Carol Goodman: The Sea of Lost Girls Sunday, Mar 15 2020 

Carol Goodman returns with a suspenseful mystery with a dark gothic feel in The Sea of Lost Girls.

Along the craggy Maine coast, the prestigious Haywood School has been standing for decades. Protagonist Tess and her husband both teach there; Tess’s son Rudy attends. The school has held secrets for years and some of them are about to be revealed.

Troubled teen Rudy has always been someone Tess has protected, and that instinct kicks in when Rudy calls her early one morning to pick him up at school after a class play party. Only later that morning does she find out that the girl Rudy has been seeing has been found dead on the beach at the bottom of a high precipice–and Rudy was one of the last to see Lila Zeller alive.

Tess will find her small family the object of derision as the community makes up its own mind about what might have been a tragic accident. Until it isn’t an accident at all.

Tess needs to make certain Rudy couldn’t be involved and will go to extraordinary lengths, including uncovering secrets she’s held for decades, to protect her only child.

The woody Maine coast creates a nicely brooding atmosphere for Goodman’s thriller and adds to the darkness in this finely drawn psychological suspense novel where nature often takes its own revenge.

Simone St. James: The Sun Down Motel Sunday, Mar 1 2020 

Simone St. James will have pulses racing with her supernatural thriller, The Sun Down Motel.

“Mystery with Ghosts” could be the subtitle, with the story alternating between Viv in 1982, and her nice Carly, in 2017.

Fell, NY, is the setting, where Carly Kirk has come to town to investigate her aunt’s disappearance years ago. The town has seen its share of murders to young women. To do so she’s left college after her mother’s death leaves her a small inheritence and the drive to do this.

Carly takes a job working the night shift at the same motel where Viv worked in 1982, searching for clues. The motel is a throwback to that era, still using a handwritten guest book and keys instead of cards to open doors.

But soon the same kind of weird things that Viv witnessed happen to Carly: the prank calls to the front desk with no one on the other end; doors that open; lights go out. Creepiest is the smell of cigarette smoke with no one there.

Carly soon finds she has more in common with Viv than she imagines as she finds out what’s been happening in Fell, NY. Deliciously creepy.

Sarah Pinborough: Dead to Her Wednesday, Feb 12 2020 

Sarah Pinborough captures the sleepy grandeur of Savannah, Georgia, and gives a lesson in greed and passion in her newest suspense thriller, Dead to Her.

Two women are the center of the story. Marcie hides her background when she becomes the second wife of Jason Maddox. His world of old money and friendships is one Marcie has always yearned to be a part of.

She strikes up an uneasy friendship with Keisha, the new second wife of Jason’s widowed boss. Definitely of the old money scheme in Savannah, William has returned from a London trip surprisingly remarried to the slender, gorgeous black hostess who hides her own secrets.

This is sly suspense builds on itself and the main characters, as the story advances with the two women at the center of the storied circle that men travel in. Other members of that elite circle have varied reactions to Keisha and her exotic looks. There’s a whirl of lust and greed that swirls around all of the characters until a tragedy strikes and suddenly new and old friendships are tested.

The hanging Spanish moss is not the only elusive thing in Savannah. There are the dark mysteries that lurk in the shadows, following both women, and in the secrets they hide. But they are not the only ones with secrets.

An intricate plot enhances the thrills, with a sinister surprise for almost everyone involved.

Nicci French: Losing You Wednesday, Jan 29 2020 

William Morrow is reissuing some of Nicci French’s backlist, which brought Auntie M Losing You, one she hadn’t read and is glad she did.

The dynamic duo bring readers the story of Nina Landry on her fortieth birthday, getting ready to head out later that day on a special trip from her home on Sandling Island off England’s coast for a holiday in the US with her new boyfriend.

With her son and daughter excited, this past year of divorce and upheaval should soon be behind her. As soon as 15 yr-old Charlie returns from a slumber party, they plan to head off with her younger brother in tow to the airport.

But first Nina needs to get that rattle looked into at a friend’s house, and when she arrives home, not only is Charlie not there yet, but a surprising number of people start to arrive bearing gifts, flowers, and booze.

It seems Charlie has set up a surprise party for her Mum’s birthday before they leave for their trip–but where is Charlie? She needs to finish packing, and besides, Nina is convinced her daughter would never plan a party and then not show up for it.

As her annoyance changes to real concern, Nina has difficulty getting the local police to believe there’s an issue. Teens run away all the time, and they are loathe to feel this is any different.

As the minutes turn into hours with no sign of Charlie, Nina retraces her daughter’s morning activities after the sleepover, including her last paper route before their trip. It’s only when Charlie’s bike is found that Nina is able to convince the police that something is terribly wrong.

Readers will ache for Nina, racing around the tiny island searching for her daughter. Charlie’s father becomes involved; the new boyfriend gets caught in a traffic nightmare on his way home from the airport.

Things keep going wrong as Nina finds more and more revelations about what’s happened to Charlie and her activities of the past few weeks and months. But one thing stands out: Nina’s determination to find and save the daughter she’s convinced is at risk.

With the action taking place over the course of one terrible day that leads to a stunning climax, this is one readers will gobble up as fast as Auntie M did.

Will Carver: Nothing Important Happened Today Wednesday, Nov 20 2019 

Will Carver’s Nothing Important Happened Today brings a dark and highly original thriller to the pages when nine people jump off Chelsea Bridge, leaping to their deaths at the exact same time in a mass hanging.

Thirty-two people on a train witness the incident, and two of them will soon die.

The book follows the victims and their individual stories, all very different, yet all have received a suicide note and another page with only four words typed: Nothing important happened today.

That’s the key phrase that sets off this suicide cult, notifying people they have been chosen to be part of The People of Choice, whose leader remains mysteriously silent. As the movement spreads, it suddenly has thousands of followers on social media, and the suicides start to spread across the world, too.

Detective Sergeant Pace is a man haunted by dark demons, currently seeing a police therapist to be cleared of PTSD, while determined to ignore the black flames he sees over his shoulder. He needs to find the leader as people keep dying–or before he becomes one of the cult.

It’s a race to the death as the events pile on. Auntie M found her hand gripping the edge of the book as she flipped the pages furiously near the climax.

Chilling and shocking, this is unlike any book you’ll read this year.

SJI Holliday: Violet Thursday, Nov 14 2019 

SJI Holliday’s Violet is psychological thriller that revolves around two English women who meet in a foreign country and decide to travel together.

Violet has broken up with her boyfriend in Thailand and needs a ticket to leave to travel to Russia. Carrie has come on her around-the-world trip alone, after her best friend’s accident means she’s back home in a cast.

Traveling alone has lost its glamour for Carrie, and when the two women meet at a hotel in Beijing, Carrie invites Violet to use her friend’s ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express.

The women travel through Mongolia to find their way into Russia, having adventures fueled by alcohol and drugs and something more as they become closer to each other and the intensity of their relationship changes.

But which one is the master of manipulation when things spiral out of control?
And spiral out they do, until the reader can’t see how either of the women can survive.

Holliday brings the various exotic places the women visit to life in a way that drops the reader into the midst of their journey. You’ll feel you’ve been to these exotic places, but maybe not traveling the way you personally would choose to.

A cautionary tale about trusting strangers, and perhaps not even trusting the people you love.

Louise Candlish: Those People Monday, Nov 11 2019 

Auntie M was blown away by last year’s Our House, which won Louise Candlish the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the Briish Book Awards and was long listed for 2019 Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year. She hurriedly ordered Candlish’s new Those People, just as strong a read in the domestic thriller genre.

Readers are introduced to the residents of Lowland Way, a London suburb of burgeoning worth where cars are moved off the street on Sundays for the children to play. It’s kind of the neighborhood where the adults look out for each other, and we are introduced to many of them when a new couple buy one half of the house on the corner.

Darren and Jodie are vastly different from the other residents. He quickly sets up a used car business on the corner property and begins dramatic renovations on the house, doing the work himself and using whining electric tools from early in the morning throughout the day. When he’s not using power tools, he’s playing music so loudly that the couple in the attached house next door are forced to buy hearing protection for their infant son. And the cars become a huge issue as “Play Out Sunday,” which once won an urban spaces award, becomes a tug of war on the street with serious consequences.

Things soon spiral out of control as the neighborhood rules are not only NOT followed, they’re distinctly flaunted. The local council has a long-winded process for complaints, which seem mostly ineffective, and Darren continues his marauding, while the other residents form a tighter and tighter group of us vs them.

It’s a situation destined to spiral out of control and it soon does with devastating effects.

Candlish tells the story from the viewpoint of the neighbors living closest to Darren and Jodie, and all vary in circumstance and personality, but one thing unites them: their love for their street and their animus against the new couple who won’t conform.

Interspersed with police interviews, the once-united neighbors soon delve to their dark sides, revealed to the reader as things deteriorate and the already fraught pace ramps up.

The observations of the varied temperaments of the residents contrast as the tension escalates; Candlish adds several surprising twists as the darkness grows and spirals down until there’s nothing funny at all about Lowland Way.

Laura McHugh: The Wolf Wants In Saturday, Oct 12 2019 

Laura McHugh’s previous novels (The Weight of Blood, Arrowood) have won or bee nominated for awards, bringing the Midwest to life in each stunning portrayal. In The Wolf Wants In, she uses her strengths of language and pathos to what is essentially a mystery, while at the same time balancing that with effective and complex characters.

Told in two points of view months apart that eventually overlap, the device gains momentum at the weeks converge to a stunning climax.

Sadie Keller is a social worker who can’t let the sudden death of her brother, Shane, fade lightly. Determined that there’s more to investigate, she isn’t able to get the local detective to take her seriously. With her daughter off at her ex-husband’s house during the week for a better school option, she has the time to talk to people and sniff around, using her older sister as a sounding board.

When a child’s skull is found in the woods, that death overshadows any help Sadie might have received. But Sadie makes it her mission to keep looking, all while working full time, taking care of her brother’s ill dog, and caring for her daughter at weekends.

Henley Pettit knows her family are talked about in town. With relatives selling drugs as their side business, an addicted mother in and out of jail or rehab, she’s had to bring herself up in rural Kansas. There are loyalties to some, but more to herself, as she tries to save from her cleaning job for the trip that will take her to the cool mountains of Colorado where she yearns to reinvent herself, away from her history and the influence of others.

There are few good choices but many good people living in rural areas, with the struggle of opioid addiction affecting far too many families, its tendrils snaking into poverty, robbery, murder and more. McHugh shows how this impacts these families in heartbreaking and sad ways of betrayal.

Yet there is an element of hope and light in this story that makes the resolution even more bittersweet. An insightful journey of these two women who will know each other only tangentially, but whose impact on each other will be felt for decades. Highly recommended.

Nicci French: The Lying Room Sunday, Oct 6 2019 

Auntie M was not the only disappointed reader when the duo of Nicci French decided to end their Frieda Klein series, but they’ve made up for that with a brilliant stand-alone, The Lying Room.

Neve Connolly is the gal everyone admires: a working mom of three who cooks and keeps it all together, and remembers to feed the guinea pig, she’s a great friend, too. So when her small print design company is bought out by a larger one, she decides to drop to 3 1/2 days a week to give herself some breathing room.

That her breathing room for herself means seeing one of the new bosses in an exciting fling has her feeling guilty but exhilarated——until the morning she receives a text to meet her lover at his tiny town flat and finds him dead, brutally attacked with hammer.

Unable to process any other thought but self-preservation, Neve sets out to eradicate any trace of herself and their relationship from the apartment, literally scrubbing herself away, all the while feeling she’s forgotten something.

The detective investigating Saul Stevenson’s murder seems to keep turning up at Neve’s door with questions, while her usually hectic household erupts into even more chaos with visiting friends from uni outstaying their welcome and her best friend’s marriage disintegrating at the same time.

Worried over her oldest child, Mabel, a young woman off to uni with her own ghosts she battles, Neve is consumed with worry and anxiety.

And all the time she exhausts herself to find a way out of the morass, while the detective intent on digging to the bottom of the case keeps turning up with more questions for Neve in a way that soon feels like the two of them are playing a strategic game.

But there’s another person out there watching as all the pieces fall into place, and that’s the real killer. As Neve tries to figure out who the killer must be, several on her list are those she loves, and she can’t begin to imagine how her life can continue if it is one of them.

The complicated plot adds to the very real feel of these characters, finely drawn with problems and issues all families and marriages entertain and their secrets emerge. As Neve’s attempts at misdirection rise, so does the tension, inexorably, toward a stunning climax that isn’t as much of an ending as a new beginning for some.

Eminently readable, this unsettling thriller is justly deemed highly recommended.

Vanessa Lilllie: Little Voices Thursday, Oct 3 2019 

Little Voices starts off with a scene that packs a wallop and glues readers to the pages of Vanessa Lillie’s debut thriller.

Told in the first person by Devon Burges, a former prosecutor out on maternity leave, her emergency delivery and tough recuperation are rocked by the murder of a young nanny who has become her friend.

Despite hearing mocking voices in her head, Devon grabs onto the investigation of the nanny’s death. Her intentions intensify when her college friend, the employer of the nanny, becomes the prime suspect in Belina’s murder.

As the voices increase, so does the tension, with the backstory to those voices a counterpoint to the murder investigation. Drawing on her “outside the box” skills, Devon is soon embroiled in the events that led up to this death.

The ramifications have fingers that reach to the businessmen and politicians of Providence, Rhode Island, as long-held secrets are revealed that affect far too many people in Devon’s circle.

A climax that has a surprise twist will leave readers stunned in this complex story, one that will have readers racing the get to the finish of a suspenseful tale Daniel Ford calls a ” . . . serpentine whodunit.”

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