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.
As a crime writer, Auntie M is always interested when another writer uses a creative way to tell a story.
This is a book-within-a-book, told in alternating chapters between a young London detective, back at work after a medical leave and trauma, and the author of a tell-all primer supposedly, written by a serial killer who is now teaching others how he literally has gotten away with murder for years.
DI Samantha Hansen wants in on the case of a 14 yr-old girl murdered in Holland Park. Found lying against a tree in the park, a copy of the book is left beside her. While Sam recognizes the importance of this huge clue, she is also suspicious of it.
What follows is a cat-and-mouse game with the book’s author, Denver Brady, as Sam races to find him before he kills again. She will face criticism from her colleagues as her shaky anxiety sometimes impedes her. She will realize that people she’s trusted in the past have not deserved that from her, a wake up call that’s as difficult to swallow as the realization that perhaps Denver Brady isn’t who he claims to be.
Philipson explores the celebrity of serial killers in our society, as well as violence against women, while treating readers to a wild ride with great plot twists. A terrific read~
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.
A master of Icelandic noir, with several popular series and many awards to his credit, Indridason bring a new Detective Konrad mystery to readers. And if you have read some of his others, there are a few brief references that canny readers will catch.
Now retired, the detective continues to pursue his father’s killer. This cold case of the murdered man, not a pleasant person, has occupied Konrad over several years but readers will be quick to understand his background if this is their first read in the series.
It’s not just this case that takes up his time. When a Reykjavik woman is found murdered in her home, Konrad’s phone number is on her desk and he’s notified by the current detective on the case. Valborg had approached him recently, asking for his help in finding the child she gave up for adoption many years ago, over fifty in fact, and faced with that kind of time lag, Konrad hadn’t acquiesced.
But now that she’s dead he feels compelled to figure out what happened to her child, despite having very little knowledge, not even the sex of the child.
This is where Indridason shines, in following Konrad’s private investigation as he ferrets out leads and information from almost thin air as he digs into the woman’s past. It’s a complicated route but one that leads to an unexpected resolution, with surprising stops and starts along the way.
As the tension rises, crimes from the past are unearthed. This is an absorbing story of the echoes of old crimes that last through the years.
The 22nd Doyle & Action mystery is just as fresh and compelling as the first in this long-running series, which continues to delight readers. With Sir Michael Acton and Lady Acton married police officers, Acton’s way of handling justice often has the Irish Kathleen exasperated as she tries to rein him in.
Her fey nature is helpful to him, though, and Acton enlists the very pregnant Kath to ascertain when witnesses are lying. Aided at times by ghosts only she sees in dreams, she juggles two young boys at home with minimal help. This third child is a girl, and Kath’s imminent delivery has sidelined her to easier tasks.
So when Acton tells his beloved wife he is arranging a charity gala at his ancestral home, Trestles, where a play will entertain the guests, she is immediately suspicious that more is at work, as Acton is known for his devious ways of handling things. A cold murder case mixed with an art-rig gang are at the forefront, as is a fortune to be inherited. Kathleen knows this play is a ruse for more serious business.
The chosen play is a fictional court case revolving around the characters of Sherlock Holmes’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, and soon Kathleen can see parallels to their cases. There are romantic entanglements to sort, murderers to catch, blackmailers to halt–it’s all in a day’s work for this duo who remain devious and charming together. There’s even an evil man confined to a wheelchair whose silver-headed cane may or may not contain a gun.
Cleeland’s plot evolves as Kathleen tries to find out what her exasperating husband is really up to, and this time even she is surprised. A delightful addition to an entertaining series.
Auntie M has been back to reading up a storm this summer and over the next posts, I’ll give you a my top picks for readers who won’t be disappointed in any of these choices. Each of these authors are a joy to read and these top four are all highly recommended.
Any novel by Elly Griffiths is a cause for celebration, whether it’s from her series with Det. Harbinder Kaur, her Brighton Mysteries, or her Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries (which I live in hope she will resurrect at some point in the future).
But as a writer I understand the desire to explore new characters and situations, and The Frozen People is as unexpected as it is suspenseful. She introduced cold case officer Ali Dawson, whose new assignment is to literally head back to the Victorian era to clear the name of an ancestor of a Tory MP.
Ali soon becomes involved seeking a group called The Collectors, whose membership required killing a woman. Under Griffiths skillful pen, 1850 London comes alive, and as a new body is found, Ali finds her cover almost blown and her life in danger. And just how is she meant to return to the present?
It’s a neat concept carried out to perfection, filled with Griffiths trademark eccentric characters and sly humor, as creative as it is imaginative.
Billingham’s much-awarded series featuring Tom Thorne is always chock full of surprises and no more so than in his newest offering, What the Night Brings.
Always a master at plotting, Thorne and DI Nicola Tanner are thrust into a nightmare of epic proportions, when a box of donuts given to four officers at a crime scene by a “thankful” member of the public poisons them all. Three die soon after, with the fourth hanging on to life.
Who is the intended victim? Or is it a swipe at all police? Thorne and his team must delve into each of the officer’s lives, treading a fine line with the grieving families of the officers involved.
But this soon turns out to be only the first the attacks on police, leaving everyone scrambling to make connections that don’t seem to be there. Could the reason lie deeper in a betrayal?
Thorne’s partner, Helen, makes an appearance, as does his pathologist friend saddled with the post mortem, Phil Hendricks, bringing a feel of normalcy to this completely shocking tale.
Billingham is a master of twists but even seasoned reader Auntie M was shocked at the turn of events. You won’t be able to put this one down.
Every Michael Robotham novel Auntie M has read has surprised and moved me in unexpected ways, and I’ve read and recommend them all: The wonderful Joe O’Loughlin series, The Cyrus Haven series, ad several standalone. So it’s no surprise that his newest series featuring London PC Phil McCarthy is an instant favorite. Debuted in When You Are Mine, the daughter of a crime boss is constantly fighting preconceptions of her team against that of her family.
When Phil discovers a child wandering alone at night in her PJs, she will uncover that tough realization that the child has been a witness to a deadly home invasion. At the same time a jeweler found in his store, strapped to a an explosive vest, is found to be tied to the child.
And soon ties are also discovered to Phil’s family, setting up a tense situation that will test her loyalties and her career. It’s a tight plot with plenty of action as things turn and unravel, with Phil at the center of it all.
One of the hallmarks of Robotham’s book is his ability to create characters readers will care about, and this is no exception. Grab yourself a copy.
Who isn’t a fan of the creative Anthony Horowitz? His Susan Ryland series has been adapted into a wonderful television series he also writes, and Marble Hall Murders is the third in that series, rumored regrettably to be the last.
Susan has decided England is where she must be planted and is working as a freelance editor for a publisher when she’s handed her worst editing nightmare: someone has written a continued of the Atticus Pund series that got her into her prior troubles.
It doesn’t help that the author, Eliot Crace, quickly annoys Susan, but she concedes his book has merit–until she realizes he’s hiding clues in it about the death of his grandmother, who he is convinced was poisoned.
As Eliot’s behavior becomes more and more unstable, a murder makes Susan the prime suspect.
Please welcome Laury A. Egan, who will describe her journey with her new thriller, The Psychologist’s Shadow:
The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A. Egan
From the Beginning
The Psychologist’s Shadow is a portrait of Dr. Ellen Haskell, a compassionate, introspective therapist who finds herself in a dangerous struggle with an unknown stalker. The novel is a simmering suspense, one in which tension accumulates as the reader gains insights during sessions with clients—one of whom may be the psychologist’s shadow—and through the stalker’s journal entries, which serve as a discordant counterpoint.
The inspiration for the novel originated in my college interest in psychology. During my later years at Carnegie Mellon University, I selected all of my course electives in that field. Upon graduation, the head of the university’s counseling center, who had been one of my professors, urged me to embark on a career as a therapist. I was tempted but didn’t go that route, yet I continued to read books and to follow changes in psychology. When I began this manuscript in 1992 (a second novel), my goal was to meld my interest with my writing, depicting how a psychologist would react in sessions and what her thoughts would be during them as well as later, when she was alone and in private.
In other words, the story let me travel down the road I hadn’t taken, to try on the career I hadn’t chosen.
The novel is a semi-cozy suspense/mystery, set primarily in the counselor’s office in Princeton, New Jersey, and in her home on a forested property northwest of town—places I know well because I worked in Princeton and lived in a similar house. In addition to the familiar setting and my fascination with psychology, I was also attracted to the idea of writing about a light/dark dichotomy: the psychologist versus the disturbed, obsessive follower whose identity is unknown. Both are narrated in first person, thus allowing the reader (and me) to plunge into their minds, with a more in-depth concentration on Ellen Haskell.
Because one of my greatest pleasures as a writer is creating characters, the plot of The Psychologist’s Shadow allowed me rich opportunities to compose a sampler of diverse clients; to imagine their histories, personalities, and problems; how they would speak, behave, and dress, a process which was similar to writing case studies at university. I was also able to don a psychologist’s hat to “treat” each person, which provides the reader a voyeuristic perch from which to observe, analyze, and search for clues during therapeutic conversations. Wrapping Ellen’s story around her clients’ lives and interspersing the enigmatic journal entries by the stalker, was like being granted a chance to perform all the roles in a drama.
Throughout the years, I continued to revise the manuscript—almost forty times—and then, after publishing a number of other novels, I rolled up my sleeves, sharpened my red pencil, and attacked the manuscript with fervor, finally finishing the project. It now joins eleven other books on my shelf, several of which are in the suspense genre: A Bittersweet Tale, Doublecrossed, Jenny Kidd, and The Ungodly Hour.
However, unlike most authors, who usually concentrate on one genre, I tend to write whatever alights in my consciousness. This sometimes happens in a kind of channeling process when a character “comes through” while I’m sitting on my deck, looking out to sea, for example, or because a setting or “what-if” situation has inspired me. I’ve even tackled comedy: Fabulous! An Opera Buffa and young adult fiction, The Outcast Oracle and Turnabout. Perhaps I’m versatile or perhaps I love being all kinds of people, in all kinds of situations and places.
The Psychologist’s Shadow stayed with me for a long time, but it was ultimately a very satisfying creation. For those who have been in therapy or are therapists, for those who love solving mysteries, I hope this psychological suspense will be an intriguing read!
Published November 18, 2023 by Enigma Books, an imprint of Spectrum Books, UK
Laury A. Egan is the author of twelve novels, most recently The Firefly and Once, Upon an Island; a collection, Fog and Other Stories; four volumes of poetry; and numerous short fiction published in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on the northern coast of New Jersey. Website: www.lauryaegan.com
Mariah Fredericks’ THE LINDBERGH NANNY takes readers inside the homes of Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, exploring their marriage, their travels, and the horrific kidnapping in 1932 of their first-born child, Charlie, all from the point of view of the young nanny they hire, Betty Gow.
A Scottish immigrant learning East Coast etiquette after a disastrous affair, Betty is often put off by the eccentricities of Colonel Lindbergh. She admires Anne Lindbergh for her attempts to live up to her husband’s expectations, despite her shy and nervous manner. Coming from a monied family, the young couple live with the Morrow’s as they renovate a house in New Jersey.
Charlie is a darling child, sweet-natured and adventurous, and well as he gets on with Betty, Anne Morrow often worries he’s growing more attached to his nanny when she’s away on world-wide jaunts with her famous husband. At times not understanding how the parents can be away from Charlie for such extended periods, she nevertheless spends her own money on his clothing when he outgrows what she’s been left with. Yet she carves out a life for herself and even has a new beau.
Then when Anne is heavily pregnant with the couple’s next child, tragedy strikes, becoming one of the most celebrated international cases when young Charlie is kidnapped and his body eventually found.
Betty soon finds herself at the center of journalists and public scrutiny, when a suspect is arrested. She understands that to clear her name for the future, she must figure out what really happened that night when a loose shutter allowed the child she’d come to love to be abducted.
You may think they know this story, but Fredericks’ manages to bring readers into the closed off world of the Lindbergh’s and into Betty’s thoughts, as she adds a sense of tension and mystery to the story. The characters, real and fictional, are finely drawn. With its on-the-spot view, this is a book that speaks to the role of women in the 1930s and delves into what might have happened on that fateful night, and who was responsible. A gripping and suspenseful read.
In All Is Not Forgotten, Wendy Walker examines the implications of the use of a drug being developed which would be used to treat soldiers with PTSD which wipes out their memories of the incidents that haunt them. She skillfully blends fact with fiction in creating its use in this story filled with intrigue.
When teen Jenny is raped in the woods near her Connecticut home, her mother consents to her being given the controversial drug to erase the memory of the horrific assault she’s suffered.
But wiping out the memory also disturbs the police investigation into any relevant information Jenny could have given them regarding her attacker. As she heals from the wounds left behind, Jenny struggles with flashes of emotional memory of feelings that have no facts attached to them.
Her parents are at odds, with her father crazed that he cannot bring her attacked to justice. Her mother pretends the event didn’t really affect the tony country club circle they live in. With their entire family relationships torn apart by the attack, it will be Jenny’s psychiatrist who sets in the motion the revelations that will shock the family, the community, and Jenny, as the truth worms its way to the surface.
Walker uses a deft hand as she examines our place in society, the importance of memory, and how manipulation can be used in devastating and cleansing ways. Readers will be surprised and shocked at the ending. Reese Witherspoon’s production company has purchased the film rights, and Auntie M can see this on the big screen, suspenseful and taut with emotion, highly visual and emotionally charged. A winner.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 