Reviews

Holy Hell by Elizabeth Sims

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lezreadalot's review against another edition

3.0

I liked this; I do think that it was competently written and funny and suspenseful and a lot of things that a good murder mystery should be, but it underwhelmed in a lot of ways.

ETA: some thoughts.

- I think one of the most underwhelming parts of this was the fact that we were all fully aware of who the killers were from almost the beginning. Even if Lillian wasn't completely sure, she was mostly sure. And so the mystery became more about motive and PROVING that they were the killers, which wasn't as exciting.
- Mystery + romance is a winning combination, but Lillian's entanglement with Minerva was too short and ultimately meaningless to do anything for me. Minerva was more of a plot device than a character, which is always annoying.
- The audiobook as read by Dina Pearlman was good; she did some really entertaining voices. Sometime about it though... idk sometimes the book just really lost my attention.

bleepbloop's review against another edition

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funny

2.5

copaganda

peh27's review against another edition

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writing felt a little stunted, and it was very much writing that tells instead of shows. very hard to get into.

teastime's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I feel like it was too simple, I kept on expecting a twist of the answer presented to us, I enjoyed it but I ended it feeling like the answer was to simple, too easy. I don't plan to read any of the other books, as they do show their date occasionally and I have more books to read that I do actually care about.

bookcraft's review against another edition

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3.0

Though set maybe a decade laterearly 1990s versus early 1980sthis has a lot of the same feel as Sue Grafton's early Kinsey Milhone books; not exactly hard-boiled detective fare, but definitely in the same neighborhood. Sims's protagonist is a lesbian reporter instead of Grafton's straight PI, and the supporting cast is a lot more diverse, but the prose style is similar and the mystery is well-plotted and solid.

As a woman who was an adult in the 1990s, I recognize the unremarked sexism and homophobia throughout the story as period-appropriate, even as it makes the older and wiser 2019 version of me itch with the urge to slap some of the characterspossibly with a sexual harassment lawsuit. It's not heavy-handed, nor as ubiquitous as it was in reality during that era, but Lillian's acceptance of the various -isms as inevitable (or at least pointless to rail against) is kind of draining.

Content warnings:

Spoiler

minor sexual assault of the "cop a feel in passing" variety; injury and death ofand villainy byqueer characters.

I got the audiobook via Audible's Romance package, but despite what they think, it's not actually a capital-R Romance. The protag is navigating several relationships in various stages, from splitting with her ex to dating, considering dating, and/or sleeping with various women. The sex is, more often than not, fade-to-black, and there's no HEA or HFN.

Spoiler

The closest thing to a "love interest" by Romance standards nearly dies and there's no indication that she'll ever recover from a vegetative state.

00leah00's review against another edition

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4.0

“Holy Hell” is a delightful mystery and suspense book that in turns can be funny, scary, or nerve wracking.
Lillian Byrd is a reporter that is fired after she stabs her boss’s son with an X-acto knife. Before she’s fired, she comes across a murder while at the police station looking for a story. She recognizes the victim as a DJ that worked at the local ladies’ bar. She gets a freelance job to investigate the murder and finds herself in all kinds of trouble.
She attracts all kinds of trouble, sometimes doing things she shouldn’t. She’s dealing with the boss’s son who is holding a grudge, she’s got a stalker and she gets in the crosshairs of a pair of murderers all in a couple weeks of each other.
I didn’t always like Lillian, I thought her treatment of her ex-girlfriend was pretty shitty, especially since she’s the one who ended the relationship but it also made Lillian more realistic. She’s not perfect, and she’ll be the first to admit it.
And this isn’t a romance in any way so if that’s what you’re looking for, you might want to look somewhere else. But Lillian is a lesbian and there is some representation in the story.
“Holy Hell” is well written and I liked the pacing; I thought it all flowed really well. It was pretty exciting and I read it in one sitting and can’t wait to read more of this series. I recommend to anyone who likes good mysteries.
It's available on Kindle Unlimited.