Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Next I read The Godmother by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, which was fun, but not brilliant. I might well get the next two books though, as the idea has merit. |
I found the 2nd book a disappointment due to Funetikly Spelt Oirish Aksent and somewhat unimaginatively cliche use of common Celtic-derivative fantasy tropes (YMMV), but the 3rd was pretty decent and had an interesting incorporation of Navajo mythology. Mind you, I'd still buy the lot if Scarborough's re-publisher puts them on sale again during Read an E-book Week.
As for myself, just finished
The Heat of the Moon by
Sandra Parshall, the 9th out of my 10 Poisoned Press start-of-series titles which I bought during their aptly-named "Build Your Mystery Library"
99 cent introductory sale, to which they've just added another 13 titles for the same prices and terms (DRM-free in a Mobi/ePub bundle when directly bought from them) without yet removing the original 10.
I'm like 6 or so books behind in my commenting, but I'll say that all 9 of the PPP intro sale books I've read so far were worth my time and money, albeit some rather more than others.
This one, 1st in the Rachel Goddard series, was a psychological suspense about a veterinarian experiencing a traumatic childhood flashback which triggers her to dig into the her family's past to find out what really happened, and she keeps running into obstacles and dead ends when trying to find the truth.
I didn't think I'd like it much when I initially checked out the unpromising sample, but it was dirt-cheap as part of the sale and the author's bio said she had award nominations for this particular series so I thought I'd give it a try while supporting a small niche publisher/sale e-books offered for a good price on good terms.
I did get drawn into wanting to know exactly what the mystery that the family was going to such lengths to hide was, and it was something of a surprise, especially how things turned out afterwards because based on how these sorts of "family secrets" things usually go, the endings turn out to be much more cliche and sentimental.
But this book didn't go there, and was fairly deft at showing the deliberate emotional manipulation and stifling unspoken tensions that underlay the protagonist's seemingly perfect-at-a-glance situation.
Mild-to-medium recommend if you think you might like this sort of story. While I understood exactly how the main character was being maneuvered and manipulated against her will, I still got rather annoyed that it kept happening to her, even though uncovering why someone would go to such lengths to do so was basically the core of the plot.
However, it was interesting enough and played out well enough that I'd be willing to look at the sequels in the library; it seems like she settles into being a more regular type of amateur sleuth once she solves this particular mystery.