Amateur Investigators Archives – Page 2 of 2

Winter Gets Hot by David M. Hamlin [Book Review]

Posted on August 20, 2018January 14, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Title: Winter Gets Hot

Author: David M. Hamlin

Publisher: Open Books

Publish Date: December 6, 2017

Genre: Amateur Investigator

Series: Emily Winter #2

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

Winter in Chicago journalist Emily Winter is the first reporter on the scene of a gruesome murder in the offices of CARD, a civic organization that investigates corruption in City Hall. Although she has proven herself to be a skilled reporter with at least one headline making story to her credit, her new TV boss assigns her to a more “ladylike” beat—lifestyle and feature stories.

Determined to overcome the sexism that inhibits her career, Emily works her way into hard news coverage, including the story of the murder at CARD, but she faces major obstacles on all fronts as she pursues the killer.

As the case twists and turns, Emily navigates the city she loves, relishing Chicago’s architecture, neighborhood restaurants, culture and her beloved, if hapless, Chicago Cubs.

Will she uncover the murderer and bring justice for those who depend on hard-working journalists to write the stories that define their lives? Find out in Winter Gets Hot!

MY REVIEW

Emily is a journalist in Chicago. She does the lighter, fluffier pieces for the news station she works for, but she yearns to work on more hard hitting news. When she is the first reporter at a crime scene, she thinks she finally has a chance at a real news story. Unfortunately for Emily, the current crime news reporter is putting up a fight and doesn’t want her working on the story. Emily is not easily discouraged, so she works on not only reporting the crime, but solving it too.

This is the second book with the character Emily Winter. I have not read the first book, Winter in Chicago, but Winter Gets Hot is easily read as a standalone.

This story takes place in the late 1970s, and Emily deals with a lot of sexism in the work place. With her high standards for work ethic and career goals, she is ready to show the men that there is room for a woman in the news room. A smart, resourceful, and determined female protagonist.

Emily is an enjoyable character to root for. A solid crime mystery, with mostly realistic interactions. My only complaint was the conversations with her husband. He used odd phrasing that seemed dated, even for the 70s. Though it was sometimes humorous, it broke the flow of the story.

An enjoyable, quick read. Good for fans of lighter crime fiction with a female sleuth.

I received a digital copy of this book from Book Glow in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the Winter series:

Winter in Chicago
Winter Gets Hot

Jamie Quinn Mystery Series by Barbara Venkataraman [Book Review]

Posted on March 21, 2018January 14, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Series: Jamie Quinn Mystery
Book 1: Death by Didgeridoo
Book 2: The Case of the Killer Divorce
Book 3: Peril in the Park
Book 4: Engaged in Danger
Book 5: Jeopardy in July

Author: Barbara Venkataraman

Publisher: Independently published

Genre: Amateur Investigator

My Rating: 4/5

Jamie is an attorney that practices family law, but manages to occasionally find herself in the middle of a mystery. To help her solve the mysteries, she gets helps from an amusing cast of characters, primarily her best friend Grace and a private investigator, Duke.

BOOK 1

Death by Didgeridoo

Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, still reeling from the death of her mother, is pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It’s up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it’s too late. It doesn’t help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn’t commit.

Death by Didgeridoo by Barbara Venkataraman

MY REVIEW

The first book in the Jamie Quinn Mystery series.

Jamie’s cousin is accused of murder, and he needs her help. Jamie is an attorney, though not of criminal law, but she want to help her family. Her cousin has Asperger’s, and it’s inconceivable to her that he is capable of committing a violent crime. Jamie, along with the help of a few friends, searches for the real killer.

A humorous cozy mystery. The characters were relatable, and I enjoyed the interactions Jamie had with her best friend and the private investigator. This was a quick, fun read.

BOOK 2

The Case of the Killer Divorce

Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It’s business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie’s client becomes the prime suspect. When she can’t untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client’s name. And she’s hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father.

The Case of the Killer Divorce by Barbara Venkataraman

MY REVIEW

The second book in the Jamie Quinn Mystery series.

Jamie has recently returned to her family law practice after a brief time away to deal with her mother’s death. One of Jamie’s current cases is a bitter divorce, that turns to murder. In her personal life, Jamie wants to learn more about her father.

The murder mystery was light, but with some twists. In addition to the mystery of whether Jamie’s client killed her soon-to-be ex, Jamie decided to search for her long-lost father. I was curious where this story would lead, but it was wrapped up too abruptly for me. As for romance, an old flame returned to Jamie’s life.

A fun and humorous cozy mystery. I have enjoyed the characters in this series: Jamie is smart, compassionate, and relatable; Jamie’s bestie, Grace, is no-nonsense, yet funny; and private investigator Duke is a lecherous drunkard, but likable. Jamie’s aunt and cousin weren’t as prominent in this book as the first, but it’s clear Jamie believes family is important.

BOOK 3

Peril in the Park

There’s big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn’s boyfriend, Kip Simons, the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can’t figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there’s a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it’s too late.

Peril in the Park by Barbara Venkataraman

MY REVIEW

The third book in the Jamie Quinn Mystery series.

Jamie’s boyfriend, Kip, is having trouble at work. He is the new director of Broward County parks, and someone is trying to make his work life miserable. Between dealing with vandalism in the parks, disgruntled employees, and a land development deal, Kip’s hands are full. Along with wanting to help Kip with his work woes, Jamie also helps her father try to obtain his US citizenship.

This book focused more on Kip and mysteries related to his work. Jamie wanted to help her boyfriend, so she contacted her favorite private investigator, Duke, to figure out who was causing problems for Kip. I enjoyed this story. Kip was another great character, and as usual, Duke brought a lot of humor to the story.

As a side story, Jamie’s father was having trouble obtaining US citizenship. Jamie enlisted the help of her best friend Grace to discover what was the problem. Grace was once again level-headed and practical, but humorous.

BOOK 4

Engaged in Danger

Finally, life is good for reluctant family law attorney, Jamie Quinn–her father may get his visa soon, her boyfriend is the bomb, and her law practice is growing like crazy–but when she agrees to take on a high-profile divorce case, everything falls apart. What looked like an opportunity to work with her friend Grace and make some serious bucks has turned into a deadly game, one that could destroy their friendship and tear their town apart. Why couldn’t Jamie just leave well enough alone?

Engaged in Danger by Barbara Venkataraman

MY REVIEW

The fourth book in the Jamie Quinn Mystery series.

Jamie works a high-profile divorce case of a woman who wants to get away from her husband, a corrupt businessman. A few side stories are also going on in Jamie’s life, including helping her neighbors discover who owned the plane that crashed and killed their sister and brother-in-law.

A quick and fun cozy mystery. Jamie worked harder in this one than the others. She had a high profile case in this book, and it kicked her into higher gear for work. Plus, her boyfriend, Kip, left the country for work, and she was looking for ways to distract herself while he was away. Jamie and her best friend, Grace, had the opportunity to work together in this book. It was fun to see their work relationship, but they also had a big falling out over personal matters. Also reappearing were Duke, the unorthodox private investigator, and Nick, the slick politician.

BOOK 5

Jeopardy in July

Old people were dying at an alarming rate at La Vida Boca, a posh assisted living facility in Boca Raton, Florida. With its sterling reputation, dedicated staff, and top-notch medical care, none of the deaths are considered suspicious, but when members of the poker club start to die under strange circumstances, attorney Jamie Quinn finds herself once again embroiled in a mystery. With help from her new friend, Jessie Sandler, and her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie uncovers a crime that took place forty years earlier. Can she stop the killer in time? Or is she in danger of becoming the next victim?

Jeopardy in July by Barbara Venkataraman

MY REVIEW

The fifth book in the Jamie Quinn Mystery series.

Jamie’s current divorce case takes her to an assisted living facility. After visiting the facility and getting to know some of the people, Jamie takes a job there to lead seminars. The job is fairly simple, Jamie will host seminars and help the seniors with their legal paperwork, but, of course, nothing is as easy as it appears. As Jamie spends time with the seniors, she gets involved in a mystery of suspicious deaths and art forgery.

This book brings back Jessie, a friend Jamie made in a previous book, but includes her bestie Grace and the odd, but lovable, Duke. I enjoy the recurring characters in this series. Jamie is fun, but her friends provide some real laugh out loud moments. Jamie’s family drama continues, but takes a backseat to the other action.

My favorite Grace/Jamie interaction in this book:
“I was wondering — do you want to check out a new brewery in Fort Lauderdale? They have games and food trucks.”
“But do they have beer?” I joked.
“They have kegs and kegs of the stuff — with flavors like coffee, and peanut butter and jelly.”
“Call me old-fashioned,” I said, “but I like beer-flavored beer. Do they have any of that?”

This made me laugh out loud because my husband and I enjoy visiting breweries and trying new beers, and we always make fun of the weird beers that breweries make nowadays. I’m with Jamie, I like beer-flavored beer.

This is a fun series. Jamie and her friends, family, and other assorted characters are entertaining and likable. Great reads for fans of cozy mysteries.

I was contacted by the author to review the Jamie Quinn books.

The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone [Book Review]

Posted on March 18, 2018January 14, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Title: The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss

Author: Max Wirestone

Publisher: Redhook

Publish Date: January 9, 2018

Genre: Amateur Investigator

Series: Dahlia Moss Mysteries #3

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

Veronica Mars meets the World of Warcraft in this mystery romp with a hilarious heroine.
Working for a games development company is my dream job. So, when a slightly sketchy lawyer offered me the opportunity, I had to take it! Who cares that the company has some quirks? No job is perfect. Some questionable, but probably totally normal issues:
· A mysterious whistle-blower is posting the industry’s dirty laundry on Reddit.
· An unidentified corpse is in the staff room.
· The game under development is for filthy casuals, and unwisely involves matching talking peppermints.
· My job, technically speaking, is “Industry Spy.”
It’s all just a typical day at the office. Right?
Dive into Dahlia Moss’s brilliant, bonkers mystery and enjoy pure, geeky fun!

MY REVIEW

Dahlia Moss is hired to be an industry spy. Her job is to work as a temp at a software game development company and acquire the information her client wants. Mainly, the client wants to know what is taking so long for a game to be developed and they want the code to see what the problem is. However, once Dahlia is at the company, a couple of other issues arise, namely a mystery whistleblower and a dead body in the store room.

The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss is the third book in the Dahlia Moss mystery series. This is the first book I have read in this series, and it was a quick and entertaining cozy mystery.

Silly and light. Many crazy escapades occur along the way to Dahlia solving the mystery, but that was the fun of this book. Good for fans of contemporary cozies with kooky characters.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the Dahlia Moss Mysteries Series:

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss
The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss
The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss

Yesterday’s News by R. G. Belsky [Book Review]

Posted on March 10, 2018June 23, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Title: Yesterday’s News

Author: R.G. Belsky

Publisher: Oceanview Publishing

Publish Date: May 1, 2018

Genre: Amateur Investigator

Series: Clare Carlson #1

My Rating: 3/5

BOOK BLURB

A classic cold case reopened—along with Pandora’s box

When eleven-year-old Lucy Devlin disappeared on her way to school more than a decade ago, it became one of the most famous missing child cases in history. The story turned reporter Clare Carlson into a media superstar overnight. Clare broke exclusive after exclusive. She had unprecedented access to the Devlin family as she wrote about the heartbreaking search for their young daughter. She later won a Pulitzer Prize for her extraordinary coverage of the case.

Now Clare once again plunges back into this sensational story. With new evidence, new victims, and new suspects—too many suspects. Everyone from members of a motorcycle gang to a prominent politician running for a US Senate seat seem to have secrets they’re hiding about what really might have happened to Lucy Devlin. But Clare has her own secrets. And, in order to untangle the truth about Lucy Devlin, she must finally confront her own torturous past.

MY REVIEW

Clare is a journalist who made her career with a missing child story. She had incredible access to the family, and had exclusive after exclusive, and even won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the story. It has been 15 years since the child went missing, and the young girl was never found. Clare is now a news director for a TV station, and the girl’s mother has never stopped looking for her child. When the mother contacts Clare, saying she has new evidence in the case, she also says she will only talk to Clare. Clare jumps back into investigative journalism and searches for the truth behind the girl’s disappearance. During her search, she deals with a motorcycle gang, a popular politician, other cases of missing children, and many dark secrets.

The story is told from Clare’s point of view. The characters were all well developed, and the story was intriguing enough to make this a fast read.

Good for fans of crime fiction and plot twists. A complex mystery with plenty of twists and turns. I love twists in a story, but this book had too much going on for me. On the plus side, some twists were completely unexpected and I didn’t see them coming at all.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the Clare Carlson series:

Yesterday’s News
Below the Fold
The Last Scoop
Beyond the Headlines
It’s News to Me
Broadcast Blues

The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty [Book Review]

Posted on March 4, 2018January 14, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Title: The Echo Killing

Author: Christi Daugherty

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Publish Date: March 13, 2018

Genre: Crime & Detective

Series: Harper McClain #1

My Rating: 5/5

BOOK BLURB

When a murder echoing a fifteen-year-old cold case rocks the Southern town of Savannah, crime reporter Harper McClain risks everything to find the identity of this calculated killer in Christi Daugherty’s new novel The Echo Killing.

A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her home’s Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was twelve has made her love Savannah any less.

Her mother’s killer was never found, and that unsolved murder left Harper with an obsession that drove her to become one of the best crime reporters in the state of Georgia. She spends her nights with the police, searching for criminals. Her latest investigation takes her to the scene of a homicide where the details are hauntingly familiar: a young girl being led from the scene by a detective, a female victim naked and stabbed multiple times in the kitchen, and no traces of any evidence pointing towards a suspect.

Harper has seen all of this before in her own life. The similarities between the murder of Marie Whitney and her own mother’s death lead her to believe they’re both victims of the same killer. At last, she has the chance to find the murderer who’s eluded justice for fifteen years and make sure another little girl isn’t forever haunted by a senseless act of violence—even if it puts Harper in the killer’s cross-hairs…

MY REVIEW

Harper is a news reporter in Savannah, where she works nights following crime activity across the city to catch her next story. After responding to a call to a murder scene, Harper is on a story that is eerily similar to another murder that happened 15 years earlier… the murder of Harper’s mother, which was never solved. Harper sees the connection between the cases, but the police don’t want to hear about it. Investigating this current story brings back memories for Harper, many of which she has tried not to think about for years. As Harper works to uncover the truth behind these crimes, she jeopardizes current relationships in her personal and professional lives.

Dark story. Great characters. Picturesque setting. The mystery was complex and twisty, but not hard to figure out. The characters were well-developed, and I especially liked Harper. She was strong, smart, and a real go-getter. I love mysteries that take place in cities like Savannah, with such a rich history, the setting adds to the story.

A fast-paced crime mystery. The Echo Killing is the first book in the Harper McClain series. I’ll be keeping a look out for the next book in this new series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the Harper McClain series:

The Echo Killing
A Beautiful Corpse
Revolver Road

The Child by Fiona Barton [Book Review]

Posted on September 6, 2017January 14, 2024 by Darinda

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more info, read my Disclosure Policy.

BOOK INFO

Title: The Child

Author: Fiona Barton

Publisher: Berkley

Publish Date: June 27, 2017

Genre: Crime & Detective

Series: Kate Waters #2

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers human remains, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but at a loss for answers, she can only pose a question: Who has been found at the building site?

As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier: A child was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. Her heartbroken parents were left devastated by the loss.

But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn—house by house—into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. And she soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women—and torn between what she can and cannot tell…

MY REVIEW

The remains of a child are found during the demolition of an old house. As a journalist reports on the story, she discovers connections to a crime that happened decades earlier.

The Child is told from several parallel points of view. The journalist, Kate, plays a major role, but she is the one trying to piece the mystery together. Three women, Emma, Jude, and Angela, are the other main characters. As Kate slowly connects the pieces together, she encounters the other’s secrets from their pasts. She is left to deal with what to share and what to keep secret. I enjoyed the parallel storyline and was curious as to how Kate would handle new information as it developed.

The Widow by Fiona Barton has the same journalist and detective as The Child, but they are both standalone novels. I enjoyed The Widow, so I was looking forward to reading the The Child. This was also an enjoyable read, but I figured out the mystery really early in the book. The plot has lots of twists and turns, so I’m not sure why I felt the ending was so obvious. That said, it’s a very well-written novel, and I definitely recommend it to fans of thrillers.

Books in the Kate Waters series:

The Widow
The Child
The Suspect