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Review

The New Couple in 5B

by Brian Kenney August 3, 2023

Everything is creepy about the Windermere, a ritzy, historic New York City apartment building with Rosemary‘s Baby vibes to spare. But at first, Rosie, an author; and Chad, her husband and an aspiring actor, hardly notice. They’re too busy taking care of one of the residents, Chad’s uncle, who has died as the book opens, and who leaves the apartment to the broke young couple—and not his own daughter. Why? And while the residents couldn’t be more welcoming, Rosie—who’s writing a book about the history of the Windermere, focusing especially on the many murders—can’t contain her suspicions. What’s up with the doorman, who seemingly works around the clock? And the child she would swear she saw crouching in the basement? Why are there cameras absolutely everywhere? And, most importantly, why is Chad acting so weird, disappearing for huge stretches of time? Unger’s novels are textbook examples of perfect suspense fiction, and this title is no different. As we race through the narrative, we watch in terror as “something dark is on the horizon” becomes something dark that is right next to you. And we are helpless to stop it. Love New York? Then this super accurate portrayal of the City is doubly fun.

August 3, 2023 0 comment
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Review

Darling Girls

by Henrietta Thornton July 20, 2023

WHAT a rollercoaster. The “darling girls” in question–Jessica, Norah, and Alicia–are “foster children,” stuck being referred to that way even now that they’re adults. They aren’t biological sisters, but the mistreatment meted out at Wild Meadows by their foster mother, the psychologically cruel and unpredictable Miss Fairchild, has forced them into a lifelong bond. These days, Jessica is a housecleaner who steals her clients’ prescriptions and is being pursued by the relentless Debbie Montgomery-Squires, who wants her Valium back. Norah is on probation for her latest attack, one in a long string of anger-fueled outbursts. And Alicia is barely holding it together as a social worker who’s terrified to pursue a relationship with a female friend who could be more. The three are thrust back into their awful past when the police call to say that a body has been found buried at Wild Meadows, one that appears old enough to have been from their time at the “home.” What ensues are flashbacks to the children’s bizarre, cliff-edge lives as wards of a tyrant, while the darkly funny present-day tale looks at women who fight the system and their circumstances tooth and nail to avoid being victimized again. This is the rare story that’s equally character and plot driven, with the “sisters” portrayed as distinct and lovable and the plot just packed with twists. Hating Miss Fairchild is the icing on the cake

July 20, 2023 0 comment
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Review

The Mystery Guest

by Brian Kenney July 20, 2023

Millions of fans of Molly—“the maid”—Gray will be delighted with this wonderful second installation, which features returning characters (such as Mr. Preston, the congenial doorman, and Detective Stark, the grouchy cop) along with a handful of new characters. But most important is J.D. Grimthorpe, renowned mystery author, who chooses Molly’s five-star Regency Grand Hotel to make a most important announcement. No sooner does he mount the stage in the perfectly appointed tea room (expect nothing less from Molly, the head maid) than he suddenly drops dead. Very, very dead. And not from a medical condition. J.D. Grimthorpe was murdered. The path to finding the murderer is a long and twisted one, taking Molly back into her childhood and her early days working alongside her beloved Gran. But as guests and employees start looking at each other with accusation in their eyes, the pressure for Molly to solve the case mounts. In the first volume, The Maid, there was much discussion about Molly being autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. Not qualified to make such an assessment myself, I prefer to think of Molly as eccentric. As this tale draws to a close, several secrets are most satisfyingly revealed, and one major opportunity presents itself, which will leave me in a state of wonder until the next Molly mystery. Pronto, please.

July 20, 2023 0 comment
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Review

Nightwatching

by Brian Kenney June 29, 2023

A superb novel of suspense that alternates between the terrifying present and the complex past that led up to this moment. A woman, sleeping near her two young children in a Colonial home in Massachusetts town, hears what she thinks are footsteps. Could there be anything scarier? Except this is an old house, always creaking. Perhaps it’s her imagination. Then, thanks to the nightlight, she sees a man, a huge man, slowly climbing the stairs, as “his fingers wrap the banister like white spider legs.” What should she do? A blizzard rages outside, making escape impossible. Then she remembers that the house has a tiny, hidden room, and she hustles the children and herself into it, while still worrying how they will be able to survive. Sierra keeps the adrenaline pumping, but takes breaks from the primary narrative to explore the woman’s life, from a less than happy marriage to an abusive relationship with her father-in-law to a patriarchal society that refuses to believe her. This unique, thinking-person’s thriller would be great for a book discussion, there’s so much here to unpack.

June 29, 2023 0 comment
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Review

Who to Believe

by Brian Kenney June 15, 2023

Kudos to Edwin Hill for a book so sophisticated, suspenseful, and shocking. It’s set in Monreith, a small, coastal suburb south of Boston where everyone knows, and oftentimes loathes, everyone else. It’s also where restaurateur Laurel Thibodeau is brutally murdered and her husband—it’s always the spouse, right?—is the prime suspect. Especially when his massive gambling debts, the type that need an insurance policy to offset, become public. But while Laurel’s murder sets things in motion, the novel is really centered on six friends whose lives are intertwined in the most disturbing of ways. This includes super-wealthy shrink Farley Drake, who loves to blur the friend/client line. Georgia Fitzhugh, a Unitarian minister, also privy to many personal lives, and whose husband, Ritchie, has moved out and is now living with Farley. And Max Barbosa, the handsome chief of police, Ritchie’s childhood best friend, who leaks information like the proverbial sieve while lusting after Georgia. And that’s just for starters! The novel takes place in one late summer day, culminating in a birthday dinner for one of the six that yields yet more tragedy. Hill takes some big risks here—he moves the narration among the group, playing with time as well—and we often get to see the same scene from different points of view. But what could have been a bore works wonderfully, thanks to the tightness of the prose, the tension of the story, and the credibility of the characters. Mute that cell phone and curl up for several hours of great suspenseful reading.

June 15, 2023 0 comment
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Review

Some of Us Are Looking

by Henrietta Thornton May 4, 2023

O’Connor’s second tale starring rural Irish veterinarian Dimpna Wilde at first has all the markings of a cozy. A female protagonist whose job is a magnet for drama, animals—including a talking African grey parrot called Bette Davis,who plays a major role in the story—and a love interest who’s in law enforcement. But cozies usually involve a sanitized crime, and this is where O’Connor takes a decided swerve out of the gentle side of the genre. The murder mystery that Dimpna finds herself enmeshed in is the killing of a young woman, Brigid, who early in the story shows up at the vet clinic with an injured animal. It’s a hare that has a cut on its leg from someone, Brigid says, trying to remove its foot. The gruesome motif is repeated when Dimpna finds Brigid tied to a tree, dead and with her hand cut off. At the same time, chalked graffiti around the town asks, “Who put Bella in the witch elm?”, just one of the intertwined puzzles facing Dimpna and the man she’s falling for, Inspector Cormac O’Brien, as they investigate the town’s many intriguing residents and visitors. While this absorbing story stands well on its own, you’ll want to go back to the first in the series, No Strangers Here, to spend more time with this smart, kind vet and her knack for attracting trouble.

May 4, 2023 0 comment
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Review

The Busy Body

by Brian Kenney April 6, 2023

Sometimes it’s the setting that grabs you. Often it’s the plot. But here it is two fabulous characters who come together and through sharp dialogue create a story that both cozy and traditional-mystery readers will love. Former Senator Dorothy Gibson—pant-suit loving, wise-cracking, and wine-imbibing—has just weeks ago lost a run for the presidency to that man, and she’s retired to her northern White House on the Maine coast to lick her wounds and begin work on her memoirs. Her ghostwriter, new on the job, is summoned to Maine; Dorothy’s not one to sit idle. It’s quite a fun hothouse with Dorothy’s gay son hanging around, a ten-out-of-ten bodyguard lurking in the corridor, a Huma Abedin clone who tries to keep everyone on track—and the ghostwriter describing it all in delicious detail. All’s well until there’s a death at a neighboring estate and Dorothy and the ghostwriter, refusing to believe it’s an accident, quickly launch their own investigation. The denouement is quite wordy, but full of the requisite number of surprises. The idea of a ghostwriter as the narrator, who pairs up with different celebrities to solve crimes, is a darn good one.

April 6, 2023 0 comment
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Review

The New Mother

by Henrietta Thornton April 6, 2023

Having a new baby is hard for anyone, but for lawyer Natalie the daily grind of keeping up with baby Oliver while her husband goes to work seems like both thankless drudgery and the most important job in the world, one at which she’s failing miserably. All Oliver wants to do is nurse, leaving Natalie little time to sleep, and when she does collapse into bed, she lies awake fretting about her failures. So when Paul, a kindly neighbor and a stay-at-home dad, slowly gains her trust and seems to be the only one who understands—Oliver even likes him!—Natalie is quickly drawn into his care. Erin, his wife, a stern, perfect woman whom he has come to loathe, is not a fan of Natalie. The young woman’s presence, and her growing relationship with Paul, brings back painful, humiliating memories for Erin, including his transgression with the woman who lived in Natalie’s house before, whose family, readers learn, moved in an odd hurry. The hormonal, messy, and puzzling time warp of the first months of life with a new baby are the perfect backdrop for a psychological thriller, and this one will keep parents especially rapt. While you wait for it, try Murphy’s The Favor, another absorbing domestic drama.

April 6, 2023 0 comment
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Review

The Beautiful and the Wild

by Henrietta Thornton April 6, 2023

Liv is imprisoned in a rusting shipping container in rural Alaska, her captor her ex-husband, whom she’s tracked down after he faked his death and ran from their marriage and disabled son. He’s now living with a new partner in a proto-cult based on the writings of a guru who espouses pleasure above all else and is happy to philosophize endlessly while harsh conditions threaten his family. Over time, as Liv gains entry to Mark’s house and to some of his more sordid secrets, she plots her escape, one that it seems impossible being phone- and car-less as she is. Townsend takes us on a tense ride through family and cult dynamics, along the way treating us to a memorable look at female and parental resilience; the up-close look at a narcissistic patriarch who’s setting himself up to fail is a bonus. For fans of wilderness thrillers such as Karen Dionne’s The Marsh King’s Daughter.

April 6, 2023 0 comment
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Review

The Woman Inside

by Henrietta Thornton March 23, 2023

“Before I got this job,” says Jennica Jungstedt, “I had no idea how far people are willing to stretch the limits of their values,” neatly summing up the theme of this Swedish psychological drama. Jennica is a psychic-hotline operator, but really more of a therapist for those who call; she’s also dating a much-older professor, Steven Rytter. He seems almost too good to be true when they get together after meeting on an online-dating site. “Don’t want to jinx it,” she tells her friends, “but right now it’s going pretty fucking great.” Not so great is that Steven has a wife, Regina, who’s been struck down by the mysterious after-affects of a virus He also forbids his house cleaner, Karla, the only outside contact Regina has, from talking to the sick woman. Karla, meanwhile, has a new space as a lodger in a home that’s equally dysfunctional: she lives with a recent widower who might soon lose his home as he’s unemployed and the bills are mounting. There are lots of characters here, each with a distinct personality and a unique way of adding to the spiraling chaos. Starring two young women, Jennica and Karla, this book is both lighter than many of the Scandi noir titles of recent years and more devastating in portraying the characters’ slow, then all too rapid, descent into murder. A must read.

March 23, 2023 0 comment
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