BLOG TOUR & #allthebookreviews: A Justified Bitch by H.G. McKinnis @smithpublicity #imbrifex
Excited to be the last stop for this amazing mystery and first in a series. Scroll below for a synopsis, my review, and author Q&A.
Jessica and I have also made this a buddy read for our #allthebookreviews list so you can see her thoughts below as well - spoiler alert - we both loved it!
This book publishes tomorrow, 8/8/17, so add this to your TBR immediately!
It takes a guilty bastard to make a justified bitch.
When a severed finger shows up on her doorstep in a seedy section of Las Vegas, Helen Taylor does not freak out. She’s already crazy, as evidenced by her junk-stuffed house and its ever-growing population of cats. There’s also Bobby, her long-dead husband. Helen talks to him regularly, and Bobby talks back.
The finger and the brutal murder it reveals are more than a hoarding cat lady with a phantom husband can ignore. Helen’s a suspect, and she ends up in jail. Summoned by the detective on the case, Helen’s sister Pat arrives from Phoenix with two teen-age boys in tow.
While Helen is AWOL from a mental facility, another gruesome murder is discovered. Pat, the boys, and the detective struggle to separate fact from insanity, but it takes power beyond the ordinary to bring the truth to light.
When a severed finger shows up on her doorstep in a seedy section of Las Vegas, Helen Taylor does not freak out. She’s already crazy, as evidenced by her junk-stuffed house and its ever-growing population of cats. There’s also Bobby, her long-dead husband. Helen talks to him regularly, and Bobby talks back.
The finger and the brutal murder it reveals are more than a hoarding cat lady with a phantom husband can ignore. Helen’s a suspect, and she ends up in jail. Summoned by the detective on the case, Helen’s sister Pat arrives from Phoenix with two teen-age boys in tow.
While Helen is AWOL from a mental facility, another gruesome murder is discovered. Pat, the boys, and the detective struggle to separate fact from insanity, but it takes power beyond the ordinary to bring the truth to light.
My Review:
Helen is a bit of an eccentric hoarder. Her husband died in an unfortunate accident a decade ago and her hoarding never got any better, but he's still there for her as she still sees him and their banter is fantastic. Imagine a woman with twenty cats that she can't properly take care of causing infestations of bugs and an abundance of cat feces and urine. A severed finger is found near her home but she's not bothered. Nothing really gets to Helen these days. However, she becomes a suspect and has to spend a night in jail. Then another murder occurs and she has a tie to this person as well - with no alibi. Her family comes up to try and help her but how do you properly help someone who lives in her own little world?
OK - first of all, I love the title of this book but it doesn't quite fit with the story line. I assumed it would be more of a tag line for a story of vengeance. Don't judge this book by the cover or title. Cleverly written, we get a look into the perspective of a person with hoarding issues. Have you ever seen the show, Hoarders? I have and am always fascinated by these people's stories. People are so quick to judge, but these are real issues stemming from something and they can get help. But back to the book - this was an easy page turner. Refreshing and different from most mysteries I've read lately with a lot of humor. Absolutely take a chance on this book and I look forward to the next book in the series.
OK - first of all, I love the title of this book but it doesn't quite fit with the story line. I assumed it would be more of a tag line for a story of vengeance. Don't judge this book by the cover or title. Cleverly written, we get a look into the perspective of a person with hoarding issues. Have you ever seen the show, Hoarders? I have and am always fascinated by these people's stories. People are so quick to judge, but these are real issues stemming from something and they can get help. But back to the book - this was an easy page turner. Refreshing and different from most mysteries I've read lately with a lot of humor. Absolutely take a chance on this book and I look forward to the next book in the series.
Jessica's Review:
A JUSTIFIED BITCH by H.G. McKinnis definitely grabbed my attention for two reasons: the title (how can you ignore that?) and the tagline - it takes a guilty bastard to make a justified bitch. Consider me instantly intrigued. I will say, this is a classic example of "don't judge a book by it's cover". It does not do the book justice.
It all starts with a severed finger is found just a few feet away from the doorstep to Helen Taylor. Most people would panic, not Helen. How come? Well, Helen is already considered crazy - from her hoarder lifestlye, her growing number of cats, and her conversations with her husband. Only thing is that her husband, Bobby, has been dead for years. We find out that the finger is connected to the gruesome murder of her neighbor, Bebe.
The police bring Helen in for questioning because they believe she could be a witness to the crime, or a possible suspect. While in custody, the detective calls up her sister, Pat, who currently lives down in Phoenix. She comes to her sister's aid with her two teenage sons. Upon her arrival to the police station, detectives convince her to have Helen brought into a mental facility to be evaluated. After seeing the conditions her sister was living in, she felt she had no choice and that its what was best for her.
The police bring Helen in for questioning because they believe she could be a witness to the crime, or a possible suspect. While in custody, the detective calls up her sister, Pat, who currently lives down in Phoenix. She comes to her sister's aid with her two teenage sons. Upon her arrival to the police station, detectives convince her to have Helen brought into a mental facility to be evaluated. After seeing the conditions her sister was living in, she felt she had no choice and that its what was best for her.
Helen goes AWOL from the facility, and shortly after she escapes another gruesome murder occurs. Will the detectives, Pat, and her sons be able to solve the case and find Helen? In order to do so, they need to find the truth in the insanity.
This book definitely surprised me! I wasn't expecting such a gripping mystery (based on the title). I was anticipating more of a journey of revenge (again, based on the title). The characters were so well-developed and diving into the mind of Helen was quite the ride! The hoarding, the cats, and her dealing with the grief of her husband's death 10 years prior. I was drawn in from the start and McKinnis didn't let go until the very end - I'm excited and hoping for a book two in the Las Vegas Mysteries series!
If you want a great murder mystery with a character that makes you feel almost as insane as she is, then this is the one for you!
I give this one 4.5/5 stars!
Author Bio:
A life-long resident of Las Vegas and alumna of the University of Nevada, H.G. McKinnis knows her city as only a local can. By night she fluffs feathers and attaches rhinestones to the exotic wardrobes of the most glamourous venues on the strip, by day McKinnis writes about the often hardscrabble lives of her fellow desert denizens and the unlikely city they inhabit. A Justified Bitch, a twisted tale of insanity, murder, and redemption, is her first novel.
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