Mini-Reviews: Hollywood Sleaze And Mermaids

Hey y'all, I realize this blog has been pretty much a Dead Zone, but I have not been reading. Stress, no spoons, and oh look the Olympics are on! The good news is that I'm working an upcoming author event for a former employer and I have homework reading to do, so hopefully that will kick my butt in gear. In the meantime, here's two recent mystery/suspense reads that I got through on audiobook.  One a success and one that I was glad to be done with.

L.A. Burning by D.C. Taylor was an impulse download back in 2022 and this one started out like a house on fire. There is nothing that will hook me faster in a suspense novel quite like Los Angeles sleaze, and this book ups the ante by giving me a dynamite heroine.

Cody Bonner is the daughter of a celebrated actress, turned LA street kid, turned addict, turned bank robber. It's those last two that land her in prison at the tender age of twenty. At the start of our story she's leaving prison with one thing on her mind, find the scum responsible for her twin sister's murder. A year ago Julie's body was found on a Malibu beach and to find her killer Cody has to go back into her mother's world of Hollywood glitz, power brokers, high priced hookers misogynistic men with violent tendencies, and old high school friends swimming with the sharks. 

The world-building is great and the heroine even better (an excon bank robber!).  When the author works this as a amateur sleuth story featuring a street savvy heroine, I was hooked.  But then he chooses to morph it into a thriller, with Cody planning to murder the man she feels is responsible for Julie's death - and it kind of took the shine off a bit more me. On top of that, while the ending is action packed and very exciting, the resolution to the mystery is a bit of a no brainer.  The minute all the players were introduced I immediately pegged who was swimming up to their eyeballs in muck. 

That said, even though the mystery wasn't a brain-teaser, and I wasn't in love with the thriller aspects, this still was an enjoyable read for me.  L.A. sleaze as a setting for suspense novels is catnip for me and this delivered.  I also think this would make a dynamite series, but alas, so far this is a one off. 

Grade = B

Back in 2020 I read the first book in the Enchanted Bay cozy mystery series by Esme Addison and surprisingly liked it. Yes, even with the paranormal elements. So when the second book, A Hex for Danger came out, I proceeded to add it to my TBR pile, where it's been sitting for the past three years. 

Picking up where the last book left off, Alexsandra Daniels has decided to stay in Bellamy Bay to be close to the family she's just recently reconnected with - her Aunt Lidia who runs the local apothecary, and her two cousins, Minka and Kamila. Alex is helping to run the family business and continuing to get used to the idea of her magical heritage, being a descendant of the Mermaid of Warsaw. Alex has not only just learned of her own magical abilities but that the world is full of magicals hiding in plain sight, even right there in small town Bellamy Bay.

The town is gearing up for their annual Mermaid Festival and a local artist breezes into town to paint a mural.  This artist seems to know Alex's secret but before she can figure out how to approach that problem the artist ends up murdered. Alex's boyfriend, the local police chief, zeroes in on one of her distant cousins who has a ton of motive and opportunity. But Alex just KNOWS that Celeste is innocent! Why is Jack always arresting her family members!  There's nothing for it, she's going to prove Celeste is innocent and find the real murderer.

Is Jack a patronizing know-it-all?  Yes. But does that make Celeste look any less guilty? No. And Alex's argument is basically "She couldn't have committed the murder, she's my cousin!"  Girl, every killer is someone's son, daughter, cousin, brother, sister, mother or father. Sit down and let the grown-ups do their job. The paranormal elements, while unique and interesting in the first book, come off like twee short-cuts to mystery solving here and the plot soon gets convoluted with corporate espionage, bad guys on the hunt for lost magical weaponry, and magicals descended from dragons 🙄

But the worst of it is what I feared would happen after finishing the first book. Yep, the author tries to shoehorn in a love triangle. Never mind the other guy, a magical, has a Shady AF family, is Shady AF himself, and used black magic that very well could have killed Alex in the first book.  Look, Jack is annoying but this other guy manages to be worse.  He's the rich guy who fancies himself the altruistic do-gooder but he's actually clueless with evil tendencies. 

This was published in 2021 and a Book 3 has yet to materialize, so that doesn't instill much hope. No matter, this is where I get off regardless.

Final Grade = D

Library Loot Review: A Spell For Trouble

A Spell for Trouble by Esme Addison is the first in a new cozy mystery series that I must have read about somewhere because I put myself on the wait list at work. When my turn came up the in the queue I literally lost all collective memory on why I requested it.  Once upon a time as a wee baby Super Librarian I primarily read mysteries, of all stripes but cozies were a favorite.  However, over time, I changed, cozies changed, and we parted ways.  Reading this book it finally hit me why as a Bitter Old Crone Reader I have such difficulty with this sub genre.  Cozies are to mysteries what Harlequin Presents are to romance.  That is to say, they live in an escapist niche.  Hey, nothing wrong with reading for escapist pleasure - we all do it at some point even if we won't admit it - but over time cozies stopped being my escape.  I'm still trash for Presents though - ahem.

Also, here's the other thing, I read cozy mysteries for THE MYSTERY just as I read small town romances for THE ROMANCE.  I am not here for the superfluous cutesy precocious crap. Any patience I had for such shenanigans fled the scene once I accepted the fact that I'm now a Bitter Old Crone Reader.  So why exactly did I put this book on hold?  No clue. Because it's set in a small town, there is cutesy crap, and Lord help us all - it's a paranormal cozy mystery.  Paranormal, typically, is not my thing.  That said?  I liked this.  No, really - I did.  It kept me entertained and the mystery is good.  A cozy that doesn't neglect the mystery?  I am HERE for this!

Aleksandra Daniels has just quit her high-powered risk assessment job in New York City.  Her mother died in a tragic accident when she was younger, and she was raised by a police officer father who kept her away from her mother's hometown of Bellamy Bay, North Carolina.  For "reasons." Well Dad is now gone, Alex doesn't have a job, and she's got family in Bellamy Bay she wants to reconnect with - an aunt (her mother's sister) and two cousins.  So he packs up her car, and her K-9 drop-out German Shepherd, Athena, and plans for a nice long visit.  Her Aunt Lidia runs the local herbal apothecary and Alex wants to learn more about her aunt's business.  Naturally it all goes sideways when a dead body turns up.

Randy Bennett is a local real estate developer who is down on his luck - his business is rocky, his marriage is heading to divorce court, so he stops by the apothecary to get some of Lidia's "good luck" tea.  The problem is Lidia cannot stand the man.  As in bad blood, long held grudge, cannot stand the man.  And she lets him know it.  In fact everyone in the store knows it because Lidia loses her temper is rather epic fashion.  Unfortunately later that night Randy is found dead, poisoned by the tea that he bought at the apothecary.  The handsome police chief that Alex was flirting with just hours earlier (and who asked her out on a date even!) promptly arrests Lidia and rumors start flying.  There's nothing for it.  The police have the wrong woman and having made the arrest seem disinclined to search for the true culprit.  So Alex starts snooping and unpacks a heaping helping of family and Bellamy Bay secrets.

It eventually comes out that Aunt Lidia, the cousins, and even some other town residents are Magicals.  Alex, while also Magical, has suppressed early childhood memories - and was raised as a Mundane (non-magical folk) by her father, who didn't want Alex to have any knowledge of her true identity.  There are reasons for this that are somewhat explored in this first book and I suspect will be fodder for future entries in the series.  Addison bases her world on the Mermaid of Warsaw - Alex's family being of Polish descent and water witches.  The author employs a light touch, it's different, interesting, and provides just enough world-building to intrigue without making my eyes glaze over.

Alex blunders around a bit like many amateur sleuths before, and does run off a bit halfcocked towards the end, but the author keeps the mystery humming and throws in a decent amount of red herrings.  There is some potential love triangle groundwork laid (ugh) but given revelations in the final chapters I don't think the author will be able to realistically sustain it in future books (at least for me - one corner of this "love triangle" does something beyond the pale).  But it does give our heroine more angst to fret over and question exactly who she can trust and what exactly doesn't she know about her own past and family history that the rest of the town seems privy too.  The ending is exciting and fast-paced, the villain suitably villainous, and Addison has laid just enough groundwork to build up future books in the series without drowning me in superfluous cutesy precocious crap.

If you're trash for cozies, pick this one up.  I'm not trash for cozies and liked this quite a bit - enough to pick up the next book in the series which is due out in July.

Final Grade = B