Gothic tales, mysteries, and reviews

cj Sez:  A few recent releases for your To-Be-Read pile.

New Gothic/horror novel from USA Today Bestselling author Carolyn Haines . . .  THE DARKLING 

   

   When Berta and Bob Henderson open their open to foster Annie, a young amnesiac found wandering the streets of a nearby city, bad things begin to happen.

   As tragedy strikes the family one by one, it becomes clear something is stalking the Henderson family. 

Available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/2JS5dHh

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TROUBLE IN ACTION: Book 10 of 10 in the Cat Detective Familiar Legacy mystery series  by Susan Y. Tanner  

   Trouble, the Sherlock of black cat detectives, strolls into the exciting world of stunt riders amid tension between a university sponsoring a reenactment of the Civil War battle of Albrecht Creek and a Cherokee nation tired of being wrongly blamed for everything.

   Trouble must race the clock to keep protagonist Kylah West safe and help love interest Wolf Stockton solve the murder of a young reenactor. The clever feline also realizes that those two bipeds have another deep need—for each other.

Available on Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/2GmdDFM

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MY REVIEWS:

MURMURS OF EVIL (The Possession Chronicles Book 2) Kindle Edition

by Carrie Dalby  

Historical Southern Gothic

   Protagonist Magdalene Jones is hired as a companion to a wealthy woman who is despondent over the death of her daughter. Magdalene soon finds herself immersed in an economic class she knows nothing about and is immediately tempted and challenged by the heir-apparent of her employer, his father, who, himself, is tempted by her. Intrigue abounds in this recommended read. I gave this book 5 stars.

Available on Amazon here:   https://amzn.to/32Hk4wv

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THE RECKONING

by John Grisham   

   I thought this book would be a legal thriller—it is anything but. To repeat the Amazon description, “The Reckoning is Grisham's argument that he's not just a boilerplate thriller writer.”

   

If Southern Gothic is one of your favorite reads, THE RECKONING by John Grisham is for you. If you don’t know what Southern Gothic literature is, it includes dark humor, violence, destitute characters, discrimination, angst, and a strong sense of place—THE RECKONING hits the high notes and then some of all of these Southern Gothic characteristics.

   Grisham has told a suspenseful tale of betrayal and lies that drive a town’s favorite son (a World War II hero whose Bataan Death March experience is detailed) to commit a horrific crime. The negatives were the sometimes too-long paragraphs that seemed to ramble and didn't add a lot to the narrative. I gave this angst-driven story 3 stars.

Available on Amazon at: https://amzn.to/2Z2UX5l

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  That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj

By the way, if you’ve read/heard about the U.S. Navy ship that recently destroyed an Iranian drone by laser, I had already proposed that concept in DEADLY STAR. To read what else I wrote about, the novel is still available free on Kindle Unlimited here:  https://amzn.to/30JqTMq

For your summertime/beach reading pleasure, stop by my Amazon Central Author Page = https://amzn.to/2v6SrAj 

To order an autographed copy of DEADLY STAR, CHOOSING CARTER, HOMETOWN HEROES, and THE POSSE, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: The Haunted Bookshop  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you the book(s) of your choice.

Visit me on Facebook at:   cjpetterson/author on Facebook