March Mystery #3

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Wow, I think I have found my favorite book so far for 2023. This was hilarious. LOVE it when I find a new author I love. Finlay Donovan is a hoot. When a young divorcee mom suddenly has to worry about her cheating ex-husband trying to get custody of her kids and she is a struggling novelist who is finding it hard to pay her bills and keep afloat, what should she do? Of course, become a hit mom. A miscommunication in a Panera with her agent leads a Panera customer to think she is a hit man and leaves her a note asking her to kill her husband for a substantial sum of money. Finlay is not a killer but everything she does to get out of the mess causes her to dig deeper into a bad situation. If you like cozy mysteries that make you lol, you will love this series. I can’t wait to read the next one.



View all my reviews

I shared my Goodreads review above but I wanted to add a little more for my own followers.

I have watched several booktubers talking about how great different books are and had been disappointed, until now. None of the other suggestions had panned out so far, until now.

This truly is a new favorite. The writing flows well as she spins her ridiculously funny story. She makes the unbelievable believable. The characters are well rounded and you get to know them so you care about what happens to them. Finlay gets herself into such awful situations, it actually made me nervous worrying about her. It is a story and I know it isn’t real but as far out there as the situations were, I believed it was possible.

If you love cozy mysteries that are not gory but are hilarious, I hope you take my suggestion and read this one. Let me know what you think.

Also, if you are on Goodreads, follow me for all of my reviews. I would love to follow you as well. If you have read this series, what are your thoughts?

Until next time,

Virginia

 

March Mysteries # 2

I really had high hopes for this one. It is actually a horror novel but I felt it held enough mystery to add it to my March reads. I did do a little research to find out what a spite house is. It is a house built to spite someone. Usually they are built to ruin someone else’s view or be a reminder of something to someone who may not appreciate having to look at the house everyday. There are hundreds of them all over the country and I will probably keep my eyes out looking for them when I travel now.

Spite House is the story of a father, Eric Ross, and his two daughters who are traveling around the country like fugitives. We slowly learn why as the story progresses. Eric Ross takes a job in the hill country of Texas in a house that legend says people disappear in it. The owner neglects to disclose that information when she offers him the job. Eric does understand that the house is haunted and Eunice, the owner, wants proof of the afterlife and she is willing to pay plenty to get that information.

If Eric can complete the task he and his daughters will be comfortable for a while. I did think the backstory was interesting and it might explain what was happening in the house in current time but no one really explained how or why that could happen. I can’t explain too much because I don’t want this to be a spoiler. The author did use a fresher idea as to what the ghosts were capable of doing to humans and there was a twist at the end as to who the live people should actually fear.

I love a good ghost story. This was not one. I was able to read this at night which is one clue for me that it isn’t scary. It also isn’t gory which I did appreciate. I enjoy more psychological thrillers. The ghosts weren’t believable and neither were most of the characters. This story had potential but the author didn’t follow through. Everything felt like hints of horror but I never felt the horror. This is the author’s debut book so there probably will be more books in his future and if other readers like them, I probably would give him another shot. I did like the cover art and that is probably what drew my attention to the book as well as a book seller who said he wanted to read it. But for this one, I gave it 2 stars. It wasn’t a satisfying read for me.

What do you look for when you read horror? Have you read this book and what are your views?

I am already in the middle of book three for March and I am loving it. It is a mystery and I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

In the meantime, keep reading.

Virginia

 

Death on The Nile

Book and Movies

I re-read Death on the Nile in February and watched a couple of the adaptations. The first was the British one from the Poirot series. That adaptation followed the story line more closely then the 1977 movie.

Peter Ustinov starred as Poirot and I probably would have liked it more if I hadn’t already discovered David Suchet who was in the series. Suchet will always be Poirot for me now. In the series Suchet plays the character more seriously. Though Poirot is kind of humorous because of all of his little idiosyncrasies, like working so hard on his appearance and knowing that his little grew cells will help him solve the crime.

Ustinov played the role a little more slapstick. I noticed one scene where he sat down in another characters room on the ship and because the character wasn’t hungry, Ustinov took the tray of food and helped himself. I am fairly sure that did not happen in the book and I could never see Suchet doing that.

I don’t want to give away spoilers so will only give a little information about the storyline. It is about Linnet Ridgeway, a young , beautiful, wealthy heiress. From the beginning of the book it is obvious everyone is curious about her. Everyone appears to be jealous and she admits that no one likes her.

Jacqueline de Bellefort, Linnet’s friend confides that she is in love and newly engaged. She bemoans the fact that her fiancé, Simon Doyle lost his job and begs Linnet to hire him as her estate manager. Linnet asks her to bring him to see her.

That request is the inciting incident. Everything that follows is because of that request. That is the fateful first step toward murder.

The book is one of my favorites and there have been several adaptations. It is a story about love and jealousy. The love of a man and a woman and the love of two friends. Jealousy, hate, and revenge are the other motives allowing Christie so many suspects.

The 1977 movie was filmed on location with major stars. Besides Ustinov there was Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Mia Farrow, and Olivia Hussey who had become famous for her role in the early seventies as Juliet in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Their day on location started at 4:00 AM daily for makeup so they could start filming by 6:00 AM. The afternoon temperatures often hit 130 degrees so they would break for a couple hours mid day. They did film at the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx. One scene supposedly was at the top of a pyramid.

I read this book before I found out about the ChristieReads2023. Each month Christie fans are reading a selected story. February will be The Moving Finger. I will obviously need to play catch up with the January and February reads but I am sure that will not be a chore. You can find out more online by going to ChristieReads2023.

Death on the Nile is one of my favorites and while Goodreads gave it 4.19 stars, I gave it 5 because I would read it again.

If you have never read Christie, I would suggest checking out her books. What is your favorite Christie?

Until next time,

Virginia

 

March Mysteries # 1

The sun is shining bright today so I should get out a little bit but in the meantime, I finished my first book for the month. It was J is for Judgment by Sue Grafton.

I love Sue Grafton’s ABC series. I had never completed the series so decided last year to start from the beginning and read them through. This one was excellent. It pulled me into the story and would not let go.

This was the story of Wendell Jaffe who made it look like he’d committed suicide off of his boat several years earlier after he and a business partner pulled off a Ponzi scheme. He owed so much money the logical thing to do would be commit suicide or turn himself in, or fake a suicide. When the story begins. We don’t know for sure what happened. The wife filed for a death ruling to be able to collect on his half million dollar life insurance. Kinsey Millhone, the protagonist of this series is called in when someone from the insurance company she used to work for, sees Wendell in Mexico. Kinsey starts her investigation. Meticulously following leads, she is like a little bull dog tugging on a bone while everyone is trying to stop her. This book was complex enough to make me keep wondering what really was going on and who was involved. It had a very satisfying ending. Ms Grafton’s characters always feel rounded and there are enough quirky ones to make you want to come back and visit again. She is able to make even the bad guys have something about them that makes them human so that you care about them and she did do that with Wendell in this story. She is adept at describing the setting. One scene in particular made me feel the spray from the ocean and the bitter cold of the water. I would give this book 5 stars.

I plan to continue this month reading mostly mysteries. I want to read at least one Sue Grafton novel a month until I complete the series. I also started re-reading the Diane Mott Davison series set in Colorado about a caterer who solves mysteries. Same situation, never completed the series so last year started from the beginning.

Instead of waiting until the end of the month, I decided it might be easier to review each book as I complete it. I have been weeding through my bookcase this past month but I have also added a few more to my collection so I have a lot of books I want to read this month.

I hope to have a fun reading month but I do plan to enjoy the first signs of spring.

Enjoy the day but try to read, just a little.

Until next time,

Virginia