A Riddle in the Lonesome October by JPC Allen Blog Tour Book Review

 

About the Book

Book: A Riddle in the Lonesome October (Rae Riley Mysteries Book Three)

Author: JPC Allen

Genre: YA Christian cozy mystery

Release Date: October 1, 2025

How do you survive a season of fear?

October is a hard month for Rae Riley’s family. Her dad, Sheriff Walter “Mal” Malinowski lost his wife and father then. He also has to manage the trouble Halloween brings to rural Marlin County, Ohio. But this year, Rae’s uncle fights for his life after a riding accident, and a family feud over a lost inheritance erupts at a local Halloween attraction. As Rae tries to support her family, she and her cousin Amber work to unravel the 70-year-old riddle that will reveal the location of the inheritance so their great aunt Lily and her kids can gain a fortune. And Rae must deal with the secretive behavior of the deputy she’s fallen for.

When a bogus medium conducts a séance to contact Cyrus Morley, the man who devised the riddle, the results stun everyone, and the aftermath is even more shocking. There’s only one way to survive a season of so much fear–and only one way to unmask a killer.

Click here to get your copy!

My Review

This novel for youth is a wild October ride. There is plenty of Halloween influence, including a fortune teller and a seance. There are many characters in the novel and Allen has provided a chart at the beginning. A few pages in and I had to consult it. The families include many illegitimate children so it gets quite confusing. The major families represented are dysfunctional and there is anger and arguments among family members. Potential readers should be aware of possible trigger situations.

Rae is quite the heroine. She relentlessly works to solve the riddle as well as determine the murderer. The most character growth comes from Amber, however. She faces her previous lack of courage and finds it in a crucial situation. There is a faith message included.

The plot is complex with lots going on. There is a hidden treasure, or is there? There is a foul smelling monster, or is there? It is a novel full of action, suitable for readers who do not mind getting deeply immersed in vigorous Halloween celebrations.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

You can read my reviews of the earlier books in this series: A Shadow on the Snow and A Storm of Doubts. 

 

About the Author

JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with a homage to Scooby Doo, and she’s been track down mysteries ever since. A Shadow on the Snow, the first novel in the Rae Riley Mysteries series, won first place for published YA fiction in the ACFW KidLit Contest. A Storm of Doubts, her second novel, came in second for YA fiction at the Selah Awards. Online, she offers writing tips and prompts to ignite the creative spark in every kind of writer. She also leads writing workshops for adults and teens. Coming from a long line of Mountaineers, she’s a life-long Buckeye, a wife of one for twenty years, and mother of two for sixteen.

 

More from JPC

Writing a Historical Mystery … Sort Of

I had a great time concocting the elaborate mystery for A Riddle in the Lonesome October. What made this novel unusual for me was the importance of history in figuring out the riddle to the hidden inheritance. In my other mysteries, the suspects were living people my amateur sleuth Rae Riley knew. She could speak to them and evaluate who was telling the truth, who was lying, and who was hiding something.

But for this mystery, Rae has to dig into the past. She decides in order to crack the riddle that was left to the heirs, she has to understand what kind of man was Cyrus Morley, the man who created the riddle. Since he died over seventy years ago, she has to use historical resources.

I had a lot of fun coming up with the documents Rae uncovers. Since Cyrus Morley was wealthy and owned coal mines in Marlin County, Ohio, where Rae lives, he was a prominent citizen, often featured in stories in the local newspaper. But official sources like that only revealed part of Cyrus Morley’s complicated life.

As a former librarian, I knew that local libraries can have books or documents that you can’t find anywhere online. Those materials were printed decades or even centuries ago and only have local interest, so no one has bothered to put them online. So I created a memoir, written by a local pastor’s wife. It’s the kind of book a church and its members would have but no one else.

I loved writing in a different style from Rae’s narration. The pastor’s wife, Rebecca, had help to write her memoir in the 1980s. But I thought the style would be older since Rebecca was born in 1900. I grew up on Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, so I enjoyed writing excerpts from the memoir in a more old-fashioned style, so readers would feel like they were reading a genuine, historical document.

What was even better was figuring out a way for Rae’s eighty-one-year-old great-grandfather Walter to provide clues. Coming up with a family history that intersects with Cyrus’s life was an absolute joy to create. I loved writing the chapter in which Walter tells Rae this unknown chapter in the Malinowski family’s history.

So if you like your mysteries with a touch of history, I’m sure you’ll love Rae’s investigation into a mystery seventy years in the making.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, October 1

Stories By Gina, October 2 (Author Interview)

Holly’s Book Corner, October 2

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, October 3

Simple Harvest Reads, October 4 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, October 5

Artistic Nobody, October 6 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, October 7

Guild Master, October 8 (Author Interview)

Fiction Book Lover, October 9 (Author Interview)

Hannahbandanarama, October 9

For the Love of Literature, October 10 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, October 11

Tell Tale Book Reviews, October 12 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, October 13

Blossoms and Blessings, October 14 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

 

To celebrate her tour, JPC is giving away a signed copy of A Riddle in the Lonesome October and Christmas fiction off the beaten path, an $25 Amazon gift card, mug, tea, and chocolates!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/3d265/a-riddle-in-the-lonesome-october-celebration-tour-giveaway

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Celebrate Lit. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)