"Death with a Dark Red Rose" By Julia Buckley: Review/Giveaway

by Sandra Murphy

Details on how to win a copy of this book at the end of the review and links to purchase it.

Lena London leads a charmed life, most of the time. Of course, when it’s one of those not so charmed times, there’s usually a dead body involved.

Lena and her fiancé Sam are planning their wedding. Her boss, Gothic suspense writer Camilla Graham, and her significant other are off for a few days of leaf peeping. Then comes a frantic call from their friend Doug, police detective and boyfriend of Belinda. He and Belinda had a date—her purse, cell, car, and keys are all in her house—but she’s not.

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Image Source Penguin

A tense couple of hours later, Belinda is found with her brother. He has a problem with impulse control and had the idea he needed to talk to her in private. He works for a new company in town, Plasti-Source, as an IT guy. One of the other workers is missing. Varying stories are going around but none ring true.

Plasti-Source doesn’t have the best reputation for being environmentally safe. When Doug tries to investigate, he’s met with bland answers that don’t really say anything. Lena asks questions around town and is met with hostility from employees. When the employee’s car is found, off the road, with blood inside, they assume the worst.

In between trying to write the next Gothic mystery and solving the mystery in their own idyllic town, Lena still has to make wedding plans, tend to Sam who is sick, take care of his two kittens, her cat, and Camilla’s two German shepherds plus help plan Camilla’s birthday party.

As Lena says, things are either really good or really bad and it seems like the situations alternate. This is book five in the series. Camilla is more involved this time, Sam less so because he’s ill. Belinda’s brother is a wonderful addition to the cast of characters. He’s quirky, knows computers, and is a wonderful cook. I only wish he’d share recipes.

There’s certainly romance in the air for more than Lena and Sam. You’ll have to read the book to find out which characters pair up—no spoilers here!

Buckley also writes the Undercover Dish mysteries (3) and the Hungarian Tea House book (1).

To enter to win a copy of Death with a Dark Red Rose, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line "rose,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen April 4, 2020. US residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section in Kings River Life and in our mystery category here on KRL News & Reviews. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. And check out our new mystery podcast which features mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors! A new episode goes up next week.

You can use these links to purchase the book. If you have adblocker on you may not be able to see the Amazon link:

Death with a Dark Red Rose (A Writer's Apprentice Mystery #5)

Sandra Murphy lives in the shadow of the Arch in St. Louis Missouri. She writes about eco-friendly topics, pets and wildlife for magazines and reviews mysteries and thrillers for KRL. A collection of her short stories, published by Untreed Reads, From Hay to Eternity: Ten Tales of Crime and Deception can be found at all the usual outlets. Each one is a little weird and all have a twist you won't see coming.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.