Reviewed by Sefina Hawke for Readers' Favorite

AT Once (An Alex Troutt Thriller, Book 3) by John W. Mefford is a terrorist thriller novel based on the quote: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.” AT Once follows FBI Agent Alex Troutt in Boston as she tries to uncover who is behind the bombings, if her boss is a mole, and who she can trust. This book is best suited for those who enjoy fast paced thriller novels filled with terrorism, agents, and suspense.

AT Once by John W. Mefford reminded me of the 24 TV series from the very beginning, with the differences being a female lead character, less torture, and a unique plot line. Alex Troutt is a strong female agent who has been tasked with the impossible and yet she is not a woman to give up - instead she throws herself into her assignments with a steady determination. In addition to having amazing characters, AT Once is a well written book with a breathtaking plot that truly pulls the reader in deeper and deeper with every page turned. I found myself on the edge of my seat, wondering who would live and who would die after every attack. By the end of the book, I was very glad that AT Once is a part of a series as it means that John W. Mefford will hopefully write more on Alex Troutt!

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Murder in A-Minor by Janis Thomas is the first in a series of Sam Wedlock Musical Mysteries. Samantha Wedlock used to work for the NYPD, but her career ended in disaster. Heading back to California, she finds the only way she can cope is through the internet and alcohol. Lieutenant Jack Hudson, an old flame of Sam’s, suddenly turns up, asking her to help him on a case. Two college co-eds have been viciously murdered and he needs Sam to help him find out who did it. Sam doesn’t want to get involved and turns him away, but the pull is there. Sam needs to find her drive again and she needs to know that she has a future so, grudgingly, she accepts. The music plays full blast and nonstop in her head, music that has always been there, allowing Sam free rein to learn how to trust her own instincts again if she is to catch the killer.

Murder in A-Minor: A Sam Wedlock Musical Mystery was quite brilliantly written. Janis Thomas has a clear and professional grasp of the true written language and knows exactly how to draw a reader in. The prologue hooked me and, from there on, that book wasn’t going down until it was read. The plot was very cleverly written and there were plenty of twists and turns, lots of action, and a little bit of old-fashioned romance thrown in for good measure. I grew to know the characters so well; it was almost as if I were reading about people I truly knew. I love a good mystery and this book had every ingredient needed. There is also the matter of a message here: no matter what life throws at you, when the chips are down, there is always a way back and a way forward. Excellent book, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Reviewed by Trudi LoPreto for Readers' Favorite

The Rector – A Christian Murder Mystery is loaded with suspense, drama, twists and turns, and a good dose of godly religion. There is a large cast of characters and Martha McRae, boarding house and newspaper owner, is the leader. Oneeda, Mary and JJ need protection, but are also her companions in crime solving. Thomas Cain and Capp are the main bad guys. We arrive in the small Southern town in the late 1950s and all is as it should be until the local rector dies and Martha sets out to prove that perhaps he has been murdered. The story takes many twists and turns from this point until the conclusion. More murders take place, Mary is raped and gives birth to Michael, JJ's honey becomes a local sensation but that will cause more mystery, court cases will be heard and a new rector will arrive in town. There will be excitement on each page as the plot thickens and the suspects multiply.

As I sat and read The Rector, I was drawn into the book. Michael Hicks Thompson had just enough of everything to make it intriguing, exciting, likeable and then he added a perfect touch of good old Southern religion with Bible quotes and Christian ethics. It is the perfect blend for a Christian Murder Mystery and you will be very glad that you decided to read The Rector.

Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

Successful artist Jessie O’Bourne has returned home to judge a painting contest as well as to paint. She’s out early in the morning with her sassy orange tomcat, Jack, and sets about painting a landscape on her father’s property when she notices a patch of turquoise near the side of a haystack. When she goes closer to it to investigate, she’s horrified to discover a sneaker and a foot attaching to it. Both belong to an unconscious native girl lying between two haystacks. She quickly calls the police. The girl is in and out of consciousness, but is lucid enough to mutter that the police had done this to her. Jessie is shocked and becomes even more unsettled when one of the cops to arrive on the scene is none other than Sergeant Russell Bonham. Russell had been her dead brother, Kevin’s, best buddy and had once lived with them. Jessie blamed him for her brother’s suicide, and for being a no-show at her mother’s funeral, which followed in relatively quick succession after her brother’s death.

Death on Canvas by Mary Ann Cherry alternates between the present and the past – 1918 rural Montana, to be exact, where an unexpected tragedy occurs at the impoverished St. Benedict’s Mission School when the school’s teacher, Sister Mary, is murdered in the middle of the night, her murder witnessed by a young native boy. However, the murder of the good sister is only one of the mysteries that plagues the small school and haunts its descendants. There’s also the issue of several paintings that disappeared which had been painted by Thomas Moran, worth millions of dollars today.

Death on Canvas by Mary Ann Cherry is Book 1 of The Jessie O’Bourne art mysteries. A fascinating story that combines both historical intrigue and a modern-day mystery, it’s sure to be a treat for both mystery lovers as well as those readers with a passion for art. The author has crafted her characters well in that all are vividly and effectively portrayed and could easily be anyone’s next door neighbor or relative. She’s placed these characters in a setting that is both vivid and has almost a ‘grass roots’ feel to it, and then juxtaposed this with a backstory based on stolen art, a subject that has global reach. And Cherry’s effective portrayals don’t just stop at people. The territorial attitude of Jessie’s cat, Jack, and Arvid’s bruiser with slobber issues and a penchant for baloney, are also wonderfully portrayed and add the perfect touch of comic relief where needed. There’s plenty to like about Death on Canvas. It’s got intrigue, betrayal, and dirty little secrets galore. Time to put down the paint brush and get reading!

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

The Schwarzschild Radius is a crime thriller written by Gustavo Florentin. Rachel Wallen is a brilliant science student at Columbia University who's embarked singlehandedly on a mission to rescue her missing younger sister, Olivia. Olivia volunteered at a mission for homeless kids which was run by the charismatic priest, Evan Massey, before she disappeared. Rachel is working undercover, posing as an underage runaway who knew Olivia, and she enters Transcendance House seeking shelter. She's told that Olivia was dismissed after her stripping and sex work was exposed. Rachel joins forces with a young woman who caters to men who like underage girls and child pornography in her attempt to find the man who's taken Olivia. The detective on the case, John McKenna, a veteran sniper whose marriage had floundered after his return from service, is unaware of Rachel's efforts.

Gustavo Florentin's crime thriller, The Schwarzschild Radius, is an awesome read. The Webmaster is genuinely scary, and Rachel is filled with naive optimism and determination that the reader just knows is going to get her in trouble. The New York City setting for this novel is inspired; I loved the chases along the highways that connect Long Island to the mainland of New York and shivered at the scenes that took place in the abandoned subway tunnels. John McKenna is a marvelous character. I'm hoping that this book is the start of a police procedural series featuring this complex and multi-faceted detective. The action in The Schwarzschild Radius is riveting and filled with suspense, and the ending is not at all predictable. I really enjoyed reading The Schwarzschild Radius and highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Rosie Malezer for Readers' Favorite

Homicide by Hamlet is the third book in the Chubby Chicks Club Cozy Mystery series written by Lois Lavrisa. At a camp for young thespians, Dr. Annie Mae Maple is leading one of six groups in a competition where Hamlet must be performed in their own unique fashion. With spiteful and toxic bully, Priscilla Woodham, leading another group, it takes all of Annie Mae’s strength not to slap the woman every time a barbed word comes out of her mouth. Priscilla does not have a single friend at the camp, having found a way to insult and scorn every leader and student, including her own personal assistant. When Priscilla winds up dead, the suspect pool is huge. As unsurprising tales of blackmail, bribery, and insidiously evil behavior unfold, evidence first piles up against Annie Mae’s dear friend, Bezu (former girlfriend of Priscilla’s fiancé), before suspicion shifts to Gerald Gill (a man who has been trying to woo Annie Mae), but there is one more suspect that seems to have been overlooked, who is neither camp leader nor student. With Annie Mae fast closing in, it is not long before the killer decides that life is better with her out of the picture as well.

From the very first page, I was hooked on this murder mystery with a twist. Each of the characters was so rounded and well written that I was able to easily relate to and identify with them, with the exception of the narcissistic camp bully who, although well written, was supremely toxic. Even with the vital detective work going on throughout most of the book, Lois Lavrisa successfully continued the normal camping storyline in the background, giving the story a more realistic feel. With almost everybody having a means, motive, and opportunity to kill the not-so-dearly departed, the plot thickens more and more with each turn of the page. I very much enjoyed Homicide by Hamlet and intend to seek out the other books in the Chubby Chicks Club Cozy Mystery series. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers who enjoy action, drama and a hefty dose of intrigue and justice served up with their murder mystery novels.

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

The Big Lead (A Stella Reynolds Mystery Book 1) by Libby Kirsch is a newsworthy story of intrigue. Stella Reynolds arrives in Montana late at night, ready to start a new job at a tiny news station. Starting work in Bozeman as a new TV reporter is not quite how she envisioned her life, but it’s the only news station where she can get work for now. Mayhem ensues as Stella gets to grip with ancient equipment that weighs a ton and works when it wants to. Nothing ever happens in Bozeman – until Stella stumbles across a murder. Together with her co-workers and the girlfriend of the accused, she works to uncover the truth and ends up uncovering a world of corruption. She doesn’t know whom she can trust, who might be involved, and what it will cost her to uncover the truth.

The Big Lead (A Stella Reynolds Mystery Book 1) by Libby Kirsch was hilarious from start to finish, with some definite laugh out loud moments. I can see that Ms. Kirsch has drawn on her years of experience to write this story and she has come up with a masterful plot with some very likeable characters. The story followed a natural path with a lot of twists and turns in it and came to a natural conclusion; it was written in a way that drew me in from the very first page and kept me reading right to the end. And when it ended, it left me wanting to read the next book in the series. Very enjoyable, very funny and full of insight, and a nice twist to it as well.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Body of the Crime: A Chip Palmer Forensic Mystery is a police procedural murder mystery written by Jennifer Chase. Detective Sergeant Hugh Murphy was the officer in charge of the investigation of the body of the young woman discovered by two hikers in a desolate stretch of forest. The bizarre arrangement, and savage treatment, of the corpse was eerily reminiscent of the work of the serial killer who several years ago had frustrated Murphy's efforts to apprehend him before he went underground. To make matters even worse, the crime scene was about to be contaminated by a gusty and soaking rainstorm. Unable to wait for the CSU, he directed a police officer to take photos of the corpse, and several of them trundled it into one of the police cruisers for transporting to the morgue. Murphy's day got even more frustrating when he learned that the District Attorney was getting involved in the case. DA Inspector Kate Rawlins would be working with him, and, Murphy suspected, Chip Palmer, the DA's profiler of choice, would be on the team as well.

Jennifer Chase's police procedural murder mystery, Body of the Crime: A Chip Palmer Forensic Mystery, is an enthralling and fast-paced read. I particularly enjoy police procedural mysteries and was pleasantly surprised by this book. Chip Palmer is an outstanding character whose eccentricity works wonderfully with his encyclopedic interest in soil samples and a profiler's innate gifts. Chase's plot is tightly constructed and gives the puzzle-loving instincts of mystery fans plenty of fodder in the form of red herrings and possible suspects to work with. Kate Rawlins, the newly transplanted District Attorney's Inspector, is a grand foil for the otherworldly Chip, and their partnership is engaging and a treat to follow. Body of the Crime is an outstanding mystery novel that was a delight to read from beginning to end. I'm hoping to see more of Chip Palmer and will be watching for future mysteries featuring him. Body of the Crime is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

In Murderous Muffins by Lois Lavrisa, Barbara Elizabeth Susan Gordon, or as her friends call her, Bezu, is a marvelous cook. Her muffins are really to die for. Her tenants certainly love them. In fact, they love them to death. That's what happens to one of her tenants. Although they're not really tenants, as that would require a permit from the city and Bezu doesn't have the money for a permit. She doesn't have the money to keep the family home, but the home is a treasure and she doesn't want to lose it. So, she takes in tenants, who are not tenants, introduces them to friends as distant cousins, collects rent in cash and spoils them with her famous chocolate chip muffins. That is, until one of the tenants dies from the poison injected into the muffins, poison that Bezu keeps under the kitchen sink to fight the invasion of carpenter ants. Just as life couldn't become more complicated, a handsome foreign gentleman takes up residence, a friend (BFF, known as Cat) moves in, and the police label Bezu as their prime suspect in the murder of her tenant.

This is the second book in Lois Lavrisa's Chubby Chicks Club Mystery series. You don't need to read the first book to understand the plot and become acquainted with the characters, but you may want to go back to the first book, since the second one is very enticing. With a little bit of humor, a little bit of mystery and a delicious muffin-laced plot, the author leads the reader into a rollicking adventure to find the real killer. Because you have to believe Bezu when she tells us over and over again that she's not a murderer. A thoroughly light-hearted, enjoyable read.

Reviewed by Charity Tober for Readers' Favorite

Stunner: A Ronnie Lake Mystery by Niki Danforth is a fun and suspenseful mystery fiction read. The story follows a divorced, fifty-something woman named Ronnie Lake, who resorts to her own sleuthing when things are not quite what they seem with her brother’s new lover. Ronnie suspects that Juliana has ulterior motives, and she’s determined to discover what exactly her true intentions are before it’s too late and her brother loses his money, or worse, himself. The story features numerous twists, turns, “who did it” moments and suspenseful scenes. Readers will enjoy following along with Ronnie and tracking down clues, forming theories, and ultimately discovering the truth.

I thought Stunner was a fun read. I do think, however, that Ronnie is one of those characters that readers will either love or hate. She was a fairly likeable protagonist, but she came across at times as haughty and self-centered, as well as lacking in judgment on several occasions. Her loyalty and drive to protect her family was a positive aspect of her character though, and I think readers will appreciate that side of her. The author did an excellent job weaving the suspense and mystery throughout the story. I enjoyed trying to figure out the clues and discover who was good, who was involved in shady endeavors, and who had hidden agendas. I can easily see the author turning this character into a series of mystery books. I would recommend Stunner: A Ronnie Lake Mystery by Niki Danforth to fans of mystery, chick lit, and drama genres.