Robin Caroll: Dead Silence

By Kelly Bridgewater

Political games can be deadly…
 
Elise Carmichael is a court sign language interpreter who reads lips all the time. As a widow with a young son who is deaf, lip reading is simply second nature, until the day she reads the lips of someone on the phone discussing an attempt to be made on a senator’s life—a senator who just happens to be her mother-in-law. Before she can decide what she needs to do, she receives the information that her son is rushed to the ER and she must leave. Then she later sees the news report that her mother-in-law has been shot and killed. But when she comes forward, her life, as well as her son’s life, may now be in the crosshairs of the assassin.

From Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Cozy mysteries are fun and exiting way to spend a couple of hours. Robin Caroll has written a number of them. The plot starts out with an inciting incident, which throws the heroine on a loop through the rest of the novel. While the plot keeps moving, just the way I like them, it does seem like a lot for a six day period. I wish the final moments and the reasoning behind the whole thing was a little deeper than it was. It seemed pretty simplistic of a reason. Once the heroine figures it out, I shook my head in disbelief. Really. That was what all the fuss was about. Definitely not a top notch cozy mystery in my book. The writing is wonderful. Caroll definitely knows how to capture the readers with her attention to detail and unique characters. I enjoyed seeing a deaf child make an appearance. Overall, I wish for more to the mystery elements to fully immerse me into the story line. But this is my opinion, this could be your favorite mystery story. 

I received a complimentary copy of Dead Silence by Robin Caroll through Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Purchase Dead Silence

Worst Couples in Books

By Kelly Bridgewater

Valentine's Day.

The holiday that is all about love. What a wonderful holiday! If you are a romantic at heart. Not so much for me. I show my husband I love him every day, so I really don't need a holiday to force myself to buy him a gift. Usually, we don't buy each other gifts. It doesn't rank pretty high for us.

So I thought I would do something different to celebrate Valentine's Day.

Today, I'm sharing the book couples that I read that I saw no chemistry and wondered why the author allowed them to date and then fall in love. I didn't find their romance believable at all.

Without any further ado, here are the worst couples written in books, as least in my opinion:

(Disclaimer: If you agree, don't be mean with your comments. This is MY OPINION. Also, every picture comes from Amazon unless noted.)

Darkwater Secrets by Robin Carroll

 

A Rumored Fortune by JoAnn Davidson Politiano

 

Lady of a Thousand Treasures by Sandra Byrd

From Goodreads

What about you? What couples did not work for you?

Robin Caroll: Stratagem

By Kelly Brdgewater

A High-Stakes Simulation Adventure Leaves Grayson Thibodeaux the Prime Suspect. . .for Murder

Deep in the gritty underbelly of New Orleans, psychologist Grayson Thibodeaux loses everything when his wife leaves him to climb her company’s corporate ladder. He buries himself in his job of creating mind-bending adventure games for businesses as team-building explorations. When his ex-wife’s company hires Grayson’s to create an elaborate game, he doesn’t see how things can get worse. Until she dies during the course of the game he created…making him the prime suspect for murder.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

A romantic suspense or suspense novel for that matter should have the characters running for their life and trying to solve the crime that has occurred near the beginning of the novel. Robin Caroll's Stratagem is a hunt against the clock to solve the murder that occurred in the first chapter to Grayson's wife, Anna Belle. The murder happens, and then the rest of the novel is interview after interview after interview. After completing the whole novel, I would have liked to see the actual action leading up to the murder instead of hearing it second hand from the characters. This novel would have been more enticing to me if it was laid out like the movie from the eighties Clue. I see the guest arrive, then we see the action leading up to the interview, then we end up with the aftermath. It felt like I was getting everything second hand, and it didn't satisfy my suspense loving mind. The ending with the layout of what happened was the most interesting part of the novel. I enjoyed seeing who murdered Anna Belle and why. No I didn't figure it out early enough. The person who I thought did it, didn't do it. Overall, Stratagem by Robin Caroll didn't hit out of the park for me. I wish I could have seen the actual murder instead of learning the story from interview after interview.

I received a complimentary copy of Stratagem by Robin Caroll from Barbour Publishing, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

About the Author:

From Amazon

"I love boxing. I love Hallmark movies. I love fishing. I love scrapbooking. Nope, I've never fit into the boxes people have wanted to put me in." ~Robin Caroll is definitely a contradiction, but one that beckons you to get to know her better.

Born and raised in Louisiana, Robin is a southerner through and through. Her passion has always been to tell stories to entertain others. Robin's mother, bless her heart, is a genealogist who instilled in Robin the deep love of family and pride of heritage--two aspects Robin weaves into each of her 30 published novels.

When she isn't writing, Robin spends time with her husband of twenty+ years, her three beautiful daughters and two handsome grandsons, and their character-filled pets at home--in the South, where else?

She serves the writing community as Executive Director/Conference Director for ACFW.

Her books have finaled/placed in such contests as the Carol Award, Holt Medallion, RT Reviewer's Choice Award, Bookseller's Best, and Book of the Year.

On her faith, Robin says, "I love Jesus and will follow Him wherever He leads me."

An avid reader herself, Robin loves hearing from and chatting with other readers. Although her favorite genre to read is mystery/suspense, of course, she'll read just about any good story. Except historicals! To learn more about this author of deep South mysteries of suspense to inspire your heart, visit Robin's website at www.robincaroll.com. (Taken from Amazon.)

Robin Caroll: Darkwater Secrets

By Kelly Bridgewater

A murder investigation uncovers sordid secrets and haunting mistakes

The Darkwater Inn stands tall and proud in the French Quarter, the hub of New Orleans. Bourbon Street is bustling, and general manager Adelaide Fountaine has her hands full with a hotel at capacity. But she is shocked when a body is found: a hotel guest stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Detective Beau Savoie, Adelaide's childhood friend, is on the case. As Beau digs into the victim's past, he unearths a shocking connection between Adelaide and the murdered guest. Beau is hurt that his friend--the woman he's quietly loved for years--kept the truth from him. To make matters worse, the stress of the investigation has sent Adelaide right into the comforting arms of her coworker Dimitri. But Beau can't press Adelaide too hard . . . because he's keeping secrets of his own.

Can Adelaide and Beau afford to hide from the truth with a killer on the loose?

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

A romantic suspense or suspense is a genre I have read quite widely in, so I have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. Some of my favorite suspense or thrillers writers are Steven James, Carrie Stuart Parks, and Lynette Eason. They know how to capture an audience with plenty of page-turning suspense and having me guess who the bad guy is from the beginning, chasing clues with every page. Darkwater Secrets by Robin Caroll is my first chance to read her book. I had a hard time calling this novel a suspense novel.

The setting in New Orleans came to life was one of Caroll's strongest suites when it comes to her writing. She brings the French Quarter to life and allows me to travel to a city that I have never or desired to visit. Caroll brought the history and the traditions of the city to life for me.

The plot was the problem I had with the novel. A mystery usually introduces the killing of the victim either in the prologue or in the first chapter, then the story moves forward, trying to follow the clues to solve the mystery. BUT . . . Caroll waited until Chapter three to show the murderer attacking and killing the dead person. The first two chapters introduce you to  Adelaide, Dimitri, and Beau and set the stage for the story. Another element that bothered me was that Caroll started to have the characters follow the trail of clues, leading us toward a justifiable reason to suspect a person. Then the next chapter, Caroll had the person claim he did the murder and turned themselves into the police. This was only around page 182 in the novel. For the next eighty pages, Carroll dragged me along to solve the issues mentioned in the first couple of chapters then ended the novel with the person appearing in court for his sentencing.

As for the characters, I found them not that interesting. None of them learned and changed from the beginning to the end. Static characters. Of all three main characters, Dimitri stood out the most because he wants to become a chef not the CEO of his father's hotel business. Never once was any of the character's lives in danger. They were never threatened by the murder or had any reason to be afraid.

Overall, Darkwater Secrets by Robin Caroll did not flow like a standard suspense novel. Caroll introduced the murdered body too late and showed her cards too early, making me want to close the novel and wandered why I should keep reading. I don't know how I feel about reading the next book in the series. If you are fans of Lynette Eason, Carrie Stuart Parks, or Steven James, like me, then this book might heavily disappoint you too. Fans of Colleen Coble, Brandilyn Collins, or Lorena McCourtney might enjoy this novel.

I received a complimentary copy of Darkwater Secrets by Robin Caroll from Gilead Publishing through JustRead tours, but the opinion stated are all my own.

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars