Publisher: Harper Books

#BookReview Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler @BonMot101 @harperbooks #ShellGames #BonnieKistler #HarperBooks

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler @BonMot101 @harperbooks #ShellGames #BonnieKistler #HarperBooks Title: Shell Games

Author: Bonnie Kistler

Published by: Harper Books on Nov. 19, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A dazzling thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind––and the daughter can’t tell where the truth lies.

Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.

But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before. 

Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.

Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?

As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .

Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.

Review:

Cunning, edgy, and mysterious!

Shell Games is a fast-paced, menacing tale that takes you into the lives of a handful of people, including Julie Hoffman, a young woman whose life gets turned upside down when her mother is found dead, and it quickly becomes apparent that everyone around her seems to have something to hide.

The prose is brisk and tight. The characters are multilayered, wary, and secretive. And the plot is a simmering, ominous tale full of twists, turns, deception, manipulation, friendship, family, lies, tension, death, and unease.

Overall, Shell Games is a devious, intense, eerie tale by Kistler that kept me guessing from the very first page and left me entertained, satisfied, and extremely surprised.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Bonnie Kistler

Bonnie Kistler is the author of The Cage and Her, Too. A former Philadelphia trial lawyer, she was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Bryn Mawr College and the University of the Pennsylvania Law School. She and her husband now live in southwest Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina.

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#BookReview April Storm by Leila Meacham @harperbooks #AprilStorm #LeilaMeacham #HarperBooks

categories: 8.5/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview April Storm by Leila Meacham @harperbooks #AprilStorm #LeilaMeacham #HarperBooks Title: April Storm

Author: Leila Meacham

Published by: Harper Books on Nov. 12, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 256

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A seemingly perfect suburban housewife is being pursued by a private detective . . . and hunted by a murderer in this riveting, much-anticipated posthumous novel from the beloved author of Roses and Dragonfly.

Katherine Walker enjoys an enviable life. Her husband is an accomplished doctor, her children are bright and successful, and she devotes herself to charity work that uplifts her Suburban Colorado community. Settling into a new year, her life couldn’t be better. . .

Until April.

For Katherine, April has always rained trouble—but this time may be even stormier than the fraught past she’s trying to overcome. Already distraught over the child she miscarried in this same cursed month many years ago, the emotionally fragile woman isn’t ready to consider the overwhelming evidence that someone may be trying to take her husband—and her life.

Featuring the complex characters and powerful storytelling that are the beloved hallmarks of Leila Meacham’s novels beginning with her breakout debut Roses, April Storm is a page-turning triumph that caps a remarkable literary career.

Review:

Intricate, compelling, and sharp!

April Storm is a captivating, suspenseful tale that takes us into the life of devoted wife and mother Kathryn Walker as her life suddenly gets turned upside down when it quickly becomes apparent that someone is watching her every move and is more than willing to do whatever it takes, even resort to murder, to be rid of her forever.

The writing is sharp and tight. The characters are vulnerable, troubled, and multilayered. And the plot is an ominous, twisty tale filled with manipulation, familial drama, deception, lies, jealousy, obsession, secrets, revelations, mayhem, and murder.

The passing of Leila Meacham in September 2021 was a tremendous loss for the literary world, and it’s an honour to be able to read anything she wrote. April Storm is not the typical novel we’ve seen from Meacham in the past several years, as she swept us away into stories taking place in the past, such as Dragonfly and Roses. Still, it is nevertheless a clever, tortuous, cunning page-turner that kept me guessing from the very first page and ultimately left me surprised, satisfied, and thoroughly entertained.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Leila Meacham

Leila Meacham (1938–2021) was a writer and former teacher from San Antonio, Texas, who came to writing later in life. Her many successful novels include the bestselling Roses, Somerset, Tumbleweeds, and Dragonfly.

Photograph by Marie Langmore/Langmore Photography.

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#BookReview Precipice by Robert Harris @Robert___Harris @harperbooks #Precipice #RobertHarris #HarperBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Historical Fiction
#BookReview Precipice by Robert Harris @Robert___Harris @harperbooks #Precipice #RobertHarris #HarperBooks Title: Precipice

Author: Robert Harris

Published by: Harper Books on Sep. 17, 2024

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 464

Format: Hardcover

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 9/10

A spellbinding novel of passion, intrigue, and betrayal set in England in the months leading to the Great War from the bestselling author of Act of Oblivion, Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, and Munich.

Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe.

In London, twenty-six-year-old Venetia Stanley—aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless—is part of a fast group of upper-crust bohemians and socialites known as “The Coterie.” She’s also engaged in a clandestine love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state.

As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer with Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a leak of top-secret documents. Suddenly, what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that could topple the British government—and will alter the course of political history.

An unrivaled master of seamlessly weaving fact and fiction, Precipice is another electrifying thriller from the brilliant imagination of Robert Harris.

Review:

Immersive, evocative, and nuanced!

Precipice is a compelling, enlightening tale that sweeps you away to London in the early 1900s and into the life of H. H. Asquith, from his position as Prime Minister of Great Britain to his all-consuming infatuation and love affair with a woman, Beatrice Venetia Stanley, who was more than half his age.

The prose is tight and fluid. The characters are intelligent, multilayered, and driven. And the plot is a fascinating tale about life, love, power, corruption, recklessness, loyalty, the inner workings of government, and the complexities of war.

I have to admit that I knew very little about H. H. Asquith when I started Precipice, but Harris did such a wonderful job of blending historical facts with captivating, alluring fiction that I was not only left entertained but incredibly intrigued to learn more about his life and his contribution to British politics.

 

This novel is available now.

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

        

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Robert Harris

ROBERT HARRIS is the author of fifteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy—Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator—Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2 and Act of Oblivion. Several of his books have been adapted into films, including The Ghost. His work has been translated into forty languages and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.

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#BookReview The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd @ElleryLloyd @harperbooks #TheFinalActOfJulietteWilloughby #ElleryLloyd #HarperBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd @ElleryLloyd @harperbooks #TheFinalActOfJulietteWilloughby #ElleryLloyd #HarperBooks Title: The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby

Author: Ellery Lloyd

Published by: Harper Books on Jun. 11, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 9/10

Some women won’t be painted out of history . . .

Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.

Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.

But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?

A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets . . .

Review:

Unpredictable, tortuous, and layered!

The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a captivating, suspenseful tale set in both Cambridge and Paris during 1938, 1991, as well as the present day, that sweeps you away and immerses you into the lives of two women; Caroline Cooper, a student of art history who at the urging of her mentor decides to include the notoriously lost painting of an artist whose life suddenly came to an end shortly after the only night it was ever exhibited, and Juliette Willoughby, a painter who perished with her lover in a fire soon after completing a famous piece of sphinx surrealism.

The prose is rich and lyrical. The main characters are inquisitive, determined, and resourceful. And the plot is a captivating, mysterious saga filled with life, loss, love, familial drama, heartbreak, secrets, lies, deception, moral dilemmas, Egyptology, sorrow, and tragedy.

Overall, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a well-written, exceptionally detailed, cunning puzzle by Lloyd that kept me intrigued from the very first page and is the perfect choice for anyone who loves historical fiction stories interwoven with compelling mysteries.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Ellery Lloyd

Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for the London-based husband-and-wife writing team of Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK), and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for the Guardian, the Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day Is Like Sunday. He is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich. They are the authors of People Like Her and The Club.

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#BookReview The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen @SarinaBowen @harperbooks #TheFiveYearLie #SarinaBowen #HarperBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen @SarinaBowen @harperbooks #TheFiveYearLie #SarinaBowen #HarperBooks Title: The Five Year Lie

Author: Sarina Bowen

Published by: Harper Books on May 7, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 9/10

She thought it was love. Then he vanished.

On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty’s phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it’s been several years since she learned he died.

Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.

Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her.

The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew.

With a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.

Review:

Sinister, sharp, and engrossing!

The Five Year Lie is a chilling, cyber thriller that transports you into the life of Ariel Cafferty, a young mother whose world gets turned upside down when she suddenly receives a text message that should have been delivered five years ago from the man she once loved but who suddenly disappeared without a trace.

The writing is tight and intense. The characters are mysterious, troubled, and multilayered. And the plot intertwines and unravels quickly into a suspenseful, intricate tale of lies, secrets, manipulation, familial drama, unexpected twists, heart-wrenching motivations, violence, and deception.

Overall, The Five Year Lie is a tortuous, clever, creepy page-turner by Bowen that kept me guessing from the very first page, showcased her ability to be a master of more than just the romance genre, and ultimately, left me shocked, surprised, thoroughly entertained, and eager for more.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarina Bowen

Sarina Bowen is the RITA® Award winning author of over two dozen contemporary and LGTB romance novels. She most recently hit the USA Today bestseller's list in February, with Brooklynaire. Formerly a derivatives trader on Wall Street, Sarina holds a BA in economics from Yale University.

Sarina Bowen is a New Englander whose Vermont ancestors cut timber and farmed the north country since the 1760s. Sarina is grateful for the invention of indoor plumbing and wi-fi during the intervening 250 years. On a few wooded acres, she lives with her husband, two boys, and an ungodly amount of ski and hockey gear.

Sarina's books are published in a dozen languages on four continents. In 2016, The Romance Writers of America honored HIM by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy with a RITA award for Best Contemporary Romance, Mid-Length.

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#BookReview The Last Time She Saw Him By Kate White @katemwhite @harperbooks #TheLastTimeSheSawHim #KateWhite #HarperBooks

categories: 8/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview The Last Time She Saw Him By Kate White @katemwhite @harperbooks #TheLastTimeSheSawHim #KateWhite #HarperBooks Title: The Last Time She Saw him

Author: Kate White

Published by: Harper Books on May 14, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: Paperback

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 8/10

A young woman is left reeling after a broken engagement is followed by a shocking death—one she must prove was a murder, in the latest psychological thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kate White.

It’s summer in New York City, but Kiki Reed isn’t feeling very sunny. She recently broke off her engagement to Jamie Larsson, a great guy, but just not “the one.” And although she knows it was for the best, she feels guilty for hurting him.

When Kiki accepts an invitation to a party at a friend’s Connecticut country house, she knows Jamie will be there, too, but decides to get their first interaction over with. When they come face to face, their exchange is brief and pleasant, a huge relief for her.

Then, as the party is winding down, a shot rings out. The few remaining guests run outside to find Jamie inside his car, dead from a gunshot wound.

Shocked and grieving, Kiki soon hears that the police are leaning toward ruling it a suicide, but she knows that Jamie was moving on from their breakup, and truly doubts that he’s taken his own life. Determined to find the truth, she rents a house in the area to look for the missing link that will get the police to take her seriously. But as she peels away the layers, she uncovers something far more sinister than she had ever imagined—and it may be her life on the line next. . . .

Review:

Suspenseful, intricate, and gripping!

The Last Time She Saw Him is a complex, twisty tale that takes you into the life of Kiki Reed, a successful career coach who, after her ex-fiancé commits suicide at the end of a dinner party they’ve both attended, decides to do whatever she can to prove there is no way he would ever take his own life, but rather he was murdered.

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are secretive, ruthless, and driven. And the plot unravels quickly into an ominous tale full of twists, turns, lies, deception, manipulation, suspicious personalities, revelations, and murder.

Overall, The Last Time She Saw Him is a quick, tortuous, sinister tale by White that had me hooked from the very first page and, ultimately, left me satisfied, surprised, and entertained.

 

This novel is available now.

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

             

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Kate White

Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of eight standalone psychological thrillers, including Have You Seen Me? (2020) and the upcoming The Fiancée (June 2021), as well as eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife, which was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. Kate, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, is also the author of several popular career books for women, including I Shouldn't Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the Career You Deserve and Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead, as well the editor of the Anthony and Agatha Award-nominated The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. 

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#BookReview Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz @AnthonyHorowitz @harperbooks #ClosetoDeath #AnthonyHorowitz #HawthorneAndHorowitz #HarperBooks

categories: 9/10, Book Review, Mystery/Thriller
#BookReview Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz @AnthonyHorowitz @harperbooks #ClosetoDeath #AnthonyHorowitz #HawthorneAndHorowitz #HarperBooks Title: Close to Death

Author: Anthony Horowitz

Series: Hawthorne & Horowitz #5

Published by: Harper Books on Apr. 16, 2024

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Hardcover

Source: Harper Books

Book Rating: 9/10

In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunnit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound.

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong, and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll, until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, gaggle of shrieking children, and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and quickly offend every last one of the neighbors.

When Charles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect?

Review:

Intricate, sharp, and clever!

In this fifth instalment in the Hawthorne & Horowitz series, Close to Death, we head back into the life of Horowitz, the author extraordinaire who, now under a tight deadline to produce his next book, decides to delve into one of Hawthorne’s most challenging murder cases from five years ago involving a gated cul-de-sac in an exclusive part of London, and the crossbow slaying of an arrogant neighbour who everyone in the community seems to have had a motive to kill.

The writing is tight and crisp. The characters are multilayered, irritated, and secretive. And the plot is an immersive, mysterious tale full of twists, turns, surprises, deception, mayhem, suspicious personalities, revelations, manipulation, animosity, and murder.

Overall, Close to Death is a complex, intense, engrossing tale that has just the right amount of suspense, well-drawn characterization, and creative storyline to make it a satisfying, highly entertaining addition to a metafiction series that I can honestly not get enough of. Anthony Horowitz has certainly written some amazing characters over the years, but Hawthorne & Horowitz are definitely two of my all-time favourites.

This book is available now.

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

         

 

 

Thank you to Harper Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Anthony Horowitz

ANTHONY HOROWITZ is the author of the US bestselling Magpie Murders and The Word is Murder, and one of the most prolific and successful writers in the English language; he may have committed more (fictional) murders than any other living author. His novel Trigger Mortis features original material from Ian Fleming. His most recent Sherlock Holmes novel, Moriarty, is a reader favorite; and his bestselling Alex Rider series for young adults has sold more than 19 million copies worldwide. As a TV screenwriter, he created both Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA-winning Foyle’s War on PBS. Horowitz regularly contributes to a wide variety of national newspapers and magazines, and in January 2014 was awarded an OBE.

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