BOOK REVIEW: Deadly Inheritance by Suzanne Rossi

Review by Ryder Islington, author of ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine Mystery

Take a romance, and wrap it in a cozy and you get Deadly Inheritance by Suzanne Rossi. This is one of those fun books, well, if murder can be fun, about a struggling actress who gets great news: she’s inherited a Caribbean Island estate.  Wooo-hooo! But then comes the bad news: there are terms, conditions, irate relatives. And then, murder. Not to mention a hunky lawyer in charge of the will.

Suzanne is excellent at creating characters who live and breathe. There are some to love, and some to hate, and some who just make you want to scream. She’s also great at plunking the reader right down into the scene, allowing you to enjoy the beauty of the island, the smell of the water, and the drama happening before your eyes. Overall, I’d rate this at the top of the list for cozies.

I’d recommend this book for all mystery lovers, as well as those who love romance. And I’ll be looking for Suzanne Rossi’s other books, including A TANGLED WEB and NEARLY DEPARTED.

Here’s a look at the cover, an a short blurb from the author.

When aspiring actress Liza Channing inherits a Caribbean island estate, she’s sure it will solve her money problems. All she has to do is follow the terms of the will and deal with a few resentful relatives–no problem. But falling for the family attorney wasn’t part of her calculations. Especially when she learns he’s not quite what he seems.

Stephen Albright planned to keep his distance from the new heiress, but soon finds himself drwn to her. When she askes for advice, he can’t refuse. But it quickly becomes apparent Liza needs more than legal help. Somebody wants her dead.

 

 

 

 

AUTHOR BIO:

I was born in Indianapolis and raised in the suburb of Carmel, Indiana. I’ve also had the pleasure of living in St. Louis, Missouri; Rockford, Illinois; and Memphis, Tennessee. Currently, I call Ft. Lauderdale, Florida home where I reside with my husband and two lively dogs.

In between books, I love to travel, especially to see my two sons, their wives, and my six grandchildren.

I love writing and hope readers enjoy the adventures of my fantasy world as much as I enjoy creating them. As an author of romantic suspense, I’m always looking for a new way to “bump off” a character, so if anyone has an unusual idea, let me know. I love going out of the box and bending the rules.

 

 

 

BOOK REVIEW: Where Danger Hides by Terry Odell

Review By Ryder Islington, author of ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine Mystery I’ve been wanting to post this review for a long time. I began reading WHERE DANGER HIDES earlier in the year, but a message from my publisher about a major revision put my reading for pleasure on hold. Finally, I sent my revision off and had an opportunity to finish reading this book–and let me tell you, it was torture to have to stop reading for six weeks and not even peek at the next page! One thing is sure: Terry Odell knows how to pull you into a plot, and how to create real people for her stories. I’m in madly in love with Dalton. He’s cute, and funny, and smart, and baaaaad. I can hear his Texas accent as I read.  And I wouldn’t mind being as smart and sassy as Miri. I must, absolutely must, read the rest of this series, and I recommend it to anyone who likes adventure, mystery, romance, intrigue, suspense…well…you get the picture. If you like to read, you’ll love Where Danger Hides. Take a look at the cover, and read the back cover blurb. And further down you’ll find Terry Odell’s bio.

Hiding behind the public façade of a private investigation firm-Blackthorne, Incorporated-are a band of elite covert operatives Dalton (just Dalton–nobody dares call him Ambrose), is one of Blackthorne’s best. A charming Texan, he prides himself on blending in, and there’s no one he can’t scam. But his obsession with putting a Colombian drug lord out of the picture threatens to endanger his life and the lives of his team. When Dalton nearly blows a simple undercover assignment at a fundraising gala, it convinces his boss to tether him to a dog-and-pony-show case at a halfway house. Instead, Dalton finds death, drugs, and danger. Street-smart Miri Chambers wants nothing more than to help everyone at the Galloway House shelter lead new and productive lives, but residents are disappearing without a trace. An unexpected meeting with Dalton at a gala turns into an assignment for him, but Miri doesn’t think he’s taking the job seriously. Trust doesn’t come easy to Miri. When the situation escalates into a combat zone, can she trust Dalton with her life?

You can find Terry Odell at terryodell.com and her books are available at Amazon.com as well as brick-and-mortar bookstores everywhere.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, a rare native for many years. I graduated from UCLA, and worked in the LA County secondary school system, teaching junior high school science, until we moved to Florida. I can’t remember learning to read, only that I always did. My parents tell people they had to move from our first home because I finished the library. Learning to write is another story. In some ways, I’ve always been a writer—I just never put the words on paper. Most of my ideas were based on books or television shows or movies I thought I could “improve” with my own plot or character changes. But my ‘real’ writing was usually more technical. I wrote curriculum or training manuals. I discovered fan fiction, which was a great training ground once I decided I could handle all the boring typing mechanics. Writing dialogue with all those commas and quotation marks in the right places was a major headache—too much work. I could enjoy my stories in my head and not have to do all that technical stuff.

But, one weekend, when I was home alone, I decided to try to rework a story that had been rattling around in my head for years. It had started as a vague Mac­Gyver story, but turned into a Highlander one, because that was what I was read­ing at the time. I sent it to someone whose work I’d been editing, and she gently guided me through fixing my hack mistakes. The gauntlet had been thrown. There were ‘rules’ I had to learn, and since I had no more wall space for needlepoint, writing became a challenge and a new cre­ative outlet. My stories were well-received in the Highlander fandom world, but I wanted to try writing original characters.

I discovered a writing group at iVillage, but found the short story format very hard to master. I’d write a beginning, a middle, and more and more middle, so I moved to novels where I could develop the characters in more depth and finally get to a satisfying ‘the end.‘ Ironically, my first publications were short stories, with no mystery whatsoever, available from The Wild Rose Press.

An avid mystery reader, I thought I’d try writing a mystery, but as my daughters pointed out, it was more of a romance. (Mom, she noticed his brown eyes were flecked with hazel on page 10. It’s a romance!) I realized that even when reading a mystery, I was captivated by the relationships between the characters – Faye Kellerman’s Rina and Peter, Barbara Parker’s Gail and Anthony, even Laurie R. King’s Mary and Sherlock. Even in books without continuing relationships, I was still watching characters hook up more than paying attention to the crime—on the first read. Of course, this means I read almost every book twice; once for the rela­tionship, once for the mystery.

I joined the Romance Writers of America and its Central Florida chapter, to learn about the other side of writing—the business side as I move to the next step: get­ting my work off my hard drive and out where others can see it. Since then, we’ve moved from Florida to the mountains of Colorado, and in addition to RWA, I belong to the Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers. I love looking out my windows at the wildlife as I write.

BOOK REVIEW: Hypocrisy by D.M. Annechino June 17

Review By Ryder Islington, author of  ULTIMATE JUSTICE, A Trey Fontaine Mystery

If you haven’t enjoyed the writing of D.M. Annechino, you don’t know what you’re missing. I’m not usually pulled into a book so that I read it through in a day. Hypocricy pulled me in.

The plot involves the murder of a research scientist who has created a formula for easing the symptoms, improving the quality of life, and sometimes even extending the life, of cancer patients. Was it  the unhappy ex-employee? The underpaid director of the research facility? A drug company that would lose millions if this drug worked? An ex-lover?

Mind you, I did have a couple of hiccups during the reading. I found it very odd that the major point-of-view character, Homicide Detective Amaris Dupree thought of herself as ‘Dupree’, while addressing her partner, T.J. Brown as T.J. And there were a few places where the dialogue of two people was not separated by a return, so I had to think about who was saying what. On the other hand, the story was so compelling, the characters so well-rounded, that instead of giving up and putting the book down, I read–I had to read–to find out who dun it, and what would happen next.

But the ending! A knock’em dead ending. If you’re a lover of mystery and suspense, this book is for you.

Book Synopsis:
Dr. Lauren Crawford is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a      revolutionary treatment for cancer that not only extends life, but much  improves the quality of life for terminal cancer patients. The treatment, in  some instances, can even cure certain cancers. On the evening before Dr.  Crawford holds a press conference to announce that the FDA has given  preliminary approval of her new cancer treatment, somebody follows her to  her car and puts three bullets in her head. Was it a planned murder with a  motive, a mugging gone badly, or merely a random act of violence?

Two New York City homicide detectives, Amaris Dupree and T.J. Brown, are  assigned to the investigation. The detectives evaluate the circumstances  surrounding Dr. Crawford’s death, and follow a trail of clues that exposes a  sequence of startling facts. One by one, the detectives carefully examine each  suspect and piece together a puzzle with unimaginable implications. As the  investigation gets more intense, and the detectives get closer to solving the  murder mystery, someone threatens Dupree’s life. The detectives now realize that Dr. Crawford’s murder was much more than a homicide. And if they don’t arrest the murderer soon, Dupree might be the next victim.

 

Author’s Bio:
Daniel M. Annechino, a former book editor specializing in full-length fiction,  wrote his first book, How to Buy the Most Car for the Least Money, in 1992  while working as a General Manager in the automobile business. But his  passion had always been fiction, particularly thrillers. He spent two years  researching serial killers before finally penning his gripping and memorable  debut novel They Never Die Quietly. His second book Resuscitation (Thomas &  Mercer 2011), a follow-up to his first novel, hit #1 in Kindle sales in both the  USA and UK. He is also the author of I Do Solemnly Swear (Thomas & Mercer  2012). Hypocrisy, is Annechino’s fourth novel.

A native of New York, Annechino now lives in San Diego with his wife, Jennifer.  He loves to cook, enjoys a glass of vintage wine, and spends lots of leisure time  on the warm beaches of Southern California.

 

Below is the blog tour schedule for this book. Note that there are giveaways available. Even though some tour dates have passed, the reviews, interviews and guest posts are still there for your enjoyment.

Tour Schedule for Hypocrisy

May 12 – Peeking Between the Pages – review / giveaway

May 13 – Every Free Chance Book Reviews – review / giveaway

May 14 – Bound 4 Escape – review

May 15 – Reviews From The Heart – review

May 16 – Omnimystery News – guest post

May 19 – Based on a True Story… – review / giveaway

May 20 – Back Porchervations – review

May 21 – Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks – review

May 22 – A Blue Million Books – book spotlight / author interview

May 23 – The Pen and Muse Book Reviews – author interview

May 26 – Bookaholics Must Read – review

May 27 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – review

May 28 – Let’s Talk About Books – review

May 29 – The Things We Read – review

May 30 – Views From the Countryside – review

June 2 – A Nook of Blankets and Books – review

June 3 – Omnimystery News – author interview

June 4 – By Book or By Crook – review

June 5 – All Things Bookie – review

June 6 – Lizzie in Wonderland – review

June 9 – Brooke Blogs – review / author interview

June 10 – Book Loving Hippo – review / guest post

June 11 – Peggy Ann’s Post – review / giveaway

June 12 – Back Porchervations – guest post

June 13 – A Bookish Escape – review

June 16 – Mary’s Cup of Tea – review

June 17 – Ryder Islington’s Blog – review

June 18 – The Many Thoughts of a Reader – review

June 19 – Hotch Potch – review

June 19 – Library of Clean Reads – review

June 20 – CelticLady’s Reviews – review

 

Find D.M. Annechino here:

Website: http://www.dmannechino.wordpress.com

Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/17z4xrv

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DMHemingway

Coming Book Reviews

I’ve been doing a lot of reading this year, but haven’t had time to post reviews lately. But here’s a partial list of books I’ll be reviewing in the coming weeks:

Hypocricy by D.M. Annechino
Stolen by Allison Brennan
The Fallen Angels Book Club by R. Franklin James
Deadly Inheritance by Suzanne Rossi
Betrayed by Donnell Ann Bell
Deep In My Heart by Patricia W. Fischer
Where Danger Hides by Terry Odell

There are more, but these are stacked in my way so I couldn’t miss them. So, stay tuned. You know I don’t give bad reviews. If I read a book and don’t like it for any reason, I contact the author and tell them why I won’t be reviewing. The books listed above are definitely on my list to review.