For me this was an okay read. I loved that mental illness played such a big role. I felt normal for once reading this book. LOL. The story itself was lacking and I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Overall, a nice easy read on a beautiful spring day.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and give an honest review, even if I am a few years late. 🥴

A great read for people who enjoy a funny murder mystery. Helen was a fantastic character with loads of quirks that made the book interesting. The author keeps you guessing right until the end.

I liked this book more than I originally thought I would. It kept me interested all throughout, but you could guess that ending if you thought about it enough.

I didn’t finish this title but the writing is solid. It’s an intriguing premise that lost sight of what it wanted to do halfway through.

Helen ... the Crazy cat lady! I already love it. Her love of cats and conversations with her dead husband made this book so interesting. Based off the cover this book was very different than I thought it was going to be. I would recommend this one to my friends. The cover I wasn't so wild about or even have picked it up at the bookstore but I am glad I got the chance to read about crazy Helen.

I read this book ages ago but never got around to reviewing it. It's a bit unconventional which makes things interesting. It was okay but not something that really stuck with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy.

This book has all of the elements I love... mystery, insanity, murder, and clever dialogue. Helen sees things but she is not stupid. Helen forgets things but not important things. Helen's infamous hooker neighbor was dismembered and the detective on the case wants to know if she and her deceased husband Bobby saw anything. I loved Helen and her quirky friends and family. I thought the characters all had a great dynamic and likeability to them. The mystery aspect made the story fun, although it was not a thriller page-turner it had an element of surprise and the characters won me over so efficiently I had an incredibly hard time putting the book down so I read it in 3 sittings. I will eagerly read any other books by H.G. McKinnis!

I give this book 5 out of 5 Cuckoo Stars! I just LOVED this book! This was definitely an unconventional type of read. This story was just fun and made me feel better about my insanity. That’s right here goes the part where Dani brings her crazy filled life into the story! I have battled a very severe and rare mental illness since the age of 7 that has been an ongoing struggle since then. I am thankfully on a stable dose of medication and am able to function properly as possible but that was not always the case. My illness mostly manifested because of continuous severe traumas I faced for three years as a young child. Like the main character, I lost touch of reality and used different methods to escape and deal with my pain and suffering. These unhealthy “coping” skills continued into adulthood and will stay with me lifelong. I was given every medication regimen in the book and damaged my liver by young adulthood by medicines doctors have given me. I was put through crazy clinical trials because of having this rare mental illness. I was strapped down to beds for up to 14 hours at a time. I have a messed up disc in my back from caretakers taking me down to “protect” me. I have received electric shock therapy. I grew up in the system, group homes, residential treatment facilities and mental hospitals. By the age of 18, I have been placed in a faciliy of some sort 50 something times. My point to explaining all of this is that I could relate to everything the main character was going through. I knew what it was like to lose touch of reality because the present was too painful to face and the author did a great job of describing the symtoms of how everything feels and works. This book was well written and the descriptions were amazing. Most of the time a book like this may be a trigger for me but not with how the author portrayed Helen. Helen was crazy and it made you laugh. She also was loveable and you could understand why she was the way she was even though she is a suspect. All the other characters were fantastic as well! I loved Jordan and Helen’s two friends that work at the Salon! The way the facility and the medication adjustments were described were a great portrayal of the battle people with psychosis face. Helen’s stay and escape from the treatment facility was realistic. Many might be like “this shit doesn’t happen”, they must have never been institutionalized with a severe mental illness. This book made me laugh and also was very suspenseful. At one moment your laughing at Helen, the next you are having the hairs on the back of your neck stick up because of the intensity of this case. I can’t wait to see what the author has in store for us next!😄 I highly recommend this book and it is definitely Dani-approved! I hope I was able to explain my review well and hope everyone has a fantastic day!!! Much love to you all!❤🤗😘💖

Just Not My Thing

This book was not my cup of tea. I just couldn't get into it, but that may be because I usually stick to certain genres. I don't doubt this has good potential, so I'm giving it 3 stars. I didn't finish, but that doesn't mean it's horrible. May fit your bill.

A page-turner from start to finish... Highly recommended.

This story has so many realistic factors to it, you may wonder if it is actually fiction. There is a finger found on the property of a hoarding cat lady. When asked about the finger by the police, Helen, really doesn't seem to make much sense. Alice is constantly talking to Bobby, her dead husband. The police place Helen in a mental facility and call her sister from Phoenix. Pat arrives with her two boys, and try to help the police understand Helen. But Pat and Helen really are not close, so Pat isn't really sure what Helen is talking about. Then Helen leaves the hospital, and another murder is committed. Is Helen a murderer? Can Pat and the police figure out exactly what Helen was talking about and sort out the truth from her imagination? This story is very well written and shows us how people with mental illness think and are looked at by others. It also shows how family members react to members with this problem. A job well done. I received a copy of this book from Net Galley. The review is voluntarily done and of my own opinion.

Very entertaining fun read - highly recommend! I can't wait to see what the next books in the Las Vegas Mystery series are about!
The book starts out with the gruesome murder of a Las Vegas former call girl who lived next door to Helen, a middle aged woman suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness that stemmed from the loss of her husband Bobby.
When a severed finger arrives on her doorstep Helen is thrown into the middle of a murder investigation and suddenly her whole life is being examined.
She spends her days with her ever growing population of cats, talking to her dead husband, and hoarding things. The detective in charge of the case is convinced Helen knows something, but Helen can't remember what she saw!
The police fear she is the only witness so she is taken into custody so they can get her to get some medical help and to keep her safe whilst they try to figure out who butchered her neighbour.
After the detective and psychiatric doctor evaluate her, her sister, Pat Henderson, drives up from Phoenix with teenaged sons in tow to care for Helen and help the police.
Pat hasn’t seen her sister in years and is shocked at how bad her life has become since Bobby’s death ten years ago, the conditions Helen has been living in and she feels like she owes it to her sister to stay and help take care of her.
As the police delve deeper into the murder, they start to wonder if the reason Helen isn’t saying anything is because, not only did she see what happened, but she was involved so the underlying question is, despite her mental instability, is Helen a murderer?
The story revolves around both a detective mystery and a mental institution which gives it a nice change of pace having the story split between different settings and themes.
The look into mental illness shows not just what Helen is going through, but how it affects her family, friends, the medical profession and the community. I thoroughly enjoyed the narrative of their family relationships, estranged and renewed, as well as Helen's own narrative through mental illness.
This was a fun easy read with a bit of a mystery at its core, better than i expected which is always a win for books that exceed expectations.

The crime novel, A Justified Bitch from H.G. McKinnis is set in Las Vegas. It’s not a cozy, and it’s not dark and gory. Instead, it’s a look at mental illness and how two very different sisters are swept up into a murder case.

a Justified Bitch

Helen Taylor, a widow, who makes a marginal living at a local swap meet, lives in a quiet Las Vegas neighbourhood. Helen has mental health issues which started after the climbing accident that killed her husband, Bobby. Now Helen lives alone in squalid conditions, and she shares her hoarder home with innumerable cats. Helen still ‘talks’ to Bobby, and in spite of her unkempt, dirty appearance, Helen manages, barely, to function. Helen’s life comes crashing to a halt when her prostitute neighbour, Bebe, is murdered right next door.

The police think that Helen holds the clue to the identity of the murderer, but can’t get a sensible word out of her.

She wished she could remember what happened, but as usual, when she absolutely needed to recall something, it hid away inside the cracks and fissures of her brain.

Helen’s functioning sister, Pat, arrives from Arizona to help Helen, and what was supposed to be a short few days stay, turns into something else. Pat is horrified by Helen’s condition and so with the help of her teenage son, Jordan and Helen’s son Marc (who has lived with his Aunt Pat for years), they clean out Helen’s house while Helen stays at a mental health facility. But when Helen goes AWOL, another body turns up….

I liked the Vegas setting, and the ambiance of Helen’s neighbourhood where the dress code was “worn and tatty.”

The Las Vegas heat shimmered off the patched asphalt, giving an opaque and eerie quality to the air. Sitting on her porch, Helen stared into the afternoon sky, rocking and humming quietly. The corner lot gave her an exceptional view of the neighborhood. Through the wire-enclosed backyards, she had an unobstructed view of the cluttered expanse all the way to the next corner. In the opposite direction, long-abandoned treasures lay baking in the sun: old cars. worn-out furniture, and less-well-defined objects–maybe toys, maybe tools–all of them showing signs of exposure to the harsh desert environment.

Across the street, beyond a car tagged with an orange tow-away sticker, she tried to decipher the hieroglyphics of the new graffiti spray-painted across the front of the Sanchez house. No message there.

While I was initially annoyed by the whole Helen-talking-to-her-dead-husband thing, I warmed to Pat and the dilemma she faced when she came to Vegas. Helen was not going to be an easy, quick fix, and the author nailed Pat’s situation, and the difficult choices she had to make. Yes, it’s a murder mystery, but it’s clouded and complicated by mental illness. The title seems a misnomer, but it is attention grabbing.

Review copy

Helen Taylor, finds herself holding a finger and sitting near by her house, where a body has been found murdered next door. Helen lives with her cats, and is a bit of a hoarder, but she is very comfortable having conversations with her dead husband (which is intriguing . When she cannot offer the police an explanation for what happened, they take her to jail as a material witness.
The police call Helen's sister Pat, and try to convince her to get Helen to spill, but she has not spoke to her sister for over ten years. Pat discovers the hoarding and is terrified for her sister. And with convincing from the cops, Pat convinces Helen to speak to a psychiatrist. Psychiatrist convinces Pat that Helen should stay for at least six weeks and be on medication and counselling .
Helen finds a way to go AWOL, to get back to her job. While Helen is away from the health center there is another dead body found.
The author describes dysfunctional, complex and complicated characters.
Who is the killer? Is Helen involved? This is an intriguing, and enjoyable read with lots of action and adventure. I would recommend this entertaining book.

I did not know what to expect from this book. It was different. Take one cat lady who talks to her dead husband, a hoarder and assorted other characters and a severed finger. What do you get? A book that is well written, interesting, and gives insight on mental illness. A very engrossing read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book as well as the paperback copy (from the publisher) in return for my honest review. I look forward to reading more from this author

I really loved this book! A great storyline and fast past read!

This book was such an unexpected delight! The dialog was so clever and the characters so engaging and likable. I appreciate the depiction of hoarding and mental illness. It was serious, yet humorous. If you want a book that's fairly light yet keeps you on your toes, read this book. Highly recommended and I look forward to reading more from this author.

When I first read the book description of ‘A Justified Bitch’, I was immediately curious about this read. I love mysteries and the fact that this book had a confused main character just spoke to me. So I was super happy when I received the email that I could read and review this book.

First of all, I love this cover. I’ve read that most people don’t seem to like this cover, but I seriously love it! I love how the orange grabs your attention, and it just makes me want to start reading. I think it’s a very strong cover, and it was definitely the first thing that made me want to read this book. It’s different, and not like any other cover I’ve seen lately. Definitely a strong starting point for me.

Overall I enjoyed reading ‘A Justified Bitch’. From the moment I started reading, I knew there was something more to this book. The main character Helen Taylor, finds a finger in her back yard right before the police arrives at her neighbors home. Helen’s neighbor is brutally murdered, and it appears Helen might be the only one who has seen something. But the thing is, Helen is talking with her husband.. her dead husband! And Helen doesn’t seem able to give a ‘normal’ answer.
That is the moment Helen’s sister Pat receives a phone call from the police asking for her help. But Pat hasn’t spoken to Helen for years, and she is shocked to find out how Helen’s life has turned out.

I loved how mental illness played a huge part in this book. As a nurse, I enjoy reading books where people aren’t all ‘normal’. Especially since there are so many people with mental illnesses out there. In real life, I do get in contact with people with mental illnesses and I enjoyed reading how Helen coped with her illness.

The down part about this book for me, was that I really expected more of a mystery novel than ‘A Justified Bitch’ really was. I felt like this book was much more about the mental illness part, and the way people react to it then it was a mystery. It wasn’t necessary a bad thing, but I just expected something different. I also felt like this book was a little slow at moments.

This was a nice, easy read. It wasn't exciting or thrilling, just a nice little cozy.

The story starts with a murder, a 'witness' , and strange circumstances. It is a whodunit, but mostly it's about interactions between family members. I found that interesting, but not exciting.

The characters' reactions are logical, which is a big thing for me. I can't stand it when I read a book where their choices make absolutely no sense. The end wasn't a big surprise, but better that than bringing in some stranger out of the blue to be the killer.

Overall, not exciting but not awful.