Header image with four cats and the text: Pussreboots, a book review nearly every day. Online since 1997
Now 2025 Previous Articles Road Essays Road Reviews Author Black Authors Title Source Age Genre Series Format Inclusivity LGBTA+ Art Portfolio Purchase Art WIP

Recent posts


Month in review

Reviews
All Fudged Up by Nancy CoCo and Vanessa Johansson (Narrator)
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White
Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 3: League of Shadows by James Tynion IV
Blind Descent by Nevada Barr and Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)
Book, Line and Sinker by Jenn McKinlay and Allyson Ryan (Narrator)
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
Clammed Up by Barbara Ross and Dana Rosenberg (Narrator)
The Collectors by Jacqueline West
Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche by Nancy Springer and Tamaryn Payne (Narrator)
Every Bird a Prince by Jenn Reese
Galaxy Next Door, Volume 1 by Gido Amagakure
Harmony and Heartbreak by Claire Kann
Kowloon Generic Romance, Volume 1 by Jun Mayuzuki and Amanda Haley (Translator)
Lead-Pipe Cinch by Christy Evans
Mazebook by Jeff Lemire
The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham
Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani
Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights by Kyra Davis and Gabra Zackman (Narrator)
Picturing a Nation by Martin W. Sandler
Prancer the Demon Chihuahua by Pam Pho and Cloris Chou (Illustrations)
Pulp Friction by Julie Anne Lindsey and Amy Melissa Bentley (Narrator)
Reserved for Murder by Victoria Gilbert
Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton and Tibor Gergely
Socks by Beverly Cleary
The Stolen Show by Carolyn Keene
Sweetness and Lightning Volume 2 by Gido Amagakure and Adam Lensenmayer (Translator)
A Tale of Two Kitties by Sofie Kelly and Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)
The Vanderbeekers Make A Wish by Karina Yan Glaser
Wedding Day Murder by Leslie Meier and Karen White (Narrator)
Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White
The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos

Miscellaneous
December 2022 Sources

December 2022 Summary

Previous month


Rating System

5 stars: Completely enjoyable or compelling
4 stars: Good but flawed
3 stars: Average
2 stars: OK
1 star: Did not finish


Privacy policy

This blog does not collect personal data. It doesn't set cookies. Email addresses are used to respond to comments or "contact us" messages and then deleted.


Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights: 01/30/23

Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights

Passion, Betrayal And Killer Highlights by Kyra Davis and Gabra Zackman (Narrator) (2006) is the second book in the Sophie Katz Murder mystery series. This time Sophie is trying to help clear her sister's name after her husband is murdered. Of course she also ropes in P.I. Anatoly Darinsky.

Like so many mysteries of the early twenty-first century, the murder victim, though closely related to the accused ends up being both utterly awful and completely surprising to the person who should have known him best. By the end of the book it's fairly well established that the dead brother-in-law didn't have a single moral fiber in his body.

Leah is everything Sophie isn't. She's proud of being a housewife. She knows how to play societal politics to her and her family's advantage. She's constantly thinking about her reputation and how it reflects on her family and their status. Coming to realize her husband didn't take their marriage as seriously as she did brings repeated blows to her confidence and world view.

What both sisters share, though, is their blended ethnicity as Black Jewish women. Leah, who up to the murder of her husband had eschewed both sides of her heritage, now has the emotional need to embrace both.

There's one other roadblock to solving the mystery efficiently, Leah's infant son. He proves to be a handful — especially for Sophie who has no interest in having children. He's constantly in the background destroying one thing or another. He could have absolutely ruined the pacing of the novel but most of his mayhem comes from understandable inattentiveness on the part of the adults around him.

The third novel is Obsession, Deceit, and Really Dark Chocolate (2007).

Five stars

Comments (0)


Lab puppy
Name:
Email (won't be posted):
Blog URL:
Comment:

Tumblr Mastadon Flickr Facebook Facebook Contact me

1997-2025 Sarah Sammis