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Reviews

Reviews

by Joe Ide - Fiction, Mystery

Isaiah Quintabe is no longer IQ, the genius of East Long Beach. Instead, he’s a man on the road and on the run, hiding in a small Northern California town when his room is broken into by a desperate young man on the trail of the state’s most prolific serial killer. His old partner, Juanell Dodson, must go straight or lose his wife and child. His devil’s bargain? An internship at an LA advertising agency, where it turns out the rules of the street have simply been dressed in business casual, but where the aging company’s fortunes may well rest on their ability to attract a younger demographic. Dodson --- ”the hustler’s hustler” --- just may be the right man for the job.

by Martha Teichner - Memoir, Nonfiction

There’s a special camaraderie among early-morning dog walkers. Gathering at dog runs in the park, or strolling through the farmer's market at Union Square before the bustling crowd appears, fellow pet owners become familiar --- as do the personalities of their beloved animals. In this special space and time, a chance encounter with an old acquaintance changed Martha Teichner’s world. As fate would have it, her friend knew someone who was dying of cancer, from exposure to toxins after 9/11, and desperate to find a home for her dog, Harry. He was a Bull Terrier --- the same breed as Martha’s dear Minnie. What begins as a transaction involving a dog becomes a deep and meaningful friendship between two women with complicated lives and a love of Bull Terriers in common.

by Sarah Pearse - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Women's Fiction

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel. Elin Warner has taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge --- there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her.

by Eliza Jane Brazier - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Sera loves true crime podcasts. They give her a sense of control in a world where women just like her disappear daily. She’s sure they’re preparing her for something. So when Rachel, her favorite podcast host, goes missing, Sera knows it's time to act. Rachel has always taught her to trust her instincts. Sera follows the clues hidden in the episodes to an isolated ranch outside Rachel's small hometown to begin her search. She's convinced her investigation will make Rachel so proud. But the more Sera digs into this unfamiliar world, the more off things start to feel. Because Rachel is not the first woman to vanish from the ranch, and she won't be the last. Rachel did try to warn her.

by Paraic O'Donnell - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

London, 1893: High up in a house on a dark, snowy night, a lone seamstress stands by a window. So begins the swirling, serpentine world of Paraic O’Donnell’s Victorian-inspired mystery, the story of a city cloaked in shadow, but burning with questions: Why does the seamstress jump from the window? Why is a cryptic message stitched into her skin? And how is she connected to a rash of missing girls, all of whom seem to have disappeared under similar circumstances? On the case is Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. Gideon Bliss, a Cambridge dropout in love with one of the missing girls, stumbles into a role as Cutter’s sidekick. And clever young journalist Octavia Hillingdon sees the case as a chance to tell a story that matters.

by T.A. Willberg - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

A mysterious group of detectives recruited for Miss Brickett’s Investigations & Inquiries use their cunning and gadgets to solve crimes that have stumped Scotland Yard. Late one night in April 1958, a filing assistant for Miss Brickett’s receives a letter warning her that a heinous act is about to occur. She goes to investigate, but at the stroke of midnight, she is murdered by a killer she can’t see --- her death the only sign she wasn’t alone. Marion Lane, a first-year Inquirer-in-training, finds herself being drawn ever deeper into the investigation. When her colleague is framed for the crime, she must sort through the hidden alliances at Miss Brickett’s and secrets dating back to WWII to uncover the real killer.

by Ryan Gattis - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

On December 6, 1993, a drug dealer called Scrappy is shot and left for dead on the lawn outside her mother’s house. Augie, a heroin addict, witnesses the whole thing --- before he steals all the drugs on her person, as well as the gun that was dropped at the scene. When Augie gets busted, he names local gang members Wizard and Dreamer the shooters. But only one of them is guilty. A search of Wizard and Dreamer’s premises uncovers the gun that was used in the shooting, and a warrant goes out for their arrest. They know it’s a frame-up, but the word from the gang is to keep their mouths shut and face the charges. With these two off the streets, Dreamer’s friend Little is given one job: discover how the gun got moved, and why.

by Vito Racanelli - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When NYPD detectives Paul Rossi and Hamilton P. Turner begin investigating the Sutton Place murder of an Italian air force pilot, they find themselves sucked into the potential cover-up of the Ustica massacre, the most horrific aviation crime in Italian history. But as they begin investigating, Rossi and Turner come up against NYPD bureaucratic obstacles and stonewalling by the Italian Consulate in New York City. Lieutenant Laura Muro, the policewoman sister of the victim, comes to New York to aid the investigation, but soon the trio find themselves in the crosshairs of the Gladio, Italy’s powerful, shadowy political cabal whose reach extends to the highest reaches of New York political and ruling class.

by Anthony Horowitz - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Retired publisher Susan Ryeland is running a small hotel on a Greek island. The Trehernes come to stay and tell a story about a murder that took place on the same day and in the same hotel in which their daughter was married, which fascinates Susan and piques her editor’s instincts. One of her former writers, the late Alan Conway, author of the fictional Magpie Murders, knew the murder victim --- an advertising executive named Frank Parris --- and based the third book in his detective series on that very crime. The Trehernes’ daughter, Cecily, believes that the book proves the man convicted of Parris’ murder is innocent. When the Trehernes reveal that Cecily is now missing, Susan knows that she must find out what really happened.

by John Banville - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

Detective Inspector St. John Strafford has been summoned to County Wexford to investigate a murder. A parish priest has been found dead in Ballyglass House, the family seat of the aristocratic, secretive Osborne family. The year is 1957, and the Catholic Church rules Ireland with an iron fist. Strafford faces obstruction at every turn, from the heavily accumulating snow to the culture of silence in the tight-knit community he begins to investigate. As he delves further, he learns that the Osbornes are not at all what they seem. And when his own deputy goes missing, Strafford must work to unravel the ever-expanding mystery before the community’s secrets threaten to obliterate everything.