Category: suspense

Who Did You Tell? by Lesley Kara

 

Who Did You Tell?

Astrid hasn’t had a drink in over 192 days. She is trying to be a different person. She’s dropped her first name and dropped alcohol. She’s moved in with her mother. She has a routine.

But guilt is eating her up inside. The memories of the things she did or at least thinks she did are fresh in her mind every minute of every day. Add to that the fact that she is sure someone is following her.

Even inside the AA group, she doesn’t know who to trust. She makes bad decisions and her next one could cost her her own life.

But there is another voice in this story. A voice we don’t know. And it wants her to pay for something. With her own life. Can Astrid stay sober and more importantly alive?

Lesley Kara always gives us a good thriller! I did not care for Astrid at all! But the story was suspenseful as heck!

NetGalley/ June 16th, 2020 by Ballantine Books

 

 

 

THE HALF SISTER by SANDIE JONES

The Half Sister

Kate and Lauren are sisters who have nothing in common on the surface. One is career-oriented and seems to live a glamourous and carefree life with her husband while the other is married to a jerk with kids and an unhappy life.

But on Sunday they all sit at their recently widowed mother’s home for dinner. They are all still grieving. Kate was especially close to her father while Lauren has always been closer to their mother, Rose.

What no one knows is Kate has been trying for years to conceive a baby. And Lauren would just as soon leave her husband and escape her life.

All of that is the backdrop for the one Sunday dinner when there is a knock at the door and a woman stands there asking for their father. Who she says is her father as well. It seems she has uploaded her DNA and found a match with Lauren. But has she? Can they believe anything she says?

These sisters could have avoided all of this if any of them had bothered to talk to each other. But secrets are what families do. And sometimes they are what blows your world apart. And everyone in this book is keeping secrets!

There were some issues I had with the DNA thing, but overall it was a good mystery!

NetGalley/ June 16th, 2020 by Minotaur Books

 

 

 

 

THE GIRLS WEEKEND by Jody Gehrman

The Girls Weekend

Their reunion just became a crime scene . . .

Five former college friends reunite over the summer break and English professor June Moody isn’t exactly thrilled about going.

Her oldest friend and enemy Sadie, is hosting a girls’ weekend baby shower at her massive estate where she lives with June’s old crush, now Sadie’s husband, and Sadie’s pregnant cousin Amy, who she has always looked after.

Things are tense and there is a very uncomfortable feeling to the entire group. The husband is living in the lake house and the cousin living in the guest house and the gardener is living in a yurt.

After a night of drinking and revisiting old grudges, the morning finds them with no memory of what happened. The house is destroyed. There is blood on the landing. And Sadie is gone.

Everyone is a suspect and with memories sketchy, the suspense was palpable. The women were all pretty horrible and everyone is lying. I think we all knew who did what early on.

As a character, June was my least favorite. I just did not care for her. But the story will leave you wondering how well you know the people you call friends.

NetGalley/June 9th, 2020 by Crooked Lane Books

 

 

 

THE WIFE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by MICHELE CAMPBELL

The Wife Who Knew Too Much

From Michele Campbell, the bestselling author of It’s Always the Husband comes a new blockbuster thriller in The Wife Who Knew Too Much.

 

At first, I thought I was reading A Stranger on the Beach again. Nora, a very wealthy woman with a huge house on the beach has discovered a secret. And after her huge party tonight she is planning on confronting her cheating husband and his love.

But Nora is smart. She has a diary and records it all. Including the bit about her husband planning to kill her.

Meanwhile, for some reason, her cheating hubby, Connor, is in a small town his family used to come to on vacation. It’s there that he met and had a summer fling with a local girl, Tabitha. He was the one who got away for her. And when he walks into her diner, she falls hook, line, and sinker for his bull.

When she comes up pregnant and shows up at the big party at Nina’s house, Hoping to find Connor and give him the good news. But Conner is playing a different game with someone else hoping to get his hands on Nina’s money.

Tabitha is in her mid-thirties and should know better but she acts like a simple-minded child and it’s not a good look. Who is Connor? Does he care about her or anyone but himself? It’s not looking like it.

Honestly, I didn’t care for a single character. Not even Nina. In my own opinion, I felt like it was the same book as the last one with name changes.

Give it a try and see what you think.

NetGalley/ June 9th, 2020 by St. Martin’s Press

 

LITTLE SECRETS by JENNIFER HILLIER

Little Secrets

From the author of Jar of Hearts comes this edge of your seat, domestic suspense thriller of a story!

Marin and Derek are living the perfect life. College love and two driven people. Marin owns a very successful chain of hair salons and Derek owns his own business as well. Money isn’t something they think about. They even have a perfectly lovely little boy, Sebastian.

But in the blink of an eye, Sebastian disappears from his mother’s hand and is gone. The video surveillance shows him happily walking out with a Santa.

Cut forward a year and you wouldn’t know this is the same woman. The leads are dead, no one seems to be looking for her child. She goes to therapy, a group of people with little in common except for the fact their children are all missing.

Marin has secretly hired a PI, Vanessa, to try and find Sebastian. What she finds is evidence of an affair Derek is having with some young tart.

Marin has been sleepwalking through life until now. Now she is clearheaded and out for blood! Who is this younger woman?

Kenzie is a graduate student and aspiring artist. She is famous. On IG. Derek isn’t her first rich catch. But Marin intends to make sure he is the last. Marin may not be able to do anything about her son, but Kenzie is one problem that she can deal with.

With help from a dear college friend, she finds someone to take care of that issue, only to find out Kenzie may know something about her son! And Derek isn’t exactly innocent either.

This book was like jumping into the deep end of the pool. No build-up, no ramping up gradually, nope, not at all. There were really good characters here. Slimy, yes, but good. People I didn’t want to like but did so grudgingly. People who were just like me and yet did not see what was right in front of their eyes.

I can say I was properly scared to death and I can’t wait to go back and savor it slowly this time!

 

NetGalley/  April 21st, 2020 by Minotaur Books

 

 

 

Hid from Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Hid from Our Eyes

A Clare Fergusson / Russ Van Alstyne Mystery

It’s been quite a few years since we were left hanging by the last book. And I am not one bit upset. It was worth the wait. And we are all grateful.

Clare is one of my favorite characters. She’s a former helicopter pilot and is now an Episcopal  Priest with a newborn baby and a Police Chief husband. These characters are deeply flawed and that is why I love them.

The setting is Miller’s Kill in upstate New York. The story is told in the year 1952, 1972, and now.

In 1952 the police chief was Harry McNeil. Called to an odd crime scene where he finds a dead young woman in a party dress. No shoes, no purse, no stockings, no obvious cause of death. With little to go on, it seemed like there was little done.

In 1972, Jack Liddle is Chief and is called to a crime scene with the exact same set of circumstances, in the same place. He remembers the first girl and the only thing different is this time they may have a suspect. Russ Van Alstyne found the body. Recently home from the war in Vietnam and still angry and confused, he is quickly the first suspect. But there is no evidence to support anyone being a person of interest.

Present Day. Russ is now the police chief and gets the call. Another young lady has been found in the same place. Dead, in a party dress and nothing else. The pressure is on for the crime to be solved. Especially since the town residents are getting ready to vote on keeping the police force or not.

While Clare is trying to juggle motherhood, the priesthood, her church, and breastfeeding, she still has time to do some digging into the case. And she does just that.

This one was very twisty and just when I thought I knew who the bad person was, I did not! And of course, we have a cliffhanger. And I love it!

Thank you, Julia!

NetGalley/  April 7th, 2020 by Minotaur Books

 

 

 

She Has a Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be by J.D. Barker

She Has a Broken Thing Where Her Heart Should Be

Jack Thatch lost his parents when he was just a toddler in a horrific car accident that he still has nightmares about. Or are they memories? Stella has also lost her parents. David’s parents died as well. But why? And how are they all connected? It will scare the daylights out of you!

Since then he has lived with his Aunt Jo. Every year on the anniversary of their deaths Jo and Jack go to the cemetery and spend time with his parents. Jo is adamant about this. August 8th of every year. They read out loud what the tombstones say and then Jack wanders around.

It’s on one of these walkarounds that eight-year-old Jack meets eight-year-old Stella. Sitting on a bench wearing full-length gloves like an old woman going to the opera. Her chaperone ( and let’s use that term very loosely for now) doesn’t like Jack and makes it known. But something about Stella draws Jack in. And for years they meet up on August 8th in the cemetery to chat.

Jack is obsessed with Stella. Why only once a year and on that date? Who are all of the people surrounding her in the white coats and cars?

When his Aunt Jo dies early of cancer, Jack is left a very wealthy man with his elderly neighbor lady keeping track of him for the few months he has left until he turns 18.  But Jack is still trying to figure out what really happened to his parents and he knows Jo knew.

There were so many different things going on in this long book! Conspiracy Theories, kids with scary powers that gave me chills!

This is Barker at his best! Scaring the life out of me. I could not put it down once I started reading it. There’s Suspense, Mysteries, Mob Crime, FBI, and even Pharmaceutical Crimes!

My favorite thing was at the end when Barker said he needed a break from the darkness of the Monkey books so he wrote this one. I would love to spend one day in this man’s head! Bravo!

Full Five Star Review!

NetGalley/ March 31st, 2020 by Hampton Creek Press

 

 

 

THE FINAL DECEPTION by HEATHER GRAHAM

The Final Deception

New York Confidential #5

How do you confront a threat that is hiding in plain sight? FBI agent Craig Frasier and psychologist Kieran Finnegan hunt an escaped serial killer in the latest explosive thriller in the New York Confidential series.

The gruesome murders confessed to by the killer called the Fireman have left their mark on Kieran and Craig.

Even locked away his name and his story are chilling. When Kieran is asked to consult with the man to see if he is insane or just plain evil, she is not prepared for the man she meets. 

But just days later there is another body. With the same MO and in a bizarre turn of events our serial killer escapes from prison and is now on the loose. While the body count rises, Craig and Kieran may be in the most danger as they chase an escaped killer and try to unravel a web of lies, greed and straight-up crazy!

Graham never fails to give us a good, twisty, thriller of a tale! This was like trying to untangle a Rubick’s Cube! So many threads to pull at and everyone had me thinking, “Oh, yeah, he did it. ” And every time I was wrong.

Well Done!

NetGalley/ March 31st, 2020 by MIRA

 

 

THE RED LOTUS by CHRIS BOHJALIAN

The Red Lotus

“Set amidst the adrenaline-fueled world of the emergency room, The Red Lotus is a global thriller about those who dedicate their lives to saving people, and those who peddle death to the highest bidder.”

Alexis is an ER Doctor. She’s seen plenty of strange things and people. One Saturday night she meets a man named Austin who has a bullet in his shoulder. Details are sketchy and the man waiting for him is a bit off too. Turns out some crazy guy walked into a bar and just started shooting.

About six months later they are in love, not living together but already traveling to Vietnam on a bicycle tour with his friends. Alexis is not there for cycling. She is there to support her boyfriend on this particular tour where his uncle died and his father was wounded.

Then Austin doesn’t come home. The only sign of him an energy gel pack on the road. When his body turns up, Alexis wants answers. What has Austin done? Besides lie and lie really well? For one he has left her in danger and not only her. The world.

Okay, so that’s the story. Scary premise but plausible. I just could not get into this one. I skimmed more that I read.

NetGalley/Doubleday Books March 17, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

The Boy From The Woods by Harlan Coben

 

The Boy from the Woods

Harlan Coben is a master of suspense. His books are like a game of ‘which shell is the pea under’. You have to pay close attention to multiple storylines within the main bombshell plot. And this one has my favorite character, Hester Crimstein.

Thirty years ago Hester discovered that her son, David had an imaginary friend at the edge of the woods. Only he wasn’t imaginary. He was a real boy, living in the woods with no name, no identification, nothing. Named Wilde, he is still a mystery even to himself.

When a local girl goes missing, the famous and oh so wonderful lawyer, Hester Crimstein, asks Wilde to use his skills to help find her. In doing so he finds that everyone is lying. Everyone is keeping secrets. Secrets that someone will kill to keep quiet. Is the missing girl part of some high school game or something more sinister?

An edge of your seat thriller with an ending I never saw coming. But it was a very satisfying one!

NetGalley/ March 17th, 2020 by Grand Central Publishing