Tag:

Thrillers

Review

Dark Space

by Jeff Ayers

A mission to explore an uninhabited planet in another solar system excites Jose Carriles as he gets to pilot the vessel Mosaic, which takes the explorers to Esparar. Corin Timony, a former spy on the lunar colony New Destiny, receives a coded message from Jose saying the ship is in distress and needs immediate aid. Seconds after she receives the message, another one appears, saying to disregard the previous one and everything is okay. When Corin questions what happened, she finds herself in danger and surrounded by people wanting her to stay quiet. Jose learns the message was ignored, and as he works to figure out what is really happening onboard the Mosaic, he puts himself and the crew’s lives at risk. The story bounces back and forth between Jose and Corin, and the novel excels at slowly building the paranoia, forcing the reader to turn the pages faster to figure out what is going on. And the payoff is glorious. As a fan of both Rob Hart and Alex Segura, I was glad to find that their writing styles blend well together, and this mix of Star Trek themes and a story like Robert Ludlum and Andy Weir had a love child is a blast. Seek out this Dark Space.

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Review

Deadly Animals

by Willy Williams

Fourteen-year-old Ava Bonney has a curiosity about dead things. She keeps a secret roadkill body farm in an abandoned garden near the local motorway and likes to sneak out of her flat in the dead of night to note the decomposition rates of her finds. But on this particular evening in May 1981, she discovers the putrefying body of her classmate Mickey Grant, who disappeared from a local disco two weeks ago. “Ava knew him as an unpleasant boy, a bully you couldn’t walk past without him saying something spiteful. When he went missing, Ava hadn’t cared.” But she telephones the police and, not wanting to reveal her unusual hobby, disguises her voice as Mrs. Poshy-Snob, a woman with a low voice and flawless diction. When he interviews Ava during his inquiries, Detective Sergeant Seth Delahaye is impressed by the teen’s intelligence and self-possession. Signs point to a monstrous serial killer at work after Ava and her best friend John find another mutilated corpse, that of a six-year-old boy. In alternating chapters, Tierney’s compelling narrative follows Ava’s and Delahaye’s separate investigations until the two threads braid into a chilling climax. Ava’s precocity may remind readers of Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old amateur sleuth, Flavia de Luce, but Ava uses her morbid studies to escape an unhappy home life, and her territory is not a cozy English village but the gritty, impoverished suburb of Rudery, South Birmingham. Selected as a finalist in the Daily Mail First Novel competition, this astonishing, beautifully written debut is creepy, gruesome, and heartbreaking. One of the best thrillers of the year.

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Review

Graveyard Shift

by Henrietta Thornton

Some books end with a recipe for a cake or cookie that was mentioned in the story along with nice characters in pleasant surroundings. Then there’s Graveyard Shift. No nice characters, definitely no twee surroundings, and the back matter has two lists: one of songs including “Nightmare” by the Rats and “Bury Me with It” by Modest Mouse (you’ll note the vermin theme) and recipes for cocktails including Corpse Reviver #1. The novella drops readers right into the horror, which brings together the kind of eclectic bunch gathered by a smoking habit. These insomniacs and late-shift workers meet nightly for a smoke in the graveyard of a college town’s dilapidated church, where they witness the dumping of something very unexpected and even more horrible than they would have imagined. Edie, the relentless journalist in the group, seeks answers, aided by bartender Theo, who’s witnessed one of the other weird goings on in the town. Called “Hostile Incidents,” these are instigated by so-called Belligerents, the several “weary, mild-mannered” people who have gone “suddenly berserk.” Readers will want to get their shaky hands on Rio’s previous work, If We Were Villains, after this deliciously bizarre, creepy tale.

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Review

This Girl’s a Killer

by Henrietta Thornton

Cordelia Black’s successful, not-always-above-board career in pharmaceutical sales enables some of her passions in life: buying super-expensive designer clothes and drugging bad men so that she can get them to her secret killing room. That terrifying shadow world is never meant to be revealed to those Cordelia loves most: her best friend, Diane, and Diane’s daughter, snarky but loveable pre-teen Samantha (don’t call her Sammy). But Cordelia and Diane’s funny/tragic dating lives mean that her worlds collide, after which everything–everything–goes wrong in a Murphy’s Law-meets-murder nailbiter. It’s all too believable, making this gripping debut one that you’ll tear through. If you’re thinking of Dexter, you’re right–it does have parallels to that great show, though it has a much better ending and more side characters to root for. Another plus: it’s set in Baton Rouge, less often a setting than big sister NOLA. Get this on your TBR pile!

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Review

Ashes Never Lie

by Henrietta Thornton

What’s better than a gripping story that also teaches you a ton about a fascinating subject? That’s just what readers will get in Goldberg’s follow-up to Malibu Burning (2023). This time, odd-couple Los Angeles arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker are faced with several perplexing crimes. The central case involves a series of just-built, as-yet-uninhabited homes for the wealthy that combust in a far more explosive way than an empty house. Then there’s the man who’s found dead in a fire, but the fire didn’t kill him. Fraud pokes its head up too, with all keeping Sharpe—a genius with fire investigation, but socially not so much—and his still-learning partner busy with intriguing theories based on detailed descriptions of the workings of fire, accelerants, and more. The characterization here is wonderfully enjoyable, with the partners and their various associates bantering in ways that’s sometimes hilarious and always reveals the human behind the shield. Goldberg’s author’s note helpfully details the books about fire dynamics and investigation that he used for research, and readers may want to try these as well, notably Fireraisers, Freaks, and Fiends, “Torchered” Minds by former LA County arson and explosives detective Ed Nordskog, who also answered questions for the book.

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Review

Gathering Mist

by Jeff Ayers

A missing nine-year-old boy has Deputy Mattie Wray bring her K-9 partner, Robo, into uncharted territory to initiate a search and rescue for him in Mizushima’s latest terrific series. By leaving Colorado and heading to the Olympic Mountains of Washington State, Mattie risks Robo’s job and delaying her wedding. From the start, the information she and the team of searchers receive is a bit sketchy. When one of the other searcher dogs gets ill, it becomes clear that someone doesn’t want the team to find this boy. Since the missing kid is the son of a celebrity, and the longer he’s out in the wilderness, the louder the clock is ticking to still find him alive and keep away the paparazzi. Mizushima’s series engages on every level: the authenticity of the search scenes; the setting, in which the reader can feel the moss and dampness of the region; and the insight into the operation of coordinated efforts to find missing people. Gathering Mist is the perfect place to start if you are unfamiliar with her previous novels, and Robo is the most incredible dog ever. Who’s a good boy?

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Review

Silent are the Dead

by Willy Williams

Mary Higgins Clark Award-finalist Rowell’s second mystery featuring Kiowa professional storyteller Mae “Mud” Sawpole opens in media res as she attends a cleansing and blessing ceremony at the Kiowa Tribe Museum in Carnegie, Oklahoma. As recounted in Never Name the Dead, Mud and her cousin Denny thwarted the attempted theft of the precious Jefferson Peace Medal given to the Tribe during the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804. Earlier in the day, they had also found a body and identified the killer. Now, it is time to return the medal to the museum and for Mud to go back to Silicon Valley, where her PR client has an important event. First, she needs to confront tribe chairman, Wyatt Walker, and tribe legislator Anna ManyHorse about the illegal fracking on her grandfather’s land but when the dealer involved in the theft of the Jefferson Peace medal and other Kiowa artifacts is murdered and a respected tribal elder falls suspect, Mud and Denny must race against the clock on the longest night of their lives (Mud has a noon flight to catch the next day!) to find the real culprits behind the fracking and the dealer’s killing. As a gay woman of mixed race, Mud has always felt a bit of an outsider (“a large minority in the Tribe didn’t think I was Kiowa enough…because I didn’t look Indian enough”), but her great-aunt’s wisdom and a ceremonial sweat bath set her on the path to finding the truth. Rowell, whose Kiowa name, “Koyh Mi O Boy Dah”, means “She Is A Traditional Kiowa Woman”, provides enough backstory for newbies to slip easily into the storyline. Her details about Kiowa history, culture, and spiritual traditions are respectful and fascinating. She also knows how to write an intense fight scene complete with menacing rattlesnakes. Tony Hillerman fans will enjoy discovering a promising mystery writer and her intriguing protagonist.

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Review

Black River

by Brian Kenney

The village of Teetarpur, on the outskirts of Delhi, has been known for nothing for decades. Grittiness yes, but no crimes, no scandals. Until the unthinkable happens and an eight-year-old girl, Munia, is murdered, discovered hanging from the branch of a tree. Munia may have been shy, but she was much loved by her father, the widowed Chand, and the rest of her community. Part police procedural, part literary thriller, this beautifully written narrative brings rural India to life. The novel is told in the third person, with vivid characters richly developed and time that moves back and forth as we see Chand in his youth, living by the Yamuna, the black river of the book’s title. We follow local inspector Ombir Singh, under pressure from the rich and the political elite to resolve the killing, and Chand, calm on the exterior, but whose blood boils with revenge, not trusting the police. Roy is a journalist, and it’s tempting to attribute that to what makes this book so magnificently successful: the range of society, the moral complexity of many of the characters, and the terrifying brutality. Sure to be one of the best books of the year.

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Review

The Best Lies

by Jeff Ayers

Leo Balanoff’s skills as an attorney are assisted by his tendency to pathologically lie every chance he can. His unscrupulous methods caused the love of his life to walk away, and his horrific family background has him seeking revenge. When the target of his retribution is killed, and Leo’s DNA is found at the scene, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything. So when an FBI agent offers a chance to go undercover to avoid prison, the attorney jumps at the opportunity, not realizing it will put him in the crosshairs of his ex. Twist after shocking twist comes nonstop in this engaging and fun thriller. The story is not just like a twisty pretzel, it’s like an entire pretzel factory. Ellis has written one of those rare books in which every single word cannot be trusted, resulting in an ending that no reader will see coming. Paranoia, chaos, and shocks await.

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Review

Look in the Mirror

by Brian Kenney

Relatives: you never know what they might be up to. Until you read the will. For Nina—whose beloved father recently died—it’s the discovery of a lavish home in the British Virgin Islands that he left her. Her father was a civil engineer and the home he created—where did he get the money?—is modern and marble, cool and glass. But there’s something a bit off about the house, which slowly begins to come alive. Like some massive escape room, it engages Nina in a game that starts playful but soon becomes terrifying. Then there’s the concurrent story of Maria, a former medical student who now works as a nanny for the immensely rich. She’s able to sock away thousands of dollars while living in gorgeous resort-like mansions. But at her most recent job, the children never show up; in fact, days go by and no one appears, just an electrician to fix a malfunction in the system. The only rule? Don’t enter a room in the basement, which Maria, naturally—after days of boredom—can’t help but do, setting off a life or death struggle that spreads over days. Steadman gets a 10 for creating a puzzle/pawn like novel of terror that starts fast, only to gain even more speed as the reader inevitably rips through the short, action-packed chapters. Prepare yourself for something very new and very disturbing.

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