Lisa Ks Book Reviews

Monday, May 9, 2016

BOOK TOUR

I'm so honored to be the first stop for this

wonderful set of mysteries

SLEUTHING WOMEN

There are 10 First-in-Series mysteries

by ten excellent authors.

Lois Winston, Jonnie Jacobs, Judy Alter, Maggie Toussaint, Camille Minichino, RP Dahlke, Susan Santangelo, Mary Kennedy, Heather Haven, and Vinnie Hansen!

Keep reading to learn more about a great

*****!!!GIVEAWAY!!!*****

I'm excited to have a guest on the blog.

Let's see what she has to say.

Keisha, from Skeleton in a Dead Space, featured in

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries

That Kelly is going to get in trouble again. I feel it in my bones. ‘Course I got the sixth sense and can see these things coming. She just wanders into trouble like she’s blindfolded, and I have to save her and sometimes her daughters.

“‘Morning, come on in. I got the coffee started, and I’m just doin’ my nails ‘fore Kelly gets to the office. She’s always late so it don’t matter.”

I’m Keisha, and you can give me any title you like—office manager, first assistant, gofer. You name it, I do it all. Kelly hired me right out of that alternative high school I was in, and she won’t tell you in front of me, but it’s the best thing she ever did. I’m big, black, and brazen. My favorite colors are hot pink and turquoise, and I wear muumuus or flowing tops, always with outrageously high sandals (Kelly’s description) and nail polish to match. Sometimes I even tip my hair to match the outfit of the day.

Kelly owns O’Connell and Spencer Realtors—the Spencer part being her ex-huband who departed the state and his family. We—notice I use that pronoun deliberately—specialize in renovating Craftsman structures in the Fairmount Historic District in inner Fort Worth, Texas. But Kelly also buys and sells other property, and I’m learning from her. Someday I’m going to run this office, but I can bide my time.

Right now, Kelly is renovating a house that was vacant for a long time. Anthony, our carpenter, found a skeleton in the dead space behind a spice cabinet, and, forgive my language, all hell broke loose. Anthony got bonged on the head by an intruder and then the house caught fire. I could have told Kelly all this was going to happen, but I’m new on the job. So I let her blunder through it, including a disastrous TV interview, live at the site, where she looked like death warmed over. But it will get better. I’ll teach her.

Don’t get me wrong. I adore Kelly and am so grateful to be working for her. And I love her two girls—Maggie and Em, both in elementary school. Sometimes I get to babysit them and cook for them. I don’t have a family—just my mom—so I love that. But I got my life plan all figured out—a husband, a cottage with a picket fence, children. I’ll make it happen. Meantime, Kelly’s helping me, and I’m learning.

Oops. Here she comes. I got to get to work.

~~~

Keisha is the creation of award-winning author Judy Alter. Skeleton in a Dead Space is the first of Judy’s six Kelly O’Connell Mysteries and one of the books featured in Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries. Judy also writes the Blue Plate Café Mysteries and the Oak Grove Mysteries. She’s been recognized with awards from the Western Writers of America, the Texas Institute of Letters, the National Cowboy Museum and Hall of Fame, and been inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.

SLEUTHING WOMEN

Sleuthing Women: 10 First-in-Series Mysteries is a collection of 10 full-length mysteries featuring murder and assorted mayhem by 10 critically acclaimed, award-winning, and bestselling authors. Each novel in this set is the first book in an established multi-book series--a total of over 3,000 pages of reading pleasure for lovers of amateur sleuth, caper, and cozy mysteries, with a combined total of over 1700 reviews on Amazon, averaging 4 stars.

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, an Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery by Lois Winston--Working mom Anastasia is clueless about her husband's gambling addiction until he permanently cashes in his chips and her comfortable middle-class life craps out. He leaves her with staggering debt, his communist mother, and a loan shark demanding $50,000. Then she's accused of murder...

Murder Among Neighbors, a Kate Austen Suburban Mystery by Jonnie Jacobs -- When Kate Austen's socialite neighbor, Pepper Livingston, is murdered, Kate becomes involved in a sea of steamy secrets that bring her face to face with shocking truths--and handsome detective Michael Stone.

Skeleton in a Dead Space, a Kelly O'Connell Mystery by Judy Alter--Real estate isn't a dangerous profession until Kelly O'Connell stumbles over a skeleton and runs into serial killers and cold-blooded murderers in a home being renovated in Fort Worth. Kelly barges through life trying to keep from angering her policeman boyfriend Mike and protect her two young daughters.

In for a Penny, a Cleopatra Jones Mystery by Maggie Toussaint--Accountant Cleo faces an unwanted hazard when her golf ball lands on a dead banker. The cops think her BFF shot him, so Cleo sets out to prove them wrong. She ventures into the dating world, wrangles her teens, adopts the victim's dog, and tries to rein in her mom...until the killer puts a target on Cleo's back.

The Hydrogen Murder, a Periodic Table Mystery by Camille Minichino--A retired physicist returns to her hometown of Revere, Massachusetts and moves into an apartment above her friends' funeral home. When she signs on to help the Police Department with a science-related homicide, she doesn't realize she may have hundreds of cases ahead of her.

Retirement Can Be Murder, A Baby Boomer Mystery by Susan Santangelo--Carol Andrews dreads her husband Jim's upcoming retirement more than a root canal without Novocain. She can't imagine anything worse than having an at-home husband with time on his hands and nothing to fill it--until Jim is suspected of murdering his retirement coach.

Dead Air, A Talk Radio Mystery by Mary Kennedy--Psychologist Maggie Walsh moves from NY to Florida to become the host of WYME's On the Couch with Maggie Walsh. When her guest, New Age prophet Guru Sanjay Gingii, turns up dead, her new roommate Lark becomes the prime suspect. Maggie must prove Lark innocent while dealing with a killer who needs more than just therapy.

A Dead Red Cadillac, A Dead Red Mystery by RP Dahlke--When her vintage Cadillac is found tail-fins up in a nearby lake, the police ask aero-ag pilot Lalla Bains why an elderly widowed piano teacher is found strapped in the driver's seat. Lalla confronts suspects, informants, cross-dressers, drug-running crop dusters, and a crazy Chihuahua on her quest to find the killer.

Murder is a Family Business, an Alvarez Family Murder Mystery by Heather Haven--Just because a man cheats on his wife and makes Danny DeVito look tall, dark and handsome, is that any reason to kill him? The reluctant and quirky PI, Lee Alvarez, has her work cut out for her when the man is murdered on her watch. Of all the nerve.

Murder, Honey, a Carol Sabala Mystery by Vinnie Hansen--When the head chef collapses into baker Carol Sabala's cookie dough, she is thrust into her first murder investigation. Suspects abound at Archibald's, the swanky Santa Cruz restaurant where Carol works. The head chef cut a swath of people who wanted him dead from ex-lovers to bitter rivals to greedy relatives.

MY REVIEW

A positively perfect compilation of stories from ten great mystery authors!

For any reader looking to start a new series or two, SLEUTHING WOMEN is the way you want to go.

Lois Winston, Jonnie Jacobs, Judy Alter, Maggie Toussaint, Camille Minichino, RP Dahlke, Susan Santangelo, Mary Kennedy, Heather Haven, and Vinnie Hansen. Each author brings a distinct voice to their tale of murder and mayhem. With this amazingly eclectic array of authors and stories, there is bound to be one or two or ten books you are sure to love!

I haven’t finished my reviews for each individual book in this collection, so for now, I’ll hold off on posting the ones I do have finished. While I did like one maybe a little better than another, I truly enjoyed them all, and look forward to reading the next in each series.

Grab up this collection for yourself. You won’t be disappointed!