Ryan knocks this one out of the park with a thriller that will have readers flipping pages long into the night.
Filled with a huge packet of lies and secrets, Eliza Ramsey tries to unravel the reality of events that have started with the plane crash that left her and her older sister orphans.
Eleven years later, Eliza is on the hunt for Bea after her sister disappears, leaving her to to care for her niece, Piper. The precocious pre-teen doesn’t understand why her mother hasn’t shown up after being away for a week—and neither does Eliza.
What starts out as a possible miscommunication from Eliza’s point of view soon morphs into something much more diabolical, when a visit to Bea’s home finds all of her clothes are missing. Has she disappeared on purpose? Been kidnapped?
Not knowing whom to trust, Eliza only knows one thing for certain: Bea would never abandon her daughter.
Ryan’s Eliza is instantly recognizable, yet a complex character after losing her parents. We watch her growth through the book as a series on unexpected twists and turns force her to face uncomfortable and even dangerous truths as the tension steadily rises.
The twists keep coming in what may be Ryan’s best thriller yet. Not to be missed.
Will Thomas’s Barker and Llewelyn series in one one of Auntie M’s favorite historicals with good reason, as his research is meticulous and often based on real events. He returns with the newest in this long-running series with For Services Renderered.
It’s October of 1986, and Barker and Llewelyn, private enquiry agents, have a long established daily routine that is shaken to its very core when their cook, Etienne Dummolard, chef owner at Le Toison d’Or, fails to appear to cook their breakfast. When he is taking his family to Dijon to avoid clashing with his sworn enemy who ate dinner the previous night at his restaurant.
The news is particularly startling because Barker killed Seabastian Nightwine in a duel, yet Eitienne insists he’s alive.
Unfortunately, this turns out to be true. The evil man makes enemies easily and never forgets a grudge. He trained his only daughter to be an assassin, and is dangerous beyond compare as he runs through money and will do anything to earn more, even to kidnapping British citizens who have angered the Qing government years ago in China and still have a reward on their heads. Yet his charm amuses many, including the Prince of Wales, who has not seen his dark side.
So when Barker’s paramour, Lady Phillipa Ashleigh, visits to say she’s received a message from Nightwine, Barker is on instant alert. Coveting Barker’s relationship with Lady Phillipa makes Nightwine doubly treacherous. Soon she and Llewelyn’s wife and young daughter are on their way to Paris, out of harm’s way.
But not before a visitor to their office gives them another, possibly related, case. Dr. James Cantlie begs the two detectives to find his missing friend, a young doctor he mentored who has disappeared, named Sun Yat-Sen.
What follows is a double espionage situation with Nightwine at their heels as the men try to find the young kidnapped doctor, born in China but raised in Hawaii. Learning that the Qing government has declared a price on the man’s head for a letter he sent to the government complaining of their methods, Barker suspects Nightwine is at the heart of the man’s disappearance.
Their investigation will take the two men into the heart of the Cbinese embassy who are holding the young doctor, with Nightwine planning to smuggle him out of England to face execution in China. Only the wits and wiles of Barker and Llewelyn can stop this plan from coming to fruition.
Using Llewelyn as narrator adds an element of the Welshman’s pithy observations in this wholly entertaining novel.
How does a multi-award-winning author keep a series interesting through 39 books?
By developing varied, quirky, and interesting characters, then placing them in a charming rural setting, and filling her stories with tidbits about nature, all wrapped up in a mystery that is not so much needing to be solved as proving what lead protagonist Meg Langslow suspects all along.
The blackmsith is hoping for some forge time when her family’s good friend Ragnar Ragnarsen calls with an urgent plea: can she and her family help with the many volunteers needed to care for fifty horses suddenly displaced from their equine rescue?
All of Meg’s family become involved, including her twin teen boys, her zookeeper father, her doctor dad, and her theatre director husband. Ragnar’s estate closely resembles a moated castle, complete with many of Meg’s gothic iron decorative and useful items on display. The huge fields surrounding the estate are soon broken into staging areas for the horses, many who have just been rescued from auctions and need to be triaged, while others need room to roam.
The rescue farm’s owner recently died without leaving a will, forcing Hoof and Hearth to temporarily rehome the horses as his two sons argue the legalities. While older son Abel is in favor of the rescue on the land, the younger, George, wants to sell the land for development, and isn’t above using threats and shady characters to reinforce his position.
Meg’s family camp out to keep watch over the horses after George’s thugs appear—until one of them is found murdered, and suspicion falls squarely on Abel.
Now Meg must juggle watching her family and the horses, while she helps to unmask a killer, and learns how to care and cajole horses of all personalities, including one due to deliver any minute.
The research Andrew’s brings into every aspect of a horse’s life make this story, along with its humorous bent, an entertaining read with this satisfying entry.
Louise Candlish (Our House), who has proven herself a master of capturing the tone and complexities of neighborhoods, returns with a psychological thriller that author Lisa Jewell calls “…fiendishly sharp, clever and gripping.”
Gwen Healy is the narrator for the majority of the book, a lonely divorcee of a certain age who lives in one of the loveliest buildings in London, Columbia Mansions, gone the way of so many grand houses separated into flats. Rooms are at a premium all over London, so it’s no surprise that there are plenty of sublets within the mansion, with some creative sorts even renting out a spare bedroom at exorbitant prices.
Living across the hall from Gwen is her neighbor, Alec. Gwen is immediately drawn to his newest subletter, a charming young woman who lives up to her name, Pixie. Despite the age difference, Pixie’s presence brings a new brightness to Gwen’s predictable life, and the two become friends.
It’s only as their friendship blossoms that Gwen sees that Pixie’s cheerful outer layer has a sadder underside, and soon traces this to the “friends with benefits” arrangement Alec has thrust upon Pixie to allow her to afford to live in the nice area and nicer home.
With her own children grown and distant, emotionally if not physically, Gwen is drawn to Pixie’s predicament and reacts with unpredictable protectiveness that pushes forward a chain of events that surprise and shock everyone in the building, even Gwen’s children.
There’s plenty of tension, and Gwen’s close observation of her neighbors in her building is rivaled only by what might or might not be really happening in their homes.
The twists abound as the quiet cruelties of such a close-knit building grow and expand in unimaginable ways to a shocking ending.
Terrifically well-constructed and highly readable~
Two Order of Canada recipients combine their formidable forces to bring us The Last Mandarin, a fast-paced thriller that centers on an estranged mother-daughter duo who suddenly become the focus of world events.
Human rights activist Vivien Li escaped China after Tiananmen Square and is known worldwide for her advocay for a democratic China.
Her daughter, Alice, is a first generation Chinese-American, who has lived in her mother’s shadow and turned to food blogging to escape the political process.
When Alice receives a photo from a friend who is found murdered, she becomes caught up in an international scheme of coordinated attacks.
Because of growing up with her mother, Alice understands more than the average person about the cybeattacks. And soon Vivien and Alice are brought to the attention of the White House when ties to China are exposed and a sense of urgency takes over.
Blending in Chinese history adds to the depth of the usual political thriller, as does the tension between mother and daughter, who become a globe-trotting duo. Tight characterizations add to the depth of their relationship.
A different but intriguing offering from two talented women.
Gillian McAllister might have been a lawyer, but since she became a full time writer, she has a string of thrillers to claim: Wrong Place Wrong Time; Famous Last Words; Just Another Missing Person, and The Good Sister are just a partial list of her hits.
When her newest, Caller Unknown, was offered to me for review, Auntie M jumped at the chance to read it.
Simone has left her husband, Damien, in England to run their restaurant so she can meet their daughter, Lucy for a week together, after Lucy has spent the summer at a Texas camp learning to sing before her RADA course starts. It’s mother-daughter time Simone is looking forward to, as the thought of watching her daughter start the next stage of her life courses through her. She knows this is the natural order of things, but she’s having a hard time letting go.
Then the unthinkable happens: after one night together in a cabin, Lucy is kidnapped, a ransom demanded, and Simone’s entire life changes. Damien flies over, but she lies to him that she’s called the police in, as the kidnappers assured her that doing so would cause her daughter’s death. She’s sent a sad proof of life video, showing Lucy with her hands bound behind her back.
This is when McAllister swiftly turns the plot on hits head, with Simone as Mother Warrior, desperately trying anything to save her daughter. There will be shootings, murder, and a drug deal before the heady climax. The twists come fast as the action ramps up until an unbelieveable climax leaves the reader feeling almost bereft, but in awe of Simone’s strength—until a brilliant last sharp turns brings everything into focus.
A meditation on a mother’s inexhaustible love, and the length’s she will go to for her daughter. Stunning.
The third Cal Hooper novel finds the intrepid Chicago detective, now retired, thick in the midst of an unwanted investigation in his rural West Irish town of Ardnakelty.
A lovely young woman, Rachel Holohan, is on the cusp of an engagement to Tommy Moynihan’s Eugene. The local business man has his fingers in so many projects he has half the town beholden to him and the other half scared of him.
So when Rachel’s body is found in the river, her death sets off a chain of events that will have the town, Cal and his fiancee, Lena, and his ward Trey Reddy, more involved than any of them want.
And when Cal’s investigation gets too close to revealing Tommy’s underhanded machinations that threaten the entire town, the gloves are off as the two men match wits, with Tommy having the weight to spread rumors about Cal and Lena, while his grief-stricken son watches from the sidelines.
French’s ability to weave these disparate characters is on full display here, with the townspeople aiding or detracting, depending on whose side they’re on. Cal’s loyalty to his new neighbors will be severely tested, and impact his relationship with Lena. The emotions run high as Cal continues to find out the truth, and find justice for Rachel, sometimes forgotten as a pawn in the fight that ensues.
No one creates atmosphere and uses her setting to her advantage as much as French. Her use of language pulls the reader in to the unfamiliar landscape, and she evokes a mood with words. Her plot is cleverly constructed, too, and as the pain of loss doubles, a sense of impending doom falls over the town. It will take Cal and his mismatched band of supporters to find the real justice at the end of the day.
A brilliant end to the trilogy of Cal Hooper stories. While The Keeper certainly can be read as a standalone, if you haven’t read them all, (The Searcher, The Hunter) Auntie M urges you to do so if you are a fan of well-written, absorbing stories about people who jump off the page.
Higashino is one of Japan’s best-known novelists, and I’ve read and enjoyed many of his books. The translations retain the intricacies of social customs, while his plotting is diverse and engaging.
While the others I’ve read have featured either Detective Galileo (The Devotion of Suspect X) or the intricate mind of Kyoichiro Saga (Malice), Guilt brings homicide detective Godai of Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police to the case of a murdered lawyer.
Kensuke Shiraishi’s body has been found on a riverbank, and after much detecting, Godai finds an older man named Tatsuro Kuraki is involved. Then a strange turn of events cause Kuraki, who at first claimed only minimal knowledge of the dead, to confess to not only his killing, but that of a cold case murder twenty years before.
Despite being congratulated that he has solved two cases at once, Godai fears Kuraki’s confession doesn’t ring true, and continues to investigate, all the while facing stubborn resilences from the man in jail, whose son takes up his own parellel investigation.
Both men will delve into the history of the deceased men, as well as the man who claims to have killed them, with surprising results.
There is a tension that rises as the reader sees what Godai sees–an unraveling of lies and half-trrths, until a final, surprising truth is attained.
Guilt and redemption are the two main themes explored in this highly readable novel.
Berry’s sixth Kate Hamilton mystery keeps the series fresh, utilizing Kate’s antiques expertise and that of her business partner, Ivor Tweedy, in a unique way. Being married to DI Tom Mallory means Kate has an above-average knowledge of murder investigations, too, and has helped Tom in the past.
When an extremely well-preserved body is found at an archeological dig, it’s determined to be from the 14th century, and Kate and Ivor are asked to examine and evaluate the grave goods found buried with the woman’s body, which include a huge, valuable pearl. They meet the team who found the body, composed of varied personalities and talents.
Additionally, Kate is tasked as part of her private investigators work by the wealthy landowner, whose property contains the dig, with unearthing the idenity of the buried woman, who was pregnant at the time of her death. His own wife went missing nine years ago, and a museum of the plague-ridden village was her project, one he has continued in her absence as he struggles with his grief.
Then the lead archeologist, Dr. Simon Sinclair, is found murdered on the site with pearls stuffed in his mouth, and Tom becomes involved while also trying to track a killer in an unrelated death. Sinclair’s murder has numerous suspects, and with Kate on site, Kate works in concert with Tom to obtain inside information that might not surface in a formal police interview.
Berry does a grand job of showing how Kate uses resources and ancient documents to track down the identity of the murdered woman in the midst of Tom’s investigation into the modern murder. Then another set of bones are found to ratchet up the tension. Throw in Kate’s pregnant friend, the local vet and vicar’s wife, and you have a nicely rounded plot with local threads.
The interspersion of the cold cases with the new murder unraveling give rising tension to a well-done climax that makes sense. Don’t miss Berry’s author’s note at the end about the real-life discovery of a medieval body that gave her the storyline idea.
Coffin’s second Det. Brock Justice novel more than continues the promise of the debut in the series, Crimson Thaw, with an atmospheric and charged story.
With baggage from testifying against a fellow officer following him, the state police officer and his partner’s new case takes them to the autumn back roads of small town Maine, where a woman’s body has been found at the roadside. Originally thought a victim of a motor vehicle accident, a stab wound is found on Summer Randall’s body that clouds the cause of death.
Mentoring Detective Chloe Wright, their investigation soon shakes up the small towns near Moosehead Lake, and out fall plenty of suspects. Justice and Wright follow different threads into Summer’s life, but soon Justice is running a parellel case of his own: trying to prove the officer he’d testified against is dirty to the point of unbelievable actions.
There will be affairs in the victim’s past that muddy the waters, while poachers, including a veteran who lives off the grid, all come under scrutiny and add to the tension.
This is a well-plotted police procedural that keeps the action going, and Coffin succeeds in bringing the back woods of Maine to life, populating the novel with realistic characters, while imbuing the case with a sense of urgency matched by his care to find Summer’s killer.
As an added treat, there’s a brilliant ending twist that elevates this very readable book you won’t want to put down.
