Tag: #suspense

Review: The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

Goodreads Blurb

In their isolated country house, a mother and her two children prepare to wait out a blinding snowstorm. Two violent predators walk through the door. Nothing will ever be the same.

When the two strangers turn up at Rowena Cooper’s isolated Colorado farmhouse, she knows instantly that it’s the end of everything. For the two haunted and driven men, on the other hand, it’s just another stop on a long and bloody journey. And they still have many miles to go, and victims to sacrifice, before their work is done.
For San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart, their trail of victims-women abducted, tortured and left with a seemingly random series of objects inside them-has brought her from obsession to the edge of physical and psychological destruction. And she’s losing hope of making a breakthrough before that happens.
But the murders at the Cooper farmhouse didn’t quite go according to plan. There was a survivor, Rowena’s ten-year-old daughter Nell, who now holds the key to the killings. Injured, half-frozen, terrified, Nell has only one place to go. And that place could be even more dangerous than what she’s running from.

In this extraordinary, pulse-pounding debut, Saul Black takes us deep into the mind of a psychopath, and into the troubled heart of the woman determined to stop him.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Won this book from Goodreads. My mind twisted and tricked me as I read through this book. To have a serial killer having a killing spree will make even the strongest weak. I just couldn’t comprehend why Leon had no feelings and killed like it was a natural thing to do. As I listened to the audio book, I felt like I traveled to Leon’s world and had a front row seat of all his personal tortures and the killing sprees. Just having to listen to the first chapter, I knew my perspective of life would be changed forever. This book teaches us all that we need to cherish life and protect everyone around you. Valerie would be inches away from figuring out the killer and catching him, but she never gave up. The author did an amazing job of writing a story that I know will become a movie someday. It played with your mind and took you to a world where the world froze, and only death can set you free. If you are looking for a book that will keep you up at night and having you gripping your seat, then look no further.

Author Biography

SAUL BLACK is a pseudonym used by Glen Duncan, a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. In 1994 he visited India with his father before continuing on to the United States, where he spent several months travelling the country by Amtrak train, writing much of what would become his first novel, Hope, published to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic in 1997. Duncan lives in London. Recently, his 2002 novel I, Lucifer has had the film rights purchased, with actors such as Ewan Mcgregor, Jason Brescia, Jude Law, Vin Diesel, and Daniel Craig all being considered for roles in the forthcoming movie.

Review: Still See You Everywhere by Lisa Gardner

Goodreads Blurb

Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten, but even she couldn’t have anticipated this latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks’ time.

She has called herself “death,” but people called her the devil.

The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning, waived all appeals. Despite the media’s chronicling of her tragic circumstances—the childhood spent with a violent father—no one could find sympathy for “the Beautiful Butcher” who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats.
Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago, and she needs Frankie’s help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher’s offer:

When was the last time your search ended with finding the living?

Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson’s request. Twelve years ago, five-year-old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson’s tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific—the site of MacManus’s latest vanity project—fresh evidence has appeared. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman’s life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. Her challenge: A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in…

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

This thriller will keep you up at night. The reader will have to worry about surviving a serial killer, coconut crabs, crab dens, and living in an isolated atoll with a murderer. The female characters in this story are strong-willed and ready to fight to survive. The beautiful butcher Kaylee is a heartless serial killer who gets gusto from butchering men. Her childhood with her father was a torment that helped shape her into what she became. Kaylee is in jail and will be executed in a few weeks. Her last request is to find her sister Leilani and save her from her ex-boyfriend, Sanders McManus. Kaylee and her lawyer hire Frankie, who specializes in searching for missing people and has succeeded every time she seeks to find someone. Frankie doesn’t know that you should never trust a serial killer. Frankie lands on an island filled with dangers. Her investigative skills will get her closer to the truth, but it might be too late to solve this twisted mystery. Don’t let the innocent Leilani and serial killer sister, or are they sisters? You will have to pick up this thrilling novel to find the truth yourself. Get ready to fight for your life.

Author Biography

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling thriller author of the Frankie Elkin series, as well as the Detective D.D. Warren, the FBI Profilers and the PI Tessa Leoni series.

Her current suspense novels feature Frankie Elkin, an everyday, average person who specializes in finding missing people. When the locals have given up, when the media has never bothered to care, Frankie takes on the challenge. From looking for a missing teen in inner city Boston to searching for a missing hiker in the wilds of Wyoming to rescuing a possibly kidnapped girl on a remote island in the Pacific, Frankie is on the case!

Lisa lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with two crazy pups. When not writing, Lisa loves to hike, play cribbage, and, of course, read!

Review: I Belong to You by Lisa Renee Jones

Goodreads Blurb

Master…

Being that person, that man is how I define myself, how I allow the rest of the world to define me as well. And now, with a terrible loss shredding me inside out and someone trying to destroy my family to punish me, control is more important than ever. It is everything. It is what I need. It is all I need. Or maybe I just need…her.

My Review: Rated 5 out 5 stars

Received this book for an early review. This series is just amazing. I love Mark and Crystal’s relationship. He wants to be her master and she doesn’t let him. She stands up to him, which I love, and so does he. A woman with a challenge makes you work harder for what you want. Mark is viewed as the master but in this book, with his mother having cancer and is delicate, you can see that he isn’t as strong as he seems. You see that he loves and cares for his mother’s well-being. He is hurting for his girlfriend missing and trying to get vengeance for what might have happened to her.I love the passion and chemistry between them both. They crave each other, but he want’s to take her under his wings with his dominance, and she just wants to have a normal relationship. Another book from Lisa with a deserved FIVE STAR. You don’t want to miss it.

Author Biography

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series. Suzanne Todd (producer of Alice in Wonderland) on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful, complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy – a modern girl we all can identify with.

In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is presently working on a dark, edgy new series, Dirty Money, for St. Martin’s Press.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at www.lisareneejones.com and she is active on Twitter and Facebook daily.

Currently Reading: Still See You by Lisa Gardner

Goodreads Blurb

Frankie Elkin is an expert at finding the missing persons that the rest of the world has forgotten, but even she couldn’t have anticipated this latest request—to locate the long-lost sister of a female serial killer facing execution in three weeks’ time.

She has called herself “death,” but people called her the devil.

The case was sensational. Kaylee Pierson had confessed from the very beginning, waived all appeals. Despite the media’s chronicling of her tragic circumstances—the childhood spent with a violent father—no one could find sympathy for “the Beautiful Butcher” who had led eighteen men home from bars before viciously slitting their throats.
Now, with only twenty-one days left to live, Pierson has finally received a lead on the whereabouts of the sister who was kidnapped over a decade ago, and she needs Frankie’s help to find her. The Beautiful Butcher’s offer:

When was the last time your search ended with finding the living?

Unable to resist the chance for a rescue, Frankie takes on Pierson’s request. Twelve years ago, five-year-old Leilani went missing in Hawaii. The main suspect? Pierson’s tech mogul ex-boyfriend, Sanders MacManus. Now, on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific—the site of MacManus’s latest vanity project—fresh evidence has appeared. In order to learn the truth and possibly save a young woman’s life, Frankie must go undercover at the isolated base camp. Her challenge: A dozen strangers. Countless dangerous secrets. Zero means of calling for help. And then the storm rolls in…

Author Biography

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling thriller author of the Frankie Elkin series, as well as the Detective D.D. Warren, the FBI Profilers and the PI Tessa Leoni series.

Her current suspense novels feature Frankie Elkin, an everyday, average person who specializes in finding missing people. When the locals have given up, when the media has never bothered to care, Frankie takes on the challenge. From looking for a missing teen in inner city Boston to searching for a missing hiker in the wilds of Wyoming to rescuing a possibly kidnapped girl on a remote island in the Pacific, Frankie is on the case!

Lisa lives in the mountains of New Hampshire with two crazy pups. When not writing, Lisa loves to hike, play cribbage, and, of course, read!

I will post my review once I am done reading this thrilling novel that will be released on March 12, 2024.

Review: Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

Goodreads Blurb

Welcome to Hollow’s Edge, where you can find secrets, scandal, and a suspected killer—all on one street.

Hollow’s Edge use to be a quiet place. A private and idyllic neighborhood where neighbors dropped in on neighbors, celebrated graduation and holiday parties together, and looked out for one another. But then came the murder of Brandon and Fiona Truett. A year and a half later, Hollow’s Edge is simmering. The residents are trapped, unable to sell their homes, confronted daily by the empty Truett house, and suffocated by their trial testimonies that implicated one of their own. Ruby Fletcher. And now, Ruby’s back.

With her conviction overturned, Ruby waltzes right back to Hollow’s Edge, and into the home she shared with Harper Nash. Harper, five years older, has always treated Ruby like a wayward younger sister. But now she’s terrified. What possible good could come of Ruby returning to the scene of the crime? And how can she possibly turn her away, when she knows Ruby has nowhere to go?

Within days, suspicion spreads like a virus across Hollow’s Edge. It’s increasingly clear that not everyone told the truth about the night of the Truetts’ murders. And when Harper begins receiving threatening notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else becomes the killer’s next victim.

My Review: Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Megan Miranda’s Such a Quiet Place will bring doubt that this community isn’t what it seems to be; keeping their community safe and quiet might mean doing it at any cost.

How well do we know our neighbors? A quiet neighborhood is what it seems, but secrets are hidden to protect the community. This thriller will have you guessing who murdered the Truett’s and how guilty Ruby is? Ruby goes to jail for the murder of the Truett’s but is released after eleven months in hopes of unveiling the secrets they all keep. Harper needs to unravel the truth before another person dies. This story was a little slow, and I hoped it would keep my interest. The author was able to create characters that were secretive and seemed guilty in some way. I would have liked this story to have been a two-sided one, where we see Ruby’s and Harper’s investigations.

Author Biography

Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls; The Perfect Stranger; The Last House Guest, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick; The Girl from Widow Hills; Such a Quiet Place; and The Last to Vanish. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children.

Her next thriller, The Only Survivors, will be published on April 11th, 2023.

Follow @MeganLMiranda on Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit www.meganmiranda.com

Review: The Retreat by Elisabeth De Mariaffi

Goodreads Blurb

She came looking for inspiration.
Instead, disaster strikes.

Maeve Martin arrives at the High Water Center for the Arts, a gorgeous lodge nestled deep in the Rocky Mountains, determined to do one thing: begin her own dance company. A retired performer and mother of two, time is running out for her to find her feet again after the collapse of her disastrous—and violent—marriage. And at first, there’s a thrill to being on her own for the first time in years. Isolated in the snowy beauty of the retreat, Maeve can forget the ghost of her past for an hour, for a day.

But when an avalanche strikes, Maeve finds herself trapped with six other guests. They’ve lost all power, phone service, heat, and the road back to town. At first, there’s a sense of camaraderie—the fire is warm, the freezer well-stocked. But as the days pass and the storm rages on outside, tensions start to run high. Help is coming, so they just have to hold on, right?

Then the first guest meets an unspeakable death.

Followed by another.

Soon Maeve must admit how little she knows about these strangers . . . and how useless a locked door is if the darkness is already inside.

My Review: Rated 2 out of 5 stars

A retreat is supposed to bring you peace and harmony, but what Maeve finds is the fight to survive. Being locked away in a retreat with strangers while being snowed in makes for a perfect murder scene. Maeve was trying to make a comeback and open her own dance studio. She was scarred from her prior marriage of abuse and has been fighting to be free for some time. This was supposed to be a new beginning and not one that might end her life. This thriller picks up speed in the last 100 pages. I wasn’t really excited about how slow the build-up took to get me thrilled and scared. The story didn’t grab my attention right away, so it took me a long time to finish reading it. I loved that this book has a strong female who fights to survive to be able to see her children. Being stucked in a mountain with an avalanche, bear, and a murderer will make anyone scared to join a retreat like this one.

Author Biography

Elisabeth de Mariaffi is the author of a new collection of short stories, How To Get Along With Women (Invisible Publishing, 2012).

Her poetry and short fiction have been widely published in magazines across Canada, and she’s one of the wild minds behind the highly original Toronto Poetry Vendors, a small press that sells single poems by established Canadian poets through toonie vending machines.

Elisabeth works as a marketing coordinator for Breakwater Books and is currently based in St. John’s, where she lives with the poet George Murray and their combined brood of four children — making them CanLit’s answer to the Brady Brunch.’

Review: Child Zero by Chris Holm

Goodreads Blurb

From molecular biologist turned Anthony Award-winning author of THE KILLING KIND comes a fact-based thriller in the vein of Michael Crichton about our species’ next great existential threat.

It began four years ago with a worldwide uptick of bacterial infections: meningitis in Frankfurt, cholera in Johannesburg, tuberculosis in New Delhi. Although the outbreaks spread aggressively and proved impervious to our drugs of last resort, public health officials initially dismissed them as unrelated.

They were wrong. Antibiotic resistance soon roiled across the globe. Diseases long thought beaten came surging back. The death toll skyrocketed. Then New York City was ravaged by the most heinous act of bioterror the world had ever seen, perpetrated by a new brand of extremist bent on pushing humanity to extinction.

Detective Jacob Gibson, who lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, is home caring for his sick daughter when his partner summons him to a sprawling shantytown in Central Park, the apparent site of a mass murder. Jake is startled to discover that, despite a life of abject squalor, the victims died in perfect health—and his only hope of finding answers is an eleven-year-old boy on the run from some very dangerous men.

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Chris Holm presents us with a story involving a pandemic, a world in chaos, and a boy who might be able to save mankind. In this intriguing thriller, you will wonder if antibiotics will stop working and if common viruses and infections will be rampant, taking lives throughout the world. I enjoyed the story from the very beginning. An action-packed story that will leave you wanting more. This book frightened me because we are in the middle of a pandemic that continues to take lives, and if antibiotics are useless, the world will fall apart.


I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.

Author Biography

Chris Holm is the author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, which recasts the battle between heaven and hell as old-fashioned crime pulp; the Michael Hendricks thrillers, which feature a hitman who only kills other hitmen; and the standalone scientific thriller, CHILD ZERO. He’s also a former molecular biologist with a U.S. patent to his name. Chris’ work has been selected for THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES, named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and won a number of awards, including the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Novel. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Review: The Island by Adrian McKinty

Goodreads Blurb

It was just supposed to be a family vacation.A terrible accident changed everything.You don’t know what you’re capable of until they come for your family.After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom.

When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram.

But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then, a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare.

When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers.

Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead.

Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.

My Review: 5 out of 5 stars

A car accident leaves an innocent woman dead, causing you to run for your life on an Australian island while a crazy family hunts for you. To survive, you must hunt your hunters before they get you. It is a nail-biting thriller that makes the reader root for Heather, a young woman married to a doctor who has two children who are not fond of her. Heather has been underestimated her whole life, and now she is GI Jane trying to survive, save the kids, and find a way out of the island. The readers will go through moments of helplessness and fear for their own lives and the characters. I can still feel the thirst, hunger, smells, and frightening moments the characters endured. I highly recommend you pick up this book because you don’t want to miss out.

Author Biography

Adrian McKinty is an Irish novelist. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York, and from 2001 on, in Denver, Colorado, where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two children.

Cover Reveal: Brutal Mercy by Anya Summers

BOOK DETAILS:

Brutal Mercy
by Anya Summers
(Massimo Mafia, #1)
Publication date: December 26, 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Suspense

Synopsis:

I’m the head of my crime family—they call me the King of Torture. I never show mercy. Never show weakness.

I am the furthest thing from a decent man. Everything good and pure was leached out of me long ago.

Evil permeates every aspect of my life.

But then, battered, bruised, and limping, a gorgeous woman half my age runs toward my compound. Towards me –– not realizing she is running to the man who could usurp the devil.

Yet she looks at me like I am her salvation. My entire being roars that she is meant for me. The only woman who could love a monster.

Now I will stop at nothing to make her mine.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199889342-brutal-mercy

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3T3Gftz

AUTHOR BIO:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Anya grew up listening to Cardinals baseball and reading anything she could get her hands on. She remembers her mother saying if only she would read the right type of books instead binging her way through the romance aisles at the bookstore, she’d have been a doctor. While Anya never did get that doctorate, she graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with an M.A. in History.

Anya is a bestselling and award-winning author published in multiple fiction genres. She also writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and contemporary romance under the name Maggie Mae Gallagher. A total geek at her core, when she is not writing, she adores attending the latest comic con or spending time with her family. She currently lives in the Midwest with her two furry felines.

Author links:
Website: www.anyasummers.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnyaSummersAuthor
Twitter: @AnyaBSummers https://twitter.com/anyabsummers?lang=en
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15183606.Anya_Summers
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Anya-Summers/e/B01EGTVRKC/
Bookbub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/anya-summers
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/anyasummersauthor/
Newsletter https://anyasummers.com/newsletter/

Review: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Goodreads Blurb:

In the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father is executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark its doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will help her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 Stars

I chose this book to read for a book club at work to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Isabel is a new author to me, and happy that I decided to pick up her book. I was fascinated by the first book Isabel Cañas has written. She brought the gothic horror to the next level. I resonated with her fear of the dark, as I am afraid of the dark. I felt those frightening moments when Beatriz was in the dark, finding her way to escape the frozen claws of the darkness. The words used to describe the house and the frightening moments were an added fear factor that added terror to the reader’s craving.

It’s a story of a forbidden love after the Mexican War of Independence with a Cinderella twist turned Haunted of Hill House. The build-up of Beatriz trying to fight to survive the grasp of the mansion and free herself from being trapped gives the readers hope that the house will not take another innocent life. There is always a story behind haunted houses, and when spirits taunt you, they might be warning you of dangers to come. So, as a believer of ghosts, evil spirits, and vengeful warm-blooded people, I warn you that you will need to strap yourself down in order to survive this nail-biting story.

Author Biography

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.