Review: In the Lonely Hours by Shannon Morgan

In the Lonely Hours

by Shannon Morgan

Release Date: July 23, 2024

2024 Kensington

Ebook ARC: 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1496743909

ASIN: B0CLZ488YP

Audiobook: B0D88RPT2H

Genre: Fiction / Gothic / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

On a small island in a remote corner of northwest Scotland lies Maundrell castle, owned by its wealthy namesake family for centuries—until now. Edwina Nunn is shocked to learn a relative she never heard of has bequeathed the castle and its land to her. What awaits Edie and her teenage daughter, Neve, is even more startling, for the castle is home to a multitude of ghosts.

Yet there’s a strange beauty in the austere architecture and the eerie, bloody waters of Loch na Scáthanna, the Lake of Shadows. Beguiled by a frightened ghost who gazes longingly out of the castle’s windows, Edie and Neve are drawn to the legends shrouding the island and the mystery of the Maundrell Red—a priceless diamond that disappeared decades before.

 

My Thoughts

In the Lonely Hours had a setting that I really loved, including an isolated castle with a mysterious past set in a remote part of Scotland.  The Maundrell family had many secrets and Edie decided to check out her inheritance as she knew little about her past having been adopted as a child.  I found their story interesting as they checked out the castle to get it ready to put on the market, but for the life of me, how they thought they could do this in one week without knowing anything about it, stumps me. And while I love these types of settings, I am now necessarily a fan of the lack of research trope for propelling a story forward. And if you can't find anything on the internet, why not stay in the village or local areas and do it from there. 

Edie's daughter, Neve, was a character I preferred over Edie, but the story was told from Edie's perspective. Sometimes I felt like Edie was the daughter as she made some really poor choices. First of all, when Edie inherits the castle, she learns that every member of her family had died there on Samhain and she and her daughter are now the sole survivors. So, what in the name of good parenting would she be doing dragging her daughter to the edge of nowhere, to an area in which she has little familiarity the week before Samhain? And she unquestionably lets strangers stay in her house just because they were squatting there when she arrived. What? Hell, no. 

Mungo ended up being my favourite character and he became even more endearing when I learned the author based the character off her own son who is autistic. And while there were many different themes running through this book such as mother-daughter relationships, found family, trust, and homosexuality, the one that stood out to me centered on Mungo and the way autistic people were horribly treated with electro-convulsive therapy. And how it was used for many types of psychological ailments. 

I was actually invested in the story for the first half of the book, but all of the ghosts eventually got tiresome. There was a reason for it, but by the time I learned more about the whys and whatnots, I lost interest and was looking forward to the ending.  I just thought the plot had too much going on, and I focused mostly on the Mungo-one because it interested me the most. The pacing of the story did slow down somewhat as well, but I think the author was trying to ensure both timelines matched up so we didn't learn too much too early, and this is why I am not necessarily a fan of dual timelines.  There ended up being a lot of repetition that was unnecessary. It's too bad as the tension was actually quite high in the first half of the book. And I will mention that I enjoyed the timeline in the past much more than the one in the present.

Verdict

In the Lonely Hours was still a decent book, with a solid mystery. I did love the atmosphere of the old castle as it certainly was remote and dreary enough to meet my expectations, but I still would not call this a horror novel, more of a paranormal mystery.  I wasn't a fan of the main character however, and I did find the pacing of the plot to be uneven and somewhat predictable, partly due to the dual timeline.  If you like atmosphere, then this book may just be the one for you.

 

Review: Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Disturbing the Dead (A Rip Through Time, Book #3)

by Kelley Armstrong

Release Date: May 7, 2024

2024 Minotaur Books

Ebook ARC & Audiobook; 337 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250321282

ASIN: B0CG4KDR8C

Audiobook: B0CKM3PQYC

Genre: Fiction / Historical / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends―and feelings―in this century.

So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn't that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body.

 

My Thoughts

Disturbing the Dead is the third book in this historical mystery series that has a unique twist as the main character is from the modern time, but inhabits a body from the 19th century. Unfortunately, the person in whose body she inhabits didn't always make wise choices, so not everyone is convinced that a knock on the head is the reason for her sudden personality shift or her sudden newfound knowledge. I find this aspect of the novel quite fascinating; how do you inhabit a body from 150 years ago without revealing who you are and what you know? And blend all this in with an interesting murder mystery, and I was hooked from the beginning. However, there were still some things that made me roll my eyes, more than once.

 

Mallory continues to be an intriguing character and I love her daily struggles trying to reign in her knowledge of the future so she doesn't affect the timeline in any way or shape when things were discovered and by whom.  I personally think this would be the greatest obstacle for me as the knowledge comes so naturally that we often say things or do things without realizing we are doing them, and these actions would be so strange to people during this time period.  Having found her place within the household, she now struggles with who to let into her small circle of people who have knowledge of what happened to her. As the circle grows, I am becoming a lot more intrigued with the other characters who surround Mallory as more secrets are revealed. And I just love the housekeeper!! I won't say anything more about her as I can't without revealing any information, but I definitely didn't pick up on that thread at all. 

The plot moves at a consistent pace, spending equal time on story and character development, something I think is important to the series.  There were plenty of twists and turns, some of which caught me off guard. Now, that being said, one of the things I loved in the previous books was the tension between Mallory and Duncan and the stress of trying to survive in Victorian England. Having to come to grips with the expectations on women, class structure, medical inadequacy, etc... put a strain on Mallory and she made a lot of mistakes and misjudgments. In this book, none of that was included and she suddenly seemed able to maneuver her way through a lot more easily which affected the overall tension and fun of the book.  And despite how awful Catriona was portrayed, I expected more from the story than what happened and was so incredibly disappointed by the ending. This sort of went against all the themes about women's rights and redemptive arcs developing in this series.  And don't even get me started on the letter/time business. Nope!!

Verdict

Disturbing the Dead was still an interesting book and I enjoyed the themes that were continuing to be developed in this book about exploitation, women's rights, social class, medicine, poverty, and policing. I do enjoy it more when Mallory struggles during this time period as any one of us modern women would not enjoy the lack of liberties that exist and have major difficulties adjusting as we were just not brought up to manipulate and deal with societal norms in a different manner. Although I think this is the weakest book of the three, there was still enough in this book to keep me invested and I will definitely be continuing the series.

 

 

Review: The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying by Lauren Street

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying (The Salazar Redwood Forest Thrillers, Book #1)

by Lauren Street

Release Date: May 14, 2024

2024 Sterling & Stone

Ebook ARC; 301 Page

ISBN: 978-1629553764

ASIN: B0D2SFZL16

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

Former military police officer Sam Salazar knows what it means to lose everything. After the death of her 5-year-old daughter, she moved to a secluded town in Northern California, surrounded by ancient Redwoods and twisting highways. She finds peace in the isolation.

Until a woman in Sam's Narcotics Anonymous group insists she’s been seeing her sister Dorothy around town. The same sister who died thirty years ago. And she’s desperate for Sam’s help.

Sam digs through layers of silence but uncovers no death certificate, grave, or body. Nothing seems right, and Sam’s determined to unearth the truth. But the small town has a dark side. The tight-knit community doesn’t like outsiders poking in their business.With every step closer to uncovering what happened to Dorothy, Sam must confront a haunting Is unearthing the truth a path to closure or a door to untold horrors?

My Thoughts

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying is the first book in a new series featuring a very interesting heroine, one who lost her daughter several years ago and has moved to this isolated town in order to cope with her grief. Unfortunately, she finds herself in the midst of town politics and secrecy as she investigates a situation for a person for who no one else will help. The cast of characters is quite diverse and quirky and  although I enjoyed this story. and thought the plot was quite interesting, there were too many underlying threads happening at the same time, ones that will continue in future books. Because of this, I did find Same somewhat difficult to relate to at times, and the main mystery sometimes got relegated to the background due to the other things that were going on.

Even though I had difficulty relating to Sam as a main character at times, I still thought she was interesting; she has a background that is somewhat mysterious and only scarce details were given to the reader throughout the book although we were given some about her daughter.  Being married to a military man, I can relate to the periods of PTSD and what she was suffering so I definitely liked those aspects of the story and of her personality as it felt so real.  While she is definitely capable, she does have a tendency to act before thinking which gets her into trouble especially when investigating a town full of secrets, one in which its people can hold onto grudges for decades. I did cringe a couple of times at some of her actions and some of the things she said, but it certainly makes for good drama in the book. I liked how there were serious consequences for what she did however, as it upped the danger level in the story and I wasn't sure when I was reading if any of the main characters were going to make it through.

The best part of this book was its ending as it had a twist I didn't see coming.  The first part of the book moved along a bit slowly, but it is the first book in a series so I didn't mind too much as the author took the time to build up the town and its characters, slowly unveiling the seething underbelly that exists in all such places.  I did feel like the story line meandered a bit and didn't always focus on Beth's situation, setting up the story line for the second book. It made me realize that Beth's story is actually the weakest part of the book and the underlying political atmosphere and the secrets pacts from the top brass are propelling most of what is happening in this town. There is also Sam's friend at the trailer park, a person whom we actually discovered little throughout the story who seems to be at the center of a lot of things and I grew very suspicious of him as the story progressed.  There were a lot of little threads being developed, none of which were really explained, all being set up for future books. While that is fine, it does leave you with a sense of unfinished business at the end of the book.

Verdict

The Girl Who Couldn't Stop Dying was very different from what I expected, but in a good way. I pretty much read it in one sitting and found the political infighting to be quite fascinating, but that is something I really enjoy as I am interesting in political dynamics.  There were some good twists and turns in the story, some which caught me off guard. As the writing was solid, I am planning on reading the next book in this series to see what Sam gets into next.

 

Review: The Fixer: Moguls, Monsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn by Josh Young and Manfred Westphal

The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn

by Josh Young and Manfred Wesphal

Release Date: April 16, 2024

2024 Grand Central Publishing

Hardcover Edition; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1538751428

ASIN: B0CDWKJWJN

Audiobook: B0CFC29KNW

Genre: Non-Fiction / True Crime / Film

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

During the height of Hollywood’s golden age, one man lorded over the city’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry.  

Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who’s who list of clients for whom he’d do “anything short of murder.”  He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die.

 

My Thoughts

The Fixer tells the story of Fred Otash, Hollywood's favourite private investigator during the 50s and 60s, a person who was trusted by a lot of people to fix things or to investigate things when problems arose within Hollywood or within the wealthy class. He used a variety of surveillance techniques and was one of the first to use some techniques that led to some ground-breaking investigative work.  While all was not necessarily up to snuff, this book certainly name-drops and I was fascinated by some of things that went on behind the scenes.   

The book focuses on the life of Fred Otash and how he built up his business. The stories are quite fascinating and if you love anything about old Hollywood, you will certainly enjoy the stories that are told in this book.  Because the book is focused on Fred, a lot of the scandalous stories that are mentioned within this book can leave the reader somewhat frustrated as that is not necessarily the role of the book.  To say there were some juicy parts is an understatement however, as Fred knew most of the players in Hollywood during this time period. He stayed with Judy Garland for over a month to help her get sober and I really enjoyed reading about his relationship with her and her children. He was friends with Lana Turner and had to help her when she got entangled with the mob. I read this book specifically because I was interested in his relationship with Marilyn Monroe and what insights he could add to her life; to say she was used is an understatement. And the Kennedy boys, don't even get me started. They may have been good politicians, but their personals lives were a mess.  And while Otash states quite firmly that Marilyn's Monroe's death was caught on tape in this book, the details are still quite vague which shows the fear that still exists in Hollywood today if the truth got out.  There is no doubt that she was being recorded as future tenants found recording devices in the home, but it shows the power that existed in Hollywood when people are still afraid to talk about what happened even today.  

I like to read a lot of biographies so I can't say that I really learned anything new about the people involved except for Fred himself, but that is the reason why I read the book in the first place. There are so many people behind the scenes who know a lot of information and we rarely hear their stories so I was fascinated by Fred's life and what he had to do. The authors mention they barely made a dent into what Fred was involved in in Hollywood as they focused on certain stories, but I was fascinated nevertheless. 

The book is very sympathetic towards Otash, maybe too much. I can't imagine that a man like Otash would have survived in these circumstances without being a little bit ruthless and I would have liked to have seen a bit more of that.  I mean he spied on the rich and fixed their problems, everyone knew he did this, so he would have made a lot of enemies in the process.  

Verdict

The Fixer was an interesting mix of Fred Otash's personal and professional life and I did enjoy the book. I think there is a little bit of everyone who enjoyed reading about the scandals in Hollywood, but I am still shocked at how depraved and how awful some of the things were. Because the book focused on Otash, the stories focused on his involvement in the cases so readers not familiar with them may feel somewhat frustrated at not getting the full stories, but again, that is not the point of the book as there are tons of biographies available for those purposes.  You don't have to have any knowledge of the time period to enjoy this book so I do recommend it to anyone who is interested in how surveillance worked during this time period and how the stars managed to scrape through their difficulties.