Lauren Carr

Ice by Lauren Carr

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Ice by Lauren Carr was a book.  This is new series from this author and I think it is my favorite series that this author has.  This book has to do with a cold case and I loved that.  I love learning about cold cases, so this book was right up my alley and I really enjoyed it.  I love how this author writes her stories and can make me feel like I am there with the characters.  I loved that even though this book didn’t have Gnarly in it there was other dogs that made me laugh.  She does a great job making all her characters come to life even the animals and I love that.  She also has a list right at the start of the book explaining all the characters and how they are related or know each other.  I know you will love this book if you are a true crime lover like I am.  These books are super easy to read, and I can’t wait to read more in this series in the future.  Have you read any books by this author and if so what is your favorite?

About The Book

Book Title: ICE by Lauren Carr
Category: Adult fiction, 380 pages
Genre: Mystery, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Cozy
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Release date: February 26, 2018
Tour dates: April 2 to 30, 2018
Content Rating: PG (It’s a murder mystery and there is mild violence. Very mild swearing no F-bombs. No on-stage sex scenes.)

The clues for a close-to-the-heart missing person’s case heat up when Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on the cold case.

When Sandy Lipton and her unborn child disappear, the court of public opinion finds young Chris Matheson guilty. Decades later, the retired FBI agent returns home to discover that the cloud of suspicion cast over him and his family has never lifted. With the help of a team of fellow retired law enforcement officers, each a specialist in their own field of investigation, Chris Matheson starts chipping away at the ice on this cold case to uncover what had happened to Sandy and her baby and the clues are getting hot!

Watch The Book Trailer


About The Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries-over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night.
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

Let’s Be Friends

Enter To Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2018 Margaret Margaret

The Twofer Murder by Lauren Carr

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Twofer Murder by Lauren Carr was another great book.  I have reviewed several other books by this author, and I have liked all of them.   I always worry as I read more and more books because I figure at some point I will find a book that I don’t like so I still fear that the book I am reading is the one that doesn’t like.  I love how all of her books intertwine so that you always basically know who everyone is and how they are all related to each other.  I am a huge fan of Mac and his dog Gnarly, so I always love when they are in the book as well.  This book didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat, but I also wasn’t able to figure out how it ended so I always enjoy books like that.  I loved just about everything about this book, and I can’t wait to read the next installment in this series.

About The Book

Book Title: Twofer Murder by Lauren Carr
Category: Adult fiction, 400 pages
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Release date: November 17, 2017
Tour dates: Dec 4 to Jan 19, 2018
Content Rating: PG + M (Please be aware that TWOFER MURDER is a murder mystery. There are depictions of murder and some violence–though easy on the gore contents. No f-words but there may be some mild profanity, and mild religious expletives such as “damn”, “hell” and “Oh God!”. Some depictions of brief sexual content (kissing). No drug use or underage drinking among the protagonists.)

Twofer murder? What’s a twofer murder?

Twofer Murder is a treat for fans of best-selling author Lauren Carr’s fast-paced mysteries! Lauren’s latest novel contains the main characters from her three successful series: Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose mysteries. The guys go away for a fishing weekend only to get caught up in the murder of a journalist investigating fraud at a timber company. Meanwhile, the ladies are spending the weekend in the presidential suite at a posh resort where Jessica Faraday is to accept a lifetime achievement award for her late grandmother at a murder mystery writers conference. But before they have time to get their facials, they get wrapped up in their own real mystery when an up and coming author ends up dead!

Lauren Carr’s Twofer Murder is a 2-for-1-making it a must-read for any mystery fan!

To read more reviews, please visit Lauren Carr’s page on iRead Book Tours.

About The Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries-over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

Buy A Copy

Add to Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Enter To Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2018 Margaret Margaret

The Twofer Murder by Lauren Carr & Guest Post: On When To Let Go

Book Details:

Book Title: Twofer Murder by Lauren Carr
Category: Adult fiction, 400 pages
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Release date: November 17, 2017
Tour dates: Dec 4 to Jan 19, 2018
Content Rating: PG + M (Please be aware that TWOFER MURDER is a murder mystery. There are depictions of murder and some violence–though easy on the gore contents. No f-words but there may be some mild profanity, and mild religious expletives such as “damn”, “hell” and “Oh God!”. Some depictions of brief sexual content (kissing). No drug use or underage drinking among the protagonists.)

Book Description:

Twofer murder? What’s a twofer murder?

Twofer Murder is a treat for fans of best-selling author Lauren Carr’s fast-paced mysteries! Lauren’s latest novel contains the main characters from her three successful series: Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose mysteries. The guys go away for a fishing weekend only to get caught up in the murder of a journalist investigating fraud at a timber company. Meanwhile, the ladies are spending the weekend in the presidential suite at a posh resort where Jessica Faraday is to accept a lifetime achievement award for her late grandmother at a murder mystery writers conference. But before they have time to get their facials, they get wrapped up in their own real mystery when an up and coming author ends up dead!

Lauren Carr’s Twofer Murder is a 2-for-1—making it a must-read for any mystery fan!

To read more reviews, please visit Lauren Carr’s page on iRead Book Tours.

Buy the Book:
 
Watch the trailer:
Meet the Author:


Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

 

What are readers saying about Lauren Carr’s mysteries?
Enter the Giveaway!
Ends Jan 27

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: When to Let Go of Your Book

By Lauren Carr

 

Several months ago, I rejected a project in which an author asked me to edit his book. Not only did I turn down the job because my schedule does not allow me to edit other authors’ books anymore, but there was another reason I had turned down the project.

The first installment in a trilogy, the book had already been edited and released to the public to favorable reviews. Two years later, readers of this first book were waiting for the next installment, which the writer had still not finished. However, instead of focusing on completing the second book, he had decided to go back to work on the first—already completed and released—book.

Note that the changes this author wanted to make were not glaring grammatical errors that he wanted me to correct. Rather, a year or so after the book’s release, he had picked it up again and started reading it and decided that he could “fine-tune” it.

Frankly, this is not an uncommon problem with some writers. Just the other day I saw where the author of one book, which had been released three years ago, announced that he had just received his first shipment of this same book: “Revamped and Re-Released.”

Why? I wondered. This book had received a ton of good reviews. Why has he not moved on to write another book?

Some writers simply have a problem letting go.

Just like how some writers have a problem focusing on one project to its completion, other writers have the opposite problem. They can’t let go and walk away after having written the words “The End.”

There’s always at least one or two writers who can’t let go of “their baby” (as I heard one writer describe it) when I teach a novel writing class. They are easy to spot. They have a book inside them that they have been working on for five, ten, fifteen, or even twenty years.

I can still remember the very first thing I learned about writing on my first day of college. It was in my first writing class that my journalism professor said, “Writers never finish a project. They quit working on it.”

He went on to explain that a writer can edit, re-write, revise, and proofread an article, short story, or book over and over again, and still find sections that can be fine tuned or corrections to be made. That’s why professional writers must set a deadline in which they force themselves to walk away from the project—at which point they aren’t necessarily done, but rather they have let it go to move onto their next project.

This is why writers who don’t let go, walk away, and never look back will continue to write, edit, rewrite, re-edit, proofread one single book for their whole lives. Because—

In reality, it is impossible to finish writing a book.

 

Serious writers learn to let their books go. Admittedly, this can be very difficult—especially for those writers who view their books as “babies.” I once read an article by an editor who explained very simply, “It’s not a baby. It’s a book.”

Here’s a few pointers for writers who want to become prolific authors with more than one, twenty-year-old unfinished novel under their belt:

  • Set a deadline to finish your book. I have been told that writers with a journalism background learn early on how to let go. They are forced to due to tight deadlines. I was trained to get a project done by my deadline and then let it go, walk away, and then start on the next book. As a full-time author, I still work on self-imposed deadlines.
  • Make each round of editing and proofreading count. Remember that you will always find sections that can be “fine-tuned” every time you go through your book. With this in mind, set a limit of how many times you will read through your project and when you do, be ruthless in your search for errors.

Every writer is different. Personally, after completing the rough draft, I go through a manuscript to rewrite it. Then, I will edit it. After editing, I send it to my editor.  (While my current work in progress is with the editor, I will start working on my next book.) Then, after going through the edits, I will proofread the book after layout. That is five times that I will go through a book.

  • Once your book is released, don’t look back. Move onward! Unless you discover that your book has a big glaring flaw, resist the urge to read through it again. (Once, six weeks after a book was released, I was contacted by a reader who discovered that I had a city in the wrong country. This mistake was missed by two editors and a proofreader! I simply corrected that error—resisting the urge to look any further, and re-released the book.)

I guarantee, when you go back to look at a book you wrote a few years ago, you will definitely think, “Gee, I could have done that better,” Or “I should have done that.” Yes, every writer does that.

But, the pros who have more than one twenty-year-old unfinished book under their belt, they let each book go, direct their attention on the next book, and never look back.

They move on.

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2018 Margaret Margaret

A Fine Year for Murder by Lauren Carr

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

A Fine Year for Murder by Lauren Carr was an okay book.  I don’t think I have ever mentioned in any of the reviews that I have written about Lauren Carr’s books but I love that she puts a list of characters at the start of the book so that if you haven’t read other books by her you will still know how each of the characters are related.  I also loved that in this book I got to see a little bit of Gnarly because he is my favorite character in every one of the books that he shows up in.  This wasn’t my favorite book that she has written, but it wasn’t so bad that it would make me not want to read the next book that she writes.  If you love mystery books that aren’t over graphic and that are pretty fast paced than I would recommend any of her books to you.  You can click here to see the reviews on the other books by Lauren Carr that I have read and reviewed.

About The Book

After months of marital bliss, Jessica Faraday and Murphy Thornton are still discovering and adjusting to their life together. Settled in their new home, everything appears to be perfect … except in the middle of the night when, in darkest shadows of her subconscious, a deep secret from Jessica’s past creeps to the surface to make her strike out at Murphy.

When investigative journalist Dallas Walker tells the couple about her latest case, known as the Pine Bridge Massacre, they realize Jessica may have witnessed the murder of a family living near a winery owned by distant relatives she was visiting and suppressed the memory.

Determined to uncover the truth and find justice for the murder victims, Jessica and Murphy return to the scene of the crime with Dallas Walker, a spunky bull-headed Texan. Can this family reunion bring closure for a community touched by tragedy or will this prickly get-together bring an end to the Thorny Rose couple?

About The Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

Buy A Copy

Amazon

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Book Trailer

Enter To Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Margaret Margaret

Kill and Run by Lauren Carr

Book Review Graphic

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Kill and Run by Lauren Carr was an interesting book.  I know in a prior review that I wrote that I love how this author has created an entire world for her books where characters from different books show up and have parts in other books.  I really like that because it means that you still get to see the characters that you have fallen in love with from her other books.  I really enjoyed getting to know these characters better, and I can’t wait to get started with the next book in this series.  I fell in love with Murphy right from the onset of this book, and when it was over, I was so glad that I already have the second book in the series waiting for me to read it.  I find that even though her books can be repetitive I still enjoy them and I always get excited when I see that I can get one to review.  If you love mystery books, I know you will love this book and even more than that she has a ton of books out, so you will have something to read for quite awhile.

About The Book

Five women with seemingly nothing in common are found brutally murdered in a townhome outside Washington, DC. Among the many questions surrounding the massacre is what had brought these apparent strangers together only to be killed.

Taking on his first official murder case, Lieutenant Murphy Thornton, USN, believes that if he can uncover the thread connecting the victims, then he can find their murderer.

The case takes an unexpected turn when Murphy discovers that one of the victims has a connection to his stepmother, Homicide Detective Cameron Gates. One wintry night, over a dozen years before, her first husband, a Pennsylvania State trooper, had been run down while working a night shift on the turnpike.

In this first installment of the Thorny Rose Mysteries, the Lovers in Crime join newlyweds Lieutenant Murphy Thornton and Jessica Faraday to sift through a web of lies and cover-ups. Together, can the detectives of the Thorny Rose uncover the truth without falling victim to a cunning killer?

About The Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

Buy A Copy

Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble  ~  Add of Goodreads

Add-On Goodreads

Let’s Be Friends

Book Trailer


Enter To Win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Margaret Margaret

Meet Nigel—the Most Unique Character of the Thorny Rose Mysteries

A Guest Post By Lauren Carr

Did you know that a significant percentage of millennials give their phone a name? I learned that on John Tesh’s Intelligence for Your Life years ago and now can;t find the actual percentage, but hey! If you hear it in the media it must be true! Right?

Upon hearing that information, I tucked it into my cranial pocket only to take it out again last year when I was writing Candidate for Murder. At the end of Kill and Run, Murphy Thornton and Jessica Faraday, the Thorny Rose detectives, were forced to move out of their home. If you want to know why, you’ll need to read Kill and Run. For now, to keep from giving out spoilers, let’s just say for security reasons.

So, I had to go house hunting for my thorny rose protagonists. Finding their new home was easy. I used a lot of fantasy and, since I knew that it had to be secure, I knew it had to have a fence and security system.

Now, I could have stopped there with giving Murphy and Jessica a wall with no name and I would have if my husband had not insisted that I sit down to watch a documentary he had found about the high-priced, high-tech security utilized by the one-percenters (aka billionaires).

I watched the whole ninety-minute documentary with my jaw hanging open. These folks don’t stop with any old wall! They have concrete safe rooms with food and supplies to last for days. They have rooms in which, with the press of a button, will instantly seal up to capture the bad guys. Then, with a second press of a button, let loose with a hail of automatic gun fire to take them out. (Try explaining that to your home owner’s insurance!) They even have security measures installed on the one percenters’ private jets to ward off hijacking attempts.

Upon seeing this documentary, my writer’s mind started spinning like a top. I had already established in Three Days to Forever and Kill and Run that Murphy worked for the Phantoms, a cutting-edge, ultra-secret organization that only answered to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They would have access to all of this technology and then some—enough to warrant a prototype, a beta (test) system, to protect the Faraday-Thornton home under the guise of a virtual butler.

Of course, butlers have to have names. This was when I extracted my mental note that I had jotted down from John Tesh. I named him Nigel. To any outsiders, Nigel is on par with Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, but as readers see in Candidate for Murder, Nigel does so much more than relay the latest news brief, control their lights and sound system, and keep their calendar.

Some readers, including my mother, believe that Nigel was a complete figment of my imagination, and yes, many parts of him are—however, be warned—everything Nigel does is doable with today’s technology. I just put everything together into one computer system—and gave him a name and personality.

Nigel doesn’t just monitor the estate’s security. In Candidate for Murder, when intruders break in, Nigel goes on the offensive, with Mac Faraday’s Gnarly the German Shepherd, to defend their turf!

Jessica’s brother Tristan, a science whiz, maintains and monitors Nigel, who acquires a personality of his own, which Nigel claims is simply a mirror of Tristan’s personality. Tristan claims otherwise. Judge for yourself in this excerpt from A Fine Year for Murder.

In the following excerpt, Jessica calls Tristan for comfort after having a fight with Murphy, who walks out and Nigel steps in to help:

All of her close girlfriends were working, since it was midmorning on a weekday. That left only Tristan, her dear brother, to talk to. Grabbing her cell phone, she dialed Tristan’s number.

“Hey, Sis, how’re you doing?”

Her heart overflowing with regret and fear, Jessica immediately broke into uncontrollable sobs. Her attempt to communicate the source of her emotions came out as little more than unintelligible blubbering.

Tristan, who was sitting at the bank of monitors in the control center in the Faraday-Thornton estate, where Nigel’s system was housed, peered at his cell phone. “I don’t understand.”

“Based on the lack of full sentences in Jessica’s speech and on the high levels of negative emotion in her voice, I believe that Jessica and Murphy are having a fight,” Nigel said.

“So why is she calling me?” Tristan asked.

“Because you’re her brother. She feels the need to reach out to a family member for some emotional reassurance.”

“Like I’m going to take her side in a fight with Murphy,” Tristan said. “He could kill me with his pinky. I’m not stupid.”

“She just said that it was all her fault,” Nigel said.

Uttering a sigh of relief, Tristan brought the phone to his ear. “Jessica, calm down. What are you two kids fighting about?”

“Costantino,” she said. “He dumped a whole teapot of boiling water in Murphy’s lap.”

“And now Murphy’s in jail for killing him. Sounds like self-defense. Call our lawyer. He’ll get Murphy out by noon. Talk to you later, Sis.”

“Will you listen to me, you antisocial moron?” Jessica’s heartbreak became more like fury—fury directed toward her brother. “No, Murphy is not in jail! I swear! You make him sound like a serial killer.”

“Think about it, Sis. No guy in his right mind would dump boiling water in the lap of a guy he didn’t know. For all he knows, the other guy is a serial killer who’d think nothing of disemboweling you in a room full of witnesses.”

“Are you saying—”

“I’m not saying that Murphy would do that. He could, but he wouldn’t. What possessed Costantino to dump boiling water in Murphy’s lap—besides the fact that he’s an idiot?”

“To make a long story short,” Jessica said, “Costantino has become obsessed with me and wants Murphy out of the way.”

“That’s totally creepy. You’re cousins.”

“What am I going to do about Murphy?”

“What else can you do? You have to apologize.”

“I wasn’t the one who—”

“You should have told Costantino that you’re married to Murphy and that his efforts to court you were a waste of his time,” Nigel said, “not to mention dangerous to Costantino’s health and well-being.”

“Yeah,” Tristan said, “you tell her, Nigel.”

“By failing to put a stop to Costantino’s attempt to court you,” Nigel said, “you disrespected Murphy’s role as your mate, which was an implicit insult to his masculinity. As a result, he feels emotionally impotent.”

“TMI,” Tristan whispered to the computer.

“Based on the psych profile I have stored in my system for Lieutenant Thornton, I hypothesize that Murphy has withdrawn from the scene to reboot his limbic system and to reassess the situation.”

“Reassess what? Our marriage?” Jessica asked with a note of hysteria in her voice. “What’s he rebooting?”

“His limbic system,” Tristan said. “That’s the part of the brain where emotions are stored.”

“I should have called Archie,” Jessica said to herself.

“Once the reboot is complete, Murphy will come back,” Nigel said. “I would recommend that you then reaffirm your commitment to each other.”

“Have makeup sex,” Tristan said. “Then stay away from Costantino.”

Review for this book will be up in the next couple of weeks!
Digiprove sealCopyright secured by Digiprove © 2017 Margaret Margaret