Estate: Golden Rules

 

Estate: Golden Rules by J Andrew Shelley
10/13/26; 242 pages
TENZL 

Estate: Golden Rules by J Andrew Shelley is a very highly recommended, easily accessible guide to carefully planning for your death with the goal in mind of preventing more suffering, conflicts, or resentment among family members. An unplanned or ill-prepared estate can potentially leave your family with months or years of suffering, legal problems, and expenses. Conflicts between family members can emerge and turn into anger and resentment. One person is often bearing the load of hours of work.

This is not a long, detailed, complicated textbook that covers every single detail that could possibly occur. It is an informative overview of the best approach to take as YOU prepare for your death to benefit your family and avoid probate. It is easy to understand and plan to put the information into practice. There is an overview and brief summary of what the chapters cover, basically giving you a map of what you have to read and what you could skip. Personally, I'd recommend reading the whole guide and taking notes. You will find step-by-step guidance, tools to persuade loved ones to start planning now and AI prompts to speed it all up.

Chapter 1 Estate Map is a must read chapter. It is packed with information,  explains the realities, and generally maps out a course of action to undertake. 
Chapter 2  Why Plan Why Now - basically explains designating beneficiaries on accounts, etc. 
Chapter 3 Commitment - covers the difficulties with an unplanned large estate; encourages decluttering and giving things away.
Chapter 4 First Thing: Our Health - addresses the arrangements for medical authorizations and care.
Chapter 5 The Golden Rule of Life -  Do unto others as you would have done to yourself; applying the golden rule to subdue resentments
Chapter 6 The Golden Rules of Estates - Die owning nothing and have designated beneficiaries on everything
Chapter 7 Probate is described and explained with critical facts along with details on how to avoid
Chapter 8 Making it happen shows a detailed application of the Golden Rules and some complexity warnings
Chapter 9 Classic Estate Planning facts behind wills, trusts, deeds and more. Great lists of information and answers to common questions.
Appendix finishes the story of Rhea. If you must skip something, you can skip the story of Rhea.

Those who read Estate: To My Once Darling Child, the fictional, but true-to-life, well-written, and sometimes humorous novel with an underlying helpful message of what not to leave behind for your family to handle upon your death, will want to read this informative follow-up guide. Not to get too personal, but both of these books have hit way-too-close to home for me. Several years ago I had two family members die within two months of each other. There are still repercussions today from the conflicts, perceived slights, greed, anger, entitlement, and resentments swirling around one of the deaths, which was sudden and unexpected. The majority of this could have been avoided with plans in place. Now today, since reading Shelly's first book, I have been trying to encourage my elderly mother to please declutter and give it all away.

Estate: Golden Rules is an excellent resource for estate planning written with keeping the process simple and doing the paperwork now to avoid potential legal complications. Thanks to J Andrew Shelley and TENZL for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Her Last Kiss

 

Her Last Kiss by Lisa Regan
10/20/26; 374 pages
Bookouture
Detective Josie Quinn #25 

Her Last Kiss by Lisa Regan is another exceptional, very highly recommended crime thriller/procedural and is the 25th book in the Detective Josie Quinn series. As with the previous book in the series, Stolen Family, I again stayed up late to finish it because at a certain point in the gripping plot it becomes impossible to not continue reading as fast as you can while your heart is pounding. This time the investigation follows a serial killer. Although this is the 25th book in the series, Her Last Kiss can be read as a standalone novel.

Trinity, Josie's twin sister and a journalist, is set to interview Sylvia West who was the sole survivor of an encounter with “The Last Kiss” serial killer thirteen years. Only Sylvia is discovered murdered on her bed, strangled, with the trademark lipstick smear on her mouth left by The Last Kiss killer. The house has also been set on fire and Josie manages to witness the crime scene and get Trinity out safely. The serial killer has been on the loose for fifteen years in various locations across the state of Pennsylvania and now he is in Denton. Now the team is taking a deep dive looking into previous cases to try to uncover the killer's identity... and then another victim is found.

The writing is excellent. The lightning-fast pace is propelled forward by the complicated, compelling, and intriguing plot that will hold your complete attention throughout. The procedural part of the narrative is excellent with all the clues logically followed and leads investigated. The narrative includes chapters from the killers point-of-view as the investigation unfolds which serves to increase the tension. This is seriously a riveting, un-put-downable thriller and the danger keeps accelerating with each page right up to the seriously action-packed conclusion.

The focus is always on the tense investigation while the personal interaction between the characters continues to be realistic. All of the characters are portrayed as fully realized individuals with strengths and weaknesses. Josie's and Noah's personal life is going well. Their relationship with Wren, the teenager they are custodial parents too, hits some tough struggles, but is making progress. Expect an emotional scene involving the three. Detective Kyle Turner continues to be exasperating with bursts of extreme competence and insight.There is enough of the backstory covered within the plot that new readers can easily follow the characters, however knowing their history will make it a richer reading experience. 

Her Last Kiss is a exceptional crime thriller/procedural and is a perfect choice for everyone following the series. Now I'm anxiously awaiting the next book in the series! Thanks to Bookouture for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Chain Reaction

 

Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child
10/20/26; 416 pages
Ballantine
Jack Reacher Series #31 

Chain Reaction by Lee Child and Andrew Child is a very highly recommended, high octane and un-put-downable thriller featuring former Army Major Jack Reacher. This is excellent addition to the long-running series. The threat this time involves a nefarious scheme involving cybercrime and AI data centers.

General Susan Turner, who is now leading an investigative group called CSA G-99, which she describes "like the army's own FBI," has tracked down Jack Reacher to ask for his help. She suspects a traitor in the organization and needs a trustworthy outsider to look into the killing of CID Special Agent John Bisley, 32. Bisley flew from DC to the Denver airport and then drove to Summertown, an area full of solar panels and 5 large data centers, where he checked in for 5 nights at the only hotel. He was then found dead, stabbed 8 times, behind a biker bar 40 miles to the west the same night. He left behind a wife and baby daughter. Bisley was investigating a phantom data center copying/stealing information from nearby legitimate data centers. Reacher accepts the challenge.

WOW! As one of the best Reacher novels I've read, this is timely investigation is action-packed, compelling, fast-paced, complex, and well-plotted. It held my complete attention right up to the excellent final denouement. Sure, some disbelief has to be set aside because Reacher is unstoppable, super-human, an eating machine, hyper-aware, and the bad guys always get their comeuppance. He is also intelligent, honorable, dependable, and analytical. In other words, he is a perfect hero for action junkies and this intricate plot provides plenty of action.

Even though this is the 31st novel in the series, there is enough background information provided that you can jump in and read this as a standalone novel. Personally, I skimmed the personal encounters between Turner and Reacher as I was reading for the action, investigation and reactions rather than their personal relationship. However, there are some touching and unexpected encounters between Reacher and a baby.

Chain Reaction is an excellent choice for those who enjoy action-packed thrillers and everyone following the Reacher series. Thanks to Ballantine for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Secret Garden Murders

 

The Secret Garden Murders by J. R. Ellis
10/20/26; 283 pages
Thomas & Mercer 

The Secret Garden Murders by J. R. Ellis is a highly recommended cozy mystery/procedural for the right reader featuring a locked garden rather than room. 

In the village of Bishop Hewick in North Yorkshire 70 year-old Clarissa Morden bought a ticket to visit the historic Bishop Hewick Hall run by a trust and managed by June Kendal, Clarissa is later found dead, strangled, and neatly laid out on a bench in a locked, walled kitchen garden that is off limits to the public. She is found by gardeners Richard Cooke and Jenny Brown. DCI Jim Oldroyd and his team are on the case. The biggest hurdle is how did the perpetrator enter and leave the walled garden. The door to it requires a key, yet the key is found in the lock on the garden side and the door was bolted from the inside and the walls are too high to climb. How did the killer leave? 

As the team is trying to figure this out, they soon discover something even more sinister from Clarissa's neighbor. Apparently the old woman was blackmailing people, multiple people, throughout the village. In her cottage they find detailed records she kept on everyone she was watching along with a secret notebook written in a code of her extortion victims. Now the team needs to try and break the code to find out who her victims were along with trying to figure out the walled garden conundrum. 

This is an even-paced mystery where the investigation proceeds at a thoughtful, reliably deliberate speed. There is some suspense along the way, especially when the body of a young woman who thought she had figured out who the killer was is found dead in the river. Clearly the village is full of more secrets than one would expect. The setting, in a small village and at Bishop Hewick Hall adds atmosphere and some tension as the potential suspect could be anywhere and the blackmail list gives even more people a motive to eliminate her.

Each chapter opens with the description, history and location of a famous garden in various estates, which was an interesting addition but added nothing to the plot. It will be interesting to those who enjoy traveling to visit famous gardens. Alas, that is not for everyone. The pace does proceed a bit too slowly at times and certain points within the narrative are repetitious. Even if the investigation felt plodding at times, the clues are logically followed up on, eventually, and the ending is satisfying. 3.5 rounded up when required.  

The Secret Garden Murders is a good choice for fans of cozy mysteries and large garden enthusiasts. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Split Screen

 

Split Screen by Lee Goldberg
10/20/26; 301 pages
Thomas & Mercer
Eve Ronin #7

Split Screen by Lee Goldberg is a very highly recommended, action-packed thriller/police procedural and the seventh book in the Eve Ronin series, although, as Goldberg notes in his opening comments, it can be enjoyed as a standalone novel.

Detective Eve Ronin of the L.A. Sheriff's Department is on the scene of the suspected murder of former childhood star Juliette Winter, when she is called to meet with the new sheriff in town, Waylon Gifford. Due to the hit TV procedural based on Ronin, Gifford pressures her to exploit her fame by developing a social media presence and allowing the actress who plays her, Erin Casey, to ride along with her for a week.  If she refuses, he pointedly threatens her partner and friend Duncan "Donuts" who has been relegated to desk duty. So, the ride-alongs happen, but not without incident as Erin is mistaken for Eve and shot early on. The incidents and cases follow at a lightning fast speed right up to the surprising conclusion.

It is such an entertaining pleasure to read this well-written, fast-paced action-packed procedural that includes several cases and even side quests. The investigations are all logically investigated and solved, even with unexpected twists, connections, and complications along the way. There is no downtime as one incident, one revelation, follows another and Ronin is busy and on the move throughout the whole novel. The plot is compelling and the pace so fast the pages just fly by as you eagerly follow the action. I thoroughly enjoyed Split Screen and was completely immersed in the plot throughout the whole novel.

Eve Ronin is a great character and even though Duncan is on desk duty the good news is that he still plays a strong role in the plot. Eve continues to be impulsive at times but her intelligence, good instincts, determination, and observational skills also shine through. The interactions between characters is quick, clever, and sometimes sarcastic, sometimes humorous. Arson investigators Sharpe and Walker from another Goldberg series make an appearance too. 

Split Screen is an excellent choice for readers who enjoy action-packed procedurals/thrillers. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch

 

The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch 

by Laura Jensen Walker
10/20/26; 316 pages
Lake Union Publishing 

The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch by Laura Jensen Walker is a recommended feel-good cozy novel - for the right reader. It follows yet another solitary curmudgeonly senior citizen who discovers it is never too late to changes her ways.

Primrose Honeychurch, 70 year-old and a retired librarian, lives in Los Vegas in a rental house and is an endling. She has always loved books more than people, with her dear mother being the exception. After her abusive father died, her mother became ill and died before the two could take a long-planned trip, returning to Cornwall to see her family and the place of their birth. Primrose, who has recently received a medical diagnosis of her own, is now going to undertake that pilgrimage with her mother's ashes. She is also going to visit other destinations, including the famed Welsh town of books. Her trip has several surprises along the way.

This is yet another novel in the increasingly familiar trope of an intractable senior taking some chance and then miraculously changing their whole personality and world view. While on the trip, Primrose discovers among other things, that she is neurodivergent and maybe she doesn't mind jibber-jabbering as much as she claims. This is heart-warming, predictable throughout, eye-roll inducing, and very saccharine. T'aint realistic at all. Set a massive dose of disbelief aside. I understand I am an outlier here. Those who love emotional, bittersweet stories where the protagonist undergoes a transformative change will love this novel.

Admittedly the novel lost major points with me right at the beginning when Primrose unplugs a freezer which is making a bothersome noise at night, accidentally leaves the door cracked open, and discovers, later the next day, the smell of rotten meat. I might believe it was all thawed, or partially thawed, but rotten? Nope. Ain't going to happen that way. Sure she's in Vegas, but her house does have air conditioning, which we know is true later in the plot. Also, as a character, she is portrayed as especially judgemental, demanding, and rude at the beginning which makes her difficult to like.

The Pilgrimage of Primrose Honeychurch is a good choice for those who love transformative stories and can set all disbelief aside. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

Find Me Nowhere

 

Find Me Nowhere by Andrew Klavan
10/20/26; 336 pages
Mysterious Press
Cameron Winter #6 

Find Me Nowhere by Andrew Klavan is an exceptional, very highly recommended investigative mystery and love story. This is the sixth book in the Cameron Winter series featuring the ex-spy turned English professor who has a “strange habit of mind.” I've been following this series from the start and, while they have all been excellent, this is the best so far. Absolutely don't miss Winter's latest mission and if you haven't yet started reading this series, do so and you will be richly rewarded.

The novel opens with a battle scene in Afghanistan where Corporal Geoffrey Tubman dies in a devastating explosion in a cave, while his friend Jonah "Dooby" Henning is severely injured after going after him. Later Geoff's father, Kenneth Tubman, is stabbed and left for dead in the colonial ruins surrounded by woods known as Nowhere, which is by Kinnecombe, PA. The Recruiter visits Winter and asks him to look into Kenneth's death to see if it is somehow related to the death of his son. While talking to Kathleen Tubman, wife of Kenneth, Winter learns that the man is sure he saw his son Geoff alive and at the first Reds game of the year. 

Winter is also followed and threatened by all manner of low-life thugs in Kinnecombe, which is highly suspicious and alerts him that something is surely amiss in the town. As more bad actors and government agents appear, trying to prevent Winter's inquiry, the more his resolve to uncover the truth increases. And yes, Winter's perceptive strange habit of mind which allows him to look at a situation from all angles, deduce how the complicated clues fit together, and reach a clear understanding of what actually happened, is, again, in fine form. While this intricate investigation is underway, Winter is still clearly in love with Gwendolyn Lord and seeing Margaret Whitaker, his therapist, to work through his past.

Find Me Nowhere features remarkable writing, a fast-pace, and interesting, layered plot. Winter uses his abilities and connections to discover information, leads, and make connections that others might miss. The danger is real as a short fat gangster controls a town, a crazy beautiful spy is involved, as well as a violent CIA agent, and a trained sniper. There are also some humorous encounters with a student his nemesis, university diversity officer Lori Lesser, sent to spy on him, and a meeting with undercover operator, Stan-Stan Stankowski.

This is a marvelous continuation of Cameron Winter's story arch. Winter is a poet and a cerebral man who just happens to also have the skills of a trained assassin. At this point Winter is a complex, fully realized character and his strengths and weaknesses are well known. Those following the series won't want to miss this exceptional addition to it.  It can also be enjoyed as a standalone novel, however, you'll then want to go back and read the whole series. The Cameron Winter series consists of When Christmas Comes, A Strange Habit of Mind, The House of Love and Death, A Woman Underground, After That, the Dark, and Find Me Nowhere.

Find Me Nowhere is a perfect choice for those who enjoy intelligent investigative mysteries with a love story included and is a must read for those following the series. Thanks to Mysterious Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.