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Reviews

Reviews

by A. J. Landau - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In a daring, brutal act of terrorism, an explosion rocks and topples the Statue of Liberty. Special Agent Michael Walker of the National Park Service is sent to New York as the agent-in-charge. Gina Delgado of the FBI has been placed in charge of the investigation as the lead of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and threats of a second terrorism attack are already being called into the media. While barred from the meetings of the Joint Task Force for his lack of security clearance, Walker finds a young boy among the survivors with a critical piece of information --- a video linking the attackers to the assault. As a radical domestic terrorist group threatens further attacks against America's cultural symbols, powerful forces within the government are misleading the investigation to further their own radical agenda.

by Amanda Jayatissa - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise. Now someone --- or something --- is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself. As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she woke up to hear her mother’s frantic cries: No one can find out what happened.

by Max Seeck - Fiction, Mystery

Jessica Niemi is put on leave after a violent altercation between her and a belligerent man makes headlines. To escape the unwanted scrutiny, Jessica travels to a remote island in the Åland archipelago and rents a room at a small seaside inn. There she meets three elderly visitors who are the remaining “birds of spring,” former refugees who fled Finland as children during World War II and lived together for a few months in an orphanage on the island. The orphanage no longer exists, but the local legend about one of its inhabitants still haunts the surviving orphans. Every evening a girl named Maija would stand on the pier, but one night she disappeared and was never seen again. When one of the “birds of spring” is found dead, drowned alongside the same pier, Jessica tries to put the pieces of this terrifying mystery together.

by Cara Hunter - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

After being abducted and assaulted, a teenage girl somehow managed to escape from her captor. She is traumatized and needs to heal, but the police need her help to catch her assailant --- information she clearly knows but is unwilling to give. Without the girl’s assistance, DI Adam Fawley’s investigation is at a dead end. When another girl vanishes under the same circumstances, he recognizes a disturbing pattern --- and a link to something long buried in his past.

by Steve Berry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947, some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified, shipped to Europe, and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust. Retired Justice Department Operative Cotton Malone is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent, and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world’s oldest bank and the CIA. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets.

by B. A. Paris - Domestic Thriller, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris' clothes, even rearranging the furniture. Laure has walked out on her husband --- and their good friend --- Pierre over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure's mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll. Iris and Gabriel's only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past. Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.

by A. J. Finn - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.” So writes reclusive mystery novelist Sebastian Trapp to his longtime correspondent, Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story…while living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.” Twenty years earlier --- on New Year’s Eve 1999 --- Sebastian’s first wife and teenage son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?

by James Patterson and James O. Born - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

A killer uses fearsome precision to take out impossible targets. Detective Michael Bennett teams with a shooting expert --- a former Army Ranger and sniper with NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit. But Officer Rob Trilling seems more comfortable with rifles than he is with people. When his new partner begins to log unexplained absences from duty, only Bennett can prove whether the decorated officer is a lonely hunter or a hardened assassin.

by Laurie R. King - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they learn that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat. Holmes rushes after Damian, while Russell stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ grand-uncle, the artist Horace Vernet. There’s also an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. She slowly realizes that each entry is built around an image --- the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets --- or the threat hovering over the house?

by T. Kingfisher - Fantasy, Fiction, Gothic, Horror

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine and sunshine. Instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia. In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns. But when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home…or in their dreams.