Review: One by One by Lauren Street

One by One (The Bishop Smoky Mountain Thrillers, #10)

by Lauren Street

Release Date: January 7, 2025

2025 Sterling & Stone

Ebook ARC; 315 Pages

ISBN: 978-1629554266

ASIN: B0DNTZV4Y5

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Rileigh Bishop and Mitch have faced their share of dangers, but nothing could prepare them for the horrors lurking in Shagbark Manor. Sixteen-year-old Hillary Scofield warned of blood-soaked visions, floating violins, and a body surrounded in a puddle of blood. Then she disappeared without a trace.

Determined to find the girl, Rileigh digs into the manor’s grim history, uncovering the chilling tale of Crawford Tillman – a man who returned home nearly a century ago to find his family murdered by an axe-wielding killer. Now, a new killer appears to be imitating the murders, starting with Hillary.

 

My Thoughts

One by One is the next book in the Bishop Smoky Mountain Thrillers and I have to admire how the author can keep writing taught mysteries book after book.  While this one has the appearance of a paranormal aspect, the actual truth is far different and I appreciate how perspective can play a huge role in witness accounts and how difficult it is for a police detective to separate fact from fiction.

The plot wove around the disappearance of a sixteen-year-old girl, but the reader did get to meet her in the first quarter of the book and learn some of her fears. I found this approach more in style of horror novels although this was definitely not a horror novel in the slightest. I did find that approach to be helpful once Mitch and Rileigh started digging into her disappearance as you already knew some of the backstory, but not enough to give anything away.  The manor is actually run by the great-granddaughter of the man who originally built the home, but who was at the center of grisly family murder that has pretty much remained unsolved all these years.  The plot moved along rather quickly and involved multiple POV, but they were clear and easy to follow.  I did have a problem with sentence structure, punctuation and grammar to the point where it actually jolted me out of the story a couple of times. As a proofreader, I tend to let certain mistakes slide, but when actual names of characters are wrong multiple times, it gets harder not to get annoyed.  And I did take a look at a published copy compared to my ARC to see if the mistakes were fixed and they were not.  I only mention this when it is definitely an issue.

 

The author does assume that you have prior knowledge of the relationship between Rileigh and Mitch when reading this book, but I don't think that is actually a big problem.  Personally, I felt like the character development was not a priority in this book and while that may be fine for the main characters whom we have met multiple times, it didn't help with the secondary characters we met for the first time in this book. To be honest, most just kind of faded to the background as the story went on, and while I liked the ending, I did feel like it was incomplete as it focused more on foreshadowing for the next book and what was going to happen to Rileigh rather than concluding the present book.  

 

Verdict

One by One had some great moments, and I definitely enjoyed the overall story even though I did find some of it predictable.  I liked how the author wove the paranormal aspect into the story, but it wasn't what people would expect.  I did think the plot overshadowed character development in this book which affected the ending and left some questions for the reader.  Overall, a decent entry in the series. 

 

Review: The Twilight Queen by Jeri Westerson

The Twilight Queen (King's Fool Mystery, Book #2)

by Jeri Westerson

Release Date: January 2, 2024

2024 Severn House

Hardcover Edition; 224 Pages

ISBN: 978-1448310906

ASIN: B0CBBXMTNK

Audiobook: B0D1D1RFKN

Genre: Fiction / Historical / Tudor / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Greenwich, Palace of Placentia, April 1536. Queen Anne is in peril. In the mid of night, court jester Will Somers is summoned to an urgent assignation when she discovers a body in her chamber. The queen wants Will to find out who the man is and how he ended up there. 

Anne has many enemies at court, and to make matters worse, Henry VIII is lining up his next conquest and suspects her of treason. Has the formidable Oliver Cromwell been whispering vile lies in the king's ears, and could Anne be the target of a Catholic conspiracy? As further attacks plague the court, Will is determined to uncover the truth behind the plotting and devilry, but he will need to keep hold of all his wits to do so!

 

My Thoughts

The Twilight Queen is the second book in the King's Fool Mystery series, and I really enjoy this series as it features a prominent person at court about whom we actually know little so the author can take liberties within the historical context. I thought the mystery was clever, but did feel like the ending was rushed; I would have liked to have read more about the fallout that happened afterwards.

 

I really enjoyed Will Somers as a main character as he is complex with many layers, but is absolutely loyal to King and throne. Manoeuvring the complexities of King Henry's court would have been very difficult during this period and I appreciated reading about the relationships of the various characters, most of whom are people who actually lived during this time period. Will himself struggles with his sexuality and while I have seen comments that suggest his wife would not have condoned this during this time period, if you have a history background you know the opposite is actually true as a wife would not have said much about her husband's proclivities considering women didn't have too many rights. The exploration of Henry's The Buggery Act of 1933 was just another facet of this novel and how men needed to be very careful when dealing with the king and his advisors. The struggles Will and his wife faced were raw and honest and I really enjoyed the scenes in which they were together.  

The plot moved along rather quickly, but the mystery was often shuffled to the background when something else occurred. That was fine, but suddenly Will would start doing his investigation again and I did find the shift somewhat jarring as I had to remind myself I was reading a mystery novel and not simply a historical fiction one.  There were a lot of great ideas in this novel, and I have always enjoyed this author's writing style, but I did think they were somewhat rushed.  

Verdict

The Twilight Queen was an entertaining, interesting book focusing on King Henry's fool as a main character.  Will Somers is very much unconventional, in an unconventional relationship, and has an unconventional relationship with the king, something which allowed the author to give a different perspective to what is happening at court.  I definitely appreciated the research that went into this, but did feel the overall mystery was a bit flat.

 

Review: The Family Inside by Katie Garner

The Family Inside

by Katie Garner

Release Date: January 28, 2025

2025 MIRA

Ebook ARC; 384 Pages

ISBN: 978-0778334460

ASIN: B0D1F7W12N

Audiobook: B0D3RVF8RM

Genre: Fiction / Suspense

Source: Review copy from publisher

2.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage.

Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more in an invitation to move into his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.

With repairs underway, the house gives up its dark secrets one by one. Before long, Iris unearths a chilling family history—and the terrifying reason she and Ellory were invited in the first place…

 

My Thoughts

The Family Inside actually had an intriguing premise and contained a lot of things that I like in a suspense novel. However, the author tried to include way too much and as a result, the overall story was a mishmash of concepts and ideas which didn't flow very well. When you try to throw too many red herrings in a pot, the pot overboils and you end up with a hot mess everywhere.

 

The plot itself moved along rather quickly, but while it had an interesting start, it quickly degenerated into one that was a bit of a mess as the author tried to incorporate too many things.  I really wish the focus had been on one or two themes rather than a bunch of them as this could have been quite fascinating. I also can't stand it when you are in the middle of chapter and realize the POV you thought you were reading was someone completely different and not even from the present time period. This kind of mind f&%$ doesn't sit well with me and I was swearing at the book quite a bit on top of raising my eyebrows. To be honest, I almost DNF it at that point.  I get that it was done on purpose to play with your mind, but it definitely didn't work for me, all it did was piss me off. And while I don't mind a lot of twists and turns, they do need to be believable and I just didn't find a lot of them plausible; personally, I thought a lot of them were just there to have twists and turns in the book. There is a case for fewer twists and more development in a book.

 

With all of those twists and turns, there was little time for character development and it showed. I just couldn't develop empathy for the main characters and wondered how many terrible decisions a person could make in one book.  Apparently, it's a lot.  I don't necessarily have to like a character, but I do have to believe in their motives, in the reasons for what they do. This one didn't convince me at all.  And I don't know about you, but if my kid goes missing, I would tear every wall down I could looking for her. Iris' behaviour just didn't make sense, and it was these types of things that lessened my enjoyment of this book.

Verdict

The Family Inside had a lot of interesting ideas and honestly, with more focus on character development and less focus on shock value through the sheer number of twists and turns, this book would have been so much more intriguing. Unfortunately, I just couldn't connect with the characters and the plot inconsistencies were too much.

 

Review: The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn

The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy

by Thomas Penn

Release Date: June 16,  2020

2020 Simon Schuster

Hardcover & Ebook Editions; 688 Pages

ISBN: 978-1451694192

ASIN: B07Z44P4KC

Audiobook: B07RWDSJ6W

Genre: Non-Fiction / Historical / Medieval

Source: Review copy from publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary

n 15th-century England, two royal families, the House of York and the House of Lancaster, fought a bitter, decades-long civil war for the English throne. As their symbols were a red rose for Lancaster and a white rose for York, the conflict became known as the Wars of the Roses.

During this time, the house of York came to dominate England. At its heart were three charismatic brothers—King Edward IV, and his two younger siblings George and Richard—who became the figureheads of a spectacular ruling dynasty. Together, they looked invincible.

But with Edward’s ascendancy the brothers began to turn on one another, unleashing a catastrophic chain of rebellion, vendetta, fratricide, usurpation, and regicide. 

 

My Thoughts

The Brothers York was a fascinating look at the relationship between the King Edward IV, George, and King Richard III during one of the most bitter wars for the English throne.  And while I thoroughly enjoyed the way the author presented his information, and the descriptions of the battles and other scenes were very well done, I still felt like there was something missing throughout that took me quite a while to figure out.

 

Honestly, the story of Lancaster and York has more treachery, deceit, backstabbing, and secrets than anything you would find in a fiction novel which is why I think the lives of these men have fascinated historians and readers alike for centuries. Even though I have been reading about this time period for years, every new telling still makes me squirm when I read about the horrors that men will do to others all in the quest of a throne and power.  There were a lot of changes happening in Europe during this time period, with the emergence of a rather stronger France, difficulties with Burgundy and Scotland, new technologies in a lot of areas including warfare, and a lot of disputes over trade.  With a weak king in England, the time was ripe for some sort of rebellion to occur.

 

I did think the author wrote about the events concisely and with interesting detail. To be fair, I soak these types of books up as I have a huge interest in this time period and the more I learn, the more I am fascinated.  At the same time, I did feel like there was something lacking and it took a bit of reflection to figure out exactly what it was as the details and descriptions of the time period were quite good.  What was missing was the passion and the drive behind all of these actions. I just felt like the deeper insight into what really drove the people involved was missing and how the actions influenced each other into doing what they did.  While the author did a really great job analyzing the events, there was little to no discussing analyzing people's emotions and the effect they would have had on each other. With such a tightly knit group, all actions would have had consequences on everybody else.  For example, how such men involved actually gained their power and influence was not really discussed, you just had to accept it as it was, but in this world, men didn't just rise to be powerful, they had to have done something, or cemented alliances that would enable this.  These were passionate men who risked everything so a little bit more insight into their motives would have been nice.  I also felt the author didn't do Richard III justice, but focused more on the negative things during his reign rather than on his legacy, most of which was ignored in the book. Although he only reigned for two years, he definitely implemented a lot of changes that were beneficial to the people. Yes, he had his issues, and I don't agree with what he did to Edward V, but I did feel the author was less forthcoming with his part of the story. 

 

Verdict

The Brothers York was definitely gripping and worth the read. Edward, Clarence, and Richard had a complicated relationship bred during difficult times and had known little other than war and stress.  However, the story did lack deeper understanding and analysis of the motivations behind the actions and I would have liked to have seen more development of the relationships between the people and how they influenced each other into making the choices they did.  A bit more depth would have made this book amazing.