Showing posts with label Key West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Key West. Show all posts
Monday, March 13, 2023
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Southernmost by Silas House
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Southernmost by Silas House: Reviewed by Ashley Set shortly after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, when some counties were still refusing to issue marriage ...
Friday, September 23, 2022
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Hemingway’s Cats: A Novel about Cats and Other Forces of Nature by Lindsey Hooper
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Hemingway’s Cats: A Novel about Cats and Other For...: Reviewed by Jeanne Laura Lange really needed a change of scene. She’s just ended a relationship and needs a job, so she decides to p...
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Shadows at the Fair & Key Lime Crime: Quick Reviews
Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Shadows at the Fair & Key Lime Crime: Quick Reviews: Reviews by Jeanne Shadows at the Fair by Lea Wait Maggie Summer, owner of Shadow Antiques, is looking forward to the Spring Antiques Fa...
Friday, May 31, 2013
FFB Review: "Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery" by Dorothy Francis
Friday means Friday’s
Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott. Normally I would not select a book that
was so recently published in print for FFB. But, when Dorothy Francis announced
Wednesday that her book, Daiquiri Dock
Murder: A Key West Mystery was now available as an e-book from Untreed
Reads, (go here for Untreed Reads price, synopsis, and excerpt) I decided to make
it the subject of my FFB review today.….
If it is spring it must be time to go back to Key
West via author Dorothy Francis. This year she takes readers there via her
latest cozy style mystery titled Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery.
Featuring a cast of offbeat characters, plenty of local culture and a mystery
that has more than a few twists the read is a comfortably good one. It also
fits well into line with the style and tone of other books generated by this
author.
Rafa Blue,
who has issues with her mother and sister, is at the Daiquiri Dock Marina as
this novel opens. It is a dark and stormy night thanks to a tropical storm that
has strengthened to a minimal hurricane and is currently pounding through the
Keys. Rafa Blue needs to check the family boat, a cabin cruiser named “The Bail Bond” and make sure it is
safely secured in its slip. While the boat is fine, somebody is in the stormy
sea next to the boat and in trouble.
Rafa flees back to her car and uses
her cellphone to call for help. After calling 911 for help for her friend and
dock master Diego Casterano, Rafa Blue returns to the scene and eventually goes
into the storm tossed waters for him. Unfortunately, there is no help possible
for Diego and the effort puts Rafa into the hospital for a brief time.
Rafa is interesting and has her
fingers in many pies. She dreams of writing novel length fiction, currently
writes a column for the local newspaper about interesting local people, lives
in a hotel and helps out at the Frangipani Room. Not to mention a painful
personal history with her family, a boyfriend that wants marriage, and a few
other odds and ends. Getting considered a suspect in the murder of her friend
Diego means that she has to investigate---something the local police chief
surprisingly seems to encourage.
The latest mystery from author
Dorothy Francis is another solidly good one featuring strong primary and
secondary characters. Several secondary characters in this novel closely
resemble characters from other books. Once again, several of the suspects are
Rafa’s friends and they all work at an open air restaurant deal that opens
around sundown, food is served, and music is played. That background setting is
clearly one the author feels comfortable with as it is used again in this
novel. There is another “Mama G.” who once again is territorial about music and
makes a special kind of food for the patrons. Once again the heroine is
conflicted about the intentions of her boyfriend and her feelings, drives a
Prius, and has extensively read about psychopaths and sociopaths.
The primary mystery is different and
strong in all cozy style aspects. An interesting and complicated case, the
classic assemblage of characters to be questioned by the police, and other
aspects are all done well. The constant
misdirection as various people in Rafa’s life are considered in the role of the
suspected murderer before they either eliminate themselves or are killed
removing them from the suspect list also works well. The end result in Daiquiri
Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery is another steady and good novel by
Dorothy Francis.
Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West
Mystery
Dorothy Francis
Five Star (Part of Gale, Cengage
Learning)
April 2012
ISBN# 978-1-4328-2574-4
Hardback
292 Pages
$25.95
Material supplied by the author in
exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2012, 2013
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Review: "Daiquiri Dock Murder" by Dorothy Francis
If it is spring it must be time to go back to Key West
via author Dorothy Francis. This year she takes readers there via her latest
cozy style mystery titled Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery.
Featuring a cast of offbeat characters, plenty of local culture and a mystery
that has more than a few twists the read is a comfortably good one. It also
fits well into line with the style and tone of other books generated by this
author.
Rafa Blue, who has issues with her mother and
sister, is at the Daiquiri Dock Marina as this novel opens. It is a dark and
stormy night thanks to a tropical storm that has strengthened to a minimal
hurricane and is currently pounding through the Keys. Rafa Blue needs to check
the family boat, a cabin cruiser named “The
Bail Bond” and make sure it is safely secured in its slip. While the boat
is fine, somebody is in the stormy sea next to the boat and in trouble.
Rafa flees back to her car and uses her cellphone to
call for help. After calling 911 for help for her friend and dock master Diego
Casterano, Rafa Blue returns to the scene and eventually goes into the storm
tossed waters for him. Unfortunately, there is no help possible for Diego and
the effort puts Rafa into the hospital for a brief time.
Rafa is interesting and has her fingers in many
pies. She dreams of writing novel length fiction, currently writes a column for
the local newspaper about interesting local people, lives in a hotel and helps
out at the Frangipani Room. Not to mention a painful personal history with her
family, a boyfriend that wants marriage, and a few other odds and ends. Getting
considered a suspect in the murder of her friend Diego means that she has to
investigate---something the local police chief surprisingly seems to encourage.
The latest mystery from author Dorothy Francis is
another solidly good one featuring strong primary and secondary characters. Several
secondary characters in this novel closely resemble characters from other
books. Once again, several of the suspects are Rafa’s friends and they all work
at an open air restaurant deal that opens around sundown, food is served, and
music is played. That background setting is clearly one the author feels
comfortable with as it is used again in this novel. There is another “Mama G.” who
once again is territorial about music and makes a special kind of food for the patrons.
Once again the heroine is conflicted about the intentions of her boyfriend and
her feelings, drives a Prius, and has extensively read about psychopaths and
sociopaths.
The primary mystery is different and strong in all
cozy style aspects. An interesting and complicated case, the classic assemblage
of characters to be questioned by the police, and other aspects are all done
well. The constant misdirection as
various people in Rafa’s life are considered in the role of the suspected murderer
before they either eliminate themselves or are killed removing them from the suspect
list also works well. The end result in Daiquiri Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery is
another steady and good novel by Dorothy Francis.
Daiquiri
Dock Murder: A Key West Mystery
Dorothy
Francis
Five
Star (Part of Gale, Cengage Learning)
April
2012
ISBN#
978-1-4328-2574-4
Hardback
292
Pages
$25.95
Material
supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin
R. Tipple ©2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Review: "Killer in Control: A Key West Mystery" by Dorothy Francis
Dorothy Francis takes readers back to Key West in Killer in Control and it’s another good very atmospheric cozy style mystery from the author. Full of guilt and heavy with memories, suspended Iowa police officer Kitt Morgan plans on spending time with her sister, Janell and her husband, Rex at their bed and breakfast inn, “The Poinsetta” located at Key West. When she isn’t lecturing one and all about her Prius and how environmentally responsible it is, Kitt’s plan is to relax as much as possible and try not to think about her role in the shooting back home in snowy Iowa. Something that is never far from her thoughts as her police officer father never once shot anyone during his long career.
Sensing something wrong on her arrival, it is not long before Janell and Rex explain to Kitt that they are in real trouble. Fortunately, despite the fact that Rex is bald, it does not mean he is dying of cancer as Kitt quickly suspects on arrival. Instead, one of their guests is dead. Abra Barrie was murdered. Not at the bed and breakfast but elsewhere. They are involved since she was a guest and there is evidence indicating someone at the inn was involved. Both Janell and Rex, as well as their small staff, are suspects in the murder case. Janell and Rex would like Kitt Morgan to quietly investigate, when she is not relaxing and seeing the sites, to clear their names and the business.
How can Kitt tell her sister and her husband no? She can’t. The problem with that, is by sticking her nose in the case when she is not seeing the sites of Key West and the immediate area, she makes herself the target of a killer. While the suspects are many because they are all eccentric in various ways there is only one killer among them. A self-proclaimed “killer in control” who will strike again in this cozy style novel before the case is solved. Despite all Kitt’s reading and experience, and a sister who seems to know much more about police investigative work than she does, it isn’t an easy case to solve when some many characters fit the profile of sociopathic behavior.
Dorothy Francis has penned yet another enjoyable stand alone novel set at Key West. Once again she recounts the sights and sounds along with the unique history of the area while assembling a cast of rather eccentric characters for her latest cozy style mystery tale. A tale of serial murder that fittingly eventually ends on the beach. Killer in Control is another solidly good story from this talented author.
Killer in Control: A Key West Mystery
Dorothy Francis
Five Star
ISBN# 978-1-43282-502-7
July 2011
Hardback
274 Pages
$25.95
Material in the form of an ARC was provided quite some time ago by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
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