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Reviews

Reviews

by Carole Johnstone - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband, Ross. But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which has scarcely changed in 20 years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past.

by Milree Latimer - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In 1913, 15-year-old Martha is sent from an orphanage in Dublin to relatives she has never met in Canada --- her cousin, Anna, a kindred spirit, and her aunt, who loathes her. Here Martha uncovers a tragic family history. When World War I occurs, Anna voyages to France to care for the wounded soldiers and loses herself in shell shock. Martha leaves the emptiness of her adopted family and becomes a wartime farmerette. Her life is as a farmer, mother and wife to Charlie coming home from war, broken. In 1938, Simon Lansky, a German Jewish professor, asks for help to save his daughters from a dreadful fate. Martha and Anna, hardened to war and its torments, travel to Europe to rescue the girls.

by Phillip Margolin - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers, who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor, and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense. The murdered woman's husband, Judge Anthony Carasco, has an alibi, and Lattimore's fingerprints are discovered at the scene. But Lockwood is convinced that her client has been framed.

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.