Tag:

Thrillers

Review

Trust No One

by Jeff Ayers

Sharyn Karr, an American student studying at the University of Exeter, wants nothing more than to focus on her postgraduate work involving witchcraft and folklore. A professor she admires gives her a book with a strange cover and inscriptions, telling her to hide it and trust no one. Shortly after, she learns that the library where she was given the book caught fire, and her professor’s burned remains are found. Since she was the last person to see him alive, she’s the primary suspect. Sharyn and some of her friends attempt to solve the mystery surrounding the book, which was supposedly handwritten by enigmatic eighteenth-century mystic the Comte de Saint-Germain. They will dodge bullets, fight treachery, and play detective in various parts of the world while staying one step ahead of ruthless killers determined to obtain the volume at all costs. Fans of Rollins will find his terrific blend of historical facts, relentless action, and relatable and realistic characters on full display. Newcomers to this master of adventure will read this in one sitting and then will want to dive into his earlier novels. Trust this reviewer, and get Trust No One.

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Review

The Insomniacs

by Henrietta Thornton

Scotch, Allison Winn. The Insomniacs. April 14, 2026. 400 pages. Berkley.

The three insomniacs who first meet online and then at an all-night New York City diner have more in common than their tossing and turning. They’re each living a life that’s a lie. Famous baseball player Zeke believes he can only do one thing well—pitch—but isn’t sure he wants to do it anymore. Quiet older gentleman Julian is hiding his stressful past as an FBI agent. Sybil, a protective mom to the group, wants more than the stay-at-home life she quit medicine for. And the biggest lie of them all is that of the waitress they befriend, Betty, who pretends her parents are dead and her past is unremarkable. Flashes to her younger years reveal that she grew up the child of an abusive cult leader, and how she found her way to New York is a gripping plot point that grows in prominence as her insomniac customers try to help her. You’ll stay up late reading this cross between Maeve Binchy-esque strangers-becoming-family story and Tara Westover’s Educated, and fall in love especially with the Zeke and Sybil dynamic.

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Review

Silent Bones

by Willy Williams

Book of the Week September 11, 2025

When a mudslide blocks a highway near Edinburgh, the debris also exposes a skeleton with a damaged skull, indicating signs of murder. Detective Inspector Karen Pitrie and her Police Scotland Historic Crimes Unit are called in to investigate. It’s spring 2025, five years after the traumatic COVID-related events of Past Lying. Research indicates that the skeleton, soon identified as that of freelance journalist Sam Nimmo, was buried back in 2014 when the road was constructed. At that time, Nimmo was the prime suspect in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend. Was his death an act of vengeance? Or was his investigation into a possible sex scandal connected to the 2014 referendum for Scottish independence the motivating factor? Pirie and her team also probe the so-called accidental death of a hotel manager with ties to a mysterious book club called Justified Sinners, whose members are wealthy, entitled men. Flavoring her writing with colorful Scottish slang, McDermid combines compelling, intricate plotting with strong character development. It’s nice to see DC Jason Murray developing his sleuthing skills and confidence under Karen’s patient mentoring, while talented but impulsive DS Daisy Mortimer occasionally still irritates her boss. The unsettled ending may disappoint some readers (real life is not always so neatly tied up), but McDermid’s passion for justice shines through.

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Review

The Italian Secret

by Danise Hoover

In a spectacular example of a post-war noir novel we have Billie Walker, a hardboiled PI following in her father’s tradition, with her specialty helping women out of terrible marriages by finding evidence of infidelity. The Sydney, Australia PI has a loyal and supportive staff, an attractive police officer to back her up, and a mystery in her background. In her father’s files, she finds an old picture, taken in an Italian town near Naples, of him, another woman, and a young girl. There follows the suspicious death of a client, a sea voyage with her mother to Naples, vendettas, the search for her father’s other family, and a deadly chase through the tunnels under the city. This is non-stop action, with an authenticity of mood, clothing, travel detail, and attitude that makes it special.

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Review

The Tumbling Girl

by Henrietta Thornton

In the acknowledgments to this immersive debut, Walsh explains that she took a novel-writing course partly to convince herself not to write this series opener; readers will be happy that she went ahead anyway. Walsh drops us deep into the world of Minnie Ward, who writes music for Victorian London’s Variety Palace Music Hall. The shabby venue hosts a plate spinner whose dressing room sounds like breaking crockery and sobs, a soprano who only sometimes hits a note, a wayward monkey that likes to have its way with the ventriloquist’s dummy, and other downmarket wonders. When kindly detective Albert Easterbrook is hired to find the killer of a young woman who worked at the Palace, it brings him into Minnie’s world. She’s not content to sit on the sidelines of the investigation—she knows far more than Albert does about the workings of her realm, not to mention that those he needs to question aren’t going to open themselves up to a “toff.” While working through his exasperation with headstrong Minnie, Albert begins to fall for her, a situation she rebuffs as it will never work out—class divides loom large here. Their sometimes-parallel, sometimes-together work exposes both to dangers and horrors that will keep readers rapt; a side plot involving a serial killer who is terrorizing London closes the book and creates an opening for a sequel, which readers will eagerly await.

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Review

Five

by Jeff Ayers

At 7:01 AM on an ordinary day, five people with significantly different backgrounds arrive at a London subway platform. One will die when the train arrives at 7:06 AM. Is it the gambler, a young man who can’t seem to shake the need to burn money for his habit? The child, a violent boy who takes pleasure in other people’s pain? The suffering mother who can’t seem to control her unruly kid? Or perhaps the old woman whose upbringing makes it difficult for her to convey emotions? The businessman whose quest for power overshadows his family obligations? As time ticks down to what is inevitable, Bannister explores the stories behind this unique group. Readers will choose favorites among them, rooting for some to succeed while wanting others to be lying on the tracks and hit when the time comes. The story the author has woven, and the way she delivers it on the page, is a stroke of genius that shouldn’t work, but it does. Bannister forces us to realize that everyone we see every day has a background that reflects how they became who they are. We all have a story. Five is worth the leap and will make a terrific audio experience as well.

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Review

Innocence Road

by Danise Hoover

The body of a young woman is found in the desert outside a nothing Texas town, stirring memories of the murder of the daughter of a prominent citizen 15 years ago. Leanne Everhart, a local cop and daughter of one of the officers who solved the original case, is in a terrible place. The man who confessed to the original crime has had his conviction overturned, and she sees connections that no one else sees in the two crimes. As she digs further, she finds that there are more dead women, nearly one a year, whose existence has been ignored by politics and local inertia. She sees patterns, but there are no funds to pursue the case. Long-held local loyalties and family ties stand in her way, but it’s the politics and scandals that are the true impediments. Tough, indomitable Leanne calls in every favor she can while risking her career and her life in the process. This is an edge-of-the-seat read that’s not for the faint of heart.

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Review

The Quiet Mother

by Brian Kenney

Lies, guilt, and betrayal are the engines that drive Indridason’s powerful third and most recent of the Konrad novels to be published in English. Retired police detective Konrad hears of the brutal murder of Valborg, an older woman who lives a simple life in her Reykjavik apartment. She leaves behind little, except for a note with Konrad’s phone number. It turns out that Konrad was contacted by Valborg several times—they even met for coffee—as Valborg tried to convince the detective to take on her case: she wanted him to find a child that she had given up almost 50 years before. Konrad repeatedly turned down her request, fearing that there wasn’t enough information to complete her search. But once Valborg is murdered, guilt consumes Konrad, and he decides to delve into the past to understand the present. Dark and haunting, Konrad’s search unearths the sad and sordid history of his own family, a history he has striven to repress. A fast-moving Nordic noir that will appeal to fans of police narratives, family histories, and Iceland’s past.

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Review

The Haunting of Emily Grace

by Jeff Ayers

Emily Grace has lost everyone she cares about, but rather than wallow in grief, she decides to work for a secretive millionaire renovating his mansion on a secluded island. The owner of the home, Cameron, is also grieving, since his wife disappeared in what appears to be a sailing accident over a month ago. The folks living on the island believe the house Emily’s working on is cursed, and mysterious events start to happen there when Cameron’s daughter, Chloe, arrives. Strange sounds, Cameron’s wife’s clothes folded in a closet, and other oddities that put Emily Grace in a bad light with her employer all put her on edge. She starts to question everything, including the motivations behind the friendships of a couple of others who live on the island. Both of them tell her different stories of what’s happening in Cameron’s creepy house, making it difficult for her to focus since she thinks that she’ll be next to disappear. Taylor takes the reader on a journey that never falters, invoking the setting and isolation so well that readers will see the fog, feel the darkness, and hear the faint footsteps throughout. When diving into this, make sure you are in a crowded room with bright lights.

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Review

Desperate Spies

by Charlotte Del Vecchio

At 75 years old, retired FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater returns for another case of digging up dirt and showing up perps. Ethel may have hung up her badge, but that does not make her any less active on the cases that impact the people closest to her, especially the steady stream of FBI agents she rents rooms to in her home. When an old colleague calls in a favor, she accepts without question. But as she dives deeper into the case, Ethel discovers that it originates in the very sting-operation-gone-bad that sent her into retirement, involving the murder of a college student and the Russian mob. Now, 18 years later, Ethel is back on the case with a new team and even more to lose. De Castrique’s (Secret Lives) sharp protagonist must use her skills and resources in the form of some tech-savvy spies, including Jesse, her beloved double-first-cousin-twice-removed, to keep state secrets out of the wrong hands once and for all. Fans of elderly sleuths will enjoy this political thriller, as well as Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series and Deanna Rayborn’s Killers of a Certain Age.

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