Book Reviews
BOOK REVIEW: Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger

BOOK REVIEW: Blood Hollow by William Kent Krueger

Blood Hollow is the fourth in the now twenty-two volume set of Cork O’Connor private eye mystery series. Here, Krueger handles multiple intersecting plot lines and potential villains with aplomb.  The beautiful, but drunk, daughter of a wealthy townsperson drives away...

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BOOK REVIEW: Black Butterfly by Claudia Jones

BOOK REVIEW: Black Butterfly by Claudia Jones

Black Butterfly is a psychological thriller with paranormal overtones. In it, a young artist, Emily, is avoiding dealing with psychological issues in her past, not even fully opening up to her therapist. She has to prepare for an upcoming exhibition, so when her art...

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BOOK REVIEW: The Last Road Trip by Jennifer Klepper

BOOK REVIEW: The Last Road Trip by Jennifer Klepper

In The Last Road Trip, Mary Blake Bulloch convinces four of her sorority sisters to redo their college trip which was cut short by a disaster twenty years earlier. Each woman is dealing with her own crisis of some sort—divorce, terminal illness, death of a beloved...

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BOOK REVIEW: In the Great Quiet by Laura Vogt

BOOK REVIEW: In the Great Quiet by Laura Vogt

In the Great Quiet opens with the Oklahoma land rush of 1893. An independent young woman, Minnie Hoopes, plans to stake a claim, hoping for land to call her own. When her claim is challenged by two outlaws, Minnie soon has their blood on her hands. She choses to...

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BOOK REVIEW: Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger

BOOK REVIEW: Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger

When the local lumber company wants to harvest trees from the protected two-hundred-acre expanse of ancient great white pines near the town of Aurora, Minnesota, an environmental extremist, the Eco-Warrior, responds by setting explosives to bring down the mill and...

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BOOK REVIEW: Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger

BOOK REVIEW: Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger

In the second novel in the Cork O'Connor series, Boundary Waters, Shiloh, a young woman, retreats to the wilds for a period of self-discovery. Her father, Willie Raye, arrives in Aurora looking for her concerned about her safety with the approaching winter. Ex-sheriff...

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BOOK REVIEW: Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger

I really enjoyed reading William Kent Krueger's stand-alone novel Ordinary Grace and have always intended to read his Cork O’Connor books and have been collecting them to read in order. Some time ago, I started with #18 in the series as it serves as the prequel for...

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BOOK REVIEW: The Portrait by  Emilia Kelly

BOOK REVIEW: The Portrait by Emilia Kelly

Not being overly fond of gothic novels, I rarely read them. Somehow, though, I ended up reading two in close proximity. The first, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, is a gem studded with literary references and chock-full of twists and turns and a strong...

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BOOK REVIEW: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

BOOK REVIEW: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Thirteenth Tale is a gothic mystery packed with family secrets and twists that keep the reader guessing. The elderly Vida Winter, the world’s most famous living author, asks an unknown young author, Margaret Lea, to write her biography. Notorious for feeding the...

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BOOK REVIEW: A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker

BOOK REVIEW: A Stopover in Venice by Kathryn Walker

A Stopover in Venice, per its blurb, should have had everything I enjoy in a novel: a woman rediscovering herself as her marriage winds down; a sojourn in Venice, one of my favorite cities; and art and art history. It ended up being a mixed bag.  It was a difficult...

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BOOK REVIEW: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

BOOK REVIEW: The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

The Seed Keeper is a multi-generational saga told from the points of view of four different women. The primary story is that of Rosalie Iron Wing, who is orphaned young and sent to foster care. There, she meets Gaby Makespeace, forming a friendship that lasts decades....

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BOOK REVIEW: Echo of Lies by Carol Potenza

BOOK REVIEW: Echo of Lies by Carol Potenza

I enjoyed reading the first in Carol Potenza’s mystery series, String of Lies, and found I liked the second, Echo of Lies, just as much. Potenza writes of strong female protagonists who don’t need to be rescued—my kind of women. The newest protagonist, Francie Cortez,...

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BOOK REVIEW: Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor

BOOK REVIEW: Minor Black Figures by Brandon Taylor

Minor Black Figures is an interesting blend of politics, art, and LGBTQI issues. Wyeth, a young Black artist, was raised by a distant White mother and absent Black father. He worries constantly about how people perceive him and his art. He’s having trouble painting...

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