October Read: A Death in Door County (A Monster Hunter Mystery #1) by Annelise Ryan

 

The cover of this mystery caught my eye and led to me checking it out of my library. Then last week, I was at my book group and one of my friends talked about it--I made sure he didn't give the ending away because I wasn't quite done with it!

 I finished it and enjoyed traveling to Door County, WI. I'm putting it on my bucket list of places to visit. It's not terribly far from where I live now, and even though my family took vacations every summer to Rhinelander, WI when I was little, we never got to Door County. 

Anyhow. This was kind of like a cozy mystery, but one with a little more oomph to it. Morgan Carter owns a unique bookshop called Odds and Ends in Door County. Her hobby, inherited from her parents, is the study of cryptids. Crypids are creatures people are sure exist, but just have never had definitive proof: Bigfoot, Loch Ness, Abominable Snowman. New police chief Jon Flanders hires Morgan to investigate the possibility of a cryptid swimming around Lake Michigan, after two men are washed ashore drowned but showing signs of being crushed by something powerful. Could it be a lake creature? 

As Morgan begins to dig into her research, she uncovers more questions than answers. We also get to meet her employees Rita and Devon, her beloved and very protective dog Newt, and see her cautious relationship develop with Chief Flanders. There is some uncovering of Morgan's past that answers some questions of how she is an expert at cryptids, and why she has such an unusual bookstore. 

I was deep into this mystery pretty quickly. It's clear Annelise Ryan knows Door County. It sounds absolutely lovely and she painted a heck of a picture. I deliberately kept away from looking online so I could keep it all in my head. There are a few sad moments, but overall I just let the mystery reveal itself as I read. There's no "ooh, maybe this person did it" as there is in cozy mysteries. I truly had no idea until the end. 

I'm happy to say the last few sentences lead to the possibility of the next mystery in the series and I'll be picking that up--it involves Bigfoot! 

Rating: 5/6 for the vivid writing that brings Door County to life, along with a very interesting main character with a special knowledge unlike any other mysteries I've read. I like the slow development of Morgan and Jon's relationship which leaves something for more mysteries to explore. 

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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October Read: A Death in Door County (A Monster Hunter Mystery #1) by Annelise Ryan

Midnight Blue by Simone Van Der Vlugt

This was one of those books I spotted at the bookstore and it immediately caught my eye. I bought it and promptly added it to a stack of books to be read...in 2018.

Well, I'm a few years off, but I finally read it, and am annoyed with myself for waiting so long to finally get to it. I love reading historical fiction that teaches me something I didn't know anything about before i picked up the book. In this case, it's all about the Dutch pottery industry in the 1650's. Add that to a soap opera worthy story with a smart, capable lead female character, and this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. 

Catrin has just lost her husband to a sudden illness, and she is a widow at 25. She decides to sell the farm, leave her small village, and makes her way to Amsterdam and a new life. There, she has a chance to learn a bit more about painting-something she loved to do on bits of furniture and pottery, but was never able to fully explore. Just when it looks like Catrin is settled into her job as housekeeper, her past comes back to haunt her, and she flees to the small city of Delft, where she is hired on as a painter of pottery in a local workshop. Working with Evert, the owner of the workshop, Catrin helps to develop a new kind of pottery to rival the Chinese delicate porcelain that is all the rage, but increasingly impossible to import. Has Catrin finally found her place, and another chance at love and happiness?

Catrin--I liked her from the get-go. She's brave, she's smart, and she's talented. She's a good person, and tormented by the choices she made in order to save herself. Throughout most of the novel, she is always questioning whether or not she will be punished by God for her sin, or if it's possible for God to forgive a sin that she didn't regret committing. Jacob, a former farm employee of Catrin and her husband, keeps showing up like a bad penny, threatening to expose Catrin's awful secret. He's always the catalyst that keeps the novel moving along. 

Catrin has a lot of great luck, and a lot of bad luck. But she keeps going, keeps moving forward. I found the descriptions of the pottery workshops to be very interesting, and the glimpses of Rembrandt, Vermeer and their art throughout the novel make this time period really come alive with color and vibrancy. It definitely was Holland's Golden Age. 

I've got nothing negative to say about this novel. I was happy to read about a completely different time period, and a completely different artistic movement-something I was pretty unaware of before I picked up this book. And of course the plague makes an appearance, and I find that very timely, with all the news about the Coronavirus spreading all over the world. 

Rating: 4/6 for a historic novel full of artists, larger than life characters, unrequited love, evil-doers, a fiesty heroine, and a fascinating look at the beginnings of the Delft Blue porcelain movement in 1650's Holland. 

Available in paperback. 

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Midnight Blue by Simone Van Der Vlugt

The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

This novel fits into my Halloween reads perfectly: it involves mind tricks, ghosts, and a complicated family dynamic that leads the heroine down a dark path.

The Winters is a thriller that starts off quietly enough: you get foreshadowing from the opening pages; you know something has gone terribly wrong. But then you're introduced to our heroine, who remains nameless throughout the novel. At first I thought I had just missed her name, but no, it never comes up. Hmmmm....

Meeting on the Cayman Islands where she works a drudge of a job for a horrible boss, Mrs. Winters-to-be meets Senator Max Winter, and they quickly fall in love. She's not at all what his first wife, Rebekah, was, and she becomes obsessed with Rebekah. Tall, blonde, beautiful, classy; killed in a car accident on the grounds of Asherley estate, Max's family Long Island mansion. There's Dani, Max's teenage stepdaughter, who is still grieving the death of her mother, and is a handful. She's angry, bitter, and does not like Max's new fiancee. Dani goes to a lot of trouble to make the future Mrs. Winters miserable. 

As our heroine struggles to fit in at Asherley, you sense something just isn't right, and maybe Max isn't the perfect, debonair man she first met. But what is it?! Do we believe Dani, or Max? 

Oh--the last pages are a real kicker. It's like being in a boat, gently riding the waves, and then BAM! Here comes a big one, and it rocks the boat violently. You  feel for Mrs. Winters, because she really is trying to grapple with a new life, a new husband, and the ghost of Rebekah. Will she figure things out in time to save herself? 

This was a great thriller and a big thank you to Viking for sending me an an advanced copy. It takes the domestic thriller and turns it up a notch. It has a modern gothic feel to it that I appreciated and it almost lent a timelessness to it, even though it is firmly set in contemporary Long Island. For those who enjoy thrillers, pick this one up! 

Rating: 4/6 for a novel that leads you down the path, and you know something is wrong...but wow it all happens quickly and you read with baited breath. A very good thriller!

Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio. 

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The Winters by Lisa Gabriele