The Echoes by Jess Montgomery, Grimm Up North by David J. Gatward, Billy Summers by Stephen King

 

Another visit to Kinship and to Sheriff Lily Ross and her family.  Lily's mother takes on a bigger role in this one--because she has been keeping a secret for three years and now there is no way to avoid the consequences.

In the meantime, there is preparation for the new amusement park to be opened on July 4th, and Chalmer Fitzpatrick's 97-year-old woman has called Lily (again) because there is a drowned woman in a pond which is slated to be part of a new amusement park.  Once again, Lily finds no drowned woman, and the question is whether the old woman's vision is dementia or the "the sight."

It's 1928, but there are connections to the Great War that claimed Lily's brother and the discovery of a truly unexpected legacy. There are so many secrets in this one!  As usual, Jess Montgomery uses some actual history in her plot.

Montgomery's characters and setting feel so genuine that the opportunity to visit Kinship again is always appreciated...but now another year to wait for the next book.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press.  

Historical Mystery.  March 29, 2022.  Print length:  288 pages.

DCI Harry Grimm is seconded to a small village in Yorkshire.  He isn't happy about it.  Accustomed to a big city and an active life, Harry finds that sheep rustling is the crime du jour in the Yorkshire Dales.  Not exactly the fast-paced criminal element Harry is accustomed to policing.

Set in the country of All Creatures Great and Small, Harry does find the people friendly and the location beautiful, but he doesn't feel cut out for the pastoral life.  

His first case is a missing girl, not missing sheep, and it develops into more than he and his new team considered possible in the peaceful dales.

A lot of humor, an interesting puzzle, and some good secondary characters kept me engaged.  :)  

Kindle Unlimited/Weirdstone Publishing.  2020.

Another long audiobook with a lack of the supernatural horror often associated with Stephen King.

For the most part, I liked it.  There are "two" Billy Summers, there is the dumb one his clients see, a hired killer who chooses the jobs based on whether or not he believes the victim deserves it--because after all, that was what he did as a military sniper in Iraq.  But the other Billy, the one hiding behind the mask is much more perceptive, shrewd, and cautious.  He may appear easy to manipulate, but that assumption is a mistaken one. 

On what is supposed to be his final job, Billy must live and work in a small town while waiting for the man he is to kill to be extradited to the local courthouse. The way Billy is taken in by the neighborhood where he waits for the signal to act on his current contract, forming friendships he knows he shouldn't, but discovering a life with which he was unfamiliar  appealed to me.  

Even as Billy hopes to retire, he is aware of fictional "final jobs" in books and films and that they often go wrong.

The last third of the book didn't work as well for me, for several reasons.  I also wanted to know where Billy lived when he wasn't working on a hit.  Such a blank from his years as a sniper in Iraq and his current situation--maybe twenty years of no information even hinted at beyond his hired kills.  More than that, I wondered when and where did Billy become some acquainted with the classics.  The Billy he presents to clients is a simple man who loves comics; the other Billy has read widely and is currently reading Zola.  I'd have liked some information on the missing years. Just me, but these omissions kept me wondering.  

Audiobook.  Simon & Schuster Audio.  Paul Sparks Narrator.