Book Spotlight: Cash Kills by Nanci Rathbun

Title: Cash Kills: An Angelina Bonaparte Mystery #2 by Nanci Rathbun

Published June 3, 2014; Cozy Cat Press

Book description:
When her office mate, accountant Susan Neh, brings Angelina Bonaparte a client named Adriana Johnson, the PI wonders how she can help this bedraggled young woman. Adriana’s parents, immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, were murdered only a week earlier, in a robbery at their small hardware store. Now she has discovered that, despite living like the working poor, they were actually quite wealthy––with numerous large bank accounts located around the world. Adriana is suspicious about her newfound status and hires Angie to discover the nature of her deceased parents’ wealth. When Angie arrives to interview with the parents’ attorney, Herman Petrovitch, he is missing, but his secretary Dragana is there––lying dead on the office floor, with her head blown off. Homicide detective––and Angie’s own boyfriend––Ted Wukowski, cautions her against getting involved in the murder investigation. Of course, Angie pays little heed to his warning. 

Angie realizes immediately that Adriana’s concerns about her parents’ money are probably well- founded and, even worse, that the young woman may be in great danger herself. She secures the assistance of her father’s rotund attorney, Bart Matthews, who quickly arranges for protection for Angie’s young client, while Angie begins to look into Adriana’s parents’ background. In their family home, she discovers some strange artifacts in the attic, along with what appear to be Serbian military uniforms and an ethnic wedding dress. Her investigation soon leads her to suspect a connection between Adriana’s parents, Attorney Petrovitch, and the Bosnian War of the 1980s. How or why are they linked? Angie doesn’t know, but she’s as determined to find out as others are determined to prevent her from doing so. So she’d better watch her back, because someone knows about the money in those bank accounts and they don’t intend to let Adriana inherit it. 

About the author:

Nanci Rathbun is a lifelong reader of mysteries – historical, contemporary, futuristic, paranormal, hard-boiled, cozy … you can find them all on her bookshelves.  She brings logic and planning to her writing from a background as an IT project manager, and attention to characters and dialog from her second career as a Congregationalist minister. Her first novel, Truth Kills: An Angelina Bonaparte Mystery, is out in both paperback and ebook formats. The first chapter is available free on her web site and on her Goodreads page. Cash Kills is the second book in the series. Number three has a working title of Deception Kills, with plans to publish in 2015.

Nanci is a longtime Wisconsin resident who relocated to Tennessee to be closer to her granddaughters – oh, and their parents – and is planning an upcoming move to the West Coast for the same reason. No matter where she lives, she will always be a Packers fan.

Visit her web page: http://nancirathbun.com She loves to hear from readers.  Contact her at: Facebook: Author Nanci Rathbun   Twitter: @nancirathbun   Email: contact@nancirathbun.com

Book Review: The Spoils of Avalon by Mary F. Burns

The Spoils of Avalon

Title: The Spoils of Avalon: A John Singer Sargent/Violet Paget Mystery (Book One)
Author: Mary F Burns
Published November 1, 2014; Sand Hill Review Press
Genre: Historical Fiction/Historical Mystery

My comments: This novel is set in two time periods - Victorian England and the 16th century in Glastonbury, England. It is an interesting blend of history, myth, and legend involving the history of the dissolution of the Catholic monasteries in England by Henry VIII after the Reformation in the 16th century, and the ancient myth and legend of King Arthur and the Isle of Avalon. 

It's also a mystery novel as writer Violet Paget and the painter John Singer Sargent investigate the death of a clergyman friend of Paget's who had sent her a book on the Abbey of Glastonbury. Legend has it that ancient church relics and treasures had been hidden in the abbey during the 16th century, and Paget guesses that the book has clues to elucidate the past. 

Atmospheric settings and intriguing historical facts are woven into this impressive novel. I recommend it for English history buffs and mystery lovers both. The main characters, Paget and Singer Sargent, are an unlikely pair for sleuths but this works well as the book is also set in Victorian England.

My objective rating: 4/5

Publisher description: 

The Spoils of Avalon introduces two unlikely detectives and life-long friends: the brilliant Violet Paget, known as the writer Vernon Lee, and the talented portrait painter John Singer Sargent.

The death of a humble clergyman in 1877 leads Paget and Singer Sargent into a medieval world of saints and kings—including the legendary Arthur—as they follow a trail of relics and antiquities lost since the destruction of Glastonbury Abbey in 1539. Written in alternating chapters between the two time periods, The Spoils of Avalon bridges the gap between the industrialized Victorian Age and the faith-infused life of a medieval abbey on the brink of violent change at the hands of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.

Paget and Sargent were possessed of keen minds and bohemian tendencies, unorthodox educations and outsized egos. Henry James once described Violet Paget as having “the most formidable mind” of their times, and he was an active fan and patron of John Sargent, introducing him to London society and his own inner circles of literary and artistic genius.

About the author: 
Mary F. Burns is the author of PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST (Sand Hill Review Press, February 2013), and a novella-length book, ISAAC AND ISHMAEL, being published in 2014. Ms. Burns’ debut historical novel J-THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THE BIBLE was published in July 2010. She has also written two cozy-village mysteries in a series titled The West Portal Mysteries (The Lucky Dog Lottery and The Tarot Card Murders).

Ms. Burns attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois and has a law degree from Golden Gate University. She was employed as a director of employee communications, public relations and issues management at various San Francisco Bay Area corporations, was an editor and manager of the Books on Tape department for Ignatius Press, and has managed her own communications/PR consulting business.

Visit her website or on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads

Visit the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for the tour schedule and other reviews.
Thanks to the author for an advance review copy of the novel. 

Sunday Salon: Two Mysteries and an Adventure: Women's Fiction

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week.Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey

What's with the mail these days, delivering a plastic-lined brown envelope that has been ripped, and the books falling out? Was there a book missing? In any case, I was glad to get these two AREs that made it, from the publishers.

One Step Too Far

No one has ever guessed Emily's secret. Will you? A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life--to start again as someone new?

 Now, Emily has become Cat, working at a hip advertising agency in London and living on the edge with her inseparable new friend, Angel. Cat's buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can't bury the past--or her own memories. And soon, she'll have to face the truth of what she's done--a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far. . . .( goodreads)

The Pocket Wife

A woman suffering from bipolar disorder cannot remember if she murdered her friend during a breakdown. Dana Catrell is horrified to learn she was the last person to see her neighbor Celia alive. Suffering from a devastating mania, a result of her bipolar disorder, Dana finds that there are troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia's death. As evidence starts to point in her direction, Dana struggles to clear her name before her own demons win out. (goodreads)

And an advance uncorrected proof from the author for review: 

Secret of a Thousand Beauties

1930s China. Mingmei Yip explores one woman's defiant pursuit of independence. Spring Swallow was promised in marriage from before her birth. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws' protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children.

Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day. She joins a community of renowned embroiderers led by Aunty Peony, and becomes entangled in each woman's story of heartbreak, while she embarks on a dangerous affair with a young revolutionary.

On a journey from the hillsides around Soochow to cosmopolitan Peking, Spring Swallow draws on secret techniques learned from Aunty Peony and her own strength to forge a life that is truly her own. (goodreads)

What's on your reading list this week? 

Nonfiction Book: Lives in Ruins by Marilyn Johnson

The Friday 56: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader  *Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader.

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
Author: Marilyn Johnson
Expected publication: November 11, 2014; Harper
Genre: research, nonfiction

Book beginning:

DOWN AND DIRTY
Studying the people who study people 

No dinosaurs appear in these pages. If you are looking for scientists who study dinosaurs, you want to pick up a book about paleontologists. This is about archaeologists - people who study people and the things they leave behind - their bones, their trash, and their ruins. 

These brief excerpts from the book are from an uncorrected proof. The final copy may differ.

Page 56:

In Auel's hands (author of Clan of the Cave Bear), Ayla becomes a kind of ambassador between the slow, tough, paternalistic Neandertals and the flexible, innovative, woman-centered Homo sapiens. 

Publisher description: 

The author of The Dead Beat and This Book is Overdue! turns to the archaeologists who sort through the muck and mire of swamps, ancient landfills, volcanic islands, and other dirty places to reclaim history for us all. 

Where are the archaeologists behind these stories? What kind of work do they actually do, and why does it matter? 

 Marilyn Johnson’s book looks at the lives of contemporary archaeologists as they sweat under the sun for clues to the puzzle of our past. Johnson digs and drinks alongside archaeologists, chases them through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and even Machu Picchu, and excavates their lives. Her subjects share stories we rarely read in history books, about slaves and Ice Age hunters, ordinary soldiers of the American Revolution, children of the first century, Chinese woman warriors, sunken fleets, mummies. 

What drives these archaeologists is not the money (meager) or the jobs (scarce) or the working conditions (dangerous), but their passion for the stories that would otherwise be buried and lost.

I am eager to get into this book. History and archaeology has always been an interest of mine!

Thanks to the publisher for an uncorrected proof of this book.

Book Review: Desert Rage by Betty Webb

First Chapter, First Paragraphis a weekly meme hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B; choose two teaser sentences from a random page of your current read.

Desert Rage

Published October 7, 2014 by Poisoned Pen Press. Also available free from www.netgalley.com

Desert Rage, a mystery set in Arizona, is interesting because the two teenagers accused of killing a couple and their young son are not the type to commit this kind of crime. Private investigator Lena Jones is asked to find out the truth, which is complicated by themes such as Asperger's Syndrome, surrogate egg donors and the resulting children, and the secrecy necessarily involved. 

First paragraph, first chapter:

Prologue
The first thing Ali saw when she came through the door was the blood. The next things she saw were the bodies.
"Why'd you kill my dog?" she asked Kyle. 

Teaser:

I hate that Lena person saying those awful things about Mom and Dad, even if she did say it just to make me talk. That my parents would, like beat me? as if! Dad never hurt anybody, he saved their lives, and Mom, God, what didn't she do for people, especially kids? 

(ch. 14 from an uncorrected proof; final copy may differ)

My comments:  The book got better for me as I read along. At first I thought the novel sensational, with the horrific crime committed against a couple and their young son in their Scottsdale, Arizona home. Then the play of characters came in and I became hooked by the two teens, Ali and Kyle; the psychologically damaged but sympathetic ex-foster child turned PI, Lena; her caring partner in detecting, the Native Indian Jimmy; and a host of other intriguing characters connected to Lena's past and present. 

Lena is hired to find the true murderers by a U.S. Senatorial candidate, Juliana Thorsson, who wants to keep her involvement a secret. Hunting down clues and tracking a multitude of possible suspects, she works to free the teens from prison as she fights to save her detective agency and protect herself from danger.

I really enjoyed this suspenseful mystery, its twists and turns, realistic characters, and hope to read more in the series. A great read for mystery lovers.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing a galley for review. 

Sunday Salon: Reading Three Books At The Same Time

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week.Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; Also visit It's Monday: What Are You Reading hosted by Book Journey

I'm reading three books at the moment: a literary novel set in India,  The Folded Earth by A. Roy; Season of the Dragonflies by Sarah Creech, a book that includes some magical elements; and a mystery set in Arizona, Desert Rage by Betty Webb.

Desert Rage

.Desert Rage is interesting because the two teenagers accused of killing a couple and their young son are not the type to commit this kind of crime. Lena Jones is asked to find out the truth, which is complicated by themes such as surrogate egg donors, the resulting children, and the secrecy necessarily involved. I have just started the book and am curious about this involved plot.

Why read three books at once? I pick up a book depending on my mood and also depending on where I am in the house. One book may be in the living room, another in the kitchen, and a third may be in a bedroom.  A book per room. Why not? Do you find yourself doing this sometimes?

Cat Thursday: Fat Cat at Large

Welcome to the weekly meme that celebrates the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats! Join us by posting a favorite LOL cat pic you may have come across, famous cat art or even share with us pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats! Enjoy! This fun meme is hosted by The True Book Addict. Go over to her site to join in the fun.

I wanted to join in Cat Thursday, but since I have no cats and may even be allergic to them, I enjoy them in books, cozies in particular. Let me introduce you to a Cat Mystery series that has this tabby as one of the main characters.

Fat Cat at Large

Fat Cat at Large is a cozy in the brand new Fat Cat Mystery series, written by Janet Cantrell. I'm sure cat lovers will love the cover of the book, which features Quincy, a plus-sized tabby that leads her owner into a mystery to solve.

Have a favorite cat?