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.

TV Show Review: Wild Cards - Season 3

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Case of the week and banter still fun

Cons: Low budget (still) and poor story arcs

The Bottom Line:

Case of the week? Good

But arcs are overall poor

Average season

“You’re the One Who Wanted a Badge.” “But I Didn’t Know It Came with Paperwork.”

I’ve been charmed by Wild Cards during the first two season, so I was looking forward to season three.  While I found the case of the week and the banter to be fun, the story arcs for the season were disappointing.

The premise isn’t exactly new.  It’s another unusual amateur/cop mystery show.  In this case, the cop is Cole Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) and his partner is semi-reformed conwoman Max Mitchell (Vanessa Morgan).  Against all odds, their partnership has worked out.  And, naturally, there is a spark between them as well.  Not that true love comes easy in a show like this.

As expected, we start with the aftermath of the season two cliffhanger.  And what a cliffhanger it was.  Max was leaving to meet Cole to go to Mexico with him when she was interrupted at the door by her mother – her dead for years mother Vivienne (recurring guest star Tamara Taylor).  Turns out she faked her death in order to keep Max and her father George (recurring guest star Jason Priestley) safe from a crime boss Vivienne ran afoul of.  But, just as this happy reunion begins, the crime boss’s henchman shows up and demands they follow his orders or he will kill them all.

Meanwhile, Cole did take that vacation, but when Max didn’t show, he assumed she wasn’t interested in a romance, so he returned with a new girlfriend, reporter Jessica (recurring guest star Kaylah Zander).

But all this doesn’t keep Cole and Max from teaming up on new cases.  Over the course of this season, they investigate when a 90’s boy band reunites to murder.  They are called in when an ER doctor is stabbed in the middle of a busy shift.  They travel to a nearby town where a serial killer copycat is on the loose.  And they go undercover at a digital detox retreat to catch a killer.

As I said earlier, the cases of the week were still enjoyable.  They may not be the most twisty mysteries you’ve ever seen, but they are engaging and keep me entertained.  It helps that Max and Cole still have the banter I love.  Cole is less annoyed by Max, which makes sense if they’ve been working together for a while.  Well, and if they almost ran off on vacation together.

Unfortunately, the arcs for the season were very weak.  Admittedly, it’s never been the strongest part of the show, but season one and two had better arcs than this one.  I felt like they didn’t know what to do with Jessica once they introduced her.  She got one good episode, but other than that, they really under used her.

But that’s nothing compared to the storyline with Max’s mom.  The character development it brought about was good, and I appreciated it.  But they spend most of the season working on something to get the crime boss off their back.  Naturally, we get to see the plan go wrong in the final episode.  But the revelations we got in that episode underwhelmed at best and made no sense at worst.  Plus, the plan was just crazy even if…well I’m not going to spoil it.

This is a low-budget Canadian show, so keep that in mind when you go to watch it.  The acting and production values can reflect that, but I don’t find it bothers me too much.

There are ten episodes in season three, which matches the previous seasons of the show.

I’m hoping season four bounces back from the disappointments I had in season three.  Fans will still want to watch it, but it should have been better.

Book Review: ‘Tis the Season to be Scary by Vicki Delany (Year-Round Christmas Mysteries #9)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Enjoy the characters and the setting

Cons: Uneven pacing, paranormal element too strong

The Bottom Line:

A gala murder

With some supernatural

Only average

Murder is Always Spooky

I’ve been a bit disappointed with the last couple of books in the Year-Round Christmas series from Vicki Delany, so I was debating about picking up ‘Tis the Season to be Scary, the newly released book nine.  I finally decided to get it from the library.  Sadly, while this one wasn’t bad, it wasn’t any better than the last couple.

If you are a newcomer to the series, it features Merry Wilkinson, who lives in the town of Rudolph, New York.  Yes, the town has decided to trade on their name and bills itself as the destination for Christmas.  They go big for other holidays as well, which is a good thing since this book is set around Halloween.

Merry’s best friend, Vicky Casey, has been working on a cookbook for the last couple of entries in this series, and it is finally coming out.  But the night before the official book launch, the annual fundraiser for the local hospital is happening.  It’s a big gala at the Yuletide Inn, and everyone is there, including people from out of town.  One of those out-of-town guests is Cynthia, an online reviewer (those evil people!) who has panned Vicky’s new book.  As the evening is winding down, Cynthia falls over and then dies on the way to the hospital.  If Cynthia didn’t die of natural causes, what happened to her?

The mystery started out well, but, as often happens with this series, it stalled in the middle.  Honestly, I didn’t find that much was happening to move the story forward.  Instead, we have some subplots that take over.  I did enjoy them, but I wanted to feel like the mystery was moving forward, too.  Merry was a bit more active than she was in the previous book, but she still could have driven more of the story.  The suspects were good, but we could have seen more of them to better flesh them out.

Having said all of that, I did enjoy how the book ended.  Mostly.  (More about that in a minute.)  There were some good twists and a surprising resolution.

I do like the characters in this series.  There are family and friends we’ve gotten to know, and, if they don’t make me smile because I love them they make me smile because of their antics.  But I don’t feel like we are learning much more about them or that their relationships are moving forward.  Yes, it was fun to spend time with them, but it would be nice to feel like something new was happening in their lives.

This book includes a paranormal element.  On the one hand – I get it.  This is a Halloween book.  But the story relied too much on it a couple of times, which I didn’t appreciate at all.

Since this book is set around Halloween, we don’t have the Christmas vibes I usually love so much in this series, but that’s completely understandable.

With all the talk about Vicky’s cookbook, I wasn’t surprised to find three recipes at the end of this novel.  They do sound delicious.

‘Tis the Season to be Scary is another average book in this series.  I’m not sorry I read it, but I wish it were better.  We’ll see if I decide to continue or not.

Here are the rest of the Year-Round Christmas Mysteries.

Movie Review: The Marvels

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: The opening act was fun

Cons: Too much silly overall

The Bottom Line:

After opening

The film becomes too silly

This one’s skippable

“Is This an Avengers Test?”

I’ve let myself fall behind on the Marvel movies again.  (Let’s not even discuss how far behind I am on the shows.)  Part of that is because I stopped enjoying the movies, and what I was hearing about the movies I hadn’t seen wasn’t good.  Still, I’m hoping to catch up, at least on the movies.  And the first step toward that was The Marvels.  It was…interesting.

As the movie opens, the Kree, being led by Dar-Been (Zawe Ashton), are on the move, and Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), is trying to stop them.  Her stop at a wormhole that is sending out power surges coincides with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) investigating.  And, back on Earth, Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) is playing around with her bangle.  When an energy surge sends them swapping locations, chaos ensues.  But Dar-Been is still on the move.  Can the linked trio figure out a way to work together to stop her?

I’d heard lots of bad things about the movie, and for the first act, I was pleasantly surprised.  The opening action scene was quite fun.  Yes, Kamala and her fan girling was a bit much, but I was willing to look past that since it was appropriate for her character and her age.  It did go on a bit too long, but I was happy with how Carol responded to it.

As long as we are talking character stuff, the needed scene between Carol and Monica was way too short.  I get it, they only had 90 minutes or so of story time to work with, but it just didn’t seem like they earned the character reunion they pretended happened with the rest of the movie.

It was in the middle of the movie that things went off the rails.  The first time for me was the planet we visit half way through the movie.  Yes, it’s a fun gag at first.  But then, it goes on too long and just gets weird.

Then there’s the bit near the climax that, again, is just too weird.  Sorry, but I’m not buying it.

Overall, the movie seems to gloss over some plot details as well.  I felt like some crucial scenes were cut.  Or a major plot point was covered by one sentence of dialog.

Granted, I was watching this on Disney+, but I felt the special effects held up.  Which is good because, in many ways, the plot was just an excuse for special effects and stunts.

The acting was a bit of a mixed bag.  Some of the cast were fully committed, others felt like they weren’t that invested.

There was promise in this film, but it just got too silly by the end.  Unless you need to keep up with the MCU, there’s no reason to watch The Marvels.

October 18th's Weekend Catch-Up

Welcome to another weekend catch-up.  I'll be linking up to:

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

The big news here was the winds.  Yep, it's October, and the Santa Anna winds showed up right on schedule.  They were howling Thursday and Friday.  It's still windy but calmer today (Saturday).  And we've had some fires to go with them.  Nothing near me, fortunately, but there are some big ones going on.

One reason I hate autumn is because this is what it means for So Cal - wind and fire.  I also love summer, and I hate it means that summer is ending.  But it is mostly the wind and fire that make me hate it so much.

I forgot to mention last week that I hit the 10 million milestone on my blog a week and a half ago.  Do I believe that are all legitimate hits?  No.  I'm sure there are lots of bots in there.  But, I am still going to celebrate the milestone!

In other news, I went to another concert.  We will go a long time without artists I want to see in the area, and suddenly here they all come.  This week, it's Steven Curtis Chapman, and it's just across town, which is very nice.  It was for the 25th anniversary of his Speechless CD.  He did all the songs from it in order.  It's not my favorite of his, but it does have my favorite song of his, "Dive."  Then, he closed out the night by hitting some of his classics, which are always great.

Pun-Official Holiday of the Week:

Oct 22 – Color Day is a one in a chameleon holiday.

This Past Week on the Blog:

Sunday - Weekend Catch-Up

Monday - Ornament Review: Michael Myers

Tuesday - Book Review: Apple Pies and Poisoned Lies at the Cider Falls Festival by Traci Hall

Wednesday - Movie Review: Urban Legend

Thursday - Book Review: Death in Luxor by M.A. Monnin

Friday - Friday Fun featuring My Father Always Finds Corpses

Saturday - Weekly TV Thoughts

This Coming 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

Book Haul:

None.  Nadda.  Zip.  Zero.  Didn't spot anything on sale I needed to get.  It's honestly kind of refreshing not to feel like I fell further behind in my To Be Read Mountain Range.  But I've got a preorder on the way, so I'll have something to talk about next week.

What I'm Currently Reading:

As I'm typing this, I've just barely begun Reel Stuff by Don Bruns.  This is book seven in a series about two twenty-something guys who get involved in mysteries in Miami.  And yes, this one involves the entertainment industry.  So far, I know who the victim is and how they died, but it's not looking like murder.  Since it's a murder mystery, I'm sure it is, but how we will figure it out and what is actually happening will be entertaining me for the rest of the book.  It's also the final book in the series, so I'm looking forward to finishing up a series I've been working on for years.

Have a great week!

October 17th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Anna Pigeon (10/9) – So, is Anna going to be in a new park next season?  I take it she killed Paulson.  And I get she had to do it.  But really?  He was so over the top.  A poorly executed season of a TV show.  Not sure I will be back for season two.

Marlow Murder Club – Not completely sure the payoff was worthy of the set up for this one.  But I still enjoyed the episode (and season) overall.  I feel like the storyline with Becks’s mother-in-law was in one of the books, but I don’t remember which one.  Possibly the third, but don’t quote me on that.

Marble Hall Murders – I’m impressed with how things came together.  They even pulled off multiple climaxes without making me feel like they were milking things.  This is supposed to be the last story for Susan (and Pund), and I will definitely miss them.

Celebrity Weakest Link – One of the people I was rooting for won!  Not that I was rooting for her because of the movie she was there for, but because of her other work (some of it in the horror genre).  Of course, someone else I was rooting for was the first to go.  Not that I could argue with the team.  I am always torn when a team could have run the chain but didn’t.  It would be nice, but with how much they’d gotten wrong, it would have been risky.  And they still banked a decent amount that round.

Dancing with the Stars – Not my favorite week of the season.  Too many hip hop infused dances for my taste.  The judges mostly seemed to like it, which means it must be me.  Glad to see Guillermo go home.  It was definitely time for him to leave.

RJ Decker – That was lots of fun.  I’m glad they didn’t spend any time acting like the delusions were real.  I’ve got to admit, they got me with the who, and I found all the hows to be fun as well.  And I mostly liked the ending.  Did I miss something on why the murder took place?  I guess the guy was going to blow the whistle on what he was getting for disappearing each night, but I could be wrong.

The Challenge – Going into elimination is part of the show.  I get that it isn’t something you want, but how can people be so angry over it.  It’s one thing if you’ve been down there this season.  But if you haven’t even been down there yet?  Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t go on a rant after you win.  I was very sorry to see Justin go home, however.  I do feel for him.  So close yet again.  CT would have done well (if he’s as good at puzzles as he claims), but I still would like to see him in the sand again at some point.  Stop resting on your history and prove you still deserve to be here.

Survivor – It’s been a while since we saw the two tribes to three tribes switch.  I am liking seeing these old school things in the open era.  But seriously, have these people never seen the show before?  You don’t just say everything going on, especially in front of everyone like that.  And don’t make your friendships/relationships so obvious.  It’s a good way to get voted out.  And, once again, the team that is down in numbers does to tribal and gets to vote someone else out.  I hope we aren’t going to have a tribe that can’t win.  I really don’t want that.

The Amazing Race – I was sure the grandfather/grandson team was a goner.  Still not sure how they hung on, but it probably won’t be for too much longer.  Really sorry to see the siblings go because I really liked them and their attitude.  There are some other teams I wish would be eliminated.  Not that they are bad, but they are a little annoying.  So far, there is no one I hate.  I do like a good scramble because it does mix things up.  And, what is the name of this show again?  In a race, do you wait for others, or do you go and try to finish quickly?  I will never understand teams that get upset when another team won’t wait for them.  Heck, I don’t get why teams try to work together other than maybe right when they are both getting to a task at the same time.  I also have to ask – what was the point of that cliffhanger last time?  I thought we were going to have a non-elimination leg or something.  Why not just eliminate them last week.

Traitors: New Blood – Victor is annoying, but he is the only one who is on to any of the traitors.  They’d be stupid to kill him, but they keep doing stupid things and getting away with it.  I mean, how is Victor the only one who picked up on the fruit.  I can’t believe they dodged that bullet.  And Joe confessing was heart breaking.  Honestly, all of this is heart breaking.  These players are taking is very seriously.

Special Forces: World’s Toughed Test – I was really worried when they started interviewing Candace that she was going home.  I did like getting to know her better, and glad she didn’t leave.  I probably would have done the same thing with the hostages.  Keep everyone together sounds like the smartest thing in the moment.  And the tear gas?  Not something I ever want to experience.  I can’t fault those who baled right away.

October 16th's Friday Fun

It's Friday, and what could be more fun than a Friday Fun post?  I can't think of much.  So let's get to it.  I will be linking up to:

First Line Friday
Friday Book Snippets
Book Blogger Hop

My teasers for the first two are coming from My Father Always Finds Corpses by Lee Hollis.

This is the first book in a spin off series.  The author is taking a character he wrote about a couple of decades ago and writing about their life now.  As the character solves murders, of course.

Here's how the book begins:

The heavily painted woman in her late sixties with teased-out blond hair and wearing a rainbow-colored caftan stood stoically in front of a defeated, hunched over man in a butler uniform in his late forties, his eyes downcast as she pointed an accusing finger at him.
“It was you all along, Reginald! How could I not see it before?”

Wait, doesn't that sound like a climax?  I promise that is how the book begins.  I'll leave you to find out exactly what is happening.

Meanwhile, further into the book, we find this exchange:

“Here we go!” Liv sang as she arrived and handed the gin fizz to Candy and a glass of red wine to her father. “What are we talking about?”
“Candy’s argument with Zel.”
Liv’s eyes widened in surprise.

I finished the book last week, and I'll be reviewing it next Thursday, so I hope you'll come back to see what I thought.

For now, let's turn to this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question is:

If you designed a book-themed escape room, what puzzles would be part of it?

Well, my brother and his family told me about one that did where the clues were hidden in the recipe of a culinary cozy.  I thought that was cool, especially since it was an author I have read before.

I haven't done a bunch of escape rooms.  But maybe something matching characters with their book would be fun.  Or clues being quotes from classic literature and you have to find the book to find the next clue.  I'm not sure, but my mind is spinning with possibilities now.

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: Death in Luxor by M. A. Monnin (Intrepid Traveler Mysteries #4)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun characters and travel with a good mystery

Cons: Pacing slows down a couple of times

The Bottom Line:

Some threatening notes

Start intriguing Egypt trip

Kept me entertained

Are Thieves Targeting the New Museum?

I’ve enjoyed the arm chair travel and adventure of the Intrepid Traveler Mysteries, so when I found out that M. A. Monnin was writing a fourth, I couldn’t wait for it.  As expected, I enjoyed Death in Luxor.

If you haven’t found this fun series yet, it features Stefanie Adams and Thomas Burkhardt.  When we first met Stefanie, she was taking a long await vacation to Greece.  But her plans went sideways when she found herself pulled into a case involving an art heist.  That’s how her path crossed with Thomas.  The two are now partners in life and working for Interpol trying to recover stolen artifacts or prevent them from being stolen in the first place.

Which is what takes the pair to Egypt.  The brand new Grand Egyptian Museum is set to open, but they’ve been getting notes threatening one of their exhibits.  Is someone planning a theft for opening night?  The suspects are a group of Egyptian history enthusiasts who have the wealth to buy their way out of close inspection when leaving the country.  As theft and murder swirl around them, can Stefanie and Thomas figure out what is truly going on?

This series is part travelogue, part mystery, and part caper.  It’s a juggling act, but it’s rewarding.

Having said that, the plot was a little uneven since Stefanie and Thomas were spinning their wheels a couple of times.  Fortunately, it wasn’t for very long.  I did find the resolution satisfying, and there were some truly exciting moments as the story progressed.

The travel was wonderful.  We got to visit so many fantastic places all without leaving our armchair.  Of course, the travel doesn’t slow down the story, which always amazes me.  We get some great scenes in some iconic locations.  It makes me want to go visit Egypt.  Also, I enjoyed the reference to some pop culture related to Egypt.

The series doesn’t feature a large cast of recurring characters.  It’s pretty much just Stefanie and Thomas.  While they are both equally involved in the case, we get it from Stefanie’s third person point of view.  I enjoyed seeing how their relationship is continuing to grow.  They are a fantastic duo.  We get quite a collection of suspects here, and I also enjoyed getting to know them as well.

If you wish you could travel more than your budget allows, you’ll love the virtual trips you get with the Intrepid Traveler Mysteries.  Death in Luxor is sure to please fans of this series.

Book more trips with the rest of the Intrepid Traveler Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Author Bio:

M. A. Monnin writes the Intrepid Traveler Mysteries, including Agatha Best First Novel finalist DEATH IN THE AEGEAN. The fourth in the series, DEATH IN LUXOR, released in Aug 2026. Like her heroine Stefanie Adams, Mary loves the adventure of foreign travel. If there’s the chance to check out an archaeological site, so much the better for this avocational archaeologist and Air Force veteran. Mary’s short stories have appeared in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, and numerous anthologies. She is the current President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

Catch Up With M. A. Monnin:

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I'm reviewing this book as part of a blog tour.  Check out the rest of the participants:

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DEATH IN LUXOR by M. A. Monnin | Gift Cards