Tag: sherlockholmes

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#BlogTour: A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a masterful thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. For this blog tour, we’re looking at A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Masterful Thriller That Will Keep You On The Edge Of Your Seat. McKinnon has become a true master of the kind of suspense/ thriller where you’re still on the edge of your seat and trying to figure out what comes next… when their suddenly is no more “next” to be had in the book.

Now, don’t get me wrong, she tells a complete story every time. She’s just also become a master of telling that story and then leaving *just* enough dangling *so* well that you want that story to continue, even though it has reached its final point for the story she was telling in this particular tale.

Arguably one “weakness” here – more something I’ve just never gotten into and don’t really understand the “appeal” of – is the podcast base of this tale. McKinnon uses it particularly well to tell her story, both in featuring actual podcasts within the tale and in using the relationships of the various personalities that create and work on and around podcasts to great effect.

For me though, the strength of this tale really is the relational. McKinnon creates here a woman with several crucial relationships… and one she isn’t aware of that is about to push her to her limits. Because the best relationship in this book isn’t the marriage or the friend or any of the other usual suspects.

It is the antagonist our leading lady finds out through this tale that she has. While our leading lady is no (Sherlock) Holmes or (Aloysious) Pendergast or (Charles) Xavier or even (Clarice) Starling, our antagonist here absolutely is one that fans of Moriarty or Diogenes or Lensherr or Lecter will absolutely love. Because yes, the antagonist McKinnon creates here *is* that good.

And yet… if our antagonist *is* that damn good and one way to measure someone is by the strength and ability of their enemies… doesn’t that mean that our leading lady actually *is* that damn good herself?

How about you read the book and write your own review on whatever platform you’re reading this review on and let us know. 🙂 Feel free to tag me in it, assuming that is possible on said platform.

Overall though, this book really is very well done, exactly as fans of McKinnon expect from her… and may even be her best yet.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: A Killer Motive by Hannah Mary McKinnon”

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#BookReview: The Vampire’s Valet by Kent Holloway

Stoker Meets Doyle With A Touch Of The MCU Approach. If you love the non-sparkly, dark, horrific, brooding, *evil* vampire lore… you’re gonna love this book. If you love the Sherlock Holmes type detective tale, perhaps with a more solo “beat people until they give you answers” Batman/ Jack Reacher type bent… you’re gonna love this book. If you like MCU style storytelling with a shared universe with lots of different well known characters… you’re gonna love this book.

Here, Holloway clearly shows that he too is a massive fan of all of the above, and he uses his skills as a writer to manage to combine elements of each into a cohesive tale that works both on its own and works to set up a “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” type saga. At just under 300 pages, this isn’t the shortest book out there, but it provides just enough… *ahem* red meat *ahem*… to tell its tale well without overstaying its welcome (a danger, with these types of characters, just sayin) and while effectively both satisfying the reader of this tale and leaving them wanting a subsequent tale in this shared universe.

Meaning the book did its job on all fronts, and did them all well.

Now I just need y’all to fall in love with this book and start preaching its wonders so we can see how far Holloway can take it. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of The Vampire’s Valet by Kent Holloway was originally written on August 7, 2024.

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#BookReview: The Trap by Gregg Dunnett

Silence Of The Lambs Homage With Twists. This is one of those books that I honestly never would have connected it with Silence Of The Lambs had other reviewers not pointed that connection out, but it absolutely does fit here. Of course, along similar lines one could also connect this tale to the legendary Sherlock Holmes tales, which ultimately most modern detective tales come from in some way or another. Honestly, the connection I made while reading the book itself was to Starfield, a long awaited game that finally released nearly three months before this book did, and which I’ve been playing quite heavily since. *That* connection will only make sense after you’ve read this book *and* played that game all the way through at least once though.

Overall, this is a pulse pounding thriller, one where a brilliant detective faces off with an equally brilliant – and possibly moreso – serial killer. In this case… the showdown that we were promised in Book 1 of this series, The Cove. The murders here are particularly brutal, and our heroine has quite a bit in common with that famous 19th century detective in several ways, making this quite the compelling tale.

As to whether a Book 3 may be coming… I love the fact that the author actually weaves into the tale here a discussion of why that may not actually be a great idea… and yet… I ultimately still think I want to see it anyway. So we’ll see what Dunnett and his publisher do next.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Trap by Gregg Dunnett was originally written on December 31, 2023.

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#BookReview: Broken Angels by Gwyn Bennett

Modern Sherlock Holmes/ Police Procedural Blend. Here, we get yet another police procedural set in Great Britain, so the terms and some of the procedures are a bit different than American audiences generally expect, yet are in-line with other similar books I’ve read. This particular new series has a different bent than most in that its central (series titular) character is a trained tracker/ behaviorist, and his backstory and actions here are reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Original Detective. His tracking abilities are also reminiscent of the more modern day author David Wood’s Bones Bonebrake, and indeed both Lane and Bonebrake have connections to the same region of the US. This book also features a bit more of a disturbed villain than usual, and some scenes may be a bit much for some readers. Nothing overly graphic, and certainly not “on screen”, but the Carrie-type religious abuse is quite heavy handed, while also being necessary to establish the full depravity and insanity of the villain. Overall, a compelling series starter – which is great, since new publisher Storm Publishing is re-releasing almost the entire series under new titles on the same day. Very much recommended.

This review of Broken Angels by Gwyn Bennett was originally written on May 2, 2023.