Halloween's Weekly TV Thoughts

Two season finales on the list.  One I was expecting, but one was a surprise.  I really hate short seasons, at least short seasons when I wasn't expecting them.

Dancing with the Stars – I thought I might have seen one of the movies they were using, but that didn’t happen.  But I did like the Scream inspired opening skit.  After that first number, I thought Shirley was going to be completely off the rains.  Someone must have talked to her.  Or people were smart and they had fewer dances she could judge as harshly this week.  Either way, I felt sorry for those who got the ultra low scores from her.  On the other hand, we got a perfect score tonight!  Some very creative dances.  I do feel for those eliminated, but it wasn’t super surprising.

RJ Decker – Just seven episodes?  I’m not used to that with a network show.  This was definitely a darker episode, but I get the reasoning behind it.  I still enjoyed it.  But that ending?  They’d better come back, and not wait too super long for season three.  I need to know what happens next.

The Challenge – Once again, that looked brutal.  I might enjoy watching the show, but I would never want to be on it.  They made us doubt a bit, but I wasn’t too surprised with the outcome.  I’m with Adrienne’s split for the gray team.  She won that money by going into the sand.  Yet, I was impressed by Tori splitting things evenly.  Well, except for her exorbitant captain tax.  I laughed so hard at that.  ($1 each from the other team members, in case you weren’t watching.)

Survivor – So, we’ve got one tribe that is constantly losing again.  I am tired of this on Survivor.  Been a long time since we had a tribe of two.  Are we near the merge?  Are they going to farm them out to other tribes?  So many questions.  The first helicopter alliance went home, however.  I’ll be curious to see how far the others can make it.  And this is one of the two people connected to the idol gone already without Kristen having to do anything.  I wonder if it will wind up being for her or not.  And what did she tell her tribemates when she got back?

The Amazing Race – The last of the express passes were used.  No one caught on to the front runners still having theirs.  They got lucky with that with the other team using theirs on the other side of the detour.  The grandfather/grandson team dodged yet another bullet.  It will be interesting to see if they can make up ground next week.  Will the other teams U-turn them plus their penalty?  Or will they managed to squeak through again?

The Traitors – Victor is so annoying.  I wanted him banished for that reason.  I was bummed he got saved.  And then he got Tamica banished.  He’s going to be even worse tomorrow.  It will be interesting to see how things shake out since Joe is on the hot seat.  Katie doesn’t seem to be on the radar at the moment, but maybe that’s just the editing.  But I would be surprised if Joe survives the next episode whether Victor stays or not.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test – After last week where no one left, we had three drop out.  Okay, so drop out isn’t exactly accurate for the skater who got pulled for medical reasons.  But wow, that was a brutal episode.  I would have had a tough time with the tunnel myself.  I haven’t enjoyed some of those type of obstacles when I’ve done mud runs.  The fighting one could have gone either way for me.  Only two episodes left, so I hope everyone left can hang in there.

Happy’s Place – A bit of a serious main story overall, which is usually what happens when Happy comes up.  I did like where it ended up.  But I loved the prank storyline.  Lots of great laughs there.  There was supposedly a picture of Dolly on the display in the episode, but I didn’t spot it.  Did like the tribute at the end.  From what I read, this was filmed on the day she passed.

Newlyweds – Fairly predictable (I mean seriously, which place do you think they were going to pick?), but lots of fun.  I was laughing quite a bit.  Still has some room to grow, but this is a good sign as far as I’m concerned.

October 30th's Friday Fun

It's Friday, and we have a holiday coming tomorrow, so let's kick things off with some Friday Fun.  I'll be linking up to:

First Line Friday
Friday Book Snippets
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first two will be coming from Reel Stuff by Don Bruns.

This is the seventh and final book in the Stuff Series, aka the Lessor and Moore Mysteries.  It's not a cozy, but it does feature two fledging PIs.

Here's how this book begins:

“Sometimes it’s just stupid to do your own stunts.”

As someone who isn't very athletic, you won't find me arguing this that assessment.

I read these books in an ebook collection that included all seven books, so I couldn't really pick a typical 56, so I haven't use these books for a Friday post.  But with the new rules, I could now.  And since this is the last book in the series, I didn't want to miss the chance.

With all that said, here's my second teaser from somewhere in the book (I don't remember how far into the book):

I heard suspicion in her voice, and I wondered what she was thinking about me.

My review will be up on Tuesday, so I hope you'll come back to see what I thought of it.

Meanwhile, shall we jump over to this week's Book Blogger Hop?  The question of the week is:

If you could retell a Halloween story or trope from a fresh angle, what would you choose and why?

For some reason, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was the first story that popped into my mind.  But I'm not familiar enough with it to be able to pick something.  With my second choice, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I don't feel like there are enough other characters to pick one that would be meaningful.  I don't read enough Halloween type books to really have a good answer to this one, I guess.

Have a spooky weekend!

Movie Review: The Fate of the Furious

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Plenty of action

Cons: Action gets so over the top I had a hard time believing it

The Bottom Line:

Dom turns on the team

Action went too far for me

Even for franchise

“Dominic Toretto Just Went Rogue.”

Anyone who watches The Fast and the Furious movies looking for realism is sitting down to watch the wrong franchise.  Even for action movies, these go outside the realm of believability.  So when I tell you that The Fate of the Furious jumped the … submarine for me, that’s really saying something.  Ironically, it was something far less spectacular than the climax that threw me out of the film.

The film opens in Cuba, where Dominic (Vin Diesel) and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are on their honeymoon.  After an extended opening street race (got to remember our roots, after all), Dom is approached by a stranger.  The woman is the terrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron) and she blackmails Dom into betraying his team and joining her.  So, when they set out on a mission, teamed again with Hobbes (Dwayne Johnson), Dom takes something and disappears.  What is Cipher holding over him?  And which side is he really on?

So what scene went too far for me?  It’s a scene in New York City involving terrorists taking over parked cars to cause havoc.  Now, do I think that cars can be taken over by others?  Yes.  But that many?  Remotely?  So conveniently?  Sorry, I just wasn’t buying it.

Which is ironic since I didn’t have nearly as big an issue with the climax, which really did involve racing a submarine and jumping over it at one point.  Oh, and a team of bad guys who learned how to aim from storm troopers.  Okay, so maybe I didn’t buy in after that.  Or maybe they’ve just gone too far.

This is the first movie in the franchise since Paul Walker’s passing.  The movie has a couple of nice nods to him and his character of Brian O’Conner.  Jordana Brewster’s Mia doesn’t show up, which makes sense.  She hasn’t had much of a presence in the last couple of films outside a few scenes with Brian.

I will give the actors credit.  What is happening might be ridiculous, but they do their best to make it believable.  I appreciate their efforts.

And the stunts are often fun as always.  Unbelievable?  Absolutely, but the team behind them does a good job of making the impossible look possible.  It’s hard not to get caught up in the climax, especially.

The plot, which is just an excuse for the stunts, mostly holds together.  It’s as believable as the rest of the franchise, anyway.

If you are a fan, you’ll find much to like here.  Just turn off your brain or you’ll be nitpicking The Fate of the Furious.

Book Review: Death Down the Aisle by Colleen Cambridge (Phyllida Bright Mysteries #6)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Characters and an intriguing mystery

Cons: Romantic triangle in the subplot annoyed

The Bottom Line:

Murder at wedding

Killer among family?

This book delivers

Family Drama and Murder

Early in the Phyllida Bright series, I thought we were going to have a love triangle, so I was happy to see that being resolved.  In fact, one of the people involved in the love triangle is getting married in Death Down the Aisle.  No, it isn’t Phyllida, but she is still on hand for the drama and murder.

If you haven’t met her yet, Phyllida Bright is the housekeeper to Max and Agatha Mallowan.  Of course, you might know Agatha better as Agatha Christie.  Phyllida and Agatha became friends while working for the war effort during the Great War, and now it is the 1920’s and Phyllida has taken a job from her friend.  It gives me a bit more of a friendly relationship than many servants would have with their bosses.  Phyllida has found herself involved in some murders recently, this is book six in the series, and they are proving inspiration for her boss.

Dr. John Bhatt is getting married to Emily, a woman he met while home visiting in India.  Emily’s family, such as it is, live in Coatesworth Manor, not too far from Mallowan Hall, and the entire staff has been given time off to attend if they wish.  Of course, Phyllida has been involved with helping to plan it, which is why she is on hand to witness some of the dynamics in Emily’s extended family.  While things have been tense, Phyllida doesn’t expect murder, but after the happy couple depart, someone turns up dead.  Can Phyllida figure out what happened?

The book takes it time getting to the murder, but it is setting up suspects and motives.  I was intrigued by the twists we got along the way to the logical climax I didn’t see coming.  In fact, there were a couple of places that had me racing through the pages to find out what would happen next.

Each book in the series is an ode to an Agatha Christie story.  While I certainly found some similarities in the set up to Death on the Nile, the author says it is also a nod to the many romantic triangles in Christie’s books in general.  Unfortunately, that spread to the subplot involving Phyllida’s personal life.  The way it unfolded here is one of my least favorite story telling devices.  It definitely made me frustrated as I read, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

While Phyllida is our viewpoint character most of the book, we do get some passages from other character’s points of view, which help flesh out the story.

The characters themselves are entertaining.  We’ve gotten to know a few of the other servants, and I enjoyed seeing them here again.  There’s something introduced here I hope to see followed up on in the next entry.  The suspects come to life as the book progresses, so I didn’t have an issue remembering how they were all related.

I’ve been working hard on catching up on this series this year, and now that I’ve done it, it’s going to be a little hard to wait to find out what case Phyllida finds herself caught up in next.  Fans of the series will enjoy their time reading Death Down the Aisle.

Enjoy the rest of the Phyllida Bright Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Book Review: #TreatYourself to Murder by Sarah E. Burr (Trending Topic Mysteries #5)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Coco and crew solving a Christmas mystery

Cons: No cons in this treat

The Bottom Line:

Arson and murder

Are harshing the Christmas vibes

All fan will enjoy

This Christmas Cozy is a Treat

It’s October, which means we are in the heart of this year’s Christmas cozy releases.  Yes, I hear the argument that it is too early, but people do need time to get to the books to read in December.  And, for those of us who love Christmas, it’s always fun to slip into that time of the year.  So, I had no qualms about picking up #TreatYourself to Murder, the fifth Trending Topic Mystery from Sarah E. Burr, and settling in for some good old fashioned Christmas mayhem.

If you haven’t started the series yet, it features Coco Cline, influencer and social media maven.  She’s recently rebranded and is now using her platform to highlight unsolved mysteries, both old and new, in hopes of bringing attention to these cases.  But she’s going to jump in when crime hits close to her home in Central Shores, Delaware, which is what is happening this Christmas.

There has been a string of fires that started around Halloween, and the investigation doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  But things take a tragic turn in early December when a body is found in the latest fire.  The victim is a young woman who had been living in her car, but had recently gone missing.  Coco was already trying to help find the victim, but when she is asked to help figure out what happened, she doesn’t hesitate.  With the help of her friends and fiancé, she finds that sleuthing and Christmas shopping make a good pairing.  But can she find another killer?

It’s no surprise to me that I enjoyed this book.  Sarah E. Burr has become a favorite author over the past few years.  Her books are cozy and fun while not forgetting they are mysteries, and this is another perfect example.

The plot jumps right in, and it isn’t long before we’ve found the body.  I had no idea where the story was going until we got to the ending, but it all made perfect sense when we did.  I was proud of myself for solving things at the same time Coco did.  The climax was suspenseful and logical.

The cozy comes from the characters.  Coco has some loyal friends, and I love getting to spend time with the entire gang.  Yes, the circle is ever growing, and that may mean it is hard for everyone to get the page time I would like, but I don’t mind too much.  I think, given the Christmas setting, I was a bit surprised to find that Coco’s family took a back seat in this book.  But, if they had a bigger presence, they would have just slowed down the story.  The suspects don’t get a ton of page time, but it works in this case, and I didn’t really think about it until just now.

And the Christmas touches are fun.  I’m not quite ready to start decorating yet (although I do decorate early), but this book made me want to do that.  And maybe listen to a Christmas carol or two.

Fans of the series are in for a Christmas treat.  If you are a cozy mystery fan who hasn’t found Sarah E. Burr yet, you really need to fix that.  Now that I’ve finished #TreatYourself to Murder, I’ll be waiting for Coco’s next adventure.

Enjoy the rest of the Treating Topic Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Book Review: Death Walked In by Carolyn Hart (Death on Demand #18)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Growth for Max, fun mystery

Cons: Missing some regulars, relationship with police

The Bottom Line:

A hidden fortune

Was it motive for murder?

Some growth this entry

Is a Treasure Hidden in Annie and Max’s New House?

While Annie and Max, the main characters in Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series, have had their life change over the previous books in the series, it’s rare that a book builds on the previous book in the series.  But that’s what we get with Death Walked In, book 18 in this beloved series.

If you are unfamiliar with the series, it is set on Broward’s Rock, an island off the coast of South Carolina.  Annie Darling owns Death on Demand, the finest mystery bookstore north of Miami, while Max runs a consulting business that helps people with problems.  It’s not officially a PI business since Max doesn’t have a license.  Between the two of them, they find plenty of murder and mayhem on their island.

You don’t have to have read the previous book (Dead Days of Summer) to fully appreciate what happens here.  There are some references to it, and Max gets some character growth as a result, but everything you need to know is included here.  And all that happens without any spoilers.

As this book opens, it’s February, and Max hasn’t taken on any clients since what happened to him last summer.  Instead, he’s poured all his focus on restoring the Franklin House to its former glory so he and Annie can move in.  So, when a woman calls Max’s office saying she hid something in Franklin House, Max isn’t interested in hearing more.  Annie, on the other hand, goes to visit the woman only to find her dying.  Is there really something hidden in Franklin House?  Who killed the caller?

In the last few books, I’ve started to notice how little character development we are getting, so I appreciate that Max got some in this book.  And it made sense given what he went through in the previous book.  It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this arc or if he is back to his usual jolly self for the rest of the series.  Annie also showed a different side in this book, which was appreciated.

On the other hand, most of the regulars were off the island.  The main trio of supporting characters still found ways to connect, adding their fun to the story.  Annie’s family wasn’t even mentioned, which took me by surprise.  (Or did they move off island and I forgot?)

This also brings me to my biggest frustration with this book.  A trope of cozies in general and this series in particular is an antagonistic relationship with the police since the amateur is getting in the way of the police when it comes to solving the case.  (Of course, if the police were smarter in these books….)  At this point, the hoops that the author is having to jump through to keep that in place is getting a little crazy.  It made me roll my eyes a little, but at least we didn’t have characters flipping personalities to get this trope, which we’ve had in previous books.

The mystery itself was good.  I figured one part out early, but I didn’t have everything figured out, which is always nice.

This series is known for its references to other mystery novels.  There were more than the previous book, but not the overabundance we had early in the series.  I am recognizing more and more of them since this book came out in 2008, so I was reading some of the authors being mentioned.

As usual for this series, I was able to get the audio from the library.  Kate Reading continues to go a great job as the narrator.

It’s always fun to visit Annie and Max, and Death Walked In is no exception.

Demand the rest of the Death on Demand Mysteries.

October 25th's Weekend Catch-Up

Welcome to this week's weekend catch-up.  As always, I will be linking up to:

Sunday Post
Sunday Salon
Stacking the Shelves
It's Monday, What Are You Reading?

You know how some weeks, I say I don't have much to talk about?  This isn't one of those weeks.

It started on Tuesday.  I took the day off to go to a sitcom taping.  Yes, I said after I went to see Happy's Place last year I didn't need to do it again.  But I decided I wanted to do it again.  This time I went to see Shifting Gears, which stars Tim Allen and Kat Dennings.  And, I must confess, one of the draws was that it films on the Disney lot.  This DisNerd couldn't pass that up.  Not that this lot was that different; I was on a lot with a bunch of sound stages.  As to the taping, they have four sets from the show set up in front of the audience.  And the one I was sitting directly in front of wasn't used.  But it was still fun, especially with a few mess ups, which is something I didn't get last year.  And this time I mean it, I don't think I need to do it again.

Which brings us to Saturday.  Up first was a play.  The local theater company is doing Dial "M" for Murder, which I've wanted to see as a play ever since I saw the movie.  Of course, I saw the movie back 20 years ago or so, so I don't really remember it.  Now, I need to see the movie again to see how it compares.  Especially since what I thought was a hook to the movie wasn't part of the play.  But maybe that's just me misremembering something or it got changed for the movie.  Anyway, I went with a couple of friends.  We all enjoyed it, although it was a little longer than we were expecting.

Then, my church was hosting the annual Harvest Festival, so I went over there and hung out for an hour or so.  It's really aimed at kids, but I did play a couple of the games that are a little more all ages, and I voted in the pumpkin carving, cake decorating, and chili cook-off.

See, it's been a full week!

Joke of the Week:

Why did the skeleton go trick-or-treating alone?

Because he had no body to go with.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Weekend Catch-Up

Monday - Movie Review: The Marvels

Tuesday - Book Review: 'Tis the Season to be Scary by Vicki Delany

Wednesday - TV Show Review: Wild Cards - Season 3

Thursday - Book Review: My Father Always Finds Corpses by Lee Hollis

Friday - Friday Fun featuring #TreatYourself to Murder

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Weekend Catch-Up

Monday - Book Review: Death Walked In by Carolyn Hart

Tuesday - Book Review: #TreatYourself to Murder by Sarah E. Burr

Wednesday - Book Review: Death Down the Aisle by Colleen Cambridge

Thursday - Movie Review: The Fate of the Furious

Friday - Friday Fun

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

Book Haul:

I'm back in the land of the book acquirers with three books to talk about this week.

Up first, No One Sleeps on the Orient Express crossed my radar in the last couple of months.  It's the debut mystery from Irene Hagan, and it sounds like it could be lots of fun.  The Kindle version went on sale for $2.99, so I went ahead and snagged it.  It's still on sale as I'm typing this on Saturday night, but no idea how long it will stay on sale.

I've enjoyed previous books I've read by A. M. Loweecey when she was writing as Alice Loweecey, so when I saw she was starting a new cozy mystery series, I was looking forward to reading it.  Then I got a chance to sign up for the blog tour for Death of a Bad Penny, so I jumped on that.  I got the ARC this week, and I'll be starting it next week since the tour is the second week of November.

But first...

Remember that book I teased last week that was on the way?  It did indeed arrive this week.  That book is Split Screen, the newest Eve Ronnin Mystery from Lee Goldberg.

What I'm Currently Reading:

I'm currently reading Split Screen by Lee Goldberg.  I feel like I'm cheating a little claiming that since I am only one chapter in at the moment.  Go back and look at what I did today to understand why I haven't gotten more reading time.  But I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I get time to really dive in.

Have a great week!

October 24th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Celebrity Weakest Link – That was painful.  So many easy questions they got wrong.  I was rooting for Alexa and Carlos, so I was very glad he won.  I couldn’t believe Alexa stayed as long as she did given her performance.  I’m surprised that Carlos voted her out at the end like that.

Dancing with the Stars – I expected them to not eliminate anyone since they usually don’t on dedication night.  And when I saw the credits rolling, I knew for a fact that would be the case.  So many touching stories and dancing tonight.  I was tearing up several times, which I don’t always do.  Either I’m very emotional right now, the stories were extra touching, or both.

RJ Decker – Another very entertaining mystery, and I didn’t see the ending coming either.  This show has some great twists and turns to it.  Love the murder method, too.  Not for the victim, but for the creativity of it, but it fit.  I’m very curious where we are going to be with the cliffhanger next week.  (And how crazy is it that we are already at the season finale?  Say it ain’t so!)

The Challenge – It’s close.  Despite all the drama with Lete, she is definitely doing her best.  Still think she was over reacting, although I can kind of see her point.  And CT is being CT and dragging them down with anything physical.  That would be me, so it’s no shade.  But it’s no shocker either.  But he did do well on the puzzles for them.  It will be interesting to see who comes out on top next week.

Survivor – The challenge looked like fun.  Hard, but fun.  Not that it was really that close when they ran it.  The first tribal wasn’t that surprising, although with a team of three it’s going to be hard now if they don’t win or get slip up somehow.  But that second tribal was something else.  Have we seen a tribal go that way before?  I feel like the last time there was a tie, they drew rocks.  Not that I expect the other two to have any kind of leverage next week.  It will be interesting to see how they can come back from this.  Or if they can come back from this.

The Amazing Race – I will forever link Albania with the first Mrs. Pollifax book.  And then they had a spy challenge!  I’m always happy when the teams are driving since that seems to create the most chaos.  I was happy to see the grandfather/grandson team move up several places.  The sisters wouldn’t have stayed too much longer, I fear.  And the team in front now has a big target on their backs since they were in the Driver’s Seat twice.  Kind of hard not to be in front when there are two on the same leg. 

Traitors: New Blood – This is why I generally like to binge this series.  Where they end stuff should be criminal.  I’m sure they person who has the power is going to make the outcome of whether Victor goes or not obvious, so they couldn’t let us know.  But it’s so frustrating to wait a week to find out!  As much as he is right about the Traitors, he’s so annoying.  I really would like him gone.  And the tower is going to be awkward between Tamica naming Katie and then Katie voting Tamica.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test – We seem to have a fairly strong group of celebrities this season.  Oh, they are still failing regularly, but they aren’t quitting like they did the first season I watched.  Although with two of the men out in the jungle, who knows what will happen to them.  I get it.  I’ve been stuck in mud before, and it was exhausting.  It was fun, but then again, I was at a mud run.  But I slept well that night.

Happy’s Place – Glad this show is back!  Okay, so it wasn’t the funniest episode ever, but it was funny and just great to see the characters again.  I’m guessing they are going to keep the new office, but we will see I guess.  I have a feeling if it was just a one time set, they would resolved that by the end of the episode.

Newlyweds – There’s some promise here.  Not completely sold yet, but it was fun.  I hope that Jeanie calms down a little.  I’ll give it a few weeks before I decide anything one way or the other.  I will give the show this – I really bought the relationship between the leads.  It helps that they are married in real life.

October 23rd's Friday Fun

Welcome to Friday and this week's Friday Fun.  As usual, I will be linking up to:

First Line Friday
Friday Book Snippets
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first two this week will be coming form #TreatYourself to Murder, the fifth in the Trending Topic Mysteries from Sarah E. Burr.

And yes, it's a Christmas cozy mystery.  Since I had an ARC of the book, I read it now instead of saving it for December.

Here's how the book begins:

I stared at the twenty-four-year-old woman’s black-and-white photo as I taped the neon pink flyer onto a stop sign pole. Where are you, Zelda? How did you just vanish into thin air?

It may not be murder, but that opening does grab you right away, right?

Meanwhile, much later in the book, we get this:

We turned to greet the newcomer, everyone’s faces falling slightly—save Maria’s—when we discovered Chief McInnis storming toward the counter. Uh-oh. Paint his face green, and he could’ve passed as the Grinch.

I loved that reference since this is a Christmas book.

And I loved the book overall, which is no surprise since I usually enjoy Sarah's books.  My full review will be up on release day, which is Tuesday.  I hope you'll come back then.

Meanwhile, let's flip over to this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question is:

What’s the creepiest book you’ve read that isn’t officially horror, but gave you chills?

Back in the day, I read about half the Animorphs series.  Mind you, I was an adult when they were coming out, so I was well beyond the middle grade target audience.  The premise is that ordinary kids have been given the power to morph into any animal they've touched in order to fight off an alien invasion.  And let me tell you, some of the scenes with those aliens were downright creepy.  As in I had nightmares after reading them.  Okay, so they were more suspense than creepy like the question was asking about, but the villains turned into some weird creatures.  And it's the first thing that popped into my head even two decades later since I rarely read anything too creepy.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: My Father Always Finds Corpses by Lee Hollis (Father/Daughter Mysteries #1)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: The characters came to life; mystery was good overall

Cons: Pacing at the beginning; climax issue; some details seemed fluid

The Bottom Line:

Finding dead body

Makes Jarrod and Liv team up

Promise, but some flaws

Murder as Father-Daughter Bonding

Lee Hollis is a name I’ve long had in my list of authors to try.  I’ve bought some of Lee’s books when they were on sale, and I’ve read novella anthologies with Lee’s stories in them.  But I was determined to actually read a novel, so I sat down to read My Father Always Finds Corpses.  While it wasn’t bad, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped.

For those who don’t know, half of the Lee Hollis pen name is author Rick Copp.  Years ago, Rick released three books starring Jarrod Jarvis, a child star now trying to navigate Hollywood as a young man.  And stumbling over dead bodies in the process.  Jarrod is back in this first in a new series.  At this point in his life, he’s left Hollywood behind and is living in Palm Springs, still grieving the death of his husband, Charlie, ten years ago.  While he’s still got his daughter, Liv, in his life, their relationship is distant.

For example, Liv hasn’t introduced her new boyfriend, Zel, to Jarrod yet.  But the chance for that to happen ends once and for all when someone kills Zel and Liv finds the body.  It’s been a number of years since Jarrod investigated a crime, but his old instincts kick in, especially when Liv decides she wants to figure out what happened to Zel.  Will solving this case bring them closer together?

I knew that Rick has released some books on his own before teaming up with his sister to write books as Lee Hollis, and I even knew he had one that featured an actor in Hollywood.  But I didn’t realize this series was a spin off/reboot of those books until I sat down to write the review.  So, if you are wondering if you need to track down those other books first or if you can jump in here, I didn’t have any trouble following the characters or their relationships in this book.  Are there some things I might have missed?  Sure.  But I would bet they are minor.  (But now I’m thinking some of the references to earlier events in his life we might have seen in those books.)

This book has a melancholy tone.  The grief Jarrod and Liv are still dealing with are very real.  We do see that start to break as the book goes along, but this isn’t as strongly comedic as I’ve heard Lee’s books can be.

But my issue really comes as we start looking at the plot.  It was a bit slow to get going.  Yes, there was quite a bit of stuff that had to be set up.  I get it.  But it still felt like it could have started faster.  The pacing did get better after we find the body.  Having said that, I had major issues with the climax.  There was a scene that seemed unnecessary.  Yes, it was fun, but it also made no sense.

We spend time with both Jarrod and Liv as they work to solve the case.  I enjoyed getting to know both of them better over the course of the story.  I feel it really worked in this case to truly understand where both of them are as the book begins.  I’m not sure that I completely bought their closer relationship at the end of the book, but I’m being a bit too nitpicky here.

And, speaking of being nitpicky, there were too many details I felt were fluid as the book went along, like how long Liv and Zel had been dating, for starters.  Either the book needed another edit to look for those details or I missed something as I was reading.

All the characters do come to life, not just Jarrod and Liv.  I loved some of them and loved to hate others.

One of the supporting characters is a former first lady.  When I saw that, my guard went up, expecting politics to come into the book.  While there are some moments, they are small.  Would the book have been better without them?  For me, yes.  But they were easy enough to ignore.

Will I give Lee Hollis another chance?  Yes, I’ll be willing to do that.  After all, I do already have some other of Lee’s books.  But My Father Always Finds Corpses didn’t make me want to rush out to read another one.