Tag:

Thrillers

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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Review

The Bridesmaid

by Dodie Ownes

A quirky forensics expert and an undercover NYPD detective are thrown together here to solve a murder. Adrianna Kensington, daughter of nightclub kingpin Leopold Kensington, is putting together the wedding of the century on the family’s private island, Elysium, while her husband-to-be, tech bro Mark Li, gathers sponsorship deals. Her bridesmaids are all fellow alums of Kensington Manor, an elite all-girls school whose motto is “Discipline, Self-Restraint, and Godliness”—and all of them were with Dri three years ago when she was kidnapped and held captive for three days after her 21st birthday bash at Elysium. When crime-podcaster and bridesmaid Simone is found dead days before the wedding, everything is at risk—Adrianna’s reputation, social-media money, and the whole Kensington empire—and the kidnapper could be after the bride again. Holly was the forensics side of the podcast, and is asked to substitute for Simone at the wedding. Fitzwilliam, a cop as preppy as Holly is goth, tags along as her assistant. The story is told from alternating views of the wedding party, allowing readers to experience the cut-throat world of mean girls, reality-show nuptials, and bridezilla moments. A dark historical twist in the tropical paradise setting adds depth to this high-flying tale of money, murder, and secrets.

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Review

The Tarot Reader

by Charlotte Del Vecchio

Jade Crawford, or as her clients know her, Madame Ravencroft, is a 25-year-old psychic, offering a variety of services thanks to her supposed connection with the great beyond. However, Jade’s spiritual talent is nothing more than a creative ruse, delicately toeing the line between criminal and therapeutic. Jade and her younger sister, Stevie, run their Psychic Parlor and Shoppe out of Winston-Salem, NC, struggling to make ends meet and searching for income by any means necessary. After losing their mother to a tragic accident and their father to a prison sentence, the girls were forced to take on the family business and continue the con in order to survive. When a sleazy local politician goes missing, Jade sees an opportunity to promote her business and maybe claim the reward money by sending in a tip offering the location of the body to the police, claiming to have seen it in a vision. When her “vision” is revealed to be hauntingly accurate, Jade and Stevie find themselves in a whirlwind of media and customers demanding a piece of the magic. As Jade continues to spin her web of lies around the police and the town, she finds her sister and herself entangled in the investigation not only as suspects but possibly the next victims. Fans of Samantha M. Bailey will appreciate this thrilling twist on a female-driven thriller with layers of secrets and complexities throughout.

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Review

The Pines Were Watching

by Danise Hoover

Life in a small town in Minnesota is not supposed to involve complex crimes in the middle of a heat wave, at least that’s how Sheriff Red Hammergren feels, but when missing public-health nurse Joanie Crea’s body is found on the run-down estate of the formerly wealthy Grandgeorge family, tensions and suspicions run away with the locals. There is little help coming from Joanie’s rigid, bureaucratic robot of a boss or her glad-handing, church deacon of a husband. The body of a second woman is found and information from her abused and recently beaten young son may hold a key. A mystery man with a green jacket, missing funds, and long-held secrets all play with Red’s sixth sense, making her feel that the solution is just beyond her grasp. Help comes from Red’s poker-playing buddies and Waltz, a crime scene tech, but her indomitable need to solve the crime is primary. This is a deeply atmospheric and compelling read. We can only hope for more from the series.

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Review

The Glass Man

by Willy Williams

Opening shortly after the traumatic events of The Mountain King, the second entry in de la Motte’s Asker series finds Leo Asker settling back into her job as head of the Malmö police’s obscure Resources Department (aka The Department of Lost Souls) when the estranged survivalist father she calls “Prepper Per” contacts her after 15 years of silence. A body has been found near his farm, and he will be arrested shortly as the primary suspect. Claiming a frame-up, Per threatens violence if Leo refuses to help him. Having survived her father’s attempt to kill her years ago, she knows Per means business. Meanwhile, childhood friend Martin Hill, recovering from injuries sustained from helping Leo on her last case, has moved to the remote and eerie lakeside estate of the Irving family to write the history of the medical technology company founded by paterfamilias Gunnar Irving. Long obsessed with the rumors (UFOs, red-eyed aliens) behind the Irvings’ success, Martin is thrilled at the chance to investigate further. But he soon discovers dark secrets that might be connected to Leo’s probe. Once again, the author has penned an atmospheric, fast-paced thriller that features a creepy serial killer and provides plenty of chills for the dog days of summer. Leo and Martin make a great sleuthing team, and Scandinavian noir readers will eagerly await their next adventure.

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Review

The Dancing Face

by Henrietta Thornton

The darkness of this novel—which was published in 1997 in Britian but is now seeing its first U.S. publication—is paired with an urgency: things must be made right. The England-based Committee for Reparations to Africa has been “veering between sycophancy and rage according to the circumstances” in persuading the British that African artworks stolen during Colonial rule must be returned. The only result is undisturbed exhibits in British museums, so now Gus, a university professor, has decided to make a statement. In partnership with a steel-willed, rich Nigerian man, Dr. Okigbo, he will steal a mask (one that causes “an aura around his nerves” and “The taste of a smell. A ghost in the mouth”) from a renowned collection. He’ll hold it for a ransom to be paid to Africa, but more to stir political fallout. (It’s better than bombing the museum, his initial idea.) Of course, nothing goes to plan, and while the aftermath gets more twisted and scarier, confounding issues are introduced. The mask should eventually be given up, but not to “some bunch of evil dictators.” It might never be possible to persuade the British to do anything (“Nothing to do with us, old boy”). And are Black English people, such as Gus, authentic enough to be involved in this effort? There’s lots to think about here with characters who shake up assumptions and stereotypes along the way.

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Review

Breathe In, Bleed Out

by Dodie Ownes

Maybe Hannah’s best friend Tess is right—a restorative yoga retreat in Joshua Tree might be what Hannah needs to let go of the images of her fiancé’s horrific death, right after he proposed to her in a stunning wilderness setting. On the women’s arrival in the desert, all seems idyllic—the sound bowls, Guru Pax in his flowing robes, the yurts and tech-free environment. But soon Hannah’s nightmares about Ben’s death are supplemented with visions of Waylon Barlow, an ancient miner with a flesh mask and a pick axe. The other retreat attendees, including Hannah’s high school ex-boyfriend Miles; tech-bro Jared and his ethereal partner, Luna; and Dennings, an ex-Marine, start to sense that something is off. Pax’s assistant, Kimi, assures them all is well—but then Dennings disappears. In superb Final Girl form, the retreat attendees get picked off one at a time, in entertainingly gruesome ways. As Hannah struggles to survive and save Tess, she has to confront her own secrets. Author McAuley, winner of Esquire’s Best Horror Book of 2022, Curse of the Reaper, demonstrates once again his flair for cinematic suspense with humor and splatter.

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Review

Behind These Four Walls

by Charlotte Del Vecchio

When Isla’s shady side business of digging up dirt for hire leads her back to the all-too-familiar Corrigan Group, she must face the demons this powerful family has held over her for the past 10 years. Isla had a tough start to life, orphaned young and stumbling through her formative years until she met Eden Galloway and finally felt like she had found her family. At 16, Isla and Eden’s plan to run away is interrupted by Eden’s insistence on resolving her mysterious unfinished business with the Corrigan family in Virginia. Promising to return before Isla wakes up the next day, Eden is never seen again. And since Isla is an unhoused 16 year old running from the threat of foster care, she has no option but to keep moving. Isla never forgot about her friend, she just never had a way in—until now. As Isla digs deeper into the Corrigans, she finds unlikely friends and even stronger enemies working their own agendas within the powerful family. Isla must push through the network of lies and family loyalties in order to discover the only truth she really cares about: what happened to Eden? Find yourself as a fly on the wall in the home of this power-hungry, treacherous, and deceitful family as all of their secrets come to light in one final stand-off.

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Review

Illusion of Truth

by Jeff Ayers

Detective Emily Hunter of the Sacramento police department must stop someone targeting fellow officers, and it’s personal, in L’Etoile’s latest thriller. Her boyfriend, Brian Conner, is one of several officers sent to stop a riot near a church, but when they arrive, they see nobody around. Shortly after inspecting the area, the silence is pierced by two explosions, one under a police vehicle and the other from a donation box near the church entrance. Conner saves the life of one of the officers but takes the brunt of the blast. Hunter vows to find out who’s responsible for putting Conner on death’s door. Her pursuit of justice will entangle her with her boss, the mayor, and other fellow officers, while she constantly worries that Conner, if he lives, will never be the same. There’s a reason L’Etoile has been winning awards for his writing, and this series highlights why. Like the best of Michael Connelly, L’Etoile has created characters readers care about while also crafting a twisty and compelling story. Fans of police procedurals and heart-stopping thrillers should consider L’Etoile an essential addition to their reading pile.

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Review

Simultaneous

by Jeff Ayers

Therapist Sarah Newcomb can’t get her fiancé to commit to a wedding date. Still, doubts about their relationship take a back seat when one of her clients reveals evidence of a potential copycat killer. Newcomb uses past-life regression to help her clients overcome trauma, but this patient unveils a time in the future, and this part of their divided soul works as a homicide detective. Trying to prove her client is making up material, she learns from that split soul of a natural gas explosion that will kill seven people in New Mexico the next day. The following morning, federal agent Grant Lukather from Homeland Security visits a site in New Mexico where seven people died in a natural gas explosion. He learns of a 911 call that came in the day before, warning of the blast. Tracing the phone number puts him in Sarah’s office. The twists and turns that follow are wild and completely unpredictable, and the story only gets better as it becomes increasingly complex. Heisserer received an Oscar nomination for screenwriting for the film Arrival, and he delivers the cinematic scope and intensity of a novel-writing pro. And the ending! It’s hard to believe this is his first novel, and readers will eagerly want more.

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