Book Review: “Rage in the Wilderness” & “Digging Up Murder”

Box of Books Text: Book Reviews

About Rage in the Wilderness

You can’t keep the past buried forever…

Book Cover: Old Pick-up truck parked with field with lights on and mountains in the background.
Text: A Nikki Garcia Mystery, Rage in the Wilderness, Kathryn Lane



When private investigator Nikki Garcia comes to New Mexico, raging wildfires in the nearby mountains force her and her family to evacuate. In the ensuing chaos, people close to her, including her husband, mysteriously disappear.

Join Nikki as she races across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Colorado prairie in a desperate attempt to save her loved ones. Her search unearths decades-old secrets and an international spy network that will stop at nothing to steal secrets from the heart of Cheyenne Mountain.

As she navigates treacherous terrain and ruthless adversaries, old secrets hold the key to uncovering the truth. When she unravels a past that defies explanation, will that help her locate her kidnapped husband or will she pay the ultimate price in this perilous pursuit?

Prepare for a riveting adventure with a female sleuth that will keep you on the edge of your seat, craving every page.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Rage-Wilderness-secrets-revealed-explodes-ebook/dp/B0CRTH1Q47

My Review of Rage in the Wilderness

I purchased Rage in the Wilderness, by Katheryn Lane through a Friday BookBub Deal. All opinions stated here are my own.

A vacation to New Mexico turns sour when wildfires force evacuation and P.I., Nicki Garcia’s husband is abducted in the chaos. She’s torn between getting her brother’s family to safety, and locating her husband, Eduardo. As on a true life investigation, the right hand doesn’t always know what the left is doing, especially when the feds get involved.

Lots of action and gun play, foiled escapes, and tense moments. Readers don’t know any more than our two protagonists do and must wait as the mystery unfolds. I give Rage in the Wilderness four quills.

Four circles with the WordCrafter Quill logo inside

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A quaint seaside New England town. A historic library. And a mystery to solve.

Book Cover: A Seascape background with table with stack of books and cat in a crate on top.
Text: A Garden Cove Library Cozy Mystery Book 1, Digging Up Murder, Penny Brooke


Elly Hockette returns to her hometown of Garden Cove, Massachusetts, just in time to help her librarian grandmother with last-minute preparations for the historic library’s Halloween festivities. Determined to forget her recent past and start anew, she spends the rest of her free time doing something that always brought her joy—gardening.

But when she makes a grisly discovery, her world is flipped upside down. It isn’t until the local authorities point to her grandma as their number-one suspect that she needs her old friends—and some new furry ones—to help her crack the case.

Can Elly solve the mystery and clear her grandma’s good name? Or will she go too far and put her own life in jeopardy?

This fun-filled and clean librarian cozy mystery will have you guessing until the very end.

Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Digging-Murder-Gard

My Review of Digging Up Murder

I purchased a digital copy of Digging Up Murder, by Penny Brooke through a KindofBook Deal. All opinions stated here are my own.

Digging up Murder, by Penny Brooke is a delightful cozy murder mystery, complete with a cuddly kitten and a dog named Lucky. (While the kitten is cute and may win readers hearts with the classic ‘Save the Cat’s move, it doesn’t actually have a part in the solving of the mystery, so its presence felt a little gimmicky.)

Elly has returned to her hometown of Garden Cove after the breakup of a really bad relationship, in time for her grandmother’s retirement from the local library. While doing a fall cleanup in her grandmother’s yard, Elly discovers a human hand buried in the detritus, and before she knows what’s happening, her elderly grandmother has been arrested for murder! Although the idea is preposterous, it looks like it is up to Elly to discover the true murderer and get her grandma out of jail. But it’s time for the annual witches’ festival and there are special events scheduled at the library, as well. With grandma in the pokey, it falls to her to be sure it all comes off without a hitch, all while searching for the answers to this murder mystery with the help of her once best friend, Claire and her high school boyfriend, Nathan, and his trustworthy dog, Lucky.

I think cozies are meant to be feel-good mysteries, softening murder down to a basic puzzle to be solved with lots of cute distractions. By those standards, this story does exactly what it was meant to do and serves its purpose well. I did enjoy watching the mystery unfold, and the kitten and the dog were quite entertaining. (But then who can resist a cute little kitten and a loveable dog?) The story was well crafted, which I think I mystery must be, for all the clues and red herrings to work like they are supposed to.

A well-crafted cozy which gives you all the clues, so that the answer is right in front of the reader, but they don’t realize it until the answers are revealed. I give Digging Up Murder five quills.

Five circles with WordCrafter quill logo in each one.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

Author Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.


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3 Comments on “Book Review: “Rage in the Wilderness” & “Digging Up Murder””

  1. The cosy mystery sounds entertaining. I enjoy cozy’s from time to time and you analysis of their softening murder to a puzzle is a good one.

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