Portrait in Death by J.D. Robb
I read Portrait in Death many moons ago so it was great to revisit it. This is one of the sharper installments in the series, IMHO. Eve and Roarke tracking down a serial killer who ends up murdering someone who ends up being close to another person in the series was I think a good choice. I remember my shock at what happened and the fallout from it. It was great to see this brought up again in later parts of the series and I […]
The Pallbearers Club by Paul Tremblay
Paul Tremblay is at his best when he’s making you question what’s actually happening in his novels. Was the teen girl in A Head Full of Ghosts really possessed? Was it really the apocalypse in The Cabin at the End of the World? That’s what he’s doing here in The Pallbearers Club; a story about a friendship that starts in the late 1980s and lasts until the present day. He first peppers you with the main characters recollections only to refute them a few pages later. You will […]
Perfect Crime by Helen Fields
The Donor by Clare Mackintosh
Fractured by Karin Slaughter
The Perfect Crime (Helen Fields) *** Stephen Berry is having a rough night. Or a rough life, really; he cannot seem to get his bipolar disorder under control and his long-suffering girlfriend has left him. Desperate for some quiet, he intents to jump off a bridge, but a suicide counsellor who happens to be nearby intervenes. Stephen is quietly grateful, but then his body is found dead a few weeks later at the bottom of a tall tower. The cause of death seems like a […]
One of Us is Dead by Jeneva Rose
Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: recommended. This book was recommended by author May Cobb, whose “My Summer Darlings” is one of the best things I read this year. I was looking for a female-focused thriller with a similar lack of inhibition. Ok, right off the bat, this book is bonkers. If you looking at the premise and expecting any degree of verisimilitude, give this a hard pass. But it’s the willingness to lean into its bonkers-ness (?), to go over the top and just […]
Just One Look by Lindsay Cameron
Read this as part of CBR14 Bingo: Minds. The main character plays mind games as a stalker. She also matches her mind against someone else in a game of corporate espionage. After reading consecutive stinkers from two of my favorite writers (Charles Willeford and Stephen King), it was refreshing to dive into this entertaining thriller from a new name. I was searching for something corporate-y at the bookstore the other day and I came upon this one randomly after finding the authors name on a list of financial thrillers. […]
The Family Across the Street by Nicole Trope
CBR Bingo: Dough. As in “d’oh! This book drags” Nicole Trope’s The Family Across the Street is not a bad thriller, really, but Trope stretches out the plot to a glazed-eye degree. The premise is a family being held hostage by the father, who is enraged his wife wants to leave him. The chapters switch among POVs, including the father’s and his wife. But a lot of the chapters are devoted to others who “have a funny feeling” about what’s going on in the house, […]
