firstCLUE Reviews
  • Home
  • Review Database
  • Interviews
  • Crime Fiction News
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About Us
Tag:

Domestic

Review

The Tokyo Suite

by Brian Kenney July 25, 2024

A deep investigation into the lives of two women: a mistress and her maid. Maju is one of scores of the “white army,” maids and nannies in São Paulo; she cares for young Cora, whose parents pay the child little attention. Fernanda, Cora’s mother and a successful TV executive, is uniquely self-involved; even when Maju and Cora disappear one day, Fernanda can’t stop obsessing over an affair she’s having long enough to focus on her own daughter’s abduction. Dad, meanwhile, has pretty much checked out. But once Fernanda does realize her daughter is gone, her whole world begins to cave in. Maju and Cora, meanwhile, have boarded a bus for a multi-day trip that Maju barely plans—they have limited food and money—and that begins to unravel after the first day. Each woman is confronted by a harrowing series of events that forces them to confront maternal guilt, poverty, and society’s expectations.

July 25, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Anyone But Her

by Henrietta Thornton July 18, 2024

The love surrounding a beloved neighborhood institution shines through in Swanson’s latest, in which a 1979 Denver record-store owning mom is shot dead in a robbery, her forlorn young daughter, Suzanne, left behind. But Suzanne’s hapless dad has the perfect solution. It’s all figured out! His old girlfriend, Peggy, is moving in. Peggy seems much too eager for this arrangement. She’s also far more motherly toward Suzanne’s devastated little brother, Chris, than Suzanne would like, while nasty toward Suzanne herself. But Suzanne’s mom used to call her daughter “my little seer,” and indeed, after some time, she gets visits from her mom, hearing again her “warm, round voice–like the sun speaking.” When we fast forward in alternating chapters to 2004, adult Suzanne is moving back to Denver from California with her husband, disgruntled teenage daughter, and nine-year-old son. Trying to settle in, she opens a new business in her mom’s old shop, but sinister things start cropping up–a girl is missing in town, and elements of the case are strangely familiar. Then there’s the rat left on the family’s doorstep. What it all means leads this protagonist on a frightening and gripping path to the truth about what happened in 1979, a tale that is enriched with details on the music of the time and the feeling of enduring love. For fans of T. Jefferson Parker’s A Thousand Steps, which is steeped in the same emotions, and all who love a solid mystery

July 18, 2024 0 comment
1 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Mistletoe Mystery

by Brian Kenney June 27, 2024

Are you one of the many fans of Molly the maid? Then you’ll love Prose’s latest work, a novella—this reader finished it on the flight from Boston to New York—centered on the holidays. Since Molly’s much-quoted grandmother has died, the holidays just haven’t been the same. This year, though, boyfriend Juan Manuel is determined to bring joy to Molly every day of Advent. But when a few shadows pass over Molly’s work life in the Regency Grand Hotel, she’s suddenly doubting Juan, love, and their future. What a perfect stocking stuffer!

June 27, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Business Trip

by Henrietta Thornton June 20, 2024

Get ready to root for two women, strangers to each other, in this fast moving thriller. Madison, WI waitress Jasmine has readers on a knife edge as she sneaks out of her so-called boyfriend’s trailer in the middle of the night to escape his belittling and violence. Stephanie, news director at a TV station in Madison, has things easier, but is lonely. When she goes to San Diego for a conference she doesn’t return to work. Instead she texts her neighbor that she’s met a great man and tells her job she needs unexpected time off…go, girl! But the trip isn’t as it seems. When the two women’s paths cross each other and that of an odious man, things take very unexpected and thrilling turns, right up to an exciting ending twist. There could be less telling and more showing here, but readers will relish following Jasmine and Stephanie as they take the roads less traveled in this absorbing, tightly plotted debut.

June 20, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Clever Little Thing

by Henrietta Thornton June 13, 2024

Most of this book takes place in the past, when Londoner Charlotte; her American husband, Pete; and their eight-year-old daughter, Stella, await the arrival of a new baby. Charlotte is mainly focused on Stella, but she resists a diagnosis for her while a mom friend with an autistic child urges her to confirm why their children are so alike. The only person Stella seems to get along with is her odd—bordering on sinister, if you ask Charlotte—babysitter, a young Armenian woman named Blanka. She’s not very attentive to Stella, plays odd games, and will only respond “oh, yes,” to every suggestion Charlotte makes, while never once following through. Things take a turn for the stranger after Blanka dies suddenly. Now Stella seems exactly like her former caregiver, craving her strong meat stew (though the family is vegetarian), speaking like her, and in all ways seeming to channel the strange young woman. Readers will be rapt as the family members each retreat to their different corners of the house, literally and mentally; Charlotte’s beliefs are torn apart; and terrible danger looms ever closer. An unusual debut; readers will certainly be on the lookout for more from Echlin and her brilliant portrayal of doubt, fear, and fractured families.

June 13, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Beautiful Ugly

by Brian Kenney June 6, 2024

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.

June 6, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Last One at the Wedding

by Brian Kenney May 16, 2024

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.

May 16, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Think Twice

by Jeff Ayers February 29, 2024

Sports agent and former attorney Myron Bolitar works closely with his best friend, Win, in a lavish office in New York City. FBI agents visit one day and demand answers. One of Myron’s former clients, Greg Downing, is the prime suspect in a couple of murders, as his DNA was found under a victim’s fingernails. The only problem? Greg died three years ago, and Myron last saw him at his funeral. Myron and Greg had a history, and being curious how a dead man could murder someone, Myron asks Win for help, and they start digging for answers. Mobsters, false identities, and a string of murders committed by innocent people are only the tip of the iceberg in Coben’s latest. Myron and Win’s stories are personal favorites, and their relationship, banter, and puzzle-solving skills make for a great series. Think Twice is a classic story with a favorite duo and another great Coben thriller full of surprises and misdirection. Here’s hoping we meet these partners in action again soon.

February 29, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Five Year Lie

by Henrietta Thornton January 25, 2024

When nasty boss Edward Cafferty hires his spoiled, beautiful daughter, Ariel, to work at Chime, the video-doorbell business he runs with his much calmer brother, the rest of the staff keeps back. That maniac’s daughter? No thank you. But one colleague, Drew, isn’t afraid, and before you can say digital privacy invasion, the two are falling hard for each other. Fast forward five years and Drew is long gone, having abandoned Ariel and the job, ending the affair through email. Ariel later found his obituary and it seemed that was that. She’s now raising the child he never knew he had and struggling…well, not financially, given that Chime is a household name, but to keep up with the ubermoms at school and to give her sweet son the happiest upbringing possible. Then the bombshell: a text from Drew asking her to meet, a message that leads to an upending of everything she thought she knew about the man and a dangerous journey to find out the truth and save her family. The marriage of surveillance technology and the legal system is closely examined here to thought provoking results, as are the effects of technology on our personal lives. Ariel is a character who readers will root hard for, and they’ll follow her narrow escapes until late into the night on a just-one-more-page quest to see her to safety. A satisfying rollercoaster.

January 25, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Very Bad Company

by Brian Kenney January 11, 2024

A delightful satire—fun, fast, and furious—of the high-flying tech industry. Every year adtech start-up Aurora brings together its top executives for a weekend retreat (think PowerPoint presentations and Jet Skis), this year, it’s in Miami Beach. It’s quite a cast of characters: for starters, the CEO models himself on Churchill. In the hands of other novelists, the cast could become a messy menagerie. But each character here is so well-defined, beginning with the company’s latest hire, Caitlin Levy, Head of Events (curious since Aurora has never sponsored an event). But just when the second day has started and everyone is beginning to sober up, there’s the announcement that the company has been sold, and suddenly everyone is if not very, very rich, then quite rich. It would be time to celebrate, except that one of the high-level executives has disappeared. And the entire retreat is under surveillance by the tech media, who can sniff a good story. Like Rosenblum’s first novel, Bad Summer People, this novel delights in exploring what lies under the surface. The adtech folks would call that a deep dive.

January 11, 2024 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 9

Get the Newsletter

Recent Posts

  • How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder
  • Sugar and Spite
  • What about the Bodies?
  • The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer
  • Everyone a Stranger

Recent Comments

  1. Nina Wachsman on The Meiji Guillotine Murders
  2. Ellen Byron on A Midnight Puzzle

About Us

firstCLUE© aspires to publish the first reviews of today's most intriguing crime fiction. Founded by Brian Kenney and Henrietta Verma, two librarians who are former editors at Library Journal and School Library Journal.

Our Most Read Reviews

  • 1

    Murder by the Seashore

    April 6, 2023
  • 2

    The Road to Murder

    July 27, 2023
  • 3

    The Puzzle Master

    March 2, 2023

Get the Newsletter

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Email

©Copyright 2024, firstCLUE - All Right Reserved.


Back To Top
firstCLUE Reviews
  • Home
  • Review Database
  • Interviews
  • Crime Fiction News
  • Submission Guidelines
  • About Us