Review of The Hunting Wives by May Cobb

Cobb, May.  The Hunting Wives.  Berkley, 2021.

Sophie O’Neill, along with her husband and four-year-old son, has just moved back to her hometown of Mapleton, located in the Piney Woods of Texas.  Sophie was previously a lifestyle editor for a magazine and lived near Chicago.  She is tired of the fast-paced city life and wants her son to grow up in a small town with a better environment and a slower lifestyle.  She chooses Mapleton because she spent her last two years in high school there and has a very good friend, Erin, who still lives there.  Moving gives her time to work on her blog and Instagram feed, @sloweddownlife.

 

However, after spending several months in Mapleton, Sophie is beginning to get bored with being a stay-at-home mom, gardening, and blogging.  She meets and begins to hang out with a group of women calling themselves “The Hunting Wives”, and hunting doesn’t necessarily mean just guns.  Erin warns Sophie that Margot, a socialite and the group’s leader, is dangerous, but her words fall on deaf ears.  Margot, Callie, Tina, Jill, and Sophie usually meet on Friday nights to shoot skeet, socialize, drink, and bar hop.   When the women go to bars, they have two rules.  Use first names only and don’t go all the way.  Sophie is, at first, shocked that Margot, especially, likes to indulge in cheating and bawdy sex.  Margot further complicates matters by hitting on men in their twenties and younger.  Sophie learns that Margot is having a secret fling with the town’s quarterback, who also happens to be Jill’s son.

 

Things go from bad to worse when a popular teenage girl is found dead on Margot’s property, and Sophie becomes a prime suspect.  Could one of her new friends be the actual killer?  In order to clear her name, Sophie must research, dig for any clues she can find, and then risk her own life.

 

This novel from May Cobb is filled with surprising twists and turns and has a shocking ending.  The members of The Hunting Wives act like mean girls on steroids.  All of the women are running around on their husbands, gossiping, and drink A LOT.  There is a lot of drinking, even when they aren’t with each other.  Jealousy, anger, marriages on the rocks, vengeance, sensuality, and drinking seem feed their relationships with each other.  All of them have a love-hate relationship with Margot.  Sophie is so obsessed and enamored with Margot that she even stalks her.  The amount of time Sophie spends with the women causes her to neglect her wonderful, understanding husband and young son.  It is ironic that Sophie is the one who wanted to move to a small town.  After her husband quits his job and they relocate, Sophie then goes crazy out of boredom.  

 

Kudos to May Cobb for keeping readers on their toes!  Just when I thought I had figured out who the killer might be, the author would throw in another curve, and I would have to start thinking again.

 

The Hunting Wives has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly will make its debut on May 18, 2020.  Although it is billed as domestic fiction, I would call it a murder mystery, instead.  Hand this book to readers who enjoy mysteries and books set in the south.  I recommend it for public libraries and give it 4 out of 5 fleur de lis!

 

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for allowing me to read and review this title.

Review of Killer Chardonnay by Kate Lansing

Lansing, Kate.  Killer Chardonnay.  Berkley, 2020.

Killer Chardonnay centers during the grand opening of Vino Valentine Winery and the murder that takes place there. Parker Valentine tries to figure out who murdered the food critic who was poisoned at her establishment, while worrying that his death may have doomed her new business.

This was a very quick read! I loved the setting of Boulder, Colorado--most of the descriptions of places there were accurate! I looked them up!  All of Parker Valentine's wines are named after places and streets in Boulder. 

As Parker was trying to figure out who the murderer might be, I was stumped! There is a kind of love triangle between Parker, a handsome chef, and someone she knew from high school, who is now a detective.  This detective is assigned to the murder, and the chef wants to feature Parker’s wines when he opens his restaurant.

As an added bonus, there are recipes and wine pairings in the back of the book. These are supposed to be the recipes that were served at a VIP Party that Parker hosted at her winery.

I am looking forward to the second book in this series. If you are in the mood for a cute, light mystery, and if you like wine, give this one a try!  I recommend it for public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Thank you to Edelweiss for allowing me to download and read this book! 

Review of The Black Coats by Colleen Oakes

Oakes, Colleen.  The Black Coats.  HarperTeen, 2019.

Thea Solomon’s and her cousin and best friend, Natalie did everything together.  Then one night after leaving for college, Natalie is murdered, and Thea’s world falls apart.  The devastation she feels over her cousin’s death causes her to withdraw from her family and classmates and quit the track team.

Thea is given an opportunity to join a secret society of women called The Black Coats.  After passing a number of physical and mental tests, she joins her five new teammates as a member, and then the leader, of Team Banner.  Each girl has been hurt or is close to a woman who has been hurt by a man.  The team is expected to carry out Balancings, acts of vengeance against men who have harmed women.  In return, each girl will be able to receive her Inheritance, revenge against the person who has hurt her.  The girls receive training in hand-to-hand combat and other skills they will need.  In addition, each girl is already a specialist in some area, like running or karate.

Team Banner begins to perform its Balancings, which become increasingly violent, although, thankfully, not fatal to the victim.  The members begin to discover that not all crimes are what they seem, and sometimes vengeance goes too far.  As Thea becomes involved with a boy at school, she also starts to see that what The Black Coats stand for is not exactly what she has been told.   She also learns that there is something more sinister involved concerning the older members and a “sister” organization.

I was so excited to get an advanced reader’s copy of this novel, and I was not disappointed.  Set in Austin, it is an action-packed story full of exciting twists and turns.  The Banner Team members are tough, strong women, but they also have each other’s backs.  Thea is a natural-born leader and makes wise decisions for her group.

There is a great deal of violence in the book, including that in the shocking opening scene, but it all ties into the plot line.  A number of moral questions are brought up, mainly dealing with the differences between right and wrong and justice and revenge.

The Black Coats is a timely, suspenseful thriller and a powerful page-turner.  I highly recommend it for upper middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis!

Review of The Lonely Dead by April Henry

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Henry, April.  The Lonely Dead.  Henry Holt, 2019.

Adele Meeker has the paranormal ability of being able to see and talk to dead people.  However, for her whole life, she has been told that she is schizophrenic, just like her mother and grandmother were.  Adele doesn’t like how she feels when she is medicated, so she stops taking her pills. 

When Adele is walking through the park one late afternoon, she sees Tori Rasmussen, her former best friend, sitting on the cold ground and wearing summer clothes, even though it is wintertime.  She realizes that Tori is dead even though Tori does not know it.  Adele anonymously notifies the police but eventually becomes a suspect in this horrendous crime.  She realizes that the only way to clear her name is to try to solve the murder.  With the help of Charlie Lauderdale, a classmate and the son of a local police detective, Adele sifts through possible suspects, even, at times, blaming herself.

It has been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book that I could not put it down.   This happens every time I pick up one of April Henry’s mysteries.  She manages to keep the pace of the story moving and keep the reader guessing and the pages turning.  Call me naïve, but I didn’t guess who the murderer was until nearly the very end of the novel.

Adele and Tori are both such strong female characters.  Students have talked about Adele her whole life, calling her crazy, but she has ignored them.   Even when her Grandpa didn’t believe in her, she felt she could change his mind.  Tori is a wisecracking, blunt girl, and is known for putting people in their places.  She is never afraid to speak her mind even when she is dead.

April Henry does her research, and I love the way she deftly works in information allowing the reader to see how the forensic process works.  I always learn something when I read her books.  My favorite scene was the one in which Adele is on a school field trip and talks to Rebecca, the girl who died on the Oregon Trail.  That was a funny and insightful conversation!

Hand this book to fans of April Henry’s books and those mystery fans that are always looking for a page-turner!  I highly recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis.

Review of Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Johnson, Maureen.  Truly Devious.  HarperCollins, 2018.

In the 1930s, affluent, but unconventional, Alfred Ellingham founded the exclusive Ellingham Academy in the mountains of Vermont, with hopes of attracting the future’s smartest, brightest, and most creative minds.  Students were allowed to learn at their own pace and take on personal projects tailored to their interests.  Not long after, Ellingham’s wife and three-year-old daughter were kidnapped.  Someone calling himself “Truly Devious” took credit for the crime and demanded ransom for the victims.  Unfortunately, the ransom drop went horribly wrong, supposedly leading to the death of Alfred’s wife.  His daughter, Iris, was never found.  At about the same time, one of the students was also found murdered in a tunnel on the school property.  Although someone was charged and found guilty, the true perpetrator was never found.

Jump ahead to present day, and a new class of students is arriving at the academy.  Among those students is Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, who hopes she can solve the Ellingham mysteries.  She considers herself to be an expert on the case because she has read and studied everything she could find on it.  Now another student has died mysteriously in the same tunnel, and the school is in an uproar.  Despite anxiety attacks, teenage drama, and a schoolgirl crush, Stevie must now solve more than one case.

Truly Devious is a fresh take on the basic crime novel.  The story alternates between the present and the 1930s, using flashbacks to describe the school and the crimes that happened in there in thirties.  The school’s grounds and buildings are beautifully described and seem idyllic in nature.  There is a cast of well-fleshed-out and exceptionally diverse set of characters—in gender, ethnicity, race, and other aspects.  There are laugh-out-loud funny moments, plot twists, surprises, with just a little romance thrown in for good measure.  Just when you think you know who the murderer is, something happens to change your mind and keep you guessing!  Of course, there is that dreaded cliffhanger, leading the reader yearning for next book in the series.

Hand this novel to your students who are fans of Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie.  I recommend it to middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Shusterman, Neal.  Thunderhead.  S&S, 2018.

Thunderhead follows up Neal Shusterman’s popular futuristic novel, Scythe, which deals with a death-free earth and a unique way to control the human population.

In this second book in the Arc of a Scythe series, Rowan has become a phantom vigilante, Scythe Lucifer, tracking down corrupted scythes in MidMerica and killing them.  Citra, now Scythe Anastasia, is taking her job very seriously, gleaning victims with humane compassion.  She has become quite popular among the junior scythes and is living with her mentor, Scythe Curie.   They are concerned about the attitude that many of the newer scythes have developed—gleaning with glee and wild abandonment, instead of doing their jobs with seriousness and dignity.  Through a newly introduced character, Greyson Tolliver, it is revealed that the lives of Scythes Anastasia and Curie are in mortal danger due to their “old world” views. 

The powerful A.I. Thunderhead is observing everything that is happening on earth, with increasing disappointment, but does nothing to directly interfere with the Scythes.  However, it has its hand in every other aspect of human life across the globe.  In an effort to help earth, and ultimately, the Scythedom, Citra takes her life into her own hands, hoping that she can connect with the only thing that can save the world.

OMG.  This. Book.  I thought that Scythe was exceptional, but the Thunderhead is even better!  How can that even be possible!?

Neal Shusterman has made expanded the Thunderhead into a “living breathing character” by putting its dialogue into diary-like entries, allowing the reader to know how it feels and sees the world.  The characters from Scythe have been fuller developed, and the additional ones add even more depth to the sequel.  The world building of Endura, the Scythe government seat of power, and of The Great Library of Alexandria is outstanding.  Add in the fascinating plot and the surprising twists, and you have what I think is the Novel of the Year, even if it is a sequel.

So…five things.

1.     Brilliant, flowing writing

2.     Likable and vile characters—both remarkably refined

3.     Amazing world building

4.     Shocking plot twists

5.     A cliffhanger ending  (Insert, “Noooooo!” here!)

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I highly, highly recommend Thunderhead to upper middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five fleur de lis.  I’d give it ten if I could!