When You See Me by Lisa Gardner
Penguin Random House: 1/28/20
eBook review copy; 400 pages
ISBN-13:
9781524745004
When You See Me by Lisa Gardner is a very highly recommended
thriller featuring Detective D. D. Warren, Flora Dane, and FBI Special
Agent Kimberly Quincy. It is a great day when Lisa Gardiner has a new
character-driven thriller released so set aside time to read this ASAP!
When hikers discover skeletal remains in the mountains of Niche,
Georgia, they are identified as those of 17-year-old Lilah
Abenito. She was kidnapped 15 years earlier and it has been suspected
that she was one
of the earliest victims of now-deceased serial predator Jacob Ness.
Because of the ties to Ness, FBI
Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren, who
have a task force following any clues left behind by him, are on the
scenes. They bring along Flora Dane, a survivor of Ness,
and Keith Edgar, a computer analyst and true-crime follower.
As volunteers search the mountains for the rest of the remains of
Lilah, another mass grave of more skeletal remains is discovered. This
escalates the search to include the possibility that the team is looking
at a serial killer dump site. Is this where Ness buried some of his
other victims? An initial visit to the mayor of Niche, Howard Counsel,
and his wife,
Martha, at their Mountain Laurel B&B, leaves the team with some
questions, including the story behind their nameless maid, but even
more after Martha suddenly, suspiciously hangs herself. The
investigation begins to widen at the same time as threats to the team
begin to increase.
As is expected from Gardner, the writing is exceptional. The plot is a
page-turning, nail-biting, twisty, tension-filled, and emotionally
powerful story that will grip you from start to finish. The crimes from
the past seem to be stirring up trouble in the present, but the question
is who is involved and how is all of this connected. This is a novel
that will be very hard to put down once you start it. I admittedly
stayed up late just to finish it and it was worth it.
All these characters are well developed and, quite frankly, loved by
many of us, so a new novel with D.D., Kimberly, Flora, and Keith marks
an exciting new addition to their stories. The sensitive treatment of
Flora's recovery from her trauma at the hands of Ness is handled with
compassion and understanding. It is exciting to see some major forward
movement in Flora's character development and healing. Along with
others, I appreciate the strong female characters.
I really loved this one from start to finish. Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin Random House.
Losing You by Nicci French
HarperCollins: 1/28/20; reprint from 2008 edition
eBook review copy; 368 pages
paperback ISBN-13:
9780062876034
Losing You by Nicci French is a recommended story of a desperate mom looking for her missing teenage daughter. This a re-released edition.
It is Nina Landry's fortieth birthday and she and her two children,
Charlie (Charlotte, 15) and Jackson, are planning to take a vacation
over the Christmas holiday with Nina's boyfriend, Christian. They will
be leaving their home on Sandling Island, off the coast of
England, and flying to Florida. Much to Nina's annoyance, Charlie is
late returning home after going to a sleepover last night. Nina's
annoyance turns to concern when Charlie isn't answering her phone -
especially when she didn't show up after inviting a whole group of
people to show up at 11 am for a surprise birthday party for Nina. They
need to finish packing and leave for the airport by 1 pm. Where could
Charlie be?
Nina contacts the police as she is sure something has happened to
Charlie, but they insist that she probably just ran away or is doing
something with friends. Teenagers are notoriously unreliable. Nina knows
this can't be true so she starts a one-woman task force to question all
of Charlie's friends, track down her movements, and look for any clues
to her disappearance.
Pros include that the plot is very fast-paced, as the novel takes place in just one day, from start to finish, and will hold your attention.
The action and the clues zoom along and you can chose to enjoy the
ride, following the action and developments in the narrative. Cons are
firmly all in the "you must suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the
plot" category. Additionally, as Nina's character is developed, she actually becomes less likeable.
Nina is depicted as a super-character who knows and can do it all,
making everyone else, especially the police, look inept. Well, all the
other characters are rather inept.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Penguin
Random House: 3/5/19
eBook; 368 pages
hardcover ISBN-13:
9781524798628
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a
very highly recommended account of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll via
the history and breakup of a legendary fictional 70's rock band. This one is a winner.
Daisy Jones, the daughter of a famous artist and a French model,
grew up in LA in the late 1960's. At fourteen she started hanging
out at the famous clubs on the Sunset Strip and drinking and doing
drugs followed. Her friend, disco singer Simone, is the only one
trying to look out for her. Daisy is a free spirited "it" girl
who is first noticed for her looks, but soon has her voice
capturing the attention of those with influence and she is signed
with Runner Records.
Billy Dunne and his brother Graham started the band that
eventually grew and took off to become The Six. Billy is the song
writer and charismatic front man for the band and has artistic
control over the group. On their first tour, Billy went wild and
nearly ruined his marriage to Camila, who was pregnant with their
first child. After the tour he went to rehab and his overwhelming
goal beyond making it big with The Six, is to stay sober and
faithful to Camila and their family.
After they have one hit where Daisy sings with Billy on one of
his songs, Runner Records decides that Billy and Daisy need to
work together. While they are both dynamic on their own, when they
sing together they are extraordinary, electric, and transcendent.
Billy doesn't want Daisy as part of his band, but
they end up working together writing the songs on the album that
produced some of the biggest hits in the seventies. No one knew
the story behind the band and the split that ended it all - until
now.
Daisy Jones & The Six is written like a documentary
novel, an oral history, with quotes from the band members, Billy,
Daisy, Camila, and
Simone. All the characters are written with unique voices in their
comments so you can tell who is talking even if you didn't note their
name. While reading you can't help but envision the video in your mind,
flipping between comments from the different people involved in Daisy
Jones & The Six. This is part of what makes the book so amazing. You
will easily believe this was a real band and real members are being
interviewed. You will be surprised once you learn who is conducting the
interviews and asking the questions.
The plot unfolds through the oral history interviews, starting with
their beginnings up to their rise to fame. Reid definitely sets her
story in the time and place of the late sixties to the late seventies.
The clashes, struggles, and power of Billy and Daisy working together,
writing the music, is captured perfectly. This really is a riveting and
unforgettable novel; my attention was captured right at the start and
held fast to the end. Remarkably, at the end of the book Reid has
written all the lyrics for the songs. Need I mention that the writing is
amazing? Well, it is an incredibly well-written book and captured my
attention from beginning to end. I simple could not read it fast enough
as I was desperate to learn what happened next.
(When I first read the synopsis for Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & The Six, I
immediately tried to get a review copy as I knew it would be a novel I
would love. I never did get the advanced reading copy, but I was right
to try as this is an amazing novel. Now I need to find time to read
Reid's The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.)
Little Boy Lost by J. P. Carter
Avon;
1/23/20
eBook review copy; 400 pages
ISBN-13: 9780008313340
DCI Anna Tate #3
Little Boy Lost by J. P. Carter is a very highly recommended police procedural/thriller and the third in the DCI Anna Tate series.
All hell is breaking loose in London. After an accidental police
shooting during an arrest, riots break out across London - arson,
looting, violence, and chaos is rampant. Anna Tate is supposed to be on
two months leave after recently being reunited with her abducted
daughter, Chloe, but she is called back into to work a case. In the
basement of an abandoned pub that is set on fire by the rioters, the
body of a child is found. He is identified as
ten year old Jacob Rossi and is part of a kidnapping investigation
after he went missing on his way home from school. His father is a
well-known celebrity, Mark Rossi. The arsonists likely didn't know Jacob
was being held in the basement and their actions killed him. Anna just
has a limited team to help her find out who kidnapped Jacob and for what purposes.
So Anna can work the case, she asks her
boyfriend, Tom, to go to her house and look after Chloe, especially as
night approaches and all the violence spreading across the city will
escalate. Unknown to Anna, violence strikes her neighborhood right when
Tom arrives to take Chloe to his place. Tom is attacked and Chloe is
suddenly left on her own, trying to find some safe place amidst the
rampant violence and roaming gangs. While Anna is working the case,
Chloe is threatened at every turn, and the violence is spreading.
Little Boy Lost is
an un-put-downable thriller. I was engrossed in both narrative threads -
Anna working the case and Chloe's flight for safety. We are viewing the
rioting from two different viewpoints and it makes it even more
heart-stopping that Anna does not know Chloe is in danger and Chloe has
no way to contact her. I kept reading this one long into the night. For
those who haven't read the previous two DCI Anna Tate books, Little Boy Lost works
as a standalone novel. All the backstory is told and you will quickly
be up to speed. This is my first J.P. Carter book and based on it, I
will pick up another. The characters are all well-developed.
The writing is fantastic. I liked following the narrative as it alternated
between Chloe's desperate danger-filled plight and Anna's steady and
careful investigation being hampered by the same riots. The
juxtaposition of the action with the investigation in the plot keeps the
suspense building in both parts of the narrative. They are equally
compelling story-lines but also very different. On the one hand there is
a police procedural and clues to follow. On the other hand is a
twelve-year-old girl running for her life caught up in a night full of
violence.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins
The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
Park
Row Books: 2/18/20
eBook review copy; 368 pages
ISBN-13: 9780778369110
The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica is a highly recommended twisty psychological thriller.
Sadie and Will Foust and their
two boys, 14-year-old Otto and seven-year-old Tate, moved from
Chicago to a small town on an island in Maine. Will inherited the house from his sister after her death by suicide and
is now the guardian of his disturbed teenage niece, Imogen. Sadie is
trying to view the move as a new start after Will's affair and a
troubling incident Otto had at school in Chicago. Sadie was an emergency
room doctor in Chicago, but now she will work at the clinic on the
island; Will, a human ecology professor, accepted a teaching position on the mainland.
Their lives should be on track to get better, but Imogen's behavior
is becoming increasingly threatening and the old house is creepy. When
their neighbor, Morgan
Baines, is found dead in her home, the murder rocks their tiny
coastal island. Sadie believes Will might have started an affair
with the neighbor and is even more shocked to find that she is a
suspect, so she begins looking into the murder herself. What she begins
to uncover just increases the underlying tension.
The narrative is told through several different points-of-view. Sadie
is the main voice. Camille is a former roommate of Sadie who had an
affair with Will and is stalking them. Mouse is a six-year-old girl who
is just trying to survive life with a cruel stepmother. It is apparent
that all is not as it seems for all three points-of-view, but what is
actually the truth is elusive. The setting weighs in creating a heavy
atmospheric tension and a sense of isolation.
Kubica has created one tension-filled-throat-grabbing psychological
thriller here. It appears everyone is guilty of something and the list
of suspects is numerous because no one seems to be completely
trustworthy. I enjoyed this thriller from start to finish and it held my
attention throughout. The suspense and tension just keeps rising along
with questions about what is really the truth. I will admit I was a
little disappointed with the ultimate denouement, but the journey there
was entertaining. 4.5 stars rounded down.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Park
Row Books.
Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield
Penguin
Random House: 1/21/20
eBook review copy; 464 pages
ISBN-13: 9780593101834
Wife After Wife by Olivia Hayfield is a recommended modern retelling of the life of Henry VIII.
Hayfield spins the story of Henry VIII into the tale of a present day
womanizing media mogul. Harry Rose is head of the Rose Corporation and
our stand-in for Henry VIII. The narrative opens in 2018 and then goes
back to 1985 and progresses forward in time covering every affair and
dalliance Harry was involved in. For those familiar with the story of
Henry VIII, Hayfield includes a list of the cast of fictional characters
and the person whom their character is based on. The list is at the
opening and continues at the end of the novel. For those of you who
already have a vague idea about history or don't care, you can read the
novel without knowing what character correlates to what real person.
The story is told through Harry's point-of-view and then the various
women in his life. Hayfield deftly handles the historical aspects,
covering how Harry acquires his wives and later eliminates the unwanted,
and wraps it around a compelling story. As is expected, Harry is
unlikable, a misogynist, and a self-centered
cad. You can talk about how good looking or charismatic he is, but it
seems that today women should be a little more aware - this includes in
1985. Of course money is an allure.
A plus to the story is all the pop culture touch points and popular
songs of the day that Hayfield includes throughout the story. This made
the story interesting and placed in firmly in the time periods in which
she set the plot. It is an interesting update to the story and Hayfield
does a good job creating her characters and writing the dialogue. I will admit to getting a little tired of the tale; it was the totality of Harry's bad behavior and womanizing.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of Penguin
Random House.
Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom
Thinker Books: 1/18/19
eBook review copy; 276 pages
ISBN-13:
978-1794205550
Athena's Choice by Adam Boostrom is a recommended dystopian mystery set in a world where all the men have died from a virus.
It is 2099 and all the men in the world, as well as some women, died
fifty years ago from an experimental virus that was released in the
world. Teenager Athena Vosh currently lives with her best
friend/girlfriend, Nomi James. Her Citizen’s Benefit stipend gives her
an income while she paints in hopes of getting her work into a gallery
someday. She is shocked when
Public Safety calls her in for questioning after she is named as someone
involved with the theft of the "Lazarus Genome" from the mainframe at
the Helix Company. This is the project to bring men back to the world.
Athena is not involved, but she is invited to participate in the
investigation run by Captain Valerie Bell of Public Safety after the
Third Core requests this. Athena has been having vivid dreams that may
hold the answer to the theft and to bringing men back to the world.
Although not classified as a Young Adult novel, Athena's Choice
reads like one. I did like all the additions of essays from her
childhood, news
articles, ads, messages, etc., as they brought subtle clues into the
narrative. The mystery is, however, basically uncomplicated and the
writing is simple and straightforward. This and the simplistic world
building make Athena's Choice read like a YA novel. If you appreciate a complicated and insightful dystopian this may not be your first choice. There are a few other interesting ideas of future advancements (with a
focus on 3-D printing of everything) inserted into the plot, but most of
the other areas are just causally mentioned, if that. I was left with
some questions, like why are girls still sent off to schools and why was
Dallas still around?
Athena is a teenager and seems like a young nineteen. The characters
are all caricatures of a type - there
really isn't a great deal of in-depth character development. The
concept of the Third Core is fascinating, but has it roots going way
back in other science fiction. It must be said that even though this is a
novel with all female characters, this is
definitely a novel written by a man. There was more than one time I had
an eye-rolling moment, especially when Athena fantasizes about men. It
is very difficult for a man or woman to accurately portray the opposite
sex in any novel.
None of my qualms are particularly bad; Athena's Choice is an
entertaining novel with an interesting premise. If it were classified as
a YA dystopian I would highly recommend it for that audience.
Disclosure:
My review copy was courtesy of the publisher/author.
