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Deadly Animals

Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Big Breath In

John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
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FictionThrillerDebut Fiction

A hypnotic debut noir

Review by Arlene McKanic

A novel should stir the emotions, and Tangerine, the debut novel from Christine Mangan, does just that. It made this reviewer boiling mad. And that’s a good thing.

A reader could be forgiven for imagining Tangerine as a Patricia Highsmith spinoff—Mr. Ripley Goes to Morocco. Its villain is a psychopath who would give Tom Ripley—not to mention Hannibal Lecter—pause. Why, Ripley even rhymes with one of the protagonists’ names: Alice Shipley. The other protagonist is her former Bennington roommate, Lucy Mason, who’s shown up out of the Mediterranean blue on the doorstep of Alice and her husband’s home. It is best not to spoil the story and reveal the identity of the baddie. Is it Alice’s miserable, sexist, condescending, unfaithful husband, John? Or is it Joseph, an oily grifter who meets Lucy when she first arrives in Tangier? Is it Alice? Is it Lucy? Is it Alice’s rich, chilly aunt?

At first, Lucy earns some sympathy after she barges in on Alice and John like Blanche DuBois; she is sure to suffer the same fate, since John is such a creep. Then it seems that Joseph has sinister intentions he’ll inevitably act on. Mangan keeps readers guessing for a surprisingly long time, but as the story goes on, it appears the truth was hiding in plain sight. The ending will send you back to the beginning to pick up on all the clues you missed.

Speaking of the book’s ending and my ensuing anger, be warned: There is not even a hint of justice prevailing. The miscreant isn’t all that smart or talented, but is simply ruthless in the way of a cold-blooded reptile or politician. Readers will hope that Mangan, like Highsmith, writes a series of books about this villain, if for no other reason than to see whether the lowlife gets his or her comeuppance or slips away one more time.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

A novel should stir the emotions, and Tangerine, the debut novel from Christine Mangan, does just that. It made this reviewer boiling mad. And that’s a good thing.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionThriller

A rough-and-tumble heroine to steal your heart

Review by G. Robert Frazier

Harley McKenna wasn’t raised to be a good girl. She wasn’t raised to be someone’s perfect wife. Harley McKenna was raised to kick ass and take names. 

In YA author Tess Sharpe’s first novel for adults, Barbed Wire Heart, Harley is the daughter of Duke McKenna, one of the meanest, most ruthless crime kingpins in the backwoods of North California where guns, drugs and violence are a way of life. Death awaits anyone who crosses him or threatens his daughter. But Duke knows he can’t be there to protect her all the time, so he trains her the only way he knows how. Every moment of her life is punctuated with brutal lessons in how to survive, how to thrive and, if necessary, how to kill. These are skills Harley calls upon again and again as she learns her role in the family’s meth-making business.

Amid this harsh reality, Harley somehow develops her own moral code. She defends the beaten and downtrodden, whether they are in abusive relationships or are being bullied by neo-Nazis. She’ll shoot to kill if she has to, but she’ll run if that means escaping to fight another day. That’s how Duke trained her.

But with Duke close to death from pancreatic cancer, Harley discovers she finally has to make a choice. She can take over the business as her father always prepared her to do, or she can cut and run. She can start a new life that's free of fear and bloodshed. That is, if Duke’s rivals, the Springfields, don’t kill her first.

Barbed Wire Heart is a gritty, bloody, in-your-face affair and definitely not for the faint of heart. Her heroine is fiercely independent, morally complex and desperate to forge her own path to freedom—no matter the cost. She is, after all, a McKenna.

Harley McKenna wasn’t raised to be a good girl. She wasn’t raised to be someone’s perfect wife. Harley McKenna was raised to kick ass and take names. 

FictionThriller

Prey becomes predator

Review by Noah Fram

Can you be redeemed for crimes you did not commit? Charlotte Rowe has spent her adult life trying to find out. A husband-and-wife serial killer team kidnapped the infant Charlotte after they murdered her mother. They groomed her to follow in her footsteps, teaching her to operate a furnace that burned the bodies of their victims, and were about to initiate her into their killings when the FBI raided their hideout. Charlotte has spent her entire life under the spectre of their crimes, and the suspicion of some that she was complicit in the murders.

So when a powerful corporation and its shadowy allies trick her into piloting an experimental technology that gives her superhuman powers, Charlotte must decide whether she will seek freedom from their manipulations, or use their questionable but effective means to ensure no one else will have a childhood like hers.

It is instantly clear that there are no perfect heroes in Christopher Rice’s Bone Music, and that everybody has skeletons in their closets. The thrill, and for many readers, the challenge, is figuring out what those skeletons are, how they’re related and which of the many flawed people that populate Rice’s fictional American Southwest are really the good guys.

Bone Music is reminiscent of Michael Crichton at his best, but without his occasional myopias. Rice is refreshingly frank when constructing his characters, drawing clear distinctions among them without resorting to rhetorical kitsch or overwrought stereotyping. And he is really, truly funny. Although present-tense narration can be gimmicky, Rice’s storytelling voice carries enough bite that his real-time engagement with the story is consistently enjoyable, and his frequent sly interjections are welcome breaks in what could, in a different writer’s hands, so easily be a mawkishly macabre tale.

There are moments when Rice teeters on the brink of sensationalism, a rhetorical dance that supplies its own kind of thrill. Bone Music has not been sanitised, much to its credit. Few thrillers worth their salt are. Its population of survivors do not lend themselves to anodyne platitudes or flowery syntax, and Rice supplies neither. His characters are blunt, forthright, and frequently caustic, and his writing suits them well.

Bone Music is a funny, engaging story filled with interwoven backstories and intrigue that rarely, if ever, slows down. It’s a high-energy sci-fi thriller with few pretensions, a consistently entertaining and engagingly crafted story that careens around dusty Arizona roads, glittering corporate boardrooms and anonymous corners of the internet as each of its characters search for answers, seeking absolution for transgressions both real and imagined. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun to read.

Can you be redeemed for crimes you did not commit? Charlotte Rowe has spent her adult life trying to find out. A husband-and-wife serial killer team kidnapped the infant Charlotte after they murdered her mother. They groomed her to follow in her footsteps, teaching her to operate a furnace that burned the bodies of their victims, and were about to initiate her into their killings when the FBI raided their hideout. Charlotte has spent her entire life under the spectre of their crimes, and the suspicion of some that she was complicit in the murders.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionThrillerMystery

Struggling to uncover lost memories and a conspiracy

Review by G. Robert Frazier

If you’re looking for a good book to curl up with and lull you to sleep, don’t read Jonathan Moore’s The Night Market—it’ll keep you awake all night.

Moore’s latest novel is a noirish, moody mystery shrouded with conspiracies that would make any “X-Files” fan rejoice. The story begins routinely enough with its main protagonist, homicide investigator Ross Carver and his partner, Jenner, being dispatched to the scene of an apparent murder in an upscale San Francisco neighborhood. But things quickly take an unexpected and somewhat gory turn when the rapidly deteriorating body is examined. As Carver and Jenner begin making their initial assessment, they’re suddenly surrounded by federal agents in full hazmat suits and are whisked away from the crime scene.

When Carver awakens three days later in his apartment, he has no knowledge of the past three days’ events, including the bizarre murder scene. Adding to the puzzle, Carver finds his mysteriously reclusive neighbor, Mia, sitting at his bedside reading to him. Mia explains that she saw some strange men carry him into his apartment and leave, and over the next three days she took it upon herself to care for him until he came out of his delirium.

Carver, with Mia’s help, sets off to find out what happened during his blackout. In typical gumshoe fashion, Carver follows one lead to the next and slowly begins piecing together a trail of people, places and events, ultimately leading to the discovery of a staggering conspiracy.

Moore expertly paints a bleak cityscape for our hero, and in this world, no one can be trusted, and dangerous secrets are just waiting to be uncovered. In the vein of stories by Blake Crouch or China Mieville, The Night Market completes what Moore calls a “three-panel painting of San Francisco—a single work, loosely connected.” Reading the other books in Moore’s series—The Poison Artist and The Dark Room—isn’t necessary, but once you’ve read this one, you’ll be compelled to seek them out anyway. Just be prepared to lose some sleep while reading them.

If you’re looking for a good book to curl up with and lull you to sleep, don’t read Jonathan Moore’s The Night Market—it’ll keep you awake all night.

Mystery & SuspenseYA FictionYAMystery

The murderer in the school hall

Review by Kimberly Giarratano

Stevie Bell is a true-crime aficionado— a hyper-focused FBI hopeful who also happens to be well-versed in the Ellingham Academy murders. In 1936, Albert Ellingham, the Vermont boarding school’s rich founder, lost his wife and daughter in a bizarre kidnapping and ransom scheme. Many books have been written about the case, and theories about the identity of the killer, Truly Devious (named for the moniker left on a strange riddle), abound, but no one has solved the crime. Seventeen-year-old Stevie thinks she can, and when she’s admitted to the prestigious Ellingham, she makes the murders her student project. But how does a teenage girl solve a case that has stumped criminologists for decades? And when Truly Devious inexplicably starts killing again, how will Stevie not only survive a burgeoning social life at school but also outsmart a murderer intent on making her the next victim?

Maureen Johnson, the bestselling author of the Shades of London series, is a lively storyteller who has crafted a page-turning puzzle filled with dynamic characters. In this first book of a new series, readers will identity with one of her well-drawn characters: Stevie, who suffers from anxiety; Janelle, the exuberant engineer focused on academics and not her love life; Nate, the fantasy author with writer’s block; or Ellie, the artist comfortable in her own skin. Murder sets up the story, but Stevie and her friends make this reading experience truly delightful.

 

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Stevie Bell is a true-crime aficionado— a hyper-focused FBI hopeful who also happens to be well-versed in the Ellingham Academy murders. In 1936, Albert Ellingham, the Vermont boarding school’s rich founder, lost his wife and daughter in a bizarre kidnapping and ransom scheme. Many books have been written about the case, and theories about the identity of the killer, Truly Devious (named for the moniker left on a strange riddle), abound, but no one has solved the crime.

YA FictionYAThriller

Collision course

Review by Sharon Verbeten

With chapters that alternate between two troubled, seemingly unconnected girls, Amanda Searcy’s debut novel packs an intense punch.

Sixteen-year-old Kayla wants to get far away from her life, which includes her unstable mother, government housing and a lifeless job at a grocery store. Falling in love could change everything—or so she believes. Betsy is on the run as well, but it’s from the voice on the other end of the burner phone that keeps ringing in her room. She has no choice but to answer it immediately, or she won’t live to see another day. The alternating first-person chapters gradually introduce the girls, and although their individual tragedies take a while to unfold, the urgent pace and danger around every corner make for riveting reading—especially when the girls’ lives finally intersect.

Searcy weaves an intricate and twisty-turny thriller in The Truth Beneath the Lies. Teens will be gripped, but they’ll have to be prepared for some harsh realizations and situations. This is page-turning intensity at its best, but ultimately—no spoiler here—only one girl will survive.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

With chapters that alternate between two troubled, seemingly unconnected girls, Amanda Searcy’s debut novel packs an intense punch.

FictionHistorical MysteryHistorical Fiction

High society and murder

Review by Karen Ann Cullotta

If there were a literary recipe for bestselling author Lauren Willig’s novel The English Wife, it would include blending equal parts historical fiction and British murder mystery, a dash of “Downton Abbey” and a pinch of Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age.

That’s not to say The English Wife is cliché or formulaic; on the contrary, readers will be alternately delighted and shocked by this page-turner that features a dual narrative tethered to the social caste systems that straddled the pond in the late 19th century.

One of the novel’s two heroines, Georgie, is a former English showgirl and the wife of the wealthy American Bayard Van Duyvil—a blueblood from a distinguished, albeit dysfunctional, New York family. This unlikely match is kindled in London, where Bayard rescues Georgie from a life of poverty and hardship and brings her to New York, much to the chagrin of his mother, the formidable matriarch Mrs. Van Duyvil.

The tale begins with what appears to be a double murder at a New York society gala, and then unfolds in flashbacks, moving from late 19th-century London’s mean streets, where Georgie works as an actress, to the storied banks of the Hudson, where the Van Duyvil’s gracious manse is a hub for the old Dutch Knickerbocker society, which includes the Astors and Vanderbilts.

When Bayard’s sister, Janie, encounters an ambitious New York journalist determined to crack the case of the so-called Knickerbocker society murders, their working relationship evolves into a wary friendship, with the heartbroken heiress and cynical reporter both determined to uncover the truth.

This elegantly written tale will keep readers guessing until the final chapter.

If there were a literary recipe for bestselling author Lauren Willig’s novel The English Wife, it would include blending equal parts historical fiction and British murder mystery, a dash of “Downton Abbey” and a pinch of Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionMysteryCozy Mystery

A popular vintner’s legacy goes up in flames

Review by Barbara Clark

Author Ellen Crosby has uncorked a heady, suspenseful story in The Vineyard Victims, the eighth book in her Wine Country Mysteries series, set in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

Crosby’s background as a journalist shows in the directness of her writing style—it could almost be called a workmanlike cozy—that ups the ante without diffusing the narrative. She refreshingly omits flowery prose, instead offering a sturdy plot and in-depth characters that enhance this colorful, complex page-turner.

The series’ central character, Virginia winemaker and vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery, is an eyewitness when her neighbor, vintner Jamie Vaughn, dies in a fiery car crash. The fatal accident occurs at exactly the same spot where Lucie herself suffered a disabling car accident years before, and the trauma of that event soon resurfaces.

Jamie’s last words to Lucie are a frantic plea that will embroil her in reviving a 30-year-old murder case that involved Jamie and several friends during their college years, although they were later acquitted after a local handyman was found guilty of the crime. Lucie uncovers the still-raw edges of the old murder, that of a brilliant academician whose career deeply impacted Jamie and his peers in grad school.

Jamie, a former politician and failed presidential candidate, had lived a privileged life, but Lucie hears rumors of financial improprieties and campaign mismanagement that could cloud his legacy. Lucie, however, seems alone in thinking that the accident could have been a suicide.

The Vineyard Victims nicely interweaves details about the lore and lure of wine making with escalating tensions as Lucie discovers new clues. Questions about whether Lucie will regain her peace of mind, plus hints about new characters who may appear in future books, add to this full-bodied and tempting read.

Author Ellen Crosby has uncorked a heady, suspenseful story in The Vineyard Victims, the eighth book in her Wine Country Mysteries series, set in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionMystery

A zealot risen from the dead

Review by Barbara Clark

Hank Early’s riveting debut novel, Heaven's Crooked Finger, is set in Georgia's countryside, deep in mountain country. Most of its residents haven’t traveled beyond the Fingers, the five imposing peaks that surround their county. Those mountains, and what may be found there, are the focus of Early’s gripping narrative.

Readers will take a trip into the dark, evil heart of religious zealotry, and into the heart of fanatical preacher RJ Marcus. He keeps his congregation thoroughly cowed with his fiery sermons on hell and damnation along with his snakes, slithering in a pit at the front of the church, waiting to test a sinner’s faith—or fear.

After committing sins that are unpardonable in the eyes of the Church of the Holy Flame, RJ’s 17-year-old son Earl rebels against his father and leaves town. Earl's obedient brother, Lester, remains behind. But neither son has been able to free himself from their controlling father, even after his death months ago.

Thirty years after his escape, Earl is returning to his hometown in order to investigate the bizarre rumors that RJ has risen from the dead and ascended into the mountains, ruling the lives of his flock with all the terror of a true demon.

Earl is not as likable a fellow as we might wish for in a protagonist, but Heaven's Crooked Finger is chock full of meaty characters, any one of whom could figure as the subject of a separate book: the wily Rufus, whose lack of sight is never a hindrance to his wit and kindness; a villainous sheriff; runaways Millie and Todd; and a collection of lovely young women, victims of the church’s despotism.

Altogether this is a humdinger of a story told with a fresh voice and more than a lick of understanding.

Hank Early’s riveting debut novel, Heaven's Crooked Finger, is set in Georgia's countryside, deep in mountain country. Most of its residents haven’t traveled beyond the Fingers, the five imposing peaks that surround their county. Those mountains, and what may be found there, are the focus of Early’s gripping narrative.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionMysteryHistorical Mystery

A Conspiracy in Belgravia

Review by Barbara Clark

The game’s afoot—this time with a feminist, gender-bending twist—in a Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery that is sure to attract any fan of the Great Detective.

What if there was no Sherlock Holmes—at least, not the pipe-smoking, cocaine-addicted super sleuth whose exploits have beguiled generations of mystery fans. What if, instead, Sherlock was the superb creation of a brainy woman named Charlotte Holmes, who invented the detective to enable her to engage her own skills for crime solving in an era when such pursuits were strictly a man’s game.

Author Sherry Thomas has concocted such a fiction in her Lady Sherlock series, and her latest, A Conspiracy in Belgravia continues the story of Lady Charlotte’s creation—a super-logical detective named Sherlock, who evidently suffers from an illness that keeps him “behind the scenes” while his “sister,” Charlotte (who is assisted by her partner and landlady, Mrs. Watson) acts as his public face.

Her scheme gets complicated when Lady Ingram, the wife of Lord Ingram Ashburton, Charlotte’s close friend and benefactor, requests a confidential meeting with Sherlock Holmes. Charlotte must balance her loyalty to Ashburton against Lady Ingram’s private request for Holmes to locate a former lover named Myron Finch.

As Charlotte searches for the elusive Finch, she weighs a marriage proposal from Ash’s brother, Lord Bancroft. And always lurking in the background is the shadowy arch-villain Moriarty. What is Lady Ingram’s connection to the infamous criminal mastermind, and how will it affect Holmes’ detective work? These and other Sherlockian puzzles are sure to be embraced by contemporary fans of the Great Detective—in whatever guise Sherlock chooses to appear.

The game’s afoot—this time with a feminist, gender-bending twist—in a Sherlock Holmes-inspired mystery that is sure to attract any fan of the Great Detective.

Mystery & SuspenseFictionThriller

Peering into dark corners, digging up clues

Review by G. Robert Frazier

Linwood Barclay knows how to tease his readers. His new book, Parting Shot, offers plenty of thrilling teases for the mystery and suspense lover.

From the opening pages, Barclay lays out the hook: Brian Gaffney, a naive and innocent looking young man, arrives at the Promise Falls police station babbling about having been abducted, possibly by aliens, and having lost two days of his memories. Detective Barry Duckworth begrudgingly takes the case and soon discovers there’s much more to Gaffney than he initially thought: specifically, a fresh tattoo on his back that seems to be a cryptic confession to murder.

Duckworth has plenty to sort out here, and readers will be eager to go along for the ride. Did Gaffney really kill someone? If so, who? Where’s the body? Why can’t Gaffney remember the past two days? Was he really abducted? As if that weren’t enough, Barclay weaves in another tantalizing plotline as private investigator Cal Weaver is hired to look after spoiled, rich Jeremy Pilford—Promise Falls’ teen celebrity drunkard who killed a young woman while driving his Porsche under the influence. Jeremy may have gotten off easy with the courts, but the court of public opinion has resulted in numerous death threats and a barrage of harassment via social media. 

Barclay, who has written 16 novels since bursting onto the scene in 2007, sprinkles in an assortment of hugely entertaining characters in this standalone thriller, grounding the stories in a realistic portrayal of small-town life. But it’s the blend of past mistakes and the persistence of present-day social justice that gives this story a vibrant life of its own.

Linwood Barclay knows how to tease his readers. His new book, Parting Shot, offers plenty of thrilling teases for the mystery and suspense lover.

FictionThriller

‘Til death do us part

Review by Carla Jean Whitley

Life is nearly perfect for Cassandra Connor. She’s been through heartache—her first husband died, leaving her the single mother of two children—but she has found love again with Ryan Connor. After the birth of a third child, life seems too good to be true—and it is.

The Connors’ marriage begins to dissolve, slowly at first, with hints of an extramarital affair. As Cass’ suspicions grow, Ryan becomes increasingly defensive. In a moment of drunken madness—or perhaps clarity—Ryan declares his desire to see Cass gone. He no longer seems to be the man she fell in love with, but instead a homicidal monster.

Galt Niederhoffer’s Poison is a resounding condemnation of modern society’s treatment of women. As Cass’ suspicions about her husband grow, she feels increasingly isolated, as the justice system seems designed to distrust women. In a world where women’s rights are increasingly at the fore of national conversation, Poison aims to raise awareness of everyday injustice.

 

This article was originally published in the December 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Life is nearly perfect for Cassandra Connor. She’s been through heartache—her first husband died, leaving her the single mother of two children—but she has found love again with Ryan Connor. After the birth of a third child, life seems too good to be true—and it is.

Mystery & SuspenseYA FictionYAMystery

The complicated boundaries of friendship

Review by Jill Ratzan

Jessica Wong and Angie Redmond are always together . . . until Margot and Ryan, students at the local boarding school, walk into the ice cream parlor where Angie works. Margot and Angie hit it off and start to date, but Jess hates Margot immediately. In part, it’s because of Margot’s actions, but it’s also simply because of her presence: Margot and Angie’s relationship forces Jess to articulate her own longstanding romantic attraction to Angie.

Eventually, the four girls confront one another at a party that ends in tragedy—and confusion. A body is later found in the woods, and the girls’ intersecting loyalties may have something to do with it. What does each girl know? How do their various accounts fit with evidence discovered by investigating detectives? Who is lying, and why?

As the main tale unfolds, so does a parallel internal one: Jess, a talented cartoonist, is searching for an origin story for her anime character Kestrel. Do Kestrel’s feelings parallel Jess’ own?

Author Malinda Lo’s A Line in the Dark is filled with mystery, suspense, romance and an exploration of friendship’s boundaries (or its lack thereof). Known for writing complex and diverse characters, Lo tells her new story in a combination of flashbacks, Jess’ first-person voice, transcripts of interviews and a spooky, omniscient third-person narrator. Each time readers think the truth is about to be revealed, another twist awaits. The denouement will have readers scrambling back through the book’s pages, looking for clues they missed on the first read.

Jessica Wong and Angie Redmond are always together . . . until Margot and Ryan, students at the local boarding school, walk into the ice cream parlor where Angie works. Margot and Angie hit it off and start to date, but Jess hates Margot immediately. In part, it’s because of Margot’s actions, but it’s also simply because of her presence: Margot and Angie’s relationship forces Jess to articulate her own longstanding romantic attraction to Angie.

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Paul Tremblay

There’s no going back in this apocalyptic home-invasion thriller

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Praised by horrormeister Stephen King, Paul Tremblay’s shocking new novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, is an often graphic account of one family’s ordeal when their vacation is shattered in a cult-like home invasion. We asked Tremblay about the book’s origins, its dark path and his inner fears that helped forge the novel.

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