Murder Under Construction by Alex Henry

 

Synopsis From Goodreads:

Under the flight path, more than one secret is about to emerge…

On the brink of closing a high-profile terrorism investigation, DI Leon Peterson and his team are pulled off to investigate a cold case, a body found on a site for a new airport hotel. He knows this is political posturing, but it doesn’t make it easier to accept watching another DI muscle in on his team’s work.

For Leon, though, the decades-old cold case turns out to be closer to home in more than one way. His DS, Jasmine Todd, can’t understand his interest in the dead man, and Leon is not sure he wants to talk about his past. One thing he fears is that he may have a very personal connection to the deceased. Will the body finally give him the answers he’s waited for nearly forty years?

Even as some shocking revelations come to light, Leon can’t help being distracted by the terrorism case. He’s convinced the new DI in charge is chasing the wrong lead, and his conscience won’t let him leave it alone. No matter if it risks his career—and his life.

If you couldn’t tell from what I said about my reading habits over the last few years in my review of How to Solve Your Own Murder, I’ve been reading a lot of books that could be classified as romance—despite the vehicle the author chose to develop the romance. It could be a locked-room mystery, a tale of vampires or shifters, a story set on a ranch or at a rodeo, or, in the case of Murder Under Construction, a police procedural.

What I thoroughly enjoyed was how little the romance was the focus of the story. Instead, the author chose to center the mystery itself and Leon’s internal personal life to propel the narrative forward. I relished every second I spent with Leon as a character—getting to know his conflicted relationship with his family, right down to his grudging love of the two cats sharing his space. I enjoyed the way his mind works as he puzzles out the targets of the bombings or why there’s a decades-old dead body in a condemned pub.

It’s in Leon that this book truly shines, and why I’ll continue the series. The mysteries themselves are simple without being boring. I just wish there were a little more complexity involved, but I understand that with two separate investigations, neither was able to be fleshed out as much as I would have preferred. I plan on seeing how the second book goes before I start getting too picky about how the author handles the mystery element.

As for the romance itself, it doesn’t even begin until the last few pages. While I’m curious to see if it develops further, it won’t be what keeps me turning the next page. It feels like the romance will remain in the background, which I’m more than okay with. I’ll wait to see whether it unfolds more in the vein of the Dave Brandstetter or Evander Mills books, or if Leon’s love life will chart its own course forward.

Favorite Fictional Character --- Lance Sweets

 

When I started this feature back in July of 2009, I didn’t think I would still be writing a Favorite Fictional Character post in 2025. Granted, I’ve taken some years off, but I assumed I would eventually run out of characters to show some love to. I was absolutely wrong. I love reading. I love movies and TV shows. How could I ever run out of characters to highlight when I enjoy so much of what they appear in? For anyone interested, the first Favorite Fictional Character post was on Vanyel Ashkevron—my first true literary crush.

I recently binged Bones from start to finish, mainly because it was one of those shows I stopped watching during my years-long break from TV. I couldn’t even tell you why I stopped watching, but I did—so now I have a lot of shows I started back then but never finished. So far, I’ve binged every season of Grimm, Bones, and Supernatural, and I’m just getting started on The Mentalist. They’re all great shows with some dynamic characters, so be on the lookout for many of them in the future.

Today, it's all about Dr. Lance Sweets from one of the greatest mystery shows of all time: Bones. Most people would start with either Seeley Booth or Temperance "Bones" Brennan—the two main characters of the show—but I'm going to start with who I think was the emotional heart of the series: Dr. Lance Sweets. Sweets, a psychologist (or "shrink," as he was most often called), made his first appearance in Season 3. And his impact was instant. He got to the root of Booth and Temperance's relationship within a few short minutes—although nothing would happen between them for a few more seasons. He was compassionate, empathetic, and seemed to truly understand what made the Jeffersonian team work.

As the seasons progressed, both his personal and professional relationships with the team grew, making him integral to their lives. As his role expanded, so did his character. We learned he was a talented musician and had a deep, abiding love for his girlfriend. His self-doubts and insecurities were exposed for us all to see—yet he rarely allowed them to affect either aspect of his life. He was strong and insecure. He was compassionate but had a firm sense of morality. He loved deeply and had an intellect to rival most others.

I will die on the hill that he was the most complex character on the show, and the series suffered after his departure. He’s a character I would love to get a drink with and discuss any damn subject that came up. He’s a character I truly enjoyed spending time with.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

 

Synopsis From The Dust Jacket:

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder.

A small part of the reason I was interested in starting up this blog again was to get myself out of my current reading pattern. My first reading love was mysteries, and that started at a young age. I devoured every Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown book I could as a kid. By the time I was in the 5th grade, I was reading Agatha Christie books and anything else I could get my adolescent hands on. As I've gotten older, I've found myself slipping into other reading obsessions over the years, but I've always gone back to devouring every twisted murder mystery I could get my hands on. For the past few years, the only mysteries I've read are those marketed in the romance genre. Now, don't get me wrong—there are some fabulous authors in the field writing mysteries within the romance genre, and I've loved several books and series—but I feel myself getting stuck in a rut, and I want out of it.

I didn't have any particular reasoning in selecting How to Solve Your Own Murder as my first foray back into the "traditional" mystery experience. In reality, I simply picked a random one off my shelves. No matter how this book landed in my hands, I'm so ridiculously glad I started here. From almost the first page, I felt the same thrill I experienced with the first Agatha Christie novel I picked up, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side. It's this buzz that settles beneath my skin, burrowing its way into every brain synapse, demanding I get lost within the puzzle unfolding on the page. I last felt this with Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, and I'm so relieved to feel this way again.

Frances and Annie are two characters I simply enjoyed spending time with. Their voices are uniquely their own, but I could tell that these were two women who would have immensely enjoyed each other's company. In Frances, I found someone I need to know more about—I want to know how her brain works. In Annie, I found someone I want to spend more time with. I found her to be engaging in a way that kept me from wanting to put this book down. I can't wait to see more of both of them.

The mystery itself is as twisty as they come, and I loved every damn word of it. It was challenging enough that it kept me from figuring it out until the conclusion played out on the page, but as I look back at it, it's a fair mystery—I do think there are enough clues sprinkled about for some readers to figure it out on their own. Would it be hard? Absolutely. But I don't enjoy books that make it too easy. Unless it's a revisit with my favorite childhood detectives.

Binge Watch --- Supernatural

I probably watch too much TV. Actually, I know I watch too much TV. I've been this way since I was a kid, sitting on the living room floor glued to Saturday morning cartoons. Believe it or not, there was a few years where I stopped watching TV, cold turkey. I was religiously watching Grimm, Supernatural and a few other shows at the time and for whatever reason, I just stopped. I never saw Doctor McDreamy die. I never saw Rick and company leave the prison. And I damn well never saw Crowley sacrifice himself.

This year has been a year for binging, getting caught up on the shows I never finished. I've already knocked out Grimm and Bones, because that was another show I never finished, and I just finished Supernatural on my birthday, this past Friday. For those not familiar with the show, Supernatural lasted for 15 season. That means I just finished binging 327 episodes of one of the greatest TV shows of all time. 

My favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I will be binging before the new Hulu series starts, so it should come as no surprise that I loved Supernatural from the moment it hit our television screens in 2005 on what was the WB Network. From the moment Dean showed up on Sam's doorstep telling him that their father was MIA on a hunting trip, I was hooked. Here was a show that had two hot guys fighting monsters, this was tailor-made for me to love it. Now, if that was all the show was about, I probably would have gotten bored at some point. Instead, this is a show about family and what a family does to support each other, no matter what that family looks like. It's a show about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who would literally die for the other. Most of all, it's a show that transcended genres. 

This time around, I found myself siding with Dean more than I did my first time. Honestly, Sam could be fricking whiny and annoying at times, the way a younger brother should be. I also remembered how much I wanted "Bloodlines" to have worked as a spinoff, which never happened. And speaking of spinoffs, the fact that "Wayward Sisters" never happened has me seeing red. I want more Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex, and Patience. I feel robbed now. 

As I was watching, I wanted to live in the Men of Letters Bunker, I wanted to hang out with Rowena (my favorite character from the show), I wanted to drive Baby, and I wanted to eat pie with Dean. I wanted to go out on hunts with them. Most of all, I want to see Dean and Castiel reunited. I want that confession to mean something. 

If you've never watched the show, you should. If it's been a while, give it a rewatch. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

Favorite Fictional Character --- Gilligan

 

Sharing my favorite fictional characters with everyone used to be one of my favorite aspects of this blog, so there was no way I was going to resurrect Wordsmithonia without bringing back this weekly feature. 

August 16th, 2017 was the last time I posted a Favorite Fictional Character post, and it just so happened to be on Inspector Gadget, the fumbling cartoon(ish) secret agent many of us grew up with. It's fitting that today I'm going to feature another fumbling character, the always clumsily adorable Gilligan from a show I'm sure we are all familiar with, Gilligan's Island. 

Growing up, I remember laying on my stomach, head in my hands in front of TV watching Gilligan's Island and loving every minute of it. At first in black & white and then in color, as both the show and our TV upgraded, I loved Gilligan's antics as he bumbled across my screen, somehow both annoying and endearing himself to his fellow castaways. 

He always tried to do the right thing and to be as helpful as possible. He put his whole heart into everything he did, but like Inspector Gadget, he fumbled it 98% of the time. His antics are both hilarious and loveable, but it's his heart that I absolutely love about him. He didn't quit or give up when he failed at something. He didn't stop pouring his heart into everything he did, just because his friends got frustrated with him. He kept true to himself, and in my opinion, that is just about the most important thing anyone can do. It's one of those life lessons I think most of us would be good to hold onto with both hands. 

Wordsmithonia Has A Facebook Page

When I made the painful, final decision to shutter the blog a few years ago, I started a Facebook page mainly because I wanted to keep some semblance of it still alive. While my brain was telling me it was time to let go, my heart wouldn't let me. At least not fully. 

Now, while we all post our thoughts about books, music, TV shows, and movies, we also  play a lot of tournaments. We've done tournaments covering the greatest screen villains of all time, favorite children's characters, the most annoying characters, favorite reads, favorite soundtracks, and quite a few more. 

Right now we are getting ready to start one on our favorite musicals. I would invite you all to join us, which you can do by clicking the link above our banner photo beneath here. You could play by entering your own favorites, or vote once the tournament starts, or even just to lurk around the page. We're a friendly group. 

Join Us!

Lured (1947)

If you know me, even a little bit, you know that not only am I a sucker for classic movies, but I'm a fiend for those that just so happen to fall into the classic mystery/noir genre. I'm by no means an expert on the subject as I know there are hundreds of really good movies I've never even heard of, let alone watched. What I am, is a lover of these films. I've been know to binge 4-6 new to me movies in a day; I get so entranced by them. Thank everything holy for the streaming services that have brought so many of them back into the light of day. Kanopy, which I have through my public library membership, has an abundant catalog of them. If you have a library card, I would implore you to see if your public library partners with them. If you like movies, you will love this service. 

I was browsing in Kanopy the other day and came across a movie with the general description of a serial killer stalking the streets of London, luring and killing women through the use of personal ads. When an American dance hall girl figures out her friend is missing, she takes her concerns to Scotland Yard, and is quickly roped into going  undercover to catch the man who has already claimed the lives of too many innocent women. 

That description alone sold me on giving it a go. The fact that Lucille Ball plays the aforementioned dance hall girl and George Sanders is a nightclub owner who she gets involved with, was just icing on the proverbial cake. I don't need to state how brilliant Lucille Ball was in this, because that should be obvious. It actually makes me wish she had done more of this type of movie. Yeah, she was a born comedian but she had the chops for tense drama as well, and that shines in Lured. George Sanders was not a typical Hollywood heartthrob with the looks of a Cary Grant, but that man's screen presence and his voice more than made up for that. It was impossible not to fall for him, even when you know all along there's a chance he's the killer. 

I'm not going to spoil anything about the story's twists and turns, but I would strongly recommend you discover them for yourselves. This was a delightful caper that's guaranteed to thrill even the most die hard mystery fans. For an extra treat, be on the lookout for a deliciously over the top performance by Boris Karloff.