Tag:

Thrillers

Review

Her Deadly Game

by Henrietta Thornton

Keera Duggan has had her fill of being pushed around. She had to leave her promising job in the Seattle prosecutor’s office because her one-time romantic interest couldn’t take no for an answer She’s now reluctantly taken her legal skills to Patrick Duggan & Associates, a move she swore she’d never make. Patrick is her alcoholic father and the associates are Keera and her long-suffering sisters.

As the newbie, Keera’s paying her dues on small-time cases until the last straw: her father is too drunk for court and she must step in. So, when a big case comes up on a night when she’s on phone duty, she grabs it and verbally elbows her family out of the way the next day. An ultra-rich money manager is accused of killing his wife, a disabled woman (she uses a wheelchair and is unfortunately described throughout the book as “confined” to it). She couldn’t have killed herself, even though she’s found at home alone, shot in the head, with a gun beside her. The only possibility seems a SODDI defense (some other dude did it).

Then Keera, a skilled chess player, gets an email from a stranger warning her that, “You’re in the game of your life, so play like your life depends on it.” As well as following an entire game of chess, move by move, that Keera plays with an online opponent, readers will eagerly follow the wonderfully obstinate Keera as she refuses to let up on this case even as the obstacles, puzzles, and twists keep coming. Dugoni’s afterword explains that legal thrillers are his roots, and with the intricate plotting and winning characterization here, readers will be glad he returned to them.

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Review

Hollow Beasts

by Henrietta Thornton

This propulsive series debut from the author of The Dirty Girls Social Clubsees the filthy, heavily armed, and none-too-bright Zebulon Boys arrive in rural New Mexico to take on a mix of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and interracial locals, all of whom the would-be terrorists see as Mexicans who have to go. The leader, General Zeb, gets his hateful fans from around the country to come to his camp. They keep kidnapped “Mexican” women in a hole in the ground and take them out to be hunted. They’re also planning to bomb local sites to stop the Reconquista, the reclaiming of culture and land by those who lived in the area when it was part of Mexico.

The Zebulon Boys meet their match in Jodi Luna, a former poetry professor who’s returned to her roots in the area, taking over her retiring uncle’s job as the local, and sole, game warden. It’s a dangerous job—the most perilous in U.S. law enforcement, we learn. But Jodi is ready, using her intelligence, humor, and compassion to take on the men—one of whom starts to stalk her—and protect her daughter, her growing circle of friends, and two admirers.

Game warden is an unusual and interesting take on a police-procedural set up, and Valdés can surely tell a story, making this a winner all round.

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Review

We Love to Entertain

by Brian Kenney

Praise to Strohmeyer for creating a novel both so funny—the behind-the-scenes details of the HGTV-like show To the Manor Build are a hoot—and so frightening. When a character is locked in a root cellar, I had to remind myself that this wasn’t Scandi Noir and she would survive.

The setting is Snowden, Vermont, where Holly and Robert Barron are one of three teams that are renovating fixer-uppers, with the public voting on the winning home. Lots of money hangs in the balance, both for the winners and for To the Manor Build through endorsements.

It would seem that the attractive Barrons have the lead—nauseatingly, they actually get married on the show to help boost ratings—when things start to fall apart. And I’m not talking about the late delivery of the blue, $16,000 French stove. Holly and Robert disappear, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.

Quick to be blamed is twenty-something Erika Turnbull. A daughter of Kim, the town clerk, she was working as the Barron’s assistant—no job too menial—and had a pretty major crush on Robert. Small-town Snowden is lit up with gossip.

To clear her name, Erika’s forced to work with her most unlikely partner, her mother, and the two of them—along with some truly memorable hangers-on—head off to solve the murders, shut up the obnoxious To the Manor Build producers, and resolve a secret of Kim’s that might provide the answers they need.

This book should appear to a broad range of readers, from twenty- and thirty-somethings to cozy fans and those looking for traditional mysteries.

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Review

Girls and Their Horses

by Henrietta Thornton

The Parker family started off as regular Texans, but now financier Jeff just can’t fail and they are Rolling. In. Money. His wife, Heather, seems unaware of how he makes such a fortune, but who cares? Home is now a California mansion where they have a few shelves of books in an otherwise empty library; the rest of the house is almost empty as well, but with Heather determined to spend their fortune as fast as possible, the minimalist look won’t last.
Daughter Piper, 18, misses her old friends and hates her mom’s relentless efforts to live through her children, primarily by making them into champion horse riders. Piper has rejected that life and Heather’s focus is now on younger daughter Maple, who’s terrified of the huge horses she’s forced to ride and a terrible equestrian, but desperately trying to improve. Her tortured lessons quickly become a cash cow for Kieran Flynn, the cult-leader-like boss of the $10,000 per month (PER MONTH!) stables near the Parker’s behemoth home.
What starts as dysfunction becomes much more serious when a body is found at the stables. Stories of Mable’s horse-obsessed, mean-girl acquaintances and their horse-obsessed, mean-girl moms alternate with interviews by the steely Detective Perez, who wants none of these characters’ nonsense. Get ready to enter another world and a perplexing puzzle: we don’t even know who’s dead till near the end of the book, let alone who the killer is. A great summer read

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Review

Prom Mom

by Brian Kenney

Laura Lippman’s standalone novels are tremendously smart, descend deeply into the lives of a small cast of characters, and slowly build the readers’ anxiety to a nearly unbearable level. Prom Mom doesn’t disappoint.

Amber Glass left Baltimore decades ago, and for a good reason. The night of her prom, Amber gave birth, alone and without fully understanding she was pregnant. The baby died, and Amber, burdened with the tabloid moniker Prom Girl, was briefly incarcerated. Meanwhile, her prom date and crush, Joe Simpson, escaped largely unscathed, free to pursue the girl of his dreams.

When circumstances align to bring Amber back to Baltimore, she can’t stop thinking of Joe. Both have full lives. Married to a plastic surgeon he adores with a younger girlfriend on the side (yes, he’s that guy), Joe runs a busy commercial real estate firm, while Amber is using an inheritance to create a surprisingly successful gallery. Yet encounters are inevitable—Baltimore’s a small town—and slowly the two are drawn into a relationship they seem powerless to stop.

Set during 2020-2021, when the pandemic was at its peak and so many lives were being upended, Prom Mom brings us somewhere so shocking, yet so credible, we’re left contemplating this story for days to come.

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Review

The Ocean Above Me

by Henrietta Thornton

Lukas Landon is a former war correspondent, with multiple deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s seen plenty of dangerous situations, but being trapped on the ocean floor in an upside-down shrimp trawler, with the water rising and oxygen depleting, beats anything he’s experienced. Landon is living on the boat while writing a feature on the crew of the Philomena, which went down during a freak storm.
The novel jumps among Landon’s attempts to survive his water soaked prison, reflections on his military experiences, retelling of his failed marriage, and, most compelling of all, interviews with the crew of the Philomena. These include Captain Clarita Esteban, an ex-sergeant and Black woman trying to make it in a white man’s world. A first mate who came to Florida during the Mariel boatlift. And a Haitian-born cook with a wealth of knowledge far beyond traditional medicine.
But as far as we may wander, Sites pulls us back to Landon locked in that trawler, the clock ticking. Will he survive? And will he ever find the forgiveness he so desperately craves.A unique, taut read by the author of the nonfiction The Things They Cannot Say that illustrates the impact of trauma and the hope for redemption.

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Review

Second Shot

by Henrietta Thornton

DC resident Helen Warwick is ready for the quiet life now that she’s retired. Her frequent, moments-notice travel as a state-department trade specialist all but ended her marriage, and her grown children have had it, too. What they don’t know is that Helen (like author Dees) was actually a CIA operative, and all those times she was absent were because she was involved in “wet work”—killings—rather than diplomacy.

Helen is determined to put it all right and win her family back. But when she arrives at her son’s house to babysit his dog, her plan goes up in gun smoke as the windows are shot in and, oops!, she’s forced to kill intruders who themselves seem like trained killers. The unique habitat that is DC comes to life here as Helen tries to figure out who’s after her, or who else the killers may have been targeting—perhaps there’s another family member with a clandestine background?

At the same time, she’s drawn into investigating a separate case that her lawyer-son asks for her smarts on—that of the DaVinci killer, who emulates artworks with the bodies he sadistically kills (there is one VERY gory scene here). The pages fly by as Helen dashes through family spats and deadly maneuvers toward and away from killers, while enduring realistic turmoil regarding her exasperated family.

Look forward to more from this engaging, still-got-it character! This, the first in a series, ends on a cliffhanger; it will also be a TV series starring Sharon Stone.

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Review

The Spare Room

by Brian Kenney

It’s the early months of the pandemic, and Kelly Doyle—who has recently moved to Philadelphia to live with her fiancé—finds herself with few friends and no job. But when her spouse-to-be calls off their wedding, Kelly hits a new level of despair. Her one bright spot is her childhood friend Sabrina; the two recently renewed their friendship thanks to the socials.

Sabrina has it all: a career as a best-selling romance author, a Virginia mansion right out of Elle Decor, and a handsome albeit hyper-masculine husband. So when Sabrina invites Kelly to move in with them—yes, it’s a little weird—Kelly is desperate enough to say yes. Before you can say “throuple” (why wasn’t that the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year?) the three are in bed together—this ain’t no cozy—and quickly establish a threesome. Until Kelly comes across the naked photos of another woman, who could well be her doppelganger, and learns that she is a former lover of the couple who has mysteriously vanished. Will Kelly be next?

A sexy read in which no one is right, no one is wrong, and everyone is lying. By the author of We Were Never Here, this is the ultimate summer read.

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Review

Where the Dead Sleep

by Brian Kenney

In this second in the series, Assistant Sheriff Ben Packard is juggling two major incidents. One is the death of his mentor, Sheriff Stan Shaw, which raises the question of whether Ben should run to replace Shaw as Sheriff of Minnesota’s Sandy Lake County, several hours north of the Twin Cities and a popular vacation spot. For someone who’s lived in the county for only a year or so, Ben’s got plenty of supporters, but he isn’t sure he’s ready to give up being a detective. Plus, he’s anxious about how being gay is going to play out at the polls. The other incident is the death of Bill Sanderson, shot multiple times in his bed. Nobody loved Bill—except maybe his ex-wife, who’s the sister of his new widow—but nobody seemed to hate Bill enough to actually kill him. Not his business partner, not his gambling buddies, not his spouse. To solve Bill’s death, Ben goes even deeper into the Sandy Lake community than ever before, peeling off the many dark and gritty layers, deciphering the complex family relations, and at one point putting his own life at risk. This novel works fine as a stand-alone, but readers of the first in the series, And There He Kept Her, will appreciate seeing Ben’s development and piecing together the disquieting world of Sandy Lake.

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Review

Cutting Teeth

by Henrietta Thornton

I had a moment of “yuuuuup” when I read that Baker’s debut adult novel, Whisper Network, was chosen as a Reese’s Book Club Pick, because more than one of the characters here strongly telegraphs “unhinged woman played by Reese Witherspoon.” The women are uber-mothers at the martyrdom competition that is a private preschool. Everyone’s life is perfect, thank you, no sacrifice is too great, and the mom committee has everything very much under tight control. There is one problem. The four-year-olds like to bite. Not little bites, either. Their parents and siblings are the victims of vicious, prolonged attacks that draw copious blood that the biters seem to enjoy swallowing. Then their teacher is found dead outside the classroom, with a pool of blood surrounding her that has little footprints in it. Everyone knows that their child didn’t do it, but Ms. Ollie is dead, and the investigation is on. This book is at times as funny as it is strange, with Baker hilariously skewering modern parenthood and its obsessions, while also giving us behind-the-plastic-smiles looks at parents’ inner thoughts. (I think we can all agree that “just a month or two break from giving a shit” isn’t much to ask for). Did you like Big Little Lies? This one’s for you.

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