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OutsmartYourShelf
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Pickpick

At a petrol station in a quiet Manchester suburb, a man watches horrified as someone walks up to the pump, pours petrol over themselves & sets it alight. Meanwhile, a 14-year-old girl is arrested for killing her mother but she seems confused over the details.

At the Coroner's Officer, Mrs Challinor is back even if it is only part time at present, but the Major Incident Team want Detective Inspector Ridpath back working on their cases.

OutsmartYourShelf Given two green young detectives, Ridpath looks into the apparently unconnected suicide & murder & starts to find some odd coincidences, & if there's one thing Ridpath doesn't believe in, it's coincidence.

Another strong instalment in this series which takes the usual route of a slow start which builds up to a tense, fast-paced ending. Alongside the two cases, there's also the lingering aftermath of Ridpath's daughter's ordeal in a previous book.
5h
OutsmartYourShelf I wasn't a huge fan of the time jump ending but it was fine overall. If you haven't read this series & are a fan of police procedurals, then do give this one a go. 4.5🌟

My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Canelo, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7653324113
Read 3rd-4th July 2025

#ReadAway2025 @Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
5h
DieAReader 🎉🎉Fantastic!! 4h
20 likes3 comments
review
OutsmartYourShelf
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Pickpick

In Jan 1993, Palatine, Illinois, two men entered the 'Brown's Chicken' restaurant around closing time. At 3am police investigated reports that the workers had not returned home & found seven bodies in the walk-in freezer & fridge. Seven members of staff, including the two owners, had been killed & it would take a decade to bring their killers to justice.

OutsmartYourShelf As someone not from the US, I had never heard of Brown's Chicken or the murders before. The author has approached the case by not focusing on a linear reconstruction of the events, but by putting the spotlight on the people themselves. I think this does help to avoid sensationalism & to remind that reader that these were very real people with real lives which were tragically cut short.

1d
OutsmartYourShelf I did think it occasionally lost a bit of focus & there were some things I was left wondering. For example, I was very interested as to why the false confession made out of nowhere happened, but the author never really returned to those two people & what the impact was on their lives. Overall it was an informative read but there just seemed to be something missing for me. 3.5🌟

1d
OutsmartYourShelf My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Post Hill Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7614765568
Read 1st-2nd July 2025

#ReadAway2025 @Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
1d
DieAReader 🎉🎉🎉 20h
23 likes4 comments
review
vlwelser
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Pickpick

No idea what I was expecting from this but it's quite fun. From the dude that wrote Holes.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Pub date is 8/5/25
#ARC #Netgalley

review
sebrittainclark
The Hemlock Queen | Hannah Whitten
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Pickpick

4/5

Bastian is King and Lore is tied more closely to him than ever before, but the more they channel, the more strangely Bastian behaves.

The beginning was a little slow, since the characters were taking a long time to understand something I felt was clear from the first book, but I thought the second half did a good job of raising the stakes and finding the right amount of conflict and resolution for the 2nd book in a trilogy.

#netgalley

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Great cover! 1d
47 likes1 comment
review
Read-n-Bloom
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Mehso-so

This book was good but okay good. It was up and down for me so I gave 3 ⭐️⭐️⭐️s. I thought it was more of a history of Mount Rushmore, but it seemed more of a history of Native American people that lived there and lives there now. And I sympathize with them for sure but just thought it was a different type of story & it was up & down on that. So it was good but just so so for me this time.
#LitsyReads #Reads2025 #NetGalley #BiographyofaMountain

Eggs Stacked! 2d
Read-n-Bloom It‘s good. But it‘s mostly about how it‘s on Native American land which is okay and which was really interesting and I sympathized and empathize with them but I was just wanting to learn more about Mount Rushmore itself I guess. You will like it, I believe. 🙂 2d
14 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
sebrittainclark
Automatic Noodle | Annalee Newitz
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Pickpick

5/5

Four robots wake up in the restaurant where they work, to learn they've been shut down for six months and are at serious risk of being repoed after their scammer boss fled the country. Now, these robots have an opportunity to make something of their own, in a world that isn't always accepting of robots. I really loved this cozy sci-fi about community that touches on serious topics global warming, war, trauma, and prejudice.

#netgalley

Christine I'm so looking forward to this one! 2d
54 likes4 stack adds1 comment
review
OutsmartYourShelf
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Mehso-so

“Can you uncover the dark secret of these strange houses? When you do, an unforgettable truth will be revealed.“

This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's fairly short, I read it in a couple of hours, & it's based around the floorplans of three houses. It's difficult to give a synopsis without giving anything away - I will say that it is dark in tone. (continued)

OutsmartYourShelf It also read very much like true crime rather than a fictional mystery, in fact, I had to doublecheck the genre.

I did think it was farfetched though to have the characters of the author & the architect immediately jump to what seemed an outlandish explanation for the floorplans, only for them to turn out to be right. It was all rather convenient but I suppose it kept things brief.
2d
OutsmartYourShelf Overall, it wasn't quite what I was expecting but I have another book from the same author in my TBR pile & this has piqued my interest enough that I will be reading it sooner rather than later. 3.25⭐

My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Pushkin Press/Pushkin Vertigo, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Full Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7595170496
Read 2nd July 2025

#ReadAway2025 @Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES
2d
DieAReader 🎉🎉🎉 2d
32 likes3 comments
review
MatchlessMarie
Trumpets of Death: A Graphic Novel | Simon Bournel-Bosson
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Pickpick

The ethereal look of this cover is what initially drew me in to want to try this book. A lot of the details are left intentionally ambiguous and the art does a lot of the storytelling, allowing for reader interpretation.
This is a book that will make you want to start again as soon as you finish to see what you might have missed the first time around. This would be a great book to prompt discussions and the artwork is chillingly beautiful. #ARC

46 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
OutsmartYourShelf
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Pickpick

In the history of the legendary Wild West, Belle Starr's name is up there with Calamity Jane & Annie Oakley. Like those other two women, Belle's life history has been romanticised & sensationalised until many would not know where the truth & the lies begin & end.

Through the American Civil War & its aftermath, the author painstakingly recreates the events of Starr's short life, & finds that in most cases, (continued)

OutsmartYourShelf the crimes ascribed to her were greatly embellished

This book aims to set the record straight using correspondence, official records, & contemporary newspaper accounts, & traces her beginnings as a Southern belle to a woman who rejected contemporary expectations & lived life how she pleased.

This is an interesting & well-researched book about Belle Starr which corrects many errors & dispels the myths which have accumulated over time.
4d
OutsmartYourShelf If it has a flaw, it's that the spotlight is not on Belle for quite a lot of the time & the writing sometimes gets bogged down in the minutiae of other people's lives to the detriment of the main focus. It was informative though & if you enjoy nonfiction reads about the American Wild West, then it would be well worth a look. 4🌟

My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, W. W. Norton & Company/Liveright, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
4d
DieAReader 🎉🎉🎉 4d
28 likes2 stack adds5 comments
review
Bookish_Thoughts
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Pickpick

Pub date was June 24th.
Book #2 in the Beatrice Steele series. Beatrice is determined to make her own way in Regency England. She and Inspector Drake start their own PI business, DS Investigations in London. When the bodies of the elite of the Sweetbriar neighborhood start appearing, she and Drake are in a race with Sir Huxley, London's premier (but inept) detective to solve the cases.
#NetGalley #ATerriblyNastyBusiness #Historicalfiction