Tag:

Suspense

Review

The Book of Cold Cases

by Brian Kenney

A medical receptionist by day, Shea Collins operates a popular true-crime website that specializes in cold cases. Single, a loner, and herself a victim—she was abducted as a child—Shea reserves her passions for her blog. Until the day that Beth Greer comes to Shea’s office. Back in 1977, Greer was tried and acquitted in the Lady Killer Murders, in which two men were killed, seemingly for the fun of it, by a female serial killer. Since then, the beautiful, sophisticated, and super-rich Beth has spoken to nearly no one—making it all the more remarkable that she agrees to be interviewed by Shea. Beth slowly opens up to the interviewer—inviting her into her super creepy mansion and deeply introspective life—as Shea struggles to put together the fragments Beth shares. This novel is beautifully written and perfectly paced. It creates a powerful sense of place in its depiction of an Oregon coastal community, and doesn’t shy away from tackling larger social issues, such as the sexism Beth experienced throughout her trial. Finally, its use of the paranormal—something I typically shy away from—is as terrifying as it is credible

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Secret Identity

by Henrietta Thornton

Anyone who’s worked in publishing will recognize the low pay, deadline whirlwind, and scramble for recognition facing Carmen Valdez, a Miami transplant in New York. Worse, she’s a secretary trying to advance in a man’s world within a man’s world—comics publishing in 1975. Male colleagues sometimes show up drunk and their work is barely passable. Still, Carmen’s boss, whose father started the company, reminds her that “in the real world, we grant jobs based on experience and merit” when she gives him her comics scripts. Then her smoking buddy at work, Harvey, proposes to help by submitting a project by the two of them, but mainly by her, as his, and to reveal her authorship once it’s a success. Things don’t go according to plan, with not only Carmen’s professional future but also her safety jeopardized by a killer targeting her circle. Complementing this puzzling whodunit is a major plus for comics and graphic novel readers: Segura’s insider view of the comics industry and its history, as well as his spot-on chronicling of the too-frequent backstabbing among striving artists. For fans of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl, another look at a young woman trying to make it in publishing

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Secrets We Share

by Brian Kenney

A bold, ambitious novel with a big, multigenerational story line, a busload of characters, and a smart balance between mystery and suspense. Natalie Cavanaugh and Glenn Abbott are sisters, but not the least alike. Natalie is a tough-as-nails Boston cop, while Glenn is a food blogger and now a book author. What they have in common is what they never talk about: the murder of their father, who was bludgeoned to death in the woods behind their house. But through a series of incidents in Glenn’s life today, the women are drawn back into their shared past, and the story line opens up to include Glenn’s husband, her tween daughter, Natalie’s colleagues on the police force, and many more. It’s remarkable that Hill can keep so many subplots afloat while at the same time creating such a level of suspense that the reader feels as though they are being catapulted to the knock-out conclusion. Hill is the author of the more cozy-ish Hester Thursby series, and librarian Hester makes a few delightful cameos in this book. For fans of Robert Bryndza and Karin Slaughter.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

My Darling Husband

by Henrietta Thornton

Get ready to care far more than you thought you could about fictional strangers. The three in question are Jade, the busy, pampered wife of Atlanta celebrity chef Cam Lasky; and her children, Beatrix and Baxter. This book wastes no time on background, and we get to know these characters as they enter a domestic horror scene. Arriving home from violin-prodigy Beatrix’s music lesson, they are met in the garage by a masked gunman who takes them hostage for a day of psychological terror. He wants $734,296, an odd demand that Jade gives her flashy husband when she can get a word in over the phone, starting him on a desperate quest. The overextended, secretly broke businessman, who’s not the most sympathetic character, is brought to his knees while his family’s love and strength are pushed to the limit. Each character is meticulously drawn, and presented from multiple angles, as the story plays out from the alternating viewpoints of Jade, Cam, and for a short time, the kidnapper. In a clever device, much of Cam’s narrative involves him answering questions in a post-event sensationalist TV interview, which allows Belle (Dear Wife, The Marriage Lie) to parcel out information bit by tantalizing bit. Read something mellow after this, you’ll need it.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Darkest Game

by Brian Kenney

One of the most fascinating detectives to have come along in years, Tully Jarsdel isn’t your typical cop. He abandoned a doctoral program to attend the police academy. He was raised by two dads, one of whom escaped Iran as a refugee. And he’s a brainiac—with so much trivial knowledge that his partner, detective Oscar Morales, calls him Rain Man. But he’s perfectly suited to investigate the death of Dean Burken, who was violently murdered in his own home. Burken, it turns out, was a registrar at The Huntington, a museum, library, and garden. Registrars can be powerful people, and Tully is quick to realize that Burken was abusing his position—in a big way. From deep inside The Huntington to Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles, Tully and Jarsdel pursue a narrative of fraud, corruption, and greed. Fortunately, the detective work is offset with family issues, as one of Tully’s parents has a serious health crisis and the other struggles to deal with his past in the Iranian revolution. Throughout, Tully remains introspective, elusive, and unsettled—making the prospect of a fourth book all the more compelling.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Resting Place

by Henrietta Thornton

When young Swedish woman Eleanor finds her manipulative, angry grandmother Vivianne dying of a stab wound, she’s more depressed and bewildered than sad. Vivianne raised Eleanor on a steady diet of scorching belittlement after the girl was left an orphan. Eleanor’s now working to overcome the hurt while learning to cope with prosopagnosia, or face blindness (she can’t recognize faces, even her own in the mirror). The story quickly moves to Solhöga, Vivianne’s country mansion, where Eleanor, her boyfriend and aunt, and Vivianne’s lawyer aim to inventory the contents. The chore becomes a terrifying ordeal when various members of the party come to mysterious harm; the somber house and sad diary entries detailing the lonely days of a long-ago maid at Solhöga add to the forbidding atmosphere. Sten’s character-driven, psychologically immersive puzzle will keep readers guessing until the end about who killed Vivianne and what’s behind the mysteries at the house. Eleanor’s face blindness adds an interesting and thankfully not overused element to the tale; an apt complement to this is Sarah Strohmeyer’s Do I Know You? (Harper, November), which features a “super-recognizer” who remembers for years the faces of people she sees even once in a crowd.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Unmissing

by Brian Kenney

Ten years ago, Lydia was kidnapped, then spent the subsequent decade locked in a hunting cabin, subjected to torture and abuse. Miraculously, she managed to escape—feigning death—and after several months of homelessness made it to the coastal town where her husband, Luca, and Merritt, his second wife, live. At first glance, Luca and Merritt, who married a couple of years after Lydia disappeared and was declared dead, have it all: homes, cars, several restaurants that they own, a beautiful child, another on its way. How will Lydia’s resurrection rock Luca and Merritt’s world? With chapters alternating between Lydia and Merritt’s points of view, we watch the tentative relationship between the two women grow. Merritt tries to help Lydia while Lydia charts her own course, deciding how she wants to be helped. Kent does a terrific job of creating suspense—we know a bomb is about to go off, just not which one—and when it does, we’re totally spun about. But the book doesn’t end there, as two more revelations upturn everything we know. Credible? You’ll be too terrified to care.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Hold Me Down

by Henrietta Thornton

Simon, prolific author of the Witch Cats of Cambridge series, here mines her past as a rock critic. The tale looks at former rockers visiting their own past when they reunite for a benefit after former bandmate Aimee dies. During the concert, Gal Raver, frontwoman of the band and of the book, sees a familiar face in the crowd. It’s TK, the band’s old roadie, who’s later found dead in an alleyway behind the club. Walter, Aimee’s husband, is charged with murdering TK and seems curiously apathetic when Gal tries to help him fight the accusation. Finding out what happened involves numerous murky flashbacks to Gal’s past as a messy, angry drug and alcohol addict, and her behavior and the battle for fleeting success give the book a feeling of darkness. Simon’s evocative writing puts readers inside sweaty clubs that stink of beer and vomit (so much vomit!), and reaches its first height when describing the moment the fledgling band finally gels onstage. The music fades in the last part of the novel, which explores hard truths and the differing ways they can be remembered, with Simon’s depiction of Gal’s slowly unfurling memories a second high point. Note that rape is described here in some detail. For readers who enjoy dark stories and fans of music-themed mysteries.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Find Me

by Henrietta Thornton

Hope Miller, as she’s known these days, is stuck in a legal no-man’s land. After she was found injured in a car crash, she never regained her memory, doesn’t know who she is, and has continued to live, for years, as a kind of foster daughter of a whole New Jersey town. Police pretend not to notice that she’s driving without a license. She works cash jobs. And her best friend, defense lawyer Lindsay Kelly, who found Hope in the wreck of her car all those years ago, carefully tends to her friend’s safety. Lindsay tries to understand when Hope moves to the Hamptons and asks for no contact for a while, but she’s frantic when the vulnerable woman disappears from the Hamptons home. Looking for Hope, and trying to remain loyal to her while uncovering disturbing truths, has Lindsay examining the case of an already-captured serial killer who stalked women a thousand miles from New York decades before. She’s assisted in the investigation by gutsy NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher, whom readers will know from the previous five books in this series. Also familiar will be Burke’s talent at gripping storytelling, creating thought-provoking characters that make readers squirm with ambivalence, and oh-so-clever endings. There’s no need to read the other books to follow this one, but you’ll want to.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

48 Hours to Kill

by Brian Kenney

A gripping thriller that is begging to be made into a motion picture. Ethan Lockhart, serving time in a Nevada jail for armed robbery, is released on a 48 hour furlough to attend the funeral of his younger sister, Abby. Ethan is devastated—he and Abby were super tight—but he’s also suspicious: his sister Abby was clearly assaulted in her home, but her body was never found. Ethan suspects Shark, his former boss, a one-time minor loan shark who’s now a major Reno crime boss. Ethan teams up with Abby’s best friend, Whitney—sparks fly!—and they descend into the criminal underground he had hoped to have left behind. The plot never wavers, and the few subplots all add to the story. Bourelle really cranks up the pace—the book just flies—and each chapter is ingeniously named after how many hours are left before Ethan needs to turn himself in. Netflix, please get on this!

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail