Author

Henrietta Thornton

Review

Day One

by Henrietta Thornton

There’s a moment in this story of an English village school shooting when a mother tries to call for her son. “[T]he space left by her inhale was filled with elbows, shoulders, and no words came out,” a description that’s just one of the shivers readers will get from Dean’s unflinching look at horror. But the book’s not really about the shooting itself, though that awful event gets its share of pages. Nor is it about the shooter, though he too gets his due, in a section that readers should know includes a horribly accurate look at a verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive man. Rather, Dean puts her magnifying glass on what happens after, when those who question everything except conspiracy theories move in with their claims that the massacre never happened and the victims never existed. A split-second decision by someone from the small town is later blown up by the right wing and adds interesting shadows to the killer/victims dichotomy. Those who wanted Alex Jones ground to dust will be intrigued by this fuller look behind his kind of rabid cruelty, and fans of Dean’s Girl A and of psychological thrillers are also a great audience for this. A realistic and absorbing look at media gone wrong and the lives it scorches.

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Review

Diamond Cut

by Henrietta Thornton

They say you can’t go back, but what if the past won’t let go? That’s the case for Sandy Corrigan. She narrowly escaped sex work and now works for her brother as a private detective. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, with Sandy spending her days chasing cheating husbands and those seeking to milk personal-injury cases. But at least she’s safe—until her former life comes calling. A woman who works for Sandy’s old pimp begs for help when another sex worker, Naomi, goes missing. Naomi’s just a teenager and Sandy’s emotions kick in, as well as her desire for revenge against the abusive, disgusting pimp, Omar. She wraps up the initial part of the case quickly and her brother wants her back to her usual gigs. But Sandy can’t give in when she finds that Omar and his gang are up to much worse than pimping. Sandy is a gutsy but realistic hero, with chase scenes and literal near-death experiences alternating with bathroom breaks—a girl’s gotta pee!—and picking her child up from school. Fast action, snappy dialogue, and empathy galore add up to a quick read, and with an 11th-hour twist, this book keeps on giving right till the last page. I hope for more from PI Corrigan.

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Review

Village in the Dark

by Henrietta Thornton

Readers last visited the remote Alaskan town of Point Mettier in Yamashita’s debut, City Under One Roof, (Please note-the link is to a prior firstCLUE review) a title that perfectly describes the town that consists of a single apartment building with 205 residents, stores, and even a bar inside. This time, we are reintroduced to Cara Kennedy, a former Anchorage PD detective, as she’s having her husband’s and son’s bodies exhumed. She can’t stop suspecting foul play even though everyone is fed up that she won’t accept that they died of a hiking accident—she’s even lost her job because of her suspicions. But she’s now found a photo of her dead loved ones on a gang member’s phone. There’s no explanation for it, and her investigation is forcing her to visit the remote village of Chugach, with a trip through Point Mettier the only way in. Other wronged women are simultaneously facing pain and their paths are destined to meet: Ellie, owner of the Cozy Condo Inn in Point Mettier, gets a devastating call just as Kennedy’s on her way. We also meet Mia, a former Chugach resident who’s trying the outside world for the first time, meeting fears yet forging her way. These are fascinating characters and circumstances, and the story that brings them together and sees them struggling against inner demons, and very real danger, is gripping. For readers who enjoy offbeat tales and wilderness thrillers as well as for fans of the author’s debut.

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Review

What Cannot be Said

by Henrietta Thornton

Atonement and The Secret Garden float to mind as children in an isolated English idyll come upon a frightening scene. Out for a walk, two young brothers find a mother and daughter dead, posed in a way that’s so peaceful it’s sinister. Magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy, a friend of the series’ main character, Sebastian St. Cyr, is called, and the scene is all too familiar to him: it’s how his wife and daughter were found murdered years before. A man was hanged for that crime. As more killings occur with frightening speed over the coming days, others speculate that a “copyist” is at work while Lovejoy fears that the wrong man was executed. Lady McInnis, the current day’s victim, was politically active, lending an intriguing angle to the story. She lobbied the government to improve the conditions of working children, some of whose sad lives are featured here; a side plot regarding workhouse babies being unscrupulously fostered for pay paints a grim portrait of early 19th-century England. In the end, the social elements and the murder mysteries knit well together to create a satisfying whodunit with a dash of historical fact.

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Review

That Night in the Library

by Henrietta Thornton

You know those cute programs where kids leave their teddy bear for a library sleepover? This is nothing like that. Instead, staying in the library overnight are student workers who have just completed a tough interview process for the one permanent job on offer in the university’s rare-books department (Jurczyk is mining a setting similar to her 2022 The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections), a toxic workplace if ever there was one. Also attending is non-student Ro, along because he can provide the drug, acid, that will kickstart a ceremony that student Davey has meticulously planned. Davey has invited Ro and five others to re-enact a Greek tradition around the Persephone myth, in which intoxicated pilgrims face either death or the thing they most fear, in order to conquer the fear. The tortured inner voice of narrator Faye, the shyest library employee, is used to wonderful effect by Jurczyk to chronicle a frenzied, terrifying night in a locked room—the library’s basement cage—that starts with a killing. The ending here is a shock, and along the way the author delivers chills that are packed with narcissistic venom and choking claustrophobia. This will be a hit with those who enjoyed Jurczyk’s previous work. If you like myth retellings, try one of the many versions of the Irish Tír na nÓg story, which mirrors elements of the tale of Persephone.

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Review

The Hunter’s Daughter

by Henrietta Thornton

Subterfuge and supernatural elements infuse this dark, absorbing debut. Our protagonist is Midwestern police detective Anna Koray, who’s had a relatively staid career until she makes the mistake of confronting a violent perpetrator without backup. She kills him, but is shot herself in the process. When recovering, she’s required to undertake counseling; at the same time, she pushes herself into the investigation of a serial killer whose horrifying work resembles that of her father, who years ago was executed for his murder of multiple women as sacrifices to a forest god. Both Anna’s colleagues and the doctor she’s in a burgeoning relationship with have no idea that she spent her childhood in thrall to the Forest Strangler. Anna herself doesn’t even have all the details, which were sealed away in her subconscious by a manipulative therapist whom she now sees for the reverse process, setting in motion an emotional and dangerous roller coaster of unraveling secrets and treacherous confrontations. A cold-case podcaster adds a moral dilemma to the exciting tale—when is it better to leave the truth buried? Readers who enjoy a wilderness thriller, such as Elizabeth Hand’s Hokuloa Road or Paul Doiron’s Dead Man’s Wake, will appreciate this story.

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Review

The Wife You Know

by Henrietta Thornton

Passing a daycare that’s engulfed in flames, Ashley Driskell risks her life to save several children. During an emotional reunion in the hospital, her husband, Luke, lets her know that someone took a video of her heroics and she’s now the darling of the Internet. Luke knows this won’t make Ashley happy, as she’s very private and dislikes even having her photo taken. Still, he’s surprised at Ashley’s vehemence that he must go, NOW, and pick up her daughter Joy, who is his stepdaughter, from the babysitter. Things become even stranger when the next morning Luke wakes to find that Joy is gone from their home and Ashley is missing from the hospital. Luke uses his desperation and sharp research skills to engrossing effect, digging deeper and deeper into the twisting mystery that is Ashley’s life. You won’t see the answers coming here, nor the satisfying ending; the love, loyalty, and determination shown by Luke are bonuses. A great read, especially for fans of D.J. Palmer’s My Wife is Missing.

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Review

The Expectant Detectives

by Henrietta Thornton

Bridget Jones meets Thursday Murder Club in this tale of rural English women who meet in a prenatal class and learn far more than how to not kill your partner while the baby’s making its debut. The central character and narrator is Alice, who, she tells us, thought she’d surprise her boyfriend for his 30th birthday with a pregnancy. It’s a happy if slightly puzzling surprise, as Alice has little idea how to care for a baby and she’s terrified of birth. The overly chipper and hippy teacher of the class, whose clothes resemble “a chameleon caught in a kaleidoscope,” isn’t much help. Even less helpful is that one of the students gives birth during the class (would a first baby be that fast? Eh, it’s Bridget Jones with a baby. Moving on). And after that, the owner of the store downstairs from the class is found very dead. The rest of the class is still pregnant and they spend their time lumbering around the “posh hippy” town of Penton (“Population: seventeen people and a cow”) puzzling out village relationships, past scandals, and the intricacies of cloth diapers. This fun romp offers hilarious moments while taking on some real-life issues: the fear involved in becoming a first-time parent and the shadows of one’s own upbringing that can darken parenthood, all while Alice and friends undertake the whodunit. Ailes’s sequel, the perfectly named Dead Tired, meets the characters again after they’ve had their babies and will be out on the heels of this one, on June 4, 2024.

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Review

Bright and Tender Dark

by Henrietta Thornton

2019 bookends this murder mystery. In that year, student KC, a trans man, is the weary caretaker of a college dorm, picking up after his lazy peers and saving them from their drunken worst selves. The dorm he works in has a rumor-clad oddity: a young female student was killed there years ago, and the true-crime frenzy has made the building a magnet for professional and amateur sleuths. Their work sends us back to just before New Years Eve 1999, where we meet the victim, Karlie Richards. Karlie seems to have it all but, like everyone she meets, has dragged a weight of hopes, loves, and past mistakes to her new life in college. It’s the pre-#MeToo era as Karlie faces what turns out to be her final days, and readers will love to hate the professor who has a way too close relationship to his female students, and long to jump into the pages to warn the young women away. But there’s nothing we can do as Karlie’s doomed world comes to life and Pearson skillfully introduces several more characters who could have killed Karlie and more reasons why they would have done so. The divergent lives of the haves and have nots in college towns, and the experiences of evangelical students taking their first foray into a more secular world, are starkly painted in this dark debut novel by an author to watch.

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Review

What Mother Won’t Tell Me

by Henrietta Thornton

This debut novel should come with blood-pressure pills. The tension at first comes from strangeness: Mother; Father; their daughter, Juno; and son, Boy live a harsh, homesteading life alone on an island. Is it the present day? What part of the world are they in? Is the mortal danger from outsiders that the parents warn about real? The timing element is all that’s clear for a good portion of the book: it’s the current day, but apart from visits from the mailman who comes from the mainland, during which Juno and Boy must hide from view, the rest is unknown. Bit by bit, teen Juno’s desire for freedom and her determination to find out more about their situation despite her sinister, violent parents’ “seven commandments” (including “We must always kill quickly and painlessly”) ramp up the fear to a terrifying do-or-die scene. Readers will be rapt as they race to the end to find out who survives this nightmare that’s effectively mixed with a fairytale motif echoing one of Juno’s favorite stories. Menger’s previous work is in film, TV, and audiobooks: try his Audible Originals Monster 1983 and Ghostbox while you wait for this gripping thriller.

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