{I've Been Reading} A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle

 A Spirited Supper at Dundoon Castle by Darci Hannah

This fun cozy has a complex mystery, a lively cast of characters, and a great setting at a bagpiping competition. I thought it was the first in a new series, but it's actually the second (and luckily the first is on Kindle Unlimited, so I plan on reading that one just as soon as I can.) Chef Bunny MacBride signed the contract for a cooking show thinking the "spirits" in the title meant alcohol. Now she's preparing meals for famous ghosts with a crew of ghost hunters.  Bunny's crush on one of her co-hosts is adorable. Her way of speaking took a bit of getting used to and I don't think I'll ever be able to read the phrase "Mr. Man" without hearing it in the voice of Annie Wilkes, but that's probably just me. I can't wait to see what other hauntings the Food & Spirits crew decide to investigate! 

Silenced at the Book Show by Kim Griswell

The third Pacific Northwest Cozy Mystery has Saffi in her element as the key note speaker at an event in Seaside to promote her bestselling series of Aunt Saffi's Bedside Reader. I'm loving this new series. The setting is perfect for readers who want a virtual escape to someplace different. Saffi is a wonderful protagonist, the kind of person I'd actually want to spend some time with. After writing so many trivia books, her mind is full of facts and details that she puts to use in her investigations. I jumped in with the second book and there's just enough backstory to keep new readers from feeling lost without giving away important reveals from the previous books. 

The Swamps by Seraphina Nova Glass

Macy and her husband have travelled to Louisiana to investigate the cases of two missing women for their popular YouTube channel. Unfortunately the bayou cabin they rented doesn't look nearly as cute as the online pictures. It only took me a few pages to lose patience with Macy who seems to feel that dated countertops and appliances are just as distressing as the hair and human teeth suspended from a nearby  tree by tangles of wire. This one is short and fast paced and contains some genuinely creepy scenes and a twist I definitely wasn't expecting. 

Her Beautiful Life by Brianna Labuskes

I keep picking up domestic thrillers involving tradwifes, even though most of them wind up ticking me off. After going on thirty years as a stay at home mom and homemaker, I find myself disagreeing with a lot of the characters about women's roles in the home and the first few pages of this book had me jumping to conclusions about what was to come. I am SO glad I stuck with it, because it wasn't at all what I expected. Holland, a jounalist, has been invited to the gated property of Catriona Bouchard to write a profile of the popular influencer. They were best friends at one point, but haven't spoken for years. Catriona is nothing like the women Holland remembers and life at The Orchard is one concerning detail after another. The book is a very slow burn, but I really enjoyed seeing the plot gradually unfold to its unexpected conclusion. The chapters from a police investigator's perspective were a bit distracting and I wish the story could have been told without them, but that's a minor complaint about an otherwise great book. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} Dead Fake

 Jammed With Secrets by Selina Hill

I enjoyed the first book in this new series featuring Sadie Cruz, a celebrity chef whose reputation took an awful turn after a food critic died after sampling her restaurant's Heavenly Duck. Now she's in the spotlight again when a member of a 90s boyband is found dead in  her food trailer with one of her jam filled heart cookies smeared all over him.  It's an entertaining plot with a likeable protagonist, even if it sometimes felt like her investigation circled, going over the same information multiple times.   

Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph

Swipe to Die is an app that came out of nowhere and quickly became the most popular thing around. Just sign up with your email address, answer a couple of questions, and then watch an AI video of your own gory death. It's all innocent fun, right? This book takes all of the elements of an enjoyable slasher movie and makes them better by adding little hints of backstory that just wouldn't work in a film. The town of Bleak Haven has a troubled past, evidenced by the memorial wall at the local high school. One of the administrators is apparently a final girl, having survived a serial killer years earlier. Ava, the protagonist, is haunted by dark events in her own family's past, which makes her well equippped to try to stop whoever is behind Swipe or Die. I was extremely happy to see that this is the first book in a series about the town. 

The Room in the Attic by T. M. Logan

I don't know how this author managed to make an outdated flip phone so ominous, but I was holding my breath and wanting to yell at the characters to stop messing with it. It starts with Adam exploring a seam in the wooden paneling of their new residence and discovering a hidden space behind the wall. The tiny room is furnished with a chair and dresser and the dresser drawers contain an odd assortment of unremarkable objects. Told amost entirely from Adam's point of view, this book creates an uneasy sense of dread that I couldn't resist. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy.

{I've Been Reading} The Castaways

 The Castaways by Lucy Clarke 

Erin obsesses over a small plane that vanished on its way to a remote island near Fiji. She was supposed to be on that flight with her sister, but they fought the night before. Erin didn't show up at the airport. Lori disappeared with the plane. There are no answers, no hope, until the pilot appears in Fiji two years later claiming that he has no memory of what happened. Told in dual points of view, this thriller is a harrowing, stressful read. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's definitely the kind of book you want to be in the right mood for. I spent the whole read trying to reconcile what I hoped might happen with the sparse details that I knew had happened.

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins

The book gets off to an unsettling start with descriptions of what it's like to wait for a hurricane to hit. The Rosalie hotel has survived many storms over the past hundred years, but the people of St. Medard's Bay haven't been so lucky. One death, back in 1984, made national news. I usually love it when a thriller incorporates news stories as a way to dole out bits of information about past events, but I couldn't work up a whole lot of interest in this one. It's a slow burn without much sense of urgency and, while everything is eventually revealed and tied together, I don't feel like it lived up to the promise of the first few chapters. 

The Trip by Audrey J. Cole 

This is one of those thrillers where a friend group with a shared secret gets together after many years for a luxury vacation thatquickly turns deadly. The plot switches back and forth between a tragic rafting trip and a chartered sailboat that's caught up in an unexpected storm. It's all told from one character's point of view and, while the reader has to wait for events to unfold, the author isn't playing games and withholding information. The plot is fast paced and entertaining and includes just enough detail about the boat to be interesting. I have no idea if it's accurate, but it at least feels realistic, unlike the author's previous book. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies.