Author: Danielle Flood

I’m not sure what prompted me to load this book onto my Kindle but I really enjoyed it.

The author spent most of her life trying to identify who her father was; the man she lived with and presumed to be her father turned out not to be. At different times during her life her mother gave her the names of several men who she claimed were the father. After the author’s step-father left the family she became no more than a servant (or slave) to her mother, always wondering why she wasn’t loved and trying to keep her circumstances hidden. As an adult she is able to find her father; it was a long and convoluted path and she had very little time to spend with him before he died.

The author feels very strongly that it is her parents’ story that is told in the book The Quiet American by Graham Greene. You can be sure I’ve added that one to my list.

Goodreads Rating ****

Author: Michael Lister

Double Exposure

A forward by Michael Connelly (a favourite author) says that less is more in this book – and he was right. Very limited dialogue and short sentences (sometimes just one word) portray the fear when Remington James inadvertently captures a murder on his camera and then is pursued by a group of men out to prevent him from getting his photos to the police.

Goodreads Rating *****

Blood Betrayal

A detective, John Jordan, who appears briefly at the end of Double Exposure is out to solve a decades-old murder that an innocent man has been convicted for. There are a number of older cases mentioned (no doubt from one of the author’s many books), but that didn’t get in the way of the story.

Goodreads Rating *****

Blood Shot

John Jordan is back and this time he is out to solve the Remington James case. Told in Then and Now chapters most of the book Double Exposure is repeated here. It made for a quick read though as I could skip almost half the chapters. That repeat is the only reason this didn’t rate five stars.

Goodreads Rating ****

Author: Laila Ibrahim

I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy this sequel to Yellow Crocus, but I did. All the main characters are back and, after the Civil War has ended, they are pulled, for various reasons, back to the South. Conditions there are hardly any better for the “freed” slaves and it looks as though they may never get back to their lives in Ohio.

Goodreads Rating ****

Author: Marissa Stapley

It was interesting at the beginning of each chapter to learn about the mating relationships of different birds and animals. It was fun to watch for that specific bird or animal to show up in the chapter I was reading. What was less interesting was reading about the relationships of the four main characters – a mother and her three adult daughters.

Goodreads Rating **