LITTLE SISTER

4 stars out of 5

This is the fourth book in what is a new-to-me series, but at no time did I get the feeling that I'd missed out on much except a fleeting wish that I'd been privy to previous interaction among the police coworkers and their significant others. Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens, for instance, is trying to make a go of things with the mother of his infant daughter (mostly out of a sense of responsibility, it appears), but he's also in an emotional turmoil over leaving the more recent love of his life - ah, now there's got to be more to that story!

The current plot, however, took my mind off such concerns just because it's a doozy: As Jonah is in a pub garden with his daughter, a teenage girl pops out of nowhere (well, actually, out of the woods) covered with blood. But it's not hers; the girl, who says her name is Keely, insists that she's fine, but claims her younger sister Nina is missing after they both ran away from a children's home not long ago. 

But when Jonah asks for details - and hopefully Nina's location, since he suspects the blood is hers - Keely refuses to disclose anything except her story, which she will tell only from the beginning. It will, she claims, contain clues that will lead him and his team to Nina as well as three men who, she also claims, are responsible for reprehensible acts against her and her sister that have so far gone unpunished. Problem is, deciphering Keely's intricate, precise verbal presentations (way too much so to be believable coming from a 16-year-old, IMHO) proves challenging; and, if the blood is any indication, time to find Nina alive is running out fast.

Scenes shift from Keely's interrogations to her narrations to investigation reveals from other team members to Jonah's personal life and back again (and again), but each scenario adds more clues as to what's really going on - most of which isn't pretty. There are plenty of twists and turns in each perspective - more than enough to keep readers on their toes and guessing until the end, making for a suspenseful and engaging story. I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy, and I'm now looking forward to the next installment.

Little Sister by Gytha Lodge (Random House, June 2022); 386 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 DILEMMA

4 stars out of 5

Never mind that it gets in the way of all the other things I need to be doing - it's always a treat to find a book you just can't put down. I started this one late in the evening - but even after just a few chapters I was hooked enough to want to keep going. The next day, I raced through it straight to the end (well, okay, I stopped long enough to chow down a slice when the pizza my husband ordered for dinner arrived, but that's only because I didn't want to get grease marks on my Kindle).

Just as the title suggests, the plot involves a dilemma. So, too, does writing a review; there's not much that can be said without giving away secrets that are unveiled as the story moves along. Essentially, it's about married couple Livia and Adam, parents of grown, but still living at home, children Marnie and Josh. They got married years ago when Livia got pregnant and have stayed together despite the fact that her parents disowned her and didn't give her the lavish wedding they'd promised. Since then, Livia has dreamed - make that obsessed - about having a 40th birthday party to compensate for the dream wedding she never got. Adam and Josh are helping make sure no detail (or expense) is spared, while Marnie is sending email and FaceTime encouragement from her education-related stay in Hong Kong.

But of course, nothing is quite as it seems. Livia has learned something awful that she hasn't told Adam about - but plans to do so after her big party. Adam, too, has an awful secret - one that he, too, must share with Livia. He agonizes over when to break the news, knowing that doing it now will spoil what is to be the biggest day of her life. Chapters switch between the perspectives of Adam and Livia, as both learn new more about their "secrets" and then waffle between whether 'tis better to tell or not to tell.

The waffling, I must say, is what nearly lost me. I've got a thing for characters who are on the paranoid side and constantly second-guess themselves and everyone around them (put another way, they drive me bonkers). These two, who fluctuate between selfish and selfless, came close to crossing the line; but to the author's writing credit, their back-and-forths ended up making me read faster instead of my usual throwing in the towel. Same with melodrama - no shortage of it here, but the way it is written more often than not makes it far more riveting than off-putting.

Nothing left to say, then, except thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy. 

The Dilemma by B.A. Paris (St. Martin's Press, June 2020); 352 pp.

SOME DAYS ARE DARK

5 stars out of 5

Well, golleee! This one sucked me in at the start

and didn't let go till the end. What's not to like about a story that begins with a wife who found her husband murdered saying she's glad someone did him in? So what if the wife is somewhat of a sorry example of a human being, and so what if I guessed the whodunit about two-thirds of the way in - none of that mattered a whit. This is a totally engrossing story I really, really didn't want to put down.

Once married to steady-as-a-rock Frank, the restless and unfulfilled Olivia leaves him for adventure-loving Dane, who used to be Frank's employee. She and Frank share custody of their young son, Jake, at least until Dane is murdered and Olivia - who's overly fond of illegal drugs and alcohol, the former provided mostly by her new husband - is believed by most to be his killer. Even when someone else is convicted of Dane's murder, she's cut no slack; her friends abandoned her, her photography business is in shambles and a local cop won't stop harassing her because he's convinced of her guilt. Even Frank, with whom she shares custody of their child, has replaced her with a new, beautiful wife.

Even in her mostly drugged-out state, though, she knows she didn't do it; but she's not convinced the guy who confessed did it, either. As the story evolves, readers get behind-the-scenes looks at Olivia's life before Dane's murder as well as what's happening to her in the present. Toward the end, her current and former life start to merge amid a flurry of exciting twists and surprises. Definitely a winner - many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Some Days are Dark by Miranda Smith (Bookouture, March 2020); 354 p.

THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS

4 stars out of 5


Sometimes, an otherwise intriguing, well-thought-out plot just seems to get lost in the shuffle. That happens here, with a cast of characters too large to keep straight (some of whom go by different names at different times, making for even more confusion). Mix in shifting time frames from past to present, and you've got a recipe for a story that's frankly not as enjoyable as it should have been.

But I can't overlook that great story; despite having to keep notes on who's who and when, I was captivated by it. It begins as Libby, adopted as an infant and now age 25, learns that her birth parents have left her their posh house in Chelsea that's worth millions of pounds. In that she's nearly destitute after getting out of a bad marriage, she wants to see the house, but first she must figure out how she'll pay for the trip with her two young children and a dog. 

We also meet Harry Lamb, who narrates much of the book. He and his sister are the children of the house's owners, Henry and Martina. As youngsters, Harry and his sister lived a life of luxury, attending the poshest of schools, eating only the best foods and enjoying their beautiful, loving parents. Until, that is, a woman named Birdie flies into their lives - and everything goes to you-know-where in a handbasket from that point on. Early on, readers learn that 25 years earlier, Libby was found in her upstairs crib at the Chelsea home, well-fed and happy - while downstairs lay the bodies of Henry, Martina and an unidentified man (thought to be a communal suicide).

What happens at the house from that point on is detailed throughout the "then" chapters; it certainly isn't pretty - and it results in some surprises for the characters (and by extension, readers). It also brought to my mind the question of why neighbors never noticed that anything had gone awry, but then maybe residents of England - especially in such grandiose neighborhoods - prefer to keep to themselves. I'd like to think we'd fare better if someone like Birdie (and in short order, her "friends") invaded our home.

By the end, readers have learned what horrors that house held for way too many years (despite what the title implies, upstairs is only the beginning) as well as what's happened to those who managed to escape and a hint that the future could be even worse. Overall, well done - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-publication copy.

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (Atria Books, November 2019); 349 pp.

SILENT LIES

4 stars out of 5


If you enjoy reading about female characters who are totally consumed by angst, paranoia and self-doubt, do not - repeat, do not miss this book. Not only is there one such character here, but three - and until the end, it's virtually impossible to tell who's telling the truth. It's a story with a past that began five years prior to the present day, when Mia Hamilton has finally come to grips - almost - with her husband Zach's suicide. He died on the same day that Josie, one of his university students, disappeared (he was a professor); the claim was that he and his student were having an affair that somehow went awry. The unfortunate result, it appears, is that he murdered her and took his own life in remorse.

Despite a few misgivings, Mia never believed Zach was a murderer; and now, she's getting by at their London home with help from their young daughter, Freya, her close personal boyfriend Will and Zach's ever-loving parents, who live nearby. She's undergone training as a personal counselor, seeing clients in her home office, and her life after Zach is back on a track toward normalcy. That changes, though, when a young woman named Alison seeks her out and makes an appointment. Clearly, Alison is seriously disturbed, but she makes a claim that chills Mia to the core: She knew both Josie and Zach, and more to the point, she insists Zach did not kill himself. That said, she abruptly runs off, leaving Mia to deal with the fallout and start questioning Zach's death, and just about everything else she's come to believe in, all over again.

But can what Alison says and does be trusted? Just as Mia begins to think she's the real deal, something happens that make her think she's delusional. As Mia tries to separate fact from fiction, what really happened back then is revealed to readers through flashback chapters narrated by Josie, the student supposedly murdered by Zach (I've grown weary of this technique, in all honestly, but the author does it very well). After a number of twists and turns, everything comes together in a surprising end.

That ending was not, however, all that satisfying. I'm not totally sure why, except perhaps that I never really related to any of the three women (hey, that's just me, but I prefer my female characters to be strong and mentally stable, I guess). Still another reason is that I guessed wrong - make that way wrong - so maybe my let-down is just a touch of sour grapes to compensate for being fooled. The bottom line is that this is a well-written, easy-to-read book that I really didn't want to put down. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review.

Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft (Bookouture, October 2017); 321 pp.

GWENDY'S BUTTON BOX

4 stars out of 5

Castle Rock, Maine, is the setting for this easy-to-read novella, an exclusive from Cemetery Dance Publications (more on that later). The story begins as 12-year-old Gwendy Peterson, in an effort to shed a few pounds in preparation for middle school, climbs to the top of Suicide Stairs. She does this often; but this time, the odd little man wearing a black hat she's seen for several days beckons to her. She finds him a bit off-putting (and maybe a little scary), but curiosity wins out.

Sitting together on a bench, the man shows her what he calls a button box, explaining the rather bizarre functions of each button. Then, he drops the real bombshell: The box, he says, is hers to keep. Once again, she's skeptical, but in the end she takes him up on the offer and heads for home, box in hand.

And her life will never be the same again.

So it is that I end my review, claiming that it's impossible to say more about such a short story without revealing too much. What I did find quite interesting, though, is the above-mentioned Cemetery Dance Publications (I've never heard of it before, and Gwendy isn't the only one with a curiosity gene). According to the website (cemeterydance.com), it was founded by co-author Richard Chizmar in 1988. In 1992, book publishing was added, with special focus on horror and dark suspense works (yeah, this novella is a perfect fit). At the site, I even found a just-published book by two of the many affiliated authors that's being offered for $2.99 for a limited time (The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss). Intrigued by the description (and unbeatable price), I headed to Amazon and snapped up the deal.

Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance Publications, May 2017); 180 pp.

THE RED HUNTER

5 stars out of 5

Loving this one crept up on me, but once it got me in its clutches, it didn't let go till the end. I say that because for the first half-dozen chapters or so, I had to go slowly and reread parts because I just couldn't keep the characters and time frames straight. I attribute much of that to the aging process - I've transitioned from a multi-tasking whiz to one who must make a to-do list each day and then forgets where I put it. The chapters here shift back and forth, and on top of that focus on the past and present lives of two women (with plenty of other characters, both relatives and friends, thrown in). So until I got them all straight, it was a bit of a struggle (hence my actual rating of 4.5 stars).

But the book also is a great example of why it's important to keep plodding away. The story was intriguing (and well written) from the beginning, and once I was comfortable with the who's who, I was totally hooked. Had anyone interrupted me during the last quarter of the book, in fact, he or she would have incurred wrath comparable only to what happens when someone tries to make conversation before I've had my morning coffee.

The two women are Claudia Bishop and Zoey Drake, who are total strangers but share dark pasts. Claudia was brutally attacked, after which she became pregnant. For the most part unable to come to grips with what happened, her marriage falls apart, leaving her with daughter Raven, who is torn between wanting, or not, to know the identity of her birth father. As Claudia tries to build an audience for her blog, she inherits a crumbling old house and begins to renovate it in hopes of creating a fresh start for her and Raven.

Zoey, meanwhile, is trying to deal with a tragedy of her own; during a home invasion, she was severely injured and her parents were murdered by men who were looking for something valuable they believed her father, a homicide detective, had hidden. With help from her late father's step-brother, who took over her care, and down-and-dirty martial arts training, she survived the physical injuries. But the psychological trauma never went away, and now, bolstered by her physical prowess, she looks to quell the "red hunter" in her - the rage that's been building up ever since she lost her parents. 

What neither woman knows, however, is that the house Claudia and her daughter Raven now occupy is the same house in which Zoey and her family were living on the fateful night of her parents' murder. Slowly, as secrets of the past are revealed (some surprising to me, others not so much), their lives come together and the tension builds. 

The ending is filled with suspense and action, and all the loose ends are tied (or at least wrapped up so tightly that it's unlikely they'll unravel again anytime soon. This is a suspense novel not to be missed - I thank the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read an advance review copy.

For the record, I read this book sometime in March. When I get advance copies of books, the occasional publisher will ask that all reviews be held till the day of official release. I dutifully comply, jotting the publication date on my calendar. But I'm always afraid somehow I'll miss seeing it - and that's exactly what happened this time (the book was released in mid-April). My apologies!


The Red Hunter by Lisa Unger (Touchstone, April 2017); 368 pp.

THE LIKENESS

5 stars out of 5

A year ago - almost to the day - I finished the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series, In the Woods. I'd given that book a go because one of my good friends kept telling me (make that pestering me) about how good this author is. She was right; by the time I was halfway through that one, I was certain it would earn 5 stars from me, and it did (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/551220964?book_show_action=false). Of course, I planned to read others; but life (and a lengthy to-read list) got in the way. When I finally opened this one, the second in the series featuring Detective Cassie Maddox, it was with great expectations.

Quickly, they fell a bit flat; whether it was because it's a busy season and my mind was on other things or because the first few chapters just didn't grab me, I struggled a bit to get into it. But I'm betting it was the holiday bustle, because suddenly things started to pick up and didn't stop till the end - which, given the time I was forced to spend shopping, wrapping, decorating and cooking, didn't happen nearly as soon as I'd wanted.

Just a few months after coming off the life-changing events of the first book, Cassie has left Homicide behind and is working the Domestic Violence beat. Then, she gets a call asking her to come to a crime scene. A girl has been murdered, but there's a freaky twist: The dead girl is a dead ringer for Cassie and even has an ID card bearing the name Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie used during an undercover sting. Although Cassie is reluctant to get involved, she's naturally curious - and accepts the assignment that will take her undercover once again, this time posing as the "twin" to go live with the dead girl's housemates. 

Although they knew their friend had been stabbed, they hadn't been told she'd been killed; all Cassie had to do, then, was study Lexie's vocal and speech patterns, stick on a bandage to cover the fake wound (also helpful in concealing a microphone) and assume Lexie's identity. Meantime, Cassie is trying to juggle a budding but serious romance with fellow Detective Sam O'Neill, who's also working the case and is, to put it mildly, less than thrilled when Cassie agrees to duck under the radar all by herself. 

As an aside, I must say that the names gave me pause for a while until I got used to them; two of our now-grown granddaughters - sisters - are named Cassandra and Alexandra. And as a second aside, I'll note that it's not necessary to read the first book to enjoy this one; the author has provided ample background information here so nothing is lost (except perhaps the enjoyment of reading the also-outstanding first book).

Cassie pulls off the impersonation in fine form, although not without a few hiccups here and there that, had she not had her wits about her, would have given her away. But after all, it wasn't supposed to be a long-term deal. The intent was simply to find out what she can from the other housemates, who are such tight comrades that they've stuck to what the police believe is a concocted version of what happened on the night of the murder. Get the info and get out was to be the name of the game.

Good plan, perhaps, but game rules are subject to change as they do here, when Cassie and her detective buddies learn that Lexie may not have been the person her housemates thought she was. And, the closeness of the group with such quirky personalities brings up still more unsettling questions. Then, as Cassie gets to know the others, she begins to relate more to Lexie's persona than an objective investigator should - not a plus if she wants to get out alive.

When it comes to character development, the author does a stellar job. Whether or not any of the people here are likable wasn't important; all that mattered to me was finding out what was lurking in the depths of their minds - exactly what Cassie herself was trying to learn. Put that together with well-written, believable dialogue and a suspenseful plot, and it's another winner in my book.

The Likeness by Tana French (Penguin Books reprint edition, July 2008); 492 pp.