Also, Steph Broadribb's writing got in the way of her story some because of how she had British phraseology in play when the characters in a given situation were Americans. Sorry, love, you need to write everything in American English except for what the British characters are saying and/or thinking. (A descriptive sentence about a car by the kerb and several references to "hospital" instead of "the hospital" were particuarly irksome.) That's me saying this as a real Anglophile, too! Knowing what she knows now, Lori will do whatever she can to save him from this situation. She makes a deal to take a job off of the books from the last person she should be dealing with– Alex Monroe, faithful servant to the FBI. Jessie falls to her death from a penthouse suite and the death is ruled suicide, her parents don’t believe this and can’t accept it so ask for the retired detectives help. Potential suspects and alibis aren't clear cut so a dangerous trap is set - putting one of the team members at risk in a dramatic reveal and takedown. Anyway, the premise was great. The execution? Let's say not so much. Some of the characters were just flat-out unlikeable, a few were unbelievable and/or caricatures of a type, and there was _way_ too much angsty deep dark secret malarkey going on for my taste. Like, I literally started rolling my eyes any time any of those dead horses got beaten again after about a third of the way through the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this cozy mystery prior to publication in exchange for an honest review. Deep Blue Trouble is the exciting sequel to Deep Down Dead, the fast-paced and thrilling first book in the Lori Anderson series. If you loved the action of the debut story, then you certainly have a good chance of really liking this book. The ending concludes this episode while providing the set up for the next, but I probably won't be returning for more. And Philip and Lizzie seem to have some skeletons in their past as well. Although Philip retired due to health issues, Lizzie seems to believe there is more to his story than he is telling her which breaks her heart that he feels he needs to keep secrets from her.When Lori and her daughter are ambushed out of nowhere, things suddenly take a drastic turn for the worse. What will they do and how can this bounty hunter figure out how to put things right? You will have to read Steph Broadribb’s debut, Deep Down Dead, to find out! Moira is a retired DCI, who moved from London to Florida to start enjoying an early retirement in a rather luxurious and, supposedly, incredibly safe community. But The Homestead is not the paradise it promises to be in the brochures. As Moira discovers when one morning she comes across the body of a woman floating in a pool. The local police force doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to investigate so Moira and three other residents of The Homestead, also former law enforcement, take matters into their own hands. On Thursday I attended the opening of Creative Thursday, by festival chair and wonderful author, Denise Mina, and then it was time to get to work and onto the Creative Thursday Alumni panel with Mari Hannah, Lesley Thomson, and David Bishop. It was a lot of fun to be on a panel with these brilliant authors and the time flew past! It was lovely to meet the participants of Creative Thursday, and chat to them about their writing journeys during the coffee break, before they continued on to workshops with the fantastic Vaseem Khan, and Greg and Kate Mosse. Told in alternating POV’s between the four main characters, this cozy mystery struggles to gain its footing for a very long time. Character development is slow and immature. Sure, some key items are clearly being reserved for future volumes but there was barely enough information to manage relationships between the primaries and provide structure. My mind kept wandering and I even fell asleep a few times! The person that she’s being paid to hunt is someone that she knows, too. That makes it all the more difficult. JT was a mentor to Lori and he was the one who showed her the ropes in the first place. He taught her how to be a bounty hunter– and also knows quite a bit about her clouded past. JT taught her how to bounty hunt– and now he’s a fugitive and her next target.

The writing is easy to read and like the chapters being a single persons narrative, at the beginning of the series I have found it difficult to get along with but now it’s what makes the series for me. I’m thrilled to show you the cover of my forthcoming book – Death in the Sunshine. Isn’t it gorgeous!Grammar in "...he needs to tread real careful..." could be improved if the word "real" was left out completely and "carefully" used instead of careful. As is common in a first book setting up a series, it struggles to juggle pace & interest with the development of their world. I like the relationships between the characters, and I expect that there will be more buildup in future books. I want to learn more about them. They are very different protagonists and their past is still quite hidden. There is room for more development. Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb is the second book in the Retired Detectives Club, featuring four retired residents of The Homestead Retirement Community in Florida. It’s an exceptionally entertaining read that is mostly cozy, yet a solid whodunit. The premise is probably a little far-fetched, but the novel is pure escapism, so I tried not to overthink the practicality of retired folks (albeit all former law enforcement) gallivanting about after armed, murderous kidnappers.

As well as catching up with old friends and new, I took at trip to the brilliant independent bookstore – Imagined Things – in the centre of Harrogate and signed a few books. It’s a lovely shop, staffed by fabulous people, and I strongly recommend a visit at any time of the year. Since this is the first of a series it suffers from this need to set the scene in book one. On the basis of this initial novel I would say another episode would be welcome and read with some anticipation.Although it’s not a full on hard hitting crime series I wouldn’t put the series in a cosy mystery genre either it’s somewhere in between. I’m thrilled to announce that book four in the Lori Anderson thriller series – Deep Dark Night – is published in ebook now! My first task in 2022 will be to finish a polished first draft of Retired Detectives Book 2 and send it off to my editor by my deadline at the end of January. I’ll then be focusing on the editing of that book before starting the planning for the third instalment in the series. And I’m really looking forward to launching DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE in March.