Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Samantha Downing NARRATOR: Elizabeth Wiley GENRE: Crime Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: August 12, 2025 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A crime thriller about a retired serial killer forced back into action. Unlikeable but compelling lead. Interesting at the start, slightly repetitive in the second half. Somewhat lopsided in its character development, though there are some interesting side characters. A decent one-time read for me, which is a slightly outlier opinion. Plot Preview: Seventy-five-year-old Lottie Jones lives a calm retired life, talking regularly with her son Archie, rolling her eyes at his upcoming wedding to a girl half his age, and enjoying bingo and gossiping with her friends from church. No one knows that Lottie had a past life as a serial killer. So when a young and ambitious documentary producer named Plum Dixon turns up at Lottie's doorstep wanting to tell her life story, Lottie knows it's time to say goodbye to her retirement from murder, even if P...

AUTHOR: Don Winslow GENRE: Short Novels Collection PUBLICATION DATE: January 27, 2026 RATING: 4.33 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of six short novels, each a character-oriented story of moral conflicts and misdemeanours. Excellent in variety, plot development, writing, pacing, and endings. Much recommended! Don’t read the GR blurb. The blurb calls author Don Winslow "America's King of Crime Fiction" and “America’s greatest living crime writer”. But I had never even heard of him! 🤭 ( Put this down to my relative abstinence from the thriller genre in recent years. ) Those two labels were impossible to resist, so with the assurance of this having ‘six short novels’ instead of one full-length novel, I decided to give this collection a go. Now that I read it, I am wondering why I haven’t ever read him before! It’s important to remember that the book promises six short novels, not short stories. With the total page count being about 300 pages, each entry gets more than eno...

AUTHOR: F.H. Batacan NARRATOR: Ramón de Ocampo GENRE: Mystery-Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: August 18, 2015 RATING: 3.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A Filipino crime mystery focussed on two priests hunting for a serial killer in the late 1990s. The combination of priest + investigator is quite novel. The *mystery* is fairly straightforward, but this book is so much more than an ordinary mystery. It needs some stern editing, but if you pick this up more for the characters and for the Manila setting, this OwnVoices work really delivers. Despite its editorial gaps, I was fairly hooked from start to end. Recommended, not as a mystery or a police procedural but as a culturally-accurate socio-political drama. Check the content warnings. Plot Preview: 1997. Manila, Philippines. Fr. Gus Saenz, a skilful forensic anthropologist, and his protégé Fr. Jerome Lucero, a psychologist, have been called upon by the National Bureau of Investigations to help with a new investigation. The eviscerated body of a youn...

AUTHOR: Chad Zunker SERIES: Alibis Collection, #5 GENRE: Short Story PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2025 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: The fifth story in the Alibis collection. Finally a proper pacy thriller in this collection, even though it isn't the most original of plots. Plot Preview: In her new neighbourhood, Kara has just one friend: Mindy. So when Mindy confides to Kara her suspicion that Mindy’s husband might be having an affair, Kara, who stays just across, promises to keep an eye. One night, Kara sees someone sneaking into Mindy’s house, and she does what a good neighbour would: she goes to take a closer look even though her husband Jackson warns her not to meddle. She certainly doesn’t expect to find what she did, and worse, she doesn’t expect to be running for her life. The story comes to us in the alternating third-person perspectives of Kara and Jackson. This is the fifth standalone story in the 'Alibis’ series, described on Amazon as “stories about lies, truth, ...

AUTHOR: Chris Bohjalian SERIES: Alibis Collection, #4 GENRE: Short Story PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2025 RATING: 0.5 stars. In a Nutshell: The fourth story in the Alibis collection. The first chapter is the only one worth reading. Which isn’t a good thing for a story of eleven chapters. No thrills, no major surprises, not much action, not even any alibi. Can be safely skipped. Plot Preview: (Too bored to write sensible sentences, so bear with the below gibberish.) Two skydivers – one fatal incident – one key witness – many contradictions. Two brothers – one dead father – one farm – many arguments. Both the above tracks come to us in alternating chapters and are interlinked. This is the fourth standalone story in the 'Alibis’ series, described on Amazon as “stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with.” In my review for the third story, I declared it “the weakest story of the series so far.” I had to put my foot in my mouth and jinx the ...

\   AUTHOR: Marco Ocram SERIES: The Awful Truth, #2 GENRE: Crime Thriller Parody PUBLICATION DATE: June 4, 2019 RATING:  3.75 stars.  In a Nutshell: A spoof crime novel, the plot of which is nigh on impossible to explain in a line. Possibly the silliest book I have ever read! (I mean this as a compliment!) Enjoyed it to a great extent. Recommended, but only to those who read spoofs the way spoofs are meant to be read: by tossing out their thinking caps.  Plot Preview: (Honestly, I have no idea how to offer a preview to this crazy book! Trying my best!) Marco Ocram ( Yup, the “author”! ) is a high-achieving, super-intelligent, uber-popular, humble writer who has a secret: whatever he writes happens immediately. As his natural affinity is towards writing crime, Marco writes crime novels, much to the chagrin of his book’s lead character DI Como Galahad, who is stuck solving the crime while Marco keeps penning impossible twists and getting them into d...

AUTHOR: Tamara von Werthern SERIES: Accidental Detective Mystery, #2 GENRE: Cozy Mystery PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2024 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A cozy crime mystery novella with a quirky senior citizen in the lead. The characters are as interesting as the mystery this time, though they are also more flawed. Some thought-provoking themes included. Second in a series, but works well as a standalone. Plot Preview: About two years after the incidents of Book One, Philipp’s life has changed somewhat, though he is still juggling a variety of businesses as well as his family commitments. When a lorry crashes outside his house in the dead of night, yet another mystery tumbles unexpectedly into his life. What initially seemed to be a routine accident turns out to be a cover-up for something else. Instead of his usual nemesis, Philipp has Sergeant Nadja Bernstein for company, investigating a situation that turns darker with every revelation. At the same time, Philipp is also navig...

AUTHOR: Patrick Horvath GENRE: Horror Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A horror graphic novel filled with anthropomorphic animals and questionable moral compasses. (More ‘Dexter’ than ‘Zootopia’!) Gripping, chilling, creepy! Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Loved the plot and the character development. Appreciated the complex exploration of ethics. Recommended but not to all. Plot Preview: Samantha Strong is a brown bear who has spent most of her life in the small town of Woodbrook, where everyone knows everyone else and everything about them. At least, that’s what the townsfolk think. But Samantha has a dark secret. Though she is a law-abiding hardware-store owner, she is also a serial killer with one golden rule: Don’t murder the locals. She chooses her target from a big city just beyond the forest. After all, the city is full of potential victims and no one will miss one person in the crowd. All these years, her modus oper...

AUTHOR: Victor Methos SERIES: We Could be Heroes, #5 GENRE: Short Story PUBLICATION DATE: February 7, 2023 RATING: 3 stars. In a Nutshell: A short story combining a psych thriller and a legal drama. Nicely written, but didn’t hit me as hard as I thought it would. Still, a decent finish to this Amazon story collection. Plot Preview: Nick Collins has just been handed his first client accused of murder, a welcome change from his typical civil case clientele. As he strives to find the truth, he discovers that the small town in which his client Ryan is imprisoned has its own way of doing things. Unless he finds some concrete proof about Ryan’s innocence, Ryan seems to have already been judged guilty. Can Nick save Ryan? Is Ryan truly innocent? This is the fifth and final standalone story in the 'We Could be Heroes’ series, described on Amazon as “a darkly inquisitive collection of short stories that examines heroic intentions versus their real-life consequences.” I enjoy psych thri...

AUTHOR: J.T. Ellison SERIES: We Could be Heroes, #4 GENRE: Short Story. PUBLICATION DATE: February 7, 2023 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A standalone short story that is somewhat predictable but still delivers a wallop of an impact. This series is making me shatter all my assumptions about heroes! Plot Preview: After a life-altering tragedy ten years ago, Addison Blake left her hometown and never returned, even though she is still haunted by the ghosts of the past. But when a video showing a stranger rescuing an old man becomes viral, Addison, a freelance reporter, knows that she has to go back to interview the man she recognised as her old classmate. After all, this interview could mark the beginning of a new phase in her career. But has the trauma of the past really healed? Will this ‘breaking news’ finally save her, personally and professionally? The story comes to us in Addison’s first person perspective. PSA: Go in blind! This is the fourth standalone story in the 'We C...

AUTHOR: Michelle Dunne GENRE: Crime Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: March 7, 2024 RATING: 4.5 stars In a Nutshell: Relished a crime thriller after ages! The fun part is that we know the identity of the “criminal” right from the start, but the journey through the plot is still gripping and contains enough surprises. Very dark and disturbing – too many triggers, so make sure you are in a good headspace before you pick it up. Plot Preview: Twenty-seven-year-old Grace Murphy is a barista at a local café in Cork. Grace has only one concern in life now: to take care of her younger sister Amber and provide her with a clean house and hot meals, two things they never had as kids. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows of their troubled childhood, including Det. Garda Jerry Hughes, who keeps an eye out for the sisters. What no one knows, however, is that Grace has a man cable-tied to a chair in her house, and he is not in good condition. The story comes to us from the third person perspectives of Grace...

AUTHOR: Lisa Scottoline SERIES: We Could be Heroes, #1 GENRE: Crime Drama RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A standalone short story (more like a novella) featuring a pigeon-loving grandpa who finds a new agenda to become passionate about. Good plot, interesting characters, multiple emotions. Enjoyed it! Plot Preview: Pigeon Tony, a senior citizen of Italian origin, loves being with his Italian friends (some of whom are also Tonys with a different nickname) and flying his pet pigeons. His English might still not be so good, but he loves America as it has saved him from his own past. But now, Pigeon Tony finds that his young neighbour, a boy named Enzo, is being forced by drug dealers to act as their courier, he knows that he can’t allow crime to enter the community. But what can a senior citizen do? This is the first standalone story in the 'We Could be Heroes’ series, described on Amazon as “a darkly inquisitive collection of short stories that examines heroic intentions versus th...

AUTHOR: C.S. Robertson GENRE: Murder Mystery RATING: 2 stars. In a Nutshell: A mystery-drama with mild paranormal shades and a quirky aged lead character. The plot idea had great potential. Should have worked better for me, but the execution didn’t leave me happy. This is an outlier review. Story Synopsis: Sixty-something Marjorie Crowe has lived alone in a little Scottish village for twenty-five years. Yet, all the villagers know about her is that she is a creature of habit and a recluse. Her past life is a mystery. And her present habits cause many to feel that she’s a witch. So they gladly leave her alone, though they do talk about her behind her back, and she knows it. Living in her cottage on the edge of the village, Marjorie has a fixed routine for every day, planned down to the second. This changes the day teenaged Charlie McKee is found hanging on the outskirts of the village. This is the first day that Marjorie is seven minutes late returning from her morning walk. Loca...