Tagged: mystery
Book Blast: Stranger at Sunset by Eden Baylee
A vacation can be a killer.
Dr. Kate Hampton, a respected psychiatrist, gathers with a group of strangers at her favorite travel spot, Sunset Villa in Jamaica. Included in the mix are friends of the owners, a businessman with dubious credentials, and a couple who won the trip from a TV game show.
It is January 2013, following the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The luxury resort is struggling, not from the storm, but due to a scathing review from caustic travel writer, Matthew Kane. The owners have invited him back with hopes he will pen a more favorable review to restore their reputation.
Even though she is haunted by her own demons, Kate feels compelled to help. She sets out to discover the motivation behind Kane’s vitriol. Used to getting what he wants, has the reviewer met his match in Kate? Or has she met hers?
Stranger at Sunset is a slow-burning mystery/thriller as seen through the eyes of different narrators, each with their own murky sense of justice. As Kate’s own psychological past begins to unravel, a mysterious stranger at Sunset may be the only one who can save her.
Eden Baylee left a twenty-year banking career to become a full-time writer. She incorporates many of her favorite things into her writing such as: travel; humor; music; poetry; art; and much more.
Stranger at Sunset is her first mystery novel, on the heels of several books of erotic anthologies and short stories. She writes in multiple genres.
An introvert by nature and an extrovert by design, Eden is most comfortable at home with her laptop surrounded by books. She is an online Scrabble junkie and a social media enthusiast, but she really needs to get out more often!
To stay apprised of Eden’s book-related news, please add your name to her mailing list.
The Mystery of the Randomly Appearing Books
As a book blogger, I’m quite used to getting books in my mailbox. I don’t get several a week like some reviewers do, but I do receive a couple every month. Sometimes I don’t remember where these came from or whether they’re from a publisher, author or giveaway. Usually a quick glance through my inbox will tell me whether I’m supposed to be reviewing it right away for a publisher or author or whether I won it in a giveaway and can put it in my leisure reading pile.
Which brings me to my current dilemma. Last week I received two books in the mail: The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan and Doomed by Tracey Deebs. As you can see, they’re not by the same author (not even the pen name is the same) and the publishers are different (Delacorte Press, a division of Random House and Bloomsbury respectively).
Since I actually don’t win that many giveaways, I am in doubt as to whether this was a giveaway prize because I would remember winning two books. At least, I hope I would. Especially since the mysterious sender went through all that trouble to ship me two hardcover books from the US at a cost of over $20!
So here are my clues to this mystery:
- The authors are not the same
- The publishers are not the same
- I don’t remember winning a giveaway with these as prizes (or it was a giveaway and I wasn’t contacted by the prize provider beforehand)
- This package was sent to me by an M. Boone of G something ville, USA (the writing is illegible)
- They used the wrong postal code (one letter off) so the package was lost in Quebec and Ontario before making its way here
Well, I’m putting it out there for you guys: Where did these books come from?
Catnip by Valerie Tate
(Cover picture courtesy of The BunsyDawg Diary.)
What can go wrong when an elderly matriarch leaves the family fortune to her cat? Just about everything, including ‘catnapping’ and murder! CATNIP is a mystery set in the picturesque town of Dunbarton, Ontario, and tells the story of what befalls the dysfunctional Dunbar family, and the chaos that ensues, when the matriarch of the clan leaves the family fortune to her cat. That formidable feline proves to be more than a match for the humans in his life, until one fateful night when, caught unawares, he is stuffed in a sack and carried away. A nosy neighbor with a nasty, suspicious mind points the finger of suspicion at the Dunbars and Christopher Mallory, the young attorney who is the trustee of the estate, and under the terms of the will, they face losing everything. When a murder occurs, Christopher finds himself confronting a ruthless killer who would do anything to conceal his or her identity, including to kill again.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy from Valerie Tate in exchange for an honest review.]
I’ll admit that I was more than a little skeptical about this book. I mean, mystery novels really aren’t my thing in general but such a cliché-sounding novel definitely didn’t sound like my thing. Still, I gave it a try because I’ll give practically any book a chance.
Imagine my surprise and delight when Catnip was nothing like I expected! Sure at first the Dunbar family seems like your typical dysfunctional rich family, but they do actually grow out of that mould. Alice, the constantly complaining but beautiful wife actually grows up a bit after Amanda Dunbar (the grandmother) dies and she’s allowed to be free. James Dunbar grows out of his role as the henpecked, spineless husband and takes charge in his business which until that point had been doing poorly. And Alicia stopped waiting for her prince charming, waking up from her daze.
Chris, the sort of main character, also changes quite a bit from his role as impersonal lawyer and executor of Amanda Dunbar’s estate. At first his relations with the Dunbar family were tense to say the least, but I was so happy to see him grow out of that role as he began to see things from their perspectives as well. Marmalade the cat behaves like a typical cat, leading me to believe that Valerie Tate either owns or used to own a cat (as much as one can ‘own’ a cat).
Not only did I get a kick out of the characters and how they all grew, I absolutely loved the plot. In the beginning I thought I would easily be able to predict the end because it sounded a lot like other catnapping mysteries having to do with inheritance. I was wrong! Thankfully, Valerie Tate mostly stayed away from clichés and put her own twists on the ones she did use. Trust me, it will be hard to predict the ending after the twists and turns she puts you through. Overall, Catnip was an unpredictable whirlwind and if you do pick it up (which I highly recommend) you won’t be able to put it down.
I give this book 5/5 stars.