A vampire mystery

Cherry Stem: Vampire Cherry, Book 1 (Unabridged)

Author: Sotia Lazu Date: 2015 Narrator: Wendy Tremont King Provider: Acelette Press Running Time: 8 h 12 min Audible Enhanced Audio Turned at the cusp of a promising career in the adult movie industry, Cherry Stem has to rely on her mesmerizing vampire gaze for her meals and money. With the rent deadline approaching, settling for pocket change isn’t an option, so she reluctantly lets tall, dark, and handsome Detective Alex Marsden take her home for the night and fulfill her needs. Only she gets more than she bargained for. When Cherry meets Alex, she expects him to be nothing more than another “girl meets boy, girl feeds from boy, girl erases boy’s memories” hook-up. Once missing young women, the vampire council, and her irresistible ex are thrown into the mix though, she realizes nothing is as simple or random as she thought it was. And her unlife isn’t the only thing at stake.

 

I was attracted to this book not because it is about vampires (I never got into vampire fiction), but because it sounded like a good mystery.  I wasn’t disappointed, either.  The mystery is very nicely constructed, and the characters, vampire and human, are well drawn and fairly believable.  This book won’t lure me into reading more vampire fiction, but it was an enjoyable read.

 

The performance of the narrator was professional in all respects.

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review via the courtesy of AudioBookBlast dot com.

Deep in Southern charm …

Divas and Dead Rebels (Unabridged)

Author: Virginia Brown Date: 2013 Narrator: Karen Commins Provider: Bell Bridge Books Running Time: 13 h 00 min Audible Enhanced Audio The bestselling Dixie Divas mystery series continues! Trinket and her pals are, once again, caught in the middle of a murder scene… “Professor Sturgis is dead. What I’d thought was an untidy pile of clothing tumbling out of the closet turned out to be a professor with whom Bitty had just quarreled that very morning.” Virginia Brown is the author of The Dixie Divas Mysteries, The Blue Suede Memphis Mysteries, and a mystery/drama, Dark River Road. As a long-time resident of Mississippi, she has lived in several different areas of the state, and finds the history, romance, and intrigue of the deep South irresistible. Although having spent her childhood as a military brat living all over the US, and overseas, this author of nearly fifty novels is now happily settled in and drawing her favorite fictional characters from the wonderful, whimsical Southerners she has known and loved.

 

This is a charming, sometimes hilarious cozy mystery that combines good mystery making, plotting, scene setting and character development.

 

What happens when you put a dozen steel magnolias in the same place, at the same time, with the same goal? Well, it all begins with fireworks.  As any reader of Southern literature knows, you do not mess with the only son (even if he’s an identical twin) of a Southern mother.   That’s exactly what someone did, by hiding a body in the closet of Bitty’s son.  From there, we get to experience Ol’ Miss during a home game weekend, murder, mayhem, and the Divas.  The author has a wonderful sense of place, and presents her environment with love, care, and gentle objectivity.  Mississippi has a complex and tumultuous history.    Without going into detail, the author gives us a sense of that history, like the scent of flowers drifting on a breeze.

The characters are absolutely wonderful While not all are quite the Belles that Bitty is, all of them can transform from sweet and charming into lethally efficient in about a breath.

Yes, very occasionally, some of the antics of the Divas dragged, just a little, but then the story would change gears, and I’d once again be holding my seat, with excitement or laughter, or both.

The narrator was perfect for this book! If she isn’t a Southern girl, she should be adopted as one, she gets the accent and expression *so* right!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes cozy mysteries, the deep South, or just needs to brighten a dreary day with a hearty laugh (or a dozen).

I received a copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review from audioBookBlast dot com.

Great series, great book!

The Competition

Clark, Marcia. Reading time 13 hours, 18 minutes. Read by January LaVoy. A production of the National Library Service for the
Subjects: Legal Fiction

Series: Rachel Knight volume: 4 Description: After a Columbine-style shooting at a high school in the San Fernando Valley, two of the dead students are identified as the killers, believed to have committed a mutual suicide. But prosecutor Rachel Knight and detective Bailey Keller soon realize that the facts don’t add up.

I began this series with more than a little trepidation, since I had read enough books (including fiction) written by famous people to know that fame does not equate to writing ability, and that even excellent editors can only do so much.

I was a little surprised and a lot delighted, therefore, when I read the first book in this series, and discovered a new favorite mystery writer!  Ms. Clark certainly has the background for her series, and she puts her years as a prosecutor to excellent use in her books.  But far, far more important is her ability to construct truly tangled mystery plots, write extremely believable characters, and create vivid realistic settings.  This, in fact, is one of her most elaborate stories yet, and it tackles the growing problem of juvenile mass murderers head on, with no holds barred.  Her writing is impeccable, too, and she can easily and deftly carry the reader with her throughout the entire story, from first word to last.

I thoroughly enjoy her cast of constant characters, and it is fun to watch them work together, play together, and interact.  The author’s dry and sometimes scathing humor, as expressed especially in the interactions between Rachel and Baily, are just a taste of all the little treats of this series, and I particularly noticed them in this book.

I highly recommend this series (and yes, it is best read from the beginning, although not absolutely necessary) to anyone who enjoys really good mystery and suspense.

Shoshana

lyrical, haunting fantasy

The Ruling Elite, and Other Stories (Unabridged)

Author: Xina Marie Uhl, Janet Loftis Date: 2015 Narrator: Xina Marie Uhl Provider: XC Publishing.net Running Time: 2 h 15 min Audible Enhanced Audio This is a collection of short fantasy from Xina Marie Uhl and Janet Loftis. You’ll find a slave-mercenary struggling to save the life of his mistress, a palace guard defending his city against the destroyer of prophecy, a wanderer who brings more than past grief into the lives of four sisters, two men who go on a dangerous hunt to kill the witches destroying their village, an outcast trying to outwit the village oracle and get justice for her murdered mother, and a captain who discovers how high the cost is to return the dead to their rightful homes.

This is a beautifully written, evocative collection of fantasy stories.  The writing is so lyrical that these tales read like a cross between prose and poetry.  The authors chose their themes from many sources, including, in the case of Xina Marie Uhl, classical mythology.  Anyone familiar with the myth of Demeter will delight in what  this author does to expand and slightly rearrange the that myth, although she remains absolutely faithful to its essence.  The rest of the stories are exquisite, if haunting and strange to those used to more modern themes and presentation.

 

I must say, however, that the narration is an excellent example of why authors seldom make good narrators.  Audio book narration is more than just reading aloud to children, friends, or even small groups.  It requires certain skills that were not present in this performance.  Although the narration was adequate, it was barely so, and I would have enjoyed this lovely book more had it been presented by a true professional in the field.

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review via the courtesy of AudioBookBlast dot com.

murder and witches and sand, oh my!

Dark Beach: A Coastal Carolina Romantic Mystery, Book 2 (Unabridged)

Author: Doug Burris Date: 2015 Narrator: Anna Starr Provider: Doug Burris Running Time: 5 h 04 min Audible Enhanced Audio Dark Beach is book two of the Coastal Carolina Romantic Mystery series. Book one of the series, Young Love Lost, is a previous #1 in Kindle Top 100 Free with more than 100,000 downloads. For your best enjoyment, the series should be heard in order, although Dark Beach can be a stand-alone… What happens when the quiet coastal town of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, is terrorized by a sadistic killer? David Jennings and Mary Roberts expected their life to return to normal after devastating events nearly tore them apart. But moving forward isn’t easy with the ghost of their past still haunting them. Mary is trying to forget the past, but David is stuck there. Then one dark night, as he strolls along the beach, David discovers the body of a missing mayor. Her death was brutal, and it has people whispering about cults, Satanists, and witches. As the bodies begin to pile up, fears spiral out of control. Witches are called out, but Mary doesn’t believe the nature-loving Wiccans she knows could be so evil. Dark Beach is a romantic suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat to the bitter end.

 

This is one of those books that is difficult for me to review, because it is a “borderline” book.  There are elements in it that appealed to me very much, and others that emphatically didn’t.  I had not read the first book in this series, but the author made it easy enough for me to orient myself and catch up on past events, without detracting from the new story. 

While some of the plotting was excellent and nicely complicated, it wasn’t as developed as I like.  For a mystery plot to work, there should be some strong foundations, so that, when everything is complete, we can trace the indications of the villain’s identity back through well placed incidents in the book, and that foundation just wasn’t there.  Oh, there were hints about the perpetrator, but they were entirely too fleeting, and too vague, because when we learned the motivation, it came as a surprise, and I found myself thinking “where did *that* come from?”  Also, although the author uses some standard devices they aren’t used very effectively.  Again, having the least suspicious of the cast the perpetrator isn’t new by any stretch, but in this case, it just wasn’t grounded thoroughly enough.

 

Also, with a few exceptions, many of the characters were one dimensional and almost “off the shelf”.  Had this book been just a bit more thorough in its construction, and the characters been a bit more 3 dimensional, this could have been a really fine mystery story, because all the elements are there, as well as both a lovely setting and the addition of what turned out to be both a minor distraction and a unique side plot. 

 

I did very much like the way the author handled the relationship of the main characters, and the way they resolved, or at least began the process of resolving, the effects of their past traumas.

 

I have always maintained that a narrator’s performance couldn’t ruin a book for me, but the performance of this narrator very nearly did.  For one thing, I found her voice unpleasant, (though that is my personal taste, and has nothing to do with her abilities).  It is too high and too child  like for me to listen to for extended periods of time.  Also, her rate of speech was too fast, she slurred her words, and her expression was flat.

 

I received a copy of this book in exchange for this unbiased review from AudioBookBlast dot com.

The Wrong Side of Town

Spectacular Wickedness: Sex, Race, and Memory in Storyville, New Orleans (Unabridged)

Author: Emily Epstein Landau Date: 2015 Narrator: Lee Ann Howlett Provider: University Press Audiobooks Running Time: 9 h 42 min Audible Enhanced Audio From 1897 to 1917 the red-light district of Storyville commercialized and even thrived on New Orleans’ longstanding reputation for sin and sexual excess. This notorious neighborhood, located just outside of the French Quarter, hosted a diverse cast of characters who reflected the cultural milieu and complex social structure of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, a city infamous for both prostitution and interracial intimacy. In particular, Lulu White, a mixed-race prostitute and madam, created an image of herself and marketed it profitably to sell sex with light-skinned women to white men of means. In Spectacular Wickedness, Emily Epstein Landau examines the social history of this famed district within the cultural context of developing racial, sexual, and gender ideologies and practices. In 1890, the Louisiana legislature passed the Separate Car Act, which, when challenged by New Orleans’ Creoles of color, led to the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, constitutionally sanctioning the enactment of separate but equal laws. Landau reveals how Storyville’s salacious and eccentric subculture played a significant role in the way New Orleans constructed itself during the New South era.

 

This is a fascinating, extremely disturbing sociological study, which has been written for a nonacademic audience.  As with most books from University Press, the presentation is excellent in all ways.

 

This book openly discusses sexual matters, although it is not in the least salacious.  What disturbed me most, I think, was confronting directly, by reading about it, the history of post Civil War white supremacy.  Again, the author takes an objective and no holds barred look at this phenomenon, and, perhaps, it is that very objectivity which unsettled me so much.

 

But this is also a wonderful story about a time, place, and a thorough guided tour of one of the most famous “red light” districts in the country, and much of it was delightfully colorful and completely intriguing.  Of course, I’ve always known about such districts, and, being raised in Baltimore (which had its own famous one), I had always been a bit curious.  This book more than satisfied that passing curiosity.

 

The writing is accessible, vivid and readable, and the narration was professional and adequate to the needs of the book.

 

I received this book in exchange for this unbiased review via the courtesy of AudioBookBlast dot com.