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    A Killer's Guide to Good Works
    Unavailable
    A Killer's Guide to Good Works
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    A Killer's Guide to Good Works
    Ebook305 pages4 hours

    A Killer's Guide to Good Works

    By Shelley Costa

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Senior Editor Val Cameron is back at her desk in New York. When her curator best friend returns from an abbey in England, she invites Val to see a priceless relic that has mysteriously found its way into her carry-on.

    But by the time Val arrives at the museum, her friend has been murdered—and the relic is gone.

    Val soon learns that a young monk at the abbey has also been murdered. Is there a single killer at work? What dark purpose is attached to the relic that's led to two murders?

    When Val discovers her apartment has been broken into, her native New York feels like a place she no longer knows. Now she has to unmask a killer who will stops at nothing to fulfill an ambitious plan—and Val Cameron is just the latest person to stand in the way.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    A KILLER'S GUIDE TO GOOD WORKS by Shelley Costa - A Henery Press Mystery. If you like one, you’ll probably like them all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHenery Press
    Release dateSep 20, 2016
    ISBN9781635110623
    Unavailable
    A Killer's Guide to Good Works
    Author

    Shelley Costa

    Shelley Costa's work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Agatha Awards and has received a Special Mention for The Pushcart Prize. In addition to several mystery novels, she is the author of short stories in The Georgia Review, North American Review, The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Blood on Their Hands, and Odd Partners. With a Ph.D. in English, Shelley was on the Liberal Arts faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art for nearly twenty years.

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    Reviews for A Killer's Guide to Good Works

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    • 4/5
      After the murder of her best friend, Val is throw into a mystery.....or three. First, who killed Adrian and why? Second, why would someone forge a satire of a Christian document and where is the original? Third, who killed a young boy at the monastery and what did he know?With the help of her Aunt Greta and Adrian's brother Antony, they work to solve these mysteries. Val is smart, funny, and down to earth. Very likable as a lead character. All players in the tale are well developed and come to life on the pages.Shelley Costa is and excellent writer. The story is well thought out and executed. There were a few typos in my version, but since it was an advanced copy that is expected. But that is the only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5.I didn't read the first in this series, but I intend to. I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      The second book in the Val Cameron mystery series published by Henery Press, I picked this off my TBR pile without reading the back cover blurb. So it's a heck of a coincidence that my last two non-fiction reads have covered religious secret societies and Christian relics, and A Killer's Guide to Good Works is the story about... wait for it... secret religious societies and Christian relics! There are strong shades of Da Vinci Code here and while it's marketed as a cozy, I'd definitely split hairs and call it much more a traditional mystery. There's really nothing at all light here; it's not hard-boiled but it is in many ways cold and definitely heartbreaking. What makes it readable without pulling the reader under is the MC's lack of wallowing, even when wallowing is the reasonable thing to do. There's not much more I can imagine that's as devastating as what happens to Val, but she keeps putting one foot in front of the other; not out of bravery, but because there's just nothing else she can do. The threads of her life come together as only the most fantastical fiction can, but I don't care: it makes for a ripper of a story. My only complaint and the loss of that 5th star is a combination of writing style and editing errors. Oddly the both work together so sometimes it's hard to say when something is a style choice or an editing error but there were at least a few critical words dropped from sentences and one spot where the same sentence is repeated, both before and after a quote. Sloppy - really sloppy, and especially disappointing from Henery Press because I've always found their editing excellent. The author writes in third person, but has a unique narrative style that won't suit everyone - some might find it choppy or discordant. It took me awhile both in the first book and this one to find its rhythm, but once I did, I enjoyed it. I hope there's a third book; I can't wait to see what she does next.
    • 5/5
      “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” Blaise PascalSo opens A KILLERS GUIDE TO GOOD WORKS by Shelley Costa. The prologue, dated Veracruz 1595, talks of a satire about the Inquisition written by a Franciscan friar and hidden away to protect both it and himself.As the main story begins, Val Cameron’s best friend, book editor Adrian Bale, invites her to see a priceless funerary urn that she was bringing back to New York from a visit to see her brother Anthony, a Carmelite monk, in England. Before Val arrives, Adrian has been killed and the urn has disappeared. A bit of inquiry leads her to learn that a young monk at the abbey where Anthony lives was also murdered. While Val tries to find out why Adrian was killed and if the two murders are related, her apartment in ransacked. She realizes she is also a potential victim. But she has no idea what they think she had that was reason enough to kill. In addition to the hidden manuscript, the book also highlights an important relic from the time of the death of Jesus. Instead of sharing it with the public, people have kept it hidden in for their own enjoyment over the centuries. The story notes how that was easily done because to safeguard genuine relics, the Essenes “flooded the market with several duplicates of each of the holy relics and sold them to the powerful and wealthy faithful at the dawn of what became the Catholic Church.”Shelley Costa’s book is well-written and flows smoothly. There are a few references to the first book in the series, PRACTICAL SINS FOR COLD CLIMATES. I’m looking forward to reading the next one as Val’s life continues to change with her new experiences and knowledge. Interesting ideas to ponder: “Mostly, in this life, boys get in over their heads with secrets. Either because they can’t keep them, or they keep the wrong ones–or the secrets sadly have something to do with adults.”“Trust is the only thing in life that shatters completely. And irreparably.”I received an uncorrected proof from the author.