Tag: #thriller

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!

Cover Reveal: Clare at Eighteen by Don Roff

BOOK DETAILS:

Clare at Eighteen
by Don Roff
(Clare Bleecker, #3)
Published by: Parliament House Press
Publication date: June 16, 2024
Genres: Adult, Thriller

Synopsis:

Just when you thought Clare Bleecker had faced the darkest corners of Pickman Flats, her story takes a murderous detour under the glitzy lights of Hollywood.

In a town where the stars shine bright and secrets lurk in every shadow, Clare finds herself with an opportunity that could be her big break—or her final downfall. When movie producer Lester Bryce is found murdered, Clare is cast not in the role of a lifetime but as the prime suspect in a deadly drama. Talk about creative differences.

Now, caught in the spotlight of suspicion, Clare must navigate a labyrinth of lies and deceit in a city known for making and breaking dreams. Hollywood harbors a strange cult with a thirst for celebrity blood, and Clare’s own could be next on the altar. As the lines between performance and peril blur, can Clare unveil the truth before the final cut silences her scream? Can you say development hell?

The stakes of Clare’s “passion project” are higher, the Tinseltown killers more cunning, and the twists more treacherous than ever before. Clare must use all her cunning to survive this lethal script.

Can she “do lunch” and deliver a performance that will clear her name, or will this role prove to be her most deadly?

Will Clare win or die?

Kill Discriminately,

XOXO Clare

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208875437-clare-at-eighteen

Pre-order: https://books2read.com/u/m2K6y7

AUTHOR BIO:

Roff grew up in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. As a teen, he worked at the local drive-in theater and made Super 8 mm movies with his neighborhood friends, writing many of the scripts. He graduated from McLoughlin Union High School in 1985. 

Roff joined the United States Army in 1989. He was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia in the 3rd Ranger Battalion. He was a part of “Operation Just Cause” in Rio Hato, Panama, December 20, 1989.

Roff graduated from Walla Walla Community College in 1995, and The Evergreen State College in 1997.

In 2000, he was The Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Semifinalist for his coming-of-age screenplay, LORD OF THE YARDS. In June 2006, Roff received the prestigious Zola Award for screenwriting from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association for his science fiction adventure script, OUTBOUND.

Roff’s bestselling book, ZOMBIES: A RECORD OF THE YEAR OF INFECTION is available from Chronicle Books/Simon & Schuster UK. The audiobook is available from AudioGO. The calendars are available from Universal Publishing (a division of Rizzoli International Publications).

His supernatural thriller, SNOWBLIND, will soon be a major film, as will his dark comedy thriller, CLARE AT SIXTEEN.

Author links:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/847186.Don_Roff
https://www.facebook.com/Author.Don.Roff
https://www.instagram.com/donroff/

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: Inferno by Dan Brown

Goodreads Blurb

Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri’s The Inferno.

Dan Brown has raised the bar yet again, combining classical Italian art, history, and literature with cutting-edge science in this sumptuously entertaining thriller.

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5

Bravo! Dan Brown wrote another fantastic book that keeps you wanting more. He brought me again to Italy with a thrilling story. The scenario in which Robert, his main character, didn’t even know what was real and who he could trust had me second-thinking about how he could survive. Dan Brown adds information about historical areas and symbols, keeping my interest in his books. He adds such details when describing his story that you feel like you are in the story. When you read his books, you have a tug-a-war with religion, science, and humankind. Who is right, and who is wrong? I recommend this book and all the ones that Dan has written. You will be satisfied with the thrill ride you will encounter. Thanks, Dan Brown, till next time.

Author Biography

Dan Brown is the author of numerous #1 bestselling novels, including The Da Vinci Code, which has become one of the best selling novels of all time as well as the subject of intellectual debate among readers and scholars. Brown’s novels are published in 52 languages around the world with 200 million copies in print.

In 2005, Brown was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine, whose editors credited him with “keeping the publishing industry afloat; renewed interest in Leonardo da Vinci and early Christian history; spiking tourism to Paris and Rome; a growing membership in secret societies; the ire of Cardinals in Rome; eight books denying the claims of the novel and seven guides to read along with it; a flood of historical thrillers; and a major motion picture franchise.”

The son of a mathematics teacher and a church organist, Brown was raised on a prep school campus where he developed a fascination with the paradoxical interplay between science and religion. These themes eventually formed the backdrop for his books. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he later returned to teach English before focusing his attention full time to writing.

Brown is currently at work on a new book as well as the Columbia Pictures film version of his most recent novel.

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.

Review: After The Fire by Will Hill

Goodreads Blurb

The things I’ve seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.

Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.

But there are lies behind Father John’s words. Outside, there are different truths.

Then came the fire.

My Review: 5 out of 5 stars

It’s terrifying the power one man has over people and how he can fool grown men and women to worship this man guided by God. Poor Moonbeam lived a terrible life in this camp with a cult leader and other members. She was stronger than she thought she was. She survived and helped other children live after the end arrived. This book is intense due to the topic and the war to fight to ascend to heaven or fight to survive. You can feel exactly how Moonbeam feels, her insecurities, fear, instincts, and fight to survive while keeping secrets that she feels would get her in trouble. A story that will have you thinking, would you easily follow another who speaks with the candor of what his religious beliefs are without knowing the lies he says? A true manipulator and dictator of the innocent.

Author Biography

Before quitting his job in publishing to write full time, Will Hill worked as a bartender, a bookseller and a door-to-door charity worker. He grew up in the north-east of England, is scared of spiders, and lives in east London with his girlfriend. He is a big fan of cats