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2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)

My Progress:


30 / 30 books. 100% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Arizona (1)
- Arkansas (1)
- California (11)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut (2)
- Delaware (1)
- Florida (3)
- Georgia (4)
- Hawaii (1)
- Idaho (3)
- Illinois (4)
- Indiana (4)
- Iowa (1)
- Kansas (1)
- Kentucky (2)
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland (1)
- Massachusetts (4)
- Michigan (1)
- Minnesota (2)
- Mississippi (1)
- Missouri (1)
- Montana (1)
- Nebraska (1)
- Nevada (2)
- New Hampshire (1)
- New Jersey (1)
- New Mexico (1)
- New York (10)
- North Carolina (4)
- North Dakota (1)
- Ohio (3)
- Oklahoma (2)
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania (2)
- Rhode Island (1)
- South Carolina (1)
- South Dakota (1)
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (4)
- Utah (5)
- Vermont (2)
- Virginia (2)
- Washington (3)
- West Virginia (1)
- Wisconsin (1)
- Wyoming (2)
- Washington, D.C.* (2)

International:
- Argentina (1)
- Australia (6)
- Austria (1)
- Bolivia (1)
- Canada (4)
- China (2)
- England (27)
- France (2)
- Ghana (1)
- India (1)
- Indonesia (1)
- Ireland (4)
- Italy (1)
- Poland (2)
- Russia (2)
- Scotland (4)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


51 / 51 states. 100% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 50 books. 104% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


36 / 50 books. 72% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


51 / 52 books. 98% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


37 / 40 books. 93% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


18 / 40 books. 45% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


25 / 25 cozies. 100% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


5 / 26.2 miles (4th lap). 19% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


51 / 100 books. 51% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


99 / 109 books. 91% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


52 / 52 books. 100% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


139 / 165 books. 84% done!

The 100 Most Common Last Names in the U.S. Reading Challenge

My Progress:


88 / 100 names. 88% done!

The Life Skills Reading Challenge

My Progress:


45 / 80 skills. 56% done!
Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Despite Intriguing Setting, Bayou Mystery Fizzles Pretty Fast For Me

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Everyone in little Cooper's Bayou, Florida, knows the story of Raylene Atchinson.  Twenty-five years ago, the young mother was raped and strangled, her dead body left on the banks of the bayou.  Raylene's 4-year-old daughter Aurora was found safe, but alone, at the local mini-mart.  Suspected of the murder, Aurora's father, disappeared, never to be heard from again.

Now a 29-year-old nurse working in New York City, Aurora returns to Cooper's Bayou to settle the estate of her recently deceased grandfather.  Having been raised away from Florida, she's disconcerted by her new surroundings.  Bordered by gator-inhabited swampland, the house she inherits spooks her even more, especially since it seems so incongruous with the grandfather she knew.  Nevertheless, Aurora stays in town, using her time to find out what really happened to her mother.

Aurora's joined by Josh Hudson, a 30-year-old police detective whose punishment for a poor decision made on the job is helping out in a dusty warehouse full of old evidence.  Haunted by his younger brother's mysterious death, Josh has his own demons to battle.  Helping Aurora on her quest helps keep them at bay.  At least temporarily.  

Combing the Evidence Room for clues about Raylene's murder, the pair stumble across some surprising finds.  The closer they get to finding out what really happened, the more dangerous their lives become.  Can they solve the mystery before they become murder victims themselves?  In a terrifying race for their lives, Aurora and Josh will do anything to stay alive long enough to find the answers they seek.

All it takes is a glance at the plot summary for The Evidence Room, a debut novel by Cameron Harvey, to see that it doesn't offer much in the way of an original premise.  The setting, however, drew me to the book.  Although the bayou backdrop could have been more vividly painted, I did enjoy it.  It wasn't enough, however, to distract me from The Evidence Room's flaws—flat characters, a predictable plot, and a disjointed mystery.  I'm not sure why I bothered finishing the novel, as it fizzled pretty quickly for me.  Bummer.

(Readalikes:  Reminded me of lots of other novels about people going home to solve family mysteries)

Grade:


If this were a movie, it would be rated:


for language, violence, and sexual innuendo

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

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Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

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The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth



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2024 Reading Challenge

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2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

2024 - Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

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