BOOK INFO

Title: The Burning Girls

Author: C.J. Tudor

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Publish Date: February 9, 2021

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

An unconventional vicar must exorcise the dark past of a remote village haunted by death and disappearances in this explosive and unsettling thriller from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.

A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were betrayed—then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church.

Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”

The more Jack and daughter, Flo, explore the town and get to know its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into the age-old rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo begins to see specters of girls ablaze, it becomes apparent there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.

Uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village with a bloody past, where everyone has something to hide and no one trusts an outsider.

MY REVIEW

Mystery, horror, and historical fiction combine in The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor.

I enjoyed Tudor’s previous books, The Chalk Man, The Hiding Place, and The Other People, so I was excited to read this one. Admittedly, I had certain expectations going into this novel. Fortunately, I enjoyed this one as much as her earlier novels.

A complex story with interesting characters. Sure to be enjoyed by fans of Tudor’s other books. Dark, eerie, and compelling.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by C.J. Tudor:

1. The Chalk Man
2. The Hiding Place
3. The Other People
4. The Burning Girls
5. The Drift
6. The Gathering

BOOK INFO

Title: Don’t Look for Me

Author: Wendy Walker

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publish Date: September 15, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

They said she walked away. But what really happened to Molly Clarke?
From the bestselling author of All Is Not Forgotten comes a compelling and emotionally powerful story of a daughter’s desperate search to find her mother before it’s too late.

They called it a “walk away.” The car abandoned miles from home. The note found at a nearby hotel. The shattered family. It happens all the time. Women disappear, desperate to start over. But what really happened to Molly Clarke?

The night Molly disappeared began with a storm, running out of gas, and a man offering her a ride to safety. But when the doors lock shut, Molly begins to suspect she has made a terrible mistake.

A new lead brings Molly’s daughter, Nicole, back to the small, desolate town where her mother was last seen to renew the desperate search. The locals are sympathetic and eager to help. The innkeeper. The bartender. Even the police. Until secrets begin to reveal themselves and Nicole comes closer to the truth about that night—and the danger surrounding her.

MY REVIEW

Molly Clarke has disappeared. The police say she walked away from her family and life, but her daughter, Nicole (Nic), doesn’t believe that. Nic travels to the town where her mother was last seen, and searches for answers.

Told with the alternating points of view of Molly and Nic. Molly is struggling with things from her past and present. She is feeling unloved by her family, but they don’t believe she would walk away from them. Nic has her own struggles, and believes something has happened to her mother. A new lead sounds promising, and Nic goes in search of her mother. The characters are intriguing and the story is suspenseful.

Don’t Look for Me is a tense thriller that captured my attention right away. Captivating, creepy, and twisted.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by S.E. Lynes:

1. Four Wives
2. Social Lives
3. All Is Not Forgotten
4. Emma in the Night
5. The Night Before
6. Don’t Look for Me

BOOK INFO

Title: The Night Swim

Author: Megan Goldin

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Publish Date: August 4, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: Rachel Krall #1

My Rating: 5/5

BOOK BLURB

Ever since her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.

The new season of Rachel’s podcast has brought her to a small town being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. A local golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season 3 a success, Rachel throws herself into her investigation—but the mysterious letters keep coming. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insist she was murdered—and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody in town wants to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases—and a revelation that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.

Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?

MY REVIEW

Rachel has a successful true crime podcast. She has helped set an innocent man free, and now needs to keep her listeners interested. She takes on reporting about an active trial. It’s a controversial rape trial that has a small town divided and national attention on them. While in town to report on the trial, someone contacts Rachel about a previous crime from 25 years earlier. Rachel does her podcast about the current trial, but the past crime has her intrigued.

Rachel is a fantastic protagonist. She’s smart, driven, and determined. Both the present and past mysteries are intriguing, and told in a captivating way. The current trial is a controversial one, but Rachel does a decent job of presenting both sides. As for the older crime, it seems no one in town wants to talk about the girl involved, which makes it even more interesting to Rachel. She continues to work on both cases, and learns details that shed light on both the past and present.

An intense thriller that kept me turning the pages. A great novel for fans of mysteries featuring podcasts and courtroom dramas. Complex, mysterious, and gripping.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books by Megan Goldin:

1. The Girl in Kellers Way
2. The Escape Room
3. The Night Swim
4. Stay Awake
5. Dark Corners

BOOK INFO

Title: Blacktop Wasteland

Author: S.A. Cosby

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Publish Date: July 14, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

A husband, a father, a son, a business owner…And the best getaway driver east of the Mississippi.

Beauregard “Bug” Montage is an honest mechanic, a loving husband, and a hard-working dad. Bug knows there’s no future in the man he used to be: known from the hills of North Carolina to the beaches of Florida as the best wheelman on the East Coast.

He thought he’d left all that behind him, but as his carefully built new life begins to crumble, he finds himself drawn inexorably back into a world of blood and bullets. When a smooth-talking former associate comes calling with a can’t-miss jewelry store heist, Bug feels he has no choice but to get back in the driver’s seat. And Bug is at his best where the scent of gasoline mixes with the smell of fear.

Haunted by the ghost of who he used to be and the father who disappeared when he needed him most, Bug must find a way to navigate this blacktop wasteland…or die trying.

Like Ocean’s Eleven meets Drive, with a Southern noir twist, S. A. Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland is a searing, operatic story of a man pushed to his limits by poverty, race, and his own former life of crime.

MY REVIEW

Beauregard, aka Bug, is a former criminal who has gone straight. He owns an auto body shop, but business is down. He’s worried about how he will provide for his wife and kids, keep his business open, and pay for his mother’s nursing home care. He needs money… and he is the best wheelman around. When a former associate tracks him down, he decides to take one last job.

Bug is a complex character. He is haunted by memories of his father, who was also a wheelman, and left when Bug was a boy. Bug doesn’t know if his father is dead or alive, but he knows he wants to be the man that his father never was. He wants to be a good husband and father, and provide well for his family. Bug has tried to leave the old days as a wheelman behind him, but he is drawn back when he sees no other way to get the money he needs for his family.

While Blacktop Wasteland has wonderful character development, it also has plenty of action and suspense to keep the reader wanting more. Of course, Bug’s “one last job” isn’t as simple as that, and he is pulled in so deep that it puts his family in harms way.

A novel about one man’s struggles with family, poverty, and crime. Recommended for fans of literary fiction and crime fiction. Gritty, compelling, and authentic.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by S.A. Cosby:

1. Blacktop Wasteland
2. Razorblade Tears

BOOK INFO

Title: The Request

Author: David Bell

Publisher: Berkley

Publish Date: June 30, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

Ryan Francis has it all—great job, wonderful wife, beautiful child—and he loves posting photos of his perfect life on social media. Until the night his friend Blake asks him to break into a woman’s home to retrieve incriminating items that implicate Blake in an affair. Ryan refuses to help, but when Blake threatens to reveal Ryan’s darkest secret—which could jeopardize everything in Ryan’s life—Ryan has no choice but to honor Blake’s request.

When he arrives at the woman’s home, Ryan is shocked to find her dead—and just as shocked to realize he knows her. Then his phone chimes, revealing a Facebook friend request from the woman. With police sirens rapidly approaching, Ryan flees, wondering why his friend was setting him up for murder.

Determined to keep his life intact and to clear his name, Ryan must find the real murderer—but solving the crime may lead him closer to home than he ever could have imagined.

MY REVIEW

Ryan seems to have the perfect life, but he has a dark secret. To keep his secret, he ends up breaking into a woman’s house. An old friend needs some items retrieved from the woman’s home, but Ryan discovers a dead woman instead of the items his friend needed. Ryan isn’t sure why his old friend would set him up for murder, but Ryan is determined to keep him and his family safe.

A complex mystery involving a man that wants to maintain the image of his perfect life. Ryan has made bad decisions in his past, and he continues to make questionable decisions throughout the novel. He isn’t the only one making mistakes though, and it makes for a fast-paced and entertaining thriller.

A fun mystery thriller. Fans of David Bell’s other novels will surely enjoy his latest book. Exciting and twisty.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Books by David Bell:

1. Cemetery Girl
2. The Hiding Place
3. Never Come Back
4. The Forgotten Girl
5. Somebody I Used to Know
6. Since She Went Away
7. Bring Her Home
8. Somebody’s Daughter
9. Layover
10. The Request
11. Kill All Your Darlings
12. The Finalists
13. She’s Gone
14. Try Not to Breathe

BOOK INFO

Title: Pretty as a Picture

Author: Elizabeth Little

Publisher: Viking

Publish Date: February 25, 2020

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Series: na

My Rating: 4/5

BOOK BLURB

An egomaniacal movie director, an isolated island, and a decades-old murder–the addictive new novel from the bestselling author of Dear Daughter

Marissa Dahl, a shy but successful film editor, travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work with the legendary–and legendarily demanding–director Tony Rees on a feature film with a familiar logline.

Some girl dies.

It’s not much to go on, but the specifics don’t concern Marissa. Whatever the script is, her job is the same. She’ll spend her days in the editing room, doing what she does best: turning pictures into stories.

But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it’s supposed to be–or as it seems. There are rumors of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. Half the crew has been fired. The other half wants to quit. Even the actors have figured out something is wrong. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace.

Then she meets the intrepid and incorrigible teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie’s central subject, and before long, Marissa is drawn into the investigation herself.

The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.

A wickedly funny exploration of our cultural addiction to tales of murder and mayhem and a thrilling, behind-the-scenes whodunit, Pretty as a Picture is a captivating page-turner from one of the most distinctive voices in crime fiction.

MY REVIEW

Marissa is a skilled film editor who gets sucked into a real life mystery on her latest job. The job is working with a demanding director on a set in an isolated location. The film is based on the unsolved murder of a girl that happened 20 years prior. When Marissa arrives to work, she soon learns that something is wrong on set, and everyone is on edge.

The unsolved murder had a big impact on the locals. Everyone believes they know who did it, and the director sets out to solve the case in his film. It’s not as clear as everyone would like to believe though. Marissa gets involved with a couple of teens looking to find the real killer, and things get more complicated.

Pretty as a Picture is a slow-burning mystery. I enjoyed Marissa, a socially awkward woman wanting to prove herself in the film industry. The teen podcasters she helps to solve the mystery are entertaining and on point. The isolated setting adds to the intriguing atmosphere. Suspenseful, clever, and witty.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.