Book Review: The Writer by James Patterson and J.D. Barker

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The Writer by James Patterson and J.D. Barker  was published on March 17, 2025. It opens with Detective Declan Shaw at a closed subway station trying to work up the nerve to commit suicide when he receives a call from his partner about a break in and homicide at the home of a true crime author. Shaw makes his way to the crime scene to work the case, and in a turn of events, Declan comes under scrutiny in another case loosely connected to this new case. I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of The Writer  from NetGalley and Little , Brown, and Company for free in exchange for my honest review. I'm appreciative that my request for this book was approved. With this story opening with the main character trying to commit suicide, I almost didn't go any further with the book. However, I am glad I stuck with it as it took me on a fantastic ride and had my emotions all over the place. There were so many twists and turns that just when I thought I had it all figured out, there was ...
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Book Review: Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly

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Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly is a collection of four novellas that are loosely related to each other.  There are a rash of deaths at the Birch Point Lake Park linked to four different food trucks.  This book collection was published on July 1, 2023.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for approving my request to read Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly.  I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my honest review.  When I requested to read this book, I didn't realize that the stories had religion in them.  Had I known this, I wouldn't have requested it.

Overall, I would have enjoyed the stories much more had they not been religious, especially the first novella.  I felt like the first author was cramming religion down my throat.  The other three novellas were a little less religious.  There's nothing wrong with Christian books, but they're just not for me.  

The culprit in all four stories were very obvious to me from the beginning despite the authors trying to throw suspicion elsewhere.  Each novella also had a strong romantic element to it, which didn't bother me in the least bit.  The reason I chose to read these stories were because of the food themes, which I did end up enjoying immensely.

Three out of five stars is what I rated Death by Food Truck: 4 Cozy Culinary Mysteries by Joi Copeland, Cynthia Hickey, Linda Baten Johnson, and Teresa Ives Lilly.  If you like Christian Fiction, then you'd likely enjoy these stories, but as I said before, they weren't really for me because of the religious elements.

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