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Reviews

Reviews

by Laura McHugh - Fiction, Literary Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Seventeen-year-old Sarabeth has become increasingly rebellious since her parents found God and moved their family to a remote Arkansas farmstead. She’s all but given up on escaping the farm when a masked man appears one summer morning and snatches her out of the cornfield. A week after her abduction, she’s found alongside a highway, but her family treats her like she’s tainted. There’s little hope of finding her captor, who kept Sarabeth blindfolded in the dark, never uttering a word. Five years later, Sarabeth is struggling to keep her past buried when investigator Nick Farrow calls. Convinced that her case is connected to the strikingly similar disappearance of another young girl, Farrow wants Sarabeth’s help.

by Andrew Taylor - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully under mysterious circumstances. His colleague, James Marwood, is asked to investigate, but the task brings unexpected dangers. Meanwhile, architect Cat Hakesby is working for a merchant who lives on Slaughter Street, where the air smells of blood and a captive Barbary lion prowls the stables. Then a prestigious new commission arrives. Cat must design a Poultry House for the woman that the King loves most in all the world. Unbeknownst to all, at the heart of this lies a royal secret so explosive that it could not only rip apart England but change the entire face of Europe.

by Alex Michaelides - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

A handsome and charismatic Greek tragedy professor at Cambridge University, Edward Fosca is adored by staff and students alike --- particularly by the members of a secret society of female students known as The Maidens. Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge. She becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships.

by Catherine Steadman - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

A leading British actress hoping to make a splash in America flies to Los Angeles for the grueling gauntlet known as pilot season, a time when every network and film studio looking to fill the rosters of their new shows entice a fresh batch of young hopefuls. Instead, Mia Eliot, a fish out of water in the ruthlessly competitive and faceless world of back-to-back auditioning, discovers the sinister side of Hollywood when she becomes the last person to see Emily, a newfound friend. Standing out in a conveyor-belt world of fellow aspiring stars, Emily mysteriously disappears following an audition, after asking Mia to do a simple favor. But nothing is simple. Nothing is as it seems. And nothing prepares Mia for a startling truth: In a city where dreams really do come true, nightmares can follow.

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

The queen is Marie of Roumania. A famous beauty who was married at 17 into Roumania’s young dynasty, Marie singlehandedly transformed Roumania from a backwater into a force. The castle is Bran: a tall, quirky, ancient structure perched on high rocks overlooking the border between Roumania and its newly regained territory of Transylvania. The threat is…well, that is less clear. Shadowy figures, vague whispers, the fears of girls, dangers that may be only accidents. When Queen Marie calls, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are as dubious as they are reluctant. But surely it won’t take long to shine light on this unlikely case of what would seem to be strigoi. Or, as they are known in the West…vampires.

by Sara Flannery Murphy - Fiction, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Josephine Morrow is Girl One, the first of nine Miracle Babies conceived without male DNA on an experimental commune known as the Homestead. The Girls were raised in the shadow of controversy --- plagued by zealots calling them aberrations and their mothers demons --- until a devastating fire at the Homestead claimed the lives of three people, leaving the survivors to scatter across the United States. Years later, upon learning that her mother has gone missing, Josie sets off on a desperate road trip, tracking down the only people who might help: her estranged sisters. Tracing clues her mother left behind, Josie joins forces with two of the Girls, and they journey back through their past, uncovering secrets about their origins and unlocking devastating abilities they never knew they had.

by Samantha Silva - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Midwife Parthenia Blenkinsop has delivered countless babies, but nothing prepares her for the experience that unfolds when she arrives at Mary Wollstonecraft’s door. Over the 11 harrowing days that follow, as Mrs. Blenkinsop fights for the survival of both mother and newborn, Mary Wollstonecraft recounts the life she dared to live amidst the impossible constraints and prejudices of the late 18th century, rejecting the tyranny of men and marriage, risking everything to demand equality for herself and all women. She weaves her riveting tale to give her fragile daughter a reason to live, even as her own strength wanes.

by Will Staples - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When rhino poachers kill two of his fellow rangers in Kruger Park, South African Defense Force veteran Cobus Venter reaches his breaking point. Quitting his job, he embarks on a vigilante mission to take down the animal-trafficking syndicate from the inside. Meanwhile, in Florida, insurance investigator Randall Knight is called to a private roadside zoo, where a new tiger cub of suspect lineage brought a virus that wiped out all the zoo's tigers. The disease is just one species jump away from erupting into a deadly global human pandemic. What starts as a simple insurance claim leads Knight to discover a shocking new evolution in the business of illicit animal trafficking. Both men must stay alive long enough to stop a vicious international triad from ending wildlife as we know it.

by Andy Weir - Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission --- and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. But he can’t remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery --- and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he has to do it all alone. Or does he?

by Josh Malerman - Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Goblin seems like any other ordinary small town. But with Josh Malerman as your tour guide, you’ll discover the secrets that hide behind its closed doors. These six novellas --- "A Man in Slices," "Kamp," "Happy Birthday, Hunter!," "Presto," "A Mix-Up at the Zoo" and "The Hedges" --- tell the story of a place where the rain is always falling, nighttime is always near, and your darkest fears and desires await.