Cherry Mischievous: paranormal crime fiction

Showing posts with label paranormal crime fiction. Show all posts

Friday, 23 August 2024

BODY LANGUAGE

Body Language by A. K. Turner
Book 1 in the Cassie Raven series
Narrated by Ellie Kendrick
Genre: paranormal crime fiction
Format: ebook & audiobook

About Body Language:

When the dead are silent, she will be their voice.

Mortuary technician Cassie Raven feels a special bond with the bodies in her care, but when somebody she loved turns up on her autopsy table, her job suddenly gets personal.

Cassie's instincts are screaming foul play, but the police say it was an accident — and uptight detective Phyllida Flyte has no time for a tattooed morgue girl with attitude.

But when Cassie is proved right, she and Flyte must work together to find a murderer — before Cassie ends up on the mortuary slab herself.

Source: Info in the "About Body Language" was taken from amazon on 12/08/2024.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

I had to google the police slang, i.e., IC3 = black suspect, and IC1 = white suspect, to understand the book!...

I like the ever very so slight element of paranormal. Like, it was never even there!

Being an urban fantasy geek, I am not used to twisty plot. So, it came as a surprise!

I like the way the story was told. There was no pretence at being bad-ass. But got the crime solved anyway. Bravo!

This is my first Ellie Kendrick audiobook and she brings the book to life! I also appreciate her attempt at a Welsh accent! It came close!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Writing Style = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (11 hrs and 1 min listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Cassie Raven Series:

Meet The Author

About A. K. Turner:

A K Turner likes to create memorable characters, throw them into unusual settings, and add a hefty dose of murder and a twisty-turny plot. Her latest book, Body Language, introduces a new kind of forensic heroine - a crime-solving Goth-girl mortuary technician who talks to the dead, a character first launched in two crime shorts aired on BBC Radio 4. A K's previous series, written under the pen name Anya Lipska, starred a London-based Polish fixer who's happy to crack heads to solve crimes - which saw her being selected for Val McDermid's prestigious New Blood Panel at Harrogate Crime Festival in 2012.

A K (aka Ali) lives in East London where she is writing more mortuary-set mysteries. Her day job is producing TV documentaries on true crime and science topics. And just for light relief she is training to be a City of London guide...

The Narrator

About Ellie Kendrick:

Audiobook narrator / voice-over artist

Eleanor Lucy V. Kendrick is an English actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC's 2009 miniseries The Diary of Anne Frank, Ivy Morris in the first series of the 2010 revived Upstairs Downstairs, and Meera Reed in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Born: 8 June 1990

wiki | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were purchased with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Friday, 26 January 2024

THE TAKEN ONES

The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey
Book 1 in the Steinbeck and Reed series
Narrated by Carly Robins
Genre: crime fiction
Format: paperback, ebook & audiobook

About The Taken Ones:

Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes — decades of secrets yet to be unearthed in a pulse-pounding novel by the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.

Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.

Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide — a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.

As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood — and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.

Source: Info in the "About The Taken Ones" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62726715-the-taken-ones on 07/10/2023.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

The story is not just crime fiction. It has an element of the paranormal in it. Van's instincts are so bang on that it borders on the supernatural.

I love the premise of this book! Paranormal hunches that are always correct! Catching the bad guys! Wonderful! What is not so wonderful is the way the author makes the heroine so masochistically subservient, it is royally pissing me off!

I think the author wrote it so that the readers would hate Detective Dave Comstock. And I do! Specially when he did not shake Van's hand and said "you never belonged". No decent human being does that!! But, that's the key word: "decent" human being, isn't it?...

I got so annoyed with Comstock that I stopped reading this book and picked up another. Then when I forgot my annoyance, I picked this book up again. So, no, this book was not a fast-paced read for me.

Police outright harassing other officers of the law? Like, what century are these people living in?! I thought that was what the Bureau of Internal Affairs are for!...

I am also not very agreeable with vigilante justice. Not in fiction books anyway. So, I am in a dilemma here...

And what's up with Van taking out garbage bags to the chute?...

At the start of the book, Van was kind of a weak character. She lets people run rough shod over her. She takes her frustrations out on her poor subordinates. Then at the end, she all of a sudden speaks out to Comstock? That character inconsistency there brought the character development down a notch.

This is my first Carly Robins audiobook and I would listen to her again.

Now we have to wait a year for the next Steinbeck and Reed book to come out!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 3
Story itself = 3
Writing Style = 3
Ending = 4
World building = 4
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = (10 hrs and 31 mins listening time)
Plot = 3
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Steinbeck and Reed Series:

Meet The Author

About Jess Lourey:

Jess Lourey writes about secrets.

She's the Amazon Charts bestselling, Edgar-nominated, ITW Thriller, Anthony, and Minnesota Book Award-winning author of young adult, magical realism, crime fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. She's a retired professor of writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft's Excellence in Teaching fellowship, and a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk to discover the surprising inspiration behind MAY DAY, her first published novel).

She lives in Minneapolis with a rotating batch of foster kittens (and occasional foster puppies, but man are those goobers a lot of work). Drop by jessicalourey.com to find out more.

The Narrator

About Carly Robins:

Carly Robins is an actress and voice-over artist. She can be heard on commercials, video games, and promos. Carly comes to narration with a passion for performance along with the capability to span several genres, from romance to children's literature and thrillers.

FTC Disclosure:
The paperback, ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.

Tuesday, 15 August 2023

THE MIDNIGHT MAN

The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell
Book 1 in the Slayton Thrillers
Narrated by Elliot Fitzpatrick and Emma Gregory
Genre: crime fiction
Format: ebook & audiobook

About The Midnight Man:

If you open your door to the Midnight Man, hide with a candle wherever you can. Try not to scream as he draws near, because one of you won't be leaving here...

On Halloween night in Slayton, five girls go to Blackhall Manor to play the Midnight Game. They write their names on a piece of paper and prick their fingers to soak it in blood. At exactly midnight they knock on the door twenty-two times — they have invited the Midnight Man in.

It was supposed to be a game, but only four girls come home.

Detective Sarah Noble has just returned to the force, and no one knows more about Blackhall Manor than her. It's a case that will take Sarah back to everything she's been running from, and shake her to the core.

Will she be ready to meet the Midnight Man?

Source: Info in the "About The Midnight Man" was taken from GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58758671-the-midnight-man on 12/07/2023.

Buy Link(s):

My Thoughts:

I am glad that I stumbled into this author because this book is a very good read!

This is not just crime fiction, but also with suggestive paranormal elements in it. My kind of read!

I am not really a crime fiction fan. I am more of an urban fantasy reader. Now, the urban fantasy genre is plagued by plotlessness, so, I am used to that. So much so that a little plot impresses me already. I was very surprised with the plot twist in this book!

DC Sarah Noble
I've been reading too many similar crime fiction books because I keep getting our protagonist, DC Sarah Noble, confused with DC Morgan Brookes in One Left Alive by Helen Phifer. I have to keep untangling the details in my head... was it DC Morgan Brookes who owned that big chunk of land with that big, haunted manor? Or was it DC Sarah Noble who was married to her former DI who is already dead, but she keeps talking to? The answer to both questions by the way, is no to the first one and yes to the second one.

This is my first Elliot Fitzpatrick and Emma Gregory listen and I would buy audiobooks by them again. The narrators are good at bringing the characters come to life!

Quantitative Evaluation:

Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Writing Style = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 3.5
Pace = (9 hrs and 36 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narration = 5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries

Books In The Slayton Thrillers:

Meet The Author

About Caroline Mitchell:

New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post and International #1 Bestselling Author. Shortlisted by the International Thriller Awards for best ebook 2017 and the Killer Nashville Best Police Procedural 2018. Over 1.5 million books sold.

The Narrators

About Elliot Fitzpatrick:

Elliot Fitzpatrick studied acting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire before going on to appear in theater in London's West End, at Shakespeare's Globe, and with the Rose Theatre Kingston, as well as in international tours across Asia. As an audiobook narrator he has read over fifty titles, including books by Bear Grylls and mountain-climber Nims Purja, and in 2021 was nominated for an Audie for his work on the mystery thriller The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell. His voice can be heard in the video games Kings Bounty II and War Tales, as well as commercial work for Starling Bank.

www.elliotfitzpatrick.com | twitter | linkedin | goodreads

About Emma Gregory:

Deep and warm, Emma brings a strength and confidence to any recording. With expert control and understanding of her own voice, she can play with pitch and speed to match any requirement: Emma is as convincing playing a curious six year old as she is orating an overbearing octogenarian. And why go with just the one accent, when Emma has an entire library at her disposal?

twitter | imdb | goodreads

FTC Disclosure:
The ebook and audiobook were bought with private funds.
No money received for this review.