NetGalley – Carol's Notebook

Félicie by Georges Simenon

March 19, 2026March 19, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Félicie is only the second Maigret book I've read and I don't think I have a good feel for the character or the writing yet. This time around an old man is found murdered in his cottage in a picturesque village outside of Paris. The actual focus of the book though, is his young housekeeper, Félicie, who was the only other resident of the house and who inherits it, to everyone's surprise. Félicie is infuriating for Maigret, but has his full attention. She's headstrong, impetuous, angry, and trying desperately to control what she allows Maigret to see and know, but there's more going on than she realizes. Maigret's team is methodical, while his instincts tell him to keep arguing, cajoling, and spending time with Félicie. Turns out he's right and the clues she unwillingly gives him lead to the solution. I listened to the audio and thought the narrator did a good job with Maigret's voice and keeping the other characters...

Alibi by Accident by Kayleigh Suggett

March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I enjoyed Alibi by Accident and Verona is quite a main character. Keep that in mind because the book itself had some issues for me. She's a private detective, or a private dick as she refers to herself in a kind of running joke, in Calgary. Her new client, Miami, knows her very rich husband is about to divorce her and wants Verona to get proof that he's cheating on her so she can cash in on her share of the billions. Then, the husband ends up dead, murdered in a hotel in Greece, and Miami becomes a chief suspect, even though she was thousands of miles away, so Verona is off to Greece to find another focus for the police's attention. I was not prepared for the language in this one. I should have been, just look at the first word of the blurb, but there were too many f-words when they just weren't needed. I was also not...

The Living and the Dead by Christoffer Carlsson

March 10, 2026March 10, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

In a small, remote town in Sweden, two eighteen year-old boys leave a party only to discover the next day that one of their friends has been found murdered in the trunk of a car. Each of the boys is a suspect, but the case is never solved. Twenty years later, another man is killed and old secrets are uncovered. It took me a while to get into this one. A lot of the names are unfamiliar to me, which can make the characters and places more difficult to keep track of. We had several points of view with the detectives and boys which worked well in the long run, but made it harder to connect to the characters at first. The story also takes place over twenty years and it takes a while before some of the scenes tie in with the rest. At some point, though, the story had me hooked. The plot is multi-layered and so many...

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

February 27, 2026February 27, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

This Story Might Save Your Life is part mystery, part thriller, and part romance. Best friends and podcast hosts Benny and Joy have built a career on survival stories, but now Joy has disappeared and Benny is the prime suspect. I enjoyed about the first half of the book. The story is told through Benny's point of view interspersed with bits from the podcast and from Joy's chapters of an unfinished memoir. I listened to the audio book which, with its two narrators, fit this format perfectly. They did a fabulous job with banter during the podcast clips and really brought each character's feelings and personality across. Benny and Joy are keeping secrets, form their listeners and from each other, as are the people around them. Those are slowly revealed and there are several twists. I was enjoying it, until I found myself thinking "can we just get to the end?" I wanted to know how it all played...

How to Get Away with Murder by Rebecca Philipson

February 24, 2026February 24, 2026 by Carol2 Comments

It's funny how often I want to start my comments with "I don't typically read [fill-in-the blank] books." In this case, it's fictional serial killer books, but I've just read two in a row, the other being My Sister, the Serial Killer, so maybe I'm wrong. Anyway, Detective Inspector Samantha Hansen has returned from medical leave because to help investigate the murder of a teenage girl. A book, How to Get Away with Murder, has been left at the crime scene. The book is essentially a "how-to" guide for aspiring murderers written by Denver Brady, who claims to be a successful, currently active, serial killer, but it's unclear if this crime was committed by Denver or by a copycat. Chapters alternate between Sam's investigation and the handbook. The book within a book works well, especially on audio. The two narrators are fabulous. Geary brings both charm and menace to Brady's chapters, while Kennard captures Sam's intelligence, vulnerability, and determination....

Murder Will Out by Jennifer K. Breedlove

February 18, 2026February 18, 2026 by Carol4 Comments

I am not an organist at heart, but I have played the organ for churches in the past. I think Murder Will Out might be the first book I've read with a main character who is an organist, which of course grabbed my attention. Willow is a grad student/organist who comes back to Little North Island, Maine for her semi-estranged godmother, Sue's, funeral. Of course, it turns out Sue was murdered, the island and Sue's house are haunted, and no one wants Willow poking her nose into the island's secrets. Willow is not, at least at first, a great lead. She's quiet, afraid of confrontation, and easily intimidated. She does grow and become more confident both in herself and the people around her. I like her, but not as much as I wanted to. Most of the story is told from Willow's point of view, but once in a while we gets pieces from another person's outlook, which was a...