Showing posts with label mystery/ crime. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery/ crime. Show all posts

May 10, 2020

ARC Review: THE PRIEST (The Original Sinners, #9) by Tiffany Reisz




New Orleans, four months after the events of THE QUEEN...

Søren has been suspended from the Jesuits for a minimum of one year after confessing to fathering a child. To say he's struggling with his newfound freedom is an understatement.

Kingsley is about to be a father again and is convinced something very bad is about to happen. Nerves? Or is he right that the time has come for the Sinners to pay for their sins?

And if things couldn't get worse, a handsome private detective shows up and tells Mistress Nora that a priest has just committed suicide, and she was the last person he tried to call. He would like to know why...

She doesn't know, but Nora and her new detective friend will turn over the city to find out, meeting liars, vampires, and witches along the way. When she finds what she's looking for, she may wish she'd never stepped foot in New Orleans.











Even after all these years, and all the novels, novellas, and all the short stories, I still drop everything to read the new book in The Original Sinners series.

And even after all these years and all those stories, Tiffany Reisz still surprises me.



When I first read The Siren, I was left speechless. So many surprises held the chapters of that book. Then I thought I knew what to expect from The Angel. I was so wrong, I couldn't have been more wrong. With two books read, I once again thought I knew what to expect, this time with The Prince. Cocky youth! I was wrong. I was wrong again with The Mistress. I think that was when I learned my lesson: Always expect the unexpected. It's served me well. By the time The Priest came around, I knew better than to try to answer the question What will happen in the book?. I expected the unexpected, and the unexpected I got.



It says this is the beginning of a new era in The Original Sinners series. It felt that way. Our Sinners are in a new place, geographically and mentally. After all the ups and downs, the fights, the drama, the life-threatening situations, they are living new lives. Happier lives. Calmer lives. How weird it was, after everything, to read about Nora and Kingsley arguing about paint colors. It was nice. Sweet. But still weird.



Also nice, sweet and weird was Nora and Søren's relationship. Now that Søren is suspended, he and Nora were spending more time together, and they weren't doing it in hiding. It was like a normal-ish relationship.



And I can't say sweet without thinking of Kingsley's fussing over the people in his life. He was adorable. I was somewhat disappointed there wasn't more of him in the novel, but I understood it. Since it says this is the beginning of a new era, I'm hoping there will be books focusing on him in the future.



Keeping with the theme of good stuff from the book, when I started reading The Priest, I was reminded of The Siren. The Siren started with Zach, then introduced us to Nora, and we learned about their complicated lives, and we got to meet her kinky world through both of them. In the later books that were solely from the Sinners' perspectives, I admit I missed reading about them and their world from an outsider's perspective.



Well, The Priest introduces us to Cyrus Tremont with a happy love life, as opposed to Zach's when we met him. Cyrus's private life filled him with joy. His work as a private detective helping women and children was satisfying.



Then -- and now we're heading into murky waters -- a priest committed suicide.

Cyrus was asked to investigate further, because the police wasn't going to. The officials were to rule it a suicide caused by depression and be done with it. One officer sensed there was more to the story, and asked Cyrus's help. His investigation led him to our very own Nora Sutherlin, as she was the last person the priest had called before he killed himself. That fact was enough for Nora to join Cyrus on his mission. They were fast friends. I loved their interactions. His and Nora's, his and Søren's. Plus, it was interesting reading about them uncovering clues. The people they met along the way were even more interesting.


Then it got sad. Horrific, really. The truth Cyrus and Nora uncovered was horrific.


See, you can never guess where Tiffany Reisz's story will go.


After the discovery of what led up to the priest's suicide, surprises didn't stop. Nora's decision. Søren's decision. Søren's... something else. The talks they had. The huge question marks about things I held up at the end.



Well, this can't be THE END, right? It's THE BEGINNING. I'm holding onto those words and not letting go. The Original Sinners: New Orleans has only just started!



What can I say in the end? I loved reading something new about the Sinners. (Next time, more about Kingsley, please.) I loved meeting new characters. And I loved that the story had it's twists and turns, though some of them hurt.



There's a quote in the book: Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.

You could easily say:


Here is the world of the Original Sinners. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. Just read.


I started with






And ended with







***ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***




Until next time, happy reading! 


XOXO,

Jul 22, 2017

ARC Review: AN UNNATURAL VICE (Sins of the Cities, #2) by K.J. Charles




 

In the sordid streets of Victorian London, unwanted desire flares between two bitter enemies brought together by a deadly secret.

Crusading journalist Nathaniel Roy is determined to expose spiritualists who exploit the grief of bereaved and vulnerable people. First on his list is the so-called Seer of London, Justin Lazarus. Nathaniel expects him to be a cheap, heartless fraud. He doesn’t expect to meet a man with a sinful smile and the eyes of a fallen angel—or that a shameless swindler will spark his desires for the first time in years.

Justin feels no remorse for the lies he spins during his séances. His gullible clients simply bore him. Hostile, disbelieving, utterly irresistible Nathaniel is a fascinating challenge. And as their battle of wills and wits heats up, Justin finds he can’t stop thinking about the man who’s determined to ruin him.

But Justin and Nathaniel are linked by more than their fast-growing obsession with one another. They are both caught up in an aristocratic family’s secrets, and Justin holds information that could be lethal. As killers, fanatics, and fog close in, Nathaniel is the only man Justin can trust—and, perhaps, the only man he could love.

 








Sometimes you read a review copy of a book, and for whatever reason it takes you ages to actually review it. You realize it's been so long since you read the book you can't properly write about it, so you read the book again. And sometimes, if you're lucky, you end up loving it more the second time around. I was lucky with An Unnatural Vice. The first time I really liked it. This time I really, really liked it.

I had a strong feeling this series would get more interesting, and I was right. Sins of the Cities continues, and gets wonderfully more complicated... and foggier. I never would have guessed I would enjoy reading about the dreadful London fog, but when it brought two lonely hearts together, the foul murkiness didn't seem that bad. Especially since the hearts in question belonged to Nathaniel Roy and Justin Lazarus.

While Nathaniel played a part in the previous book, An Unseen Attraction, Justin Lazarus was only mentioned by name, after which he was called a "damned fraud" by none other than Nathaniel, so imagine my surprise followed by excitement when I read the blurb for An Unnatural Vice, and saw Nathaniel's love interest would be the damned fraud. I just knew I'd be in for a treat. I adored Clem and Rowley from the previous installment, but Justin and Nathaniel's story was more my speed. Adversaries who become lovers, and whose fights are like foreplay -- oh, yes, it's always a lot of fun to read.

Nathaniel and Justin started off on the wrong foot, to say the least. Nathaniel was a journalist with strong opinions on right and wrong, a journalist determined to expose Justin and his profession as false. Justin was a spiritualist to whom people came wanting to communicate with the dead, and who had no qualms about lying to his visitors and taking their money afterwards. His usual clients bored him, and Nathaniel was a welcome challenge. Nathaniel had been grieving for his lover for years. He hadn't felt attraction for another man since Tony, but then his visits to the Seer of London changed that. He wanted that damned fraud, which was unsettling as was Justin's ability to guess what lay deep in Nathaniel's heart. The seance didn't end well. That could have been the last they saw of each other had there not been trouble brewing in the foggy city streets.

The mystery from An Unseen Attraction continued in this book. The secrets and crimes surrounding Clem's family were increasing in number, as there were more and more people claiming to have a right to the family fortune, some of which were willing to go to great lengths to achieve it, even resort to torture and murder. Two of those unsavory characters would find their way to Justin Lazarus and demand his help in tracking the heir to the title by using his ability to talk to the dead. Justin's performance wasn't satisfactory which in turn put his life in danger. Justin had made it his mission to never depend on anyone, so when the time came he needed help, he had no one to ask for it. Except Nathaniel.

Running away from murderers brought Nathaniel and Justin to a place where they had plenty of time to spend in each other's company and to clear the air. They had time for discussions and arguments, and enough privacy to make up afterwards. It was my favorite part of the novel. With each book by KJ Charles, I'm impressed with how she handles bringing two very different characters together, and Nathaniel and Justin couldn't have been more different.

An Unnatural Vice left Justin and Nathaniel in a good place. Well, not counting the murderer that's still on the loose. The person not in a good place at all was Mark. I can't wait to read his story in An Unsuitable Heir, and finally see how this mystery unravels, but mostly to see what happens between Mark and the heir. It'll be a great conclusion to the series, I know it!


***ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

 
My review of the first book can be found here.


Until next time, happy reading!


XOXO,
 

Mar 3, 2017

ARC Review: AN UNSEEN ATTRACTION (Sins of the Cities, #1) by K.J. Charles




  Summary

A slow-burning romance and a chilling mystery bind two singular men in the suspenseful first book of a new Victorian series from K. J. Charles.

Lodging-house keeper Clem Talleyfer prefers a quiet life. He’s happy with his hobbies, his work—and especially with his lodger Rowley Green, who becomes a friend over their long fireside evenings together. If only neat, precise, irresistible Mr. Green were interested in more than friendship...

Rowley just wants to be left alone—at least until he meets Clem, with his odd, charming ways and his glorious eyes. Two quiet men, lodging in the same house, coming to an understanding... it could be perfect. Then the brutally murdered corpse of another lodger is dumped on their doorstep and their peaceful life is shattered.

Now Clem and Rowley find themselves caught up in a mystery, threatened on all sides by violent men, with a deadly London fog closing in on them. If they’re to see their way through, the pair must learn to share their secrets—and their hearts.

 


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Review

Rating: 3.5 stars.


An Unseen Attraction is the first book in KJ Charles's new trilogy Sins of the City. A new series by KJC is one good reason to bring out the celebrating-ponies gif, so here it is:

description

From what I've gathered from the blurbs, just like the previous series, each book in this trilogy will be about different characters. In this one we get to meet two sweet, kind, loyal men Clem Talleyfer and Rowley Green. Clem was a lodging-house keeper; Rowley was one of the lodgers. They'd lived under the same roof for eight months, in which time they'd formed a friendship over tea and conversation at night. However, both would have liked to be more than that, and this story was about them making that step towards a romantic relationship and becoming a couple. Theirs was a slow-burning romance, with them being careful around each other, and sometimes painfully slow. This could be why I wasn't as into the story as I usually am when I'm reading something KJC wrote. I guess I just prefer one that burns a bit faster, but I have to admit that for these characters the pace was just right.

An Unseen Attraction is romance and mystery wrapped up together, and the second part of the book was more about the mystery. That was the part I enjoyed the most. Dead bodies, arson, family secrets left and right, and that was only the beginning. Where it will go next, I don't know, but I look forward to finding out.

The second half was also the part where the other characters who will get their own books came into play, which is another thing I liked. Going on what I've read about them, I have a pretty good feeling about their stories.

3.5 stars is a little less stars than usual for a KJC book, but I am not one bit worried about that. You see, the author's last series is one I loved, and I mean LOVED. If I were to make a list of my favorite series, Society of Gentlemen would have a place on it, no doubt about that. However, if my memory serves, and I believe it does, I wasn't that much into the first book. The second was one of my favorite books ever; the third I also loved; the short prequel was amazing. With the first installment it took me some time to warm up to it, and by the end I couldn't wait to read the rest of the series. That's exactly what happened here: the story and the main characters didn't grab me from the get-go, but now I can't wait to read the remaining two books, and closely meet the other main characters and see where the mystery will take us next.


***ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

 
Until next time, happy reading!


XOXO,
 

Apr 4, 2016

ARC Review: THE LOST COAST by Jane Kindred




  Summary:


Some histories should stay lost. Especially those written in blood.
 
The only things Millie Lang’s mother gave her were third-degree burns, and a name Millie refuses to use. Abandoned as an infant, Millie grew up as “the girl with the scars”, shunted from one foster family to the next.

Before she met Lukas Strand, she’d never understood what “home” meant. Then Lukas disappeared without a word. Eight years later, Millie is secure in the life she’s built as a physical therapist. Until she gets a letter from a mysterious stranger who knows her real name.

From the moment she arrives at the sprawling vineyard manor on California’s Lost Coast to work with the owner’s young son, she begins to doubt her secret benefactor’s motives. The vineyard is known as The Strand—and Lukas is her patient’s father.

As Millie delves into the tangled threads of their family histories, she realizes the fire that scarred her may not have been an accident—and Lukas’s son is in danger. Unless she survives long enough to unearth the key to some very uncomfortable truths…

Warning: Contains a vineyard owner whose family tree may not have the ideal number of branches, and a woman who is about to discover the magic hidden in her own DNA. May cause unsettling feelings of creeping anxiety and a sudden urge to make bad puns about wood.




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Review:

Rating: 1 star.



description

I've been trying to remember what it was about this book that once made me think I would like it and request it on NetGalley, but it's been so long I can't recall anything about it. All I know now is I made a mistake.

It's quite simple: this was not a book for me.

In terms of genre, I wouldn't know how to classify it. The Lost Coast had paranormal elements, murder mystery, erotica, a little romance. Unfortunately, none of them worked for me.

My only status update was What is happening here?! It's a question I kept asking throughout the book, whether it was because I genuinely had no idea what was happening or because I couldn't believe some things were actually happening. In the case of The Lost Coast that was not a good thing.

The main star and narrator of The Lost Coast is Millie, a woman who as a child survived a fire that left her with severe scars, knew nothing of her family, and had her heart broken by one Lukas Strand eight years ago when he disappeared from her life without a word. They meet again when going after a mysterious job offer and promise to find out more about her mother brings her to a place called The Lost Coast and to the home of her long lost lover, one he shares with his wife, and son who she was hired to take care of.

That's when she starts receiving anonymous messages about her childhood and her mother, which makes it the beginning of solving the mystery that is her origin.

During her stay at that estate, Millie will find herself in the middle of the Strand family drama, murders, attempted murders, and family traditions that will really have you wondering what in the world is happening there. Traditions that included incest, a fact I wish was included in the warning. I know the publisher uses that warning portion to describe all the fun things in a book, but I think incest should be in a real warning. It's something I'd like to avoid in books, and in this story it was particularly difficult to read. It's only described through conversations, but it was difficult nonetheless.

Those family traditions are strongly linked with what Lukas's and his wife's families are. And what they are is what made this book a paranormal one. I don't read much PNR, so I can't say if something like this was ever written about. I can only say I haven't ever found it in a book before. Not sure if I would want to repeat it because I found it a bit confusing. That it was connected to the incestuous relations didn't help.

So, Millie is finding out about her mother, father, and her family in general, she's dealing with some odd people at that estate, she's helping her ex's son get better, and keeping him out of danger, she's still attracted to her ex, Lukas, and that's not even half of it. Her life couldn't be any more complicated.

That brings me to her love-life complications, and the erotic and slightly romantic aspects of the novel. Lukas, who for me even at the end was still a mystery, was in a forbidden zone for Millie, but staying away was hard for both of them. Then another man entered her life and bedroom. I had no idea where it was headed from there, but the ending sounded like there was happiness in store for her in the future.

Overall, this was not a book I hated; just one that confused me a great deal, and ultimately didn't work for me. If any of the story parts I've mentioned seem appealing to you, then by all means, pick it up and see for yourself.


***ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***




Until next time, happy reading!




XOXO,
 

Feb 5, 2016

REVIEW: He Will Be My Ruin by K.A. Tucker











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*** Summary ***

A woman who almost had it all . . .

On the surface, Celine Gonzalez had everything a twenty-eight-year-old woman could want: a one-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, a job that (mostly) paid the bills, and an acceptance letter to the prestigious Hollingsworth Institute of Art, where she would finally live out her dream of becoming an antiques appraiser for a major auction house. All she had worked so hard to achieve was finally within her reach. So why would she kill herself?

A man who was supposed to be her salvation . . .

Maggie Sparkes arrives in New York City to pack up what’s left of her best friend’s belongings after a suicide that has left everyone stunned. The police have deemed the evidence conclusive: Celine got into bed, downed a lethal cocktail of pills and vodka, and never woke up. But when Maggie discovers a scandalous photograph in a lock box hidden in Celine’s apartment, she begins asking questions. Questions about the man Celine fell in love with. The man she never told anyone about, not even Maggie. The man Celine believed would change her life.

Until he became her ruin. 

On the hunt for evidence that will force the police to reopen the case, Maggie uncovers more than she bargained for about Celine’s private life—and inadvertently puts herself on the radar of a killer. A killer who will stop at nothing to keep his crimes undiscovered. 

*** Add on Goodreads ***

My Rating:



MY REVIEW

Money, sex, and murder in New York City. – if I had to make a tagline for this book, I’d use that. 

He Will Be My Ruin is my first book by K.A. Tucker (I DNFed Ten Tiny Breaths), however it sure won’t be my last. Tucker has plenty of books under her belt and it shows, her writing is phenomenal, I really can’t a find a fault with it. 

Moreover, if I’m not mistaken, Tucker is a NA writer, however this book is pure adult mystery and a very good one, in my humble opinion. 


The story follows Maggie Sparkes, heiress to Sparkes Energy empire, however she refuses to follow that career path and instead she does humanitarian work in Africa, having created her own nonprofit organization Villages United. I personally loved Maggie as a protagonist, she’s strong, independent, relentless, yet also vulnerable and a complete failure at espionage.  She comes to NYC and starts investigating her friend Celine’s suicide/murder, and she hires a PI – Doug, who quickly became one of my favorite characters. Soon, however, she discovers that Celine had an entirely different, hidden life and she begins to question everything and everyone!

The story is told through Maggie’s POV but there are some chapters told in Celine’s POV (as well as her diary entries) that lead us back to the past and illuminate certain events. I liked the pacing, there were also many twists and turns to the story – the story starts moving in one direction, then something happens and you no longer suspect that person, your attention is diverted elsewhere, but then all of a sudden you don’t know whom to trust anymore. 



There are actually only two suspects (at least only I suspected two persons), but still Tucker manages to keep you in suspense and in the dark. When I found out who the killer is, I literally had chills! 


Therefore, I don’t want to keep this review longer than it already is. With mystery books, I feel it best not to discuss anything too much. The novel was well-structured, the story and the characters felt real to me, it managed to surprise me and I’m looking forward to more from KA Tucker!

PS: sorry for all Jessica Jones gifs



xoxo, 
Beatrix

Jan 21, 2016

ARC REVIEW: Jefferson Blythe, Esquire By Josh Lanyon


Genre: MM Romance/ Contemporary

Buy The Book: AMAZON B & N  KOBO

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Synopsis On GR

In this fast, fun and dead-sexy male/male new-adult caper from multi-award-winning author Josh Lanyon, twentysomething Jefferson Blythe gets lost, gets found, falls in love and comes out...all in the span of one wild summer

After his first relationship goes disastrously awry, Jeff Blythe uses his savings to tour Europe—the old-fashioned way. Armed with his grandfather's1960 copy of Esquire's Europe in Style, Jeff sets off looking for adventure but finds much, much more than he bargained for...

In London, dodging questions from shady criminals about a mysterious package he most certainly does not have is simple. Losing the gunmen who are convinced he's someone else is not. And when George, an old friend, offers him help—and a place to stay, and perhaps something more—things become complicated.

Is George really who he seems? And is Jeff finally ready to act on his attraction?

From Paris to Rome and back again, Jeff and George fall for each other, hard, while quite literally running for their lives. But trusting George at his word may leave Jeff vulnerable—in more ways than one.

REVIEW


The short version of my thoughts about this book would be: mixed feelings. This type of reads are probably the hardest to review for me, because I can't say neither I liked it nor I hated it and to be honest I'm really lacking any inspiraton right now and two of my most expected reads of 2016 are waiting for me on my shelf, so I'll keep it short.


I read and enjoyed Lanyon's Dangerous Ground Series last year which was for the most part just like this one- a suspenseful, action-packed, advetourous and humorous mystery/ crime story with a little romance, which was more of a background story. The protagonist Jefferson Blythe, a 22 year old American sets off on a short journey around Europe in order to escape the drama back home and give himself some time to finally figure out what he wants from life- to continue being this person others expect him to be or to finally let go of his fears and be his true self, but the journey turnes out to be more than he bargained for. A crazy stalker girl and her gang, a dangerous mob boss on his tail, the constant life or deaths situations and an old friend who brings back all these long forgotten, supressed feelings- this is definitely not the the journey he paid for. This is the type of a journey where he could loose more than his heart.
The focus of the story was the mystery which was at the same time the part that annoyed me and made me yawn the most. No offense, the whole story behind the mystery (and the poorly done villains) seemed from time to time quite bizarre and unrealistic, not to mention the anticlimatic ending. At some point I really stopped caring or trying to solve it and that is never a good thing. On the other hand I've enjoyed the romance and the characters for the most part, even though they did have some immature drama queen moments. The parts I've enjoyed the most are the detailed description of all the places Jefferson visited in London and Paris. It made me want to buy a ticket, but then I remembered my financial situation and delayed my travelling plans, lol. Btw. The abrupt, unfullfilling ending left me thinking: What? That's it??? The book is definitely one epilogue short.

All in all, I can't say this wasn't a well-written story like always when it comes to Lanyon's work, but as a whole, I must admit I liked her Dangerous Ground series much more.

RATING: 3 /5 stars


xoxo,

Purple

Oct 13, 2015

ARC Review: DARK ECONOMY by M. Keedwell




Summary:

Love can’t stay buried.

Medical student Cadell Meredith has been known to acquire “volunteers” from the occasional pauper’s grave in order to improve his surgical skills. While the legality of this practice is a bit murky, he wouldn’t go so far as to call it out and out robbery.

His latest acquisition, however, is different. The body on his table was obviously healthy, wealthy—and murdered. Cadell feels compelled to seek justice for the dead man, but while dissection comes naturally to him, crime investigation is unfamiliar territory.

Furthermore, he’s caught the attention of one of those new police officers, Blaine Breton. A handsome, sentimental fool who insists Cadell is a criminal. A criminal! Cadell is the first to admit he’s no saint, but he’s no killer.

A marvelous game of cat and mouse ensues as Cadell seeks to expose the truth while hiding his own secrets. A task that grows ever more difficult as his desire for Breton grows…and the danger deepens.




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Review:

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.


One of my favorite parts of Samhain Publishing books is that warning that comes at the end of book blurbs. They are always fun to read, and for me not even a warning, but actually a list of things to look forward to in a book. With Dark Economy it was: This story contains mystery, mayhem, and a male romance that starts off in the most delicious way possible—mutual hostility. Awesome warning, right? No surprise, right after I finished the book, the first sentence I wrote was:
A whole lot of mystery, quite a few suspects, and a bit of romance in Dark Economy...

 

Mystery is rightfully mentioned first as it was what the book was mostly about.



It starts off with the hero Cadell Meredith breaking the law. As a medical student keen on learning as much as he can, he finds his classes rather unsatisfactory in providing him with the knowledge he so desires. Therefore, he's forced to be creative in the ways of learning human anatomy, meaning occasionally acquiring bodies from pauper's graves, which was exactly what he was doing at the beginning of the story, and thus breaking the law. Right then and there we also meet the policeman who will throughout the book be his main adversary as he is an officer with a firm belief practicing on cadavers is an awful practice, which sparked many an argument between them. He will also be the man to wake a part of Cadell he spent years ignoring. But back to the mystery at hand. The body Cadell brought home to dissect did more than offer insight in the intricacies of anatomy, but also in the life and death of the person it used to be. For one, it was apparent the body didn't belong to a pauper, but to a rich young man. Second, the young fellow had clearly been  murdered. That knowledge woke in Cadell the need to investigate. Why he chose to go on the mission of finding out who the man was and what happened to him, he'll ask himself several times without having a definitive answer. He felt he owed it to him, he supposed, for helping him in his medical studies, but over time it became more:

“Kind of funny that you dragged me back to life by dying.”


 
His investigation required he get help from an old friend who had been at one time more than that, he made new friends, and his path kept crossing with the bloody policeman who occupied this mind until even they made peace with each other, and for all that Cadell was grateful. Which brings me to this: Dark Economy is a story I liked, but (there's always a but) it would've been a story I loved -- the book would've been an easy five-star read -- had a few parts been handled differently. The parts I'm referring to are the ones relating to Cadell's personal life. His love for medicine and his dedication to it was well described. His dedication to his chosen studies and eagerness to put his knowledge into practice was so palpable it made me happy for him for having found a profession he feels that way about. What I would've liked to read more about was his personal relationships, past and present, as that is something that interests me about characters. It was obvious he had issues with his family, and that something happened to drive them apart. Same thing with his friend. His past love life, I thought, deserved more page space. Not to mention his present love life. He and his main love interest had little time together for the majority of the book. They didn't even become lovers until the very end. I knew going in the main focus would be solving the mystery of Treswick's murder, but I had hopes the romance would have a slightly bigger part in the plot. Why this was as it was, I do not know, but since this book seems as one of those stories that could get a sequel or more of them, if it happens, I do hope the attention shifts more to Cadell's private life. All this, of course, is because of my preferences. I do watch crime/investigation TV-shows, and even then, the episodes I enjoy most are the ones that are about cases that are personal to the main characters.




Uncovering Treswick's life and death piece by piece was interesting. In fact, it was so interesting and complicated, I wished he were alive so we could get a book about him -- I think it would've been a good one. Alas, he's swimming with the fishes. However, as much as it was interesting, keeping track of everything and everyone proved to a hard task for me, and more than once I would find myself confused by all the information as there were quite a few suspects (this is something that happens to me while watching criminal investigations in TV-shows as well). Nevertheless, as a whole Dark Economy, Cadell Meredith and Blaine Breton have left a good impression. I look forward to seeing what the author will come up with next! 



In the end, I believe Dark Economy would appeal most to mystery lovers who don't mind a tiny bit of M/M romance thrown in the mix.
I'll continue hoping M. Keedwell's next book will contain more than a tiny bit of romance. *fingers crossed*


***ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***


Until next time, happy reading!


XOXO,


 

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