Category: suspense

THE LIES WE TELL BY DEBRA WEBB

The Lies We Tell (The Undertaker's Daughter #2)

THE UNDERTAKER’S DAUGHTER #2  Sometimes the truth will get you killed.

The first book in this series is a novella titled ” The Undertaker’s Daughter”, followed by ” The Secrets We Bury”. Both books are important to the third.

Dr. Rowan Dupont knows death. Living above her family funeral home she shared her home with it. She knew how to embalm a body before most of us had kissed a boy.

Her story begins as she is working with the Nashville police as a psychiatric consultant. She has a nose for killers and in return, they are very interested in her. But when she fails to recognize that someone very close to her is one, she runs home to Winchester, Tennessee. She is still haunted by dreams of her twin sister’s death, her mother’s suicide and the serial killer who followed her home.

Along with her life long pal Chief Billy, who I love, she is trying her best to stay out of the crosshairs of Julian Addington, a prolific serial killer who wants her more than anything. But why? When a body comes into the funeral home with a tattoo of her mother’s name on his back, Rowan knows this means something, she just isn’t sure what. Then the body disappears and the Feds are back to following her around.

This is the main story. Rowan’s fight to find the truth about her sister’s death and her mother’s suicide. Her mothers’ journals are cryptic and full of death. Was she obsessed with serial killers or was she one herself?  As the bodies continue to stack up, nothing makes any sense. And of course, it doesn’t because there is another story inside of the main one.

I would suggest you read the first two books first. Just so you know who all of the players are.  I absolutely love this series and Rowan and Billy need to quit dancing around each other and get together. IMHO.

Very Well Done!

NetGalley/Expected publication: September 17th, 2019 by MIRA

Lisa Ungers The Stranger Inside

The Stranger Inside

“Justice is not for this plane. Punishment, yes. Consequences, yes.”

Three 12-year-olds go into the woods. Only one comes out. And she will never be the same.

Rain, Tess, and Hank were best friends. Cutting through the woods was what they did. Until the day they weren’t alone and lives would be forever changed.

The points of view were alternated. And I thought they all had valid viewpoints. Remember Dexter? We watched as Rain lived her seemingly normal life. Having put her past trauma in a box with no key. But when another man is killed after being acquitted of his wife’s’ murder, alarm bells go off. Is there someone out there delivering a bit of karmic justice?

Finding the truth will put her in more danger, which she knows, but she can’ t stop. She has to know. And when the memories come back will she be able to handle it?

This was the best kind of thriller. You know just enough to think you have it and then Wham, you know nothing! And it made me think for a long time. What is justice? What is Karma? Do some people simply not deserve to live?

Well Done Ms. Unger, as usual!

NetGalley/ September 17th, 2019 by Park Row

 

 

 

 

 

29 SECONDS by T.M.Logan

 

29 Seconds

Give me one name. One person. And I will make them disappear . . . 

Dr. Sarah Haywood has a lot on her plate. A teaching job concentrating on Christoper Marlowe, 2 young children, a husband who has shacked up with another woman, and a boss who can’t seem to keep his hands to himself. Professor Hawthorne is a nightmare of a boss. Always one step ahead of any accusations of impropriety and not afraid to blackmail his female staff into sex for your job scenario.

Sarah is at a loss to figure out a way to keep her job and not have to sleep with her boss. Which is getting more difficult as he is sabotaging her work and reputation. Sarah is at her wit’s end.

A seemingly unrelated incident happens to her early on. She is witness to an attempted kidnapping of a little girl. She never thought that the little girl belonged to a very powerful man who is very grateful to Sarah. In a very secretive meeting, Sarah meets a man with a lot of money and a lot of power, who doesn’t like to owe people. In his mind, Sarah has saved his daughter and now he is in her debt. So he offers her a one time deal.

Will she take it? Would you? One name. Gone Forever. Would you? No chance of blowback. No chance of anyone finding out. Would you?

This was definitely a thriller!  At first, I was a bit upset with Sarah. She was rather all over the place, but I looked at what she was. An educated woman being jerked around by not one but two men. While holding down a full-time job and with 2 children under 10. Being passed over for promotion for not trading sex for favors.

Very Well Done!

NetGalley/ September 10th, 2019 by St. Martin’s Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SIXTH WICKED CHILD by J.D.Barker

The Sixth Wicked Child (4MK Thriller, #3)

A 4MK Thriller

In this last of the 4MK thriller trilogy, Barker ramps up the suspense and twists better than Houdini!

If you haven’t read the first two books, I would suggest you read them. Reading Barker is like trying to solve a Rubick’s Cube blindfolded.

Poor Sam is coming undone. He’s having lapses in his memory. He’s obsessed with the man who killed his wife. Only now Bishop is turning himself in and telling an elaborate tale putting the blame squarely on Sam. It looks convincing to everyone, including his bosses.

With a hospital full of people with a mystery illness that Bishop says is SARS, with Sam and Bishop, accounted for people are still dying. There is no way Bishop is running this alone.

As the FBI and local Metro team up, you really can’t believe a single person in this book. Everyone has dirty little secrets and someone is out to even the score for the awful things that happened in childhood.

This has been one of my favorite horror reads. Gory, full of morally bankrupt adults and torture, I did not do anything until I was finished. And that ending was perfect for the trilogy. I loved every twisty, gory moment!

Job well done!  What’s Next???

NetGalley/August 27th, 2019 by Hampton Creek Press

 

 

 

RIVAL’S BREAK by CARLA NEGGERS

Rival's Break (Sharpe & Donovan #9)

SHARPE and DONOVAN #9

The ninth in this series by Carla Neggars.

FBI agents and newlyweds, Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, have just gotten back together after Colin was undercover for a bit. But before they can even enjoy some romance, there’s a yacht full of people sick from food poisoning, a stolen painting, and a lot of agents from across the pond in their backyard acting very sketchy!

Neggars is a genius at what she does. I’ve read all of the other books in this series. This one was not my favorite. I kept waiting for some suspense and I just did not feel it. Maybe there were just too many characters and too much background. And when the reveal came, it was pretty anti-climactic.

By this time I’m invested in these wonderful characters and I can’t wait to see what is in store for all of them next.

NetGalley/August 27th, 2019 by MIRA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MISSING ONES by EDWIN HILL

The Missing Ones (Hester Thursby Mystery #2)

Edwin Hill, the author of the acclaimed Little Comfort, returns with his next book featuring Harvard librarian Hester Thursby—an intimate, intricate mystery as smart and complex as it is riveting.
After all of the awful things that happened with Hester in Little Comfort, I was hoping she wasn’t going to be jumping into the fray again!
Hester is a librarian. With a side gig finding missing people. But after the last one, she almost died and is now out of that game. We think. Probably not.
Hester and Morgan are caring for four-year-old Kate, the daughter of Morgan’s twin sister, Daphne. Daphne left a post-it saying she would be right back, but that was a long time ago and no one knows where she is.
Meanwhile, on Finisterre Island, off the coast of Maine, children are missing and mysteriously returned unharmed. We meet Annie, who looks like a homeless drug addict and is holed up in an abandoned Victorian that is now just an eyesore and a place for junkies. 
When Hester receives a text from Daphne, telling her she needs her, Hester is once again lying to Morgan and taking Kate with her to the island. When she gets there she finds a small town with some big-city problems. Like drugs, people with their own agendas, and a missing Daphne and another little boy. Along with the dead body of a dirty cop.
Will she find Daphne and reunite her with her daughter? Can she save all of them?

This was a twisty, suspenseful tale! At times Hester irritates me, but she has reasons for the things she does. We just don’t understand them. Will this be the end of Morgan and Hester? Will Kate be returned to Daphne? Will Hester ever let go of the guilt and fear she is holding on to so tight?  I hope so.

 

Another well-done work by Mr. Hill
August 27th, 2019 by Kensington  NetGalley Reads

because You’re Mine by Rea Frey

Because You're Mine

Full of drama, lies, and suspense, this is the tale of three lives that intersect leaving one dead.

Lee appears to be a single mother who is obsessive about her son Mason’s safety. As a child on the spectrum, she trusts no one else to care for him. 24/7 Lee is there. Homeschooling, distrustful Lee.

Grace, divorced single mother to Luca. Grace loves Mason and he loves her. She gets him. When she introduces Lee to Noah, an Occupational Therapist, not only does Mason fall for him but so does Lee.

When Grace finally convinces Lee to come on a group girls weekend with Noah watching Mason, one of them will not return. And that is when secrets begin to come out. Lee’s version of how Mason was conceived and Grace’s confession about Noah.

This was a twisty edge of your seat waiting to see who was even telling one truth!

Noah has his own agenda. He also has his own secrets. And his are exposed along with everyone else. Almost everyone else, because of that ending! A suspenseful and compulsive read!

Well Done!

NetGalley/St. Martin’s Griffin August 06, 2019