Spotlight on author Ian Loome

I ran into author Ian Loome on Goodreads recently. His blog caught my eye and I had to pull up his info and check out his books.

Ian wrote an interesting post this weekend about book reviews, things behind the electronic scenes and things I did not know. 

Check it out: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/21120314-a-fairly-definitive-guide-to-spotting-ebook-review-cheats

Ian writes three series and has written several standalones.

The Liam Quinn series has 14 books to date. This is a mystery/thriller/heist series.

Book one: Quinn Checks In

About: An ex-con making amends. A missing Dutch master. A thrilling whodunit...

Liam Quinn has a second chance. Released after four years in prison for art forgery, a connection helps him get a job as an expert insurance investigator. But a gallery robbery is about to throw his new plans for a loop...

Quinn is a good man who has made mistakes. His large Irish American family are leery of his past, and having two police officers in the family doesn't help. The entire department mistrusts him, and half the town wants his head.

His chance for retribution rests on recovering a multi-million-dollar missing painting... if the local mob doesn't kill him first.

The Joe Brennan series consists of a prequel and three books. This is a spy thriller series that "readers have compared favorably to Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum."

Bangkok Deadly is the prequel in this series.

About: "Joe Brennan has left the navy, putting the SEALS and the trials of Afghanistan behind him. He's taking a long-deserved vacation in Thailand when he meets a mysterious American woman. When she disappears, his curiosity leads him into a world of seedy smugglers, powerful street gangs and a culture not his own. Whether he saves her or not, people are paying attention to how he performs under deadly pressure."

The Max Castillo series has four books. Mystery/thriller/P.I. series.

The first book is Buried in Benidorm.

About: "Ex-priest Max Castillo has given up on faith, but not on people. In his first three stories from author LH Thomson, the Benidorm, Spain-based private investigator takes on three very different murder investigations … and argues his case against his former employer, the Catholic church — much to the chagrin of his best friend and associate, Caridad Paredes. Together, they dig up sordid secrets under the Spanish sun."

For lovers of Robert B. Parker, John D. MacDonald and Sue Grafton, this private eye series offers a steady stream of action and adventure, humor and even some romance."

He has also written several other books, way more than I can list here. You can find them on Goodreads, Amazon and his website below:

https://deathbytyping.com/

If you go to his website, you can get Bangkok Deadly and Quinn Checks In for free.

I haven't had a chance to read them yet. As I said I just ran into Ian recently but the series look good to me and Ian Loome has a pretty interesting bio.

About: 

"Born in Libya to British/Canadian parents, Ian Loome grew up dividing time between England, Greece, Angola and Canada. He describes his childhood as “bizarre,” at least in part due to undiagnosed ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder-1.

After years in and out (often by expulsion) of various schools, he got a job at a weekly newspaper. He spent the next twenty-four years in weekly and daily journalism, winning national recognition as a reporter and editor. He has interviewed or covered a wide range of major figures, including U.S. Presidents, three Canadian Prime Ministers, Hollywood stars, blues legends, and award-winning authors. He has won national recognition for news reporting, feature news writing and editing.

“I grew up in a household where it wasn’t uncommon for everyone to read four or five books a week, across genres, and so I write in numerous styles. Quinn is largely a result of loving Fletch, Spenser and Jim Rockford as a kid. Brennan is the redheaded stepchild of writers like Ken Follett, Robert Ludlum and Frederick Forsyth. The Cafe Girl has more in common with Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith than anything contemporary. I like to mix it up.”

He lives in Canada with his partner, Lori, an environmental scientist. They have a household full of adopted pets. In his spare time, Loome reads, plays blues guitar, pickleball and golf, and enjoys cooking."

Latest subscription box and msc. news

 I love my subscription box from Strand Bookstore. I have shown it before. It is a quarterly box filled with such fun things and books.

Here is what I got this week.

Two books: 

The Jig Saw Man by Nadine Matheson - signed. The Jigsaw Man has been optioned for TV by Monumental Television. (English I believe)

The Current by Tim Johnston also a thriller

A 250 piece (I think I can handle that) jigsaw puzzle of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

A special coffee pouch and a special cookie (2).

A copy of Oh Reader and a zippered pouch.

Yes I already ate the cookies and drank the coffee.

Oh Reader is a magazine for and about readers. 

https://www.ohreader.com/about

It comes out four times a year. You can get a digital copy or print. If you zoom in, can you read the title of the article on the far left? So Many Damn Books. lol Made me laugh. It's a story about two friends that have a pod cast about books, their love of reading etc. What a title. It's true isn't it and I wish I could read all of them.

https://www.somanydamnbooks.com/the-damn-show

I have been reading. I have read 2 1/2 ARCs and will get them posted in the next few days. I know there are one or two Hallmark mysteries coming in April. Also I saw an article about Netflix picking up a series we would be interested in...wait a minute...I have to pull it up in my rolladex of a brain.

Thinking...

Joe Pickettby C.J. Box - 10 episodes

It didn't say when it will be available.

Back soon

The Fourth Door - Book 5 in The Secrets of Selkie Moon series by Virginia King

 This week, we are in Hong Kong with Selkie.

About: "When Selkie Moon travels to Hong Kong to discover his fate, she has high hopes of using her psychic twinges to find him and reunite him with his father. Until the tea leaves on her flight make a chilling prediction. Then in a Kowloon night-market she witnesses a child abduction – and the echoes with her quest suddenly raise the stakes. As the strange events escalate and reach back into Chinese folklore, Selkie is compelled to confront the powerful force that’s hell bent on stopping her. The omens are unmistakable. Someone is going to die. 

Someone closest to her?

Or Selkie herself?" 

My thoughts: Selkie travels with Alistair to Hong Kong to continue the search for his son who disappeared as a baby, with the baby's grandparents, after his wife died. He has been searching for 30 years and finally has some hope. He has found a cousin to his son, Su Yin, who says she has information that the baby was taken to Hong Kong, but seems more interested in the reward. Selkie finds some notes in the in flight magazine that seem to speak to her. When she sees a child abducted at the market in Kowloon, she is sure this is what happened to the baby many years ago. Selkie pulls in her psychic abilities, using the notes in the magazine, and hooks up with a medium for help. Su Yin appears, the medium disappears and things go from bad to worse. The grandparents are in the area but where are they? Are they helping or hindering the search? Something happens to Alistair. Is this the work of his deceased wife, Fleur, haunting Alistair? Clearly this is more that Selkie can handle on her own. She calls in the help of her friends, Derek and Nigel, and a medical doctor who specializes in Chinese medicine and folklore. 

It is very fast paced and lots of suspense, with danger at every turn of the page. The story is immersed in Chinese and Japanese folklore but takes place in modern times. It is a very interesting how this tales are woven into the story.

What I have loved about this series, is they take the folklore of specific countries and add a supernatural twist. The folk lore is interesting. The twists are intriguing and suspenseful. The characters are quirky and fun. 

If you like mysteries that take place in other countries, with a strong female character, and a bit of the supernatural, I recommend this series. 

I hope you have enjoyed this look at The Secrets of Selkie Moon series. 

The Third Note - Book 4 in The Secrets of Selkie Moon series by Virginia King

This week, we are off to Ireland with Selkie. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

 Don't you love this cover? Looks spooky doesn't it?

About:  "After returning from her last strange quest, Selkie Moon is more than ready to settle down. So when she receives a parcel from her great grandmother 35 years after her death, opening it seems like such a bad idea. But curiosity wins and the objects it contains plunge Selkie into long-buried family secrets. Suddenly an old mystery begins to echo with the present and she's wrapped in a spell that won’t let go: frightening visions, deadly encounters and a pull from the past that she can’t ignore. What happened down by the old stone well in 1896 – and why does it matter to Selkie after more than a hundred years? Armed with only her wits and psychic twinges that are hardly reliable, Selkie is drawn into a web of cryptic clues that delve deep into the folklore of Ireland where superstition still weaves a powerful – and fatal – spell.

If you love mysteries with lightning pace, twists and turns you never see coming, quirky clues and a sprinkling of the supernatural, then you’ll love The Third Note. 

Join Selkie Moon on a quest that will threaten not only her sanity, but her life."

My thoughts: The Third Note is truly magical. Full of mystery, Irish folklore, and family history, the story of Selkie Moon continues. This is probably my favorite of the first three, as the characters have developed more, we find out more about Selkie's past and her "abilities", and Selkie finds out more about herself. All of the Selkie's fun and quirky friends from the first two books are there; Davina, Derek, Coral and of course her romantic interest, Alister.

In revisiting these books, I really want to re- read them. That is rare for me.

Next week, The Fourth Door. The last book (so far) in the series where we will be going to Hong Kong.

Two new Hallmark mysteries and a good Netflix series

 Happy Spring which means warmer weather after the Polar Vortex, some rain, and least we forget, put your clocks ahead this weekend. I think that is going up for vote here in the next few months. Please can we leave it one way or the other?

Wanted to share two new Hallmark Mystery Movies coming up.

Sunday March 14th, 7 p.m. Central Time:

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: How to Con a Con

When Aida Teagarden's real estate client is found murdered, her sleuthing daughter Aurora sets out with her fiancé Nick and the Real Murders Club to solve the murder. Stars Candace Cameron Bure, Niall Matter and Marilu Henner.

Sunday March 21st, 7 p.m. Central Time

Mystery 101: Killer Timing

An escaped serial killer and an attempt on Travis's life makes this their most dangerous case yet as Amy and Travis team up with his FBI agent ex to find the connection before it's too late. Starring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha and Erin Cahill.

I came across The Stranger on Netflix recently. It is based on the book of the same name by Harlan Coben. It is a series of eight episodes and was released in January of 2020. I don't know how I missed it or didn't know about it.

About: When a stranger makes a shocking claim about his wife, family man Adam Price becomes entangled in a mystery as he desperately searches for answers.

Starring:Richard Armitage, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders 

Creators:Harlan Coben

I have not read this book. I have watched only the first episode so far and it is REALLY GOOD. A definite psychological thriller. I am seeing some of the usual comments about it being different from the book etc. but if you are looking for a good thriller to watch, I recommend this.

Two actors I recognized from other shows were Siobahn Finneran - O'Brien in Downtown Abbey and Jennifer Saunders from Absolutely Fabulous. (I loved "Ab Fab" back in the day. So funny).

Have a good weekend and don't forget to set your clocks ahead. Ugh.

The Second Path - Book 3 in the Secrets of Selkie Moon by Virginia King

 Book three in the Secrets of Selkie Moon takes us to Paris!

About:

" A rock ripped from the soil, a message scrawled in lipstick on the floor, a torn photo, a silver spoon… What do they all mean?

Only her subconscious knows.

When we last left Selkie Moon, she was running towards the source of her deepest primal fear: the sea. Now she finds herself naked on the beach, stunned that she has no memory of the past two weeks.

Recovering at a friend’s house, Selkie wakes up to discover a bizarre collection of items scattered across the floor. Items she apparently gathered in her sleep. Finding the ho'ohihi – the interconnectedness – between them will carry her around the globe, from Honolulu to Sydney to Paris. A dark fairy tale journey filled with fear and despair, laughter and hope, The Second Path has Selkie searching for her place in the world, in her relationships, and in herself."

Here is what I wrote when I read it:

We follow Selkie from Honolulu to Paris to Tours, France to continue her journey into her struggle to leave her haunting past and begin anew. With the help (?) of her intuitive, sometimes psychic friends, she searches the beach where she disappeared and caves in France to find answers. Meanwhile Selkie tries to make a living with her seminars, Being Sleek. All while having strange dreams, writing messages in her sleep, and trying her hand at art to help her bring her answers. Then there is Alister, who seems to be the perfect person to be in her new life, but she keeps pushing away. The writing of the story is magical; lots of great descriptions of not only the landscapes, and tangible things, but of the quirky people Selkie continues to meet and her own thoughts and the process of making sense of everything. Surprise ending.

Revisiting these books makes me want to read them again.

As I have said before; if you like strong female characters, a hint of supernatural (or is it intuition?), mystery, a little romance and exotic locations, I really recommend this series.

Next week, Selkie is off to Ireland.

Pssst...if you are liking the first book or two, the complete series is available in a five book ebook set.

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Selkie-Moon-Book/dp/B08VH6BRB6/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=selkie+moon&qid=1614815458&sr=8-1

Sycamore Row by John Grisham (Book two in the Jake Brigance series)

 The Mystery Book Club "met" this past week. Our theme was any book in the Jake Brigance series by John Grisham or any other book by this author.

I chose to read Sycamore Row, which is actually book two, rather than book one, A Time To Kill. The description sounded disturbing to me. Several people in the book club did read A Time To Kill and highly recommend it though.

 

About: 

"Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?"

My thoughts: 

As I said, I did not read the first book in this series, but didn't find that I had to, in order to follow this story. 

I really liked it. It is a page turner. I liked reading the methodical way Jake plans how he is going to get the most recent hand written will held up in court and comply with Seth's wishes. The case goes to trial and that is very interesting with plenty of suspense.  I like the character of Jack and his wife. I also liked the person that is to inherit much of Seth's estate, Lettie, his maid. Portia, Lettie's oldest daughter, takes on a role which will carry on to book three. (She was a popular character with the book club members.) There are other colorful characters from the first book, fellow lawyers, that add interest to the story. There is also a side story line (Is there such a thing?) of Lucien, a lawyer who was disbarred, helping in the case by looking for the long lost brother of Seth. That was very good also.

There wasn't anything I didn't like about it. Everyone liked the books also and all are hoping for a book four.

The First Lie - Book 2 in the Secrets of Selkie Moon series by Virginia King

 I shared Planting Pearls, book one/prequel to the Secrets of Selkie Moon series, last week.

As I mentioned, I have read all the books in the series. I did a short post about the series a couple of years ago but wanted to showcase each book now.

About: 

"Selkie Moon is a woman on the run. 

In a mad dash for freedom she’s escaped her abusive husband to start over in Hawaii. But her refuge begins to unravel and she’s running from something else entirely. A voice in a dream says: Someone is trying to kill you. Not that Selkie’s psychic, no way. But the visions escalate until the truth hits her – someone, or something, is stalking her. Entangled in Celtic and Hawaiian mythologies, the mystery becomes so bizarre and terrifying that Selkie’s instinct is to keep running. But is she running from her past or her future? And can she piece together the fragmented clues before time runs out?

The First Lie is a psychological thriller with a mythical twist, peppered with a cast of quirky characters. It’s a story about secrets, about the shadows we don’t know are driving us, from our mythical pasts and our present reality, told with a touch of humour."

My thoughts: The story begins when Selkie sees a woman in a mirror that belongs to Wanda. The woman is looking right at her and appears to be real. Selkie hears words in her head as if the woman is giving her a message that someone is trying to kill her. When Selkie turns around, the woman is not there. (I always like a little supernatural thing going on). We follow Selkie as she tries to find out who the woman is, get her business going, not fall for another abusive man, not get killed and finally find out what was the first lie.

I loved the writing. It is a good thriller but also has some wonderfully written descriptions of Selkie's experiences? dreams? visions? The story also brings in some the legends and myths in Hawaii. There are many layers to this story. What part does Selkie's childhood play in all that is happening to her? Are these things real, magical, psychological?

The story ends with you wanting to know more. Really good.

I will post The Second Path next week, that takes Selkie to Paris!