Book Review: Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18) by Lee Hollis

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Death of a Tom Turkey (Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery, #18)  by Lee Hollis  opens with Tom Farley and his neighbors in a snit because he's the last holdout to sell his house to a property developer who wants to build a resort. When Tom is shot at a pre-Thanksgiving community gathering and hospitalized, Hayley Powell puts her amateur sleuthing skills to good use. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this cozy mystery. I received a copy of this book for free in exchange of my honest opinion and review of the story. I loved the fact that this latest installment of the Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails Mystery  series had a theme around the Thanksgiving holiday and included live turkeys in the plot. It was good to visit some familiar characters. Since this is the eighteenth installment in the series, Lee Hollis didn't go into much detail of the background of those reoccurring characters; however, she...
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Book Review: Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne

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Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne is about Lenny Marks who keeps the same exact schedule each day and plays Scrabble with her made up friend, Monica Gellar while watching the television show, Friends.  Lenny also doesn't remember much from the day her mother and stepdad disappeared.  But then a letter from the parole board arrives via mail and turns her world upside down.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley for free in exchange for my honest review.  What drew my interest in this book was the synopsis, so I was happy to be approved to get a copy in my hands before the general public!

At first, the main character, Lenny Marks, got on my nerves and was just super annoying.  It wasn't until I was approximately 3/4's of the way into the story that we find out her entire back story and why she is the way she is.  From that point on, Lenny wasn't quite so annoying, and I found myself liking the character a lot more.  The main character is somewhat of an unreliable narrator, so there were some twists and turns . . . a couple of them surprised me in a big way.

This is not a cozy mystery in the least as I was expecting.  It's a suspense story that is a slow burn.  Not a lot of action takes place in the first half, and I found myself a bit bored and was sure it would be a three star read.  However, the second half is full of action, and I found myself rushing through at that point. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen! The difference between the halves couldn't have been more different.

Going into the story, I thought it might be similar to Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano.  Boy, was I ever wrong!  However, if you liked that book, you should like Lenny Marks Gets Away With Murder by Kerryn Mayne. Four out of five stars is what I gave this book.


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