Jeff Buick

Author: Jeff Buick

  • Jeff’s Book Review: “The Search Party” by Hannah Richell

    Jeff’s Book Review: “The Search Party” by Hannah Richell

    Check out my quick review below, and let me know your thoughts if you’ve read it.

    Review:
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

    Take a break, curl up on the couch and dive into this mystery/thriller set in the wilds of Cornwall. You’re in for a treat as Richell slowly peels away the layers of what happened over the course of a weekend at Wildernest, a soon-to-be-opened glamping site precariously close to the rugged cliffs and raging ocean. When four friends (and their spouses/kids) show up Friday night, it’s all fun and wine. Until it’s not. You know something terrible has happened because Richell weaves the timelines from Friday through Sunday together superbly as the novel progresses. You see the action play out through numerous character’s POVs, yet it’s almost impossible to figure out who (and what) has happened to someone. Where a less skilled writer would struggle with merging the timelines in an already complicated plot, Richell excels. She sucks the reader into the story, then unleashes a horrendous storm on our campers as they desperately search for a missing child. Don’t miss this one.

    📖 Read My Full Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6899263385

    Have you read “The Search Party”? Let’s chat about it! Drop your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on Goodreads.

    Stay tuned for more book reviews, recommendations, and updates!

  • NZ Adventures – Hair Raising Tours Crime Walk

    NZ Adventures – Hair Raising Tours Crime Walk

    What to do in Dunedin? Well, one thing you do NOT want to miss is the Crime Walk (Hair Raising Tours) with Andrew Smith.

    This was such a highlight of our time in the city – fun, spooky, and very memorable. I can’t seem to shake Andrew’s tale of the young man who perished in Black Dog Alley (this one has a tragic love angle). You get the sense of what Dunedin was back in the crazy days of the gold rush, when bodies showed up in alleys and dark spaces more than you can imagine. Andrew gives you the creepy side of the city’s history, with a flair – his stories are NEVER boring.

    Then there’s the cherry on top – a tour of the Dunedin Gaol. Andrew’s the only one with a key, so if you want to slip inside this now-abandoned relic you need to take the tour. Once inside the prison, you can feel the place in your bones. Nothing else like it. This one is 10 out of 10, don’t miss it.

  • NZ Adventures – Claremont Castle – The Traitors

    NZ Adventures – Claremont Castle – The Traitors

    In general, I’m not into reality TV, but I will admit to watching The Traitors (UK). It’s a fascinating study of human nature – how we react when thrust into intense, adversarial situations.

    So there we were, February 2025, in Timaru (a quaint town on the south island in New Zealand), when I learned the grand old house we were staying at was the location for the 2nd season of Traitors New Zealand.

    Rob owns the house, and he would come down most evenings, sit with us by the fire and regale us with some really crazy stories. One of them was that they had filmed the whole season right there. Three weeks of film crews, traitors and faithfuls, and a promise to not say a word about who got banished or murdered.

    Things in New Zealand are always fun and often unexpected, but this was over the top. Loved it.

  • NZ Adventures – Six60 Concert

    NZ Adventures – Six60 Concert

    Six60 are a cultural treasure in New Zealand (sort of like The Tragically Hip in Canada). The band were starting a new tour and playing just north of Wellington while we were there, so we snagged some tickets, not having a clue what we were getting ourselves into.

    These guys are an incredibly tight band, with Matiu Walters up front belting out some of the richest vocals we’ve ever heard. We figured the concert would be a couple of thousand fans – maybe. What a shocker to show up and be surrounded by around 12,000 Kiwis of every age and description. We fit right in – our son and daughter-in-law plus the grandkids. Everyone knew the words to the songs, and there were moments when the entire crowd was singing. OMG, seriously, what a rush.

    All this is not surprising, I guess, given their first album back in 2011 hit #1 on the NZ charts (and was certified gold) in its first week. They’ve played to over 50,000 fans in Auckland on more than one occasion. Well-deserved success, indeed.

    The band came together in Dunedin, and the Six60 house on Castle Street is one of the most photographed locations in possibly the most photogenic country in the world. I felt no trepidation in stopping by and getting a shot in front of such an iconic setting.

    Six60 – download a song or two and give them a go

  • NZ Adventures – Little Blue Penguins

    NZ Adventures – Little Blue Penguins

    Dunedin, what a beautiful city – tucked into the lush hills of south New Zealand, it was built on massive wealth from a gold rush in the 1860’s. The prosperous times hit a wall when the gold ran out, then the city got smacked down again when the Panama Canal gave ships an alternate (and much shorter) route. But the grand architecture survived, and with its fascinating history, Dunedin is worthy of a visit.

    But this blog is about our trip down the Otago peninsula to the Royal Albatross Centre to see the little blue penguins. The drive is typical NZ, twisty roads with water on one side and steep hills on the other, but once you’re at the tip of the peninsula it’s a different world.

    The scenery is stunning – towering cliffs, waves crashing on the rocks, an endless view over the ocean as the sun sets. And the viewing platform is scant meters from the only mainland royal albatross breeding colony in the world. We were standing at the cliff edge, and an albatross came soaring past, maybe thirty feet from us. So close we could see him staring at us, giving us a what-are-you-doing-here look.

    Then off to see the penguins – they come in after dark from a day of feeding in the ocean as the trek across the beach to their burrows is pretty scary. Most things probably are when you’re only 8 inches tall. It’s a safety-in-numbers thing, and they arrive on the beach in “rafts” – groups of up to fifty penguins. They’re all flippers and waddle once they hit the sand, moving at top speed, heading for the safety of the dunes and tall grass.

    Cuteness rating – 10 out of 10.

    We definitely recommend this if you’re anywhere near a penguin colony. We loved it.

  • Jeff’s Book Review: “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles” by Malka Ann Older

    Jeff’s Book Review: “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles” by Malka Ann Older

    Check out my quick review below, and let me know your thoughts if you’ve read it, too.

    Review:
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

    What a treat – I thoroughly enjoyed this one for a lot of reasons. First off, Older is a skillful world builder, not in the sense of grandeur and scope, but in dropping the reader onto a distant planet and making it feel real. That mankind could indeed live on Giant (Jupiter) and its lava-spewing moon Io sometime in the future after totally messing up our own planet. More importantly, she looks at humans as creatures of instinct and habit, ready to repeat a whole bunch of the same behaviour that got us booted off Earth in the first place. Then there’s the relegation of Io to a second-class location once the rings and platforms were in place and the affluent people could live hovering over Giant. It seems we need to establish class barriers no matter where we go. And Older weaves an interesting thread through the story – that some of us will always crave freedom and autonomy from the status quo. There were a couple of times when I reread a passage and found myself thinking that Older’s style was similar to the Robert Heinlein classic, Stranger in a Strange Land – high praise. And at the heart of the book is the warm and tender relationship between Mossa and Pleiti. I really liked both these characters and how, while they were very different people, held each other in high regard. The only downside to the book is that the murder (yes, there was a murder) seemed like it was inserted into the story to serve a “someone has to die” purpose. But that is not a reason to pass on this one. Grab a copy and give it a go.

    📖 Read My Full Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6821523426

    Have you read “The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles”? Let’s chat about it! Drop your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on Goodreads.

    Stay tuned for more book reviews, recommendations, and updates!

  • Jeff’s Book Review: “Echoes of Memory” by Sara Driscoll

    Jeff’s Book Review: “Echoes of Memory” by Sara Driscoll

    Check out my quick review below, and let me know your thoughts if you’ve read it, too.

    Review:
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

    Quinn Fleming is a great protagonist, resourceful and intelligent, even as she battles through a brain trauma from a vicious (and unsolved) assault. So when Quinn witnesses a murder in a dark alley, her damaged neural pathways cause her to have trouble remembering what she saw. But she has a talent lurking inside that makes her the perfect witness – she is an artist who can draw facial features with incredible skill and accuracy.
    The San Diego homicide detective working the case, Nura Reyes, is quick on her feet and a great character you can’t help but like.
    As the fog surrounding the murder clears a bit, Quinn sees snippets of images from the crime and begins to sketch them. A face starts to take shape, and she works hand in hand with Reyes to zero in on the killer.
    Add in a mix of wealth and power, a link to an old unsolved crime in a different city, and a tight mayoral race and you have a satisfying read.
    The only negative is Driscoll’s description. It is extremely well written, but there’s simply too much of it. Bunny trails that never go anywhere and scenes that are described to the tiniest detail don’t add to the story, they slow it down. Other than that, the author has penned a decent read.
    Spoiler alert, there are no cats in this one.

    📖 Read My Full Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6790572419


    Have you read “Echoes of Memory”? Let’s chat about it! Drop your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on Goodreads.

    Stay tuned for more book reviews, recommendations, and updates!

  • Jeff’s Book Review: “The Wedding Party” by L.R. Jones

    Jeff’s Book Review: “The Wedding Party” by L.R. Jones

    Check out my quick review below, and let me know your thoughts if you’ve read it, too.

    Review:
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)

    “It would be SO easy to load this review with spoilers, but that’s not going to happen, so read on knowing the ending is safe.
    Carrie and Oliver are getting married (Yay), and they decide to have a pre-wedding shindig with their friends at a swanky hotel. The set up is pretty mundane, with all the usual this-friend-of-hers/his-doesn’t-like-that-friend-of-hers/his. You know the routine.
    But Jones throws a curveball into the mix when Lana, one of Carrie’s friends, invites BFF Andrea, who is an FBI agent. Andrea (quickly shortened to Andi), is just off catching a serial killer and up for a bit of R&R. Well, that doesn’t happen, as someone gets murdered (not saying who), and the long knives start to come out.
    I found the cast of over-achieving characters a bit redundant – every one of them was a CEO, CFO, surgeon, lawyer – you get it. But as irritating as they were, they played their parts well and moved the plot along quite nicely.
    Andi, in my opinion, made the book. She had all the little things that make a character real – charisma, self-doubt, the fashion sense of a Dumpster diver, a quick mind, and so much more – and I really liked the scenes with her. Then there’s Andi’s father – I’ll reserve judgement on him and how often I was told how much he likes beating up bad guys. Hmmm. …”

    📖 Read My Full Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6988505814


    Have you read “The Wedding Party”? Let’s chat about it! Drop your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on Goodreads.

    Stay tuned for more book reviews, recommendations, and updates!

  • Jeff’s Book Review: “The Bootlegger’s Daughter” by Nadine Nettmann

    Jeff’s Book Review: “The Bootlegger’s Daughter” by Nadine Nettmann

    Check out my quick review below, and let me know your thoughts if you’ve read it, too.

    Review:
    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

    “Letty Hart is one very plucky young lady living in a wine-producing valley near Los Angeles in 1927 – smack dab in the middle of the Prohibition-era. Running the family vineyard (to supply wine for the local church) has fallen on her shoulders, and she proves extremely capable of keeping their heads above water. But it’s not a cake walk. When the church cancels their standing order for wine, the doors must be closed in order to stay within the law. The title of the book tells you that is exactly what she doesn’t do. In fact, she decides to sell a huge stash of liquor she found that her father (deceased) kept under wraps, and is now going head-to-head with some very ruthless bootleggers.

    Enter Annabel Forman, a female police officer who is treated so unfairly by her peers that you wonder how that could EVER have been okay. (It wasn’t). But Annabel is not a shrinking violet, and she and Letty are on a collision course. …”

    📖 Read My Full Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6988459076

    Have you read “The Bootlegger’s Daughter”? Tell me about it! Drop your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on Goodreads.

    Stay tuned for more book reviews, recommendations, and updates!

  • Congratulations to Steven from MD, USA – The Winner of the Curtis Westcott Thriller Series Giveaway!

    Congratulations to Steven from MD, USA – The Winner of the Curtis Westcott Thriller Series Giveaway!

    Hey everyone,

    I’m thrilled to announce the winner of the Curtis Westcott Crime Thriller Series Giveaway! 🏆

    After an exciting couple of weeks and a huge number of entries, Steven from Frederick MD, USA has been randomly selected as the lucky recipient of the entire signed Curtis Westcott series. From A Killing Game to The Wrong Side of Murder and The Vulture Fund, Steven will soon be diving into a world of crime, suspense, and thrilling investigations alongside Boston’s chief of Homicide. 📚

    A Heartfelt Thanks to Everyone Who Participated

    I can’t express enough how grateful I am to everyone who entered the giveaway and those of you who continue to support my work. Whether you’ve been with me from the beginning or just recently joined the community, it’s your enthusiasm for my stories that keeps me writing. So while Steven gets to enjoy the winnings from this contest, don’t worry—there will be more giveaways and exclusive offers coming soon.

    In the meantime, if you haven’t already, grab a copy of one of my books and sign up for my newsletter to stay in the loop for future contests, sneak peeks, and the latest news on what I’m up to. Your chance to win might just be around the corner! 🎯

    More Thrilling Stories on the Horizon

    If you love page-turning crime thrillers as much as I do, there’s plenty more coming your way. Detective Curtis Westcott has a few more cases up his sleeve, and I can’t wait to share them with you.

    Once again, congratulations to Steven from Frederick, MD—enjoy your prize, and happy reading! 😊

    Thanks again to everyone for your continued support and engagement. Let’s keep this thrilling ride going!

    Best,
    Jeff Buick