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Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin DarrowThe Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Publisher:  The Wild Rose Press (April 8, 2024)
Category: Mystery/Suspense, Murder Mystery, Female Amateur Sleuth
Tour Dates April 22-May 30, 2024
ISBN: 978-1509254194

Available in Print and ebook, 312 pages

Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth

Description Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

A Buddhist nun returns to her hometown and solves multiple murders while enduring her dysfunctional family.

Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California when her elderly mother suffers a stroke. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series of murders, which she attempts to solve with the help of a smitten detective.

She understands why someone might want to kill her stepfather, who it turns out to be is a smuggler on the run, but what about her mother? Is Ivy’s unstable sister right that she was murdered, too? Ivy struggles to live by her Buddhist principles and employ her mindfulness skills, and discovers they both hinder and help in her search for the truth.

 

Review Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

Guest Review by Mark

“Minutes after my mother passed, I was back in Ivyville, the home of Ivy Lutz, the bad Buddhist.” 

What a story, and what a writer! I’ve previously read one of Verlin Darrow’s stunning novels, ‘Murder for Liar,’ last year and I was so taken with it that I gave it a five-star rating.

Going into ‘The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth,’ I had a feeling that I was going to love it, because of my love for Darrow’s last novel. And boy was I right! Although the two novels could not be more different in terms of the story.

This novel is about a woman, Ivy Lutz, who leaves Sri Lanka where she is living as Buddhist nun to return to San Francisco to be by her mother’s bedside as the she  passes away. The beginning of this story is so touching, as we seen Ivy’s mother die, that I found myself already tearing up only a few pages in. It is not often that a writer is so talented they are able to evoke emotion like that from me so early in the story! I rarly tear up, especially from a book. Fortunately, the humor of the book took over before long, and I found myself laughing, too.

The book takes a turn that will not be unexpected to longtime fans of the amateur sleuth genre, when Ivy discovers that her sister, Jan is under the impression that their mother was actually murdered. Of course, Ivy gets backed into investigating the case herself, as, according to Jan, she has a keen observational mind. Also, Jan believes that the police are not properly investigating.

Ivy has to tangle with the police herself as she ends up needing the help of a detective named Art, who she begins to bond with.

Ivy has to decide if she is ready to find out things about her mother’s life that the woman had kept hidden, and whether or not those things may have led to her death.

 

About Verlin Darrow

 

Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Award-winning novelist, Verlin Darrow is currently a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary.

He is the author of Blood and Wisdom, Coattail Karma, Prodigy Quest, and Murder For Liar. Two of these won major book awards. Verlin is a former professional volleyball player, country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign cult.

Before bowing to the need for higher education, a much younger Verlin ran a punch press in a sheet-metal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood floors. He barely missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8.0), and (so far) he’s successfully weathered his own internal disasters.

Website:  https://www.verlindarrow.com/

 

Buy Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

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Enter the Giveaway Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies. Print is open to the U.S. only. ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on May 31, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus April 22 Excerpt

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Ellen Goodreads May 1 Review

Kathleen Celticlady’s Reviews May 7 Guest Review- Laura & Excerpt

Liam Goodreads May 9 Review

Denise D. Amazon & Goodreads May 15 Review

Bee Book Pleasures May 16 Review & Guest Post

DT Chantel Amazon & Goodreads May 17 Review

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus  May 20 Mark- Guest Review

Linda Goodreads  May 21 Review

Leslie StoreyBook Reviews May 23 Guest Review- Nora & Excerpt

Mike M Goodreads  May 24 Review

Bookgirl  Amazon & Goodreads May 27 Review

Gracie Goodreads May 28 Review

Smitty Goodreads May 30 Review

Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin DarrowThe Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Publisher:  The Wild Rose Press (April 8, 2024)
Category: Mystery/Suspense, Murder Mystery, Female Amateur Sleuth
Tour Dates April 22-May 30, 2024
ISBN: 978-1509254194

Available in Print and ebook, 312 pages

Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth


Description Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

A Buddhist nun returns to her hometown and solves multiple murders while enduring her dysfunctional family.

Ivy Lutz leaves her life as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka and returns home to northern California when her elderly mother suffers a stroke. Her sheltered life is blasted apart by a series of murders, which she attempts to solve with the help of a smitten detective.

She understands why someone might want to kill her stepfather, who it turns out to be is a smuggler on the run, but what about her mother? Is Ivy’s unstable sister right that she was murdered, too? Ivy struggles to live by her Buddhist principles and employ her mindfulness skills, and discovers they both hinder and help in her search for the truth.


Praise for Verlin Darrow

 

“I don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a murder mystery more. Between the insightful sarcasm, inside jokes, flat out madcap hilarity and keenly wicked observations, there’s literally something to laugh or chuckle about on every page. This is truly a clever, one of a kind book that really turns everything upside down and inside out.”-Donna Thompson, Amazon Review

“I loved every page of this and I know that you will too! I highly recommend this to lovers of mystery and suspense novels, or anyone who likes a good novel at all!”-Sally S., Bound 4 Escape

“Almost immediately when I started reading this, I knew that I was going to enjoy it but I didn’t know that by the end, it would end up being one of my favorite reads of the year, so far!
I loved the narration in this novel. Tom Dashiel’s character was so funny and easy to root for. I found myself really wanting him to unravel the mystery at the center of this novel and somehow manage to get out alive.”-Nora, Storeybook Reviews

“Murder For Liar,’ is a book that just feels new. It feels unlike any other book you’ve ever read. I truly enjoyed this novel and couldn’t put it down once I started reading it! This book was perfection!”-Bee, BookPleasures.com

“Murder for Liar by Verlin Darrow is a twisty type of murder mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. Just when you think you have it figured out, something new happens.”-Becky, Life As Rog


Read the Excerpt Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

“You might know him by another name. Let me show you a photo.” I pulled out the photo that Dee had found online and laid it on the slick wooden bar.

“Oh, you mean Anton. He comes in all the time.”

“He won’t be coming in anymore,” I told him as gently as I could.

“Why’s that?”

“He’s been murdered.” I watched Skip’s face closely. His expression didn’t change.

“Really?” he responded matter-of-factly.

“Really. You don’t seem surprised.”

“I’m not. If you lie down with dogs, you get fleas.”

“Meaning?”

“Look, I’m talking to you because you’re with Brian. We go way back. But you don’t want to know who Anton used to meet in here.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Trust me. You think you do, but you don’t. Brian’ll back me on this.”

I turned and looked at my uncle, who was in the act of trying to erase a grimace.

“Why’s that, Brian?” I asked. “Why can you back him?”

“Regrettably, I’ve seen some illegal activity in here,” he told me. “Ruthless types.”

“We need to talk about that later.”

I returned my gaze to Skip. Now he was frowning and slowly shaking his head, as if to emphasize what he’d said before.

“Is there anyone else in here who knew Anton?” I asked him.

He started to look toward a booth in the back of the bar before he could stop himself. “No,” he then said vehemently. “There’s no one.”

“Okay, thanks.”

I began walking to the back booth, which was occupied by a hard-looking giant and a slim older man in a gleaming blue sharkskin sport coat over a cream-colored silk turtleneck. He looked even more out of place than Brian and I did. In fact, I couldn’t imagine where he’d be in place.

“Hold it!” Brian said, grabbing my arm. “You can’t do this. I think that guy’s a drug dealer.”

“How do you know that?” I felt my face heat up.

He didn’t answer. I kept walking and my uncle followed me.

The giant looked up as we approached. His gaze was studiously blank. Close-up, even sitting, he scared me simply because of his size, but his face was also intimidating. He didn’t have the dead eyes that assassins did in movies, but his deep-set blue ones still seemed to be profoundly disinterested in what happened around him. Whatever it might be, it was all the same to him. Upon closer examination, I thought he might be someone who’d been wounded and had adopted this attitude in response to trauma—to protect himself emotionally.

The older man kept his eyes glued to a tablet he’d propped up on the table in front of him. His face was lined, with several small dents in his temple and forehead, probably from skin cancer removals. My mother had exhibited similar scars.

His jet black hair, which was mostly what I saw because of his slightly bowed head, was thick and lustrous.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Do you have a minute?”

“I have many minutes,” the man said without looking up. “Who wants to know about these minutes?”

He had a thick Eastern European accent, and spoke in a low-pitched growl. On the other hand, his tone wasn’t unpleasant in the way I usually associated with that timbre. It was almost playful.

“My name is Ivy. I was Anton Todorov’s stepdaughter.”

At that, he looked up and surveyed me with interest. “Ah, the poor man. So he had a stepdaughter? What can I do for you? And why are you here with Brian?”

He knew my uncle? I was thrown off-balance for a moment. Brian and I were going to have another little chat soon.

Now I could see a complexity to the man. If he was a criminal, he wasn’t a garden variety one. His dark, alert eyes sat above a hawk nose. A bushy, stiff-haired mustache below that drooped onto his upper lip, which was a thin slash mismatched to his generous lower lip. His teeth were yellow and jumbled as if his parents had never brought him to a dentist.

I couldn’t read him at all, which was anomalous. Right or wrong, I usually got a sense of who someone was, at least in general terms. Even the man’s energy—his chi—was a mixture of indecipherable elements.

“You know my uncle?” I asked.

“Your uncle, eh? Interesting. Brian and I are old friends.”

I turned and stared at my uncle for a moment. He smiled a shaky smile, seemingly aware of my thoughts. Then I returned my attention to the man at the table.

“I’m looking into my mother and Anton’s death, and—”

“Why? Why are you doing this?” The man held his hands  up, palms facing me.

“I want to find out what happened.”

He shook his head and muttered, “It’s better not to know these things.”

“I disagree. In my world, it’s all about knowing.”

“What world is that? Are you a librarian? No, don’t answer. I think maybe a tech person who answers me when I google.”

“I’m a Buddhist.”

“So? Is that supposed to impress me?” He leaned back, apparently pleased with himself. I couldn’t see why.

“Can we get back to the deaths? Is there anything you know that I should know?”

“Should? No. But I know many things about many people. Perhaps some of that could come your way. But what do I get from this?”

“What do you want?” I couldn’t imagine what I could offer from my side of a deal.

“A date.”  He smiled a wicked smile—almost a smirk.

“You’re serious? You want a date with me?” My eyebrows shot up and I felt my mouth form an O.

©Verlin Darrow


About Verlin Darrow
Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Award-winning novelist, Verlin Darrow is currently a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary.

He is the author of Blood and Wisdom, Coattail Karma, Prodigy Quest, and Murder For Liar. Two of these won major book awards. Verlin is a former professional volleyball player, country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign cult.

Before bowing to the need for higher education, a much younger Verlin ran a punch press in a sheet-metal factory, drove a taxi, worked as a night janitor, shoveled asphalt on a road crew, and installed wood floors. He barely missed being blown up by Mt. St. Helens, survived the 1985 Mexico City earthquake (8.0), and (so far) he’s successfully weathered his own internal disasters.

Website:  https://www.verlindarrow.com/


Buy Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Amazon
BarnesandNoble
Bookshop.org


Enter the Giveaway Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

 

This giveaway is for 3 print or ebook copies. Print is open to the U.S. only. ebook is open worldwide. This giveaway ends on May 31, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth by Verlin Darrow

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus April 22 Excerpt

Sal Goodreads Apr 23 Review

Suzie My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews  Apr 24 Review & Interview

Gud Reader  Goodreads April 26 Review

Ellen Goodreads May 1 Review

Kathleen Celticlady’s Reviews May 7 Guest Review- Laura & Excerpt

Liam Goodreads May 9 Review

Denise D. Amazon & Goodreads May 15 Review

Bee Book Pleasures May 16 Review & Guest Post

DT Chantel Amazon & Goodreads May 17 Review

Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus  May 20 Mark- Guest Review

Linda Goodreads  May 21 Review

Leslie StoreyBook Reviews May 23 Guest Review- Nora & Excerpt

Mike M Goodreads  May 24 Review

Bookgirl  Amazon & Goodreads May 27 Review

Gracie Goodreads May 28 Review

Smitty Goodreads  May 30 Review

Fast Times Big City by Shelly FromeFast Times Big City by Shelly Frome


Publisher:  Boutique of Quality Books (Feb 6, 2024)
Category: Manhattan Mystery, Mystery/Suspense
Tour dates: February 26-March 25, 2024
ISBN: ‎ 979-8886330267
Available in Print and ebook, Approx. 330 pages

Description Fast Times Big City by Shelly Frome



In a bind, Bud Palmer finds himself at the crossroads when just about everything was on the verge.

Like most people, Bud Palmer felt this was just another day. Though the era was drawing to a close, he assumed his life as a sports columnist in the subtropics, in keeping with the benign fifties itself, would go on as predictable as ever. But that particular autumn morning he was thrust into a caper that was totally beyond him, forced him to leave Miami and take the train to Manhattan, and suddenly found everything in this restless “Big Apple” was up for grabs, on the brink, at a dicey turning point.

Fast Times Big City by Shelly Frome Review


Guest Review by Mark

“By the time Bud reached 19th street, he began to dawdle so that people could go by him, and then speed up in case he could throw off some burly figure in a trench coat he’d swear he’d gotten a glimpse of when he glanced over at a storefront window keeping pace and then slackening off again.”

Set in both Miami and New York in the 1950s, ‘Fast Times, Big City,’ by Shelly Frome is the tale of a man, a briefcase and a very short window of time.

Bud is a simple man. As a sports reporter in Miami, he isn’t a fan of commitment and doesn’t have a special lady in his life. But that’s all about to change. However, the lady in question may not be exactly what he was expecting.

A beautiful, blonde Marilyn Monroe lookalike has stolen a mysterious briefcase from a well-known local mobster named Escobar. Why is this Bud’s problem, you may be wondering? Because Bud’s uncle may have been the one to give it to her.

After being asked by his mother to check in on her little brother, Bud visits his uncle to discover that the man is recovering from a poker game gone wrong and a brush with Escobar.

Bud attempts to talk to Escobar, only to be sent to New York City to hunt down the blonde and find the briefcase. But with little information to go on to find the woman, Bud gets in over his head pretty quickly and he must figure out how to pull himself out of this mess.

I have always been a fan of Shelly Frome’s books when I have read them before and this one was no exception. His writing is always upbeat, fast-paced and fun. I always know I’m in for a great time when I read one of his books!

About Shelly FromeShelly Frome


Award winning author, Shelly Frome is a member of Mystery Writers of America, a professor of dramatic arts emeritus at UConn, a former professional actor, and a writer of crime novels and books on theater and film. He also is a features writer for Gannett Publications.

His fiction includes Sun Dance for Andy Horn, Lilac Moon, Twilight of the Drifter, Tinseltown Riff, Murder Run, Moon Games, The Secluded Village Murders and Miranda and the D-Day Caper. Among his works of non-fiction are The Actors Studio: A History, a guide to playwriting and one on screenwriting, Shadow of the Gypsy is his latest foray into the world of crime and the amateur sleuth.

He lives in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Website: http://www.shellyfrome.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shellyfrome
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shellyFrome

Buy Fast Time Big City by Shelly Frome


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Giveaway Fast Times Big City by Shelly Frome


This giveaway is for 2 print or ebook copies, open to the U.S. and Canada only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2024 midnight, pacific time. Entries accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Follow Fast Times Big City by Shelly Frome


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Fast Times Big City by Shelly Frome