Tag:

Thrillers

Review

Fighting Edge

by Jeff Ayers

Deputy Mattie Walker and her K-9 partner, Robo, start the day with a grim discovery: a young mother murdered, her two-year-old daughter found alive in another room. The question lingers as to whether the child witnessed the attack. Not long after, Mattie pulls over a speeder, and Robo alerts to the presence of drugs in the vehicle. After the driver is arrested, a boy left behind refuses to speak, raising Mattie’s suspicions that he may be entangled in something far more dangerous, possibly even human trafficking. Meanwhile, Mattie’s husband, veterinarian Cole, stumbles upon a questionable dog kennel that may connect to her cases, deepening the mystery. As the investigation unfolds, the couple, still healing from past trauma, find their personal lives increasingly strained by the dangers surrounding them. Mizushima delivers another strong installment, skillfully balancing suspense with heartfelt character development. The small-town cast continues to deepen, with each character given moments to stand out. The unusual perspective of police work alongside a K-9 partner adds an extra layer of authenticity and intrigue. This series only gets better with each book, making it a must-read for fans of crime fiction and police procedurals. New readers can jump in easily but will likely want to track down the earlier entries once they finish.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

The Grapevine

by Dodie Ownes

Right from the first page, readers will be compelled to follow bull-headed and strangely loveable Lou Gommersall on a one woman (plus 1) quest to solve the mystery of her 19-year-old daughter’s disappearance a year ago. With aspiring journalist and tech nerd Ethan Ito by her side, Lou begins to unravel clues and “coincidences” that the police have yet to put together. Setting off on a desperate, impulsive road trip in her faithful RV Lady Luck, Lou plans to find Abby. She’s also determined to find the person responsible not only for Abby’s vanishing but for the fate of many other young women who disappeared on California’s scenic and often challenging I-5—specifically along the steep, mountainous “Grapevine” section near Los Angeles. Using every connection she can, from local law enforcement to trailer-park mavens, Lou moves in on the “creepo” identified by near-victims with the utmost conviction. But could she be wrong? Lou is the little dog with sharp teeth who will not let go, while her husband, Brian, just wants her to put this all behind her. The cat and mouse game is full on, and Lou finds unexpected allies as the path to the perp becomes clear. I can’t wait to see what Sokoloff and Robertson have in store for Lou and friends in this fantastic new series that’s packed with psychological thrills and propulsive momentum.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Time to Burn

by Jeff Ayers

Book of the Week April 30, 2026

What if the ultra-wealthy could vacation in the past? In this imaginative premise, time travel is real and commercialized, with Tempus Tours, helmed by the enigmatic Inigo Frank, catering to elite thrill-seekers who are willing to pay a premium for front-row seats to history. Frank invites documentary filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to shadow him for a week, capturing both the behind-the-scenes operation and a group of tourists embarking on a harrowing excursion to London during the 1941 Blitz. The trip goes catastrophically wrong. Most of the party returns badly injured and in need of emergency care, but one traveler, Sasha, doesn’t come back at all. Phoebe’s documentary takes a sharp turn as she finds herself embedded in a desperate rescue mission, filming Frank and his team as they race to pull Sasha from the past. But the deeper Phoebe digs, the stranger things become. Details feel off—one party member was married to someone else entirely, Phoebe’s certain, and she has the unsettling sense that the missing woman is someone from Phoebe’s own past, tied to a mistake she’d rather forget. Lloyd’s gripping, thought-provoking narrative goes far beyond a clever sci-fi concept, using time travel as a lens to examine identity, consequence, and the hidden forces that shape who we become.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Promise Me Never

by Henrietta Thornton

Working at a literary agency while writing her own novel, Savannah meets megastar author Bennett and is smitten. She’s shocked when he seems to feel the same, and soon they’re in a whirlwind romance that rapidly gets serious. Savannah can’t help feeling it’s a little too quick, but tries to put doubts out of her mind. And if Bennett is a little too persistent in his wish for her to move out of New York City to relatively sleepy Bedford and get married, well, she shakes that off too. Who wouldn’t want to quit work and spend her days writing in a mansion? But soon her doubts are back when she hears local gossip that Bennett’s last wife’s drowning death may not have been an accident. And the more she lives with this controlling man, the more she’s convinced that the rumors about that death and other suspicious happenings in Bennett’s past are all too true. Constantine (a pen name for the duo of sisters behind The Next Mrs. Parrish) alternates chapters that impart Savannah’s and Poppy’s points of view, showing each woman’s fall to despair, with the characters’ voices ramping up the tension as the fast-moving thriller unfolds. These authors are already best sellers; this next book will satisfy their fans and bring in more readers who enjoy domestic turmoil and twists.—Henrietta Thornton

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Review

It’s Not What You Think

by Jeff Ayers

Book of the Week April 23, 20226

Nadeeka leaves work early, convinced that her boyfriend, Jamie, is cheating and determined to confront him. Instead, she arrives home to flashing lights, police tape, and the devastating news that Jamie has been stabbed to death in their living room. What begins as a search for his possible lover quickly spirals into something far more unsettling. As Nadeeka digs deeper, nothing about Jamie’s life lines up with the man she thought she knew. His coworkers insist her name is Nadia—the name he used for her. A cherished photo of the two of them is hidden away in a drawer rather than displayed. And then comes the most shocking revelation of all: Jamie’s ties to a white supremacist group called New Dawn, including his role in a local arson. The betrayal Nadeeka feared turns out to be the least of it. With each discovery, the ground beneath her shifts, pulling her into a reality that feels increasingly unreal. Mackintosh crafts a chilling, emotionally grounded thriller that continually upends expectations. Packed with sharp twists and a deeply sympathetic protagonist, It’s Not What You Think lives up to its title in every way, delivering a story that will keep even seasoned thriller readers guessing until the very end.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die

by Dodie Ownes

What is not to like about this rollicking, trope-riven (and I mean that in a good way!) revenge-mystery thriller? Jason, the three-timing guy who strings Cham, Nora, and Ruby along with good looks, great sex, and loose promises, is about to find out about a woman scorned. Add a spooky camp in a remote area outside of Big Sky, Montana; a cult history associated with one of the gals; and a donated organ (I kid you not), and you have my attention. As the women grow closer and more resolute that they just want to scare Jason, weird things begin to happen at the cabin to which they have lured the cheater and his new catch, Thalia, for a romantic weekend. When the ladies arrive, they find buckets of blood that may have been the first clue that this place had seen horrors in the past. The trio push through, however, with their observations shared with the reader in chapters told from each woman’s point of view, as well as excerpted police transcripts and diary entries. This is as much a sharp, funny feminist manifesto as it is a chilling payback story about the power in women’s ability to dictate their own future. A good dose of slasher, a hit of supernatural, and a lot about getting even, this atmospheric adventure has all the feels.—Dodie Ownes

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Review

Murder at the Spirit Lounge

by Danise Hoover

It’s December in the beach town of Gore-on-Sea, and Nora Breen, recently a cloistered Carmelite nun, is drawn into the intrigue of a séance by friend and Detective Inspector Rideout. She is not invited to attend, but Rideout is. The medium, Mrs. Chimes, dies during the séance, murdered as we later find out, and all who were present seem marked for strange and dreadful deaths of their own. The connection is discovered only after much sleuthing, and Nora, with her sharp intelligence and easy manner, is able to uncover the striking details needed to unravel this. There is, however, so much more to this book than its complex mystery. The richly drawn characters, quirky situations of life in this odd town, and spectacularly inventive and colorful descriptive prose used by the author (portraits “rendered in gravy-brown paint”) make this captivating to read. As it is the second in a series, readers can only hope for number three.—Danise Hoover

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Review

Exit Wound

by Jeff Ayers

Book of the Week April 16, 2026

Maldonado delivers a blistering finale to detective Veranda Cruz’s long pursuit of bringing justice to bear against the Villalobos crime family, closing the series with relentless tension and high-stakes action. Veranda believes that capturing Adelmo Salazar will finally end the nightmare, but his escape from custody turns that hope into something far more dangerous, leaving her barely alive and firmly in the crosshairs. Salazar answers to the ruthless Hector Villalobos and his son, Adolfo, both of whom are determined to eliminate Veranda at any cost. As she and her team scramble to track down Salazar and dismantle the Villalobos empire, they remain unaware that a full-scale war is already underway—one they are ill-prepared to survive, let alone win. Every lead they chase and every apparent breakthrough only reveal how far behind they truly are, with their enemies always several moves ahead. With the first three installments (Blood’s Echo, Phoenix Burning, and Death Blow) now back in circulation, readers can fully appreciate the scope of this explosive conclusion. While newcomers can jump in without prior knowledge, longtime fans will find this payoff especially satisfying. Maldonado raises the stakes to their highest point yet, crafting a finale in which cartel warfare and crime fiction collide in a gripping, pulse-pounding showdown.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

One Second Away

by Jeff Ayers

Jessie and her husband, Vaughn, are divorcing. Living on opposite coasts and struggling to determine custody for their nine-year-old son, Dylan, they agree to have Dylan fly solo from LA to New York to visit Vaughn. The airline has is ready to accommodate him as an unaccompanied minor, and it’s all set for his grandparents to pick him up when he lands. With an AirTag in his backpack and location sharing on both his phone and watch, he takes off. Hours later at JFK, his grandparents tell Jessie they were diverted to another gate to pick him up, but it turns out the plane landed at the correct one. At the gate where Dylan landed, people who look like his grandparents pick him up and have the proper paperwork. When Jessie checks, the AirTag says he’s still in LA, but the tracking on his phone and watch say he’s still at the gate. Who would want to take Dylan? At the same time, a subway operator in Toronto sees green lights all the way to the next station and slams into a stationary car. The operator’s last words are, “The lights were green,” but the video footage shows only red lights. And this is only the beginning of this intense and fantastic thriller. Mofina’s compelling and twisty narrative builds suspense while playing with reader expectations. He takes a great plot and adds the human element so we care about the characters and what’s happening on every gripping page. Everyone should be one second away from snapping this up and adding it to their reading pile.—Jeff Ayers

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Review

51%

by Henrietta Thornton

Witten, Matt. 51%. April 28, 2026. 364 pages. Level Best Books.

In a nightmare near-future—perhaps the scariest part being that it seems like a logical extension of our present—a system that resembles a combination of the Tea Party’s toxic self reliance, China’s social-credit system, and AI on steroids has taken over the United States. But while tech has changed, human nature hasn’t, and a group of fifty-one percenters, those who owe more than half of their annual income to one of the greedy syndicates now in charge, is ready to escape to Canada and start a revolution. The book meets the group on the brink of escape, when one of them is found dead. Taking up the case is Juke O’Keefe and his crime marketer, Haylee Navarro, with her position necessary because NYPDinc officers must raise the money to investigate any crime they take on—judges and forensic scientists won’t work for free, after all. Complications ensue, not just because Juke cares more about victims than about making money for NYPDinc, but because of divided loyalties on Haylee’s part and the ever-looming threat from syndicate heads who want to use the investigation to find those planning rebellion. Alongside the tech and dictatorship vibes, which are absorbing (albeit terrifying) on their own, are several relationship stories. Even the future is still a small world, and as the stakes increase, both for the murder to be solved and for the revolutionaries-in-waiting to break free, readers are drawn into a compelling, tense and violent struggle for love and what’s right.—Henrietta Thornton

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