The Thin Place by C.D. Major

source: free review copy via NetGalley/Amazon Publishing UK
title: The Thin Place
author: CD Major
published: April 15, 2021
genre: mystery thriller
pages: 319
first line: She stands on the bridge.
TW: child abuse, dog death and death of a loved one
rated: 3 out of 5

about:
She has to know the truth about Overtoun Estate, but there is a reason it has stayed buried for so long. When journalist Ava Brent decides to investigate the dark mystery of Overtoun Estate—a ‘thin place’, steeped in myth—she has no idea how dangerous this story will be for her. Overtoun looms over the town, watching, waiting: the locals fearful of the strange building and the secrets it keeps. When Ava starts to ask questions, the warm welcome she first receives turns to a cold shoulder. And before she knows it, Ava is caught in the house’s grasp too. After she discovers the history of a sick young girl who lived there, she starts to understand the sadness that shrouds it. But when she finds an ominous old message etched into a windowsill, she is forced to wonder—what horrors is the house protecting? And what will it cost her to find out? With her own first child on the way, Ava knows she should stay away. But even as her life starts to unravel, and she receives chilling threats, the house and the bridge keep pulling her back…

my thoughts:

The Thin Place by CD Major is a slow burning mystery thriller revolving around an old mansion called the Overtoun Estate. The title The Thin Place refers to the place where heaven and earth meet, where the veil is lifted. The story alternates from the POV’s of three different characters; Marion in 1929, Constance in 1949 and Ava in the current day.

Marion is unhappily married to Hamish West, Constance is a sick bedridden child and Ava is a reporter working on a piece about the estate. The Overtoun Estate is the thread that binds these three together and throughout the entire book you feel the large house looming in the background ever present. In this way, the estate is a character in and of itself.

I found the storyline started off slowly but once it got going I was invested in what was going on. The author writes the alternating POV’s seamlessly from past to present day. She does a good job at leaving one chapter off at a little cliffhanger before starting another.

I found Ava to be the most fleshed out character of the three and as the story progresses we get to see her family and her everyday life. She has become somewhat obsessed with the Overtoun Estate and it seems to call to her. I didn’t particularly like Ava because I dislike characters who start to behave cluelessly and who should know better. I’ll leave it at that in order to avoid spoilers, but I kept wondering about her actions. I felt bad for poor Constance and it was hard reading what was going on with her.

Now while I enjoyed reading The Thin Place, I did have some qualms. First of all, I do have to mention trigger warnings for child abuse, dog death and death of a loved one as this was a very heavy read. I even found that an unnecessary scene was added at the end of the book almost in order to really get the reader before the final page is turned.

Also there was an awkwardness between Ava and her mother. It just didn’t sit quite right with me and the main issue between them felt almost forced as far as how her mother was behaving. There was also weirdness going on with another supporting character had me scratching my head in confusion. I didn’t find any of it fully explained and I found it was a little all shoved under the rug at the end so the story could be wrapped up.

Unfortunately the reason given that Ava was drawn to Overtoun Estate made no sense to me. I felt a little bit cheated with that. Also of note, the Overtoun Estate is a real place in Scotland, I thought that was interesting.

While I had some issues with this one I think if you enjoy dark, mysterious thrillers that move at a slower pace, you might enjoy The Thin Place by CD Major. Even though I had a few qualms with it, I was up late nights reading and I enjoyed the creepy atmosphere surrounding the estate.

“The house sees me. The bridge guards my secrets. I feel them both, like solid arms around me, drawing me to them.”The Thin Place by CD Major.


Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. My copy of The Thin Place came via Amazon Publishing UK.

Deadly Ride (Britton Bay #3) by Jody Holford

source: NetGalley
title:Deadly Ride (A Britton Bay Mystery Book 3)
author: Jody Holford
genre: cozy mystery
pages: 217
first line: Molly Owens had a pretty strong grasp on vocabulary, but clearly she misunderstood the word chilly.
rated: 3 1/2 out of 5

blurb:
Newspaper editor Molly Owens loves her new life—and her new man—in the beautiful seaside town of Britton Bay, Oregon. But when a car-show killer strikes, she needs to put the brakes on the culprit . . .

As editor-in-chief of the Britton Bay Bulletin, Molly steps in for a sick reporter to cover the Classic Car Crawl, an exhibit of vintage automobiles. Her main challenge is not being driven to distraction by the presence of her hunky boyfriend, Sam Alderich, a fellow car enthusiast whose auto shop is sponsoring the event. But when she and Sam discover the co-founder dead in his car, Molly quickly shifts gears to solve the murder.

With a showroom full of suspects—including the co-founder’s longtime partner, much-younger wife, enigmatic ex, and car owners with grudges and grievances—Molly soon starts to feel like she’s spinning her wheels. And after things take a turn for the worse, it’s all she can do to steer clear of trouble and stay out of a killer’s clutches . . .

my thoughts:
Deadly Ride is Book 3 in Jody Holford’s A Britton Bay Mystery series. How cute is the cover? The other book covers in this series can be found here and are also adorable.
The story centers around newspaper editor Molly Owens. There is a car show coming to the seaside town of Britton Bay and Molly is covering the story. While she’s at the show she meets a few people and contestants. However, she and her boyfriend Sam Alderich stumble upon a dead contestant at the end of the night. The cops are called in and there are a few suspects including the victim’s young widow, his ex-wife and fellow car owners who all have motive. Even though Sam wants Molly to stay safe and steer clear of the investigation she can’t help but get pulled in. This is not the first time she has stumbled upon a dead body.

The Tower of Songs (A Duck Darley Novel) by Casey Barrett

source: free review copy courtesy of BookTrip / Meryl Moss Media
title: The Tower of Songs (A Duck Darley Novel)
author: Casey Barrett
published: 2019
genre: crime thriller
pages: 326
first line: Danny Soto opened the door to find Mr. Sun flanked by a pair of female bodyguards.
rated: 4 out of 5 stars

blurb:
Embracing an improbable stretch of sobriety, unlicensed P.I. Duck Darley has proven himself stronger than the temptations that loom in the shadows of New York City. But the familiar pull of self-destruction lingers like garbage in July when Layla Soto, a sharp-tongued Park Avenue teenager with a family as screwed up as his own, presents a twisted missing-persons case he can’t refuse . . .

Layla saw video evidence of her billionaire father being abducted from their home—at the top of the tallest residential tower on earth. She suspects her grandmother, a Chinese social climber on husband number three, orchestrated the act to silence her only son. Duck agrees to investigate the hedge funder’s disappearance, if only for the rush of a new thrill—and an excuse to reconcile with Cass Kimball, his leather-clad sometime partner who nearly got him killed . . .

As the unlikely duo become immersed in a high-stakes ransom linked to the international drug trade and the delicate relations between the two most powerful nations on earth, survival means trusting no one. Because when confronting absolute power, certain forces will stop at nothing to bury the truth.

my thoughts:
The Tower of Songs is book 3 in author Casey Barrett’s Duck Darley series but this thrilling book reads fine as a stand alone.

As the story starts off we witness billionaire Danny Soto being abducted. Fast forward to his teenage daughter Layla and her mom hiring private detective Duck Darley to find her missing father. They have video of Danny Soto being abducted from their penthouse in Manhattan. Layla tells Duck she suspects her grandmother Nai Nai is involved. Nai Nai is the mysterious matriarch of the family and she is well connected.

Dead as a Door Knocker (House-Flipper Mystery #1) by Diane Kelly

source: free copy via NetGalley / St.Martin’s Press
title: Dead as a Door Knocker: A House-Flipper Mysteryauthor: Diane Kelly / Twitter
pages: 368
genre: cozy mystery
published: January 29th 2019
first line: I grabbed my purse, my tool belt, and the bright yellow hard hat I’d adorned with a chain of daisy decals.
rated: 3 out of 5

blurb:
The first in a brand-new cozy series from Diane Kelly set in Nashville–where the real estate market is to die for.

WILL THIS KILLER DEAL LEAD TO A DEAD END?
Meet Whitney Whitaker. A hopeless romantic when it comes to real estate, she knows what it takes to find–and flip–the home of one’s dreams. A fixer-upper is like catnip to Whitney: she can’t resist the challenge of turning an eyesore into a priceless work of art. So when one of her clients decides to liquidate a crumbling property, Whitney seizes the opportunity to purchase it for a song. But soon a curious incident of the cat in the night-time leads to a change in tune. . .

Sawdust is the name of Whitney’s cat–of course. Whitney’s passion for gut-renovation may be a mystery to him but one thing Sawdust knows for sure is this: Dead bodies don’t belong in flower beds. So why is there one in this new, albeit old, house? Now it’s up to Whitney, along with the help of hot-and-cold Nashville Police Detective Collin Flynn, to find the truth about what happened before the mortgage property forecloses and Whitney loses her investment. . .and maybe her own life.

An Eye for a Lie by Cy Wyss

source: free review copy via Partners in Crime Tours
title: An Eye for a Lie
author:Cy Wyss
genre: crime thriller/mystery
pages: 255
first line: Inspector Richter-that damn cop-was at the door.

Synopsis:
Lukas Richter is a San Francisco police detective with a cybernetic eye and heightened senses. He can detect the same autonomous responses as a polygraph machine, so he has a leg up in determining guilt.

In An Eye for a Lie, his first full-length novel, Richter is accused of murder and the evidence seems incontrovertible, including a bullet that was somehow fired from his gun when he claims he was nowhere near the crime scene. In the background, San Francisco is aflame over Richter’s shooting of an unarmed Asian man, an incident some are calling “the Asian Ferguson.”

Can Inspector Richter convince a plucky and suspicious FBI agent of his innocence in the face of overwhelming accusations and public persecution?

My thoughts:

In An Eye for a Lie inspector Lukas Richter is more than your average detective. He has a cybernetic eye and can acts a human lie detector. He was bio-genetically engineered by the government to become a better assassin after a near fatal accident.

“They wanted an assassin. Someone who could last for weeks in the desert and strike in total darkness. They spent a year training  me and two using me.”
p. 82, An Eye for a Lie by Cy Wyss