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Review

Safe in My Arms

by Henrietta Thornton

Fans of the Pretty Little Liars book and TV series and Shepard’s multiple other novels will come to this work looking for a mean girl to hate, and they’ll find it in Piper, the director of the preschool that serves the right kids in a moneyed California town. Andrea, Lauren, and Ronnie stick out like Target shoppers at Tiffany & Co. when they show up with their kids on the first day. They gravitate towards one another to survive the haughty sniffs from the vegan mac ‘n cheese set. Andrea is transgender and is hiding that she was suspected of pedophilia years ago; Ronnie works as a topless maid, which is the least of her secrets; and new-mom Lauren is struggling through what she has been told is postpartum rage. When Piper is attacked, the police focus on Andrea, Lauren, and Ronnie as culprits, and the women even begin to suspect one another. Shepard offers another insightful foray into the lives of privileged women, once more uncovering secrets, betrayals, and unexpected grace along the way. HBO is sure to come knocking again, but don’t wait–this is a perfect beach read, and ideal for readers who enjoyed Janelle Brown’s Pretty Things.

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Review

Blood Sugar

by Brian Kenney

Some books you read for plot. Others for setting. But this dazzling debut is all about voice, specifically that of Ruby Simon, lovable murderer. The book opens with 30-year-old Ruby at the Miami Beach Police Department, being interrogated about the recent death of her husband Jason—the one murder she isn’t responsible for—as well as three earlier deaths she did commit, but got away with. “Four is beyond a pattern. Four is beyond bad luck or coincidence. Four means I’m at the center of it all, these deaths orbiting around me like the planets around the sun.” Ruby takes us back to her first murder at five years old, when she drowned another little kid, her teen years in Miami Beach (one more murder), college at Yale, then back to Miami for graduate school in psychiatry (another one bites the dust), and finally Jason’s accidental demise. It’s tempting to think Ruby is a sociopath, but no, she experiences a full range of emotions, from empathy to regret and from compassion to sympathy. It’s the rare book that has you rooting for a multiple murderer, but that’s just part of screenwriter Rothchild’s magic. The most engaging novel I’ve read yet this year.

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Review

A Line to Kill

by Brian Kenney

The third in the series featuring the former detective Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, Anthony Horowitz—yes, he’s written himself into the series—sees our duo heading off to a literary festival on Alderney, the northernmost of the Channel Islands off England’s south coast. Joined by a best-selling children’s writer, a well-known chef who’s now a cookbook author, a psychic, a French poet, and more, they expect a weekend of literary chit-chat and bookselling. But the residents of Alderney are up in arms over a power line that will cross the island, threatening to wreak havoc. Things have reached such a pitch that the island’s leading citizen, a proponent of the power line, is found murdered, and the island is locked down. Inevitably, Hawthorne and Horowitz are drawn into the case. From the array of characters to the relationship between Hawthorne and Horowitz, from the many riddles and clues to the denouement, this novel is sure to delight fans of the traditional mystery, especially lovers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

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Review

Hendricks, Greer and Sarah Pekkanen. The Golden Couple

by Brian Kenney

Avery Chambers is one wonderful narrator. A therapist who has developed a controversial methodology that promises to cure clients in just 10 sessions—and who has lost her license because of it—she’s selective in whom she takes on. But Marissa and Mathew Bishop, well-heeled and in their late 30s, are a quick yes. Marissa has cheated on her husband and is hoping that Avery can help patch things up. But that singular betrayal unlocks one secret after another, and the creepiness factor gets stronger and stronger, until we reach that sweet spot where we don’t know whom to believe or whom to fear. Unlike most domestic thrillers, Greer and Pekkanen’s work summons a wide range of suspects, all with their own nasty secrets. Fortunately, we have Avery, who guides us through the narrative and sub-narratives, and despite her wacko practice, lends the novel a great deal of credibility. This is the best book yet from the Hendricks/Pekkanen duo, and fans of B. A. Paris, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins are sure to devour it.

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Review

Greenwich Park

by Henrietta Thornton

Former Cambridge students Helen and Daniel are a few months from the birth of their first child, after numerous pregnancy losses. Helen is understandably nervous, and it doesn’t help when her husband misses their first prenatal class. All she needs is brash, foul-mouthed mother-to-be Rachel sitting next to her and drawing attention. When the woman pours them both a large glass of wine and then drinks both glasses, Helen is horrified but too polite to say anything. Soon pushy, manipulative Rachel insinuates herself into every aspect of the expectant couple’s life, and Helen’s efforts to distance her new “friend” are about as useful as Lamaze breathing. Alongside that accelerating mayhem, to which Faulkner effectively adds urgency by showing the pregnancy weeks ticking by, is the story of Helen and Daniel’s friend Katie, who is a journalist reporting on a rape trial, and a look back at the group’s college days, when they faced a life-altering decision that still haunts. Faulkner gets right into the head of a troubled woman, also excelling at portrayals of more than one imbalanced friendship. This debut features some gasp-inducing twists, and is only slightly less astonishing all the way through. And that last line!

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Review

A Slow Fire Burning

by Henrietta Thornton

The latest by the enormously successful author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water portrays destruction continuing after long-ago catastrophes. On one side we see successful (and smarmy) London author Theo and his family reeling after an accident that leaves Theo longing for someone to blame. Nearby geographically, but worlds away in life choices, lives Laura, the victim of a hit-and-run that has left her physically and mentally unstable, and who was, shall we say, known to a young man who has been found stabbed to death. As in The Girl on the Train and the many unreliable-narrator novels it inspired, readers will be left wondering until the very end whom to trust and what exactly happened on one fateful day. Hawkins is a top-notch storyteller, and her vividly drawn characters will evoke strong emotions in readers. Enjoyable too are the author’s frequent wry nods towards today’s trends in fiction and the difficulty in following up on a blockbuster novel. As well as Hawkins’ many fans, this is one for Kate Atkinson’s readers and all who enjoy a disparate cast of characters slowly revealing their connections.

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Review

For Your Own Good.

by Brian Kenney

At a time when Hollywood stars are bribing the way for their offspring to attend prestigious colleges, the over-the-top antics of teachers, parents, and students at the elite Belmont Academy are nearly credible. While told from multiple points of view, the novel centers around the deeply disturbed Teddy Crutcher, Belmont’s reigning teacher of the year, and Zach, the only reliable narrator, whose straight-A record is in jeopardy thanks to Crutcher. Harkening back to mysteries of the Golden Age, the Belmont community’s weapon of choice is poison—successful, providing it reaches the right recipient. There’s lots to appreciate in this absolutely delicious book, and Zach’s painful conversations with his arrogant, self-obsessed, and Ivy-focused parents are a tour de force. Teen readers suffering through the admissions process will also enjoy this novel. By the author of the much appreciated My Lovely Wife.

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Review

The Missing Hours

by Henrietta Thornton

Broke NYU student Trevor eats ramen noodles while his dorm neighbor Claudia, famously the daughter of a music producer, is more about the expensive Japanese restaurant down the street. But they’re thrown together when Claudia is assaulted. Claudia’s body tells her that the hours missing from her memory of the drunken night before included violent sex; physical hints aren’t necessary when her abuser posts a video of her rape. Dahl presents Claudia’s ordeal as both horrifyingly mundane—the campus health center has a well-worn rape protocol, and she’s forced to go through the bleak motions—and engagingly suspenseful. The young woman’s family seeks to save her and find the truth, while another rich kid’s family is battling to hide it. Since the details of the rape are unclear to Claudia, and the video is only briefly described, Dahl mainly focuses on the aftermath of the attack, sparing readers a detailed rape scene. What they get instead is a close look at the physical and mental torture of absorbing an attack; the ways in which kindness can be a salve yet a crushing contrast with hurt; and, most of all, a lesson that redemption is owed to every victim.

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Review

Jane Austen’s Lost Letters

by Brian Kenney

Here’s a conundrum. Series readers love returning to the familiar: the nosy next-door neighbor, the long-term fiancé, the super intelligent dachshund, and, above all else, our detective. At the same time, readers expect the newest book to shake things up, presenting our hero with changes and challenges. Authors looking to pull this off would do well to consult Jane Austen’s Lost Letters—the 14th book in the Josie Prescott series—a textbook on how to balance the old and the new. Josie, an extremely successful antiques dealer, meets an elegant older woman who presents her with a box, then disappears. The box, from Josie’s father, dead these twenty years, contains two of Jane Austen’s letters. The missives set off a series of events that pulls us into the worlds of academia, rare manuscripts, television production, historical-autograph authentication, and Josie’s relationship with her dad. At a point, the book shifts, and Josie is no longer just investigating, she’s fighting for her life. A traditional mystery with a soupçon of the thriller, this book will appeal to a large swath of mystery readers. And despite the many previous volumes, it works beautifully as a stand-alone

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Review

Gone for Good

by Henrietta Thornton

At first it seems some well-worn police procedural tropes will dominate the latest novel by bestselling Schaffhausen (Ellery Hathaway series). Our protagonist, a detective, is determined to find the serial killer that eluded her cop father, while wondering if she’ll ever find love in this relationship-destroying career. But some twists make the author’s turbulent latest different. The detective in question, Annalisa Vega, dated the son of one of the victims as a teen; the connection to her first heartbreak drives Vega to uncover the truth—and sometimes to go too far. Adding intrigue is that one of the killer’s last victims, Grace Harper, is an avid, insightful member of an amateur cold-case investigation club, the Grave Diggers, which at the time of Harper’s death was focusing on her killer. “Grace Notes,” journal entries on her investigative findings, will give readers the feeling of turning the case around in their hands as the narrative shifts back and forth in time and between Harper and Vega’s differing knowledge and motivations. Schaffhausen’s writing brings readers right into shadowy Chicago streets and family secrets from page one. This first in a new series is a must for readers of innovative police procedurals as well as fans of true crime shows.

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