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Review

Can’t Look Away

by Brian Kenney October 28, 2021

Not really crime fiction—unless stealing someone’s boyfriend is now considered a crime?—this book is a brilliant portrayal of obsessive love. We start out deep in hipsterville: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2013. Would-be-writer Molly is at a concert where she connects with the lead singer, the super-gorgeous Jake Danner. They fall in love, he writes a song about her that becomes a huge hit, things fall apart, they try to patch things up, he’s off touring, trust is an issue, they break up. Jump ahead 10 years and Molly is living in Flynn Cove, CT, married to the infinitely reliable Hunter, with the two parents to a daughter, Stella. Things are O.K.—Molly’s pretty lonely and is a whole lot more boho than the uptight, preppy women in town—then she meets Sabrina, a new arrival from NYC who shares a lot of her interests, and they quickly become friends. Until it turns out that Sabrina and Molly are sharing more than Molly would ever have imagined, and their many secrets come tumbling out. Lovering does a fantastic job at shifting the point of view from character to character and back and forth in time, managing never to confuse the reader and all the while keeping her foot on the accelerator. A super fun and fast read.

October 28, 2021 0 comment
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Review

Two Nights in Lisbon

by Brian Kenney October 21, 2021

One of the best books I’ve read this year and a brilliant example of how sophisticated and meaningful a thriller can be while still ratcheting up the suspense and anxiety. Imagine you are accompanying your partner on a business trip to Lisbon. After a night of great food and even better sex, you wake up to find that they are gone—no note, laptop and belongings left behind, phone calls going straight to voicemail. What would you do? For Ariel Price, it’s time to mobilize. She starts by quizzing the hotel employees, eventually goading the staff in the American Embassy to help her search for John, her newish husband. But it turns out that to save John, Ariel needs to go far into her past. This novel delves deeply into sexual violence and its life-long ramifications—a rape is graphically described—while continuously upending what the reader believes to be the truth. Hold on to your hat, your head will be spinning. Librarians: purchase multiple copies.

October 21, 2021 0 comment
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Review

Hidden Pictures

by Brian Kenney October 14, 2021

A super-smart suspense novel featuring a leading character you’ll never forget. Twenty-something Mallory Quinn is 18 months sober. She was poised to get out of her south Philadelphia neighborhood—with an athletic scholarship from Penn State—when tragedy struck and she spiraled out of control, ending up addicted to opiates. But as the book opens, she’s able to move on from her half-way house, has a terrific sponsor, and is off to the posh suburbs for the summer as the nanny of five-year-old Teddy, son of Ted and Caroline Maxwell. Initially, this is the perfect set-up. Mallory lives in her own tiny house in the backyard and she bonds with the precocious Teddy. All is well until Mallory notices Teddy’s drawings are taking on a sinister tone, with violent images, then greater complexity, well beyond what any child is capable of. Mallory is so well realized, her interior world so compelling, that when she suspects the supernatural is at work, we believe her. Ted and Caroline—an incredibly creepy duo—try to gaslight Mallory, but a neighborhood boy, a love interest, helps to keep her sane. Ultimately, this is a novel of healing, as two very broken individuals—Mallory and Teddy—find ways to move on.

October 14, 2021 0 comment
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Review

The Younger Wife

by Henrietta Thornton October 7, 2021

Quirky meets romantic meets WTF in this Australian import that’s brimming with character. Two very different sisters are at the center of the maelstrom. Rachel is a beautiful and successful baker who spends a week perfecting tiny roses on a wedding cake but eats two tiers of it by the fistful hours before delivery. Her sister, Tully, married with two little boys, is consumed with anxiety and a compulsion to steal. The younger wife of the title is Heather, who’s marrying Rachel and Tully’s father, Stephen Aston, and whose big day opens the novel. Stephen’s ex-wife roaming the altar during the vows is bad enough, but when the couple moves to the sacristy, a scream is heard and the celebrant reappears in the church covered in blood. Hepworth (The Secrets of Midwives) then chronicles the leadup to this chaos, a saga that involves a hot water bottle stuffed with $100,000, romance with cake-pun-loving delivery man, and hilarious observations about the million ways we sabotage ourselves. The Astons also face their share of heartaches and worse (Alzheimer’s disease, rape, and domestic violence are part of the story). For fans of domestic suspense and of the Australian show Offspring, which also features loving sisters and their interesting choices.

October 7, 2021 0 comment
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Review

The Favor

by Henrietta Thornton September 30, 2021

This is one of the best-plotted thrillers I’ve read in ages; it’s also a great portrayal of why women experiencing domestic violence are stuck. We meet Leah Dawson during her carefully choreographed routine of visiting a different liquor store every day. She hides the booze from her violent husband, Liam, a lawyer who has coercive control down to an artform. Leah’s legal career came to an end recently because her husband didn’t like her reading a work email at dinner, and took action. At the liquor store, something compels Leah to follow a fellow shopper, pediatrician McKenna Hawkins. Soon Leah’s routinely watching the woman, who’s also needlessly unemployed, from the street outside McKenna’s clinically clean home. The reason Leah felt drawn to McKenna is quickly apparent: McKenna is just like Leah, or rather McKenna’s husband, Zach, is just like Leah’s Liam. Both have ego to spare, enjoy speaking slowly to their wives to make them feel stupid, and are financially abusive. These guys have it all, until they don’t. No spoilers here, but get this book for the very original storyline, true-to-life characters, and a searing look at the pain and mind games endured behind too many closed doors. For more on why “she can leave any time” is ridiculous and insulting, read the afterword by Murphy, an attorney who’s represented survivors of intimate partner violence.

September 30, 2021 0 comment
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Review

The Secrets We Share

by Brian Kenney September 23, 2021

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.

September 23, 2021 0 comment
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Review

My Darling Husband

by Henrietta Thornton September 23, 2021

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.

September 23, 2021 0 comment
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Review

Unmissing

by Brian Kenney September 9, 2021

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.

September 9, 2021 0 comment
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Review

The New Neighbor

by Henrietta Thornton August 5, 2021

Aidan Marlowe—an Irish immigrant to the U.S. who is known by his last name—is lost in a life he never planned. At his young wife’s funeral, he finds out that he won millions in the lottery, and he can’t adjust to life without Holly and with the money. He and his seven-year-old twins move to a huge and forbidding house in Bury, New Hampshire, a move prompted by a voice in his head repeating “bury,” just one of the psychological oddnesses he endures. People in affluent Bury soon let him know that his decision was a bad one: the house was formerly home to a family that’s now missing four members who simply disappeared. And soon after Marlowe and his children move in, he begins receiving threatening letters that make his neighbors’ misgivings seem right but also force him to investigate the neighbors themselves. Marlowe is an unreliable narrator, so that even as readers feel for his turmoil, they are left wondering what’s really going on with this troubled character. Some truly frightening scenes lead to a gripping and satisfying conclusion, but not before a twist that will leave readers’ heads spinning. Marlowe is memorable —single dads in thrillers aren’t that common—but mainly he will stay with readers because of his offbeat vulnerability and the determination that shines through his grief. Wilson’s (The Dead Girl in 2A) unusual psychological thriller is one for fans of Stephen King who are open to reading mysteries.

August 5, 2021 0 comment
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Review

The Cottage

by Brian Kenney July 22, 2021

Suspense fiction for those who enjoy character-driven stories, plenty of dialogue, and simple, straightforward prose. Single parent Kate is awoken by noise in her backyard, but it’s just deer. Then she sees some teens running from the cottage at the end of her property. Days later she starts getting anonymous texts—which are vaguely threatening—then a window is smashed and a knife is found embedded in the cottage’s wall. This would be enough to set anyone on edge, but Kate is especially vulnerable; she survived a home invasion two years ago in which her husband, a cop, was murdered. Fortunately, the former police chief is her father-in-law, and her sister —they’ve been estranged for 20-plus years—agrees to move in and help raise Kate’s two kids. As the terror slowly escalates, and the list of potential suspects grows, Kate has to go deeper into her past to understand who wants to kill her today.

July 22, 2021 0 comment
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