After weeks of struggling with life in a small town and her new job as a special deputy, Calamity James finally sinks her teeth into a case. The Red River Junior Beauty Pageant is underway, and when a teenage contestant ends up dead, it’s up to Cal to find out what happened. The ghost girl is convinced she’s been murdered, but Cal isn’t so sure. Things in Red River are never what they seem.The PromiseHartwell, Georgia has a big secret.Clyde Barker, a down-on-his-luck pro bono lawyer, inherits his late uncle's land in the small town of Hartwell, Georgia. While exploring the property, he uncovers clues pertaining to his uncle's demise and the secret investigation he was running out of his home. Driven to learn the truth, Clyde forces himself to uncover dark secrets within the town and himself. Little does Clyde know, he possesses a gift that will change his life forever.
Alexandria Clarke is a writer, cat lover, and all-around optimist. She loves to immerse her readers in mystery and intrigue, meaningful friendships, and the worlds of characters who learn by doing. When she's not writing, Alex enjoys playing guitar, watching Wynonna Earp, and spending time with her family. She currently lives in Orlando, Florida with her partner and their four pets.
In the Shadows is a Boxed Set of paranormal mysteries that are promoted as two mysteries, but in actuality are three. They are all pretty good, intriguing in their own ways. The book blurbs are all about two mysteries: The Promise and The Darkest Secret. Both, have paranormal ingredients with main characters that have contact with the other world.
The Promise by J. S. Donovan is the first novel in a series called the Clyde Barker Paranormal Mysteries. Clyde Barker is a pro bono lawyer taking a weekend off to resolve some family issues. A favored uncle has left some property in the small town of Hartwell for Barker to either possess or sell. In both instances, the property requires some renovation. While attempting to fulfill the obligation, Barker discovers he can communicate with some restless spirits, and they have added to his obligations to determine who and why murders have occurred in Hartwell.
In the Darkest Secret by Alexandria Clarke, Calamity James is a special deputy with a ghost whisperer reputation (Calamity James #2), she is tasked with investigating a suspicious death at a Junior Beauty Pageant. The ghost has become violent in response to premature death. Calamity must manage the ghost's transition while attempting to solve the murder.
There is also a third ghost mystery included as an extra, which I will not share much about except that the investigator is an artist who paints visualizations of murder BEFORE they actually occur, and she must try to prevent them from happening. Overall, I love these sets because you get more bang for your buck, even though the editing is suspect.
Decent tales, good mysteries with a nice paranormal aspect.
The 3 stories in the box set were good overall, but they need better editing. There were many typos and grammatical errors. It didn’t detract from my reading, but still were a minor annoyance. I still would recommend reading them because the stories themselves were intriguing enough I wouldn’t mind knowing more about the main characters and what happened next.
A good little two-book bundle. I enjoyed the first book (Prospect) more; mainly because of the snarky character, Special Deputy Calamity James. The second book, Secret, main character, wasn’t that engaging; primarily because the author didn’t put enough background on the way and how of her visions.
The storylines in these three books were quite interesting, however the poor editing was very distracting. The wrong word or just too many words in the middle of a sentence made me stop and try to figure out just what should be there to make sense. There were too many to count. Spell check gone haywire!
Three stories in different settings and different characters. I think the first one was the best, but it needed more proofing. Lots of errors that made it hard to follow at times. The second one had an interesting main character but his actions were not reasonable. Finally the last one was the most compelling but in my opinion was too drawn out. I was not a fan.
I enjoyed all three books. The first one with Calamity was my favorite. However, all three books fell short with the characters. I just didn't care about them very much.
I usually like a easy entertaining book, but wow, this set was great! I hated to put it down. So much attention to details I felt I could see the scenes.