saltygalreads's reviews
306 reviews

It is NYC during prohibition and the speakeasy era. Vivian Kelly and her sister Florence are getting by, Florence as a dressmaker and Vivian doing deliveries during the day and waitressing at the Nightingale during the evenings. Someone has been threatening and stealing from the poor tenement folk, prompting the sisters to investigate the mystery and endangering themselves in the process. Vivian's best friend Beatrice, the singer at the Nightingale, is devastated when her uncle Pearlie is murdered. Out of loyalty and concern for Beatrice, Vivian pursues the mystery of his death, uncovering dangerous and unwelcome information along the way. A tale of forbidden pleasures, unsavoury characters, hard times and the city after dark.

This is the sequel to Last Call at the Nightingale, which I have not read. This did not pose any difficulty however, as I had no trouble getting a quick grasp of the characters and their relationships. I really enjoyed the Prohibition era and speakeasy setting of the novel, and the cast of characters which highlighted the cultural diversity of the city. Nevertheless I found my attention lagged at times even though it is a relatively short novel. Upon reflection, I feel like the mood of the book was rather sad and serious rather than the carefree hedonism of the period which I would have expected. In the acknowledgements at the end, the author notes that it was a grind to write the novel, a surprising admission which perhaps influenced the mood of the book. Many thanks to Minotaur for providing me with a copy to review.

After the end of a long-term romantic relationship, Annie Lawrence, writer and playwright, decides to move across the US for a job offer with Pacific Pictures. It is 1944 and the US is at war. Six nights a week, the Hollywood Canteen opens its doors to 1500-2000 servicemen for free food, drink, dancing and entertainment before the men ship off for duty. Like others in the industry, Annie volunteers at the canteen, and makes the acquaintance of Fiona Farris, witty and sharp of tongue and pen, who writes about the entertainment industry.

Annie becomes fast friends with Fiona and joins the “ambassador club” an informal group of failed celebrities who party and drown their sorrows together. Fueled by alcohol, the group is a dysfunctional mix of friendship, laughter, envy and competition. One evening at the canteen, Fiona dies suddenly of poisoning and everyone in her circle is a suspect, including Annie. Did someone in Annie’s new circle of friends murder Fiona? And what about Annie, who has more of a history with Fiona than she admits? Annie assumes the role of amateur detective to figure out the killer and determine which friends she can actually trust, while two corrupt LAPD detectives eye Annie with suspicion.

All I can say is “wow”! This wonderful novel transported me to WWII Los Angeles during the golden era of the big movie studios. The movie industry is big business, and the studios are all-powerful in tinsel town, making or breaking careers and lives at will. Of course gossip columnists and entertainment writers are powerful as well, with the ability to elevate or destroy a career at the flick of a pen. This was the era of Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, when a mention in their newspaper columns could be a victory or a catastrophe. So the murder of Fiona Farris, right before she is about to publish a bombshell article, makes perfect sense. The plot and pace are consistently engaging and exciting; the characters so vividly depicted that they performed a Technicolor film in my imagination. Annie is a likeable and sympathetic character, a lamb in a town full of wolves, who finds her feet and perseveres to a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed this novel so much! Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for this digital copy.

Summary: Wealthy couple Steven and Regina Rytter are found dead in their home in a lovely, upscale neighborhood in a Swedish town. Bill Olsson and his young daughter Sally are struggling to keep their lives together and a roof over their heads after the death of wife and mother Miranda. To make ends meet, they take in a lodger named Karla, who attends university and works part-time for a cleaning agency. Karla starts cleaning at the Rytters’ home and is startled to discover Regina living as a recluse in the home, confined to her bed and clearly addicted to prescription medications. Jennica is an old friend and school mate of Miranda’s who has just met an older man on Tinder and is starstruck by his wealth and sophistication. Jennica’s friendship with Miranda ended on terrible terms years ago when she accused Miranda of cheating with her boyfriend at the time. The lives of these four people intersect over the course of the novel, with unforeseen and shocking results.

Thoughts: What a gripping and engrossing read this is! The Woman Inside really made me think about how we perceive ourselves, and the lies we tell ourselves in order to feel safe and comfortable. None of the characters in this novel are entirely what they appear to be, or what they tell themselves they are. Like everyone, they each have a darker side and are capable of taking unethical or outright criminal actions when they feel it is justified. They also lie to themselves about the other people in their lives, choosing what to believe and what to conveniently ignore. This is a tense, dark, psychological thriller which will string you along to the very end. I will say that I was left with some lingering questions, but I suspect that is what the author intended.

Summary: This is the third book in the series featuring Electra MacDonnell and the dashing Major Ramsey, and it delivers on tension and excitement. In this instalment, Ramsey whisks Electra off to Sunderland, hot on the trail of German spies. Electra assumes an alias and befriends a group of young workers to ferret out a murderer. Ellie and the Major face life-threatening danger, the heat turns way up on their attraction to each other. It even concludes with a mind-blowing revelation.

Thoughts: I tore through this in no time, loving the action, quick pace and repartee between Ellie and the Major. The risks of moving among possible spies ratchets up the tension, and the duo pull off some gutsy sleuthing moves which have the reader holding their breath. It is becoming clear that Ellie has a choice looming: the comfort and familiarity of Felix, or the excitement and chemistry associated with Major Ramsey. I don't know about you, but I'm Team Ramsey!

A hearty thank you to Minotaur Books for the ARC which I enjoyed so much!

Summary: The Fab Four are back at it! Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are back in the follow-up to the The Thursday Murder Club, along with their police friends Chris and Donna, and faithful (if slightly sketchy) sidekick Bogdan. This time Elizabeth's ex-husband, also a former spy, has made the mistake of stealing a fortune in diamonds from a mob boss, and he wants them back ASAP. The foursome try to hunt down a murderer and find the missing diamonds, with their usual hilarious misadventures.

Thoughts: This book was so much fun to read and I flew through it. Joyce in particular makes me laugh with her journal entries and endless flirting. The chase for the murderer is well- constructed and the execution reminds me a little of a Guy Ritchie movie in the best way. Twists and turns punctuated by chuckles! I will most certainly be reading the third book.

Summary: At the beginning of the novel we meet Bree, a young woman who is currently homeless and living out of her car. She decides to climb the fence of a vacant property in Beverly Hills and sleep in the poolhouse for the night. When the owner’s daughter Sophie discovers Bree, she offers her some help and an invitation to a party at the house. Bree attends, and the party is a success, however in the morning there is a dead body floating in the pool. Knowing she would be a suspect, Bree runs. In an effort to discover the real murderer, she teams up with Sophie’s brother Carter to investigate, but they quickly realize they might be in over their heads when bullets start flying.

Thoughts: This novel contains all the popular elements of a thriller – alternating points of view, twisty plot, surprises, quick pace, and reasonably short chapters – along with a great setting. At certain points I found the constant changing in POV to be a little jarring and disruptive to the flow of the story. It is altogether a solid thriller, but I didn’t connect with the characters. The feel and tone of the ending also struck me as odd, given the rhapsodizing that Bree does throughout the novel about her attachment to her perfect husband. A good summer thriller choice, perhaps by the pool.

This is an emotional autobiography which tells the story of a young Quebecois boy who grew up in a small, provincial town and felt profoundly uncomfortably in his own skin. He suffers greatly during his childhood years with feelings of alienation and loneliness. Eventually he moves away to find a new life and try to discover who he really is. The discovery is beautiful and painful.

This is a poetic and intimate piece of writing. I felt as if I was reading Boulianne-Tremblay's journal at times. The revelations were raw and personal. There is no doubt that Boulianne-Tremblay is a poet at heart when you can randomly open the book and find a sentence like this: "We breathe like a boat eating the waves". We feel her emotional pain, and the rejection from her family and lovers who all want something different from her. Blessedly, there is finally the salvation of self-love and acceptance.

It isn't an easy read, but I am glad she shared her journey.

Summary: Ruby Vaughn survived the rigours of WWI and the deaths of her parents to live in Exeter, England with her elderly employer. He asks her to deliver a box of valuable antique books to Ruan Kivell in Cornwall. When she does so, Ruby decides against her better judgement to pay a visit to her old friend (and apparently, lover) Tamsyn who lives in Cornwall with her aristocrat husband and small child. Ruby feels ill at ease in the creaking old mansion, and she awakes from a terrifying nightmare to find the master of the house gruesomely murdered in the orchard. Despite their love/hate relationship, Ruby and Kivell work together to uncover who actually murdered Sir Edward.

Thoughts: This was a relatively quick read for me, and I enjoyed the gothic undertones as I knew I would. The setting in the countryside and the atmosphere of superstition and occult folklore adds to the overall tension and sense of gothic thrill. However, Ruby’s backstory was revealed piecemeal over the course of the book, which was rather confusing. I enjoyed the friction between Ruan and Ruby, but it felt unnecessary to try to develop this into a love affair. I feel it is better as a prickly and reluctant partnership. However, I really enjoyed the dynamic between Ruby and her employer, which was amusing and sweet. Given that the novel is described as a Cornish mystery, I felt that the author could have done much more to “set the scene” and make the reader feel like they were visiting Cornwall. Really the mystery could have taken place anywhere. Overall it is a good debut effort which could develop into an interesting series. Thanks to Minotaur and NetGalley for the digital copy.

Summary: This is a self-help book for the perfectionist in so many of us, especially mothers. Over the course of the book, the author explains how to “slay the dragon” of perfectionism, self-doubt and negativity that drives us to work relentlessly to obtain the approval of others and be the best at everything, all the time. It is divided into four main sections: Wintsch’s own story and the journey to the book; the destructive thought patterns and behaviours that make the “dragon”; approaches to changing the thoughts and behaviours; and the positive effects of doing so.

Thoughts: Like any self-help book, the more personally relevant this book is to you at the time you are reading it, the more positively you will respond to it, in my view. I feel like this book would have been absolutely perfect for me about 7-8 years ago, when I was suffering my own superwoman syndrome breakdown. I was a victim of my own overwork, perfectionism and unreasonably high standards – the target audience for this book. There is nothing revolutionary in this book or anything you haven’t seen or heard elsewhere, but it is a well-constructed, down-to-earth message about the importance of cutting yourself some slack and treating yourself as you would a friend you dearly loved. If this is a message that you or someone you care about needs, then this book is the ideal read! Many thanks to Sourcebooks and Suzy Approved Tours for this gifted copy.

Summary: This is the second book in the Intrepid Traveler series, the first book being Death in the Aegean. Stefanie Adams and Thomas Burkhardt work for Interpol, investigating cases involving artifacts of historic value. They also have a personal relationship, combining personal and professional lives. They are pursuing the Borgia Peacock, an infamous and valuable pendant which had been stolen from an exhibition in 1906 and never seen in public again. Stefanie and Thomas are on a mission to purchase the pendant from a countess in Venice and return it to a museum. However they have an abundance of competition for the pendant, from museum directors, to unscrupulous dealers to family members of the countess, all determined to snag the pendant. Then there is a murder and the pendant goes missing, landing Stefanie and Thomas right in the middle as possible suspects.

Thoughts: I was attracted to this novel immediately, as I found the combination of two of my favourite things - Italy and jewelry - irresistible. The author does a good job of setting the scene in the crumbling palazzo with the various competitors for the jewel all buzzing around the aging countess like drones around the queen. However the book dragged for me, focused on who was where at the time of the murder, and it seemed to go in circles for pages. I also found the romance between Stefanie and Thomas, particularly her jealous speculation on his romantic past, to be very annoying. I wonder if multiple points of view would have added interest to the novel, rather than having the entire story told only from Stefanie’s perspective. The action is also located mainly in the palazzo, missing an opportunity to allow the reader to explore one of the world’s most beautiful locations. If you enjoy a whodunnit with lots of suspects and romantic intrigue, then this might be for you. It just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Thanks to Level Best and NetGalley for this digital copy to review.