The Running Bibliophile

Maddie Springer is attending friend Ricky's reading for the Hollywood Psychic television show. Right after the medium drops a bombshell about the death of Ricky's mother, she dies herself before anything else can be revealed. With two mysteries needing to be solved in Deceit in High Heels (High Heels, #13) , who can blame Maddie for wanting help solve them for her friends? Deceit in High Heels (High Heels, #13) by Gemma Halliday and Kelly Rey is the latest book in the famed High Heel Mysteries series, and this book was even better than the last. I don't know how the author keeps churning out such engrossing and entertaining books in this series. Even though this book kept the same formula that the others do in the series, it doesn't seem formulaic or stale. It's extremely entertaining, and I didn't want to put the book down. I love the dynamic between Maddie and her husband, and I wish he had been in the book even more than he was because he is one of my favori...

Looking to challenge yourself in 2022 or get out of your comfort zone when it comes to books? We all look forward to planning what we'll read in the new year. Let us know what you're planning on reading.   Here are twelve ways to challenge yourself this year when it comes to reading.   January 2022 Listen to an audiobook. February 2022 Read a book written by an African American author. March 2022 Read a book about a notable woman in history. April 2022 Read a collection of poetry. May 2022 Read a book about mental health. June 2022 Read a book written by a LGBTQ author. July 2022 Read a book with food in the title. August 2022 Read a romance book. September 2022 Read a book recommended by your librarian. October 2022 Read a book about Halloween or a book in the mystery, thriller, or horror genre. November 2022 Read a book as a family and discuss. December 2022 Read a book about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or any other holiday celebrated during the month of December.   ...

It's the Christmas season in Tinker's Cove, Maine, and Lucy Stone is looking forward to hosting the annual cookie exchange that Sue normally hosts. When  Tucker, one of the guests, is found murdered the next day, the entire town is in shock, and the local dentist is arrested for it. Lucy decides to investigate on her own in Christmas Cookie Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery, #6) by Leslie Meier. This is the perfect book to put me in the mood for Christmas, and it's in one of my favorite genres . . . a mystery. Who would ever think a murder mystery would put a person in a holiday mood? But, with the cookie exchange, the holiday shopping, and Santa Claus visiting the elementary school during the Christmas play, it's easy to get excited about the holidays. As far as the suspects go, the obvious one is the dentist because he's the boyfriend of Tucker, but I dismissed him right away. I did consider Lee, the wife of the dentist for most of the book because I thought she had m...

The Therapist by B.A. Paris is about a couple named Alice and Leo moving into a gated community called "The Circle", where nothing is as it seems. When Alice learns of her new home's secret, she starts investigating the previous owner named Nina who was a therapist. However, none of the neighbors want to talk about her. When I bought this latest book by B.A. Paris, I knew absolutely nothing about the storyline. I got it solely based on the fact of who wrote it, and I was not disappointed in the least. The Therapist sucked me in from the very beginning, and I think I may like this book even more than I did The Breakdown . Up until the last fifty or so pages, I thought one person was the murderer, and then, I started thinking that it was a different person. I was correct in my second guess, and I don't know how I let myself be led astray for so long. The author did a great job of throwing suspicion on all of the neighbors at one point or another. With that being said,...

The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #1) by Trenton Lee Stewart is about four children who answer a strange ad in a newspaper. They must pass several tests to be chosen for a very special undercover mission at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened. What is the mission, and will they succeed? Reminiscent of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, The Mysterious Benedict Society is an intriguing read that caught my attention from the very beginning. However, there are some slow parts in the middle that could have been edited out, which is my only complaint. The ending is wrapped up nicely with only a few loose ends so this book can be read as a stand alone. However, I will read the next book in the series. What's cute about the book is that it has a quiz at the end. Your results will tell you which main character you are most like. After taking it, my result reve...

Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse (Amanda Thorne Mysteries, #1) by  David James takes place in Palm Springs, California. Realtor Amanda Thorne is having the worst morning. Her car won't start, so she decides to ride her bike to her showing, only to crash into a cactus. Her day gets worse when she finally arrives at her listing to find a dead body in the house. This book, although entertaining enough, fell a bit flat for me. I liked the book well enough to continue reading to find out what would happen. However, there were quite a few things that bothered me.   Amanda Thorne's responses to certain situations were a bit of a stretch in believability as she was overly dramatic and emotional. I feel like the main character shouldn't have been written from a woman's perspective. On top of that, the amount of cursing in Three Bedrooms, Two Baths, One Very Dead Corpse was over the top, which typically doesn't bother me. However, I felt like it could have be...

Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger introduces us the world of online dating, dating apps, and what might go wrong in this fictional thriller. Wren Greenwood thinks she has met the one through a dating app, but after several months of dating Adam Harper, he stands her up for dinner and disappears . . . his phone has been disconnected and someone else is staying in his apartment. Why has Wren been ghosted? This is the second novel I've read by Lisa Unger. At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like Last Girl Ghosted because it started out extremely slow. However, once I got sixty or so pages into the book, it began to take off, and I couldn't put it down. If I didn't have to work the next day, I would've stayed up into the wee hours of the night to finish. Written mainly from Wren Greenwood's perspective, the story jumps back and forth between the past and present in a way that's done exceptionally well. Additionally, we do learn the backstory of the three w...

The Family Upstairs (The Family Upstairs, #1) by Lisa Jewell is told from different characters with the main storyline being told by the character Libby Jones, who receives a letter on her twenty-fifth birthday, one that she's been waiting for her entire life. This letter reveals the identity of Libby's biological parents and that she has inherited their mansion, but others have been waiting for this day as well. This novel was exceptionally well written and kept me intrigued from page one until the very end. It had a similar vibe that many of V.C. Andrews' early books have but written for an adult audience, and I loved that about Lisa Jewell's The Family Upstairs . Another thing I enjoyed about The Family Upstairs is it's told from the point of view of three different characters. At first, I was a bit confused from the different viewpoints, but my confusion didn't last too long. I also relished the fact that it alternated from the present and the past. Not al...

In the Hall with the Knife (Clue Mystery, #1) by Diana Peterfreund is a novel in the Young Adult genre based on the famous board game and movie Clue . Several students, their headmaster, a janitor, and a proctor are stranded at Blackbrook Academy in Maine when a winter storm comes early. The next morning, Headmaster Boddy is found dead with a knife in his chest. Did one of the students murder him, or was it a looter? When I received an email recommendation from BookBub.com for In the Hall with the Knife (Clue Mystery, #1) by Diana Peterfreund, I knew I had to purchase the book as the board game Clue is one of my all time favorite board games. I knew absolutely nothing about the book other than it was based on the board game, and I was pleasantly surprised with the storyline. The story is told from the different students stranded at the school . . . Orchid McKee, Scarlet Mistry, Beth "Peacock" Picach, Finn Plum, Samuel "Mustard" Maestor, and Vaughn Green. I love t...

Murder Ties The Knot (A Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery, #4) by Christy Fifield takes place in Keyhole Bay, Florida and souvenir shop owner Glory Martine tries to pick up a quilt from a vendor in Alabama. However, the vendor and her husband aren't home and are missing and two dead men are found at their house the next day. This cozy mystery series has been a favorite of mine, but I have to say that this installment is my least favorite. There really isn't much to the mystery sections of the story, and the rest of the storyline just felt a bit flat and forced to me.  As far as suspects go, there really weren't too many. In fact, two men randomly show up in the driveway while Karen and Glory were waiting for Beth and Everett. The men take Karen's cell phone and force Glory into their truck only to drop her off at the end of the driveway and put the cell phone in the mailbox. It was very anti-climatic and not quite believable. I felt like Fifield was trying to add other s...

Eight Perfect Murders (Malcolm Kershaw, #1) by Peter Swanson takes place in Boston, Massachusetts and features Malcolm Kershaw, a bookseller who compiled a list of eight books where the person committed near perfect crimes. Now, someone is copying the murders in those eight books, and the FBI suspects Malcolm. This is the first book I've read by Peter Swanson, and I wasn't sure what to expect. Where as I enjoyed the writing, and it held my interest, I felt like the author was just throwing out lists of his favorite books. He even gave away the ending to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd  and The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie. Had I not already read these particular books, I would have been upset that the ending had been revealed. As far as knowing who the culprit was in Eight Perfect Murders , I suspected two different people from the get go. I especially was trying to think like Agatha Christie since Peter Swanson mentions several of her books. However, I didn't correctly g...

Hardcore Twenty-Four (Stephanie Plum, #24) by Janet Evanovich takes place in Trenton, New Jersey. Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has her hands full with baby-sitting a boa constrictor, bodies appear without their heads, and zombies start appearing all over town. To top things off, Diesel appears in Stephanie's apartment and is being quite secretive for him. Was I surprised that zombies made an appearance in this installment of the Stephanie Plum series? With growing popularity of shows like The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead , it didn't surprise me at all. Who can blame Evanovich for taking advantage of the popularity of zombie shows and adding an element to one of her books? I certainly don't blame her. I enjoyed that this put a slightly different spin on the series. However, I didn't care for the love triangle in Hardcore Twenty-Four . I'm not a huge fan of Diesel and wasn't too excited about him making an appearance in this installment. Thankfully, h...

A Catered Wedding (A Mystery with Recipes, #2) by Isis Crawford is a cozy mystery that takes place in New York. When Leeza Sharp is found murdered on the morning of her dream wedding, caterers Libby and Bernie Simmons take it upon themselves to figure out who murdered Leeza and why. This installment in the A Mystery with Recipes series, A Catered Wedding , was definitely written better than its predecessor A Catered Murder for the simple reason that the author refrained from using as many unnecessary synonyms for words that didn't need a fancier meaning. Don't get me wrong; she still did this, but just not as often. A prime example is she used the word lummox when clumsy or klutzy would have worked just as well. Another illustration of this is that when a character was eating a cookie, and instead of just saying he put it in his mouth or ate it, Isis Crawford wrote that he "conveyed it to his mouth".  At one point in the story, one of the supporting characters talk...

Always Watching by Chevy Stevens introduces us to Nadine Lavoie, a doctor at a psychiatric hospital. After counseling a new patient named Heather, Nadine starts recalling repressed memories of when she lived at a commune at a child and realizes that everything is not as it seems. When I first started reading Always Watching , I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this particular storyline.However, once I got about a third of the way through the book, it picked up a lot. This book of Chevy Stevens ended up being one of my favorites by this author. Although some of the plot was predictable, there were a couple of plot twists that I didn't see coming, and after those twists were revealed, they fit in well with the story and made a lot of sense. There were quite a few characters that I didn't care for, but once a few things were revealed about those characters, I ended up liking them. This book is a definite must read for most people, but it may not be for everyone as it contains...