Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent’s Search for Hope and Justice

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Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent’s Search for Hope and Justice by John Edward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This memoir by Robert Hilland (GR has John Edward's name up first, and it's not really written by him other than one chapter but that's a recognizable name) is interesting. I thought it was well written and a good look into Hilland's head. Memoirs can be a bit dry. This was not. However, how much of this you believe is how much do you believe in psychics. For context for younger readers, John Edward's Crossing Over (talking to those who're gone) was hugely popular in the early 00s.

It took me a moment to recognize the case that took up the first half of Hilland's narrative. It was interesting to see how he first came into John Edward's orbit, the things they had in common and his initial disbelief in John's abilities (whether or not the reader believes in it, Hilland came to be a believer).

So this deals with how John impacted Hilland's investigations and in a few cases predicted things that may have saved his life. If you're coming into this just for the true crime aspect of it, this might influence your opinion one way or the other since it's very much about John's psychic abilities.

I would have liked to see more than one chapter by John in this. We don't have much of him in this other than what is filtered by Hilland. Over all I did enjoy this.



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I Need You to Read This

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I Need You to Read This by Jessa Maxwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


For me it was a 3.5 read but I rounded up. Oddly enough, this is the second mystery with an advice columnist as the amateur sleuth (they're at least 150 years apart in timeline). Alex Marks is annoyed to find the newspaper is running an ad to replace Francis Keen as Dear Constance, an advice columnist.

Francis was murdered at her beach house about a year ago. Alex thinks no one can replace her and more or less rage-applies for the job and gets it. Now she's working for her dream editor, a pulitzer prize winner whose personal assistant seems to take an instant dislike to Alex. As for Alex, she's fearful when her picture is run in the paper as the new Dear Constance which is a big red flag she's hiding from someone and I assume it's an ex lover (and that made me wonder why she didn't tell them not to run her picture. You can do that which is what one of my coworkers had to do so her stalker ex wouldn't be able to find her)

Francis worked in the old part of the building and for some reason they put her in that office without even cleaning Francis' stuff out which struck me as dumb (and too much of a plot contrivance) Francis' personal assistant, the girl who works in the mail room and helps Francis sort all the letters seems deathly afraid of the editor and avoids him at all cost.

All of these red flags make Alex's two friends at the diner nervous, one is a former detective and the diner server. Added into this mix is a would-be boyfriend for Alex. These friends agree with Alex something hinky is going on and decide they need to solve Francis' murder especially because the former detective knows the current one is not good at his job.

We also get a running interlude of Lost Girl's letters to Constance that we're not sure if Francis saw these letters. Are they to put us on edge about Alex's would be boyfriend? Who wrote them (Figured that out half way through)

There were things that made me eye roll though, like the above mentioned office thing. I mean the pictures are still there? (because they play a role in solving this mystery), the idea that there are still mountains of paper mail letters instead of emails (though I will buy if you wanted an abusive partner to not know about it, that would leave less of a trail) and the salary they offered seemed ridiculously high in this day and age for a physical newspaper.

Lastly the whole subplot with the former detective seemed completely unnecessary (unless this is planned as a series and it's needed for later) and just took me out of the story. It was obviously not meant as a red herring.

Overall though I did like it. What I loved, however, was the cover. It's not a pretty one by any means but it had a cool effect. The red is slick and the typewriter keys are rough, giving it a tactile sensation and that was neat.



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The Witch of Mansfield: The Tetched Life of Phebe Wise

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The Witch of Mansfield: The Tetched Life of Phebe Wise by Mark S. Jordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was one of my Ohioana book festival buys and it's definitely niche local Ohio history. Phebe Wise isn't anyone famous. She was more or less local color but in a way that made it a bit more interesting to me. We don't usually see average people getting biographies written about them, though maybe calling Phebe average is a disservice.

I will say the title is a bit of a click bait in a way. No one really thought of her as a witch except maybe youngsters who called the strange old lady in the ramshackle house is a witch (there's always one isn't there in rural areas? It's going to be me pretty soon). And in some ways this biography is more about the men around her than Phebe herself because they had such an effect on her life and shaped her.

Christian Wise was her father. We have no solid year of birth for Phebe but she was a younger child and in the mid 1800s that meant the role of caretaker for her aging parents would fall to her (so no marriage, no career as a teacher) with the expectations she would get the house in the end (as was customary at the time). Christian did have her trained in the classics including literature and piano (he hated her banjo playing) But he also filled her head with how much money his land/house/waterways were worth and to be wary of any man wanting to marry her because they'd be after her money. Besides she was 'too Indian looking' for anyone to be interested. (there's some speculation on that cruel statement)

Phebe fulfilled her expected role, even ending up living in much poverty as she obeyed her father's wishes, holding onto the property. However the townspeople also believed in the wealth left to her and there is a chunk of this biography dedicated to the three men who broke into the house to rob and torture her (with lifelong lasting effects)

The biggest part of the biography however is given to Jake Kastanowitz, a would be suitor turner stalker turned mentally insane. This part of the biography is absolutely bonkers and I don't want to spoil how it turned out. You have to feel very sorry for Phebe. On the other hand, you also get to see how she takes no crap from anyone.

The weirder part of this biography is given to the last man influencing Phebe's life and actually more how she influenced his. Louis Bromfield, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, met Phebe and her guard/attack horse, Scottie, when he was a young boy. They had other conversations over the years, not many, but she had such a lasting effect on him. She ended up inspiring several of his female characters. He was very open about this and every new book or short story collection was to be sent to her (and they were up to her death)

Phebe herself was interesting but in a way tragic. Once her parents passed, she started dressing in the ballgowns (Pre-Civil War) that she wasn't allowed to touch because they were too expensive. She grew her own food/had chickens which wasn't that unusual in that time period but she was also isolated on her father's farm. She didn't really have a life of her own or maybe she had exactly the life she wanted.

I had never heard of Phebe before this but I'm glad I got to know her a little.



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Kill You Twice

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Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I almost gave this a much lower rating but then thought, it's not badly written, I just didn't like Archie or Gretchen (who are the titular characters), couldn't respect Archie and the ending was such hot crap it insured I wouldn't read another of these. (Also I hadn't read the first four which is on me)

CW - serial killers, child killers, dismemberment, skinning, murder, very graphic gore, body shaming, adults failing children left right and center

Gretchen Lowell is a serial killer who tortured Archie and his partner Henry. But of course Archie can't be done with her, especially after she contacts his journalist friend Susan to say the new killer who skinned someone in the park is her former mentee, Ryan Motley, and she wants Archie to go after him to save her daughter.

Archie naturally gets involved, does bizarre mental dances around Gretchen because 'the beauty killer' is now fat and acne-ridden from her meds (that he helps direct as if that would EVER happen) and later (mild spoiler) is even laying in the bed with her.

The first victim (there is a second) was known to Pearl, a foster kid Archie and Susan apparently know and she goes on the run only to later come to Susan and the choices made by Archie and Susan and everyone are so dumb and such obvious plot contrivances to put her in harm's way I nearly DNFed this book.

Or maybe I should have DNFed it when Archie's new neighbor just keeps coming into his apartment or when he enters her place, no warrant, no real reason, to check it out and demands to check her clothes and she strips for him. Later they of course have sex. I was wondering if this was a red herring and she was the killer (that would have been more interesting) because what woman acts like this? If some man barged into my home and told me to strip I'm surely not going to do it and I sure as hell am not going to pursue a sexual relationship with him (had to check to be sure this was written by a woman)

Archie gets zero respect for how unprofessional he is. He even tells Gretchen about the man he purposely killed to save a kid (why? I mean seriously why would you tell her?) Or how is this guy even on any case remotely around this woman since she kidnapped and tortured him?

The ending was nonsense. Predictable, sad nonsense.



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