a legal mystery.

I am loving all of the latest psychological thrillers. So many women. So many mind games. It reminds me of my early twenties. Minus the murders. Alafair Burke's The Ex is my most recent favorite.

Three years ago Jackson Harris' wife Molly was shot up (along with other commuters) at a train station by a teenage boy. Scarier, in light of all of the real-life tragedy our world has been facing lately. Molly died. The boy turned the gun on himself. Jack and his daughter were left heartbroken. When Jack sees a beautiful women on an early morning run, he feels a spark, and with the help of his best friend, decides he's ready to start dating again. Finds the woman, goes to meet her, and is then accused of committing a triple homicide. One of the victims being the father of the son who murdered Molly, giving him plenty of motive.

Adamant that he is being framed, Jack reaches out to his college ex-girlfriend, criminal defense lawyer Olivia Randall. And the rest is a wild ride.

israeli mystery.

When young volunteer at the Organization for a Migrant Aid, Michal Poleg is found dead after actively helping refugees and asylum seekers in Israel, Officer Anat Nachiamas is given her first lead on a murder investigation. Things get super confusing super quickly when a refugee that Poleg gave her time and energy to mentor confesses to the murder. Nachiamas, and her boss, Itai Fisher know it in their bones that he's not really the one to blame and begin to work together to find the real killer.

The topic, both social and political, may be a serious one (and it's not for everyone), but author Liad Shoham leaves room for romance and humor, and I just love a male writer who creates a strong female heroine. Asylum City is smart and the writing experienced.

this one's a winner.

How sad was everyone when Stieg Larsson died? I mean seriously WHAT A WASTE. Bah. On a brighter note, Sweden's Crime Queen, Camilla Lackberg is truly fantastic and has definitely helped Larsson fan's get over their grief. Her latest, The Drowning transports readers to the small shipping town of Fjallbacka where Christian Thydell's first novel is being released with excellent reviews. He realizes that maybe he revealed too much truth in his work of fiction when he starts getting threatening messages, and when a body is discovered in ice, Christian realizes that his past has come back to haunt him.

 

In walk detective Patrick Hedstrom and his partner Erica Falk (who is also a writer) to solve the case. Lots of mystery, lots of intrigue, and lots of tension ensue.

okay maybe i won't write my first novel.

Bah. Stephen King is so creepy, I love it. Until I don't. I definitely picked the wrong week to quit biting my nails because Finders Keepers (his sequel to Mr. Mercedes) is uncomfortably believable, and terrifying, and then there's my blood pressure to think about. But enough about me.

Faithful reader, Morris Bellamy is furious that popular author, John Rothstein has stopped writing books, and also because he doesn't like who his favorite character, Jimmy Gold has become. So Morris murders Rothstein, steals his cash and writing notebooks. Hiding them away before he is locked away for another crime. When he is released thirty-five years later, he is after the high school boy who found his loot. Ex-policeman Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney are working together again to protect the boy and his family because Morris is a raging lunatic. Let's just say I was terrified the whole time. And if readers actually retaliated in real life, Nicholas Sparks would be in big trouble.

well this was quite the ride.

In Mike Pace's deeply thrilling paranormal-ish novel, One to Go Tom Booker finds himself with an impossible choice to make. While texting and driving, he loses control of his vehicle, hitting a minivan that was carrying his daughter, her friends, driven by his sister-in-law. Before the minivan flipped over the bridge though, time stood still. And Tom was given a choice. Either he could let his little girl die, along with her friends, OR he could kill someone every two weeks to make up for the loss of those souls. Thinking he was having some sort of crazy hallucination, Tom chooses his daughter. Not thinking much of it until two weeks later when his sister-in-law (the driver) is found brutally murdered. So if he doesn't kill someone, anyone, in two weeks, his daughter and her friends are in serious danger, and so on. Pace has quite the imagination, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

luckiest girl....alive.

Jessica Knoll is definitely an author for the every girl. Having credentials from Cosmo AND SELF (my favorite magazine), she has a way with women, and she really proves that with her debut novel, Luckiest Girl Alive and heroine (or anti-heroine?), TifAni FaNelli.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ani has spent her twenties reinventing herself. Working toward the woman's version of the American dream. Kick ass job, check. Nice digs, check. Hot body, check. Successful and sexy fiancé, check. Her life is going on perfect, but fourteen years ago something happened to this girl that she just can't shake. And apparently no one will let her as she's asked to participate in a documentary revolved around the trauma, telling her side of the story. Ani is planning a wedding, starving herself into a size negative, about to marry a man she doesn't even love, to forget a past that won't go away. Alternating between her twenty-eight and fourteen-year old selves, I wouldn't call Ani a likable character, but the more you learn about her past the more you understand her present. And everyone deserves a chance to tell their side to the story.

well i didn't see that coming. or that.

I adore spring. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and I was able to enjoy yet another fabulous Lisa Scottoline novel, Every Fifteen Minutes.

Chief of the Psychiatric Unit at Havemeyer General Hospital, Dr. Eric Parrish has always had it together more at work than at home. His marriage may have failed but his unit has just been named number two in the entire country. I mean, he may be in the middle of a huge custody battle over his daughter, but at least he's a prominent psychiatrist. Dr. Parrish still has some control over his life, that is, until seventeen-year-old Max Jakubowski walks in.

Every 15 minutes, Max needs to perform a set of rituals to help him ease his OCD and anxiety. He touches his right temple just once and says “red-orange-yellow-green-blue-purple-brown-black.” After finding out that his beloved grandmother is terminally ill, his mental state has been getting much worse. Dr. Parrish offered to treat the poor kid privately. But once Max's grandmother passes, and the girl he has a crush on is found murdered, the good doctor realizes he has bit off more than he can chew in this psychological thriller filled with twists you won't see coming.

old school crime novel.

I am aware that Christmas is over and has been for some time. But I haven't gotten around to reviewing Hard Case Crime's (known for their classic crime novels) very first Christmas novel! And what if you all are super into the idea of the holidays and heists in February? I wouldn't want to let you down.

It's five days before Christmas in 1951, and it's the biggest blizzard in two decades in the opening of Easy Death by Daniel Boyd which is told in multiple perspectives. The major setting is a snowbank, but that only enhanced the experience for me. There's a heist, a getaway, shots fired, suspense, and in typical classical crime fiction fashion, readers end up liking the bad guys as much as the good guys.

love me some MHC!

Unsolved Mysteries, yikes. That show always freaked me out as a child. Why my dad would have it on while I was in the room is beyond me, but I still get some PTSD. The Under Suspicion Novels by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke go along with this theme, the only difference is that the unsolved mysteries get solved. Their latest book in the series, The Cinderella Murder uncovers the cold case murder of a nineteen-year-old UCLA student who was found murdered, missing one of her shoes which dubbed her Cinderella, after calling her parents and telling them of a movie audition she was going to go to. There were suspects, but no one was ever convicted. 

Television producer Laurie Moran who we met in the first installment of the series I've Got You Under My Skin which I reviewed earlier this year and you can find here is ecstatic that her reality drama, Under Suspicion is doing so well, and is excited for her next episode, The Cinderella Murder. Revisiting this case made for an excellent suspense novel which will leaving you waiting impatiently for the next installment. These two authors make a great team.

every parent can relate.

Parents lose their children when they become teenagers. They begin to drive themselves places, would rather spend their time hanging out with friends, kids simply need parents less and less as they grow. In Lisa Scottoline's latest thrilling page turner, Keep Quiet, Jake Whitmore is going through what every parent goes through at some point, and he's trying to win his teenager back. Jake's attempt to bond with his sixteen year old son, Ryan turns tragic when a devastating car accident with Ryan at the wheel kills a young girl. Jake, who like any parent would do anything to protect his child, makes an impulsive decision to save his son's future. This leads to a sort of domino affect throughout the rest of the story showing us how important one decision can be, especially if you make the wrong one.

at 86, MHC has still got it!

Mary Higgins Clark novels are ALWAYS something to look forward to, and her latest thriller, I've Got You Under My Skin is no exception.

Reality television producer, Laurie Moran has an idea to create a reality series that opens cold cases anywhere from twenty to thirty years old. Her plan is to get the point of view of the people who were closest to the victim. The whole premise of this series hits close to home with Laurie because her own husband was brutally murdered five years ago, and the only lead they have is that he has blue eyes and is planning on coming back to kill her and her son, Timmy. Timmy was only three years old when his father was shot and killed, and he is the only one who saw the killers face.

Timmy's now eight, and off to summer camp while his mom launches "Under Suspicion". The first episode is about the murder of Betsy Bonner Powell at her daughters graduation party. Her husband, Robert who has never remarried is still searching for his wife's killer, suspecting it was someone who attended the party. As close friends and family recreate the scene for other's viewing pleasure, Laurie doesn't realize that she is being stalked by Mr. Blue Eyes while she works. And MHC does what she does best, keeps the tension mounting and creates the kind of suspense that will keep you up at night. Get it girl!

sister anselm is back!

J. A. Jance is back with her latest installment of the Ali Reynold's Series titled Moving Target. I have only taken the time to review one other novel from this series (Left for Dead, 2012), but that doesn't mean I don't love them all, I do. But between Jance and Evanovich, I just can't keep up.

In Moving Target, Ali decides to travel to England with her 80-something longtime family friend/employee, Leland Brook who has been estranged from his own family for decades because on account of he's gay. Ali should be back in Texas planning her wedding to her fiancé, B. but seeing as that's super stressful, she'd rather be in England with Leland's crazy family. In England they are told that Leland's father's death was actually a murder, and the case is still open, and pretty fricken cold, but that doesn't stop them from diving right in to crack the case.

Back in Texas, B is following the story of Lance Tucker, a teenager super gifted computer hacker and who was literally lit on fire in the detention center where he was doing his time for hacking into his school's computer system. It was B’s testimony that put Lance in the facility, and with this attack, he feels he needs to get to the bottom of why someone would attempt to murder a kid over a computer program.

crime novel.

Inspired by the Salsbury fraud scandal of the 1970s, After I'm Gone tells the story of Felix Brewer, a very successful (and shady) business man who prides himself on supporting his wife Bambi, three daughters AND stripper girlfriend, Julie. What a catch. Felix is living large, until he isn't, and forced to face jail time for racketeering. Like most successful and shady businessmen, he disappears. Everyone thinks that him and Julie are in on it together after she vanishes a decade after Felix, but when Julie's body is found everyone is just plain confused.

Now twenty-six years after Julie's body was found, retired detective, Sandy Sanchez takes on the cold case for some extra cash. The novel goes back and forth in time from the 1950's, when Felix and Bambi met, to the present, where we learn about Felix's three daughters through Sanchez's investigation, and the life that they and Bambi live after Felix left.

Author Laura Lippman really delivers with a novel filled with family secrets, characters full of emotion, and a plot that twists and turns.

even the horror lovers will be disturbed.

I actually enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies in high school. I mean, I thought it was a little wild, but it kept my attention more than Beowulf, so I wasn't complaining. Now take Lord of the Flies and turn it into a straight up horror story, then you have The Troop by Nick Cutter. This is some terrifying shit here people. Every year Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of five boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip. It's a nice tradition, bringing boys different backgrounds and personalities together. Tim is feeling good because all of the boys get along pretty well, and every one's having a nice time until a rabid animal of a man steps onto the scene. And the second the Tim came to this ill man's aide is the exact moment when that imaginary track & field shot gun fired and the entire troop's race with death began because what Tim didn't know is that the very island they were camping on was quarantined. What this troop is up against once their leader is gone is something you have to read to believe. Good luck going to sleep after this one.



curious and curiouser.

When Laura Gantt returns to her hometown to bury her mother, she is hit with the impossible news that her father, who drowned when she was a teenager, has returned to town as well when sightings of an unkempt mountain man circulate through the small town. Like this woman doesn't have enough to deal with her mother passing away, she now needs to come to terms with the fact that the father that she loved dearly could have deserted her. As Laura tends to her mother's affairs, she also rekindles the flame with her high school sweetheart, Sean, who knows much more about her father than he cares to share. Dark, dark secrets are looming over this second-chance romance, adding a chilly air to the otherwise romantic novel A Stillness of Chimes by Meg Moseley.

 



unlike any nun i've ever met.

The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau is the second book in the Crown series that takes place during the reign of King Henry VIII. We met Joanna Stafford in the first installment of the series (The Crown) and she continued to become one of my favorite heroines to date, at least in the historical fiction genre. Joanna is a nun during the terrible period of the Reformation as King Henry orders monasteries and convents to close down leaving Joanna, as well as other nuns, monks, friars, and priests to be tortured and killed, unless they escape. The year is 1538, and England is in the midst of bloody power struggles between crown and cross that threaten to tear the country apart. Since her escape from The Tower of London, Joanna has lived a quiet life as a seamstress, until she decides to give into fate and join the efforts to destroy the King.

England has such a dark history, and Nancy Bilyeau flawlessly brings this time period to life.