Laura Lippman is a terrific writer, and I have enjoyed MOST of her books (although Dream Girl in 2021 was a surprise disappointment, but that may have been my own pandemic fatigue preventing my enjoyment of pretty much anything in 2021!). I loved 2019’s Lady In The Lake, and I was pleased to receive a …
TBH, I’d never heard of Chad Zunker before reading Family Money (which I read and reviewed earlier this year). He wrote a series featuring Sam Callahan and the David Adams legal thriller An Equal Justice, but somehow he was new to me. I really enjoyed the plotting and pace of Family Money, so I was …
In the mid-1990s, Dennis Lehane published A Drink Before The War, the first in a series of mystery novels featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. I was hooked. His writing includes both standalone novels as well as series – and in my opinion all can be read in any order (although as is often the …
In 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021 I read and reviewed Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, Spark of Light, The Book of Two Ways, and Wish You Were Here…and each one earned five stars (with two or three getting my “You HAVE to read this book”). I also noted in every review that “when a friend …
TBH, I’d never hear of Chad Zunker before reading Family Money (which I received from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review). He has written a series featuring Sam Callahan and the David Adams legal thriller An Equal Justice, but somehow he was new to me. In Family Money, a man …
If you enjoy stories with unreliable narrators, possibly unstable women, annoying characters in general, and a nice dose of gaslighting, here’s a book for you! Or possibly you just want something twisty and turny to get your mind off the death of democracy and a worldwide pandemic for a day or two, well, buckle up! …
Author Karen Cleveland has a solid background for writing thrillers that revolve around intelligence agencies and personnel: she was a Fulbright Scholar, earned a master’s degree from Trinity College in Dublin and Harvard, and was a CIA analyst for eight years, focused on counterterrorism – and she also worked with the FBI. So, bottom line: …
I haven’t read many of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novels (although I recall Deep End of the Ocean — I looked it up and it was 1997, which shocked me!), but I am happy that I received a copy of The Good Son from Harlequin Trade Publishing/MIRA and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. This story …
It all sounded so promising: in Courtney Evan Tate’s new novel The Last To See Her, a woman disappears, there’s a cheating spouse, etc. And while this book really did hold my interest, I REALLY hated the ending, plus none of the characters felt real or really made me care what happened to them. Buti, …
Early in 2020, I reviewed A Cold Trail, #7 in Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series. As I noted them, I first “met” Seattle Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite in My Sister’s Grave and I loved her, so I then eagerly read Her Final Breath. Following along in short order (he definitely can crank out books at …
About a year ago, I read and reviewed Judgment by Joseph Finder, a standalone novel featuring Judge Juliana Brody, a happily married up-and-coming judicial star who goes to a legal conference and does something out of character: she has a one-night stand. All kinds of legal (and other) wrangling went on as a result, and I …
I enjoyed both Bring Me Back and Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, so I am grateful to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of her latest book, The Dilemma, in return for my honest review. I read this one yesterday, and I keep thinking about it, which ought to be worth …
What a great read! I had just read a blurb about The Guest Book by Sarah Blake when I received an ARC (thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley), and was totally in the mood for a multigenerational family saga. The family is the Miltons. The patriarch is Ogden who, along with his wife Kitty, totally …
True crime has been a guilty pleasure of mine for at least 30 years…I remember working in a public library and happily discovering the 364.1523 shelves (where even today I still browse, although TBH public library budgets often prevent a lot of trashy ephemeral reading material from making it to the shelves). These days, true …
A Haiku Review of One Fatal Mistake by Tom Hunt Her son kills a man Together they coverup Then all hell breaks loose Thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for a copy in return for this honest haiku – I mean review. A good, quick read. Kept me occupied all afternoon and …
Beautiful Bad sounded like just my thing: psychological thriller, plucky heroine, remote locations, etc. So I was happy to provide an honest review in return for a copy from Harlequin/Park Row and NetGalley. This one has several of the things I like (listed above), and a few that maybe I have just gotten tired of, …
If you want a comprehensive book on the Menendez murders, your wait is over! I just read The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menendez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation by Robert Rand (thanks to BenBella Books and NetGalley) and now I know way more about this case than …
Publication date: October 9, 2018 I have LOVED Tana French’s series of books featuring various characters from the Dublin Murder Squad, so when Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley provided me with the opportunity to read The Witch Elm in return for my honest review, I was ecstatic. It is a standalone novel, unrelated to the …
I love fiction that includes some political intrigue/espionage, and if it is a mystery/thriller that’s all the better! Cold War timeframe is great if done well (I loved Jake Tapper’s Hellfire Club, for example). Dan Fesperman’s Safe Houses seemed right up my alley, especially as it was praised by Lee Child as being “One of …
I truly enjoyed Camilla Way’s book Watching Edie, so I decided that I should just carve out a DAY to wallow in her latest, The Lies We Told, which I received from Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley in exchange for writing this honest review. If you are a fan of psychological thrillers, YOU HAVE …