Back in 2017, I gave four stars to Karen Cleveland’s Need To Know, a thriller featuring a strong female protagonist. Happily, thanks to Random House-Ballantine and NetGalley, I was given the opportunity to read an advance copy of Ms. Cleveland’s next book, Keep You Close, in exchange for my honest review. Once again, we have …
Back in 2012, I read The Expats by Chris Pavone. I loved it! It was an international thriller, telling the story of a couple who pick up and leave the US so the husband, Dexter, can take a lucrative job in Luxembourg. They jump at the chance to start a new life abroad with the …
I was happy to receive a copy of Alafair Burke’s The Better Sister from Harper Collins and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Why happy? Alafair Burke is a terrific writer, “domestic thriller” is one of my fave genres when done well, and the story just sounded kind of juicy. There are two Taylor …
I am the perfect demographic for this book, subtitled “Essays From the Grown-Up Years”: I loved the “Cathy” comic strip, and found it so frequently absolutely NAILED situations/relationships/dilemmas in my own life as a woman who spent a boatload of time in the 70s-80s-90s reveling in the feminist energy I felt all around me while …
When I was studying at U.C. Davis in the late 1970s-early 1980s, one of my absolute favorite classes was an English Lit class that met twice a week: on Tuesdays we would discuss a book, and on Thursdays we would either have the author of that book as a guest speaker or we would go …
Linda Fairstein has been called “the queen of intelligent suspense,” and is without question uniquely qualified to write a series featuring a female Assistant D.A. in New York whose area of expertise is sex crimes, having herself worked as the head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office from 1976 until 2002. I’m a …
I’ve been a huge Dave Barry fan for years. I tend to like humor that is taken from real life and comes from experiences that humans share and can relate to. Like talking to the people from the cable company, for example (in his case, Comcast, in my case Charter/ATT/DirecTV). So I am happy to …
True Crime Time! I’ve been a fan of M. William Phelps for years – among TC writers, there are many that just crank out crap, there are one-hit wonders who put out a good ONE, and then there are the (very) few who consistently give us a well-researched, carefully written story. M. William Phelps is …
As I noted when I read Lisa See’s The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, I have loved reading her books for years, with my favorites including Shanghai Girls, Dragon Bones and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I was particularly pleased when, thanks to Scribner and NetGalley, I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of …
I’m a podcast listener. I listen to a dozen or more each week, and I’m someone who cannot differentiate between (or among) multiple hosts most of the time. One podcast that I listen to fairly regularly is Reply All, hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman. Their February 14th episode (#136) was entitled The Founder, …
Thanks to Watkins Publishing and NetGalley, I had the chance to read The Handbook for Highly Sensitive People by Mel Collins in exchange for an honest review. I’ve been fascinated by the concept of HSPs for several years, ever since I read about it and had a “Eureka!” moment. I’ve known since I was about …
Forget You Know Me is the latest from Jessica Strawser, author of 2017’s Almost Missed You and 2018’s Not That I Could Tell. I gave both of these a qualified five stars, so I am clearly a fan – which meant I jumped at the chance to have a copy of FYKM from St. Martin’s …
True crime is my guilty pleasure – has been for decades, and it seems the world is catching up, thanks maybe to podcasts and TV shows (ranging from sleazy and cheesy to straightforward factual documentaries). Wild Blue Press has published some interesting TC, so I was pleased to receive a copy of A. J. Flick’s …
James Lee Burke’s series featuring Detective Dave Robicheaux is now up to #22 – and since Burke has long been one of my husband’s all-time favorite authors and Robicheaux one of his favorite characters, I was happy to let him have first crack at the copy of The New Iberia Blues I received from Simon …
As I started reading Secrets of A Marine’s Wife by Shanna Hogan, I realized it was vaguely familiar, then remembered that I had read the story in a magazine (People?) which had featured a cover photo of a young Marine and his wife in formal dress, attending a formal Marines Ball shortly before the wife …
Joyce Mitchell was a messed up, lonely woman living in the wildest part of upper New York State when she, like many residents in that area, went to work for the prison system…it seems prisons are a big industry in that part of the state. She met and married another employee and they worked at …
Mark Bowden is famous for books such as Blackhawk Down, Killing Pablo, and Hue 1968. In other words, nonfiction on heavy subjects. His latest is The Last Stone, subtitled A Masterpiece of Criminal Interrogation. Being a big fan of both Bowden and the true crime genre, I am happy to thank Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press …
I’m a big fan of Joseph Finder, so was happy to receive a copy of Judgment from Penguin Group Dutton and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This is a standalone novel featuring Judge Juliana Brody, a happily married up-and-coming judicial star goes to a legal conference and does something out of character: she …
I first read Jane Harper when I stumbled across The Dry, which is aptly described as “an atmospheric thriller.” Set in Australia, it features Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk in a nifty crime mystery with possibly the most vividly described environment I can remember reading. EVER. Seriously, I could feel the heat and the dust. …
Lisa Gardner’s detective D. D. Warren is back in Never Tell, a really interesting book – and fun to read. This is the 11th book in the series (which I only discovered in 2017 with Look For Me, which featured both D.D. Warren and Flora Dane. Flora first appeared as a crime victim in Find …