Book Review - Spirit Seeker by Joan Lowery Nixon

Hello all!

Sorry for reviewing 2 books by the same author in quick succession, but I just had to! Spirit Seeker was one of those 'I have to tell someone' kind of books!

Here is the book description, courtesy of Goodreads.com:

"Holly Campbell's life has suddenly become a newspaper-headline nightmare. Her friend Cody's parents have just been found murdered, and Cody is the prime suspect. Even Holly's father, the police detective in charge of the investigation, thinks Cody is guilty. Holly knows she must help her friend. Will a mysterious psychic help her solve the case and prove Cody's innocence?"

As I am a mystery geek, and automatically drawn to mystery books, I just had to read this. I've only read one Joan Lowery Nixon before this week, and now I have read 2 more! They could not be described in the same league of brilliance as say, an Agatha Christie crime novel, but they still make for a meaty mystery book.

I did, however, guess the ending to this one about 3/4 of the way through, which for me is kind of usual, given the library of crime novel endings I have running through my head, but I was not in any way expecting the way in which this ending came about, a complete surprise.

It almost sneaks up on you... you're nearing the final pages, you know there has to be the big reveal soon...and yet it happens in a flash, with no warning, and barely time to catch a breath!

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, more than the other one I read. I'll give it a 7/10.

Byee

Dayzee

Book Review - The Name of the Game was Murder by Joan Lowery Nixon

Hello all!

Well, here's the promised weekly book review, although I'm reading another Joan Lowery Nixon at the moment, so 2 reviews this week seem to be on the cards ☺. Ahem...

This was a good book. It wasn't superb, and it wasn't awful. It was just good.

It is about a young teenage girl, Samantha, or Sam as she is generally known, who goes to stay with her uncle Augustus Trevor on a remote island. When she arrives she discovers that her uncle has invited... ahem, blackmailed, a bunch of celebrites to a house party. He has invited thaem because in a book he has written he has revealed a terrible, career-destroying secret about each one of them, his wife Thea Trevor included. He gives them a chance to have their secrets removed from the manuscript by solving some clues relating to their dark secret.

The next day, having only released the first set of clues, Augustus is found bludgeoned to death, and the hunt is on for the celebrites and Sam to find the clues, and the manuscript, and to save their careers.

I loved the plotline, the characters, the ideas and twists and unexpected things, but all in all I really wish it had been longer. That's my main wish. I would have  also liked to really find out about the characters, their backgrounds, what makes them who they are.

I really liked the original idea though. A very spooky and strange thought, and an excellent plot for a mystery/crime novel.

I thought the ending was a bit sudden, and that the final chapters could have maybe been lengthened and split up more. Also, I felt that I would have preferred to know what happens to the murderer of Augustus Trevor at the end, instead of the cliffhanger we are given.

All in all, I'd give it a 6.5/10. Am I allowed to do that??

OK, if half-marks aren't allowed, I'll give it a 6. But only because it just...wasn't what it could have been. Kind of confusing, I know. Sorry about that...

Anyway, better go and do homework... Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Byee

Dayzee xx