Today I am reviewing Lowcountry Bombshell by Susan M. Boyer for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book: Private investigator Liz Talbot thinks she’s seen a ghost when she meets Calista McQueen. She’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. Born precisely fifty years after the ill-fated star, Calista’s life has eerily mirrored the late starlet’s – and she fears the looming anniversary of Marilyn’s death will also be hers.

Before Liz can open a case file, Calista’s life coach is executed. Suspicious characters swarm around Calista like mosquitoes on a sultry lowcountry evening: her certifiable mother, a fake aunt, her control-freak psychoanalyst, a private yoga instructor, her peculiar housekeeper, and an obsessed ex-husband. Liz digs in to find a motive for the murder, but she’s besieged by distractions. Her ex has marriage and babies on his mind. Her too sexy partner engages in a campaign of repeat seduction. Mamma needs help with Daddy’s devotion to bad habits. And a gang of wild hogs is running loose on Stella Maris.

With the heat index approaching triple digits, Liz races to uncover a diabolical murder plot in time to save not only Calista’s life, but also her own.

My review: This is the kind of mystery that has eccentric characters, lots of local color and a strong Southern flavor running through the pages. The author clearly loves the coast of South Carolina (the action takes place on an island near Charleston) and she has painted a vivid picture of life there. The heroine, Liz Talbot, is smart, strong and savvy and the cast of characters surrounding her are often quirky and offbeat. Boyer writes a tight plot that is compelling as well as fun.

The premise is absurd enough to make things very interesting and it seems to go right along with the wonderfully eccentric, even wacky, people who inhabit this novel. If you like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, you will like this book as well. This is the second mystery in a series centering on Liz Talbot – the first was Lowcountry Boil.

Though this isn’t the kind of mystery I am normally drawn to, it certainly is a entertaining read. One of the blurbs on the inside cover of the book called it Chick Lit and I agree, but I hesitate to call it that simply because it sometimes is perceived as derogatory and that is certainly not my intent. Lowcountry Bombshell is fun and smart and the lead character is strong and independent.

I was thinking about this kind of mystery and came to the conclusion that it is the American version of the English cozy/country mystery that takes place in a small town full of eccentric characters. It’s a bit higher in octane and a bit splashier but it’s roots are the same and that’s a good thing.

About the author: Susan M. Boyer has been making up stories her whole life. She tags along with her husband on business trips whenever she can because hotels are great places to write: fresh coffee all day and cookies at 4 p.m. They have a home in Greenville, SC, which they occasionally visit, and they run away to the beach as often as possible.

Susan’s debut novel, Lowcountry Boil, is an Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, a 2012 Daphne Du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense Recipient, and a 2012 RWA Golden Heart Finalist.

Susan’s short fiction has appeared in moonShine Review, Spinetingler Magazine, and Relief Journal, among others.

Giveaway: I have a copy of Susan’s first novel in this series, Lowcountry Boil, to giveaway to a lucky reader. Please note: this is the first novel, not the one I am currently reviewing. If you are interested, leave a comment on this post and I will draw the winner on Sunday evening.

Happy Thursday.

Hello. Today I am reviewing The Returned by Jason Mott for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in return for my honest review.

About the book (from the publisher): Harold and Lucille Hargrave’s lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age, they’ve settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time…Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their door step – flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people’s loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it’s a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he’s their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens the very meaning of what it is to be human.

My review: Imagine a loved one, long since deceased, appearing on your doorstep one day. You’ve aged in the intervening years, but the loved one reappears at the age he was when he died. That’s the premise of this haunting novel. What happens when The Returned start reappearing all over the globe, often turning up in countries other than the one of their birth, needing to be reunited with their loved ones? The government gets involved. A ‘Bureau’ is established. Many citizens react in fear of something they can’t explain. Splinter groups emerge, declaring themselves the “True Living.” And once the numbers increase and become hard to manage, they are rounded up and housed in a sort of internment camp – supposedly for their safety.

Every one of us who has suffered a profound loss has uttered the words, “If only I could have him back. I’d give anything to have him back.” This amazing novel takes that question and explores just what might happen if our loved ones did come back on a global scale. Does love ever die? Would I fight as fiercely as the Hargraves do to protect the newly returned? Are they living, breathing beings with memories and feelings? Do they have the same civil rights we do?

Mott sets the novel in the small town of Arcadia, North Carolina. The characters are richly and fully drawn. The story is haunting. I know I’ve used that word once before in this review, but I can’t get the novel out of my head. The questions it raises are deep and profound. The story grabbed a hold of my heart and wouldn’t let go, as did the characters.

This is Jason Mott’s, a published poet, first novel. I freely admit I am in awe of his writing. He writes simply and elegantly; the town of Arcadia becomes a place we all know, the characters, people we all know. They are complex individuals who are facing something earth-shattering, who are trying to make sense of this mystery, trying to do what they feel is right.

I sit here, the morning after finishing the novel, deeply moved by what I have read. I thought about the novel before I went to sleep, I though about it during the night. And I’m thinking about it this morning.

It’s simply a beautifully written, gut-wrenching novel. Above all, it is a love story that will reach right down to your core.

I cannot recommend this novel enough. It has moved me beyond words.

About the author:  Jason Mott holds a B.A. in fiction and an M.F.A. in poetry, both from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and is the author of two poetry collections. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals, and he was nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize. Jason lives in North Carolina. The Returned is his first novel.

I am giving away a copy of this novel to one lucky commenter. Just leave a comment on this post and I will pick the winner in a few days.

Happy Tuesday.

Hello! Today I am reviewing Mystery Girl by David Gordon for TLC Book Tours. As always, I was provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

About the book: Sam Kornberg is a failed novelist living in Los Angeles with a collapsing marriage. Desperate for work, he becomes the assistant to a portly, housebound detective named Solar Lonsky. His assignment to track a mysterious woman is the trigger for a tense, smart and often screamingly funny story involving sexy dopplegangers, insane asylums, south-of-the-border shootouts, mistaken identities, video-store geekery, and the death of the novel. It’s as if Tarantino had remade Vertigo after binging on Nero Wolfe novels.

Mystery Girl is both an entertaining thriller and a cunning inquiry into art, style and deception.

My review: Wow. I loved this book. David Gordon is an incredibly stylish writer. His words, his sense of style, his homage to Hitchcock and film noir and Raymond Chandler, and his sense of the absurd combine to create a story that is written beautifully in an evocative style that harkens back to the best of detective fiction, yet has its feet firmly planted in the 21st century.

Sometimes I am lucky enough to encounter a new author whose writing skill simply dazzles me. That’s the case with this new-to-me author. The characters are fascinating, especially the protagonist Sam Kornberg. Self-deprecating, funny, honest and romantic, Kornberg is a richly written, fully realized character; a failed writer, lover of Proust and the cinema, who is smart, funny and slightly geeky – you cannot help but be charmed by him. The supporting cast of characters is wonderfully colorful; many of them outsiders, geeks, who march to a different drummer.

Gordon includes many references to cinema and literature, which I loved. Having spent time in Los Angeles, I found his descriptions of L.A.to be richly drawn – almost a love letter to that sprawling city that is like no other, as well as to the film industry that is at its core.

I was simply dazzled by Gordon’s writing. There’s a bit of raw language here, so if you are offended by that sort of thing, I’m giving you a heads up. Since none of it is used gratuitously, I have no problem with it – it’s true to the style of the book and to the characters that live in its pages.

I never reveal plot details, as you know. I will simply say that I recommend this book highly. David Gordon has a new fan.

About the author: David Gordon was born in New York City. He attended Sarah Lawrence College and holds an M.A. in English and Comparative Literature and an MFA in Writing, both from Columbia University. His first novel, The Serialist, won the VCU/Cabell First Novel Award and was a finalist for the Edgar Award. His work has also appeared in The Paris Review, Purple and Fence, among other publications.

Good news! One of you will win a copy of this book. Simply leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner on Sunday evening. Good luck!

Happy Wednesday.