Books 61 and 62
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
T is for tedious. I like the series well enough but this one felt very forced and just oh so long. I listened to it on a long drive and it made it much longer. It was more suspense than a mystery. Kinsey's cranky elderly neighbor has taken a nasty fall and is in need of in-house nursing. He ends up with a predator, not really a nurse and we spend a lot of time in her head so we know she's been using other nurses' id to scam, rob and even kill the elderly.
So it's a long slog until Kinsey realizes the danger (and for some reason she no longer has her carry permit I can't remember why other than to set up the ridiculous ending). In the meantime, she's also on another case, a car accident where the young driver was probably swooped and squatted and those scammers might win the case unless Kinsey can locate a missing eye witness who doesn't want to be found.
Neither of these cases are particularly interesting. And Kinsey does a million stupid things to justify the ending. Like when she finally realizes that it looks like the nurse is selling stuff off and has her brute of a son living in the old man's home (and that the old man keeps getting worse) and she does nothing. She gives up on social services and his relatives very fast. She doesn't care and why should we?
The ending was stupid, straight out of Hollywood and so unbelievable I couldn't believe I struggled all the way through this for that ending. Eye roll. This is what happens when a series goes on too long.
View all my reviews
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: A Study In Mischief by Lydia Sherrer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a cute introduction to the series. It's a free novella and does it's job, introduces me to the characters and makes me want to read the series. It showcases the first meeting of Lily and Sebastian as they take turns relating it to their cat who has human intelligence and can speak (at least to Lily).
In this urban fantasy world, wizards like Lily are born to magic, witches like Sebastian must use magical items. Wizards think witches are relatively evil or at least dangerous. Witches see wizards as snobs. Naturally they're enemies.
Lily is a librarian at a magical school and has purchased a box of books from a wizard's estate. Sebastian has been hired to retrieve something from that box but the box has gone missing. They reluctantly team up.
The novella gives good insights into the type of people Lily and Sebastian are and how their worlds work. I'd be interested in reading more of their story.
View all my reviews