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College friends gather to celebrate an upcoming wedding but in reality it is a drug intervention gone horrible wrong. They are hassled by a construction team demanding payment, an extra person tags along who isn't anyone's friend and when two of the group go out for cigarettes and don't come back the rest of the weekend seems to be shot. The small upstate detective is still embroiled in her own past and must now deal with an out of towner nightmare. So many secrets in everyone's present and past, manipulation and lies - no one needs friends like these. Tightly knit thriller that keeps connecting all the dots until a jaw dropping end. 4 stars 
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The return of the intrepid detectives of North Devon. A murder happens at an country estate turned artist studio/farm and Detectives Matthew Ven and Jen Rafferty are on the case. As soon as they begin questioning the locals another body is discovered and the clock starts ticking faster. This case is personal because it is local and involves their friends and the neighborhood. This also makes it harder to keep perspective and dig into the details/alibis of friends. The case seems to center around the suicide and possible mismanagement of a local young man and a secret that the first victim may have discovered. Ann Cleeves writes a powerful mystery that quietly sneaks up on you with characters that you genuinely can relate to. Fans of her other series in book or tv like Vera and the beloved Inspector Ganache series of Louise Penny will find much to love here. 4 stars  This one, like the title, started off as simmering coals and then went straight to inferno as we would expect from Paula Hawkins. Laura hasn't been the same since she was the victim of a hit and run as a child, Miriam is a nosy houseboat neighbor with secrets of her own and Carla has lost much including the murder victim. All three women knew the man who was found dead on his boat. All three are hiding things. Who killed him and why? The book is constructed in the format we have come to expect - a twisted plot and unreliable narrators who are damaged but the story within the story is complicated. Of course, Ms. Hawkins keeps you guessing until the bitter end. Her fans will enjoy this as a solid thriller. 4 stars  Peter Heller always presents a strange mix of natural beauty and violence. Jack is running away from his old life so when an opportunity to become a fishing guide at a swanky lodge in remote Colorado happens he jumps. The scenery is beautiful , the fish are plentiful and he is enjoying being around his first client a superstar singer who is really a nature girl. Soon however the ideal job feels fishy and Jack and Alison begin to explore the area around the lodge a bit more. There seem to be more big fences and security than one would think necessary for a fishing lodge and they see things they shouldn't. They realize that they have waded into deep water but it may be too late. Readers will be hooked from the first page. Peter Heller is Gary Paulson for adults. Readers of high adventure and mystery in natural settings will enjoy this. 4 stars  Silvia Moreno-Garcia is an atmospheric writer who pulls you into the underbelly of political unrest of Mexico City in the 70's. Maite is a lonely young woman who lives out an exciting imaginary life through the romance serials she loves but that is far away from the life she lives in her real life. She agrees to help a neighbor but when Leonora disappears, Maite as well as some dangerous people begin to search for her and Maite discovers there is much more to Leonora than meets the eye. Another lonely soul, Elvis is also searching for Leonora. He and Maite bond over their love of music and the search for what happened to Leonora. Set firmly in crime noir, this story explores loneliness and longing mixed with protest, politics and violence. The author included a playlist at the end which adds much to setting the tone of the book. 4 stars  In 1911 a worker at the Louvre museum takes a painting off the wall and walks out the door with it hidden under his shirt. He holds the painting hostage and demands a ransom from the museum. This is Luke Perrone's ancestor. Luke is fascinated by his family's hidden history and jumps at the chance to see an unknown diary written by his great grandfather in Italy. He obtains the proper papers and because he is an art professor, is given permission to view documents from a famous library in Florence. There he meets a beautiful art student with secrets of her own. As Luke seeks answers to clear his ancestor's name and find out if the painting is a forgery or the real thing, others are searching as well. Danger in some of the most beautiful art capitols of Europe and a solid cat and mouse mystery balanced with a touch of romance and the seedy side of art collectors - this is a sure bet for art historians, readers of art crimes and Dan Brown style mysteries. Armchair travel doesn't get any better than this and the author's own experience as an artist, attempts at forgery and crime novelist makes this feel authentic and well researched. 4 1/2 stars  Harper finds her husband dead of a suicide and calls her brother in a panic. Needing the insurance money the two stage the scene to look like a break in. Lane is a kind soul and he takes in Harper and her two kids until things get sorted. Not everyone is happy with this arrangement. Lane has just married Candace after a very fast courtship and Harper and Candace are oil and water. This puts Lane in a tough spot as referee to one cat fight after another and they both have secrets. This shows family at their best and worst. The ending was one I did not see coming. Fans of crazy family drama and books like HE STARTED IT will enjoy.  Mrs. March is the proud wife of a best selling author. She is the toast of the town - the Upper East side of Manhattan to be precise and has been known to throw perfect parties, be the perfect wife to George and perfect mother to their son. At least, this is how Mrs. March sees it. This might not be the way she is perceived and after being compared to the ugly prostitute in her husband's new book, Mrs. March is devastated. As her perfect, well constructed life begins to fall apart she starts to lose a firm grip on reality. Did she witness a murder? Did George have something to do with the missing woman? Is Johanna, the main character in George's book really her? This brilliant dark debut is like watching the perfect 50's housewife descend into a "Rear Window" madness. Perceptions are everything to Mrs. March and she will not tolerate anything less than absolute best. 4 stars  Charlotte McConaghy has a surreal atmospheric writing style that envelops you from the first page. The location is rugged Scotland where Into is reintroducing grey wolves to the area. As you can imagine there is fear and pushback from the community. Inti and her twin sister have dealt with hatred and violence before and are much more at home in the woods with the wild animals than with most humans. Into learns who she can trust in the community and protect her sister as well as the wolf pack. This is a vivid blending of the beauty and violence of wild animals and humans. It is a profound look at family, loyalty and love between wild creatures both human and animal. Fans of her book, MIGRATIONS or stories of people who straddle the wild and the civilized world will devour this. 5 stars  1944 Aki and her family have just left the Japanese internment camp at Manzanar to start over in a cramped apartment in the new Japanese neighborhood at Clark and Division in Chicago. Getting to know the new area, finding work and still not being free weighs down the family but nothing is more devastating than the news that the oldest daughter Rose has killed herself right before their arrival. Aki is grief stricken and doesn't believe that Rose would kill herself so she begins to investigate on her own. The mystery of what happened to Rose takes Aki into some rough parts of town and she shows more raw courage and learns to stand up for what she believes in. This is a little known part of history and the author does a great job of showing us how truly heartbreaking it must have been to lose everything and having to start over in a new city while still being under suspicion. A terrific historical fiction with a criminal mystery back story which will appeal to both types of readers. 4 1/2 stars  |
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