Night Candy

Night Candy by Max Tomlinson
7/25/23; 336 pages
Oceanview Publishing
Colleen Hayes Series #5

Night Candy by Max Tomlinson is a highly recommended mystery and the fifth novel in the Colleen Hayes series.

Ex-con and current private investigator Colleen Hayes moved to the San Francisco area to reconnect with her daughter Pam. Now it's 1979 and Pam has left the area after losing her baby. Colleen is heartbroken, but keeping it to herself and working on her cases as a PI. She is very concerned about the serial killer known as Night Candy who is still on the prowl and those who are most vulnerable to be targeted by him.

At the same time another case more personal to Colleen. SFPD Inspector Edmund Owens has been arrested for the murder of his ex-wife. Colleen knows he is innocent and sets out to prove this. She is up against the investigator assigned to his case who is openly hostile to Owens as well as Colleen. The danger and tension increases as Colleen exposes information and clues in two different complicated cases leading up to an intricate and very satisfying conclusion.

Night Candy is a fast paced, intelligent and sophisticated investigative mystery. It is enjoyable to follow the investigation and try to piece together the clues as Colleen works the cases. Colleen is a wonderfully complicated and intelligent character. Sure, she has issues and imperfections, but most readers are going to like her and will closely follow her investigations, wanting her to succeed.

Set in the seventies, Tomlinson brings it all back (for the best and the worst) from clothes to cars. There were a few phrases/words used by characters that wouldn't have been said in the seventies, but, to be honest, most readers won't notice this at all. It also portrays a San Francisco from decades ago and not today.

Although this can be read as a standalone, it does feel like I'm missing some vital information and backstory about the characters and wish I had at least read the previous novel first. The series includes Vanishing in the Haight, Tie Die, Bad Scene, Line of Darkness, and Night Candy.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Oceanview Publishing via NetGalley.

Prom Mom

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman
7/25/23; 320 pages
HarperCollins

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman is a highly recommended domestic psychological suspense novel.

Amber Glass was known as "Prom Mom," the girl who gave birth and allegedly killed her baby while her date Joe Simpson or "Cad Dad," chased after an ex-girlfriend. Even though Amber escaped from her past in Baltimore, which made the tabloids, she chose to return and stay after her stepfather passed away. She's opening an art gallery and plans to stay out of Joe's way, maybe.

Joe is still in town, a successful commercial real estate developer, and married to a plastic surgeon, Meredith, his soul mate but that doesn't stop him from having affairs. His current lover is a young realtor, Jordan Altman, but he pursues a relationship with Amber. When the pandemic and lockdown occur, it threatens Joe's way of life as well as his financial bottom line.

The writing and character development is phenomenal, as expected. Readers won't necessarily like any of the characters, but you will immediately know who they are and how they fit into the plot and the time period. The plot will pull you right into the story and hold your attention throughout. Prom Mom is a slow-moving novel but is worth the time to reach the end. There is a twist at the end that I didn't anticipate and appreciated quite a bit.

Parts of this narrative were very engrossing and parts made me roll my eyes. Any pandemic or lockdown plot element is an immediate negative for me. It sets the novel in a specific time period and immediately dates it. This one wasn't too pompous retelling those events, but enough to turn me off. 

And if you have to write about the pandemic, give us some realistic action featuring the people who were working everyday with no time off at home to provide you care or toilet paper and frozen food. Call all of us essential but admit, at the time, we were expendable.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins via Edelweiss.

Her Father's Daughter

Her Father's Daughter by T. M. Dunn
7/18/23; 272 pages
Crooked Lane Books

Her Father's Daughter by T. M. Dunn is a recommended domestic horror story following a serial killer.

Anthony is devoted to his daughter, Linda. Now twenty-five, Linda is working for her father Donovan and Daughter Exterminators in New York City. While her father visits her mother's grave, Linda continues on to an apartment building do her job. In an apartment she finds the body of an elderly woman who was clearly murdered and sees that rats have been at the body. This looks bad for their exterminating services.

Alternating chapters are personal written accounts by Anthony, detailing horrific abuse from his father and his subsequent life as an actor/serial killer.

In this case presenting the narrative through the alternating voices of Linda and Anthony didn't totally work for me. Readers will know right from the start that Anthony is a killer with major issues, which reduces the amount of suspense and tension. Anthony's written accounts of his actions are oddly paced and worded, which can be just as off-putting as his actions. They do provide a deep look into his insanity. Linda's narrative is more interesting, but uneven. This was more horror than thriller or mystery.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.

The Rain

The Rain by Joseph A. Turkot
7/18/23; 354 pages
Blackstone Publishing
Rain Trilogy #1

The Rain by Joseph A. Turkot is a highly recommended survival novel set in a postapocalyptic America.

Civilization has collapsed. After almost twenty years of rain, almost all of North America is underwater. Any survivors have boats and/or made it to land on higher elevations while avoiding the face eaters, people addicted to "Red" a drug that makes them murderous and cannibalistic.

There are two story lines that are told through alternating chapters. In the first, Tanner, seventeen, and her adoptive caretaker, Russell, have long been searching by boat for Leadville, Colorado, which is rumored to be "the highest-elevation city in America, the last place where it’s not raining." In the alternate chapters, the plot follows Rook Wallace. Rook is a meteorologist who joined a a pharmaceutical company called Yasper. His job there is to help the company maintain a trade route between groups of survivors. He kept up contact with his parents until he stopped receiving their letters.

This is a bleak end-of-the-world climate science fiction novel with Yasper, a pharmaceutical company, an equal antagonist in the overall plot. The two different narratives remain separate until the very end when a connection is made that most readers will have deduced much earlier, but the journey of these characters is the point.

Character development is most certainly present, but, as with any mythological tale, the more important element is the struggle and encounters on the journeys of the heroes. It is obvious at the open ended conclusion of The Rain, that there has to be second novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley.

The Bitter Past

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos
7/18/23; 320 pages
Minotaur Books
Porter Beck #1

The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos is a very highly recommended mystery and the debut novel in the Porter Beck series. This is an excellent start to a new series and I will eagerly be awaiting the next investigation from Nevada's Sheriff Beck.

Sheriff Porter Beck's domain is in the high desert north of Las Vegas, Nevada. He left and worked in Army intelligence for years, but now Beck's back, doing the same job his father did before he developed dementia. Normally this is a quiet part of the state until an old, retired FBI agent is murdered after being brutally tortured. When FBI Special Agent Sana Locke show up to assist in the investigation, it confirms many of Beck's suspicions. The clues point to something that happened in the past, in the 1950's during the early days of the atomic testing program happening in the desert and the KGB's plans to infiltrate the program.

The chapters alternate between two timelines and narratives. The present investigation unfolds through Beck's first person account while events starting in 1955 are recounted in the third person. In 1955 the story of Freddie Meyer and Kitty Ellison is told. After they begin dating, Kitty's father helps Freddie get a job in security at the atomic testing site in the desert. The current murder investigation must look to the past for the information needed to solve it.

Beck is a great character, intelligent, clever, perceptive, and well-developed as a character. He, along with the astute writing, is a reason to absolutely look forward to the next book released in the series. The high desert of Nevada is also realistically portrayed.

The writing is exceptional and absolutely exceeded all my expectations. The novel is told in an intelligent manner and both of the two narrative threads are gripping, compelling, and complex. They held my complete attention equally and even though I wanted to continue the story in whatever timeline I was in, I correspondingly wanted to continue following the action in the alternate chapter. The Bitter Past is un-put-down-able.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Minotaur Books via NetGalley.

The Block Party

The Block Party by Jamie Day
7/18/23; 384 pages
St. Martin's Press

The Block Party by Jamie Day is a highly recommended domestic drama with murder, secrets and scandals emerging on every page.

In Meadowbrook, Massachusetts, Alton Road is known for it's exclusiveness and the annual Summer block party the wealthy residents hold every year. This year, however, something more serious than the egg toss competition occurs. Murder. Then a jump back in time introduces us to the residents and the secrets and scandals that lead up to the present.

The novel starts at the current block party and then jumps back a year in time to introduce all the residents. Readers follow these characters through a rich plethora of action, lies, secrets, and all the potential motives for murder leading up to the current party. Everyone could be a potential  victim or suspect.

The narrative is told through the alternating point of view of Alex, party organized and divorce mediator, and Lettie, her teenage daughter. They introduce you to the large cast of characters that are all distinctive and unique enough to easily keep track of who is who. And this cast of characters displays all manner of dysfunctional behavior and relationships, subterfuge, and secrets. As the action unfolds, interspersed between the chapters are excerpts from comments and speculation made on the Meadowbrook Online Community Page.

The Block Party is well-written and a great choice for an entertaining summer read that will hold your attention to the end. 

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of St. Martin's via NetGalley.

I Know What You Did

I Know What You Did by Cayce Osborne
7/18/23; 272 pages
Crooked Lane Books

I Know What You Did by Cayce Osborne is a highly recommended mystery novel that follows secrets from one woman's past.

Petal (Petta) Woznewski lives a quiet, introverted life in New York City where she self medicates too much and sees Gus Johnson, her friend with intermittent benefits, when she chooses to do so. She is shaken to the core when her name is used in an anonymously written thriller and the dedication page says: "I know what you did, Petal Woznewski. And now everyone else will, too." The novel seems to be based on events from thirty years ago when she was fourteen and living in Madison, Wisconsin.

At that time her parents had recently died and she was living with her aunt. She made two friends, Megan and Jenny. Megan died and Jenny and Petal kept the real story of that tragic night a secret, that is until the novel is published. The thing is, some details in the novel are correct but others aren't at all. The book is becoming a best seller, movie rights are sold, and Petta needs to return to Madison in order to find out who wrote it and why she is being named and targeted in the supposedly fictional novel.

Petta is an interesting character. She's not entirely likeable, but it is clearly her choice to keep her distance from everything and everyone. She can be cynical, funny, pessimistic, and introverted. Her character does experience growth and she is quite likeable despite her best efforts by the end of the novel.

I Know What You Did is a well-written, even paced debut novel. The narrative follows Petta's current actions and thoughts with excerpts from the questionable novel providing details about the past. The excerpts of a novel within a novel works well in this novel without feeling distracting. Clues are there as to who is the anonymous writer of the incriminating novel, so some readers are going to figure it out before Petta, but the journey is worth the ending.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley.