Tag: neighborhood

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#BookReview: Lie In The Bay by Holly Danvers

Strong Yet Short Neighborhood Mystery. Fans of the whole “entire neighborhood has secrets that impact each other” subgenre, I have a book for you. Even if you don’t think you’re into that thing… this is still a strong mystery that you’re going to want to try out.

Danvers manages to pack quite a tale into less than 250 pages, making this a great short read for those looking to not turn as pink as the cover of this book while reading it poolside or beach side during the summer. Told from multiple perspectives, Danvers does a solid job of making each feel distinct enough from the others that it is fairly easy to track who’s head we’re in at any given point, at least for those readers who don’t find doing this at all taxing to near impossible. Danvers even manages to illuminate some far too common “real world” issues these days in ways that never feel preachy yet also show the “real world” complications of these actions.

Truly a great, short, mystery read that will thrill fans of the genre and raise the heartrate of nearly anyone, particularly given its different sequences here.

Very much recommended.

This review of Lie In The Bay by Holly Danvers was originally written on May 22, 2026.

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#BookReview: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Less Thriller, More Up Meets Anne Of Greene Gables Meets Lizzie Borden. Wow. So much to say about the book, but its impact really is about that ending, and thus all I can really say *there* is that it really is quite impactful and extremely well done.

One of the most important things I can tell you though is exactly what I said in the title. This is not your typical dark mystery/ thriller, even with the body count it has. This is much more a lighthearted ish psychological drama with a lot of depth. The Up elements are even in the description of the book, but are very well done. The Anne of Green Gables and Lizzie Borden elements – and to be clear, I’m mostly familiar with those stories themselves due to my wife being a fan of them, so please don’t crucify me on exact details here – also work quite well and between the three you really get an interesting blend of a story that I don’t think I’ve ever seen done quite this way.

There are a lot of things within this tale that various people will find disturbing, perhaps disturbing enough to want to defenestrate the book over, perhaps from the highest location available. Don’t. Keep going. Because even those elements are here to serve a purpose in this story, and it is a story that needs to be seen and understood.

No, perhaps the greatest strength of this story – even as I adamantly disagree with the US cover tagline that “sanity is subjective” and indeed that idea is quite harmful itself, because both reality and thus sanity (as defined by the degree to which your mind complies with reality) *are*, in fact, quite objective – is just how well Hepworth weaves in such an intricate display and discussion of mental health. Some of it is very obvious and surface level, but there is also a great deal left understated or even completely off the page yet crystal clear.

Overall truly an excellent story from a master storyteller, and the 10K+ Goodreads reviews as of the moment I add this one show that quite a few people already know of it.

Very much recommended.

This review of Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth was originally written on May 20, 2026.

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#BookReview: The Missing Ones by A.R. Torre

HBO Desperate Housewives. This is one of those books that requires a certain composure to be able to withstand – but for those with the fortitude, it will be quite fun and delicious indeed. One where everyone has secrets, a lot of them are dark, and some of them are the kind that tend to grab a lot of headlines when exposed, even when among fully consenting adults.

Spice level is maybe jalapeno or so, *maybe* a touch hotter, but it is more the exact scenarios of the spice that will test more people than the actual heat of it. So more like a very concentrated lemon suppository kind of heat than a “I’m breathing fire” heat. The kind of heat that (mostly) doesn’t *hurt* so much as make at least a lot, perhaps most, of people extremely uncomfortable.

The other things that will be difficult for some are the multiple perspectives combined with seemingly no real distinction between them – these are all similar people with similar enough backgrounds living similar enough lives, and the way they “speak” on the page doesn’t really differentiate themselves strongly, so it can be difficult at times to keep track of whose head we’re in at what point. Combined with a short documentary style interview paragraph or so at the beginning of each chapter, most often from still other perspectives, it can be a lot at times, even for such a short-ish (300 ish page) book.

But for those with the fortitude, this really is a strong, delicious book that has a lot to offer. It hits in some expected ways… and a few unexpected ones to boot. Torre knows what her readers will expect in such a situation and tale, and both gives and withholds these expectations to craft a story that is compelling for what it actually is. One where you could absolutely see even a lady reading this book with a strong maduro cigar as she lounges out on her back pool deck overlooking the 18th hole at a golf course, daring the fat asses playing through to ogle her knowing that she could ruin any of them in an instant. So, not exactly the “chilling poolside in Vegas with the girlfriends” vibe, yet also far from a girlboss thing as well.

Overall a strong book that will prove itself too strong for some readers – and that is perfectly ok for both the book and those readers who know themselves well enough to know they likely can’t withstand it. For those who do choose to take on the challenge though, please do leave a review yourself wherever you found this one.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Missing Ones by A.R. Torre was originally written on May 17, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid Halloween themed, Urban Legend backed mystery/ drama. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

Halloween-Themed Mystery/Drama With An Urban Legend – And A Punisher Scene. In the early 2000s, pre-MCU version of The Punisher – the one with Thomas Jane as Frank Castle/ The Punisher and also featuring John Travolta and Will Patton – I’ve always LOVED the scene in the finale where Castle tells Travolta’s character “I made you kill your wife. I made you kill your best friend. And now I’ve killed you.”. This book actually has elements that played out there within it as well, and this book actually works the drama and even action in those sequences much better than even that movie pulled off. (Though in its defense, in that movie the scene in question is just a plot point in service of the actual story, and here the story ultimately revolves around this scene.) To my mind, all of the above is obscure enough that I haven’t actually gone into spoiler territory here, so let’s move on.

This is a tale where several characters are at play, but we only ever really hear from three of them – the newbie, the Queen Bee of the resident Mean Girls (in this particular case, the mothers who effectively run the school’s PTA board), and a mysterious “other”… who seems intent on killing someone on Halloween night. It mostly takes place in the leadup to that night, where we see that not all is as it seems on Ivy Lane, and that, in the words of Tony Stark (when referencing Nick Fury in The Avengers), her “secrets have secrets”. Which goes for most every “her” here, particularly the three we actually hear from.

Arguably the one knock here is that male characters are almost non-existent and pretty damn one dimensional, but eh, this is fairly common across the genre, particularly when written by females. Finding an author that actually does opposite-sex characters well in this genre is a bit difficult at times, so it is more easily excused – for better or worse- as simply the way things (currently) are when this occurs.

Beyond this quibble though, this is a strong enough book, and spooky/ creepy enough that it absolutely fits right in with the Halloween vibe and its release is thus perfectly timed in mid-October. Definetly not a classic “monster tale”, but if you prefer your monsters of the more human variety… this may be up your alley. (Though to be fair, there is nothing *overly* horrific here. Though there are absolutely some very bad people here.) Very much recommended.

Below the jump, an excerpt (that if I remember correctly is the entire prologue) followed by the “publisher details” – including basic publishing data, book description, author bio, author web/ social media links, and links to buy the book.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski”

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#BookReview: The House With The Blue Front Door by Elizabeth Bromke

Interconnected and Interweaving. Bromke executes on an interconnected and interweaving style here better than many other attempts I’ve seen at such an approach. Told via half a dozen or so perspectives – mostly the various ladies who live in a particular neighborhood – this book has its own central mystery while also revealing bits and pieces of a larger mythos. A mythos that will leave the reader with bated breath desperate for the next book… where it is possible Bromke will continue to tease out this particular larger, seemingly darker, mystery. If you are a reader that can have *no possible spoilers* when reading a book, you’re going to want to start with Book 1 of this series. I personally started with Book 2 and had no real problems following the story (thanks in part to Bromke putting a summary of each character and where they are at the start of the tale), but I generally have no issues doing this and back reading the original stories. This is one of those women’s fiction tales that might come close to the cozy mystery label, perhaps – I’ve never read a book knowing it was labeled as a “cozy mystery”, but knowing how friends speak of what that genre entails, this book certainly gets close to that feeling. Ultimately a fun, compelling, and short-ish (just over 200 page?) read that truly will have you coming back to this series. Very much recommended.

This review of The House With The Blue Front Door by Elizabeth Bromke was originally written on April 24, 2021.