January 2025's Reading Summary

We are already through the first month of 2025.  Kind of crazy, isn't it?  Time to take a look back at what I read in January.

And yes, the index is up to date!  (Finally!!)

All ratings are on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (great).  The links will take you to my full review.

 

Gilt Trip by Diane Vallere (Samantha Kidd #14) – 5

Samantha Kidd’s husband, Nick Taylor, is up for an award, and Samantha is doing all she can to support him.  Unfortunately, her efforts to get a table for family and friends at the awards banquet have turned out to be filled with people who are angry with her for one reason or another.  But the evening takes a horrible turn when Samantha finds the body of the toastmaster in a closet of the hotel where the event is being held.  With a blizzard keeping the police from arriving, Samantha must try to solve the crime.  Can she do it?

This book is fun since it all takes place in one night.  In lesser hands that could have been a bad thing, but in this case, it worked well.  I was engaged the entire time and kept guessing until we reached the logical climax.  Yet we still got plenty of time for the subplots to play out.  We still see plenty of the regulars, and I liked the growth we saw in Samantha.  We also go plenty of laughs and discussion of junk food.  If you want a light mystery, this series is definitely for you.  And if you are a fan who hasn’t gotten to this book yet, you are in for a treat when you do.

 

Hired Guns by Steve Hockensmith (Double-A Western Detective Agency #1) – 4

This book finds a trio of Army friends turned adventurers heading to the Arizona Territory to help out a struggling copper mine.  No, it’s not to help them with the mining.  The conglomerate Consolidated American Mining Corporation has decided it wants to buy this particular mine, and they are doing all they can to convince the owners to sell.  There’s just one major problem – the owners don’t want to sell.  And our trio of heroes have been hired to help protect the mine.  But against the overwhelming odds, can they do it?

These characters began life in the author’s Holmes on the Range series, and I was happy to follow them over here.  The story started a bit slowly, but it isn’t long before the action heats up as the characters find themselves facing overwhelming odds.  Yet, I found myself cheering at the end.  To be clear, this is more of an action story than a mystery.  The characters are a bit thin, but they do have their moments to shine.  The reality of racial relations in 1894 is part of the backdrop of the book, and it’s sad to think we ever treated each other this badly.  The book is a bit more violent than I normally like, but only a little bit.  It is softened some by the humor.  If you are looking for an action book set in the old west, you’ll find this the perfect book to pick up.

 

Rivers and Creaks by Marc Jedel (Redwood Country Mysteries #1) – 3

Andy Shirley and his late wife had planned to run a bed and breakfast in Monte Rio after they retired.  Now that the time has come, he has to take it on by himself.  While he’s been figuring out how to be a good host, something that doesn’t come naturally to him, he runs into a problem he wasn’t expecting – murder.  When he takes over the business, there is a wedding party staying there, and one of the bridesmaids has been killed.  Can he solve the crime, or will it destroy his business?

This author has been on my radar to try for a while, and I finally got a chance with this book.  Sadly, the results were mixed for me.  I grew up near where this book is set, so I enjoyed that aspect of things.  However, the plot was uneven, with as much focus on Andy settling into his new life as the murder.  This led to a weak climax that at least did answer our questions.  Meanwhile, Andy was a bit pricklier that I found enjoyable.  I get it, but it took a while to warm up to him.  Some of that came from the new relationships he is forming, and I enjoyed reading about those.  I also enjoyed the humor of the book.  I’d give a second book in this series a try, but I hope the issues with the first are ironed out.

 

The Sinister Sitcom Caper by Sally Carpenter (Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol Mysteries #2) – 4

Next up on Sandy Fairfax’s attempt to restart his career is a guest spot on a sitcom.  It’s not one of the popular sitcoms of 1993 but a low rated show that might be canceled.  Still, a job is a job.  Unfortunately, the tension on set is thick, and it leads to murder.  With no one interested in investigating, Sandy starts to nose around.  Can he figure out what happened?

Since I enjoyed meeting Sandy in book one, I was looking forward to spending more time with him.  I wasn’t disappointed.  While the sitcom setting does not provide the laugh a minute laughs you would get from a good sitcom, there are still some laughs and smiles.  The mystery kept me guessing and reached a logical conclusion, but I would have liked to know how Sandy reached it.  I loved getting to know him better, which was helped by the fact that he was home for this book.  The rest of the cast was great as well.  I’ll definitely be back to spend more time with him soon.

 

Welcome Home to Murder by Rosalie Spielman (Hometown Mysteries #1) – 4

Tessa Treslow left her hometown in Idaho as soon as she graduated from high school.  She’s now spent over twenty years in the army and is ready to retire.  Since she still doesn’t know what she is going to do with the rest of her life, she agrees to return to New Oslo for an extended visit.  While reuniting with her parents and aunt, she senses that there is something they are keeping from her.  But she learns more in the more horrific way when she and her aunt find a dead body in the garage her aunt runs.  The police, in the form of Tessa’s high school boyfriend, feel that her family has the perfect motive.  Can Tessa figure out what really happened?

This series debut has been on my radar for a while, and I’m glad I finally got to pick it up.  It has some twists on the familiar cozy tropes, and I enjoyed those.  There is a depth to the characters I appreciated, and I also liked that we got details about Tessa and the others over the course of the book without any data dumps.  The mystery had a few pacing issues in the middle, but overall, it was good with plenty of red herrings and a logical climax.  I’m looking forward to seeing what else Tessa can find in her hometown.

 

Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge (Phyllida Bright #1) – 4

Agatha Christie and her second husband, Max Mallowan, are throwing a house party when an unexpected guest arrives in the middle of a summer storm.  The man says he is a reporter who has an interview lined up with the famous author.  While Agatha doesn’t remember it, she instructs Phyllida Bright, her housekeeper, to set him up in one of the guest rooms, at least for tonight.  But the next morning, Phyllida finds the man dead in the library.  She doesn’t think the police are up to solving the crime, so she jumps in to find a few clues for them.  But who was the victim?  And who would want to kill him?

Fans of Agatha Christie will get a kick out of the wink and nods in the set up.  But everyone will be hooked on this mystery, which had the clues and red herrings well layered to keep me guessing until the ending.  While we got to know Phyllida and a few other characters well, I did feel like we got too much of her thoughts, which slowed things down and kept us from getting to know the suspects better.  Only a handful of scenes were told from someone other than Phyllida’s point of view, but when it happened, it always made sense.  And one of those scenes was absolutely perfect that way.  While current events don’t play a big part in this 1930’s set book, it does give us a clear picture of what life was like for servants during that time.  I’m hoping to get to the next book soon.

 

Stuff to Spy For by Don Bruns (Stuff Series #3) – 3

When Skip Moore lands a sale for a company looking to upgrade their security system, he thinks he’s finally made the big time. He even gets his best friend, James Lessor, a job on the installation team. Then Skip is offered a couple of extra assignments with big paydays. What could possibly go wrong? A suspicious death for starters. Then there are things that aren’t adding up, and evidence that someone is spying on them. Can the pair figure out what is going on?

This series is a mixed bag for me, and this book was no exception. I appreciate the friendship between Skip and James, but the ideas and James leads them into make me smack my head sometimes. I appreciate some of the humor, but other bits make me cringe. The plot was compelling, but the ending was rushed. And a key scene makes little sense (why are the characters there?). Then there’s also the needless tease in the opening. Yet, I plan to keep going forward with this series. If you pick the book up, keep in mind that it came out in 2009, which explains some of the dated technology. If the premise sounds interesting pick up the series. Otherwise, you can skip them. 

 

Fatal Reunion by Annette Dashofy (Zoe Chambers #11) – 5

When a missing high school teen’s body is found in a remote area of the county, Zoe Chambers Adams has flashbacks to her senior year of high school.  There are too many similarities to three teen girls who were killed all those years ago.  Back then, the police had a suspect, but he committed suicide before he was charged.  The killings stopped, so everyone moved on.  While Zoe’s new husband, Police Chief Pete Adams, is busy looking at modern suspects and motives for the death, Zoe can’t help but wonder if a killer has been roaming free all these years.  And, with her twentieth high school reunion happening, she’s wondering if the killer is in town for the event.  Is what is happening today tied into what happened two decades ago?

This is another excellent book in this series.  As always, Zoe and Pete share the third person narration, and that gives us insight into the characters and story.  It’s great to spend time with the returning characters, and the new ones are just as well drawn.  The plot grabs you from the beginning and keeps you engaged until you reach the satisfying solution.  These books are not cozies, so pick them up expecting something darker, and you’ll be fine.  I’m hoping to get to the next two books in this series soon.  If you are looking for fantastic mysteries, you won’t be disappointed you met Zoe.

 

Written in Blood by Sheila Lowe (Claudia Rose #2) – 2

When hand writing expert Claudia Rose takes on a case for recent widow Paige Sorensen verifying her late husband’s signature, Claudia doesn’t expect anything beyond the court case.  But she gets pulled into Paige’s world, including the fighting with her step children and the happenings at the school where Paige is headmistress.  But when two people go missing from the school, Claudia wonders what is really happening.  Can she figure things out?

I enjoyed the first in the series enough to pick up this book, but I didn’t enjoy this book at all.  Yes, some of it was the content in the Kindle version I purchased last year.  There was more language, violence, and other stuff that made it hard for me to really enjoy the book.  Plus, the mystery really took too long to get going.  When we reached the climax, too much was thrown at us without truly explaining why or how it was happening that way.  And, I feel like some of the things at the end contradicted the facts we’d gotten earlier in the story.  On the other hand, I did like Claudia as a character.  I’m not sure that will be enough to pull me further into the series even though I’ve already purchased some of the books.