Tag Archives: murder mystery

The Usual Family Mayhem by HelenKay Dimon-review

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The Usual Family Mayhem by HelenKay Dimon-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 11, 2025

Kasey Nottingham needs a splashy idea at her company where they find and develop the next big thing for investors—her job depends on it. Impulsively, she pitches Mags’ Desserts, a beloved small-town business run by her grandma Mags and live-in “best friend” Celia, two women who overcame deadbeat husbands and financial ruin to build a word-of-mouth clientele. Kasey expects her boss to say no. Instead, he sends her home to North Carolina to land the deal…and now she has a problem.

Mags and Celia aren’t interested, which isn’t a surprise, but something else is going on in their kitchen. Locked cabinets. Cryptic conversations. Unexpected notations on business records. The ladies have secrets and whatever they’re hiding is big. As reports of mysterious deaths of abusive men in the area surface—all in households that recently received a delivery from Mags’ Desserts—Kasey worries Gram and Celia have gone into the poison pie business.

As investors start circling, Kasey enlists Jackson Quaid, Celia’s nephew and Kasey’s long-time crush, as her reluctant investigation assistant. Jackson is practical. Kasey has a wild imagination. Together, they dodge Kasey’s boss and gather intel. And kiss. Lots of kissing, though probably not the best idea to start an unexpected romance. Doing it while keeping two feisty ladies from going to jail for knocking off bad husbands—even if those husbands deserve it—might be impossible…but Kasey never shied away from a challenge.

••••

REVIEW:THE USUAL FAMILY MAYHEM by HelenKay Dimon is a contemporary, adult storyline focusing on Kasey Nottingham’s return to Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the hopes of convincing her grandmother to sell her business.

Told from first person perspective (Kasey) THE USUAL FAMILY MAYHEM follows Kasey Nottingham as she struggles to remain employed at Nexus Opportunity Ideas, a centre for creativity and business proposals but weeks go by and our heroine is unable to come up with a definite plan. Put on the proverbial spot, Kasey is forced to come up with a business idea, and spews the first thing that comes to mind-franchising her grandmother’s at home bakery, a business that does more than sell treats and sweets. Hoping to convince her grandmother Mags, and business partner Celia, Kasey’s arrival home comes with much trepidation, and the face to face confrontation with the man who broke her heart years before, a man who is hoping to get a second chance. Jackson Quaid is a successful attorney, and Kasey’s arrival in Winston-Salem comes with too many questions including the obvious why but Kasey believes she has stumbled on to a dangerous secret, and with Jackson’s help begins to uncover a potential murder-for-hire plot using baked goods as the vehicle of death.

The world building follows several pathways including the potential for Jackson to enter politics. Jackson’s ambitious father is determined to push his son onto the forefront of power but Jackson is refusing to play the games, and Harlan Quaid takes aim at Kasey, and her grandmother’s business. Kasey is struggling with a direction in life, and in this, she battles between head and heart, in the face of loving our story line hero.

The relationship between Jackson and Kasey is one of unrequited love but although Kasey has been in love with Jackson for as long as she can remember, our heroine is unaware that Jackson has felt the same, for just as long. Kasey Nottingham is smart yet flighty, and in this, her inability to stay focused will be used as a threat against our story line hero. There are no $ex scenes.

We are introduced to Kasey’s grandmother Magnolia Nottingham, and her partner, Jackson’s aunt Windsor; Jackson’s father Harlan Quaid, and Kasey’s bosses Brock and Micah.

THE USUAL FAMILY MAYHEM is a story of secrets and lies, family and relationships, acceptance and love. The premise is captivating and thought-provoking; the romance is subtle; the characters are sassy, energetic and charismatic

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White-a review

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The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N PAPER / KOBO /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 1, 2023

Kit Darling is a maid with a snooping problem. She’s the “invisible girl,” compelled to poke into her wealthy clients’ closely guarded lives. It’s a harmless hobby until Kit sees something she can’t unsee in the home of her brand-new clients: a secret so dark it could destroy the privileged couple expecting their first child. This makes Kit dangerous to the couple. In turn, it makes the couple—who might kill to keep their secret—dangerous to Kit.

When homicide cop Mallory Van Alst is called to a scene at a luxury waterfront home known as the Glass House, she’s confronted with evidence of a violent attack so bloody it’s improbable the victim is alive. But there’s no body. The homeowners are gone. And their maid is missing. The only witness is the elderly woman next door, who woke to screams in the night. The neighbor was also the last person to see Kit Darling alive.

As Mal begins to uncover the secret that has sent the lives of everyone involved on a devious and inescapable collision course, she realizes that nothing is quite as it seems. And no one escapes their past.

•••••

REVIEW: THE MAID’S DIARY by Loreth Anne White is a contemporary, adult, psychological thriller focusing on maid Kit Darling, former Olympic skier Jon Rittenberg and his wife Daisy, Vanessa and Haruto North, and Vancouver, BC homicide detective Mallory Van Alst.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from several back and forth time lines, and numerous third person perspectives, as well as first person diary entries by the maid, THE MAID’S DIARY follows the search for a possible killer, and a missing body. An elderly woman, with dementia and not much time to live, believes she has quite possibly witnessed a murder next door but when the police arrive the woman is clear headed and knows exactly what she saw. Vancouver PD Detective Mallory Van Alst, alone with her partner Benoit Salumu begin an investigation that reveals an enormous number of clues, lots of blood, intersecting pathways and trails, and several suspects all claiming to know nothing about a murder or a missing body. As Mallory and Benoit begin to ferret out the truth, secrets reveal a decades old crime that has come back to haunt them all.

THE MAID’S DIARY is a story of betrayal and vengeance, power and control, secrets and lies, twists and turns, and an extreme case of ‘gas-lighting’ planned out for years. Loreth Anne White pulls the reader into a thrilling, intense, dramatic, shocking and intriguing story of retribution and revenge-karma as the ultimate target.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

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New Jersey Noir: Cape May by William Baer-review & excerpt

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New Jersey Noir: Cape May (Jack Colt Murder Mystery 2) by William Baer-review & excerpt

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: ReleAse Date January 15, 2021

After solving the assassination case of his beloved uncle, Colt finds himself truly alone, ditched by his girlfriend. However, there’s not much respite or time for introspection for him: he’s called on again to solve a new murder case, along with a suspiciously related cold case. What follows is another gripping tale in the backdrop of the Garden State’s sights and scenes, including its picturesque beaches, casinos, and the rural Pine Barrens. In New Jersey Noir: Cape May—Book Two of his Jack Colt Murder Mystery Novels series—William Baer continues to enchant and spellbind.

•••••••

REVIEW:NEW JERSEY NOIR: CAPE MAY is the second instalment in William Baer’s contemporary, adult JACK COLT MURDER MYSTERY series focusing on thirty-two year old, New Jersey private investigator and descendant of the inventor of the Colt revolver Jack Colt.

Told from several first person perspectives including Jack Colt, NEW JERSEY NOIR: CAPE MAY fast forwards the series but a few weeks wherein we find our hero Jack Colt approached by Cape May, New Jersey Judge Richard O’Brien, a fifty-something single father, regarding a cold case involving the murder of his seventeen year old, daughter Nikki, one half of twin sisters Nikki and Rikki, ten years earlier. Days earlier, the judge hired private investigator, Edward Colt (no relation), but the man was murdered the night before, leaving instructions and money (along with a list of suspects) to contact our story line hero. With the help of his late uncle’s receptionist, Mrs. Doris Solerno aka Nonna, aka best friend and Detective Luca Solerno’s grandmother, Jack Colt begins an investigation into both murders (present and past), only to discover that long buried secrets are not as buried or secret as once thought, and everyone is suspect until proven wrong.

William Baer pulls the reader into a captivating, thought provoking, and multi-layered story of jealousy and rivalry, resentment and hatred; adultery, friendship and love. Jack Colt traverses a world of murder and obsession, betrayal and vengeance in an effort to find a killer who has now targeted our story line hero, and the woman who has opted to go along for the ride.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review on book one NEW JERSEY NOIR

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

My daughter was murdered ten years ago. She was seventeen at the time.”
“Tell me about it.”
“She was out with some friends, vanished for a day, then someone saw her car driving across the beach into the ocean near the Cove Beach jetty. They found her dead in the trunk of the car.”
I remembered it. Some of it. It got a lot of press.
Naturally, the water and the trunk made me think of The Killing. That “Who Killed Rosie Larson?” television series that I’d watched when it first aired on AMC.
I wondered if one inspired the other.
“She had a twin, right?”
“Yes, but her sister wasn’t there that night.”
I was intrigued.
Definitely.

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William Baer, a recent Guggenheim fellow, is the award-winning author of twenty-two books, and his various plays have been produced at over thirty American theaters.  He grew up in the Bronx and Wayne, New Jersey, where his family was actively involved in “little theater.”  A graduate of Rutgers (B.A.) and New York University (M.A.), he completed his dissertation in creative writing at the University of South Carolina under the direction of James Dickey.  After attending the Johns Hopkins’ Writing Seminars (M.A.), he served as a Fulbright at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.  He then attended the University of Southern California’s Graduate School of Cinema (M.A.), where he received the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award.  The recipient of a Creative Writing Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he currently lives in North Jersey.

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