Tag Archives: book reviews

Review: Slay Bells Ringing, by Emily James

Red-patterned book cover featuring a gingerbread figure with x-ed out eyes. Text: A Murder Mystery Duet Slay Bells Ringing, Emily James.

Slay Bells Ringing, by Emily James (Stronghold Books, 2019)

Two short-but-fun mysteries set at Christmas:

“Unsilent Nights” (Maple Syrup Mysteries) Lawyer and maple syrup farm owner Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes can’t even go on her honeymoon without landing in a mystery that needs solving. Watch her stare down cruise ships officials in flip-flops and shorts.

“Ginger Dead Man” (Cupcake Truck Mysteries) Isabel Addington is on the run from her abusive ex, running a mobile food truck. She’s sleeping in the truck too, but that doesn’t make her homeless, right? She needs to keep off-grid, but she can’t walk away when a homeless man’s murder may go unsolved.

Emily James writes mysteries that are fast, clean, and funny in places. I appreciate the way she really understands her protagonists and the details in their lives.

As well as the Maple Syrup Mysteries and Cupcake Truck Mysteries, Emily James has also written the Cat and Mouse Whodunits. For more about the author and her work, visit authoremilyjames.com.

[Review copy from the public library via the Hoopla Digital app.]

3 Favourite Reads of 2025? Already?

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The good folks curating book recommendations at Shepherd.com collect readers’ three favourite books from November through the following October, which gives them time to post everyone’s top 3 picks before the calendar year-end.

Here’s a link to my top 3, which will also be reflected in my year-end picks:

Janet Sketchley’s 3 Favourite Reads in 2025

I can tell you one’s nonfiction, one’s a mystery, and one’s a new-to-me genre. I highly recommend each one.

All readers are welcome to add their top 3 picks to Shepherd’s annual list.

And authors are welcome to create a list of “5 books you love around a topic, theme, or mood” connected to one of your books you want to feature. For example, my list is “The best Christian/clean books where mystery/suspense meets women’s fiction” and it links to my first Green Dory Inn Mystery, Unknown Enemy.

[Disclosure: if you get to the Shepherd site by way of my 3 Favourite Reads link and you decide to submit your own 3 favourites, there’s a referrer link that will automatically show my book, Unknown Enemy, below your picks. It’s a little perk Shepherd offers for referrals. If you’d rather not have your list connected with my book, just go to Shepherd.com and start fresh with your list. If you’re an author, you may want to go straight to their “welcome authors” section.]

Review: How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, by Pete Greig

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How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, by Pete Greig (NavPress, 2019)

“Help!”

“Thanks!”

“Wow!”

Prayer can be very short. But it can also become a rich, ongoing way of life.

In How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People, Pete Greig provides what Christianity Today called “An instant spiritual classic.” The introduction describes it as “a simple guide to the complex, living landscape of prayer….But there’s more to prayer than asking, and God is not in a hurry.” [p. 27, ebook version]

Each chapter flows from a different verse of The Lord’s Prayer, exploring nine approaches to prayer: stillness, adoration, petition, intercession, perseverance, contemplation, listening, confession, and spiritual warfare. Chapters conclude by featuring a “hero of prayer” representing that aspect.

They also include further recommended reading plus links to additional resources at the “toolshed” section of the Prayer Course website prayercourse.org—where you can also find free video lessons to accompany the book.

Don’t skip the book, though. It deepens the overall teaching. Plus, Pete Greig has a funny streak. You’ll find yourself snickering here and there.

How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People is easy to read, an inspiring invitation, and a catalyst to go deeper into our prayer lives. Its sequel is How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People, which for some reason I read first. I highly recommend them both.

Author Pete Greig is one of the founders of the 24/7 Prayer movement, which brings us, among other resources, the Lectio365 app and the Inner Room prayer app. You can read his bio at dirtyglory.org or at 24-7prayer.com/team/pete-greig.

[Review copy from the public library via the Hoopla app, and the print book is on my to-buy list.]

Review: Don’t Blink: 12 Inspirational Suspense Thrillers

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Box set of 12 books, with authors' names visible on the spines. Cover: Don't Blink. Cover image is a cottage in the forest with an overcast sunset sky.

Don’t Blink: 12 Inspirational Suspense Thrillers, by Terry Toler, Cynthia Hickey, Heather Day Gilbert, Jordyn Redwood, Urcelia Teixeira, Melanie D. Snitker, Camy Tang, Sherri Wilson Johnson, Vikki Kestell, C.D. Gill, Jan Thompson, and Lynn Shannon. (Winged Publications, 2025)

This collection is well worth picking up. Some of the authors were new to me, some were the draw for me to order the book. (Then I scored an advance review copy. My own copy landed in my Kobo app on release day.)

As with any collection, not every story worked for me. The ones that weren’t to my taste will be another reader’s favourites.

Here are some of the ones I most enjoyed, in order of appearance:

Queen Bee, by Heather Day Gilbert: 5 stars, tense but heartwarming. I liked the setting and the bee details. I was pretty I’d identified the villain, but there was a lot more going on that totally surprised me.

Abandoned to Darkness, by Jordyn Redwood: 5 stars, even tenser but somehow Isla’s blindness and having to trust Asher, her rescuer, helped me keep enough distance that I wasn’t too frightened.

Murder by Accident, by Vikki Kestell: 5 stars, and my personal favourite in this collection. Miss BD Finch is delightful—feisty, direct, and determined to avoid the gangster who wants to prevent her testifying at his trial. Be warned, this novella doesn’t resolve that. It stops at what I’d call a pause point, not a cliff-hanger, but where the next stage of the action will begin in book 1 of The Tahoe Mysteries series, Number 1 With a Bullet. Ordinarily, that’s a deal-breaker for me not to find at least partial resolution… but I’d already decided I’ll be following Miss Finch and her pets into the next book.

For more about the authors and to check out their other books: Terry Toler, Cynthia Hickey, Heather Day Gilbert, Jordyn Redwood, Urcelia Teixeira, Melanie D. Snitker, Camy Tang, Sherri Wilson Johnson, Vikki Kestell, C.D. Gill, Jan Thompson, and Lynn Shannon.

[Advance review copy provided by the authors / Review copy from my personal library.]

Review: The Accidental Alchemist, by Gigi Pandian

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Illustration of a crouching gargoyle, smiling, with large wings, holding a cooking whisk. In the background is a large house. Text includes the title: The Accidental Alchemist, and author: Gigi Pandian.

The Accidental Alchemist, by Gigi Pandian (Midnight Ink, 2015)

An ex-alchemist. A living gargoyle. A delinquent teen. What could possibly go wrong?

Zoe Faust hopes she’s finally found a safe place to settle down in Portland, Oregon, after so many years living on the road in her travel trailer. Except she discovers the gargoyle Dorian in one of the crates shipped from her former shop in Paris. And a local teen, Brixton, breaks into her house on a dare because everyone thinks it’s haunted.

Not the most peaceful start. Then a man is murdered on the property and valuable items are stolen. Zoe, Dorian, and Brixton forge an unlikely team to solve both crimes—before time runs out for Dorian.

It’s the characters that give this mystery heart. They share a common bond of not fitting in. Zoe’s full of regret, and Dorian isn’t human. The friendship that develops, extending to include Brixton, is heartwarming. And Dorian… who’d expect a formerly stone gargoyle to be a French chef? (The book includes vegan recipes—at over 300 years of age, Zoe is particular about what she puts into her body.)

The Accidental Alchemist is book 1 in the Accidental Alchemist Mysteries series. Highly recommended for a good read.

Gigi Pandian’s other series are the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries and the Secret Staircase Mysteries. I’ve read the first in each one and look forward to the rest. For more about the author and her books, visit gigipandian.com.

[Review copy from the public library.]

Reviews: Red Moon Rising and Dirty Glory, by Pete Greig

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Red Moon Rising cover art. Image: blackk-silhouetted people facing a red sky with a red moon in the top right. A darker circle beneath with text about foreward, revision, update information.

Red Moon Rising and Dirty Glory, by Pete Greig (with Dave Roberts for Red Moon Rising)

Q: What happens when a group of Christians decide to pray 24-7 for a short time, maybe a month or two?

A: It starts a movement that’s still going strong 25+ years later.

Red Moon Rising: Rediscover the Power of Prayer chronicles the 24-7 Prayer movement’s first five years, and Dirty Glory: Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You covers the next five and beyond.

This is clearly a story of what God did—through obedient people, to be sure, but there’s no way a group of humans could build and sustain an international, interdenominational movement like this. Nor could humans arrange the more dramatic experiences these books relate.

Book cover image: folded hands drawn in black, raised in silhouette against a red moon against a blue background. Text: Dirty Glory, Go Where Your Best Prayers Take You. Pete Greig.

They began in prayer. Then they found themselves on mission in the strangest places, still praying but also serving and working for justice. This is an interdenominational movement that sees Christians from widely different backgrounds and denominational preferences serving and worshipping side by side for the glory of God. Looks like the Body of Christ to me.

If you want to be encouraged, even excited, in your faith, or if you’re just curious what this international 24-7 Prayer movement is all about, I highly recommend both of these books. Then, check out the 24-7 Prayer International website (or possible your country has one) for more details and resources.

The books read like novels, and if you have the chance to catch them in audiobook format the author’s energetic delivery adds to the impact. That’s what I did, but now I want to go back and read in print or digital so I can highlight the most impactful bits and also linger over some of the well-turned phrases.

The story doesn’t finish with the books. Have a listen to Pete Greig’s 25^th anniversary message in 2024. As it happens, I’m posting this review on September 5, 2025—the 26^th anniversary of 24-7 Prayer’s quiet beginnings.

Pete Greig’s biography on the 24-7 Prayer International website describes him as “a best-selling author, pastor and bewildered instigator of the 24-7 Prayer movement which has reached more than half the nations on earth.” For more about him, visit dirtyglory.org. For more about the 24-7 Prayer Movement or for prayer resources, visit 24-7prayer.com.

[Review copies from the public library via the Hoopla app.]

Review: Under Lock and Skeleton Key, by Gigi Pandian

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Under Lock and Skeleton Key, by Gigi Pandian (St. Martin’s, 2022)

This first-in-series mystery novel ticks so many boxes. Interesting characters, strong family dynamics, good friendships, threads from the past that may include a generational curse, a puzzling crime with multiple misdirections… and food, all in a clean read. Plus bonuses like multi-ethnic characters, stage magician know-how, references to classic mysteries and authors, and best of all secret rooms and staircases. Oh, and crossover characters from at least one of the author’s other series.

I did say it ticks a lot of boxes…

Tempest Raj loves her multigenerational, ethnically-mixed family and their unique home. Visits are great. But she’s not happy to be living there again after a performance-gone-wrong that nearly killed her in front of an audience.

Then she’s present when a fresh body is discovered at her father’s construction company’s job site—in a room that hadn’t been opened for years. The rumoured family curse says “the eldest dies by magic.” Was Tempest the intended victim?

As unexplained, possibly supernatural, happenings abound, the family must consider that the curse may be real. Or is it all a cleverly-executed illusion?

Under Lock and Skeleton Key comes with recipes and discussion questions, and although this mystery is solved at the end the ongoing mystery of Tempest’s mother’s disappearance/death is ongoing. I’m eager to read book two, The Raven Thief.

Under Lock and Skeleton Key is multi-award-winning author Gigi Pandian’s twelfth novel, first in The Secret Staircase Mysteries. Her other series are the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mysteries and The Accidental Alchemist Mysteries.

Visit the Gigi Pandian website for more about the author and her books. Get both a free short mystery and a recipe book by signing up for her author newsletter.

[Review copy from the public library.]

Review: Vinyl Resting Place, by Olivia Blacke

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Overhead view of a storefront with cafe table and chairs and a cat. A vinyl record lies broken just outside the door. A large image of a vinyl record at the top of the cover says "Vinyl Resting Place The Record Shop Mysteries".

Vinyl Resting Place, by Olivia Blacke (St. Martin’s, 2023)

They grew up in their grandparents’ record store. Between fond memories and family ties, it’s no surprise when three Texan sisters open a combination record shop and coffee bar on the original site.

In the small town of Cedar River, just outside of Austin, everyone remembers the Jessup sisters—and the store. The grand reopening draws a crowd—including a murderer.

Juni (Juniper) is the youngest, recently moved back to town after a corporate buyout. She and sisters Tansy and Maggie have pooled their savings to set up the store.

They should leave solving the crime to the professionals—except the police make Uncle Calvin look like the number one suspect. The suddenly-missing Uncle Calvin, who’s just skipped town.

Vinyl Resting Place is a good, clean, quirky mystery with a heavy dose of family, puns (you got that from the title, right?) and an undercurrent of rivalry for Juni’s attention between her ex and her childhood best friend.

Where do the puns come in? Well, they had to name the drinks for their coffee bar. How better to do it than by riffing off song titles?

This first book in the Record Shop Mysteries series is a perfect de-stressing read. There’s even a cat. Books 2 and 3, Fatal Groove and Rhythm and Clues, are already on my to-read list.

Author Olivia Blacke’s website describes her as “Mysterious, Spooky, Cozy & Kooky!” As well as the Record Shop Mysteries and the Brooklyn Murder Mysteries, she writes “darkly humorous supernatural mysteries.” Like the Ruby & Cordelia Mysteries, where one of the sleuths is a ghost. For more about the author and her work, visit oliviablacke.com.

[Review copy from the public library.]

Review: What We Hide, by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker

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Book cover: What We Hide, by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker. Image: woman running toward an ornate stone building, passing benches and trees. Overcast sky suggesting an approaching storm.

What We Hide, by Colleen Coble and Rick Acker (Thomas Nelson, 2024)

A crumbling southern US university. A couple whose marriage shattered with the death of their toddler. A cache of artifacts that seem to be being sold with illegal provenance papers. And… a corpse.

Savannah and Hezekiah Webster might have survived losing their daughter—if he hadn’t turned to alcohol. Two years later, Hez claims to have changed. Savannah doesn’t dare risk her heart again, but when she becomes a person of interest in the on-campus death, she needs his help.

She’s a history professor looking for tenure in the university her father helped establish. He’s a top defense attorney with a new passion for helping the unjustly accused. Can working together reunite their hearts? Will they live long enough to find out?

Much of the story takes place on or near the university grounds, and fans of Colleen Coble’s Pelican Harbor series will recognize some of the nearby town’s residents.

What We Hide is a Tupelo Grove Novel, and the epilogue highlights an unanswered thread that’s begging for a sequel (Where Secrets Lie, releasing June 2025).

This writing duo has also released a stand-alone tech thriller, I Think I Was Murdered, with different characters and a different location. And no, it’s not a ghost story. It features a widow and an advanced AI chat feature. On my to-read list…

What We Hide comes with discussion questions, but don’t peek before you reach the end. Spoilers…

Colleen Coble is a bestselling author of over 75 Christian romantic suspense novels. Rick Acker is a Supervising Deputy Attorney General by day and a bestselling author of Christian legal thrillers by night. For more about the authors, visit colleencoble.com and rickacker.com

[Review copy from the public library.]

Review: How to Hear God: a simple guide for normal people, by Pete Greig

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How to Hear God: a simple guide for normal people, by Pete Greig (Zondervan Reflective, 2022)

Can humans today hear from the God of the Bible? Not necessarily audibly, but can we know what He’s saying to us? If you’re curious, I highly recommend this book as an excellent, inspiring resource.

You can tell from the subtitle that it’s not a dry theological work. Instead, it’s a refreshing, accessible, and practical look at various ways Christians can “hear” God (and how to discern A: is it God, and B: am I hearing clearly?).

The key Scriptural passage acting as a framework for the book is the two travellers on the Emmaus Road from Luke 24, where the risen Christ walks with them and teaches them. And the emphasis is on hearing as a natural part of a conversational relationship with God.

While acknowledging Jesus as the Living Word, the book also addresses hearing God’s external word through the Bible, prayer, and prophecy, and His internal word in our spirits, in dreams, and in community, creation, and culture.

Chapters include examples from the Bible, personal experience, quotations from other works on the subject, and mini bio features of Christians both contemporary and historical.

Pete Greig is an excellent speaker, and by narrating his own book in audio form he makes it feel like hearers are listening to him on a podcast or at a conference. Now I want to buy a print copy to study in more depth. The questions for individual and group discussion will be helpful, as will the recommendations for further reading.

The author is also one of the founders of the 24/7 Prayer movement, which brings us, among other resources, the Lectio365 app and the Inner Room prayer app. You can read his bio at dirtyglory.org or at 24-7prayer.com/team/pete-greig.

[Review copy from the public library—but it’s on my to-buy list!]