DEATH OF AN EX

4 stars out of 5

I missed the first book in this series, but I certainly enjoyed the heck out of this, the second - an easy one to read as a standalone. That said, I'll be watching for the installment for sure.

The main character, Evander (Vandy) Myrick, is a cop turned private investigator who's come home to ply her trade in Queenstown, New Jersey - the only Black P.I. in the community. Years ago, she was married for a brief time to Phil Bolden, with whom she had a daughter Monica, who died close to three years ago in a fraternity house as a student at nearby Rutgers University. After their marriage broke up, Phil remarried and has become a prominent Queenstown resident, businessman and philanthropist; he and his wife have a son, Tyriq, a star athlete with an artistic bent and a chip on his shoulder.

Vandy is befriending Ingrid Ramirez, a student at the town's prestigious Rome School. It's the school of choice for the town's wealthier folks, with scholarships available to the less financially fortunate (read: Blacks). Accompanying Ingrid to an awards dinner where the girl will get an award that's a first for a Black student, Vandy learns that Tyriq and Ingrid have a "thing" - and that Vandy's ex, Phil, is getting some kind of award. But when Phil gets up to give his presentation, what he says seems to be not only unexpected, but not, shall we say, well received.

Later, Phil - who is married to another school employee and private college guidance counselor, Melinda - later reconnects with Vandy, who starts having second thoughts about why they divorced. The next morning, Vandy gets the surprise of her life as the police knock on her door.

From that point on, I can't divulge much without spoiling the thrill for other readers (tempting though it may be). Suffice it to say that Vandy becomes part of an investigation that for me conjured up memories of a certain "Full House" star, bribery and money laundering. The whole thing ends with a bang as well as my vow, as I mentioned at the beginning, to not miss another of the books in this series. Meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for introducing me to it by way of a pre-release copy of this book. 

Death of an Ex by Delia Pitts (Minotaur Books, June 2025); 306 pp.

PARENTS WEEKEND

4 stars out of 5

The author is a favorite of mine, so I was eager to get this one started. Now that I'm done, I'm a pretty happy camper. The only thing that gave me a little trouble is that the cast of characters is pretty large, so it was hard to keep track of who's who. But by the mid-point I'd pretty much gotten with the program, so from that point on, it was just sit back and try to figure out how it would end.

It begins with what I'd guess is a bugger for most of us who went to college right after high school - the annual Parents' Weekend (or whatever the event was called at your school). It was punctuated by a dinner at which parents and their "kids" could eat and drink well and chat - or at least that's what was expected to happen. This time, it didn't; five of the kids, in fact, were no-shows. That, of course, had parents' emotions running from anger to worry; did they skip out just to be ornery, did they all forget (not likely) or did something more sinister happen to them?

Chapters shift among the five students: Blaine, who was abducted as a child and whose mother is a hot-shot in the State Department; Stella, whose father is a doctor and her mother not a happy person; Libby, whose father is a Superior Court judge in Arkansas who made controversial headlines for a recent trial decision; Mark, who has a checkered past and is Blaine's good friend; Felix, a single mother who works at the college;  Overshadowing the whole affair is the supposedly accidental death of Natasha Belov, another student and a friend of Stella. Also in the mix is Sarah Keller, an FBI agent readers may be familiar with by way of other of the author's books including The Night Shift.

Of course, suspicion lingers that Natasha's death in a sea cave wasn't an accident, but there's no proof. And efforts to find out where the missing kids went use up many pages, highlighted by Agent Keller's stellar investigative skills. I wish I could say I guessed the ending, but that didn't happen. All in all, though, reading it was an enjoyable experience as expected. Many thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review an advance copy.

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay (Minotaur Books, May 2025); 320 pp.

THEY NEVER LEARN

5 stars out of 5

Oh my goodness - this one will be close to the top of

my five favorite books for this year. Put another way, wow! Not that I'm all that surprised, mind you; the author's 2019 book, Temper, was a 5-star hit with me as well. This one, IMHO, is even better; I'd give it 6 stars if it were possible.

The story involves two primary characters: Dr. Scarlett Clark, an English professor at Gorman University, and Carly Schiller, a freshman at the same school. They are similar in one respect - Scarlett literally has been getting away with murder for years while Carly, the daughter of a mentally abusive father, is considering it as an option when she seeks revenge on her roommate's attacker.

Chapters flip back and forth between the two, highlighting what's going on in their lives (and trust me, it's plenty). Scarlett is intent on winning a hotly contested fellowship in London as she lines up her next victim; Carly is tentatively trying to make friends with her troubled roomie Allison, whose temperament shifts from hot to cold in just about every imaginable way. When Allison is assaulted at a party, Carly takes it personally and vows to get even.

But then, Scarlett makes rather a mess with her newest victim - mistakes that could lead investigators right to her doorstep. Compounding the issue is that a colleague, Dr. Mina Pierce, has compiled a list of past campus-related deaths (most of which were deemed accidents or suicides) and is enlisting help from colleagues with her personal investigation. Scarlett is worried and does her best to make friends with Mina, if for no other reason but to keep tabs on the woman's findings.

Everything else is a whirlwind of action, with a major (and totally surprising) reveal somewhere around the mid-point and an almost equally surprising ending. The whole thing felt like a roller-coaster ride, right down to disappointment when it came to an all-too-soon end. In short, this one falls into the don't-miss department - and I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me the thrill of reading a pre-release copy. 

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo (Gallery/Scout Press, October 2020); 352 pp.

THE VICTIMS' CLUB

4 stars out of 5

Anyone who knows my reading habits knows I'm not a fan of the "glorified short story" format - such as prolific author James Patterson's "Bookshots" and Kindle Singles like this one. But in large part because I get so many freebies to read - most of them advance review copies through NetGalley - I also tend to feel a bit guilty for buying so few books through Amazon (I swear, at one time I bought enough for CEO Jeff Bezos to buy a well-tricked-out BMW). And since I AM a huge Jeffery Deaver fan, when I saw this one for $1.99, the guilt kicked in and I caved.

And it was perfectly good (but then I've read just about everything Deaver has written, and the worst anything ever got was good). It's set in New England's Monroe County, perhaps best known for the ritzy Preston College. Local sheriff's deputy and detective Jon Avery has been assigned a case formerly in the hands of a colleague who took an unexpected leave. A female college researcher, it seems, has been humiliated by Internet publication of half-naked photos via a burner phone - photos taken at a campus party after she was drugged, half-undressed and splayed out in totally nonprofessorial fashion.

The motive, though, is virtually nonexistent; the lack thereof, plus the use of a burner phone, make the case difficult to solve. Then too, Avery quickly runs afoul of the college powers-that-be, who are less than enthusiastic about the possibility of a scandal that could tarnish the school's hallowed halls, ivory towers and (gasp!) highly successful athletic programs.

The ending, which obviously comes rather quickly, answers a few questions including the reason behind the title. But even with a partial conclusion (perhaps this is the launching pad for a new series???), the whole thing makes for an engrossing story. Is it worth $1.99? Well, I polished it off in about 42 minutes. At 4424 KB, that's roughly...oh fuhgettaboutit. Avery complains about the difficulty he has helping his young son with math homework, and trust me, my skills in that department are way worse. You'll have to decide for yourself.

The Victims' Club (Kindle Single) by Jeffery Deaver (Amazon Original Stories, March 2018); 4424 KB.