Mystery & Suspense Archives | Page 47 of 119 | BookPage

Windsor Horne Lockwood III has a charmed life: he’s a handsome, highly intelligent white man with access to immense generational wealth.

But every rose has its thorn, and in Harlan Coben’s suspenseful and oft-surprising Win, the rakish titular character explains that he has long had to contend with negative assumptions due to his name, slight frame and regal bearing. Even this is an advantage, however: It’s caused him to cultivate exceptional combat skills (those who underestimate him soon regret it, often from a hospital bed). This has made him an excellent sidekick to Myron Bolitar, the sports agent-turned-investigator at the forefront of 11 of Coben’s novels thus far.

With Win, the author is trying something completely different. For the first time since readers met Win in 1995, the “preternaturally overconfident” sidekick emerges from the shadows to take center stage. His origin story is a departure from Coben’s Bolitar-universe narrative norm, one that readers will find intriguing thanks to a voice that is less open and more calculating, bolstered by a largely misanthropic worldview.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Harlan Coben reveals why he finally let Win step into the spotlight.

And Win’s got a lot to say, whether regarding his hedonistic pursuits or why the FBI thinks he knows something about a bizarre murder scene at a wealthy loner’s Manhattan penthouse. The FBI isn’t surprised Win doesn’t know the man, but are curious about two things found near him: a Vermeer painting stolen from the Lockwood family, and a suitcase bearing Win’s initials.

The last time Win saw these items was 20 years prior, around the time his cousin Patricia was kidnapped and held prisoner at an isolated cabin. She escaped, but the case was never solved. Now, it seems this new murder victim was not only connected to Patricia’s terrifying ordeal, but to domestic terrorists who committed multiple as-yet-unsolved crimes 40 years ago.

Ever the investigator, Win delves into the past and casts a critical eye on the present, using his wits and wealth to gain access and information. Coben, as is his wont, raises moral dilemmas readers will enjoy chewing on and pulse-pounding action scenes will keep the pages at least semi-frantically turning. As lies are challenged, secrets are revealed and seemingly impossible decisions made, Win makes it clear that “Life is lived in the grays.”

For the first time since readers met Win in 1995, the “preternaturally overconfident” sidekick emerges from the shadows to take center stage.

Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense

The Mercenary

Review by G. Robert Frazier

by G. Robert Frazier

Author Paul Vidich has once again proved his mastery of the espionage thriller with his edge-of-your-seat novel The Mercenary, which marks Vidich's fourth foray into the world of spies and intrigue.

Former CIA agent Aleksander Garin is recruited to help a senior KGB operative, known by the code name GAMBIT, escape from Moscow to Czechoslovakia. But there is a catch: He must also smuggle out GAMBIT’s wife and son.

To prove his worth and earn his freedom, GAMBIT is tasked with smuggling top-secret communiqués and papers to Garin. With the watchful eyes of the KGB and Russian loyalists all around him, the job is fraught with danger. As Vidich writes, “The lies had been harder to keep up, and he’d struggled to keep the layers of deception straight, knowing that a single mistake could be fatal.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Paul Vidich shares why he thinks the Cold War continues to fascinate readers.

When Garin becomes romantically interested in former Russian ballerina Natalya, who now works for the KGB, the risks multiply exponentially. Garin struggles with whom he can trust, including his contacts at the American Embassy, who have their own suspicions about Garin's loyalties and about his handler, CIA Station Chief George Mueller, who was previously expelled from Russia after a failed mission.

The Mercenary is fast paced and action packed, but Vidich lingers long enough to allow readers to experience Garin’s emotional highs and lows. In that regard, the novel deservedly draws comparisons to John le Carré’s tales of the intrepid spy George Smiley.

Author Paul Vidich has once again proved his mastery of the espionage thriller with the edge-of-your-seat novel The Mercenary, which marks his fourth foray into the world of spies and intrigue.

Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense

Bad Habits

Review by Heather Seggel

by Heather Seggel

Amy Gentry’s new novel Bad Habits is so much fun to read that it feels like you’re cheating somehow. It’s got the perfect setting—a prestigious and pretentious grad school program ominously referred to as The Program, where students and professors misbehave outrageously. And the friendship at its heart detonates a series of double-crosses and revelations that are breathtaking and sometimes hilarious. How can one book be so unrelenting in its sense of unease, yet also so much fun?

Academic rock star Claire “Mac” Woods has just given a keynote address when she spies Gwen, her former best friend from grad school, at the hotel bar. It’s a prickly reunion, doused in alcohol, and Claire awakens from a blackout thinking she’s confessed a long-held secret. Said secret, and the story behind it, comes out in flashbacks as Claire hunts for Gwen (and I do mean hunts) inside the hotel. What unspools is a tale of class disparity, friendship, competition, infidelity and the variable exchange rates of sex and power. It’s a knockout.

Gentry’s light touch with such high-stakes subject matter is impressive. The program Gwen and Claire (who then went primarily by “Mac”) attended is rich in details that feel true to a university experience, even as the novel skewers how how much of that experience is artifice or make-believe. Several storylines tug at the reader’s attention, but Gentry continually reminds us of what we don’t yet know with a refrain that is jarring each time it reappears: “The accident. The farmhouse.” The misdirection pays off each time because we’re so invested in this fragile, fractured relationship.

If you liked Good as Gone, Gentry’s debut novel, Bad Habits has a theme in common with it: Sometimes the biggest surprises stem from a truth that was staring you in the face all along. Read Bad Habits for a satirically surreal take on higher education, and for an antihero you’ll lose sleep over.

Amy Gentry’s new novel Bad Habits is so much fun to read that it feels like you’re cheating somehow.

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

Every Waking Hour

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

by Linda M. Castellitto

When rookie Boston police detective Ellery Hathaway and FBI profiler Reed Markham see missing 12-year-old Chloe Lockhart’s cellphone lying in a trash can at the edge of Boston Common, they know she’s been kidnapped. It was highly unlikely she could had simply given her nanny the slip, and what tween would abandon their phone? With this new certainty, a busy street carnival on a sunny day becomes a crime scene and Joanna Schaffhausen’s Every Waking Hour begins.

Chloe’s wealthy, busy parents (Teresa, a surgeon, and Martin, a financier) are delirious with worry. They kept her under strict surveillance and are terrified as well as confounded that their efforts were all for naught. Their hypervigilance stems from residual trauma: Twenty years ago, Teresa’s young son from her first marriage was murdered alongside their housekeeper, and the killer has not yet been caught.

Ellery can relate to this maelstrom of emotions more than most. She was kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer at age 14, and Reed was the young agent who rescued her. After reuniting many years after Ellery’s horrific experience, Reed and Ellery began dating, and they struggle to find equilibrium as romantic partners and workmates. Reed’s ex-wife ensures their co-parenting is contentious, Ellery has been diagnosed with PTSD, and Chloe’s case is reopening old psychic wounds even as the duo rush to find the girl before her captor completely unravels.

While Chloe’s disappearance kicks off the race-against-time detective work that propels the book—Schaffhausen is skilled at building delicious and inexorable tension—the relationships that are affected by her kidnapping give the book a special resonance. Trauma underpins so many of the characters’ reactions and decisions in Every Waking Hour, and Schaffhausen addresses it with fascinating detail and great empathy, drawing on her background in neuroscience and Ph.D. in psychology.

It all makes for a compelling countdown to a surprising resolution (several of them, really—there are numerous intriguing threads for reader-sleuths to follow). This book is the fourth Ellery Hathaway title, and the gasp-inducing goings-on in its final pages are sure to prime fans for yet another skillfully crafted, suspenseful installment.

A young girl’s disappearance kicks off race-against-time detective work, but the relationships that are affected by her kidnapping give this mystery an especial resonance.

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

The Conjure-Man Dies

Review by Robert Weibezahl

by Robert Weibezahl

The first known mystery novel by an African American writer returns to print, transporting readers to 1930s Harlem.

Eighty-nine years ago, in 1932, a 35-year-old African American physician and writer named Rudolph Fisher published The Conjure-Man Dies: A Harlem Mystery, the first known crime novel by a Black American. Fisher died only two years later, when he was still tragically young, so we will never know what later works might have secured his place among golden age mystery writers. On its own, however, this trailblazing work of fiction is notable for its depiction of Harlem’s African American society and culture in the 1930s. Its characters are exclusively Black and, most significantly, so are its crime-solving police detective, Perry Dart, and his forensics expert physician sidekick, John Archer.

One of the first Black men in the police force to be elevated to detective, the assured and perceptive Dart admits that “in Harlem one learns most by seeking least—to force an issue was to seal it in silence forever.” The mystery unfolds largely through his dogged and wily interrogation, and the plot is marked by a number of unexpected twists, particularly one halfway in when, after African psychic and “conjure-man” N’Gana Frimbo has been murdered and sent to the medical examiner, his body disappears, calling into question the very nature of the crime they’ve been investigating.

The narrative itself is typical of the wider genre during this period, heavy on explicatory dialogue and a bit short on action. Still, Fisher’s way with description is commanding. “Out went the extension light,” he writes. “The original bright horizontal shaft shot forth like an accusing finger pointing toward the front room, while the rest of the death chamber went black.” Likewise, the banter among his ragtag cast is both musical and, at times, extremely amusing. “You’re an American, of course?” Dart asks one suspect. “I is now,” she responds. “But I originally come from Savannah, Georgia.” The memorable Harlem denizens that people the novel include a self-proclaimed (i.e., unlicensed) private eye, a dimwitted numbers runner, that haughty Georgia churchwoman and Frimbo’s mortician landlord.

With its sharp Harlem rhythms and abundance of wise-talk, one can easily imagine the jaunty black-and-white film that Hollywood might have made of this novel, had Hollywood been interested in making films centering authentic Black characters during the early 20th century. The novel was, however, turned into a play two years after Fisher’s death. If you’re interested in more of Fisher’s writings, this book also includes Fisher’s last published story, “John Archer’s Nose,” which reunites Dart and Archer. This story hints at what might have come to pass for this Holmes and Watson pairing had its creator not died of cancer, which he likely developed from his professional experimentation with X-rays at his private practice as a radiologist in New York.

Falling in and out of print over the years since it first appeared, The Conjure-Man Dies is now happily welcomed back to its rightful place both in the history of crime fiction and the wider canon of Black literature.

With The Conjure-Man Dies, the first known mystery novel by an African American writer returns to print, transporting readers to 1930s Harlem.

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

Deep Into the Dark

Review by Heather Seggel

by Heather Seggel

P.J. Tracy (the mother-daughter author team behind the Monkeewrench mysteries) begins a new series set in Los Angeles with Deep Into the Dark, a thriller that flirts with the fantastical while staying grounded in the all-too-real. Detective Margaret Nolan is working to find a serial killer who primarily attacks women, but a male murder victim leads her to Sam Easton, who may have taken revenge on the dead man for beating up his friend, Melody. Sam is an Army veteran whose tours in Afghanistan left him visibly scarred and diagnosed with PTSD. He could have committed the crime in a blacked-out rage, but Margaret sees things in Melody’s past that raise alarms as well. All the while, the killer shows no signs of slowing down.

Tracy introduces a lot of characters and story threads early in the going and then doesn’t stop adding them, which keeps the tension elevated. Sam has a series of encounters that feel like dangerous premonitions, but he’s acutely aware that combat trauma could be influencing his thinking. Stretches of downtime, in which characters just try to process what’s going on, feel very real. Sam and Melody both work at a bar; the tedium of repetitive work and their parallel efforts to build new lives and avoid attention make them a sympathetic if unreliable pair. And Tracy’s dry humor and the irony of such grim crimes occurring in sunny Los Angeles lend a grittiness to the story.

The conclusion is a neatly timed, highly visual set piece that’s going to be killer in the inevitable movie adaptation. But even this feels like it has a sly wink to it, incorporating film tropes, such as the heroine with a twisted ankle, into a fight for survival in which a screenplay figures heavily. The layered storytelling and empathy offered to every character make Deep Into the Dark not just a hard-to-put-down thriller, but one that leaves the reader with much to think on, with no easy answers in sight.

P.J. Tracy (the mother-daughter author team behind the Monkeewrench mysteries) begins a new series set in Los Angeles with Deep Into the Dark.

Historical Mystery, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery Historical Mystery

The House on Vesper Sands

Review by Elyse Discher

by Elyse Discher

Paraic O’Donnell’s The House on Vesper Sands is a Victorian thriller that blends gothic, supernatural and comedic elements to genre-defying results. While it certainly works well as a mystery, its humor is reminiscent of the late Terry Pratchett, and its satirical tone will appeal to readers who aren’t typically among the historical mystery crowd.

Set in 1893 London, The House on Vesper Sands opens with a bizarre and eerie suicide. A seamstress jumps from the window of her patron Lord Strythe’s house after stitching a cryptic message into her own skin. The case falls into the lap of Inspector Cutter, whose dry humor and barbed tongue set him apart from his dull-witted counterparts. Along with Cutter is Gideon Bliss, an ecclesiastical scholar impersonating a police sergeant. Bliss is investigating the disappearance of his uncle and of a match girl named Angie Tatton. He believes that these vanishings may be connected to the suicide, and though often comically hapless and earnest, is determined to solve the puzzle. Cutter and Bliss’s double act is complemented by Octavia Hillingdon, a feminist and journalist looking for a story more compelling than her usual society page assignments.

Many disparate strands come together to form this mystery—the aforementioned suicide, the disappearance of several working-class women and the bizarre actions of the mysterious Lord Strythe. Initially the setup for these different threads feels a bit tedious, but once they are woven together the pacing picks up considerably, to the extent that the end of the novel is explosively compelling.

While many historical mysteries focus on the upper class (genteel ladies solving murders or intrepid police inspectors navigating the world of the ton), O’Donnell examines the world of working-class Victorian London and champions those who inhabit it. The missing women here are all working class and overlooked, but their plight is no less important to Cutter or Octavia. It’s a vividly painted atmosphere that feels so real to the reader, you can almost smell the gin and coal dust.

The characters and humor that make The House on Vesper Sands shine would lend themselves well to a series—this novel is sure to make readers hunger for more.

The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell is a Victorian thriller that blends gothic, supernatural and comedic elements to genre-defying results.

Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense

Pickard County Atlas

Review by G. Robert Frazier

by G. Robert Frazier

When homesteader Dell Reddick Sr. decides to purchase a headstone for the son he lost 17 years ago, painful memories among his family members set into motion a series of events he could never have predicted. Swept up in the family ordeal is Deputy Sheriff Harley Jensen, who may be the only one who can restore the peace—if his own passions for one of the family don’t get in the way. Chris Harding Thornton unravels the intrigue and suspense in meticulously detailed fashion in her solid debut novel, Pickard County Atlas.

Set in 1978, the story takes place in the titular rural Nebraska county, where large tracts of farmland have been named after the people who lived there. Homesteads—many of which have folded or been abandoned—stretch over hundreds of acres, a detail which Thornton cannily uses to evoke the isolation and lonely frustration that bears down upon the remaining residents.

Harley is initially called to investigate a series of unusual thefts of clothing and other items from the homes of the recently deceased, as well as evidence of trespassing at other abandoned homes. One such excursion brings him in contact with Paul Reddick, the younger brother of Dell Jr., whose body was never found after he was killed in 1960 by Korean War veteran Rollie Asher.

Paul is no stranger to the law, as he has been in and out of jail on drug-related charges. Harley tries to go easy on him, knowing the trauma that Paul and his family have experienced. But when it becomes clear that both Paul and Harley are attracted to Paul’s older brother Rick’s wife, Pam, events build toward a confrontation for which neither is prepared.

Pickard County Atlas takes its time; there is no real sense of urgency or high stakes confronting Harley or any of the other characters. The closest thing to a central mystery is the weird series of thefts and break-ins. But Thornton, herself a seventh-generation Nebraskan, describes the landscape and interactions of the characters in such starkly realistic detail, you cannot help but get wrapped up in the novel’s noirish atmosphere and slow-burning mystery.

Cozy Mystery, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery Cozy Mystery

Bait and Witch

Review by Heather Seggel

by Heather Seggel

Angela M. Sanders’ first book in a new cozy mystery series, Bait and Witch, balances paranormal whimsy and small-town charm.

Josie Way had her dream job in the Library of Congress but had to drop out of sight after overhearing a conversation that pointed to political corruption. She essentially creates a do-it-yourself witness protection program by taking a job in the library of rural Wilfred, Oregon, hoping to lie low until things resolve back in Washington, D.C. She’s barely unpacked her bags when a body is discovered on the library property, and her concern that she may have been the intended target prompts her to investigate. Oh, and the books on the shelves at Wilfred’s library? They’re able to talk to her—no big deal.

Sanders fills the town of Wilfred with eccentric locals and blends in a plot about the library property being sold and potentially converted into a retreat center. These elements all collide when Josie’s life back east catches up with her. However, the story’s real heart derives from Josie’s gradual discovery that she’s a witch. From becoming fast and intimate friends with a local cat to developing an ability to recommend books she’s never read or even heard of, Bait and Witch is playful yet grounded, setting up a final confrontation when the decision to refuse or embrace her powers is critical.

Sanders’ light touch leaves lots of possibilities for Josie’s future stories. There’s a potential romance simmering on a back burner, as well as Josie’s commitment to stay and help bring Wilfred’s library into the modern era without alienating any longtime patrons. Most evocatively, Bait and Witch ends with Josie receiving her grandmother’s grimoire, or book of spells, and preparing to learn more about her powers. Some of us think all librarians are at least a little witchy (in the best way), but it’s a delight to read about someone whose powers derive in part from stories and the feelings that readers attach to them. This is a fine debut that promises more bookish fun to come.

Angela M. Sanders’ first book in a new cozy mystery series balances paranormal whimsy and small-town charm.

Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense

Fool Me Twice

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

by Linda M. Castellitto

Riley Wolfe excels at what he does: elaborate, improbable, dangerous, lucrative art heists. He knows he’s the best, and he gets a substantial thrill out of accomplishing the seemingly impossible with flair and rough justice. As he explains in Jeff Lindsay’s Fool Me Twice, “It’s what I live for—grabbing stuff from people too rich and privileged to deserve it.”

Of course, Riley’s illicit activities make him very wealthy, which is quite helpful for establishing secret hideaways, paying subcontractors to assist him in his schemes and ensuring his beloved mother (who is in a persistent vegetative state) is well cared for. All of these elements come into play in Lindsay’s second Riley Wolfe novel (the first is 2019’s Just Watch Me), as a dizzying chain of betrayals, threats, double-crosses and misdirections add up to a wild international caper that’s at once nerve-wracking and fascinating in its extreme peril and layered complexity.

Riley’s newest boss, Patrick Boniface, is an arms dealer known for his ruthlessness—which pales compared to what his sidekick, torture aficionado Bernadette, likes to do for fun. Boniface informs Riley that he can either be Bernadette’s ill-fated plaything, or steal Raphael’s "The Liberation of St. Peter" . . . which is, unfortunately, a fresco that is part of a wall at the Vatican. It gets worse: A rival crime boss tells Riley that, if he doesn’t double-cross Boniface, Monique (the world’s best art forger and Riley’s quasi-romantic interest) will come to great harm. And, as is not uncommon with world-famous art thieves, there’s also an FBI agent determined to capture him once and for all.

At first, Riley is completely nonplussed; stealing a wall doesn’t happen to be within his expertise. But inspiration does strike, and Lindsay does an excellent job of building toward the solution via masterful feats of planning, costuming, social engineering and a well-placed felony (or several). Readers travel to various spots around the globe as Riley races to complete the job, protect his loved ones and live to steal another day. This frequently funny, always inventive, often quite dark thriller will delight fans of Lindsay’s bestselling Dexter series and the hit TV show it inspired.

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

The Wicked Hour

Review by Elyse Discher

by Elyse Discher

The perfect read for winter's extra-dark nights, The Wicked Hour takes readers back to the Salem-inspired town of Burning Lake, New York, where every Halloween night culminates in the burning of effigies of witches and over-the-top celebration. This Halloween, it also leads to the murder of Morgan Chambers, a talented young violinist.

It’s necessary to read the first book in the Natalie Lockhart series, Trace of Evil, to fully grasp the events of The Wicked Hour. A police detective, Natalie is still traumatized from the events of the prior novel, where she solved a heartbreaking cold case that changed her view of the Burning Lakes community. Natalie has isolated herself from her family and from her boss, a man she’s fallen in love with. She spends her time renovating her old home and throwing herself into her work.

When Morgan Chambers’ body is pulled from a dumpster, Natalie is heartbroken to see the young woman discarded like trash. As she works the case and delves deeper into the highly competitive world of professional music, she remembers a missing persons case close to her heart. Natalie’s teenage friend, Bella, was also a talented violinist who disappeared. Like Morgan, Bella was being crushed under the pressure to succeed in a world that demanded constant sacrifice and competition. Unlike Morgan, Bella was deemed a runaway, but now Natalie is questioning that explanation.

Though both Trace of Evil and The Wicked Hour are tightly paced thrillers, The Wicked Hour keeps the spooky setting of Burning Lake and its Halloween celebration as a backdrop to murder, with less of a focus on the occult than series readers may expect. Instead, The Wicked Hour is a carefully plotted procedural that invites readers to examine each clue along with Natalie. As those clues come together and the novel progresses toward its climax, readers will be rewarded with a suspenseful and memorable finale.

The perfect read for winter's extra-dark nights, The Wicked Hour takes readers back to Salem-inspired town of Burning Lake, New York,

Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery

Shed No Tears

Review by Heather Seggel

by Heather Seggel

Serial killer Christopher Masters terrorized London in 2012 with a string of abductions and murders. His final victim, Holly Kemp, was never found, but eyewitness testimony placed her in connection with Masters. Six years later, Holly’s body is discovered near Cambridge. It should be easy work for Detective Constable Cat Kinsella and her partner to tie up this loose end and close the case once and for all. From this simple premise, the artfully paced Shed No Tears merely follows the clues, and things go from surprising to shocking.

Readers familiar with Caz Frear’s series know that Cat Kinsella comes from a family involved with organized crime. Her significant relationships are held together with a complex web of lies, so even the true-to-life scenes of normal work camaraderie are shot through with tension. Frear adds a layer of complication by introducing a Detective Chief Inspector who worked the original Masters case and takes a interest in Cat’s career trajectory. Cat wants to please her new mentor, but her dogged commitment seems to be having the opposite effect. Frear affords real respect to the dull, often repetitive nature of investigation, so each revelation feels earned and adds to the suspense.

It’s possible to read this book without having read the rest of the series, but you’ll just end up wanting to start from the beginning because these characters are a pleasure to discover; even incidental roles are fleshed out enough to feel real. Cat works hard to undo some of her family legacy but keeps making choices that tie her ever more firmly to her past. That combination allows her to empathize with victims and the accused alike, which is a real asset on the job. It forces her to keep an open mind, even to unsettling possibilities. (It also helps that she can ask her father about doings in the criminal underworld—not that she’s guaranteed a straight answer.) The story follows her calm, methodical approach, and Frear’s tight control of the reins keeps the tension high. Shed No Tears grabs the reader and doesn’t let go.

Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense

The Russian Pink

Review by Elyse Discher

by Elyse Discher

Matthew Hart’s debut thriller, The Russian Pink, feels especially timely given its subject matter: a fraught presidential election and a Russian conspiracy.

A former diamond smuggler-turned-CIA-agent-turned-investigator for the U.S. Treasury, Alex Turner has dipped his toe in murky waters before in order to survive and feels comfortable operating in gray areas of the law. Turner is investigating an enormous pink diamond known as the Russian Pink that he suspects has shadowy origins. The problem is that the diamond is in a necklace that currently belongs to the wife of Harry Nash, a presidential candidate running in a highly charged election.

Politics may be the least of Turner’s problems, though. The Russian Pink is also linked to murder, stock fraud and Russian crime lords. It seems that by investigating the gem, Turner has opened a Pandora’s box. Suddenly Turner isn’t sure he can trust anyone, including his boss at the Treasury. When his daughter is targeted, he breaks from official channels and uses his CIA training to get to the people threatening him.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Matthew Hart explores the dangerous allure of diamonds.

This novel plays out like an action movie, fast-paced and globe-trotting from New York City to Antwerp to South Africa. Hart’s compelling hero isn’t afraid to resort to violence, and we see him engaging in everything from sword fights to falling off the balcony of a skyscraper’s penthouse. There’s also a dash of romance to temper the action scenes. Turner enlists the help of a diamond smuggler named Lily to help him, and as they race around the world in search of answers, a lingering tension between them blooms into something more.

The Russian Pink is a fast read, never once allowing the reader to catch their breath. Perfect for fans of Robert Ludlum and David Baldacci, this thriller will have readers anxiously awaiting Hart’s next novel.

Matthew Hart’s debut thriller, The Russian Pink, feels especially timely given its subject matter: a fraught presidential election and a Russian conspiracy.