiancé jumped from 'I know a fellow firefighter who's gullible' to actively considering if that person might have been the terrorist. Hmm. Being gullible usually makes one a victim, not a violent murderer.

Anyway, the main characters were generally likable, interesting, and reacted realistically to events. The high suspense came from the danger to everyone working the building collapse site. There was some bad language. There were no sex scenes.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Undercover Christmas Escape by Terri Reed

Undercover Christmas Escape
by Terri Reed

ISBN-13: 9781335597755
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense
Released: November 28, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
The assignment was infiltrate an office Christmas party and gather information to take down a drug cartel. However, DEA agent Duncan O’Brien and deputy US marshal Sera Morales encounter more than they were expecting when masked thieves crash their undercover operation and abduct Sera, who narrowly escapes. Can Duncan and Sera work together, despite their competitiveness and hidden attraction, to capture a merciless drug lord?


My Review:
Undercover Christmas Escape is a romantic suspense. While Sera and Duncan managed to survive, I saw no evidence that they or their team was actually competent. Their main goal was to capture a drug lord, so Sera had a tracking device to slip onto this man when he visited a party. Another criminal crashed the party instead, and they want him, too. Sera put the tracker on her sister, who was a member of this crime gang who stole something the drug lord wanted. You'd think this tracker would be followed by multiple sources as it's so important, but, no, only by a handheld tracker, which Sera stole when setting off on her own. On multiple occasions, this elite team knew where one or both of the bad guys were going, but instead of calling in others and capturing the bad guys, somehow they always ended up outnumbered and on the run. Each top bad guy apparently handled his own crimes personally and showed up repeatedly with their 2-3 favorite bodyguards. They knew the odds and had many opportunities, but, no.

So many smaller details were odd, too. Sera used a sharp knife to remove a long sleeve sweater to expose a wound (hard not to cut someone that way!) when she was in a fully furnished house with a first aid kit at her side. Why not use scissors? At one point, she put the tracker on herself and accidently left the device showing her location behind in plain sight of the bad guys, but she never once wondered if that might be why the bad guys always knew exactly where she was. The bad guys initially wore masks but then used their actual names when talking to each other during the crime. And so on.

Sera was very impulsive with a high risk tolerance. Duncan was normally a careful planner but felt it was up to him to keep her from getting killed. She didn't want help, yet Duncan kept forcing her to accept his leadership. Sera's irritated that he's always right. Neither had time for relationships. Yet suddenly both decided they're madly in love with each other. Hmm. I just don't see Sera putting up with Mr. Knight to the Rescue for very long as she didn't like the role of damsel in distress.

Both Sera and Duncan were Christians and prayed for help. There was no sex or bad language. It may have been exciting, but this whole story just didn't work for me.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Dead Hand by Judith Cutler

The Dead Hand
by Judith Cutler

ISBN-13: 9781448311323
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Severn House
Released: November 7, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
June 1861, Victorian England. Housekeeper Harriet Rowsley and her husband and interim estate manager Matthew act as the hosts while his lordship is ill and the trustees are seeking for his heir. A house full of academics should imply calm and quiet, but much to housekeeper Harriet's dismay some of the guests at Thorncroft House have problems with the estate's unconventional practices. But Harriet won't let their patronising opinions get in the way of running the household as it was entrusted to her. She and her husband seem to have things under control until a series of dangerous accidents occur around them and then a worker is found murdered. With a house now full of suspects, Harriet and Matthew have to find out who is causing chaos and why.


My Review:
The Dead Hand is a mystery set in 1861 in England. It's the third book in a series, but it works as a standalone and didn't spoil the previous mysteries. The police did the investigating, solved the mystery, and explained the solution after arresting the culprits. Matthew and Harriet told the police about any clues that they found and that others told them about. While they had strong suspicions of wrong-doing, they were too busy to actively investigate beyond making a few suggestions. It was a clue-based mystery, and whodunit was guessable. Yet some characters did things that didn't quite make sense or seem fully realistic to me, not to mention the number of people that easily got positions where they could do mischief.

The characters were varied, engaging, and reacted realistically to events. The historical details were woven into the story and brought the setting and time period alive in my imagination. There were no sex scenes. There were a few uses of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting historical novel with a mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries

The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries

ISBN-13: 9780143137535
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Released: November 21, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Writer and anthologist Michael Sims sought the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and little-known gems by writers from outside the genre. This historical tour of one of our most popular literary categories includes stories never before reprinted, features rebellious early “lady detectives," and spotlights former stars of the crime field—Austrian novelist Auguste Groner and prolific American Geraldine Bonner among them.


My Review:
The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries is a collection of 13 short stories about murder and attempted murder. The stories were written from the early 1800s to early 1900s, mostly set in England. The Introduction was an odd, rambling treatise that went on for 4% of the book, and I'd recommend skipping it. Some of the author bios were nearly as long as their story, and the stories were so short that none were puzzle mysteries.

Only about 5 stories really fit the genre of "murder mystery," with actual crime-solving, clues, and justice. Several of the stories didn't have a murdered victim. Only a few had a detective (amateur or professional), and even those stories were usually solved by a chance happening. Sometimes the criminal was not found or wasn't arrested. Once, there wasn't even a crime, just a mystery solved by chance (though I do like that one and have read it before).

Some stories seemed more about ethics than justice. For example, an innocent man committed suicide because he couldn't prove he didn't murder someone. Another story talked about the ethics of providing a confessed murderer what he needed to commit suicide. Overall, this collection wasn't really what I expected from the title and I didn't really care for it. There were only a few uses of bad language. There was no sex.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Murder at the Highland Castle by Helena Dixon

Murder at the Highland Castle
by Helena Dixon

ISBN-13: 9781837900633
ebook: 238 pages
Publisher: Bookouture
Released: Nov. 17, 2023

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Winter, 1935. Lightly dusted with snow and nestled on the edge of a sweeping Scottish loch, Finnglach Castle looks positively magical. Kitty Underhay, her husband Matt and their beloved dog Bertie have been invited to celebrate the new year with a Hogmanay party. A spiritual medium at the party warns of danger to their host, Lord Barlas. Shortly after midnight, a shot rings out across the grounds. Lord Barlas has been murdered, the gun is missing, and few have an alibi. With the snow-covered castle completely cut off, and a killer in their midst, Kitty and Matt need to work fast to find the culprit before someone else ends up as dead. Can she, Matt and Bertie sniff out the treacherous culprit in time for haggis and whisky or will they find themselves skating on dangerously thin ice?


My Review:
Murder at the Highland Castle is a mystery set in 1935 in Scotland. This is the 14th book in the series. You can understand it without reading the previous stories, and it didn't spoil any of the previous mysteries.

Kitty and Matt were asked to attend the party, posing as distant relatives, in hopes that they could determine who's sending Lord Barlas threatening notes and causing near-fatal "accidents." They discreetly asked questions and observed the other guests. This was a clue-based mystery. I had whodunit narrowed down to two people before whodunit tried to kill someone at the end and confessed. I'm not sure there were enough clues to be certain before then, though one did seem more likely than the other. Kitty and Matt were likable characters with an interesting setting and mystery. There was no bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.