Clown in a Cornfield 4: Lights! Camera! Frendo! by Adam Cesare

 Clown in a Cornfield 4: Lights! Camera! Frendo! by Adam Cesare-384 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Let the killing continue in Lights! Camera! Frendo! It’s the fourth installment of Adam Cesare’s Bram Stoker Award-winning series, and this time Frendo goes Hollywood – with all the blood, guts, and mayhem you’d expect from the series that spawned the blockbuster motion picture.

Sabrina Alvarez is pretty much a nobody—until she lands the starring role in the big budget film based on the Kettle Springs Massacre. Sabrina knows she should be on top of the world. She’s going to be THE Quinn Maybrook, Final Girl of Final Girls, national hero and certified badass. But as soon as Sabrina gets to Kettle Springs, she just can’t quite shake the feeling that something’s off. A spate of deaths, an out-of-control director, a town decimated by loss and divided by anger, and a movie designed to glorify it all. Something bad is brewing, and this time, it’s all on film.

A meditation on the villains inside us all, it’s the latest installment of Adam Cesare’s Bram Stoker Award-winning series, Clown in a Cornfield.

Thoughts: This was a pretty good read. I've liked all of them in the series so far (although the third one has been my least favorite). It took a little bit for this to pick up, but when it did the action was heart-pounding. I liked the central idea (a book about making a movie of the first book) of this book, also. This might be my favorite series of horror books. There may be a fifth one coming at some point and I would welcome that, especially if a certain character returns. 

Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare

 Clown in a Cornfield 3: The Church of Frendo by Adam Cesare-448 pages

⭐⭐⭐1/2

I really liked the first two books in this trilogy (so far). In this latest installment, Quinn Maybrook is on a vengeance trip against many of those who perpetrated the previous attacks in Kettle Springs. She is on the run across states as she seeks vengeance and answers. She hasn't actually killed anyone, but people she's tortured and/or targeted for torture keep turning up dead. Who's killing Quinn's targets? Is Arthur Hill somehow still alive or is it someone posing as him? What and where is this New Kettle Springs settlement devoted to Frendo? The story ends with a clash, although I thought the ending could have been better. After finishing, I was wondering if this book was really needed. The story could have finished just fine after the first 2 books. Overall, it was pretty good, but not nearly as good as the previous two. 

A COMEDY OF HEIRS by RETT MACPHERSON

 A COMEDY OF HEIRS by MACPHERSON  230 Pages

The December annual O'Shea family reunion is just kicking off when genealogist and town historian Torie O'Shea discovers a bad apple in her family tree. Someone has sent her several newspaper clippings reporting a fifty-year-old unsolved murder. The dead man is her great-grandfather-shot on his own front porch while his family was trapped inside.

Everybody knows great grandpa Keith died in a hunting accident. Or did he? Between fussing over too many house guests, husband, children-and the surprising news she's once again in the "family way"-- Torie gets a sneaking suspicion the truth may be as deadly now as it was fifty years ago. Soon she's shaking the family tree, never anticipating the shocking truths ready to drop-along with a motive for murder that could mean it's history for Torie as well.

A VEILED ANTIQUITY by RETT MACPHERSON

 A VEILED ANTIQUITY  by RETT MACPHERSON Pgs 224

Torie O'Shea investigates the tangled roots of an ancient family tree.

Torie O'Shea-- genealogist and amateur sleuth-- is having a killer of a day. The town gossip spreads the word that her sweet wheelchair-bound mother is having an affair--with the sheriff! Then quiet Marie Dijon is found dead at the foot of her basement stairs. Did she fall? Was she pushed? All Torie knows is that Marie had a family tree with royal roots completely foreign to a folksy Middle America town like New Kassel, Missouri. As foreign as, say...murder.

But nosiness in New Kassel is as native as the upcoming Oktoberfest. To Torie, the open door to Marie's house is more tempting than chocolate. Finding a hidden key and old documents in French make further investigating irresistible. But while juggling her growing suspicions, a hectic job at the historical society, two kids, and a sexy husband, Torie overlooks the obvious. Curiosity killed the cat. Someone killed Marie Dijon. And now Torie might know too much to live...

FAMILY SKELETONS by RETT MACPHERSON

FAMILY SKELETONS by RETT MACPHERSON  184 PGS

 When Victory O'Shea, the resident historian, genealogist, and tour guide for the town of New Kassel, Missouri, begins researching Norah Zumwalt's family tree, her client turns up murdered, and with the help of the local sheriff, she sets out to investigate the killing.

First book in the Victory (Torie) O'Shea cozy mystery series. I am re-reading this series for the March challenge.