Category: Mystery/Thriller

#BookReview The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon @ScoutPressBooks @SimonSchusterCA #TheDrowningKind #JenniferMcMahon

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#BookReview The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon @ScoutPressBooks @SimonSchusterCA #TheDrowningKind #JenniferMcMahon Title: The Drowning Kind

Author: Jennifer McMahon

Published by: Scout Press on Apr. 6, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Be careful what you wish for.

When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.

Review:

Intricate, haunting, and imaginative!

In this latest novel by McMahon, The Drowning Kind, she transports us to Bradenburg, Vermont during 1929, as well as present-day, and into the family estate, Sparrow Crest, where emotions run high, tragedy seems to strike, tales are told, secrets are kept, skeletons are long buried, and the spring-fed pool provides hope and healing but only at a very steep price.

The prose is dark and tight. The characters are damaged, unsettled, and vulnerable. And the plot told from alternating timelines is a suspenseful tale of tension, desperation, loss, familial drama, tortured spirits, dark magic, supernatural phenomenon, and the dynamic relationship between sisters.

Overall, The Drowning Kind is a tragic, engrossing, mystical tale by McMahon that does a beautiful job of reminding us that often the choices we make have far-reaching consequences.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jennifer McMahon

Jennifer McMahon is the author of nine novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Promise Not to Tell and The Winter People. She lives in Vermont with her partner, Drea, and their daughter, Zella.

Photograph by Zella McMahon.

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#BookReview A Deadly Twist by Jeffrey Siger @PPPress #ADeadlyTwist #JeffreySiger #AndreasKaldis #inkedinpoison

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#BookReview A Deadly Twist by Jeffrey Siger @PPPress #ADeadlyTwist #JeffreySiger #AndreasKaldis #inkedinpoison Title: A Deadly Twist

Author: Jeffrey Siger

Series: Andreas Kaldis #11

Published by: Poisoned Pen Press on Apr. 6, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Poisoned Pen Press

Book Rating: 8.5/10

When Athens journalist Nikoletta Elia disappears while on assignment on the island of Naxos, her editor calls on Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis to investigate. The reporter, assigned to report on the effects of rampant tourism on Naxos’ culture and agrarian lifestyle, is approached by a fan who takes credit for several suspicious deaths she had written about in the past and suspected to be murders. The assassin claims to have changed his evil ways, but wants Nikoletta to write a series of articles about him and his myriad hits. Kaldis sends his deputy, Yianni, to investigate; then a body (not the journalist’s) is found at the base of a cliff.

Leads turn into more dead bodies–and finally, threats–before Kaldis finally solves the deadly puzzle.

Review:

Menacing, atmospheric, and engaging!

In this simmering, eleventh instalment in the Andreas Kaldis series, A Deadly Twist, Siger has written a sinister police procedural that will have CI Andreas Kaldis and his team heading to Naxos to investigate the sudden disappearance of a crime reporter with a story to tell, a body found dead with no identification, and a killer with a lack of conscience and a fascination with antiquities.

The prose is crisp and rich. The characters are intelligent, resourceful, and endearing. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel seamlessly into a mysterious tale of mischief, mayhem, corruption, coercion, criminal behaviour, dangerous endeavours, deduction, lies, and murder.

Overall, A Deadly Twist is a solid, absorbing, highly enjoyable tale by Siger that was so much better than I ever expected with a wonderful cast of characters I can’t wait to get to know better and an idyllic setting that left me yearning for my cancelled trip to the Greek islands even more.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Jeffrey Siger

Jeffrey Siger was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, practiced law at a major Wall Street law firm, and later established his own New York City law firm where he continued as one of its name partners until giving it all up to write full-time among the people, life, and politics of his beloved Mykonos. The Mykonos Mob is the tenth novel in his internationally best-selling and award nominated Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis series, following up on An Aegean April, Santorini Caesars, Devil in Delphi, Sons of Sparta, Mykonos After Midnight, Target: Tinos, Prey on Patmos, Assassins of Athens, and Murder in Mykonos.

The New York Times described Jeffrey Siger’s novels as “thoughtful police procedurals set in picturesque but not untroubled Greek locales,” and named him as Greece’s thriller writer of record. The Greek Press called his work “prophetic,” Eurocrime described him as a “very gifted American author…on a par with other American authors such as Joseph Wambaugh or Ed McBain,” and the City of San Francisco awarded him its Certificate of Honor citing that his “acclaimed books have not only explored modern Greek society and its ancient roots but have inspired political change in Greece.” He now lives in Greece.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers @redhookbooks @HBGCanada @BookSparks #TheLadiesoftheSecretCircus #ConstanceSayers #SPRC2021 #SpringBookScope

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#BookReview The Ladies of the Secret Circus by Constance Sayers @redhookbooks @HBGCanada @BookSparks #TheLadiesoftheSecretCircus #ConstanceSayers #SPRC2021 #SpringBookScope Title: The Ladies of the Secret Circus

Author: Constance Sayers

Published by: Redhook Books on Mar. 17, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy

Pages: 448

Format: Hardcover

Source: HBG Canada, BookSparks

Book Rating: 8/10

Paris, 1925: To enter the Secret Circus is to enter a world of wonder-a world where women tame magnificent beasts, carousels take you back in time, and trapeze artists float across the sky. But each daring feat has a cost. Bound to her family’s strange and magical circus, it’s the only world Cecile Cabot knows-until she meets a charismatic young painter and embarks on a passionate love affair that could cost her everything.

Virginia, 2005: Lara Barnes is on top of the world-until her fiancé disappears on their wedding day. Desperate, her search for answers unexpectedly leads to her great-grandmother’s journals and sweeps her into the story of a dark circus and a generational curse that has been claiming payment from the women in her family for generations.

Review:

Rich, compelling, and mystical!

The Ladies of the Secret Circus transports you from present-day Virginia to 1920s Paris as it immerses you into the multi-generational, circus-owning Cabot family and all the powerful emotions, tragic memories, dark magic, fantastical elements, and long-buried secrets that swirl around them.

The prose is dark and mysterious. The characters are multi-layered, vulnerable, cursed, and troubled. And the plot told from alternating timelines is an ominous tale full of familial drama, heartache, tension, obsession, death, revenge, jealousy, sacrifice, sibling rivalry, and violence.

Overall, The Ladies of the Secret Circus is a spellbinding, atmospheric, romantic tale by Sayers that captivated me from the very first page and ultimately left me satisfied and highly entertained.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to HBG Canada and BookSparks for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Constance Sayers

Constance Sayers is the author of A Witch in Time and The Ladies of the Secret Circus which will be published on March 23, 2021, from Redhook (Hachette Book Group).

A finalist for Alternating Current’s 2016 Luminaire Award for Best Prose, her short stories have appeared in Souvenir and Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women as well as The Sky is a Free Country. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

She received her master of arts in English from George Mason University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in writing from the University of Pittsburgh. She attended The Bread Loaf Writers Conference where she studied with Charles Baxter and Lauren Groff. A media executive, she’s twice been named one of the “Top 100 Media People in America” by Folio and included in their list of “Top Women in Media.”

She lives outside of Washington DC. Like her character in The Ladies of the Secret Circus, she was the host of a radio show from midnight to six.

Photo by Julie Ann Pixler.

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#BookReview All My Lies Are True By Dorothy Koomson @DorothyKoomson @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #AllMyLiesAreTrue #DorothyKoomson #MobiusBooksUS

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#BookReview All My Lies Are True By Dorothy Koomson @DorothyKoomson @Mobius_Books @headlinepg #AllMyLiesAreTrue #DorothyKoomson #MobiusBooksUS Title: All My Lies Are True

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Series: Poppy & Serena #2

Published by: Headline Books on Mar. 9, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 400

Format: Paperback

Source: Mobius Books US

Book Rating: 9/10

From the bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls comes a gripping emotional thriller of love and obsession and the nature of coercive control. ‘The author plays a blinder’ says the Sun.

Verity is telling lies…
And that’s why she’s about to be arrested for attempted murder.

Serena has been lying for years. . .
And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable…

Poppy’s lies have come back to haunt her . . .
So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves?

Everyone lies.
But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

Review:

Twisty, tragic, and unpredictable!

All My Lies Are True is the tortuous, cunning sequel to The Ice Cream Girls that takes you into the life of Poppy Carlisle’s brother, Logan, who is consumed with vindication, revenge, and an all-consuming love affair with Serena Gorringe’s daughter, Verity.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are secretive, scarred, and troubled. And the plot told from multiple perspectives and using a past/present, back-and-forth style builds and unravels quickly into an ominous tale filled with deep-seated resentments, suspicious motivations, shocking revelations, familial drama, deception, lies, obsession, abuse, and violence.

Overall, All My Lies Are True is an unsettling, clever, riveting tale by Koomson that delves into the long-reaching, enduring emotional and psychological damage caused by traumatic events and highlights just how easily dominance, intimidation, and manipulation can be masked as love.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Mobius Books US for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Dorothy Koomson

Hello, my name's Dorothy Koomson and I'll try to make this bit that's all about me as interesting as possible.

I wrote my first novel called There's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate when I was 13. I used to write a chapter every night then pass it around to my fellow convent school pupils every morning, and they seemed to love it.

I grew up in London and then grew up again in Leeds when I went to university. I eventually returned to London to study for my master's degree and stayed put for the following years. I took up various temping jobs and eventually got my big break writing, editing and subbing for various women's magazines and national papers.

Fiction and storytelling were still a HUGE passion of mine and I continued to write short stories and novels every spare moment that I got. In 2001 I had the idea for The Cupid Effect and my career as a published novelist began. And it's been fantastic. In 2006, my third novel, My Best Friend's Girl was published. It was incredibly successful - selling nearly 90,000 copies within its first few weeks on sale. Six weeks later, it was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and the book went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Oh, there I go again, this is meant to be about me, not my novels.

Okay, back to me. I recently spent two years living in Sydney Australia, and now I'm back in England. But I can't say for how long I'll be in the UK because I've been well and truly bitten by the travel bug.

Photo courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview After Alice Fell by Kim Taylor Blakemore @AmazonPub @LUAuthors #AfterAliceFell #KimTaylorBlakemore

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#BookReview After Alice Fell by Kim Taylor Blakemore @AmazonPub @LUAuthors #AfterAliceFell #KimTaylorBlakemore Title: After Alice Fell

Author: Kim Taylor Blakemore

Published by: Lake Union Publishing on Mar. 1, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback

Source: Amazon Publishing

Book Rating: 8/10

Until she discovers the truth of her sister’s death, no one will rest in peace.

New Hampshire, 1865. Marion Abbott is summoned to Brawders House asylum to collect the body of her sister, Alice. She’d been found dead after falling four stories from a steep-pitched roof. Officially: an accident. Confidentially: suicide. But Marion believes a third option: murder.

Returning to her family home to stay with her brother and his second wife, the recently widowed Marion is expected to quiet her feelings of guilt and grief—to let go of the dead and embrace the living. But that’s not easy in this house full of haunting memories.

Just when the search for the truth seems hopeless, a stranger approaches Marion with chilling words: I saw her fall.

Now Marion is more determined than ever to find out what happened that night at Brawders, and why. With no one she can trust, Marion may risk her own life to uncover the secrets buried with Alice in the family plot.

Review:

Gritty, immersive, and haunting!

After Alice Fell is a sinister, historical thriller set in New Hampshire during 1865 that takes you into the life of Marion Abbott, a young woman determined to discover what really happened to her sister Alice at Brawders House, the local asylum, and prove once and for all that her sister didn’t commit suicide but was actually murdered.

The writing is atmospheric and eerie. The characters are tormented, insistent, and resourceful. And the plot is a taut, twisty, evocative tale rife with desperation, manipulation, abuse, familial dynamics, deviance, greed, jealousy, and murder.

Overall, After Alice Fell is a dark, engrossing, well-written tale by Kim Taylor Blakemore that does a wonderful job of highlighting the struggles and hardships of life at the end of the civil war, and reminds us of some of the unimaginable, horrific practices deemed appropriate treatments at that time for those considered to be mentally defective.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to Amazon Publishing for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kim Taylor Blakemore

Kim Taylor Blakemore is the author of the historical mysteries THE COMPANION and AFTER ALICE FELL (March 2021). Publishers Weekly calls The Companion a "captivating tale of psychological suspense."

Other novels include BOWERY GIRL a NYPL Best Reads for Teens; and CISSY FUNK, a Willa Literary Award winner for Best YA Novel.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers and Historical Novel Society. She and her family reside in the Pacific Northwest, and she loves the rain. Truly.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry @ambroseparry @blackthornbks @PGCBooks #TheArtofDying #RavenFisherSimpsonSeries #AmbroseParry

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#BookReview The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry @ambroseparry @blackthornbks @PGCBooks #TheArtofDying #RavenFisherSimpsonSeries #AmbroseParry Title: The Art of Dying

Author: Ambrose Parry

Series: Raven Fisher and Simpson #2

Published by: Black Thorn Books on Mar. 18, 2021

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

Edinburgh, 1849. Hordes of patients are dying all across the city, with doctors finding their remedies powerless. And a whispering campaign seeks to paint Dr James Simpson, pioneer of medical chloroform, as a murderer.

Determined to clear Simpson’s name, his protege Will Raven and former housemaid Sarah Fisher must plunge into Edinburgh’s deadliest streets and find out who or what is behind the deaths. Soon they discover that the cause of the deaths has evaded detection purely because it is so unthinkable.

Review:

Absorbing, informative, and remarkably atmospheric!

The Art of Dying is a rich, alluring tale that takes us back to Victorian Edinburgh and into the life of Will Raven, a young doctor returning from travelling abroad to accept the position of assistant to Dr James Simpson, a doctor infamous for using chloroform while treating patients. But when multiple people start to die, and others begin to question Dr Simpson’s abilities, Will, along with the help of the woman he let get away, Sarah Fisher, will have to quickly uncover what’s actually plaguing the city before Dr Simpson’s reputation is completely and irreversibly shattered.

The prose is smooth and authentic. The characters are steadfast, inquisitive, and clever. And the plot is a riveting, suspenseful tale of life, loss, duty, friendship, corruption, manipulation, deception, violence, murder, and the evolution and procedures of early medicine, especially in the field of obstetrics.

Overall, The Art of Dying is a beautifully written, mysterious, fascinating tale that grabbed me from the very start and did such an exceptional job of blending historical facts with compelling fiction I can honestly say I was enthralled, surprised, and thoroughly impressed.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                  

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ambrose Parry

Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym for a collaboration between Chris Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman. The couple are married and live in Scotland. Chris Brookmyre is the international bestselling and multi-award-winning author of over twenty novels. Dr Marisa Haetzman is a consultant anaesthetist of twenty years' experience, whose research for her Master's degree in the History of Medicine uncovered the material upon which this series, which begun with The Way of All Flesh, is based. The Way of all Flesh was longlisted for both the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year.

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#BookReview #Giveaway Win by Harlan Coben @harlancoben @GrandCentralPub #Win #HarlanCoben #WindsorHorneLockwoodIII #GrandCentralPub

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#BookReview #Giveaway Win by Harlan Coben @harlancoben @GrandCentralPub #Win #HarlanCoben #WindsorHorneLockwoodIII #GrandCentralPub Title: Win

Author: Harlan Coben

Series: Windsor Horne Lockwood III #1

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Mar. 16, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: Hardcover

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 9/10

The new novel from Harlan Coben, #1 New York Timesbestselling author and creator of The Stranger on Netflix.

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes this thrilling story that shows what happens when a dead man’s secrets fall into the hands of vigilante antihero—drawing him down a dangerous road.

Over twenty years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family’s estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors — and the items stolen from her family were never recovered.

Until now. On the Upper West Side, a recluse is found murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead — not only on Patricia’s kidnapping, but also on another FBI cold case — with the suitcase and painting both pointing them toward one man.

Windsor Horne Lockwood III — or Win, as his few friends call him — doesn’t know how his suitcase and his family’s stolen painting ended up with a dead man. But his interest is piqued, especially when the FBI tells him that the man who kidnapped his cousin was also behind an act of domestic terrorism — and that the conspirators may still be at large. The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades, but Win has three things the FBI doesn’t: a personal connection to the case; an ungodly fortune; and his own unique brand of justice.

Review:

Action-packed, intricate, and twisty!

Win is a sinister, tortuous tale that finally gives Myron Bolitar’s sidekick the hedonistic Windsor Horne Lockwood III centre stage when a painting stolen from his family long ago and his monogrammed suitcase from when he was a teen is discovered in the home of a murdered recluse who may also have ties to the activist bombing group known as the Jane Street Six who inadvertently killed seven people in the early 70s, as well as the infamous “Hut of Horrors” where several women, including Win’s cousin Patricia, was kept and sexually assaulted for several months in the 1990s.

The writing is bold and tight. The characters are self-absorbed, deviant, and deceptive. And the plot is an intense, mysterious tale filled with twists, turns, familial drama, secrets, coercion, manipulation, mayhem, attraction, danger, violence, and murder.

Overall, Win has everything you’ve come to expect in a Harlan Coben novel, as well as an antihero that you will love to hate. It’s absorbing, addictive, and exceptionally twisty, and for this long-time Coben fan, a book that was undoubtedly long overdue, eagerly anticipated, and extremely satisfying.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

GIVEAWAY!

I’m giving two people a chance to win a copy of Win. To enter please visit my Instagram page HERE! 

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for sponsoring the giveaway! All giveaway information can be found in the Instagram Giveaway Post. Good luck!

 

About Harlan Coben

Harlan Coben is a #1 NewYorkTimes bestselling author and one of the world's leading storytellers. His suspense novels are published in forty-five languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries, with seventy-five million books in print worldwide. His Myron Bolitar series has earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and many of his books have been developed into Netflix series, including his adaptation of The Stranger, headlined by Richard Armitage, and The Woods. He lives in New Jersey.

Photo by Claudio Marinesco.

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#BookReview Transient Desires by Donna Leon @groveatlantic @PGCBooks #TransientDesires #CommissarioBrunettiSeries #DonnaLeon

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#BookReview Transient Desires by Donna Leon @groveatlantic @PGCBooks #TransientDesires #CommissarioBrunettiSeries #DonnaLeon Title: Transient Desires

Author: Donna Leon

Series: Commissario Brunetti #30

Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press on Mar. 9, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 288

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

In his many years as a commissario, Guido Brunetti has seen all manner of crime and known intuitively how to navigate the various pathways in his native city, Venice, to discover the person responsible. Now, in Transient Desires, the thirtieth novel in Donna Leon’s masterful series, he faces a heinous crime committed outside his jurisdiction. He is drawn in innocently enough: two young American women have been badly injured in a boating accident, joy riding in the Laguna with two young Italians. However, Brunetti’s curiosity is aroused by the behavior of the young men, who abandoned the victims after taking them to the hospital. If the injuries were the result of an accident, why did they want to avoid association with it?

As Brunetti and his colleague, Claudia Griffoni, investigate the incident, they discover that one of the young men works for a man rumored to be involved in more sinister nighttime activities in the Laguna. To get to the bottom of what proves to be a gut-wrenching case, Brunetti needs to enlist the help of both the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Costiera. Determining how much trust he and Griffoni can put in these unfamiliar colleagues adds to the difficulty of solving a peculiarly horrible crime whose perpetrators are technologically brilliant and ruthlessly organized.

Donna Leon’s Transient Desires is as powerful as any novel she has written, testing Brunetti to his limits and forcing him to listen very carefully for the truth.

Review:

Atmospheric, sinister, and engaging!

In this intriguing thirtieth instalment in the Commissario Brunetti series, Transient Desires, Leon has written a menacing tale that sees quirky Commissario Guido Brunetti immersed in an investigation that seems on the surface to involve two American women who have been beaten, abandoned, and left unconscious on the hospital docks, but which quickly turns into a much darker case involving human trafficking that will require the assistance of both the Carabinieri and Guardia Costiera to apprehend all those involved.

The prose is vivid and expressive. The characters are steadfast, intuitive, and a little jaded. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel seamlessly into an entertaining tale of dangerous endeavours, criminal behaviour, deduction, lies, exploitation, and Venetian Life.

Overall, Transient Desires is not especially fast-paced or action-packed but is still another absorbing, multi-layered, solid addition to this much-loved, highly-successful, enjoyable series.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                  

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Donna Leon

Donna Leon, born in New Jersey in 1942, has worked as a travel guide in Rome and as a copywriter in London. She taught literature in universities in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia. Commissario Brunetti made her books world-famous. Donna Leon lived in Italy for many years, and although she now lives in Switzerland, she often visits Venice.

Goodreads

#BookReview Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews @littlebrown @HBGCanada #WhoIsMaudDixon #AlexandraAndrews

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#BookReview Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews @littlebrown @HBGCanada #WhoIsMaudDixon #AlexandraAndrews Title: Who Is Maud Dixon?

Author: Alexandra Andrews

Published by: Little Brown and Company on Mar. 2, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Source: HBG Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

Florence Darrow is a small-town striver who believes that she’s destined to become a celebrated writer. When she stumbles into the opportunity to become the assistant to “Maud Dixon,” a celebrated-but anonymous-novelist (think: Elena Ferrante), she believes that the universe is finally providing her big chance. The arrangement feels idyllic; Helen can be prickly, but she is full of pointed wisdom on both writing and living. She even invites Florence along on a research trip to Morocco, where her new novel is set. Florence has never been out of the country before; maybe, she imagines, she’ll finally have something exciting to write about herself.

But when Florence wakes up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, and Helen is dead, she begins to imagine what it might be like to ‘upgrade’ into not only Helen’s life, but also that of Helen’s bestselling pseudonym, Maud Dixon…

Review:

Chilling, atmospheric, and ominous!

Who Is Maud Dixon? is a character-driven, psychological thrill ride involving the young, ambitious Florence Darrow, who after landing her dream job as an assistant to a famous writer, has no qualms in seizing an opportunity when it presents itself and dabbling in a little identity and literary theft in her ceaseless pursuit to become a world-class, successful writer.

The prose is intense and tight. The characters, including the devious, impulsive protagonist, are consumed, complex, and vulnerable. And the well-crafted, menacing plot builds nicely to create the perfect amount of tension and suspense as it unravels all the manipulative actions, questionable personalities, duplicitous motivations, and parasitic relationships within it.

Who Is Maud Dixon? is a tragic, unsettling, compelling novel by Andrews that with its beautiful Moroccan setting, self-absorbed, unscrupulous characters, and a plot reminiscent of Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr Ripley” is sure to have thriller fans excited and enthralled.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to HBG Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Alexandra Andrews

Alexandra Andrews has worked as a journalist, editor and copywriter in New York and Paris. Who Is Maud Dixon? is her first novel. Publishers Weekly named her a “Writer to Watch” in 2021. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

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#BookReview The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn @SimonSchusterCA #TheGirlsAreAllSoNiceHere #LaurieElizabethFlynn

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#BookReview The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn @SimonSchusterCA #TheGirlsAreAllSoNiceHere #LaurieElizabethFlynn Title: The Girls Are All So Nice Here

Author: Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Mar. 9, 2021

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before—and will stop at nothing to get it—in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.

The Girls Are All So Nice Here opens when Ambrosia Wellington receives an invitation to her ten-year college reunion. Only, slipped in with all the expected information about lodging and the weekend’s schedule is an anonymous letter that says: “It’s time to talk about what we did.” Instantly, Ambrosia realizes that the secrets of her past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she’d thought. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did—and who she did it with. Larger-than-life Sloane Sullivan (“Sully”), who could make anyone do anything. The game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl, Amb’s angelic roommate, who paid the price.

Amb had thought that she and Sully had gotten away with what they did their first semester at Wesleyan. But as Amb receives increasingly menacing messages during the reunion, it becomes clear that she’s being circled by someone who wants more than just the truth. Amb discovers that her own memories don’t tell the whole story, and that her actions and friendship with Sully had even more disturbing consequences than she ever imagined.

Told in alternating timelines between the reunion and Ambrosia’s turbulent first months of college, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a gripping rollercoaster ride of a novel that examines the dark complexities of female friendship and the brutal lengths girls can go to take what they think they are owed.

Review:

Sinister, atmospheric, and disturbing!

The Girls Are All So Nice Here transports you into the life of Ambrosia Wellington as she reluctantly heads to her ten-year reunion at Wesleyan College, where the past will collide with the present, long-buried secrets will finally be unearthed, and her freshman year, mean-girl behaviour may at long last be punished.

The writing is tight and intense. The characterization is spot on with a cast of characters that are selfish, secretive, insecure, and unlikable. And the plot, using a past/present, back-and-forth style, is a suspenseful, twisty tale filled with friendship, drama, deception, jealousy, hatred, abuse, callousness, desperation, cruelty, and revenge.

Overall, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a tortuous, clever, creepy page-turner by Flynn that keeps you guessing from the very first page and leaves you chilled, surprised and thoroughly entertained.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

              

 

 

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Laurie Elizabeth Flynn is a former model who lives in London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She is the author of three young adult novels: Firsts, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, along with Last Girl Lied To and All Eyes on Her, under the name L.E. Flynn. Her adult debut, The Girls Are All So Nice Here, has sold in nine territories and has been optioned for television by AMC.

Photo by Sandra Dufton.

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