Review: Morning Glory by Sarah Jio

A Mysterious Review of Morning Glory by Sarah Jio. A Novel of Suspense.

Review summary: The narrative of this exceptional novel alternates between two women, fifty years apart, whose individual experiences are both sad but surprisingly endearing. The beautifully rendered setting provides the perfect backdrop for the storylines. This is a wonderful book, both as a mystery and as a one of promise and hope. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Morning Glory
Sarah Jio
A Novel of Suspense
Plume (November 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Fleeing an East Coast life marred by tragedy, Ada Santorini takes up residence on houseboat number seven on Boat Street. She discovers a trunk left behind by Penny Wentworth, a young newlywed who lived on the boat half a century earlier. Ada longs to know her predecessor;s fate, but little suspects that Penny's mysterious past and her own clouded future are destined to converge.

      

Ghost in Trouble, A Bailey Ruth Raeburn Mystery by Carolyn Hart, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Ghost in Trouble by Carolyn Hart, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, HarperCollins.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $3.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/01/2014 at 5:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ♦ —

Ghost in Trouble by Carolyn Hart
A Bailey Ruth Raeburn Mystery (3rd in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

When Bailey Ruth Raeburn passed over into the great beyond, she was delighted to discover her sleuthing days would last an eternity. Joining Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, she uses her unique advantages as a ghost — sometimes you see her, sometimes you don't — to help those in need and ensure the wicked get their just deserts.

However, on this latest mission, Bailey Ruth finds it more difficult than ever to keep up with her boss Wiggins's rules for good spirit deportment. Not only is the woman she is supposed to save determined to thwart Bailey Ruth's good intentions at every turn, she just so happens to be one of Bailey Ruth's oldest enemies. Not that that should matter to one of Heaven's best and brightest emissaries, but still, there is only so much a person can put up with — living or dead.

But solving Bailey Ruth's toughest case yet means managing a recalcitrant charge, a fraudulent medium, a mother's heartbreak, old passions and new, and a telltale rawhide dog bone. Heaven help her!

        

Use this link to see more discounted titles by Carolyn Hart on Amazon.com.

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Trojan Gold, A Vicky Bliss Mystery by Elizabeth Peters, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, HarperCollins.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $3.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/01/2014 at 5:00 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ♦ —

Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters
A Vicky Bliss Mystery (4th in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

A picture is worth a thousand words …

But the photograph art historian Vicky Bliss has just received gives rise to a thousand questions instead. A quick glance at the blood-stained envelope is all the proof she needs that something is horribly wrong.

The picture itself is familiar: a woman adorned in the gold of Troy. Yet this isn't the famous photograph of Frau Schliemann — no, this picture is contemporary. The gold, as Vicky and her fellow academics know, disappeared at the end of World War II.

Now this circle of experts is gathered for a festive Bavarian Christmas. All of them — including the mysterious John Smythe and a very determined killer …

        

Use this link to see more discounted titles by Elizabeth Peters on Amazon.com.

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Bad Boy, An Alan Banks Mystery by Peter Robinson, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Bad Boy by Peter Robinson, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, HarperCollins.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $3.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/01/2014 at 4:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ♦ —

Bad Boy by Peter Robinson
An Alan Banks Mystery (19th in series)
Publisher: HarperCollins

A distraught woman arrives at the Eastvale police station desperate to speak to Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks. But since Banks is away on holiday, his partner, Annie Cabbot, steps in. The woman tells Annie that she's found a loaded gun hidden in the bedroom of her daughter, Erin — a punishable offense under English law. When an armed response team breaks into the house to retrieve the weapon, the seemingly straightforward procedure quickly spirals out of control.

But trouble is only beginning for Annie, the Eastvale force, and Banks, and this time, the fallout may finally do the iconoclastic inspector in. For it turns out that Erin's best friend and roommate is none other than Tracy Banks, the DCI's daughter, who was last seen racing off to warn the owner of the gun, a very bad boy indeed.

Thrust into a complicated and dangerous case intertwining the personal and the professional as never before, Annie and Banks — a bit of a bad boy himself — must risk everything to outsmart a smooth and devious psychopath. Both Annie and Banks understand that it's not just his career hanging in the balance, it's also his daughter's life.

        

Use this link to see more discounted titles by Peter Robinson on Amazon.com.

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Outlaw Mountain, A Joanna Brady Mystery by J. A. Jance, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature Outlaw Mountain by J. A. Jance, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, William Morrow.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $3.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/01/2014 at 4:00 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ♦ —

Outlaw Mountain by J. A. Jance
A Joanna Brady Mystery (7th in series)
Publisher: William Morrow

Alice Rogers, an elderly widow, is dead, found murdered in the Arizona desert. It's easy enough to pin the killing on the teens caught driving her car across the Mexican border, but Sheriff Brady isn't about to let it go at that. Alice was something of a free spirit, with a penchant for Scotch, the glitter of Las Vegas, and a romance with a man twenty years her junior. Her hot-tempered daughter Susan suspects Mom's boyfriend — her former handyman who moved in instead of moving on when he finished his handy work. Now Susan's furious at her brother Clete, the do-nothing mayor of Tombstone, blaming him for not protecting their inheritance by breaking up their mother's winter romance.

Yet all is not as it appears to be, and Joanna is forced to put her personal life on hold to dig deeper into Alice's death, the lives of her greedy offspring, and the identity of her mysterious gentleman friend. And as the investigation gets sidetracked by ugly local land disputes, it takes some troublesome twists and turns, until Sheriff Brady finds herself wading through a murky morass of graft and corruption that may have given someone reason to kill — and kill again.

        

Use this link to see more discounted titles by J. A. Jance on Amazon.com.

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

By a Spider's Thread, A Tess Monaghan Mystery by Laura Lippman, Now at a Special Price

MystereBooks is pleased to feature By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman, now available at a special price, courtesy of the publisher, William Morrow.

The ebook format of this title was priced at $3.99 from the listed vendors (below) as of the date and time of this post (02/01/2014 at 3:30 PM ET). Prices are subject to change without notice. The price displayed on the vendor website at the time of purchase will be the price paid for the book. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your transaction.

— ♦ —

By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman
A Tess Monaghan Mystery (8th in series)
Publisher: William Morrow

Mark Rubin claims he and his beautiful wife had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without warning, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished. The police can't do anything because all the evidence indicates she left willingly. So the successful Baltimore furrier turns to private investigator Tess Monaghan.

Tess doesn't know quite what to make of her client, a wealthy Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. But the deeper she digs, the more Tess suspects that the motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unravel, as memory begets rage, and rage leads to desperation — and murder. And suddenly the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.

        

Use this link to see more discounted titles by Laura Lippman on Amazon.com.

Important Note: This book was listed at the above mentioned price on the date and time of this post. Prices can and do change without prior notice. Please confirm the price of the book before completing your purchase.

Open Road's Featured Genre This Month: Legal Thrillers

Open Road Integrated Media is celebrating February by featuring a number of its legal thrillers and offering discounted prices on many of these.

Over the next couple of days we'll be highlighting some of these books in separate posts. In the meantime, click on the image below to be taken to Open Road's Legal Thriller page on Amazon.com.

— ♦ —

The Drowning Spool by Monica Ferris, New in Bookstores in February 2014

Today's new hardcover mystery title, scheduled to be published during February 2014 by Berkley Hardcover, is The Drowning Spool by Monica Ferris.

For a list of more new hardcover mysteries published this month, visit our New Mysteries page for February 2014. For new paperback mysteries, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where a selection of February 2014 mysteries, novels of suspense, and thrillers are shelved.

— ♦ —

The Drowning Spool
Monica Ferris
Series: Betsy Devonshire, Needlecraft (17th)

Even though running Crewel World keeps Betsy plenty busy, a little extra cash on the side doesn't hurt. So when the local senior complex, Watered Silk, asks her to teach a class on the tricky punch needle technique, Betsy jumps at the opportunity to win over some new customers.

Unfortunately, the business that Betsy drums up is not of the needlework variety. A young woman is found floating in Watered Silk's therapy pool, and Betsy's sleuthing skills are immediately called upon to figure out who drowned her. But the list of suspects is more twisted than any Betsy has encountered before. The young woman had three lovers — each with a motive for the murder.

It's up to Betsy to sort out the snarl of romantic entanglements and find a killer, or the wrong man is bound to get pinned for a crime he didn't commit …

        

Reviews of Mystery and Suspense Books for Kids, New This Week on Book Trends (140201)

Book Trends, a review site for young adult's and children's books, published several new book reviews this past week. We're presenting here a summary of those in the mystery/suspense/thriller category.

The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni. Lexile measure: 840L. Reviewed by a 6th grade student, who writes, "I really enjoyed the all the suspense that kept me at the edge of my seat." (Read the full review of this middle grade suspense story, here.)

For more reviews of children and young adult books of all genres, visit Book Trends; their reviews will amaze you! You can also follow Book Trends on Twitter.

New from Harlequin Intrigue: Raven's Hollow by Jenna Ryan

Every month Harlequin publishes several new novels of mystery and suspense. We are pleased to present in this post one of its new February, 2014 titles, published in the Harlequin Intrigue series.

— ♦ —

Raven's Hollow by Jenna Ryan
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
List Price: $4.99 (ebook), $5.50 (paperback)

Every small town has hidden secrets. But Raven's Hollow is also hiding a murderer. Twenty years ago, Detective Eli Blume's stepsister was killed. Though the killer was never found, Eli was forever changed by the family tragedy. Now another woman Eli cares about has been targeted: Sadie Bellam, whose legacy is closely tied to the town's eerie legends …

Sadie knows her stalker is no ghost, but a flesh-and-blood villain. And while she appreciates Eli's protection, their mutual attraction poses its own danger. Once that attraction ruined the life she thought she wanted; now Eli may be the only person standing between her and becoming yet another victim haunting Raven's Hollow …