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.
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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A new Nelson DeMille book typically means readers are in for nail-biting action, a high stakes plot, a romantic diversion and wry, witty humor. The Cuban Affair satisfies all of those criteria, and ups the ante with a unique setting, the communist island nation itself.

At the root of the novel is a quest to recover 60 million dollars in funds hidden away during Castro’s revolution. Cuban-American Sara Ortega entices ex-Army officer Daniel Graham MacCormick—better known as Mac—away from his idyllic retirement as a charter fishing boat captain based in Key West to provide transport for the funds back to America. Mac initially balks at the venture, not wanting to end up in a Cuban jail—tortured, or worse—but when Sara ups his reward for services rendered to two million dollars, any doubts quickly fade away. Paying off his debts in one fell swoop, particularly the note on his 40-foot vessel The Maine, and living the rest of his life in luxury are more than enough to lure him in. 

Of course, nothing is as simple as it seems, or you wouldn’t have a DeMille book. Getting onto the island is easy: the pair are able to join a Yale educational tour group while Mac’s right-hand man, Jack, pilots the boat to the island as part of a fishing tournament. Mac and Sara’s mission is to retrieve the cash, get it to the boat and sail home with their riches. But their every move is being watched, the Cuban police are poised to close in and treachery awaits at every turn. The only thing competing with Mac’s obsession with the money is his desire to win Sara’s affection. DeMille’s stark details of life in Cuba under the Communist regime add a layer of dread and palpable tension to the story throughout, leading to a harrowing chase on the open seas, and another must-read book.

A new Nelson DeMille book typically means readers are in for nail-biting action, a high stakes plot, a romantic diversion, and wry, witty humor. The Cuban Affair satisfies all of those criteria, and ups the ante with a unique setting, the Communist island nation itself.

“His mother asked me to do this, because she said it wasn’t something a mother should ever have to do.” And so 17-year-old Jessa Whitworth finds herself packing up the belongings of her dead ex-boyfriend, Caleb. She was the last person he spoke to before his car was swept away in a flash flood. Each token she finds, be it a photograph or a dog-eared copy of The Grapes of Wrath, conjures haunting memories of their relationship. But as Jessa digs further into Caleb’s life, she unearths facts about a person she may not have truly known at all.

Told in three parts, Megan Miranda’s new novel transitions from Jessa’s grief to her frantic search for answers. Interspersed throughout are snippets of her relationship with Caleb, allowing readers to piece together the clues that lead to an edge-of-your-seat denouement. Skillfully crafted, Fragments of the Lost is a suspenseful, heart-in-your-throat read.

 

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

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

“His mother asked me to do this, because she said it wasn’t something a mother should ever have to do.” And so 17-year-old Jessa Whitworth finds herself packing up the belongings of her dead ex-boyfriend, Caleb.

California dreaming turns into a living nightmare in Liska Jacobs’ dark and electrifying debut novel, Catalina.

When Elsa Fisher is fired from her job as an assistant at MoMA (where she also just happened to be having an affair with her very married boss), she pushes the eject button on her crumbling life in New York and flees to her sunny Southern California home. There, she soon learns that the old adage “wherever you go, there you are” proves to be infuriatingly true: Despite the change in location and the self-medication via a constant stream of benzodiazepines (stolen from her mother) and copious amounts of alcohol (paid for with her rapidly dwindling severance package), Elsa can’t seem to fully escape her demons or permanently dull the pain of her present predicament. Instead, she decides to fully commit to her downward spiral, consequences be damned. Wondering just how far she can fall, Elsa embarks with a group of old friends on a hedonistic trip to Catalina island, where she discovers just how dark rock bottom can be and her self-destructive spree risks ruining more lives than just her own.

Rich with a prickling sense of menace, Catalina is an intoxicating psychological thriller that will set readers on edge from page one. As we follow our pill-popping antiheroine on her bad-behavior bender, Jacobs adeptly infuses the narrative with a mounting sense of unease and apprehension as Elsa’s barely contained rage and resentment becomes ever more apparent and her actions become increasingly erratic. It’s clear from the start that Catalina isn’t a fairy tale and there will be no happy ending, yet Elsa’s ultimate unraveling—as she is taken from breaking point to broken—still manages to feel astonishing and devastating. Although Elsa’s ultimate goal seems to be to numb her feelings, Jacobs has produced a book that achieves exactly the opposite: It provokes and perturbs, and will leave its readers incredibly unsettled.

California dreaming turns into a living nightmare in Liska Jacobs’ dark and electrifying debut novel, Catalina.

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World War I raged from 1914 to 1918. It killed many thousands and left countless others with emotional and mental scars that were little understood at the time—a terrible legacy of shock and mental disability that affected many of those who fought,  sometimes for the rest of their lives.

Charles Todd’s war novels have explored those lasting scars in two series, his Ian Rutledge mysteries and, beginning in 2010, a newer series featuring Bess Crawford, a World War I nurse.

In this ninth installment in his Bess Crawford series, A Casualty of War, the mother-son writing team known collectively as Todd has provided an authentic look at the visceral horrors of trench warfare, as they set readers down in a makeshift medical facility, or “forward aid station,” near the front lines. Bess has been assigned there near the end of the war, after another nurse has attempted suicide due to the high stress level at the facility.

Bess soon makes the acquaintance of one Captain Travis—first as a soldier about to rejoin his regiment, and soon after as a gravely wounded soldier himself; one who insists, moreover, that his distant cousin has intentionally tried to murder him on the battlefield. Trouble is, that cousin was killed in battle weeks before Travis was himself wounded. For his insistence on what took place, the captain is transferred to a mental facility, where his condition soon deteriorates.

Bess appears to be the only person who believes the captain may be telling the truth, and following the armistice she sets out to make sense of his claim and hopefully prove him sane. It won’t take readers long to discover that where there are two branches of a family, there’s often a will in dispute. Bess and her friend Simon set out to begin a search within the fold of the Travis family—a dangerous undertaking that involves a whole community as well as a number of family skeletons.

The authors deftly explore the early ways in which the medical community as well as families and loved ones try to understand what we now know of as post-traumatic stress disorder. A Casualty of War brings into sharp focus an era that thrust the world squarely into the 20th century.

In this ninth installment in his Bess Crawford series, A Casualty of War, the mother-son writing team known collectively as Todd has provided an authentic look at the visceral horrors of trench warfare, as they set readers down in a makeshift medical facility, or “forward aid station,” near the front lines. Bess has been assigned there near the end of the war, after another nurse has attempted suicide due to the high stress level at the facility.

Review by

The first thing that fans of Sophie Hannah may want to ask is whether Keep Her Safe follows in the author’s tradition of intelligent, often witty, page-turning psychological thrillers. The answer is, of course, yes—the author has perfected a formula for success that continues unabated with her newest book.

Hannah is a big Agatha Christie enthusiast who has extensively researched that author’s works and even penned two novels of homage to the famed Hercule Poirot. She has said that she tends to follow in Christie’s psychological footsteps: "She always started with, 'How can this thing be happening, isn't it strange?'” This is Hannah’s M.O. as well,  and the puzzle in her latest story starts from something off-kilter.

Cara, an Englishwoman, books a stay in a five-star American spa as a way to temporarily escape her family and come to terms with issues that are driving her apart from her husband—her unborn child, for one thing.

While in the exotic, albeit weird, luxury of her surroundings, she sees something that surely is impossible that harkens back to a notorious 2010 crime that was the focus of the American media: when youngster Melody Chapa was abducted and murdered, and her body was never found.

If Cara’s right, then she's just seen Melody, now seven years older and living under a new identity, alive and well at the very spa where Cara’s staying. Cara tries to discover the truth, but as she researches the history of the famous crime and finds herself at the center of a very American phenomenon—a trial by media involving the FBI, local law enforcement and an aggressive, hotshot TV reporter named Bonnie Juno.

Along with a glut of off-beat characters, spa denizens and hangers-on, Cara delves into the much-publicized crime while unwittingly putting herself in danger. Keep Her Safe may stretch some readers’ credulity factor to the limit, but there’s no doubt of the author’s ability to weave a fascinating, complex plot that stacks up the building blocks of tension and dares readers to question the reliability of several narrators.

Hannah’s penchant for describing every towel, pool dimension and luxury amenity at the Swallowtail Spa may test some readers’ patience and endurance, but the story picks up as the book continues, and once you’ve read all the flashbacks, journals and court documents, there’s the pleasure of a final denouement that’s clever and well worth waiting for.

The first thing that fans of Sophie Hannah may want to ask is whether Keep Her Safe follows in the author’s tradition of intelligent, often witty, page-turning psychological thrillers. The answer is, of course, yes—the author has perfected a formula for success that continues unabated with her newest book.

Review by

It’s best to leave your revolutionary fervor behind and just give in to the beautiful and opulent settings that blanket Tasha Alexander’s new mystery, Death in St. Petersburg. Set in that storied city in the early 1900s, before the cataclysm of 1917, Alexander’s novel captures St. Petersburg at the peak of its glitz and aristocratic splendor. The enchanted winter setting benefits from lines here and there from poet and Russian literary genius Alexander Pushkin, as this one that captures the atmosphere: “I love thy winters bleak and harsh; / Thy stirless air fast bound by frosts; / The flight of sledge o'er Neva wide, / That glows the cheeks of maidens gay. / I love the noise and chat of balls; / A banquet free from wife’s control, / Where goblets foam, and bright blue flame / Darts round the brimming punch-bowl’s edge.”

Sleuth Lady Emily, here in her 12th outing in Alexander’s popular series, is in Russia with her debonair and attractive husband, Colin. They investigate the tragic murder of prima ballerina Nemetseva, found outside the Mariinsky Theatre after her premiere performance as Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake.”

The book takes readers behind the scenes with a crash course in ballet, describing the beauty and cruelty of the unforgiving, competitive life of a top-level ballet dancer in Russia’s storied and revered Imperial Ballet.

The book cleverly balances flashbacks with Lady Emily’s current day, presenting the fascinating backstory of young Irusya (Nemetseva) and Katenka, young dancers in the corps de ballet, whose lives become intertwined over the years, right up to the fatal event, as the flashbacks catch up to the present day. Irusya’s brother, Lev, and his revolutionary circle of friends contrast with the aristocrats living sheltered lives in precarious comfort at their soirees and balls, while princes bestow expensive favors on their favored ballerinas, who remain a lower class . . . all setting the stage for events to come.

But it’s St. Petersburg that stars in this show, as we accompany Lady Emily and her husband through a brilliant Russian winter, where horse-drawn sledges draw their muffed and ermine-swathed occupants over the sparkling snows to the hush of a theater at opening; where glittering Fabergé jewels are trinkets for the rich; and where a ghostly ballerina appears in the city, bearing marks of her murder, and then disappears into the snowy landscape.

It’s best to leave your revolutionary fervor behind and just give in to the beautiful and opulent settings that blanket Tasha Alexander’s new mystery, Death in St. Petersburg. Set in that storied city in the early 1900s, before the cataclysm of 1917, Alexander’s novel captures St. Petersburg at the peak of its glitz and aristocratic splendor.

Review by

At a time when it seems like there’s a new psychological thriller released every other week—either in book or video format—it is increasingly difficult to find one that stands out in a refreshing way. Anna Snoekstra accomplishes that in her sophomore novel, Little Secrets. This is a must-read for fans of Lisa Gardner and Gilly Macmillan, and is sure to be enjoyed by most mystery lovers.

Best friends Rose and Mia know they are destined for bigger things than what the small Australian town of Colmstock has to offer. Once Rose’s journalism career takes off, they can say goodbye to their humdrum shifts serving beer at Eamon’s, the local police hangout, and move into the city. Until then, the two young women have front-row seats to the town’s most compelling happenings, as rehashed by Colmstock’s finest. When a series of fires ends in the death of a 13-year-old boy and suspicious dolls turn up on too many little girls’ doorsteps, the community is thrown into a tailspin. Rose seizes the opportunity to launch her journalism career by publishing an article about the supposed menace threatening the children of Colmstock. As suspicions grow and tempers rise, it becomes apparent that an ugly truth about the people of Colmstock will be revealed.

Like Snoekstra’s debut, Only Daughter, Little Secrets explores the desperation that can live inside of us—and what happens when individuals have opposing but equally desperate desires. Readers will grow to care about the fates of ambitious Rose and nurturing Mia, as well as the policemen working the case. In addition, readers will thirst to uncover who’s responsible for stirring up the community and heinously stealing the life of a child.

Despair makes for shocking choices, and no one makes it to the other side of this mystery unchanged.

 

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

At a time when it seems like there’s a new psychological thriller released every other week—either in book or video format—it is increasingly difficult to find one that stands out in a refreshing way. Anna Snoekstra accomplishes that in her sophomore novel, Little Secrets. This is a must-read for fans of Lisa Gardner and Gilly Macmillan, and is sure to be enjoyed by most mystery lovers.

Review by

Some novelists run the risk of overstaying their welcome, perhaps overwriting due to indulgence in a particular character or scenario. Roddy Doyle (Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha) never feels like one of those writers. His stories, from short fiction to novels, are tightly wound coils of energy, humor and insight, waiting to spring on us. Smile is another stellar example of Doyle’s brand of dense, kinetic storytelling. In just over 200 pages, Doyle manages to tell us something startling, funny and strange about the nature of human tragedy and pain.

Smile follows Victor, a recently separated writer living on his own for the first time in years. Victor spends his evenings having a pint at the local pub, until this quiet ritual is interrupted by Fitzpatrick, an obnoxious and seemingly inescapable man who claims they were schoolmates. Victor can’t remember Fitzpatrick, but he can remember his Catholic school days, and suddenly the trauma of what happened there begins trickling back into his mind. As Doyle jumps between past and present, Victor’s life spools out before us, building to a startling realization that shakes him to his core.

Doyle has a particular talent for humor and dialogue, but he also has the rare quality of being able to balance an economy of language with a dense sense of perception. Not a word is wasted here, and there aren’t many to waste. This is a gift, and it’s one Doyle harnesses with particular power in Smile. This drives the book at an almost fever pitch, practically daring you to turn each page and see what kind of incisive character wisdom he’s about to impart next. By the end, even if you think you know what’s coming, you will be dumbstruck by the storytelling prowess at work. Smile is a brief, brilliant, frenzied reading experience that only Roddy Doyle could deliver.

 

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

Smile is another stellar example of Roddy Doyle’s brand of dense, kinetic storytelling. In just over 200 pages, Doyle manages to tell us something startling, funny and strange about the nature of human tragedy and pain.

Review by

Natasha has been dead for 13 minutes when a local man rescues her from the freezing river and revives her. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has no memory of how she wound up there, but she knows it couldn’t have been an accident. Natasha is the queen bee at school, but when her most devoted followers begin acting suspicious, she leans on her childhood best friend, Becca, to get to the bottom of things.

Bestselling author Sarah Pinborough (Behind Her Eyes) delivers a psychological thriller perfect for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. 13 Minutes takes a haunting look at the dark side of teenage friendships and all the bullying, backstabbing and betrayal that go along with them. The novel’s two main characters, Becca and Natasha, are as vulnerable as they are conniving, and their need for belonging motivates their ploys and manipulations in a fascinating look at the impact high-school politics has on young psyches.

Pinborough’s sharp prose drives the novel through a series of incredible twists and turns. Just when readers think they’ve got it all figured out, she pulls the rug out from under them, reminding them that the right answer isn’t necessarily the obvious one.

Though marketed to young adults, this book will appeal to adults of all ages. Any reader will surely recognize some aspect of Natasha and Becca’s dynamic in their own social circles.

Natasha has been dead for 13 minutes when a local man rescues her from the freezing river and revives her. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has no memory of how she wound up there, but she knows it couldn’t have been an accident. Natasha is the queen bee at school, but when her most devoted followers begin acting suspicious, she leans on her childhood best friend, Becca, to get to the bottom of things.
Review by

The childless weekend getaway after nearly a decade of marriage and two kids is a scenario that brings up either wishful thinking or pleasant memories. Kaira Rouda’s Best Day Ever traces 24 hours of what promises to be the perfect romantic weekend, but instead goes wildly awry.

The husband, Paul Strom, narrates Rouda's story, which is unusual in women-focused thrillers. After few pages, readers will realize that Paul is the ultimate unreliable narrator. We soon learn that he's both narcissistic and delusional, and Mia, Paul’s wife, readily gains our sympathy.

Paul and Mia's idyllic ride to the lake house quickly disintegrates as Mia asserts independence over little things (calling the babysitter) or larger ones (taking a part time job). As Mia’s actions tax Paul’s patience, he struggles to appear pleasant, nonthreatening and maintain his thin veneer of control, which greatly increases the novel's creepy factor.

Not to mention, Paul keeps alluding to a special surprise he has for Mia that weekend. His repeated thoughts about the surprise have readers wondering about his plan and fearing for Mia’s safety.

When Paul meets Mia’s male friend, one she’s managed to make despite Paul’s nearly incessant oversight, he assumes the two are having an affair. Mia and her friend have something even more intricate than an affair, as revealed in the intense ending. Rouda's thrill-ride of a novel highlights the fact that can you never know what goes on behind the facade of a seemingly flawless marriage.

The childless weekend getaway after nearly a decade of marriage and two kids is a scenario that brings up either wishful thinking or pleasant memories. Kaira Rouda’s Best Day Ever traces 24 hours of what promises to be the perfect romantic weekend, but instead goes wildly awry.

Review by

The line between right and wrong quickly blurs in Thomas Mullen’s new novel, Lightning Men. The follow-up to his intensely powerful story of Atlanta’s first black cops, Darktown, his latest picks up two years later, in 1950, but is well-crafted enough to stand on its own.

This time, black police officers Lucius Boggs and Tommy Smith stumble upon a shipment of moonshine and marijuana destined for their traditionally black neighborhood. When they attempt to apprehend the white suspects—despite black officers not being allowed to arrest whites—a deadly shootout ensues, leaving one man dead and dozens of questions unanswered.

While the central case is engrossing in itself, Mullen doesn’t stop there. The author begins another sweeping arc as black families begin moving into previously all-white neighborhoods. Danny Rakestraw, one of the few white officers to sympathize with and support the department’s fledgling black police force, is further conflicted when his brother-in-law, Dale, rallies the Ku Klux Klan to “save” their neighborhood from further encroachment by black families. Citing the potential for falling property values and increased crime, events quickly spiral out of control as black homes are vandalized and the homeowners are savagely beaten. Rake, in turn, is left to choose between loyalty to his family and his duty to uphold the law. Both of these storylines eventually coalesce toward a shocking, suspense-filled finale.                                              

Brash and unflinching, Lightning Men transcends typical genre stories by highlighting the real-life racial divide of 1950s Atlanta that is rarely discussed, but should never be forgotten. As in Darktown, Mullen examines the issues without losing sense of the personalities involved, creating a deeply affecting portrait of pre-civil rights America while echoing the ongoing racial injustices that persist today.

The line between right and wrong quickly blurs in Thomas Mullen’s new novel, Lightning Men. The follow-up to his intensely powerful story of Atlanta’s first black cops, Darktown, his latest picks up two years later, in 1950, but is well-crafted enough to stand on its own.

Review by

A murdered British officer with ties to the World War II Secret Service, found with the ace of hearts, known as the blood card, on his chest. An open coffin containing the body of a gypsy fortune-teller, her hand clutching a similar playing card. How are they connected?

Enter two members of the former Magic Men, a special MI5 unit that served in the war effort, concocting trickeries to aid in the fight against the Nazis. Readers may already be familiar with Max and Edgar, who feature in author Elly Griffiths’ earlier books in this fantastical, intriguing series (The Zig Zag Girl, Smoke and Mirrors). In the latest, the exceptional The Blood Card, the pair once again delve into the world of illusion to discover what these deaths have in common.

It’s the 1950s, and former Magic Men member Max Mephisto is still hanging onto his career doing stage magic, even as the burgeoning era of television threatens to eclipse the popularity of live variety shows. Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens, also part of the core World War II group, is now on the Brighton police force, and the two old partners in espionage have nosed out a crime or two since that epic time.

Here they follow the aces to unravel the reason that Peter Cartwright, their former MI5 recruiter, has been murdered. Edgar takes his very first plane trip, visiting the United States to track down an American mesmerist who appears to be connected to Cartwright. When the American magician dies after a hit-and-run, and Edgar himself barely escapes the same fate, Max and Edgar realize they’ve stumbled onto something more than just a trick of fate.

Griffiths has a matter-of-fact, conversational way of setting her scenes, and effectively uses plain declarative sentences, making a mundane event often seem wildly off-beat. Her understated humor and sly comments just slide into the dialogue, augmenting the storyline while never overtaking it.

The upcoming coronation of a young Queen Elizabeth figures large in this story, and the author cleverly mixes magical deceptions with real-life espionage. The straightforward crime detection sometimes seems a bit downsized, surrounded by a gypsy funeral; backstage ghosts; subliminal messages; the eerie smell of lavender; and a classic case of misdirection involving a disappearing general. As Edgar so cogently asks, “But what was the trick and why had it been performed?”

The further adventures of Max and Edgar continue to enthrall, this time in service of queen and country.

A murdered British officer with ties to the World War II Secret Service, found with the ace of hearts, known as the blood card, on his chest. An open coffin containing the body of a gypsy fortune-teller, her hand clutching a similar playing card. How are they connected?

What is life inside a mental institution? Some literature and film paint institutional life as a soothing break from reality. The hospitals are often located in remote areas with rambling gardens, places where patients can take a break from the stressors and triggers of daily life.

Maybe there’s some truth to that. But Sam James can’t relate; she’s a psychologist at Typhlos, an institution in the middle of Manhattan. Her life outside the institution’s walls is often as gray as life inside. Although James is willing to take on the most difficult patients, she’s less eager to confront her own problems. Among those: alcohol and a controlling boyfriend.

When Sam is assigned Richard, with whom other therapists haven’t been able to connect, she’s sure she’s up for the challenge. But Richard refuses to answer even the most basic intake questions, setting Sam on her heels. As she attempts to understand him, she’s forced to take a look at herself and her habits as well. You could say it’s an example of the blind leading the blind.

Debut novelist A.F. Brady has stuck to the old adage “write what you know,” as her experience as a psychotherapist in Manhattan clearly informs The Blind. The result is a twisting, fast-paced tale that may leave readers, like Sam, examining what they know of themselves and mental illness.

Debut novelist A.F. Brady has stuck to the old adage “write what you know,” as her experience as a psychotherapist in Manhattan clearly informs The Blind. The result is a twisting, fast-paced tale that may leave readers, examining what they know of themselves and mental illness.

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