Category: Mystery/Thriller

#BookReview A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins @MandaCollins @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #Forever20 #MandaCollins #LadysGuide #ALadysGuidetoMischiefandMayhem

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#BookReview A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins @MandaCollins @readforeverpub @grandcentralpub #ReadForever #Forever20 #MandaCollins #LadysGuide #ALadysGuidetoMischiefandMayhem Title: A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem

Author: Manda Collins

Series: A Lady's Guide #1

Published by: Forever on Nov. 10, 2020

Genres: Historical Romance, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Forever

Book Rating: 9/10

An intrepid female reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning author Manda Collins’ fun and flirty historical rom-com!

England, 1865: As one of England’s most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she’s determined to inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and deadly-criminals who are praying on the fairer sex. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column, she vows to prove him wrong.

Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham’s refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than correctly. When he discovers she’s the key witness in a new crime, he’s determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they’ll need to catch a killer.

Review:

Mysterious, atmospheric, and delightfully entertaining!

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem is a clue-like murder mystery set in England during 1865 that features Lady Katherine Bascomb, a widowed newspaper owner who after stumbling upon what appears to be another victim of the elusive Commandments Killer on the country estate of her friend Lord Valentine Thorn, joins together with the disgruntled, enigmatic, handsome, Inspector Andrew Eversham of Scotland Yard to try and solve the case.

The writing style is light and witty. The characters, including the intelligent, independent heroine, are well-developed, multi-layered, and intriguing. And the plot is a well-paced whodunit full of amateur sleuthing, red herrings, suspects, deduction, attraction, and of course a touch of romance.

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem is the first book in the Lady’s Guide series, and if you love historical mysteries/romance this novel won’t disappoint. It is a passionate, enjoyable, refreshing read that is the first novel I’ve read by Collins but undoubtedly won’t be my last.

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

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

 

About Manda Collins

Manda Collins grew up on a combination of Nancy Drew books and Jane Austen novels, and her own brand of historical romantic suspense is the result. A former academic librarian, she holds master’s degrees in English and Library & Information Studies. Her novel Duke with Benefits was named a Kirkus Best Romance of 2017. She lives on the Gulf Coast with two lazy cats, a very spoiled Shih Tzu, and more books than are strictly necessary.

Photograph courtesy of read-forever.com.

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#BookReview Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent @lizzienugent @SimonSchusterCA #LittleCruelties #LizNugent

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#BookReview Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent @lizzienugent @SimonSchusterCA #LittleCruelties #LizNugent Title: Little Cruelties

Author: Liz Nugent

Published by: Simon & Schuster on Nov. 10, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

All three of the Drumm brothers were at the funeral.
Only one of us was in the coffin.

William, Brian, and Luke: three boys bound by blood but split by fate, trained from birth by their wily mother to compete for her attention. They play games, as brothers do…yet even after the Drumms escape into the world beyond their windows, those games—those little cruelties—grow more sinister, more merciless, more dangerous. And with their lives entwined like the strands of a noose, only two of the brothers will survive.

Crisply written and quickly paced, perfect for readers of both sophisticated literary fiction and breathtaking suspense, Little Cruelties gazes unflinchingly into the darkness: the darkness collecting in the corners of childhood homes, hiding beneath marriage beds, clasped in the palms of two brothers shaking hands. And it confirms Liz Nugent, whose novels have been celebrated as “captivating” (People) and “highly entertaining” (The Washington Post), as one of the most exciting, perceptive voices in contemporary fiction.

Review:

Tragic, intricate, and twisty!

Little Cruelties is a dark, compelling, character-driven, domestic thriller that takes you into the lives of three brothers, Wiliam, an arrogant film producer, Brian, an unmotivated leach, and Luke, an emotionally fragile pop star as they each grapple with sibling rivalry, enduring jealousy, devastating secrets, and exceptionally cruel decisions that will change their lives forever.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are selfish, deceptive, and troubled. And the plot told from multiple perspectives unfolds gradually into a murky tale full of twists, turns, surprises, familial drama, lies, greed, resentments, scandal, wickedness, deception, tragedy, and murder.

Overall, Little Cruelties is another sophisticated, creepy, gloomy tale by Nugent that does a fantastic job of delving into all the complex, dysfunctional dynamics that can occur between family members and reminds us just how evil and toxic some of these relationships can truly be.

 

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 Liz Nugent

Liz Nugent has worked in Irish film, theater, and television for most of her adult life. She is an award-winning writer of radio and television drama and has written critically acclaimed short stories both for children and adults, as well as the novels Unraveling Oliver and Lying in Wait. She lives in Dublin.

Photograph by Beta Bajgartova.

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#BookReview Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy @aimeenmolloy @HarperAudio @librofm #GoodnightBeautiful #AimeeMolloy #Librofm

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#BookReview Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy @aimeenmolloy @HarperAudio @librofm #GoodnightBeautiful #AimeeMolloy #Librofm Title: Goodnight Beautiful

Author: Aimee Molloy

Published by: HarperAudio on Oct. 13, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Format: Audiobook

Source: Libro.fm

Book Rating: 8/10

Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are head over heels, and excited to say good-bye to New York and start a life together in Sam’s sleepy hometown in upstate New York. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele.

Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs. The pharmacist’s wife, contemplating a divorce. The well-known painter whose boyfriend doesn’t satisfy her in bed. Who could resist listening? Everything is fine until the French girl in the green mini Cooper shows up, and Sam decides to go to work and not come home, throwing a wrench into Sam and Annie’s happily ever after.

Review:

Twisty, complex, and unpredictable!

Goodnight Beautiful is a cunning, tortuous, psychological thriller that delves into all the deep, dark secrets people keep and highlights just how easily people can be psychologically and emotionally manipulated.

The prose is taut and intense. The characters are troubled, unstable, and secretive. And the plot, told through a mixture of first-person and third-person narration, builds and unravels quickly into an ominous tale filled with unexpected twists, suspicious personalities, shocking revelations, familial drama, deception, obsession, suffering, and violence.

Overall, Goodnight Beautiful is a brisk, sinister, unsettling tale by Molloy that keeps you guessing from the very first page and is deliciously relentless, surprising, and bursting with misdirection.

 

This audiobook is available now.

Support your local independent bookstore and pick up a copy through this libro.fm link today!

 

 

Thank you to Libro.fm and HarperAudio for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Aimee Molloy

Aimee Molloy’s debut novel, The Perfect Mother, was a New York Times bestseller, and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her family.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview The Winter Secret by Lulu Taylor @MissLuluTaylor @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheWinterSecret #LuluTaylor

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#BookReview The Winter Secret by Lulu Taylor @MissLuluTaylor @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheWinterSecret #LuluTaylor Title: The Winter Secret

Author: Lulu Taylor

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Nov. 2, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction

Pages: 544

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The Winter Secret is a thrilling mystery from Lulu Taylor, top ten bestselling author of The Snow Rose and Her Frozen Heart.

‘My dear boy, the place is cursed. It always has been and it always will be . . .’

Buttercup Redmain has a life of pampered luxury, living in beautiful Charcombe Park. Her older husband, Charles Redmain, is wealthy and successful and proud of the house he has painstakingly restored, once owned by a famous ancestor. Buttercup is surrounded by people who make her life delightfully easy. But the one thing she really wants seems impossible.

There are other discomforting realities: her husband’s ex-wife Ingrid still lives nearby although Buttercup has never met her. And it soon becomes clear that all the people who make Buttercup’s life so carefree are also watching her every move. Does she actually live in a comfortable but inescapable cage? And what is the real story of her husband’s previous marriage?

In the late 1940s, Xenia Arkadyoff lived in Charcombe Park with her father, a Russian prince, and her mother, a famous film star. Life seemed charmed, full of glamour and beauty. But behind the glittering facade lay pain, betrayal, and the truth about the woman Xenia spent her life protecting.

Now Charcombe Park is calling back people who were once part of its story, and the secrets that have stayed long hidden are bubbling inexorably to the surface . . .

Review:

Gripping, menacing, and addictive!

The Winter Secret is an unsettling, pacey, atmospheric novel about love, life, loss, secrets, power, control, friendship, family, jealousy, and tragedy.

There are two main memorable characters, Xenia, a young girl in the late 1940s whose life is anything but glamourous when her mother’s starlet lifestyle leads to a neverending rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows. And Buttercup, the present-day Mrs. Redmain whose life is pristine and wonderful until the cracks begin to appear and everything is not quite as perfect as it originally seemed.

The writing is eloquent and descriptive. The characterization is well done with a cast of characters that are distressed, vulnerable, and sympathetic, and a setting, Charcombe Park, that is a character itself with its history, grandeur, isolation, and multitude of secrets. And the plot uses a past/present, back-and-forth style to create tension and suspense as it quickly unravels all the personalities, relationships, behaviours, and motivations within it.

Overall, The Winter Secret is a clever, haunting, absorbing novel that swept me away to a country estate marred by both cruelty and love and immersed me in a story rife with deception and obsession.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

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

 

About Lulu Taylor

Lulu Taylor moved around the world as a child before her family settled in the Oxfordshire countryside. She studied English at Oxford University and had a successful career in publishing before becoming a writer. Her first novel, Heiresses was published in 2007 and nominated for the RNA Readers' Choice award. It was followed by Midnight Girls, Beautiful Creatures, Outrageous Fortune, The Winter Folly, The Snow Angel, The Winter Children, and The Snow Rose. She lives in Dorset, England, with her husband and two children.

Photograph by Alicia Clarke.

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#BookReview Her Mother’s Grave by Lisa Regan @Lisalregan @GrandCentralPub #LisaRegan #HerMothersGrave #JosieQuinnSeries

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#BookReview Her Mother’s Grave by Lisa Regan @Lisalregan @GrandCentralPub #LisaRegan #HerMothersGrave #JosieQuinnSeries Title: Her Mother's Grave

Author: Lisa Regan

Series: Detective Josie Quinn #3

Published by: Grand Central Publishing on Nov. 3, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Grand Central Publishing

Book Rating: 10/10

When two young boys discover human bones buried beneath a tree in a trailer park, Detective Josie Quinn races to join her team at the scene. She used to play in those woods as a child, happier outside and away from her abusive mother, Belinda Rose.

Josie’s past crashes into her present when a rare dental condition confirms the bones belong to a teenage foster-child who was murdered thirty years ago. A girl named Belinda Rose…

Josie hasn’t seen her mother in years but, with an undeniable connection between her mother and the dead girl, does she dare try to track her down?

Just as Josie gets closer to uncovering a secret that will shatter her world forever, another body is uncovered. It’s suddenly clear that someone very close to Josie will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried forever.

As she battles the demons from her past, can Josie stop this killer before another precious life is taken?

Review:

Atmospheric, sharp, and engrossing!

Her Mother’s Grave is an elaborately plotted police procedural that highlights how manipulative and evil people can truly be and reminds us that even the darkest, most long-buried secrets often have a way of coming to light.

The writing style is smooth and seamless. The characters, including the tenacious, strong, scarred heroine, are relentless, hardworking, and astute. And the plot using flashbacks and short, intense chapters immerses you in an ominous tale full of twists, turns, secrets, obsession, mayhem, deduction, attraction, abuse, violence, childhood trauma, swirling emotions, and murder.

I have to say that all I kept thinking while reading this novel is why have I not heard of or read a book in this series before and how can I get my hands on more of them as quickly as possible. Her Mother’s Grave is an intricately woven, meticulous, sinister tale that has all the elements you look for in a thrilling mystery, with its fully-developed characters and authentic grittiness it keeps you absolutely riveted and undoubtedly eager for more.

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

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

 

About Lisa Regan

Lisa Regan is the USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series as well as several other crime fiction titles. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Education degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, daughter and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Website.

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#BookReview Dear Child by Romy Hausmann @RaincoastBooks @Flatironbooks #DearChild #RomyHausmann

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#BookReview Dear Child by Romy Hausmann @RaincoastBooks @Flatironbooks #DearChild #RomyHausmann Title: Dear Child

Author: Romy Hausmann

Published by: Flatiron Books on Oct. 6, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Raincoast Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare.

She says her name is Lena. Lena, who disappeared without a trace 14 years prior. She fits the profile. She has the distinctive scar. But her family swears that she isn’t their Lena.

The little girl who escaped the woods with her knows things she isn’t sharing, and Lena’s devastated father is trying to piece together details that don’t quite fit. Lena is desperate to begin again, but something tells her that her tormentor still wants to get back what belongs to him…and that she may not be able to truly escape until the whole truth about what happened in the woods finally emerges.

Review:

Dark, spine-chilling, and intricately plotted!

Dear Child is a gritty, tortuous, intense, character-driven tale that takes us on a hunt for a sadistic kidnapper and highlights the enduring psychological, physical, and emotional effects experienced by all those affected by his actions and ensnared, even briefly, in his despicable world.

The writing is edgy and tight. The characters are vulnerable, tormented, and scarred. And the plot told from multiple perspectives is an engrossing, eerie tale full of twists, turns, lies, secrets, deception, familial drama, obsession, depravity, violence, and murder.

Overall, Dear Child is a highly suspenseful, well written, gripping thriller that is a scary reminder that even the most heinous of evil can often be concealed behind masks of normality.

 

This novel is available now!

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

           

 

 

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

 

About Romy Hausmann

Romy Hausmann lives with her family at a remote house in the woods in Stuttgart, Germany. Dear Child is her English-language debut.

Photograph by Astrid Eckert.

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#BookReview Still Life by Val McDermid @valmcdermid @PGCBooks #StillLife #InspectorKarenPirie #ValMcDermid

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#BookReview Still Life by Val McDermid @valmcdermid @PGCBooks #StillLife #InspectorKarenPirie #ValMcDermid Title: Still Life

Author: Val McDermid

Series: Inspector Karen Pirie #6

Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press on Oct. 16, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 436

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

From internationally bestselling author Val McDermid comes a propulsive new Karen Pirie thriller that delves into a historic missing persons case, fake identities, and art forgery.

Val McDermid is the award-winning, international bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime. In Still Life, McDermid returns to her propulsive series featuring DCI Karen Pirie, who finds herself investigating the shadowy world of forgery, where things are never what they seem.

When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, Karen is called into investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web—including a historic disappearance, art forgery, and secret identities—that seems to orbit around a painting copyist who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic crash leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Needless to say, Karen has her plate full. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is being released from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.

Tightly plotted and intensely gripping, Still Life is Val McDermid at her best, and new and longtime readers alike will delight in the latest addition to this superior series.

Review:

Complex, intriguing, and sophisticated!

In this impressive sixth instalment in the Inspector Karen Pirie series, Still Life, McDermid has written a fast-paced, sinuous, police procedural that has DCI Pirie and her team from the Historic Cases Unit immersed in two investigations, one involving skeletal remains found inside a camper van parked in a residential garage, and the other concerning a newly deceased middle-aged male found floating in the water who seems to have an extremely mysterious, complicated past.

The prose is sharp and tight. The characters are impulsive, secretive, and greedy. And the plot, including all the subplots, seamlessly intertwine and unravel into a gripping tale full of deception, manipulation, misdirection, mayhem, violence, and murder.

Overall, Still Life is another engrossing, pacey, action-packed thriller by McDermid that once again has just the right amount of suspense, well-drawn characterization, and creative storyline to make it a satisfying, highly entertaining read for lovers of this genre.

This book 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 Val McDermid

Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.

She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.

She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.

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#BookReview Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #InvisibleGirl #LisaJewell

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#BookReview Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell @lisajewelluk @AtriaBooks @SimonSchusterCA #InvisibleGirl #LisaJewell Title: Invisible Girl

Author: Lisa Jewell

Published by: Atria Books on Oct. 13, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Simon & Schuster Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone returns with an intricate thriller about a young woman’s disappearance and a group of strangers whose lives intersect in its wake.

Owen Pick’s life is falling apart. In his thirties and living in his aunt’s spare bedroom, he has just been suspended from his job as a teacher after accusations of sexual misconduct—accusations he strongly denies. Searching for professional advice online, he is inadvertently sucked into the dark world of incel forums, where he meets a charismatic and mysterious figure.

Across the street from Owen lives the Fours family, headed by mom Cate, a physiotherapist, and dad Roan, a child psychologist. But the Fours family have a bad feeling about their neighbor Owen. He’s a bit creepy and their teenaged daughter swears he followed her home from the train station one night.

Meanwhile, young Saffyre Maddox spent three years as a patient of Roan Fours. Feeling abandoned when their therapy ends, she searches for other ways to maintain her connection with him, following him in the shadows and learning more than she wanted to know about Roan and his family. Then, on Valentine’s night, Saffyre disappears—and the last person to see her alive is Owen Pick.

Review:

Brisk, creepy, and addictive!

Invisible Girl is an unsettling, compelling, psychological thriller that delves into all the deep, dark secrets people keep even from those closest to them and raises the question how well do you really know anyone.

The writing is sharp and crisp. The characters are secretive, cunning, and troubled. And the plot builds quickly creating suspense and intensity as it unravels all the relationships, motivations, personalities, and behaviours within it.

Invisible Girl is, ultimately, a story of suspicious personalities, lies, deception, manipulation, familial drama, abuse, hatred, violence, and the danger-infused incel subculture. And like most of Jewell’s previous novels, this one keeps you on the edge of your seat with its multitude of twists, turns, and surprises right up until the final page.

 

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 Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell is the internationally bestselling author of sixteen novels, including the New York Times bestseller Then She Was Gone, as well as I Found You, The Girls in the Garden, and The House We Grew Up In. In total, her novels have sold more than two million copies across the English-speaking world and her work has also been translated into sixteen languages so far. Lisa lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.

Photograph by Andrew Whitton.

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#BookReview All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny @RaincoastBooks @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AlltheDevilsAreHere #ChiefInspectorGamache

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#BookReview All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny @RaincoastBooks @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AlltheDevilsAreHere #ChiefInspectorGamache Title: All the Devils Are Here

Author: Louise Penny

Series: Chief Inspector Gamache #16

Published by: Minotaur Books on Sep. 1, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 448

Format: Paperback, ARC

Source: Raincoast Books

Book Rating: 9/10

The 16th novel by #1 bestselling author Louise Penny finds Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec investigating a sinister plot in the City of Light

On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.

When a strange key is found in Stephen’s possession it sends Armand, his wife Reine-Marie, and his former second-in-command at the Sûreté, Jean-Guy Beauvoir, from the top of the Tour d’Eiffel, to the bowels of the Paris Archives, from luxury hotels to odd, coded, works of art.

It sends them deep into the secrets Armand’s godfather has kept for decades.

A gruesome discovery in Stephen’s Paris apartment makes it clear the secrets are more rancid, the danger far greater and more imminent, than they realized.

Soon the whole family is caught up in a web of lies and deceit. In order to find the truth, Gamache will have to decide whether he can trust his friends, his colleagues, his instincts, his own past. His own family.

For even the City of Light casts long shadows. And in that darkness devils hide.

Review:

Thrilling, pacey, and action-packed!

In this latest novel by Penny, All the Devils Are Here, we head to Paris, France where Chief Inspector Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and his extended family will find themselves uncovering long-buried family secrets, examining the inner workings of a company with suspicious intentions, and inadvertently investigating the murder of an engineer and the attempted murder of one of their own.

The prose is sharp and crisp. The characters are intuitive, loyal, and dependable. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unravel seamlessly into an engrossing tale of secrets, deception, familial drama, manipulation, corruption, greed, violence, and murder.

All the Devils Are Here is the sixteenth novel in the Chief Inspector Gamache series and whether it’s small-town mayhem, big-city crime, or newsworthy headlines it’s always an absolute indulgence and pleasure to sit back, open the cover and immerse yourself once more in an intricate mystery perfectly befitting this humanly flawed, intelligent, steadfast character who you can’t help but root for.

This novel is available now.

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

                  

 

 

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

 

About Louise Penny

LOUISE PENNY is the author of the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling series of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. She has won numerous awards, including a CWA Dagger and the Agatha Award (seven times), and was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Novel. In 2017, she received the Order of Canada for her contributions to Canadian culture. Louise lives in a small village south of Montréal.

Photograph by JEAN-FRANÇOIS BÉRUBÉ.

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#BookReview The Innocent Dead by Lin Anderson @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #RhonaMacLeod #TheInnocentDead

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#BookReview The Innocent Dead by Lin Anderson @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #RhonaMacLeod #TheInnocentDead Title: The Innocent Dead

Author: Lin Anderson

Series: Rhona MacLeod #15

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Sep. 22, 2020

Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural

Pages: 400

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

A gripping new crime novel by Lin Anderson featuring forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod, who is tasked with solving the case of a young girl who went missing forty-five years ago.

Mary McIntyre’s disappearance tore the local community apart, inflicting wounds that still prove raw for those who knew her. So when the present-day discovery of a child’s remains are found in a peat bog south of Glasgow, it seems the decades-old mystery may finally be solved.

Called in to excavate the body, forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod uses the advances made in forensic science since Mary’s vanishing to determine what really happened all those years ago – and who was responsible.

One key person had been Karen Marshall who was devastated by her best friend’s abduction. Questioned by the police at the time had led to a dead end and the case soon went cold.

Now the news of the discovered body brings the nightmares back. But added to that, memories long-buried by Karen are returning, memories that begin to reveal her role in her friend’s disappearance and perhaps even the identity of the killer…

The Innocent Dead is the fifteenth novel in Lin Anderson’s Rhona MacLeod crime series.

Review:

Shrewd, gripping, and meticulous!

In this latest novel by Anderson, The Innocent Dead, we head back to Glasgow where forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod and her team at Police Scotland find themselves investigating and unravelling the 1975 cold case of a missing eleven-year-old girl after a child’s body is accidentally discovered in a nearby peat bog.

The prose is seamless and crisp. The characterization is stellar with all the usual gang back including the meticulous, intuitive Dr Rhona MacLeod who’s still grappling with the psychological and emotional toll left by the sin-eater case. And the plot, including all the subplots, intertwine and unwind seamlessly into an engrossing tale full of abuse, deception, secrets, familial drama, red herrings, manipulation, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Innocent Dead is a gripping, atmospheric, highly entertaining tale by Anderson that is another fine example of her exceptional ability to write police procedurals that have catchy storylines and fully-developed characters.

 

This book 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 Lin Anderson

Lin Anderson is a Scottish author and screenwriter known for her bestselling crime series featuring forensic scientist Dr Rhona MacLeod. Four of her novels have been longlisted for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year, with Follow the Dead being a 2018 finalist. Her short film River Child won both a Scottish BAFTA for Best Fiction and the Celtic Film Festival’s Best Drama award and has now been viewed more than one million times on YouTube. Lin is also the co-founder of the international crime writing festival Bloody Scotland, which takes place annually in Stirling.

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