Tag:

Thrillers

Review

Beautiful Ugly

by Brian Kenney

Novelist Grady Greene can’t wait to share his good news with his wife, Abby: he’s just made the New York Times bestseller list. He calls her, she’s driving home and not far from their house, only to hear her slam on the brakes, telling him that someone is lying on the road. Then silence. Grady heads out to find her and discovers that the car is empty, the door wide open, her cellphone abandoned, and Abby gone. So begins Grady’s year of mourning for his disappeared wife. To break his melancholia, and kick-start his work on his next book, his agent offers a little cabin on a barely habited Scottish isle. Grady takes her up on the offer, only to discover that there is, you guessed it, no way off the island—what ferry schedule?—and the two dozen or so female-only residents are a bit beyond odd. But oddest of all? The quick glimpses he has of a woman who is the spitting image of his wife. The creepiness, the occasional bursts of humor, the horrendous history, and of course the inevitable twists, all of which layer over one another, make for one terrifying ride.

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Review

Someone in the Attic

by Henrietta Thornton

Talk about domestic suspense. Julia has moved back to Dublin from San Diego with her kids, who hate their new environment, and her ex-husband, Gabe, who trades time at home with her. Weekends she’s in the house with the children and he’s in a nearby apartment; weekdays the opposite. It’s all very pally, but there’s one big problem: their family seems to be a victim of a social media prank that involves people hiding in attics and jumping out to terrify the residents. Repeated Tik Tok videos, not made by the family, show views of their home as though made by someone inside. And wasn’t there that case, her kids insist, where someone lived in an attic and came out at night to wander the house? Her son is especially terrified—the depth of his fear is clear when his mom tells him not to be afraid to be alone, and he says his fear is that he isn’t alone—prompting Julia to investigate. Weird neighbors and the family’s recent and more distant past offer multiple possibilities for who’s terrorizing them, and readers will enjoy Mara’s taut plotting and believable family dynamics (especially the eye-rolliness of the teen daughter). Julia and her children’s fear comes through so palpably that you’ll be ready to help them move again while silently cursing the useless authorities and blithe Gabe. A gripping read.

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Review

A New Lease on Death

by Brian Kenney

Having left behind her life in Baltimore, 20-year-old Ruby Young has settled in a so-so apartment in a so-so Boston neighborhood. The previous tenant who rented her apartment, Cordelia Graves, died just a few months ago, reportedly by suicide. But now another neighbor has died, murdered in an apparent mugging, and Cordelia—she’s become the building’s ghost-in-residence—is determined to keep Ruby safe. But Ruby is one tough cookie herself, with zero fear of the supernatural, and as much as they may be opposites, eventually the two women settle on refrigerator magnets to (sort of) communicate. Hearing each woman’s interior monologue is a hoot, as their relationship as roommates grows and they head out into the world to investigate if Jake was actually murdered…and did Cordelia really die of suicide? Droll, a touch maudlin, and featuring two outstanding characters. Readers are going to be eager for a sequel to this story.

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Review

An Honorable Assassin

by Jeff Ayers

Assassin Nick Mason can never be free from responsibilities or his past; his latest job proves it. To keep his young daughter and ex-wife from meeting a gruesome death, he’s forced to go to Jakarta to kill a criminal known as the Crocodile. What should be a simple task goes awry, and now he’s forced to work with people he can’t trust in an unfamiliar city. Mason is not the only one who wants to see the Crocodile dead. Martin Sauvage works for Interpol and blames the Crocodile for murdering his wife and daughter in a Paris bombing. No matter the cost, Sauvage’s vendetta will succeed, even if an American assassin gets in the way. While Sauvage plots, Mason learns that doing the right thing will worsen the situation and overall mission. Can Mason be successful and honorable at the same time? It’s great to see Hamilton and Nick Mason back in action, and the frenetic pace and the double-crosses never stop. Having a character with such a notorious backstory and someone a reader roots for is challenging, but Hamilton is a great writer and nails it. When will Nick Mason be on TV or film? This needs to happen!

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Review

Vantage Point

by Henrietta Thornton

The ultra-wealthy Wieland family seems determined to prove that money can’t buy happiness. Their pain-filled past has created a persistent myth that they’re cursed, with family members dying in spectacularly awful ways, including on the Titanic. The deaths all happen in April, and as this absorbing thriller opens, so does that terrible month. Orphaned by the curse, or so she believes, is Clara, who’s long suffered from bulimia and lives in a house on the grounds of her family’s compound in Maine. In the neighboring mansion, Vantage Point, live her brother, Teddy, and his wife, Jess, who’s Clara’s best friend and formerly a poor local. Teddy is running for the U.S. Senate and the stakes are high for the family to portray a happy, successful front, which means keeping the uninhibited Clara mostly hidden. But someone has other ideas, and a brutal sex video is released to the public featuring a much younger, drunk, emaciated Clara (details are very much on the page). It’s the first in a line of humiliating videos that Clara thinks are fake but can’t be sure, making technology an interesting plot point alongside the family turmoil. Sligar’s character creation and portrayal of family and class dynamics are superb, adding to a realistic and gripping tale with a satisfying ending.

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Review

A Long Time Gone

by Brian Kenney

The third in Moehling’s Ben Packard series is far and away the best. Deputy Packard is off work—he’s on leave, pending an investigation into a shooting—which gives him the time to investigate some new information about the disappearance of his older brother, Nick, who left their lakeshore family home when they were just kids, never to be seen again. The new information attracts his mother, Pam, to northern Minnesota, as much to check in on Ben as to explore where Nick may be buried. Pam—one of Moehling’s greatest creations—is a New Age, crystal wearing, sex-positive, Wiccan practitioner who would like nothing more than to see Ben find a boyfriend and does everything in her powers to hook him up. While the search for Nick takes a bit of a back seat, Ben can’t help but pursue a far more expansive and contemporary investigation that exposes corruption among County officials. See why so many people were happy to see Ben out of the picture? Add to this another story, brief but hugely meaningful, that provides yet more information about Nick. It’s amazing how Moehling keeps all these narrative balls in the air, but even more amazing is how they eventually come together. For those who love classic mysteries, police procedurals, and family drama.

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Review

This is Why We Lied

by Jeff Ayers

Will Trent and Sara Linton’s honeymoon gets cut short in Slaughter’s latest page-turner. Will surprises his new bride with a trip to an idyllic lodge isolated from people and technology. At first, it’s lovely, and they tell the other guests that Will is a mechanic and Sara’s a teacher. That ruse dissipates quickly when the manager of the lodge, Mercy, is stabbed to death, and Will accidentally impales his hand on the knife. Everyone staying there is an immediate suspect, whether it’s the other guests with secrets or Mercy’s family, who all have a shady past. Verbal and physical abuse is as common as drinking water to these depraved individuals, and all of them had a motive to kill Mercy. Will finds a phone connection and gets his partner at the GBI, Faith, to help discover the true killer. The ABC show Will Trent was renewed for a third season, to premiere in January 2025. While fans wait for the show to start again, they can dive into this intense, disturbing, and fascinating story of depravity, betrayal, and hope. The surprise ending shocks and satisfies, and the next Will Trent novel cannot come fast enough.

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Review

The Last One at the Wedding

by Brian Kenney

I’m going to call it like it is: this is one of the best books of the year. Frank Szatowski—widower, UPS deliverer, and all-around good guy—gets a call from his daughter, mid-twenty-something Maggie, inviting him to her wedding in rural New Hampshire. The two have been estranged for several years, so this invite is a big deal for Frank, who brings along his sister (she’s practically Maggie’s mother). But from the moment they arrive at the incredibly lavish estate, nothing is what they expect. Maggie, it turns out, is marrying into a vastly rich tech family—think the Dells—and Frank’s attempts to connect to Maggie’s new family only succeed in making both him and the family members increasingly suspicious. Son-in-law Aidan Gardner is a recluse, accused by the locals of murder; Mom is hiding up in the main house, a drink- and drug-addled shadow of a woman; Dad is a complete control freak who enforces his own time system (seriously); and Maggie is the cheerleader, backing the families’ crazy decisions. Frank’s dialog—both internal and external—is one of the joys of the book, and Frank keeps discovering new forms of evil, like so many nesting Babushka dolls, as he investigates the Gardners. But will he be able to convince his daughter to leave? Strong characterization, a fascinating environment, and a good wallop of suspense makes for one compelling read. Relish it.

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Review

The Devil Raises His Own

by Willy Williams

From the sexually explicit frescos of ancient Pompeii to today’s risqué sites, pornographers have always embraced the latest technology to create and distribute their erotic materials. In 1916 Los Angeles, the new tool was the motion-picture camera. Phillips’s noir novel offers a bawdy, violent, funny, and affectionate fictional take on how the “blue movie” industry developed in the shadow of a budding Hollywood. Years after the events of Cottonwood and Hop Alley, photographer Bill Ogden, now in his 70s, has opened a portrait studio in the City of Angels. He is assisted by his granddaughter Flavia, who came to California for a fresh start after fatally bludgeoning (in self-defense) her abusive husband, and naive 20-year-old Henry Seghers, who fled the coal mines of West Virginia. Bill’s business is legit but he occasionally takes stereoscopic stills of naughty sapphic/homosexual productions overseen by George Buntnagel, a gay director moonlighting from Provident Studios, and his lesbian wife, Irene. Revolving around these well-drawn central characters is a colorful supporting cast: aspiring actress Purity Dove-turned-film star Magnolia Sweetspire; homicidal ex-con Ezra seeking his missing family; Ezra’s wife, Trudy, who supports her two children by working in stag films; comedian Tommy Gill, who is not as funny as he thinks he is; and ex-postal inspector Melvin van de Kamp, who is desperate to break into the adult-movie business. Phillips’s narrative gradually connects these diverse personalities in a series of fast-paced alternating scenes until they collide in a violent Day of the Locust climax. With its high body count (at least eight murders are committed) and ribald language, this scandalously juicy tale of early Hollywood will appeal more to Fatty Arbuckle devotees than demure Mary Pickford fans.

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Review

Dead Money

by Henrietta Thornton

Dead money is slang for wealth that’s held up by a clause in a will, and after Elon Musk-type Trevor Canon is found dead in his San Francisco tech-bro office, investigator Mackenzie Clyde finds that he recently had just such an amendment inserted into his will. A lawyer who now works as a sort of fixer at a venture capital firm, Mackenzie isn’t the most likely candidate to help the FBI with their case, but she’s ambitious and jumps at the chance when her boss wants to know what happened. Investigating Trevor’s associates is much more complicated than it should be. She’s also subjected to more exposed ankles in mens suits than she’d like, not to mention corporate babble like one associate’s drive to “leverage the leader that lays dormant within clients…to manifest a corporate identity in ways they’ve never crystallized” (snort). The FBI agent she works with, a rich kid who bucks the stereotypes of his upbringing, is having none of it, and together the duo relentlessly digs to the center of a technical and political tangle. Get ready for some startling revelations along the way. Lawyer and debut author Kerr was one of the first employees at Airbnb, and his absorption of the BS is our gain.

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