Programming Chair, Ian Rankin, along with Sharon Canavar and all at Harrogate International Festivals and the team at the Old Swan Hotel did a totally awesome job – making a friendly, fun and fresh-air filled programme with the most wonderful festival atmosphere.

Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb is an exceptionally entertaining read that is mostly cozy, yet a solid whodunit. Lori is a single mother and Dakota is her daughter. She is nine years old and is dealing with leukemia on top of everything when she should just be able to be a kid. The treatments for her illness are starting to add up, and each one is very expensive. So she’s got to keep on moving and taking gigs and work wherever she can to keep the income flowing. Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection. Florida may be known as the ‘sunshine state’ but it’s also by far the most popular destination for retirement communities. I’m happy to see an author capitalize on that fact and craft a great cozy mystery with mature protagonists. I’m looking forward to book 3. With so much going on in the world, it’s nice to escape to a sunny climate where justice is done, villains are conquered and all ends up well.This takes work on the Social Media, old-school media, and possibly even law enforcement fronts—there's no way that it's all coincidental, unintentional, or any other excusable motivation. So the questions that need to be answered are why is this being done, who profits, who is hurt by this, and what actions are being taken/pressures applied, to get these various and sundry groups to quash the information. Ich habe letztes Jahr mein erstes Buch von Ms Broadribb gelesen, und das habe ich als ziemlich cool in Erinnerung – die Autorin ist nicht nur als Queen of Crime bekannt, hat einige Preise eingeheimst, sondern sie hat auch selbst schon mal als Kopfgeldjägerin gearbeitet - sie weiss also, wovon sie schreibt, wenn sie Krimis schreibt 😉! Grammar in "...he needs to tread real careful..." could be improved if the word "real" was left out completely and "carefully" used instead of careful. The retired protagonists are asked by the deceased realtor's parents to investigate. Lizzie, the former forensic specialist, deduces that the trajectory of the body indicates the victim was pushed. The foursome then interviews colleagues at the real estate agency as well as the employees & owners of the building.

Death in the Sunshine is a terrific cozy filled with murder, mayhem and mystery. Enough so that I am sure book two will continue to give us more information about the retirees’ past lives as they continue to try and enjoy The Homestead.Anyway, the premise was great. The execution? Let's say not so much. Some of the characters were just flat-out unlikeable, a few were unbelievable and/or caricatures of a type, and there was _way_ too much angsty deep dark secret malarkey going on for my taste. Like, I literally started rolling my eyes any time any of those dead horses got beaten again after about a third of the way through the book. Death on the Beach, with a cast of mature characters and a fast-paced plot is a fun read. Stephanie Broadribb describes Florida retirement communities perfectly. After that last chapter, I can’t wait for the next in this series! 5 stars. Although it’s not a full on hard hitting crime series I wouldn’t put the series in a cosy mystery genre either it’s somewhere in between. Since this is the first of a series it suffers from this need to set the scene in book one. On the basis of this initial novel I would say another episode would be welcome and read with some anticipation. With our British friends, however, things have happened to push these problems from hanging over their heads to being front-and-center in their minds. Normally this would be good, they're working on the issues, dealing with the issues. However, when this club is the only one working on this kidnapping—the only outsiders aware of it—dealing with personal stuff becomes a distraction. Potentially a fatal one.

My first task in 2022 will be to finish a polished first draft of Retired Detectives Book 2 and send it off to my editor by my deadline at the end of January. I’ll then be focusing on the editing of that book before starting the planning for the third instalment in the series. And I’m really looking forward to launching DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE in March. I liked the interchanged of characters driving and revealing the story as each chapter is written from a difference person’s perspective. The author also maintains a degree of uncertainty as the mystery unfolds. She holds in tension many of the secrets some of the main protagonists have and despite the solving of the crime we have the prospect of future books where more truth needs to be revealed. After they solved a murder a few months earlier, the Retired Detectives Club has gained a certain amount of notoriety around the Homestead Retirement Community, so it's not terribly surprising that when a resident has some concerns they call them for help. Particularly when that resident has had bad experiences with the police previously.

A Note From the Publisher

I like the dynamic between the characters and I felt invested in them . The setting is in a warm and sunny place and that always helps to lift the mood for me too . DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE will be published in March 2022 by Thomas & Mercer, and I’m currently writing the first draft of the second book in the series. I’m super excited about this new series and can’t wait for it to be out in the world. As is common in a first book setting up a series, it struggles to juggle pace & interest with the development of their world. Some of the residents see that this is going on—but (if you ask me) not enough seem that concerned—Moira sure is and is doing something about it. She's working with a local reporter, although she has reason to believe that this is not the safest path for either of them to be taking. But that doesn't seem to deter her.

This is a pretty good follow up to the first book. Lizzie really irritated me in this one, her reaction to Phillip’s “lie” was so over the to it was juvenile. That she would even refuse to consider counseling with him to try and overcome their issues was 🙄🙄🙄. Phillip surprised me, he started maturing in this book, realizing how much Lizzie hurt, but also opening up and considering counseling without her to deal with his loss. Deep Blue Trouble is the exciting sequel to Deep Down Dead, the fast-paced and thrilling first book in the Lori Anderson series. If you loved the action of the debut story, then you certainly have a good chance of really liking this book. Die Kapitel sind abwechselnd mit den Namen der 4 Ermittler betitelt, wir sind also abwechselnd immer ganz nah bei den verschiedenen Protagonisten dran. Wir haben hier aber keine abwechselnden Ich-Perspektiven, sondern immer einen auktorialen Erzähler, und das fand ich auch sehr gut bei der Anzahl der Hauptfiguren. I really love them – what do you think? It looks like an open-and-shut case—until one of the Retired Detectives disappears… Did she jump—or was she pushed? The Retired Detectives have a theory. Now they just need the evidence…Along with other crime fiction authors, she provides coaching for new crime writers via www.crimefictioncoach.com. Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb is the second book in the Retired Detectives Club, featuring four retired residents of The Homestead Retirement Community in Florida. It’s an exceptionally entertaining read that is mostly cozy, yet a solid whodunit. The premise is probably a little far-fetched, but the novel is pure escapism, so I tried not to overthink the practicality of retired folks (albeit all former law enforcement) gallivanting about after armed, murderous kidnappers. I absolutely loved every bit of this story. Be it the writing, the mystery behind the kidnapping, the excitement and tension of finding Cody before it is too late, suspense, character development (Moira's was the best!) and plot to story development - absolutely Fantabulous! As they begin to discuss the evidence Moira has witnessed at the crime scene, they come to the conclusion that not only do the police not want any outside help but have missed important clues. They decide that as a group they will secretly investigate the death and if they find out anything then they will bring it to the police.