Hollywood Homicide

Hollywood Homicide
By Kellye Garrett

This book is a mystery that’s cozy, gone glam, gone great. Unemployed actress Dayna Anderson was looking for a job, not a mystery when she was scrounging for her last coins to pay for gas. Her car had abruptly hit empty, leaving her stranded blocks down the street. Above her loomed a billboard offering a reward for information on a recent hit and run. Dayna had been in the vicinity and thought she may be able to find information to collect some much needed money.

As Dayna pulls together the information she knows, what’s revealed pulls her into a full-on amateur sleuth investigation. At the same time the intriguing questions and puzzling clues pull the reader eagerly in to find the solution. You’ll truly be tested to identify the murderer and the motivation behind the murder.

As important as it is to share a good mystery, this author also gives us a great cast of characters who bring a delightful vitality and humor to the story. Dayna, with her closest friends Sienna and Emme, are truly laugh out loud funny, so if you’re reading around other people on the bus or at the coffee shop you may get some stares and then some people around you writing down the title of the book. The humor rises naturally from the characters and the situations. You’ll feel like you’re there, laughing with them. Small town character Omari who has just made it big in one of Hollywood’s newest cop shows is a stunning choice for a romantic interest. We get to see him skyrocketing with the overnight success that actually takes years, plus a lucky break. In this case he edges out the originally cast star of the new tv series by a nose, literally.

Added appeal comes from the book’s setting, with the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. “Hollywood is high school with prettier clothes and better lunch options. You study scripts, not textbooks. Try out for roles, not varsity. Take screen tests, not math exams. And you vote for Oscars, not prom king.” The author knows the place well.  Kellye Garrett spent 8 years successfully working in Hollywood, including writing for the CBS drama Cold Case.  She expertly layers in interesting insights about the town and the celebrity business, along with making some fun of the phenomenon that it is.  If you want to hear more from the author herself, click on the podcast – Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Kellye Garrett

A great setting, starring a fun sleuth with her bright friends, plunged into the subterfuge of murder.

Thereby Hangs a Tale . . . .

Disturbed by Kevin O'Brien

Disturbed

By Kevin O'Brien

This book that I recently inhaled over a lock-all-the-doors weekend was suspense at its best.  And yes, I was Disturbed, in a good way.  Wow!  This author’s characters and situations feel very realistic.  The mystery all takes place involving every day people, adding to the fearful feeling that grows as you read, that this could really happen.  Your imagination will be ignited by suspects and alleged motives.  It’s amazing how involved a reader becomes trying to solve the mystery, as if the reader is actually one of the residents living at Willow Tree Court, part of it all, and needing to stop it.

It’s so much fun to get on and ride this roller coaster of twisted passions and intrigue.  A serial murderer is on the loose.  The target is specific people in their homes where they live on a certain type of street, on cul-de-sacs.  Be on your guard.  No one is safe, while the reader and the characters try to determine if there’s some other pattern for why these people are being attacked in their homes.

There’s a particular family the author is following.  The husband and wife are trying to settle into a very recent second marriage, with his kids who are a teenage boy and his younger sister.  On the outside of this marriage are his ex-wife who moved nearby and her friends who are still living in that same cul-de-sac.  As the plot unfolds, the secrets that are revealed just within this family will raise the hairs on the back of your neck.  A menacing quote from one character that will send shivers down your spine is the ominous, “I knew all your secrets – and all your weaknesses.”

Before becoming a New York Times Best Selling Thriller Author, and recipient of many awards, Kevin O’Brien’s interesting background was as a railroad inspector by day and novel writer by night.  A huge Hitchcock fan, Kevin O’Brien delivers a thrilling suspense of his own in his many hold-your-breath books.  I recommend his books, and now there’s one more – his new book Hide Your Fear is now available.

If you’d like to hear more from the author himself, in his own words, please listen to Kendall & Cooper Talk Mysteries with Kevin O’Brien