RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

 5* Struggling to think of a title for one of my best reads this year. It's beautifully British, believable, and it ends in a way that makes me impatient for book 3. This picks up immediately where book 1 ends, with the police and Callie trying to figure out her mentor's murder. And there's more death. Senseless death, it seems until someone presumed dead happens not to be and Blackbird comes to light. The author's drawn on some of the frankly shit, abominable, unpalatable, racist, private militia stuff that's come out in that orange twat's 2nd administration in the formerly decent US of A, now more so the plaything of said orange twat. It's only a small part of the tale but it's the thing that set things into motion, with an abuse of power - or maybe a head trip - and political lies and eventual cover-up. It's utterly believable and dovetailed.  Callie's her usual self - boozing, smoking, junk eating, but wised-up to Richard, despite her guilt a...

 4* Good, but best to re-read book 2 so as not to be lost here.  I'm glad that the romance that was a non-starter for me in both books 1 and 2 takes a back seat in this book that starts with a walk in a forest, only for Nicole, Rowan and Thor the dog to discover a serial killer's lair. And connections to Emma, Nicole's adopted daughter.  It becomes a battle against an adversary that seemingly has the upper hand, until a spectre from Emma's past is revealed. Not a scary spectre, but one that was self-serving for the most, until it decided to do the right thing, and paid the price. The red herrings and investigation are solid. There's a glimpse of Mercy and Truman, but the book sticks to the policing aspects. The romance still doesn't work for me. Nicole and Bloke kind of feel dead from the waist down in those stakes. But they're better working together, thankfully.  Emma is the heroine of this tale, and boy does that woman deserve a break. It was bad enough w...

3.5* It drags a bit, and is a tiny bit obvious as to the mole's identity, but a decent enough whodunit. This tale was my intro to this author, in a bit of a twee cosy mystery with a not-needed broken-off romantic aspect that was hinted at, not really present in the tale, but bigged up from Ali's end right in the closing chapter, that put a bit of a dampener on the book, tbh. Her ex did pretty much nothing but spout in a bit of a MCP way, and had pit his career over what they'd spent 3 years building, so in my book, that made him no prize. If he'd not been in the book, it'd have been better. The final pages felt forced. So, a worth-reading tale that had a killer I'd not seen coming, with stuff that came out of the woodwork giving rise to a few not-bad red herrings. Was it believable? Not really in rural Ireland, with Ali and her nephew Gavan pretty much showing up the local Garda.  ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Storm Publishing for my reading pleasure.

4* Another good book in this series, that ideally does need to be read in order. This book doesn't have harrowing detail of the murder, but the deed is fairly gruesome and I'm not sure when the killer's identity is revealed, that they'd actually have known to carry out the vindictive attack they did. I'm using "they" so as not to Spoiler the tale, ss there didn't appear to be an abundance of suspects to me.  The tale loses 1* for me because at the end, someone with clout jumps on a bandwagon and goes #MeToo, unconvincingly. I was left wondering if justice would get done for the victims, because there was more than just one, especially financially. I hope that gets picked up as an aside in the next book, when things go to court. Malkie has very little time for his loved ones because of the murder and because of pressure and bullying by the CI aiming to become a DCI off the back of this high profile case. And I LOVED how he turned the tables and called o...

3.5* The author didn't do the best job with her killer, unfortunately. It was pretty obvious by how little they were on the cops' radar.  This book follows on from the previous one with the vet shot up at his clinic, whose wife is a cop. She makes cameo appearances here, and the civilian who helped her in the previous book is the female lead here, and the male lead is her former work partner. And he's out of his jurisdiction.  So, an on-the-surface successful guy is found offed. Who inherits his business? His wife? His secretary? His foreman? Who's a suspect? You'd think the usual suspects, right? Kind of, but the investigating cop is a bit of a plonker and has history with the out-of-his-jurisdiction cop and the bee in his bonnet means his brain isn't always working. So, not a lot of progress is made and bodies conveniently pile up. Still the bee means that he's blinkered. Yawn.  The tale gets there, but it felt a bit too unbelievable.  ARC courtesy of NetG...

 1* please don't waste your time on this drivel. Kate is meant to be a DI and she supposedly acts the way she does? Ugh, an hour of my life that I won't get back. So, Kate's accused of a hit-and-run, so when fellow cops come for her car, she just hands it over, telling them it got pranged the week before. She doesn't watch them examine it, doesn't take video, just let's them take it. Yeah, right. Doesn't ask for a warrant, either - I kid you not. Then she and her hubby, also a cop, do a bit of snooping and find out where the witness to the hit-and-run lives. They agree on a plan of sorts for the next day. Only, she sneaks out at might, driving her very visible car, finds the witness dead and gets arrested. Nuh-uh. A DNF. How on earth could this series have gotten to this number of books with this jund of shoddy storytelling and editing. Save you eyes, time and brain for something better. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Joffe Books for my reading pleasure.