A Twist of Oleander by Raven McKray - Book Tour & Review

A TWIST OF OLEANDER

Raven McKray

* Cozy Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Detective Fiction *

Title: A TWIST OF OLEANDER

Author: Raven McKray

Publisher: Keystone, Imprint of Brownridge Publishing

Pages: 204

Genre: Cozy Mystery / Romantic Suspense / Detective Fiction

An escape from madness leads to murder …

After suffering a manic episode, twenty-six-year old Maddie Malone

retreats to small-town Kenowa and her aunt and uncle’s cattle ranch for

peace and restoration. But things are never quiet for long in Maddie’s

world: She finds her heart torn between her childhood sweetheart and a

suave older man. Then tragedy strikes: Maddie’s uncle is found dead;

poisoned by a cup of oleander tea. The police think its suicide. Maddie

knows its murder. Now it’s up to her to prove it.

PRAISE:

“This is a well-plotted cozy mystery, and you do a great job

casting plausible suspicion on all of the main characters so that the

big reveal during the climax is satisfyingly unexpected and exciting.”–Kindle Scout Editorial Review 2018

ORDER YOUR COPY AT —> AMAZON

______________________

Chapter One

Enter: Death

The buzzing had stopped, but my

thoughts were thick like oil, and my legs and arms had turned to lead. I opened

my eyes to the too-bright world and took a breath.

“Do you know who you are?” asked a female voice next to me. It took all my

energy to turn my head to look at her. In the chair beside the bed sat an Asian

woman with kind eyes and shoulder-length black hair. Her voice soothed and

strengthened me. She had a clipboard and was writing things on it.

I nodded. “I’m Maddie Malone.”

“That’s right. I’m Dr. Ng. Do you know where you are now, Ms. Malone?” She

stopped writing, her pen poised in the air.

I cringed. “Yes, Carville General Hospital. I… I work here. I’m a nurse.”

Dr. Ng nodded. “Great. Can you tell me what happened back in Emergency? You had to triage the patients, is that correct?”

“Yes. I had a lot of things to do, so many people needing help… I snapped. I couldn’t think anymore. Nothing made sense.”

My mind went back to that terrible moment, back in triage, when I had drifted

down the hallway like a sleepwalker, shrouded in dreams. Around me, other

people yelled and made gestures. They moved back and forth, carrying trays full

of instruments and bits of paper. I walked past them, keeping my head down. The buzzing inside my brain began: izz-izz-izzz.  Fear bit at me like an

animal; moving under my skin and burrowing into my stomach.

I remembered all the people in the bright, white room staring at me; their eyes

like coals. I was trembling inside. A woman, holding a clipboard, approached

me. She spoke, and this time I heard a word I knew—Maddie.  I breathed in

relief: I had a name. Then the woman thrust a paper into my face. I could read

words like, “clopidogrel bisulfate” and “thrombolytic.” I knew the shape of the

words, their sound, but not their meaning. I tried to eat the words, to make

them talk, but the bees in my brain were becoming louder than my thoughts:

izz-izz-izzz.

Dr. Ng’s soft voice pulled me back to the present: “That's good, Maddie. Go

on.” I knew what type of doctor she was, even though I had never set foot in

this part of the hospital. Dr. Ng. was a psychiatrist. We were in the psych

ward.

 “I thought I would lose consciousness,” I said, my voice a bare whisper.

“I was sure I was dying… I was dying inside.” I remembered how

the fear-animal thrust its quills into me. The lights above me were too bright;

they were daggers to my eyes. I covered my face with my shaking hands. What did these people want from me?

Then, I knew. I

was the only one who could help. I had to save these people from Death. I had

seen Death that morning. Its claws had been around the face of an old woman;

her skin lined and thin as paper. I had tried to help her, but Death was too

strong. I had heard Death, too, creeping around the children with bald heads. I

had tried to help them, but Death had taken them away.

“IZZ-IZZ-IZZZ-ZIT?”

the bees asked me. I shook my head, but it was pointless. The bees wouldn’t

leave my ears.

Death was coming

for me. My breath came harder, faster. My hands and feet tingled. My body

vibrated in time with my frenetic heartbeat. I could see Death now, his

enormous body draped in shadows. His eyes glowed red from too many tears and

from the hell-fires of the damned. He smelled of antiseptic and rotting wounds.

His claws were already closing around my heart. I would lose consciousness, and

then he would kill me...

“What happened

after that?” Dr. Ng prodded.

“I thought I was dying...” I whispered again, trembling, trying in vain to shut

out the memory, the moment before the world went black. I remembered how men

with white robes came to hold me down, how they stole a quill from Fear and

stuck it in my arm.

“They stuck me

with needles...” I said in a bare whisper. “Then I woke up here.”

Dr. Ng regarded me thoughtfully, then wrote something in her notes. She asked

me a few more questions, and I answered them the best I could. Then she gave me

medication and left me to sleep.

I drifted in and

out of sleep over the next few days. During times of wakefulness, there were no

flowers, no cheerful faces saying, “Get well soon.” For a while I hoped, and

feared, that a few of my coworkers might come to visit: Maybe Rita or Susan,

who had commiserated with me about management and day-to-day stresses.

I needn’t have

worried. No one came. No one wanted to see the woman who had gone crazy. I was

alone, and I was in pain. I didn’t quite want to die, but I wanted the pain to

stop. It was like someone had implanted magnets in my body, and the magnets

were pulling me down, down, down to the core of the earth.

Only my mother

stood by me. When I was lucid, she was there, sitting beside me. Her eyes were

red and puffy, but she still looked beautiful. She even managed a smile.

“It’ll be okay, Maddie,” she said, patting my hand. I nodded, biting my lower

lip. I turned my head away, into the pillow, so she wouldn’t have to see me

cry.

My Review
A Twist of Oleander is a cozy mystery set in a small town in Canada. It follows a young woman named Maddie Malone as she heads to her aunt and uncle's ranch for some relaxation after having a breakdown at work (she's an ER nurse). Her aunt and uncle welcome her with open arms and throw her a small party to welcome her to the ranch. Unfortunately, things take a bad turn when her uncle is poisoned and dies that night. Now it's up to Maddie to discover who served her uncle the oleander tea that killed him before they strike again.
This was a pretty straightforward, easy-to-read cozy mystery that makes you question every character's motive. Is it the charming, handsome, older doctor? The childhood friend who works on the ranch? Or could it be Maddie's aunt, even though she seems sweet and innocent enough?
I had a feeling I knew who it was right off the bat, but then I thought I was wrong because they'd be too obvious. I did end up being right, although I didn't suspect their motive until closer to the end.
The one thing that frustrated me a little was the name changes throughout the book. At one point, Maddie is talking to someone about her uncle's friend George, but she calls him John (that's her uncle's name). There's another instance where Tuppance (I think that was her name) is being talked about, but she's called by a different name.
Overall, A Twist of Oleander isn't a bad read. It's a fun little cozy mystery that isn't too difficult to follow along with and figure out.
I'm rating it 3.5 stars.