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Reviews

Reviews

by Samantha Downing - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Wes and Ivy are madly in love. It's the type of romance people write stories about. But what kind of story? When it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears. When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants. But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconciliations needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy --- and she's a detective. There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead. If they can stick together, they can survive anything --- even the tightening net of a police investigation. Because one more breakup just might be their last.

by James Patterson and Brian Sitts - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Doomsday is coming as an evil mastermind plots to destroy all of humankind. Not even The Shadow knows the enemy’s true identity. But the clock is ticking with people all over the world dropping dead each and every day. As The Shadow gathers a small band of allies, he knows this is one fight he cannot lose. Because anything else means the end of all life.

by Dean Koontz - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Michael Mace, head of security at a top-secret research facility, opens his eyes in a makeshift morgue 24 hours following an event in which everyone perished --- including him and his best friend, Shelby Shrewsberry. Having awakened with an extraordinary ability unlike anything he --- or anyone else --- has ever imagined, Michael is capable of being as elusive as a ghost. He sets out to honor his late friend by helping Nina Dozier and her son, John, whom Shelby greatly admired. Although what Michael does for Nina is life-changing, his actions also evoke the wrath of John’s father, a member of one of the most violent street gangs in Los Angeles. But an even greater threat is descending: the Internal Security Agency’s most vicious assassin, Durand Calaphas.

by Linda Castillo - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

On a crisp autumn day in Painters Mill, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder responds to a call only to discover an Amish man who has been violently killed with a crossbow, his body abandoned on a dirt road. Aden Karn was just 20 years old, well liked and from an upstanding Amish family. Who would commit such a heinous crime against a young man whose life was just beginning? The more Kate gets to know his devastated family and the people --- both English and Amish --- who loved him, the more determined she becomes to solve the case. But as she delves into Karn’s past, Kate begins to hear whispers about a dark side. What if Aden Karn wasn’t the wholesome young man everyone admired? Is it possible that the rumors are a cruel campaign to blame the victim?

by Bryan Hoch - Nonfiction, Sports

Aaron Judge, the hulking superman who carried an easy aw-shucks demeanor from small-town California to stardom in the Big Apple, had long established his place as one of baseball’s most intimidating power hitters. Baseballs frequently rocketed off his bat like cannon fire, dispatching heat-seeking missiles toward the “Judge’s Chambers” seating area in right field, sending delirious fans scattering for souvenirs. But even in a high-tech universe where computers measure each swing to the nth degree, Roger Maris’ American League mark of 61 home runs seemed largely out of reach. In 62, veteran Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch unravels the remarkable journey of Judge’s run to shatter Maris’ beloved 61-year-old record.

by Reed Farrel Coleman - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Every cop in the city knows his name, but no one says it out loud. In fact, they don't talk about him at all. He doesn't wear a uniform, but he is the most powerful cop in New York. Nick Ryan can find a criminal who's vanished. Or he can make a key witness disappear. He has cars, safe houses, money and weapons hidden all over the city. He's the mayor's private cop, the fixer, the first call when the men and women who protect and serve are in trouble and need protection themselves. With conflicted loyalties and a divided soul, he's a veteran cop still fighting his own private war. He's a soldier of the streets with his own personal code. But what happens when the man who knows all the city's secrets becomes a threat to both sides of the law?

by Paul Tremblay - Fiction, Horror, Short Stories, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

The 15 pieces in THE BEAST YOU ARE are all monsters of a kind, ready to loudly (and lovingly) smash through your head and into your heart. In “The Dead Thing,” a middle-schooler struggles to deal with the aftermath of her parents’ substance addictions and split. One day, her little brother claims he found a shoebox with “the dead thing” inside, but he won’t show it to her. In “The Last Conversation,” a person wakes in a sterile, white room and begins to receive instructions via intercom from a woman named Anne. When they are finally allowed to leave the room to complete a task, what they find is as shocking as it is heartbreaking. The title novella is a mini epic in which the destinies and secrets of a village, a dog and a cat are intertwined with a giant monster that returns to wreak havoc every 30 years.

by Mark Billingham - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner), Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins, and Miller starts reconnecting with his old network --- his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact that Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep.

by James Lee Burke - Fiction, Historical Fiction

In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi River. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with Florence Milton, an abolitionist schoolteacher, dodging the local constable and the slavecatchers who prowl the bayous. Wade Lufkin, haunted by what he observed --- and did --- as a surgeon on the battlefield, has returned to his uncle’s plantation to convalesce, where he becomes enraptured by Hannah.

by Ivy Pochoda - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Florence "Florida" Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women's prison --- or so her ex-cellmate, Diosmary Sandoval, keeps insinuating. Dios knows the truth about Florida's crimes, understands the truth that Florence hides even from herself: that she wasn't a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world's refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida's eyes and unleash her true self. When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios' fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.