Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri Dodd; A Realistic Mystery Thriller Starring a Modern Witch

 Murder Under Redwood Moon by Sherri Dodd; A Realistic Mystery Thriller Starring a Modern Witch

By Julie Sara Porter

Spoilers: Sherri Dodd’s murder mystery, Murder Under Redwood Moon is a Supernatural Murder Mystery that doesn’t feel like one. Many Supernatural Murder Mysteries that star witches or similar people, for lack of a better term, Harry Potter the book. They depict witches using superpowers like clairvoyancy, precognition, telekinesis and often depicts them going against paranormal characters like other witches, ghosts, demons, vampires and the like. The emphasis is less on mystery and more on the fantasy-like setting in which they live. Muder Under a Redwood Moon is a realistic Murder Mystery that happens to star a witch.

Arista lives in Boulder Creek, California near her Aunt Bethie who raised her and works at a New Age shop called Earth and Ocean. A former high school acquaintance, Michelle is missing and later her body is found. She has been murdered so Arista, Bethie, Arista’s best friend Maddie, boyfriend Shane and their other friends try to find out what happened to her. Could the new Goth couple, Jaxon and Yelena have anything to do with it? How does this correlate to another missing woman? Why is there a strange connection to Arista’s own past and those of her missing parents?

Murder Under a Redwood Moon is the closest many fiction writers can get to portraying what it’s like to be a witch in the real world. They may have different rituals, traditions, and invoke the names of gods, goddesses, or an unnamed deity. But the magic is very understated and not fanciful. It is based not on amazing magical things physically happening but on the power of belief over what witches can do. 

We don’t see magic spells work except in situations that could be interpreted as magical or mundane. Arista has flashes of insight that could be examples of psychic powers but could just as easily be signs of her being a good judge of character. There are communications with the dead mostly via Ouija board, but they are not set up as unspeakable demonic horror. It's depicted as a ritual to cleanse the mind of confusion and hopefully get some solid leads and answers. 

When Arista and her aunt chant to their gods, it’s treated like prayer, something that they believe in but is not noticeable by anyone else. It's a means to open their mind to possibilities and release tension during stressful and tense times. When they use magical objects like crystals and Tarot cards, the only power is what they put into them through their belief and intentions. 

The protagonists’ Pagan path is portrayed authentically and so is the antagonists’ path. In many Occult/Supernatural Based Mysteries, the antagonist is often something or someone magical. It could be a demon, a more powerful witch or wizard, or another fantastic creature that defies expectation. Here they are human, all too human. They have a sick perverted mind over how they think that the world should be and who they have to hurt to make it happen. 

The opening chapter which is a flashback to Arista’s childhood shows the kind of enemy the characters are stacked against. Someone who will hurt anyone, even those close to them, if it means their goals are met. It’s an all too real action, one we are exposed to every day through the myriad of true crime stories involving people with destructive violent impulses, no respect for those around them, and an outlook that dehumanizes their victims. 

Murder Under Redwood Moon is not the type of Supernatural Mystery that one reads for escape. It is the type that one reads when they want to find a path that helps them face the darkness that surrounds them every day.

Hope in Paris (The Teddy Bear Chronicles Book 1) by Donnalyn Vjota; The Adventures of The We Really Care Bears

 

Hope in Paris (The Teddy Bear Chronicles Book 1) by Donnalyn Vjota; The Adventures of The We Really Care Bears

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I am going to give a warning before I begin the review. Bear with me now.

Donnalyn Vjota’s book Hope in Paris: The Teddy Bear Chronicles is NOT a children’s book. Yes it is narrated by three plush teddy bears. Yes, it’s a cute concept and there are even some moments that could be considered adorable. But this is a book that is written for adults (maybe teens but adults are the central target audience.) Adult themes like domestic abuse, mental illness, sex, stalkers, mid-life crises, familial abandonment, addiction, and murder are important plot points. Now that's over, with the review. 

The idea of an adult novel told from the point of view of stuffed animals has potential to be an overly cutesy saccharine fluff piece or a Contemporary Fantasy in which the humans interact with the toys ala Ted or the toys talk to each other ala Toy Story. But despite the odd premise, Vjota actually writes the book, Hope in Paris, as straight and as realistic as she can. With of course the added caveat that the narrators of the book are a trio of stuffed bears belonging to some damaged and helpless humans that need some assistance to make their difficult lives more bearable. 

The three bears are:

Fair Bear was won at the Illinois State Fair by Mark as a gift for his girlfriend, Haley. Haley left and now Fair Bear lives with Mark and his new girlfriend, Kelly. However, the relationship between Kelly and Mark is becoming toxic and abusive and Fair Bear has to be an eyewitness to various violent acts, particularly getting thrown around by this pair of angry humans.

Love Bear is owned by Richard, who is perpetually unlucky in love. He promised his deceased mother that he would settle down and marry the right woman but his ideas about romance are overwhelming. On the third date, he tried to give an expensive gift and Love Bear to them as a marriage proposal which they turn down leaving him alone with his plushy ursine friend.

Sleepy Time Bear is the companion of Ms. V, an American former actress turned drama teacher living in Paris and working at an orphanage. She has mental health difficulties and a mysterious past that gets revealed through the course of the book.

 The three bears and their humans are thrown together in Paris where they end up linked to each other in surprising ways that will give them and the Readers great paws.

One of the most interesting and endearing touches to the book are the bears themselves, their narrative voices, and their relationships with their human companions. It's particularly amusing how the humans take their bears everywhere they go to the store, to a cafe, on a date, on vacation, and just about everywhere else. Of course Vjota did this for narrative purposes so the bears could report on important plot points but there are deeper possibilities. It could be that they are that lonely and desperate for someone, anyone to talk to, confide in, and hold onto even if they can't move or talk back to them. 

The bears awaken those inner children who used their imaginations to find a temporary escape from their sadness and despair. Having a Bedtime Bear Care Bear on my bed who watches with Grogu, Sadness, Hilda The Plush Witch, and Trixy The Plush Black Cat as I work from home, get depressed, have panic attacks, stress about deadlines, get lost in a book, and ruminate about middle age, I completely understand the need to have those comfort objects when we just can't bear it any longer. 

These characters’ emotions run the gamut between too hot, too cold, and just right.They alternate between childlike naivete and deep awareness. There are things that they don't completely understand about the human world that surrounds them. For example, Sleepy Time Bear confuses one of Ms. V's psychotic breaks with a play rehearsal. It just assumes that she's talking in character and playing a role when one of her alternate personalities or delusions take over.

This childlike innocence gives them an empathetic understanding towards their human friends. Sleepy Time is presented by Ms. V at night to orphans who can’t sleep. It is also there as a friend shaped shoulder to cry on when Ms. V is overwhelmed by her illness and estrangement from family members. Sleepy Time Bear is a silent observer that loves her and never judges her and instead opens its furry arms in comfort and acceptance.

Sometimes the bears are wiser than the humans. That is particularly true with Love Bear and its relationship with Richard. While it is a bear that represents romance, Love can be very sardonic and frequently snarks about the human friend. After observing Richard missing flirtatious cues from a woman named Rachel, Love Bear practically face-paws with embarrassment from inside its bag. “The man does not know flirting even when it's standing in front of him and named Rachel,” Love fumes. 

At times, Love practically acts as Richard’s wing man uh bear observing his companion’s dates and commenting on his failures and successes. However, Love is also aware that Richard is lonely and wants to love and be loved. He just doesn’t know how to pursue it and has overblown fantasies about what it should mean. Once he learns to slow down and let a relationship take its course, Richard is able to show himself to be the nice sweet slightly geeky but solid dependable guy that Love Bear knows him to be. The type of man who anyone would be interested in taking their relationship fur-ther.

The book gets incredibly dark particularly during Fair Bear’s chapters that focus on Kelly and Mark’s troubled relationship. There are moments of anguish when Fair observes Kelly getting beaten and threatened by her boyfriend. It wants to do more to help but knows that it is limited since it's just an inanimate object and unable to physically help her. It’s just an object for her to cuddle and pour her heart out to when she can't take it anymore.

However, a twist occurs in which Fair turns out to contribute more than just comfort for Kelly. In fact, it becomes an important clue that inspires Kelly to leave Mark and find evidence against him when she learns of his criminal history. She is grateful for Fair Bear’s unintentional assistance and when she finally departs, she takes the grateful bear with her. Kelly definitely chose the bear but this time the bear also chose her. 

The teddy bears in the book may be inanimate and unable to actually communicate with their human friends but they are also catalysts for them to change and improve their lives. To leave broken relationships and dead end jobs. To find real love. To rediscover their roots and reunite with people they thought were gone from their lives. To reinvent and rediscover themselves. To become self-actualized and authentic. They reached for the bears for companionship and to soothe aching hurts and instead changed their lives for the better. Thanks to their furever friends. 

The Bangkok Girl (A Lee Jensen Novel) by Sean O'Leary; One Crime in Bangkok Makes a Neo-Noir Rumble

 

The Bangkok Girl (A Lee Jensen Novel) by Sean O'Leary; One Crime in Bangkok Makes a Neo-Noir Rumble 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: With apologies to Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Benny Anderssen, I couldn’t resist the paraphrase of “One Night in Bangkok.” I also apologize for the earworm. I am suffering for it, believe me.

When it comes to settings in Mysteries and Thrillers, Bangkok is a likely one if the mystery involves the sex tourism industry. It’s like New Orleans for Supernatural Horror, or DC for political crimes, New York for organized crime, or LA involving celebrity crimes. There are just some places on Earth which are practically short hand tropes, almost cliches, for certain types of crimes and conflicts that the reader will encounter. Bangkok with its reputation for a decadent night life, loose enforcement, stigmatization, and ambiguous distinction of the definitely of sex crimes is just the right place if the crime involves sexual assault, human trafficking, and forced sex work. That’s what Lee Jensen, private investigator is faced with in Sean O’Leary’s The Bangkok Girl. It is a modern day Neo-Noir Crime novel with its seedy location, troubled detective, ineffective or corrupt authority, powerful dangerous men and women in suits, and innocents who get swept up in the night life that destroys them.

Lee is a private investigator exiled from his native country, Australia and has settled in Thailand. He enjoys the roguish atmosphere and he gets plenty of assignments so he’s never bored. He receives a call from a potential client who is looking for his missing daughter. It seems Zoe Burgess, the young woman, worked as a jazz singer in various clubs around Sydney, Singapore, Bangkok, and Tokyo. However, she is missing and her parents are determined to find her. While Lee investigates Zoe’s trail with the help of his assistant/photographer/martial artist, Kanika, Lee learns that the poor girl did more than play special song requests. She was kidnapped, trafficked, drugged, and forced into sex work. Now Lee has to find her while facing the Yakuza, who have very powerful connections that have spread through various cities and countries and don’t like this detective nosing in on their business. 

There is definitely a sense of the old hard boiled detective noir books in The Bangkok Girl. It’s a subgenre that reminds Readers that the world is a dark cynical place and is full of soulless people who will corrupt, destroy, dominate, and murder others for money, position, or just for the Hell of it. There are places and people that practically thrive on that environment and rely on it to survive.

The settings in the book, particularly Bangkok, are shaped by that dark cynicism in O’Leary’s world. Lee goes through various nightclubs, encounters many unsavory characters sometimes using bribery and force to get information. In fact, the first few pages feature a fight between Lee and two enforcers that have nothing to do with the main case. Instead, the conflict is looked on as another day on the job in Bangkok. 

Along with crime, xenophobia and ethnocentrism is a presence throughout O’Leary’s book. As Lee investigates Zoe’s disappearance, he learns that there are clubs in which he is forbidden to enter because he is looked upon as a foreigner. In a homogenous Asian country whose residents consider one ethnicity or country of origin to be superior to others, someone like Lee is looked on as the minority. 

Keep in mind, this is the type of environment in which organized crime thrives. People with big ideas, fancy suits, and a charismatic style that draws law abiding citizens who are suspicious of local authority and The System. (Remember the opening scene in The Godfather with Bonasara, the undertaker’s “I Believe in America” speech? It’s like that). These people claim to be the spokesperson of their particular ethnic group playing on their fears, insecurities, and paranoia of those that are different from them against a status quo that often struck back and minimized them first. 

So of course The Yakuza would have a hand in this with their control with money, influence, threats, intimidation, and abuse. The Yakuza members, particularly one Hiro Kawasaki, have such a presence in the book. He is magnetic and cutthroat, the type that may invite you to his fancy private rooms but leaves his target uncertain whether he is going to sleep with them, shoot them, or both. The people surrounding him are both drawn to and are in fear of him so he is able to get away with a lot.

 Hiro has plenty of influence that allows him to practice his criminal acts and plenty of informers, like one who befriends women so they can then traffic them. Hiro has so much power and authority that there really is only one way to remove him. Even that won’t work, because there will always be another Hiro waiting to take his place.

Besides the crime element, that bitter cynicism can also be found within its protagonist. Lee has his own issues to work out. His exile from Australia is dubious and only hinted at but suggests that he committed some violent acts, suffered personal and professional trauma, and may have earned the ire of more than a few in charge. 

Lee is the right person to travel into such dark corners because he is as dark as they are, sometimes darker. He often has to rely on the assistance of others like Kanika, who is a sardonic but observant aide, to go inside places that he, a white man, can’t always enter. But he has the mindset to put those connections and clues together to make a whole picture.

Lee knows this world because he has to live it, not just because of his job but because it’s in his body and mind. He is Schizophrenic and relies on meds to keep his hallucinations and delusions at bay. At times this makes him vulnerable in certain situations. 

In some very eerie chapters, Lee is kidnapped by the Yakuza and is deprived of his medications. Surrounded by the enemies that he is supposed to face for Zoe’s life, he is consumed by the enemies in his mind that threatens to destroy and annihilate him from within.

 

Trigger Point (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Thriller Book 5) by Russ Colchamiro; Angela’s Latest Adventure Gets Very Very Up Close and Personal

 

Trigger Point (An Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Thriller Book 5) by Russ Colchamiro; Angela’s Latest Adventure Gets Very Very Up Close and Personal 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If you are interested, please read my reviews of the previous volumes, Crackle and Fire, Fractured Lives,  and Hot Ash

The Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Thriller Series is no stranger to bringing us mesmerizing settings. The series explores the universe of Eternity, where various citizens do their part to help control, create, and repair the Universe. Everything from Patches who fix the tears in the Cosmos, to Designers who decide where the stars, planets, and galaxies are arranged, to the Minders who oversee the entire Universe and beyond, to detectives like Angela, who keep criminals off the spaceways and from messing with the order of the ‘Verse.

 It seemed like with Trigger Point, the fifth book in the series there was nowhere else for Angela to go. Well, Russ Colchamiro, the author, pulled a fast one on us. There was somewhere else to go. When the outside is explored most thoroughly, the best place to go is inside. Inside the mind of his lead character. Here Angela is at her most personal and angst ridden as she explores her latest adventure which puts those closest to her at risk.

Angela is recovering from her last case which resulted in the death of a friend and where she ended up demoted, in debt, and technically working under her former partner turned boss, Eric Whistler. She is definitely not in the mood for a new case but that’s what she gets. She is hired to uncover the mysterious death of a sex worker. Even worse, she finds that Whistler has gone missing, well most of him. He seems to be stuck somewhere in time and space and she can make out his faint image and hear cryptic garbled messages but doesn’t know where or possibly when he is. These cases become intertwined and lead Angela right into a conspiracy concerning the Patches, where her estranged lover, Eddie works and her young son, Owen is being trained. 

This is definitely the strongest Angela Hardwicke volume in terms of character development, much of it is laid at the feet of Angela herself. She often referred to parts of her past in previous books but this is where it really comes forward, particularly in chapters where she talks to her estranged parents (this is the first volume that I can recall where we actually learn that Angela even has parents.), 

We learn that Angela's sister died of cancer and they still feel the grief leading to Angela's father to withdraw from the family and she to embrace a darker side. She also became pregnant as a teenager ending with the death of her infant daughter. These losses caused Angela to become obsessed with her detective career. She couldn't protect herself from death but could protect other people and the Universe from it.

Angela is also haunted by nightmares and memories which she lives on the edge of the Universe can be more real than most on Earth. She has conversations with her late friend where she reveals her remorse and missteps in the previous case. 

She also bears a lot of guilt for what happened to Whistler. Not only for his current predicament but leading him into becoming a detective, acquiring an overdeveloped sense of justice, and having a reckless attitude in solving these cases. She isn't proud of how far Whistler has come. She's worried about what she turned him into and where this life will lead him.

Angela's tenderest moments are when she reunited with Eddie and Owen. It's heartwarming to see the normally hard boiled cynical badass Angela figuratively melt into a puddle of maternal goo when she and Owen are together. He's a sweet smart kid who brings out an innocent protective warmth within his mother. They may be separated but mother and son are still devoted to each other.

Angela and Eddie's relationship is no longer romantic but they are still amicable towards each other. Eddie actually has more interactions with Owen since they are both Patches so he has the loving ex and parental caretaker that is often reserved for female characters in most private detective novels. 

He worries about Owen but also his ex putting herself in danger but also knows his concerns will be dismissed. Even though Angela is romantically involved with Darren, a rock musician, she and Eddie have retained a friendship almost like surrogate siblings that defend one another and have each other's backs.

All of this development towards Angela's character is used in dramatic ways, particularly when she faces the antagonist in this book. There are hints that this character has been around since the first book, Crackle and Fire, and has five books worth of material to use against her and boy do they. It becomes a battle of wills in which Angela's own self worth and sanity are at stake as she faces this character.

If this book is not the last Angela Hardwicke book, I would be very surprised. There are a lot of hints that indicate this is a final volume or if not that, certainly a change in format and formula. Many of the long time subplots such as Angela’s messed up home life and her and Whistler’s statuses are altered considerably.

 Many characters come to some raw conclusions that indicate their journeys will be coming to an end or they will be in different places in the next volume. It's safe to say that Angela Hardwicke Science Fiction Thrillers will not be the same again.

Weekly Reader: From The Ashes (A Ravenwood Mystery) by Sabrina Flynn; Engaging Historical Mystery Looks Like The Beginning of A Beautiful Partnership

 

Weekly Reader: From The Ashes (A Ravenwood Mystery) by Sabrina Flynn; Engaging Historical Mystery Looks Like The Beginning of A Beautiful Partnership

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Sabrina Flynn's The Ravenwood Mysteries are sort of like what would happen if Sherlock Holmes died for real and John Watson and Irene Adler teamed up and took over the consulting detective business at good old 221B Baker Street.

The book, From The Ashes, is an engaging mystery which gives us two protagonists taking separate journeys on opposite sides of the law.

San Francisco detective Atticus James Riot has returned after a three year absence following the death of his partner and mentor, Zephaniah Ravenwood. Ravenwood's death cut Riot deeply and he is not sure that he can or should continue. However, like a police officer called to take one last case before retirement, Riot is called back into the fold. His associate, Tim, refers him to the case of Isobel Amsel Kingston, wife of attorney Alex Kingston who is reported missing while on her way to visit her family in Sausalito. Riot reluctantly takes the case.

 While Riot is investigating Isobel's disappearance, we also get to peer into what is going on with Isobel. She has managed to flee her kidnappers and other potential assailants. It eventually becomes clear that she isn't missing so much as she is escaping which calls into question her marriage to Kingston.

Isobel and Riot's stories do not physically converge until towards the end so that gives both characters chances to take charge of their own story and develop into interesting characters. Riot is a great detective, both intelligent and physically active, but he has a huge inferiority complex. He isn't afraid to dig and ask complicated questions until he finds out the truth. His first encounter with Kingston shows him as someone who isn't afraid to ask tough questions to anyone, no matter how rich, powerful, privileged, or intimidating that they are.

Riot also shows understanding and kindness to many of the economically disadvantaged and minorities as when he discovers Old Sue, an impoverished alcoholic is dead. She is his only link between Isobel's disappearance and her former life in Sausalito. He is upset about that missed opportunity but also treats Sue like a human being whose life had value. There are some implications that his dislike of the wealthy and powerful and concern for women, minorities, and the poor stems from his childhood, particularly something concerning his mother. This reason is not fully elaborated upon but helps explain a lot of his character and why he does everything that he can to make sure true justice is meted out to those who need it and who can't always trust the police or Pinkerton's (the latter of which Ravenwood and Riot once worked for) to bring justice forward.

One of Riot's biggest hindrances is not with a suspect or Isobel's family or husband. It's within himself. He is still haunted by Ravenwood's presence. Sometimes literally since the deceased detective appears in his dreams to criticize Riot's handling of the case or to offer suggestions. Now Riot could be haunted by Ravenwood's ghost (considering the other books that I have read that is a distinct possibility.), but more than likely that may not be the case. 

Ravenwood's presence is still strongly felt by Riot and those who knew him. The detective agency is still in his name. (Heck the mystery series is named after him even though he's been dead three years before this book begins.) Riot is insecure about following up to that legacy which is why he wants to retire after this case. Ravenwood's suggestions may not be messages from the dead but are instead steps that Riot already knows and doubts himself to follow. Ravenwood's visitations might be his own subconscious judging and advising him.

Besides Riot, we also follow Isobel's adventure and we do not see a damsel in distress. She is a pretty tough, competent and strong woman. In her desire to escape her marriage, she has many plans. She evades kidnappers in a clever and resourceful way and disguises herself to avoid being found. 

She also has many contacts who will help and lie for her if need be. One of them is her twin brother, Lotario. Isobel continued to maintain contact with him after he was revealed to be gay. That link between siblings makes him an ally that provides a helpful escape route for Isobel. Like Riot, her ability to treat others well particularly outsiders or those on the outer margins of society proves beneficial. 

Isobel's background as the only girl of several brothers in a wealthy but outdoorsy family allowed her much freedom. This childhood freedom gives her the opportunities to spend most of the book on her own avoiding capture by the police, Kingston, and Riot. During her escape, she proves to be smarter and more capable than many of the people around her. Sometimes, her decisions prove to be a detriment but she always has a second option in mind. The conflict of Isobel escaping and Riot trying to find her is like a chess or tennis match where both parties are evenly matched.

Isobel and Riot's plots are so well developed that it's actually enjoyable when they do meet and unite and combine their talents. There isn't much in the way of romance so much as a sharing of equals who could be a great team.

To paraphrase the famous closing line of Casablanca, this looks like the start of a beautiful partnership.

New Book Alert: Fractured Lives (An Angela Hardwicke Sci-Fi Mystery) by Russ Colchamiro; Science Fiction World Builds A Gripping Mystery

 

New Book Alert: Fractured Lives (An Angela Hardwicke Sci-Fi Mystery) by Russ Colchamiro; Science Fiction World Builds A Gripping Mystery 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Remember earlier this year when I praised settings in mystery novels? In works like Under The Volcano A Quito Murder Mystery and Indecent Exposure A Father Hardy Alaskan Mystery the settings were so intrinsic to the plot that they went hand in hand. That is doubly true when Murder Mysteries are cross bred with Science Fiction. Many of the mysteries are set on another planet, another galaxy, another universe, or in cyberspace. 

The authors not only build a different world with unusual characters, lifestyles, and societies but they also have to consider the laws, penalties, and the socioeconomic structure that often lends itself to producing the crime.

One of the most engaging science fiction mystery worlds is Eternity in Russ Colchamiro's Fractured Lives: An Angela Hardwick Sci-Fi Mystery. According to Angela, Eternity is the cosmic realm responsible for the design, creation, and maintenance of the entire Universe. As a private eye, Angela's past cases have involved investigating android murders. shapeshifters, disfigured wormholes, alternate dimensions, and "a miles long helix of the Universe's DNA."

In fact everyone works for Eternity in one capacity or another. Some design the patterns of the galaxies, others like Angela's missing husband are Patches, they repair tears and holes in the Universe. Even children like Angela's son, Owen are trained to perform some job to help keep the Universe running. (Owen shows an aptitude for Patching like his father.)

Angela says that this society's drive to keep Eternity running is not only important to the residents, but to the Minders those who oversee the Cosmos. The Minders, Angela says "want us to accept that as Eternitarians we're all just stardust in living form. That we are the Universe and the Universe is us and all the existential wank that comes with it."

So Angela knows that she has a job to keep the Cosmos running by solving mysteries and stopping those who harm the people from making Eternity unravel. Her most recent case happens when Wanda Fyne walks into her office to hire Angela to find her daughter, Darla. Darla is a student at The Wrolen School of Celestial Design, and she's not actually missing. At least her body is present, but someone has stolen a part of her soul.

One minute Darla was a brilliant overachieving plucky enthusiastic college student, the next she became a sullen mistrusting argumentative and distant teen. In a normal world, that could just mean that she has developed a mental Illness, under a lot of stress and pressure from school, or acting like a typical rebellious teen. 

However in this Universe, something more sinister has happened. Angela, and her sidekick/assistant, Eric Whistler, who is also a family friend of The Fynes, discover that Darla has been left fractured and the missing part of her soul has been taken on behalf of a strange figure called The Scarlet Raj.

Fractured Lives dances a delicate balance between the Science Fiction and Mystery genres. Angela walks through the usual tropes of a mystery like interviewing the student advisor and Dean of the Wrolen School, Darla's fellow classmates, and getting intimate details about the Fyne's stormy marriage. Then something comes along to remind you that yes, this is a Science Fiction world. The students don't just create art of the cosmos, they are literally cosmic designers. Only a select few are chosen for their designs to be used among the stars. It's a cutthroat competition and only a few are selected. It's easy to see why there is a high dropout rate and why designs are often stolen.

The Scarlet Raj herself is a contradiction even by eyewitness accounts.  Not many have seen her and when she moves, even vid cams don't always catch her. She is a striking presence in front of her designers and they are often left fractured when they encounter her. Even Angela and Whistler are left briefly intimidated by her appearance. They know that she is the source for the soul stealing but they don't know who she actually is. The Scarlet Raj is a projected identity, but they don't know by who or what their goal is.

The investigation also opens up troubled aspects in Angela and Whistler's lives. Angela has to deal with her feelings towards the father of her child and a long buried secret from her youth. Whistler has to contend with his abandoned neglected childhood as he peers into the sordid private lives of the Fynes, a family that he once felt secure abd protected around. They are troubled noir hardboiled detectives in an automated alien world of the future.

Fractured Lives is a great union of Mystery and Science Fiction. Criminals commit crimes  and detectives fly into the stars to catch them.

Weekly Reader: A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell; An Engaging But Deeply Flawed Psychological Thriller About A Toxic Friendship

Weekly Reader: A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell; An Engaging But Deeply Flawed Psychological Thriller About A Toxic Friendship

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: How well do we know the people we term our “best friends?” Do we know their childhoods and if there were any traumas that caused them to be the way they are now? Do we know if there are any oddities or issues in their current lives to cause them to do seemingly crazy things? How far would we go to help them?




These questions are asked in Darcey Bell’s engaging and thought provoking but at times flawed novel, A Simple Favor. Stephanie is a widowed “mommy blogger” who posts entries about the pleasures and difficulties of raising children. One day picking up her son, Miles from school she meets Emily, the mother of Miles’ best friend, Nicky.




Emily is everything that Stephanie isn't. Where Stephanie is casual and naive, Emily is refined and elegant. While Stephanie spends her time in Connecticut blogging advice to other moms about quality time with children and keeping them entertained in the summer, Emily works for a fashion designer in Manhattan. While Stephanie mourns her deceased husband, Davis and her half-brother,Chris who was her “best friend”, Emily appears happily married to Sean, a British architect.




Despite their differences, Stephanie and Emily retain a close friendship until one day when Emily calls Stephanie for a simple favor: could Stephanie pick up Nicky from school and keep him at her place until Emily comes and gets him? Stephanie agrees and waits for Emily. And waits. And waits.

Emily is eventually declared officially missing and the plot follows briskly along through several questions. Where did Emily go and is she coming back? What about that life insurance policy that Sean took out in her name? What about that dead body at Emily and Sean's cabin? Was it Emily and if so how did she die?




While the plot is pretty suspenseful, the strongest suspense is found in the characters particularly Stephanie and Emily. The female deuteragonists are experts at acting in one way and behaving differently.




While Stephanie appears to be a bubbly naive former housewife in her blog, the chapters which report her thoughts give a different portrayal to her public persona. She announces to her fellow moms in her blog that she and Sean have decided to move in together. She states “the heart wants what it wants” and that she and Sean want to give Miles and Nicky some stability. What she fails to tell her blog readers but tells the novel’s Reader is that she has been in love with Sean since Emily's disappearance and they slept together many times before they made it official.




The strongest difference between Stephanie's public and private persons deals with her feelings for her late husband, Davis and half-brother, Chris. She posts a half-truth on her blog that the two had an argument and drove off to the nearest steakhouse when they were killed in a traffic collision.

What Stephanie doesn't tell her blog readers is that she and Chris had a sexual affair from the time they met as adults and realized they had the same father but different mothers. (Even weirder part of the reason, she is so fond of Sean is he reminds her of Chris.) She also recalls that Davis found out about the incestuous affair and planned on killing Chris taking himself with him.




Emily also keeps her true feelings concealed to all but the novel's Readers. She is much like Amy Elliot Dunne in Gone Girl in that she is a maestro at manipulating people into doing what she wants. She appears to have had s cultured sophisticated background free of any close family members. However, the Reader learns she had abusive parents and a weak-willed drug addicted sister that Emily loves but doesn't mind using for her personal needs.

While Emily compliments Stephanie to her face calling her solid and dependable, privately she thinks she's witless and boring but the perfect unseeming patsy for her schemes. She is skilled at using people to get what she wants: independence, freedom, money, and eventually custody of Nicky.




While A Simple Favor is strong in terms of characterizing it's two lead characters, it falters in many ways. When we find out about the reason behind Emily's disappearance, it is hoary and clichéd, and is extremely familiar to viewers of film noir and detective novels of the ‘20’s and ‘30’s. (That's how long this plot angle has been around.) While Stephanie's incestuous affair does a good job of capturing her character, there is no resolution to it. It just becomes a red herring and a missed opportunity to the point it was almost unnecessary.




The ending also leaves something to be desired as another dead body is found and more questions are raised. There is no finality as once again Emily and Stephanie open up new revelations about themselves that have no time to be resolved.