Tag:

Suspense

Review

Hometown Vendetta

by Henrietta Thornton

Small-town struggles meet CIA relentlessness in prolific author Abramson’s latest thriller. It stars two likable protagonists, FBI Special Agent Amberlyn Reiner and Marine Captain Luke Steele. As the book opens, former school psychologist Amberlyn is planning to see her best friend, but plans are derailed when her skills are needed in the investigation of an Oklahoma City bombing-like event. Also entangled is Luke, who’s normally tasked with carrying the nuclear “football” in his role as a military aide to the President, but who is asked to help after he recognizes a connection to his hometown in photos of the event. Amberlyn has been bereaved by the bombing and Luke is loath to return to the town where he was relentlessly bullied, not to mention the high school reunion that will offer valuable investigative opportunities but one for the now-grown bullies to continue their abuse. So neither wants to be there, a feeling that’s more than vindicated by the danger visited on them in the town by the bullies…and perhaps by others. But they also find in the town kindnesses and even a fledgling romance, which entwine well with the criminal side of the story to create a gripping and satisfying series debut.

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Review

Graveyard Shift

by Henrietta Thornton

Some books end with a recipe for a cake or cookie that was mentioned in the story along with nice characters in pleasant surroundings. Then there’s Graveyard Shift. No nice characters, definitely no twee surroundings, and the back matter has two lists: one of songs including “Nightmare” by the Rats and “Bury Me with It” by Modest Mouse (you’ll note the vermin theme) and recipes for cocktails including Corpse Reviver #1. The novella drops readers right into the horror, which brings together the kind of eclectic bunch gathered by a smoking habit. These insomniacs and late-shift workers meet nightly for a smoke in the graveyard of a college town’s dilapidated church, where they witness the dumping of something very unexpected and even more horrible than they would have imagined. Edie, the relentless journalist in the group, seeks answers, aided by bartender Theo, who’s witnessed one of the other weird goings on in the town. Called “Hostile Incidents,” these are instigated by so-called Belligerents, the several “weary, mild-mannered” people who have gone “suddenly berserk.” Readers will want to get their shaky hands on Rio’s previous work, If We Were Villains, after this deliciously bizarre, creepy tale.

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Review

Black River

by Brian Kenney

The village of Teetarpur, on the outskirts of Delhi, has been known for nothing for decades. Grittiness yes, but no crimes, no scandals. Until the unthinkable happens and an eight-year-old girl, Munia, is murdered, discovered hanging from the branch of a tree. Munia may have been shy, but she was much loved by her father, the widowed Chand, and the rest of her community. Part police procedural, part literary thriller, this beautifully written narrative brings rural India to life. The novel is told in the third person, with vivid characters richly developed and time that moves back and forth as we see Chand in his youth, living by the Yamuna, the black river of the book’s title. We follow local inspector Ombir Singh, under pressure from the rich and the political elite to resolve the killing, and Chand, calm on the exterior, but whose blood boils with revenge, not trusting the police. Roy is a journalist, and it’s tempting to attribute that to what makes this book so magnificently successful: the range of society, the moral complexity of many of the characters, and the terrifying brutality. Sure to be one of the best books of the year.

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Review

The Best Lies

by Jeff Ayers

Leo Balanoff’s skills as an attorney are assisted by his tendency to pathologically lie every chance he can. His unscrupulous methods caused the love of his life to walk away, and his horrific family background has him seeking revenge. When the target of his retribution is killed, and Leo’s DNA is found at the scene, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything. So when an FBI agent offers a chance to go undercover to avoid prison, the attorney jumps at the opportunity, not realizing it will put him in the crosshairs of his ex. Twist after shocking twist comes nonstop in this engaging and fun thriller. The story is not just like a twisty pretzel, it’s like an entire pretzel factory. Ellis has written one of those rare books in which every single word cannot be trusted, resulting in an ending that no reader will see coming. Paranoia, chaos, and shocks await.

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Review

Gaslight

by Henrietta Thornton

Life inside a cult, and the uncertainty after escape, are chillingly chronicled in Shepard’s latest psychological suspense. At first, high schooler Danny is scornful of Infinite Spiritual Being, or ISB, the self-help group that her friends are so enamored of. But its narcissistic leader, Ben, knows just the right ways to manipulate a lonely teen into joining his band of acolytes. The young women, and some men, who are gaslit by Ben into eating very little—so as to gain more control over themselves—are over time convinced to leave their families and join Ben in a rural Oregon compound. Accounts of that life alternate with looks at the current day, nine years later, when Danny shows up at her ISB friend Rebecca’s house unannounced. Rebecca’s now living with her husband, Tom, and children in much more pleasant circumstances and is stricken to see Danny, as Tom knows nothing of her old life. Danny’s appearance puts Rebecca and her family in terrible danger, and as readers move back and forth in time, and secrets and terrible abuse, including of pregnant women, are revealed, the story ramps up to a tense-as-can-be ending. The legions of fans of Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars will read anything by her and will be well rewarded here; those new to the author will also race through this riveting tale.

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Review

Look in the Mirror

by Brian Kenney

Relatives: you never know what they might be up to. Until you read the will. For Nina—whose beloved father recently died—it’s the discovery of a lavish home in the British Virgin Islands that he left her. Her father was a civil engineer and the home he created—where did he get the money?—is modern and marble, cool and glass. But there’s something a bit off about the house, which slowly begins to come alive. Like some massive escape room, it engages Nina in a game that starts playful but soon becomes terrifying. Then there’s the concurrent story of Maria, a former medical student who now works as a nanny for the immensely rich. She’s able to sock away thousands of dollars while living in gorgeous resort-like mansions. But at her most recent job, the children never show up; in fact, days go by and no one appears, just an electrician to fix a malfunction in the system. The only rule? Don’t enter a room in the basement, which Maria, naturally—after days of boredom—can’t help but do, setting off a life or death struggle that spreads over days. Steadman gets a 10 for creating a puzzle/pawn like novel of terror that starts fast, only to gain even more speed as the reader inevitably rips through the short, action-packed chapters. Prepare yourself for something very new and very disturbing.

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Review

I Need You to Read This

by Brian Kenney

Like a lot of New Yorkers before her, Alex Marks came to the city to escape her past and forge a new identity. She finds work as a copy editor, but remains withdrawn, no dating!, with her only friends the staff at her neighborhood coffee shop. But when her hero, Francis Keen, the famous editor of the advice column, “Dear Constance,” doesn’t just die, but is murdered, Alex finds herself applying for her job—surprising herself at her ambition. Alex adored Francis, and even though they never met, she was beholden to Francis’ advice over the years. Miraculously, the paper’s editor in chief recognizes the kinship they share and gives Alex the job. But then she starts to receive sinister, vaguely threatening letters that motivate her to find Francis’s murderer. Fast, frightening, and ultimately fulfilling, the narrative takes a full 180 degree flip. Anticipate several brutal episodes of domestic violence.

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Review

Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain

by Brian Kenney

In the first book in the series, Kalmann, we were introduced to our hero, a young man who’s neurodivergent—although he uses many terms to describe himself—and who works as the self-appointed sheriff of Raufarhöfn, a fishing village in northern Iceland. His world is contained—he lives with his mother, his best friend he sees only online—but his life is still fraught with dangers, from fishing on the Greenland Sea to encounters with polar bears. Kalmann remains well regarded in his village, and it is his sense of humor that often helps him survive. But in Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain, we are stunned to find Kalmann in West Virginia, visiting his Dad, whom he has never met before, and getting swept up, along with his Dad and his MAGA buddies, in the January 6, 2021 riots in the Capitol Building. Incredible! While he is soon put on a plane back to Iceland by a kindly FBI agent, Kalmann’s world is changing. His beloved grandfather has recently died, and, Kalmann learns, he may well have been a Russian spy. Could he have been murdered in his nursing home? Another possible murder in the village, and a risky trip to an abandoned U.S. radar station with an aunt, forces Kalmann to rethink his family and village and his role in both. Both heart-rendering and hilarious, “there is no need to worry” as Kalmann famously declares. “Kalmann is in charge.”

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Review

I Dreamed of Falling

by Henrietta Thornton

This novel of small-town heartbreak, grittily emotional in a way that’s reminiscent of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River, introduces the lovably flawed Grady family: Roman, his partner, Ashley; their son, Mason; Roman’s mom, Tara; and her partner, John. They all barely hold it together financially and every other way in their part-time Airbnb in upstate New York. The house needs extensive repairs, but who has the money? Instead they’re muddling along, with Tara mainly raising Mason and his parents resenting her takeover. Then Roman finds Ashley dead on the riverbank behind her drug-addict friend’s house. As word gets out that Ashley had a bag of pills in her pocket, everyone in town assumes it was an overdose. But Roman wants real answers, and his digging creates a realistic, relatable saga of poverty mixed with love and bad choices. All the characters here are memorable, but four-year-old Mason and his bottomless, bewildered grief are particularly well drawn. A family and a story to remember.

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Review

The Perfect Sister

by Henrietta Thornton

I love the kind of us-and-them stories set in places like the Hamptons, and the latest by DeCarolis (The Guilty Husband, Deadly Little Lies) is packed with twists. Alex and Maddie Walker are sisters who look so alike and are so close in age that people think they’re twins. Their mother referred to them that way, a glimpse of love amid her boozy, selfish ways. Now Mom’s long gone, and the sisters, who are now in their twenties, are distant after an argument that followed her funeral. But when Alex doesn’t hear from Maddie, who has been in the Hamptons for the summer, she heads to that tony town to get to the bottom of things. What she finds is very strange—Maddie had been living at one of the swankiest houses in the area, Blackwell Manor. Alex stays with the Blackwells herself, keeping a safe distance from their rich but miserable lives—until things take a turn when another young woman goes missing. As Alex becomes a thorn in the police’s side, she uncovers secrets about the present and the distant past. Dark sexual themes feature amid the absorbing suburban suspense that’s told from multiple, tantalizing viewpoints.

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