Tag: #thriller

Out Now! The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North

I can’t wait to dive into this serial killers mind. I have read two of Alex’s previous books, and they were frightening 🫣 and thrilling 😱. I highly recommend you pick up his books.

Book synopsis

Dan Garvie’s life has been haunted by the crime he witnessed as a child―narrowly escaping an encounter with a notorious serial killer. He has dedicated his life since to becoming a criminal profiler, eager to seek justice for innocent victims. So when his father passes away under suspicious circumstances, Dan revisits his small island community, determined to uncover the truth about his death. Is it possible that the monster he remembers from his childhood nightmares has returned after all these years?

With his signature shock and suspense, Alex North brings us The Man Made of Smoke. In turn emotional, introspective, and utterly terrifying, this is a story of fathers and sons, shadows and secrets, and the fight we all face to escape the trauma of the past.

Author Biography

ALEX NORTH is the internationally bestselling author of The Angel Maker, The Whisper Man and The Shadows. He lives in Leeds, England, with his wife and son, and is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name.

Review: Free of Malice by Liz Lazarus

Goodreads Blurb

Laura Holland awakes in the middle of the night to see a stranger standing in her bedroom doorway. She manages to defend herself from the would-be rapist, though he threatens to return as he retreats. Traumatized with recurring nightmares, Laura seeks therapy and is exposed to a unique treatment called EMDR. She also seeks self-protection— buying a gun against the wishes of her husband. When Laura learns she could have gone to prison had she shot her fleeing assailant, she decides to write a hypothetical legal case using the details of that night. She enlists the help of criminal defense lawyer, Thomas Bennett, who proves to be well versed in the justice system but has an uncanny resemblance to her attacker. As the two work together to develop the story, Laura’s discomfort escalates particularly when Thomas seems to know more about that night than he should. Reality and fiction soon merge as her real life drama begins to mirror the fiction she’s trying to create.

My Review: Rated  5 out of 5 stars

Bravo!!! This was such a captivating book. I was at the edge of my seat reading it. I kept on being suspicious of the three men who spent time with Laura and never saw what was coming head-on. I loved that the story revolved around the process of the court system. I took a course in college similar to the way this book was written. I not only was suspicious of the other characters, but part of me also thought she imagined the whole scenario. This is Liz’s first book, and readers would never be able to tell. This book had so much emotion, mystery, and thrill, which kept me focused. I highly recommend this psychological legal thriller.

Author Biography

LIZ LAZARUS is an engineer by education, a consultant & business owner from experience and an author given her passion to tell stories.

Her first novel is loosely based on a personal experience and a series of ‘what if’ questions. FREE OF MALICE traces the after effects of a foiled attack; a woman healing, and grappling with the legal system to acknowledge her right to self-defense.

PLEA FOR JUSTICE depicts the journey of a paralegal striving to reveal the truth about her estranged friend’s incarceration, and leading her on a parallel path of self-discovery.

SHADES OF SILENCE showcases the resilience of a woman faced with devastating loss, the unexpected friendship forged from tragedy and the recurring societal themes that confront every generation.

Some of Liz’s favorites: red wine, dark chocolate, spin class (to compensate for items 1 & 2), great music, a cozy bath robe, cats and Saturday mornings!

Currently Reading: In Her Place by Edel Coffey

A friend from Ireland sent me this thriller. My review will be posted in several weeks.

Goodreads Blurb

Who is the other woman? That’s for you to decide.

Ann devoted years to her mother’s care – and now she’s gone, Ann feels lost.

Justin is also grieving, but his wife is still alive. Deborah is in a coma and she doesn’t have long left.

When the two meet, they are instantly drawn to one another and, before long, they’ve fallen deeply in love.

Ann quickly moves in with Justin and his little girl, making them the perfect family. But just as Ann settles into her new life, Justin’s is turned upside down. Unexpectedly, his wife has survived. Deborah is coming home.

Neither knows what to do. But one thing is Ann has earned the life Deborah left behind, and she plans to keep it . . .

Out Now: The Trips by Pat Murray

🚨 THE TRIPS – OUT NOW! 🚨
🖋 Author: Pat Murray
📅 Release Date: March 27th
📖 Genre: Thriller

📖 What’s The Trips about?
From a childhood in a Liverpool suburb to a Death Row cell in Indiana, Carl Kelly has made quite the journey—one paved with betrayal, retribution, family discord, sex, and ultimately, death. But does he regret a thing? Not. One. Bit.

🔗 Buy Links:
📚 Amazon UK
📚 Amazon US

📖 Add it on Goodreads!
⭐ The Trips on Goodreads

Review: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Goodreads Blurb

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

It is a heartbreaking love story filled with secrets that will shatter the lives of the characters and the readers. Clare Leslie Hall is a fantastic storyteller. She captivated the readers with a story filled with so much love that tragedy was unavoidable. I fell in love with each of the characters. I felt like a member of the family watching every tragedy unfold.

The first page of this story grasped my attention. I wanted to know what exactly happened at this farm and who was murdered. Clare divided the story into five different sections. The story begins with Gabriel, followed by Bobby, Jimmy, Frank, and Grace. It then takes us to the trial, weaving through the past and present-day events. The way she drafted the story made the story unravel at the exact time the author was ready to reveal a secret or a tragedy.

Bobby, Beth’s child, is the central figure in this story. His conception, childhood, and tragedy that ultimately impacts the Johnson family will lead to a love triangle fraught with disaster, shocking readers. Losing a child is an unimaginable experience for any parent, especially when it involves witnessing such a gruesome death. Despite Beth blaming Frank for Bobby’s death, both of them showed remarkable bravery by continuing their marriage.

The story begins with the intense love affair and subsequent breakup between Beth and Gabriel. After their separation, Beth marries Frank, who has always been in love with her. Together, Beth and Frank have a son named Bobby. Bobby is passionate about the outdoors and learns everything he can about farm life. However, the family faces a tragedy when Bobby’s life is cut short.

Meanwhile, Gabriel marries and has a son named Leo. He becomes a famous author and eventually returns to his childhood home. Despite moving on, Beth and Gabriel still feel the lingering sparks from their past romance, which leads to an affair. As Beth connects with Leo, she finds herself grappling with the loss of Bobby.

As secrets unravel, an intense argument culminates in a murder. I won’t spoil the entire story but prepare to be shocked by who pulls the trigger and to witness the strong bonds of love and family throughout the narrative.

The tree featured on the cover of the book plays a significant role in the story. It is a tree that the Johnson family grew up with, where a wedding proposal took place. Unfortunately, a tragedy occurred with the eventual death of the tree and the precious life of an innocent boy. This intense love triangle, with its many secrets and tragedy, will leave you wanting more.

Author Biography

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut.

Currently Reading: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall

Broken Country is Barnes & Noble book club pick for this month. The story has captivated me from the very first page. My review will be posted soon.

Goodreads Blurb

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

Author Biography

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. Under the name Clare Empson, she published two domestic noir thrillers, Him and Mine, that were published in the UK and Germany. She has always loved The Go Between by LP Hartley and Broken Country is a nod to it, featuring a forbidden love affair with catastrophic repercussions. Broken Country is her US debut.

Review: Everything You Want Me To Be by Mindy Mejia

Goodreads Blurb

No one knows who she really is…

Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good girlfriend. But Hattie wants something more, something bigger, and ultimately something that turns out to be exceedingly dangerous. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death, the tragedy rips right through the fabric of her small-town community.

It soon comes to light that Hattie was engaged in a highly compromising and potentially explosive secret online relationship. The question is: Did anyone else know? And to what lengths might they have gone to end it? Hattie’s boyfriend seems distraught over her death, but had he fallen so deeply in love with her that she had become an obsession? Or did Hattie’s impulsive, daredevil nature simply put her in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading her to a violent death at the hands of a stranger?

Full of twists and turns, Everything You Want Me to Be reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town’s darkest secrets come to the forefront…and she inches closer and closer to death.

Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I am shocked after finishing this book. Hattie and Peter had a forbidden love that ended terribly. In my mind, I kept on figuring out who the suspects were. In the end, I didn’t expect what truly happened. I loved that the author broke the story into three perspectives. Made the story strike you like lightning while being chased by a roller coaster. I couldn’t stop feeding into the story. Each page brought me closer to the lust, anger, frustration, hopes, dreams, mystery, murder and freedom. It was a very tough story to read because of the characters’ relationship and the terrible murder. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this amazing story. Bravo Mindy, thanks for the thrill.

Author Biography

My name is Mindy Mejia and I’m a writer. I write because, ever since I was six years old, my favorite game has been pretend. My life doesn’t have symmetry, theme, symbolism, or meditated beauty and I gravitate toward these things like a houseplant to the sun. I love the perfect words; I love how ‘fierce’ and ‘confounded’ and ‘swagger’ look on the page and how my chest expands when I read them. I write because I believe in the reality of my fantasies, the truth in my fabrications. I’ve always had stories sneaking around my head, thrillers like LEAVE NO TRACE and EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE, and sometimes I inhabit those stories more than my own life. (Best not to mention that last part to my husband, kids, or boss.)

Review: Little Deaths by Emma Flint

Goodreads Blurb

Inspired by a true story, Little Deaths, like celebrated novels by Sarah Waters and Megan Abbott, is compelling literary crime fiction that explores the capacity for good and evil in us all.
It’s the summer of 1965, and the streets of Queens, New York shimmer in a heatwave. One July morning, Ruth Malone, a cocktail waitress, wakes to find a bedroom window wide open and her two young children missing. After a desperate search, the police make a horrifying discovery.
Separated from her husband, Ruth has been raising her children alone. Noting her perfectly made-up face and provocative clothing, the empty liquor bottles and love letters that litter her apartment, detectives leap to convenient conclusions fueled by neighborhood gossip and speculation. Covering the story as his first big assignment, tabloid reporter Pete Wonicke at first can’t help but do the same. But the longer he spends watching Ruth, the more he learns about the dark ways of cops and reporters, and the underbelly of the city he now calls home. As he fixates on Ruth, Pete soon begins to doubt everything he thought he knew.
Ruth Malone is enthralling, challenging, and secretive—is she really capable of murder? Haunting, intoxicating, and heart-poundingly suspenseful, Little Death is a gripping novel about love, morality, and obsession, exploring the capacity for good and evil within us all.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

A novel that will break everyone’s heart. Imagine checking up one morning thinking your two children are sleeping to only find that they are both missing. My heart broke in two finding out what happened to each child. Any parent would be freaking out and devastated that their children won’t be with them anymore. It was a tragic story that will challenge and confuse you of what exactly happened that July day. I was very disappointed with the outcome of this book. The person you least expect guilty was guilty as charge. This is a thriller with mystery. Your whole perspective in love and life will forever be changed.

Author Biography

Emma Flint grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. She studied English and History at the University of St Andrews and is a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing Program in London. Since childhood, Flint has read reports of real-life crimes, and over the years has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of murder cases and notorious historical figures, as well as a fascination with unconventional women – past, present, and fictional. Flint lives and works in London.

Review: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Goodreads Blurb

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

How well do you know people?? Once upon a time, a woman falls in love with the perfect man. He was loving and caring. She could only imagine what her wonderful perfect life was going to be. We all dream of having the best husband. But in the blink of an eye, the perfect husband was devious with a goal of torture and pain. This was the best 2016 thriller, which I read it in a matter of two days. I just couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. Grace made this story come to life. She was the strongest woman I could have ever imagined. To have to go through what she went through and complete her vengeance, it was brilliant. This was a book that gave all battered women a chance to be brave, and if there is a will, then there is a way to escape this torment. Jack ruled with fear, which exhilarated him, but Grace overruled with strength, protection, and courage. I absolutely recommend you read this heart pumping novel.

Author Biography

B.A. Paris is the New York Times and Sunday Times Number 1 bestselling author of seven novels including the word-of-mouth hit, Behind Closed Doors.

Over 7 million editions of her work have been sold worldwide and her books have been translated into 41 languages. Her novels have been optioned for major screen adaptations with a film of The Breakdown, titled Blackwater Lane, in post production.

Before becoming an author, B.A. Paris worked as a bank trader and teacher in France. Today, she writes from her cottage in Hampshire, England, where she lives with her husband with visits from her five grown-up daughters. She has a newsletter baparis.com and is on social media @baparisauthor