The Stories You Tell by Kristen Lepionka - Review

 

I recently read the third in the Roxane Weary series, which was the third one my library had. There is a fourth but I guess if I want to read that I'll have to buy it. I really like the series and would recommend it. Roxane is a Private Investigator and is the daughter of a cop who was killed on duty a couple of years ago. She has a fractious relationship with her mother and her oldest brother, Matt, but she's friendly with her brother Andrew, who is a barman. She's also close to Tom, who is also a cop. She has an on again off again girlfriend, Catherine (I think?). In this book things are mostly on between them. Roxane is working on a case over counterfeit leggings which isn't thrilling but is paying the bills. 

Roxane gets a call from her brother in the middle of the night. She goes over and it turns out that this girl, Addison, turned up at his apartment, very upset and scared of something. She asked to use his phone and spoke to an answering machine, and then left Andrew's apartment very quickly. Rozane believes Andrew's version of events, even when it turns out that Addison got him fired from his job at a hotel a few years ago. 

Roxane goes to try to find Addison, but her housemate hasn't seen her. But Roxane isn't the only one looking for her - a cop by the name of Mickey Dillan (again, I think) was looking for her a few days previously. Roxane tries to get in touch with him, to ask why, but can't locate him. His body then turns up in the river, and Addison is definitely missing. Suspicion falls on Andrew, but Roxane is trying to find Addison's family and friends to prove her brother innocent. 

I liked the mystery of this, and I liked the ending and what had happened. I'm giving this four out of five. 

What You Want to See by Kristen Lepionka - Review

 

I read the first book in this series back in February, and liked it enough that I wanted to read the next two, too. But I didn't want to buy them, so I requested them from the library. I've actually had them since late March and have renewed them twice, but I finally got round to this in mid May. 

So the series concentrates on a private investigator called Roxane Weary. Her dad was a cop and he's recently died, and Roxane is in touch with his ex partner, Tom. She is basically an alcoholic and her family is a little bit messy. She lives alone and she's very independent and absolutely scared of nothing.

At the beginning of this book, she's spent her time surveilling a woman called Marin Strasser. Her fiance Arthur has hired Roxane because he thinks she's cheating on him. Roxane has mostly followed her doing shopping, but nothing else. Then Arthur's check bounces, and Roxane figures she'll just cut her losses. But THEN Marin gets shot dead, and Tom and another officer turn up at Roxane's door to check her alibi. She then visits Arthur, who tells her that Marin has cleaned him out of $75,000. He pays her in cash, but while she's at his print shop, there's a drive by shooting that leaves a young woman dead and Arthur injured. He's still very much in the frame for Marin's death, but Roxane is certain he's not guilty. 

She then follows several leads and finds out about Marin's previous life, uncovering quite a lot of fraud and quite a lot of leads over her death. I liked the mystery in this book and I liked how Roxane seemed to be getting herself together a bit. I'm giving this four out of five. I'll have to read the next one soon! 

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka - Review

 

I recently saw an advert on Instagram for a company called A Box of Stories, which purports to save books from landfill by selling subscription boxes to customers. They do quarterly subscriptions for just under £15 per box, for four books, which I felt was acceptable. That included tracked shipping, too. 

I also joined the Facebook group, which is pretty active, and where people share photos of their boxes. I had seen all of these books in other people's boxes before I received mine, and thought at least a couple of them looked interesting. So I was pleased to get all these books, and picked up The Last Place You Look almost straight away. 

It's about a Private Investigator called Roxane Weary. Before the start of the book, she has fairly recently lost her father, who was a cop called Frank and with whom she had a fractious relationship. She is sleeping with his ex cop partner, Tom, but she's certain it's just sex. Frank was an alcoholic and Roxane and her brothers are both following in similar footsteps. Roxane is living pretty hard, losing days to just checking out. 

A woman called Danielle hires Roxane to look into her brother's case. Brad Stockton was convicted of murdering his girlfriend Sarah's parents fifteen years ago, and now faces execution by the state in less than two months. He has always maintained his innocence, but can't explain how a knife turned up in the trunk of his car. Danielle is sure that she saw Sarah near a gas station in the small town she was from. Roxane heads down to look for her. 

She soon finds herself heading into danger, following leads and dead ends. Could there be a link with other Belmont teens who have gone missing? Could Sarah really be alive after all this time? Someone keeps threatening Roxane and she appears to have local police on her tail too. 

I really enjoyed the book - I liked Roxane and wanted her to succeed. I like her family background. I liked how fearless she was. I liked the mystery and even though it's quite a short book I thought there was a lot of story within it. I would read another in the series if there is one - I'll have to go look! I'm giving this four out of five.