Bleak Prospect Reviewed

A BLEAK PROSPECT

A Sam Jenkins Mystery

WAYNE ZURL

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

Wayne Zurl has done a fantastic job of bringing the police crimes stories of Prospect, a small town in Tennessee, USA, to the printed page. This mystery is the eight in his series. I have read many.

Each stand on its own with characters who are enjoyable. Sam, a spiffy sheriff who arrived from NYC police work to a lady Sargent that runs the day to day business of the office. Spontaneous, trenchant, and intelligent conversations enhance the legitimate police work they do daily.

In this story, a prostitute is found dead inside town limits. However, the County has a serial killer roaming, and the case becomes a County matter. Sam following his instincts moves in the right directions apart from a Task Force.

The twist and turns lead him to an unlikely source for the County murders. Also, there is a riff in the Town's Council over the crime and other matters. The mayor gives Sam and his team terrible news.

Those events come to a head with an exciting conclusion the reader does not expect. This novel is another excellent, fast-paced mystery by an ex-cop. We will see what happens next hopefully.   

Review of THINK LIKE SHERLOCK

Think Like Sherlock

Peter Hollins

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last."

― Arthur Conan Doyle, His Last Bow

Hollins' book of how to think correctly is full of Educational information a young person should read and delve in. I was lucky enough to be trained by the best (Special Forces) at JFK Psychological Warfare Center in 1968 as my first Education after High School, so some of the principles he writes about, I knew.

However, as Sherlock might say, we learn something every day. How we use that lesson is crucial.  Hollins gives the reader much to mull over in a short space of time. You may want to re-read some ideas and put them to work.

Some are: how to critically think; working concepts of Pablo Picasso, Einstein, Henry Ford, and Holms, of course; Observations and Deductive Reasoning; Thinking Outside the Box; and much more.

Peter Hollins's writing is clear and concise. You will read, stop, and think about how you can use the principle in your world.  It is not a technical read, but one you will enjoy learning as you read.

I'll keep Think Like Sherlock in my Kindle as I have Conan Doyle's Holms shorts and novels, as you should too.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/35S1tzT

Review of Witch's Moonstone Locket

WITCH'S MOONSTONE LOCKET

MARSHA A. MOORE

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

I did not know what to think when I started to read this witch's tale, a fantasy? Well, I purchased it, read it, and enjoyed the storyline with strange happenings around the characters.

Owls and furniture spirits talked; winds controlled out of the north and the south; and a locket that helped a bereaved person speak to a dead parent. These are just a few of this chuck full of fun happenstances of a well-written journey into the life of witches.

Janice wants to talk to her mother who died before she could converse with her passing - to the spirit world. So, she goes to the witches' carnival to get answers.

Janice receives more than bargained.  She meets Rowe; the short love story brought on by the powers of the Moonstone Locket. 

This locket does more than bring them together. It is a cornerstone of a witches' coven and sets the tone for the mystical tale that follows, a war of a witch and the complications therein.

You'll have to read this fun adventure. I didn't know there were witches, did you?

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2OPTjOZ

Review of Trouble and Strife

Trouble and Strife

Ian Dodge Mystery, Book 2

Judy Nichols

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

Cool, calm, and collective is Ian with his English accent is at the sight of an accident in the making, as it seems. A wealthy customer of a friend’s suntan spa is found toasted in Room #3 and 911 is called. The mystery begins.

Relatives of the customer sue the friend's spa and Ian Dodge, a detective, is asked to find out the facts. With his new assistant Ruth, he goes about his business wooing everyone around him including the instigator of the events.

Complicated family ties are the motivator of the mystery which unravels smoothly as Ian investigates. There is death, and the reasoning is understandable but tragic.

This mystery keeps your attention because of the well-written character's dialog and their personas. It has a few exciting events that help too.

I'll go back for another of Ian's adventures in the future. 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2MmcORE

Review of More Than Friends

More Than Friends & Forever: A Friends Novel

MONICA MURPHY

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

Intelligent tit for tat of two senior High School students who find themselves as a couple. Even though they are in school, I did not read one 'Like' this or that, which I like.

What I didn't like is it is a series with never an ending even in the third book Forever: A Friends Novel. At the end of the Forever, the reader will get the impression that the couple might break up because of the sound of their words.

Jordan has been infatuated with Amanda since eighth grade. Because of a breakup, Amanda turns to the American football star, and they become an on/off again couple. He cannot communicate his feelings resulting in Amanda uncertainty in where the relationship will end.  

All the background stories enhance the main one, but I feel it is overwritten. The main dialog between Amanda and Jordan seems too intelligent even for honor students, as portrayed, but kept me wanting for more after reading More Than Friends.

I would have liked to have read one condensed book for this dramatic love story. More Than Friends is a tease and Forever: A Friends Novel is a bigger one.

If you are going to read this story, go for it, and read all the books in concession. 

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2OXnKDA

Review of Fiji, A Novel

Fiji

A Novel

LANCE & JAMES MORCAN

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

Fiji is an island adventure where the west meets natives that have little in common on the surface. Underneath the limited verbal communication, people are mostly the same when it comes to loyalty, friendship, and the fight against evil.

The Drakes (Rev. and his daughter) are missionaries and an industrious trader named Nathan arrive on a Fiji island where cannibals wait in the background. A group of them attacks the somewhat civilized natives which the westerners are coming to meet.

The visitors seem to have chewed more than what they bargained for when they decided to go to this particular island - Nathan to trade guns for a precious item and the Drakes to spread the word.

All placed in a battle for survival they want to get through fast.  A love story is a part of the struggle and a key to why Nathan does what he does, putting his life on the line for the good of the natives and Susannah.

The prose and the background are so enjoyable that the reader will feel the drums, follow the action, and feel for the natives with waiting eyes. It is a short read of a long narrative, well done.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2OErN7P

Review of A Grave Misunderstanding

A Grave Misunderstanding

A Simon Grave Mystery

Len Boswell

Reviewed by Roy Murry, Author

Spiffy, strange, satiric are just a few words to describe this murder mystery. The characters are bizarre, and the background is full of unusual happenings.

Detective Grave, Boswell's protagonist, is presented with a strange murder situation. The subject is laid out with a hand cut off and no apparent deadly blow in a mansion built for a primeval king with Artificial Intelligence walking around like servants. 

Even more abnormal, when Grave arrives at the scene, the Medical Examiner is investigating the bloody stairwell while people are locked in a second story room making noise to be let out.  Lastly, more import to the eccentric owner of the castle is the theft of a trophy from the room.

The detection begins, and Grave interviews the occupants of the locked room. Each of these characters is abnormal in their way and add little to Grave's dilemma - Who secured the people in the room, stole the trophy from it, and killed the woman?  

How Detective Grave gets to the conclusion of this mystery which is a mystery in-its-self. The twist and turns are fun to read, but in the end, the reader will understand the findings.

MISUNDERSTANDING is an enjoyable quick read.

Purchase: https://amzn.to/2LNL9bX