Source: Minotaur Books

#BookReview The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks @MariahFrederick @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheLindberghNanny #MariahFredericks #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks @MariahFrederick @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheLindberghNanny #MariahFredericks #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: The Lindbergh Nanny

Author: Mariah Fredericks

Published by: Minotaur Books on Nov. 15, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: eBook, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Mariah Fredericks’s The Lindbergh Nanny is powerful, propulsive novel about America’s most notorious kidnapping through the eyes of the woman who found herself at the heart of this deadly crime.

When the most famous toddler in America, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., is kidnapped from his family home in New Jersey in 1932, the case makes international headlines. Already celebrated for his flight across the Atlantic, his father, Charles, Sr., is the country’s golden boy, with his wealthy, lovely wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, by his side. But there’s someone else in their household—Betty Gow, a formerly obscure young woman, now known around the world by another name: the Lindbergh Nanny.

A Scottish immigrant deciphering the rules of her new homeland and its East Coast elite, Betty finds Colonel Lindbergh eccentric and often odd, Mrs. Lindbergh kind yet nervous, and Charlie simply a darling. Far from home and bruised from a love affair gone horribly wrong, Betty finds comfort in caring for the child, and warms to the attentions of handsome sailor Henrik, sometimes known as Red. Then, Charlie disappears.

Suddenly a suspect in the eyes of both the media and the public, Betty must find the truth about what really happened that night, in order to clear her own name—and to find justice for the child she loves.


Review:

Captivating, atmospheric, and immersive!

The Lindbergh Nanny is a fascinating, absorbing novel set in the early-1930s that sweeps you away to New Jersey and into the life of Betty Gow, a Scottish immigrant whose life is irrevocably changed when, after being hired by aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife, heiress Anne Morrow Lindbergh to be the caregiver for their first child, Charles Lindbergh Jr., she becomes one of the prime suspects in his kidnapping when it becomes apparent that the twenty-month-old toddler was abducted through a window she left open.

The prose is smooth and fluid. The characters are multi-layered, secretive, and troubled. And the plot builds nicely to create tension and suspense as it unravels all the histories, motivations, personalities, and relationships within it.

Overall, The Lindbergh Nanny is an insightful, well-written, tragic tale by Fredericks based on real-life events that does an exceptional job of highlighting her impressive research and knowledge into what is undoubtedly one of the most famous kidnapping cases of all time.

 

This novel is available November 15, 2022.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Mariah Fredericks

Mariah Fredericks was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives with her family. She is the author of several YA novels. Death of an American Beauty is her third novel to feature ladies' maid Jane Prescott.

#BookReview Secrets of the Nile by Tasha Alexander @talexander @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #SecretsoftheNile #TashaAlexander #LadyEmilyAshtonMysteries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview Secrets of the Nile by Tasha Alexander @talexander @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #SecretsoftheNile #TashaAlexander #LadyEmilyAshtonMysteries #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: Secrets of the Nile

Author: Tasha Alexander

Series: Lady Emily Ashton Mysteries #16

Published by: Minotaur Books on Oct. 4, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In a brilliant homage to Agatha Christie, critically acclaimed author Tasha Alexander sends Lady Emily to Egypt during British colonial rule to investigate a crime that leads back to the era of the Pharaohs.

Lord Bertram Deeley, a renowned amateur British collector of antiquities is entertaining his closest friends at a lavish cruise up the Nile to his home at Luxor when he suddenly collapses after offering a welcome toast, a victim of the lethal poison cyanide. Who amongst this group of his nearest and dearest would want to kill their generous host: an archeologist whose dig Deeley was funding until he suddenly withdrew support? A powerful politician whose career Deeley had secretly destroyed? A dyspeptic aristocratic English spinster whose hired travelling companion seems determined to protect her employer? Or even the formidable Mrs. Hargreaves, Lady Emily’s mother-in-law, who may have spurned the advances of Lord Deeley when they were both younger? A key clue may lie with several ancient ushabtis, exquisite three-thousand-year-old sculptures that played a role in yet another murder in Ancient Egypt, a crime with a very real link to Lord Deeley’s death. Lady Emily and Colin gather their suspects together to reveal the identity of a killer whose motive is as shocking as it is brilliant.


Review:

Mysterious, atmospheric, and entertaining

In this latest novel by Alexander, Secrets of the Nile, we head to 1904, where at the invitation of antiquities collector Lord Deeley, Lady Emily, her husband, her mother-in-law, and her stepdaughter travel to Egypt to enjoy some culture and history only to find themselves immediately embroiled in a clue-like murder mystery when at the dinner on the first evening their host winds up dead, and all the friends and acquaintances surrounding him seem to have had more than one motive for murder.

The writing style is vivid and light. The characters, including the intelligent, independent heroine, are well-developed, complex, and intriguing. And the plot is a well-paced, engaging whodunit full of twists, turns, amateur sleuthing, red herrings, suspects, customs, tradition, deduction, and danger.

Overall, Secrets of the Nile is a cosy, enjoyable, satisfying tale by Alexander that I thoroughly enjoyed, and which is without a doubt another wonderful addition to the Lady Emily Ashton Mysteries.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tasha Alexander

TASHA ALEXANDER is the author of the New York Times bestselling Lady Emily mystery series. The daughter of two philosophy professors, she studied English literature and medieval history at the University of Notre Dame. She and her husband, novelist Andrew Grant, live on a ranch in southeastern Wyoming.

Photo Credit: Charles Osgood

#BookReview The Wedding Plot by Paula Munier @PaulaSMunier @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #MercyCarr #TheWeddingPlot #PaulaMunier #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Wedding Plot by Paula Munier @PaulaSMunier @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #MercyCarr #TheWeddingPlot #PaulaMunier #SMPInfluencers Title: The Wedding Plot

Author: Paula Munier

Series: Mercy & Elvis #4

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jul. 19, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

The Wedding Plot, USA Today bestselling author Paula Munier’s fourth Mercy Carr mystery, finds Mercy and Elvis at a deadly Vermont wedding.

Love never dies a natural death…

When Mercy’s grandmother Patience marries her longtime beau Claude Renault at the five-star Lady’s Slipper Inn, it promises to be the destination wedding of the year. Just as the four-day extravaganza is due to begin, the inn’s spa director Bodhi St. George disappears—and Mercy’s mother Grace sends Mercy and Elvis to find him. But what they discover instead is a stranger skewered by a pitchfork in the barn on the goat farm where St. George lived.

As Mercy tries to figure out who the victim is and where St. George is hiding, the bride and groom’s estranged relations gather for the first of the pre-wedding festivities. Long-buried rivalries and resentments surface—and Mercy realizes that they’re all keeping secrets that could tear both families apart. When Elvis interrupts the escalating melodrama to alert Mercy to an intruder on the estate, she finds a wounded St. George in the cottage where she and Troy are staying. St. George is not who he says he is—but when he escapes from the hospital and disappears again, Mercy thinks he’s gone for good. With the wedding imminent and the families at each other’s throats, she decides finding St. George will have to wait.

The big day arrives—but the danger is far from over. With the families and the festivities still under threat, it’s up to Mercy and Elvis together with Troy and Susie Bear to stop the killer and save the bride and groom—before death do they part.


Review:

Mysterious, cosy, and intricate!

In this satisfying fourth instalment in the Mercy & Elvis MysteriesThe Wedding Plot, Munier has written an amusing, sinister thriller that finds former MP Mercy Carr having more than just her hands full with pre-wedding mayhem at the location of her grandmother’s upcoming nuptials, the Lady’s Slipper Inn when the spa director goes missing, an unidentified person is found dead on the property of the local goat farm, and her special sidekick Elvis accidentally uncovers the skeletal remains of a woman who seems to have been murdered and buried more than twenty years ago.

The prose is fluid and smooth. The characters are persistent, resourceful, and clever. And the plot is an engaging tale full of twists, turns, surprises, red herrings, familial drama, danger, tension, a smidge of romance, and murder.

Overall, The Wedding Plot is a clever, fun, easy read by Munier that is absorbing, entertaining, and the perfect choice for anyone who enjoys a lighthearted mystery featuring some very intelligent, helpful, four-legged friends. 

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Paula Munier

PAULA MUNIER is a literary agent and the USA TODAY bestselling author of the Mercy Carr mysteries. A Borrowing of Bones, the first in the series, was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award and named the Dogwise Book of the Year. Blind Search was inspired by the real-life rescue of a little boy with autism who got lost in the woods. The Hiding Place debuted in March 2021. Paula credits the hero dogs of Mission K9 Rescue, her own rescue dogs, and a deep love of New England as her series’ major influences. Paula has also written the popular books on writing: Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, and Writing with Quiet Hands, as well as Fixing Freddie and Happier Every Day. She lives in New England with her family and Bear the Newfoundland-retriever rescue, Bliss the Great Pyrenees-Australian cattle dog rescue, pandemic puppy Blondie, a Malinois rescue (much like Elvis in her books), and Ursula The Cat, a rescue torbie tabby who does not think much of the dogs.

Photo by Lynne Wayne.

#BookReview The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AllisonMontclair #TheUnkeptWoman #SparksAndBainbridgeMysteries #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Unkept Woman by Allison Montclair @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #AllisonMontclair #TheUnkeptWoman #SparksAndBainbridgeMysteries #SMPInfluencers Title: The Unkept Woman

Author: Allison Montclair

Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #4

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jul. 26, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 304

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 9/10

Allison Montclair returns with the fourth Sparks & Bainbridge mystery, The Unkept Woman: London, 1946, Miss Iris Sparks–currently co-proprietor of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau–has to deal with aspects of her past exploits during the recent war that have come back around to haunt her.

The Right Sort Marriage Bureau was founded in 1946 by two disparate individuals – Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge (whose husband was killed in the recent World War) and Miss Iris Sparks who worked as an intelligence agent during the recent conflict, though this is not discussed. While the agency flourishes in the post-war climate, both founders have to deal with some of the fallout that conflict created in their personal lives. Miss Sparks finds herself followed, then approached, by a young woman who has a very personal connection to a former paramour of Sparks. But something is amiss and it seems that Iris’s past may well cause something far more deadly than mere disruption in her personal life. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is struggling to regain full legal control of her life, her finances, and her son – a legal path strewn with traps and pitfalls.

Together these indomitable two are determined and capable and not just of making the perfect marriage match.


Review:

Suspenseful, immersive, and engaging!

The Unkept Woman is a clever, mysterious tale set in London post-WWII that takes you into the lives of two main characters. Miss Iris Sparks, the former intelligence agent, now partner in a matchmaking service whose previous personal life may make her the primary suspect in the murder of a young woman with a complicated past, and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a young mother and widow who’s ongoing accidental associations with the criminal underworld may once again set back her struggle to regain the legal independence she so desperately desires

The prose is vivid and smooth. The characters are sharp, plucky, and intriguing. And the plot is a well-paced, entertaining mystery full of secrets, suspicions, espionage, duty, friendship, flirtation, duplicity, and fun.

Overall, The Unkept Woman is a rich, atmospheric, highly entertaining tale by Montclair that is the fourth title in the Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery series and is also, in my opinion, the perfect choice for anyone who is looking for an amusing, lighthearted historical whodunit to pick up.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Allison Montclair

ALLISON MONTCLAIR grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. She is the author of the Sparks & Bainbridge historical mystery series, which begins with The Right Sort of Man.

#BookReview The Gatekeeper by James Byrne @JByrnemystery @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #JamesByrne #TheGatekeeper #DezLimerick

#BookReview The Gatekeeper by James Byrne @JByrnemystery @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #JamesByrne #TheGatekeeper #DezLimerick Title: The Gatekeeper

Author: James Byrne

Series: Dez Limerick #1

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jun. 7, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 336

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

James Byrne’s The Gatekeeper introduces Dez Limerick in the most anticipated new thriller in years.

A highly trained team of mercenaries launches a well-planned, coordinated attack on a well-guarded military contractor – but they didn’t count on one thing, the right man being in the wrong place at the right time.

Desmond Aloysius Limerick (“Dez” to all) is a retired mercenary, and enthusiastic amateur musician, currently in Southern California, enjoying the sun and sitting in on the occasional gig, when the hotel he’s at falls under attack. A skilled team attempts to kidnap the Chief legal counsel of Triton Expeditors, a major military contractor – in fact, Petra Alexandris is the daughter of the CEO – but their meticulously-planned, seamlessly executed scheme runs into the figurative ‘spanner-in-the-works,’ Dez himself.

After foiling the attack, and with nothing better to do, Dez agrees to help Alexandris with another problem she’s having – someone has embezzled more than a billion dollars from her company and left very few tracks behind. But Dez is a gatekeeper – one who opens doors and keeps them open – and this is just a door of another kind. And the door he opens leads to a dangerous conspiracy involving media manipulation, militias, an armed coup, and an attempt to fracture the United States themselves. There’s only one obstacle between the conspirators and success – and that is Dez, The Gatekeeper.


Review:

Tight, sinister, and suspenseful!

The Gatekeeper is the start of a brand-new series by Byrne that sweeps you away to California, where the cocky, confident, retired mercenary Dez ‘The Gatekeeper’ Limerick finds himself inadvertently swept up in the investigation of an embezzlement and conspiracy scheme involving military contractor, Triton Expeditors when one night after playing a local musical gig he successfully thwarts the attempted kidnapping of their CLO Petra Alexandris.

The prose is direct and well-paced. The characters are resourceful, talented, and committed. And the plot is a thrilling tale full of greed, power, deception, abuse, violence, manipulation, passion, politics, murder, and corruption.

Overall, The Gatekeeper is a darkly comedic, edgy, action-packed thriller that kept me highly entertained from the very first page and is without a doubt an exceptionally promising debut by Byrne that left me more than a little eager to read what Dez Limerick manages to get mixed up in next.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About James Byrne

JAMES BYRNE is the pseudonym for an author who has worked for more than twenty years as a journalist and in politics. A native of the Pacific Northwest, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

#BookReview Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron @pauldoiron @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #PaulDoiron #HatchetIsland #MikeBowditch

#BookReview Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron @pauldoiron @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #PaulDoiron #HatchetIsland #MikeBowditch Title: Hatchet Island

Author: Paul Doiron

Series: Mike Bowditch #13

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jun. 28, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

An eerie, windswept island off the coast of Maine becomes the site of a double murder and a disappearance in Hatchet Island, the next thriller in Paul Doiron’s bestselling Mike Bowditch series.

A call for help from a former colleague leads Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens on a sea kayaking trip to a research station far off the coast. Stacey spent summers interning on the island, a sanctuary for endangered seabirds, and they are shocked by what they hear when they come ashore. The biologists are being threatened by local fishermen and stalked by a mysterious boatman who seems intent on trespassing on the refuge. Even worse, their leader, whose mind is slowly unraveling after the unexplained suicide of a young intern, has now gone missing.

Camped on a nearby islet for the night, Mike and Stacey waken to the sound of a gunshot. When they return to the refuge at dawn, their darkest fears are confirmed: two of the three researchers have been brutally murdered and the third has disappeared, along with the island skiff. Mike’s quest to find the missing man reveals new suspects including a Marine Patrol officer with a history of violence and the sanctuary’s enigmatic founder, who conveniently reappears after the killings. The search expands to a nearby island owned by a world-renowned photographer with a scandalous reputation. The artist and his equally brilliant wife wield a powerful hold over the inhabitants of their private kingdom, and Mike increasingly comes to believe that someone in the village knows more about the killings than they dare admit.

With no one to trust and miles from shore, Mike Bowditch must stop a ruthless murderer determined to make sure a terrifying secret never sees the light of day.


Review:

Ominous, intricate, and creepy!

Hatchet Island is an engrossing, menacing thriller that takes you back into the life of Maine game warden Mike Bowditch as he and his significant other, biologist Stacey Stevens find themselves heading to the islands off the coast of Maine and embroiled in a tragic, disturbing case involving some disgruntled fishermen, a famous photographer with a dark side, and a double homicide when Stacey’s old roommate working on the Maine Seabird Initiative asks for her help locating her missing boss. 

The prose is tight and intense. The characters are resourceful, clever, and persistent. And the plot is a sinister tale of mayhem, murder, coercion, deception, tragedy, suspicious personalities, abusive behaviour, suicide, and loss.

Overall, Hatchet Island is another atmospheric, pacey, thrilling tale by Doiron that, with its well-drawn characterization and entertaining storyline, is sure to be a big hit with longtime fan of the Mike Bowditch series.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Paul Doiron

A native of Maine, bestselling author PAUL DOIRON attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. The Poacher’s Son, the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.

Photo by Mark Fleming.

#BookReview The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor @SSTaylorBooks @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #TheDrowningSea #SarahStewartTaylor #MaggieDArcy #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Drowning Sea by Sarah Stewart Taylor @SSTaylorBooks @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #MinotaurInfluencers #TheDrowningSea #SarahStewartTaylor #MaggieDArcy #SMPInfluencers Title: The Drowning Sea

Author: Sarah Stewart Taylor

Published by: Minotaur Books on Jun. 21, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 352

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

In The Drowning Sea, Sarah Stewart Taylor returns to the critically acclaimed world of Maggie D’arcy with another atmospheric mystery so vivid readers will smell the salt in the air and hear the wind on the cliffs.

For the first time in her adult life, former Long Island homicide detective Maggie D’arcy is unemployed. No cases to focus on, no leads to investigate, just a whole summer on a remote West Cork peninsula with her teenage daughter Lilly and her boyfriend, Conor and his son. The plan is to prepare Lilly for a move to Ireland. But their calm vacation takes a dangerous turn when human remains wash up below the steep cliffs of Ross Head.

When construction worker Lukas Adamik disappeared months ago, everyone assumed he had gone home to Poland. Now that his body has been found, the guards, including Maggie’s friends Roly Byrne and Katya Grzeskiewicz, seem to think he threw himself from the cliffs. But as Maggie gets to know the residents of the nearby village and learns about the history of the peninsula and its abandoned Anglo Irish manor house, once home to a famous Irish painter who died under mysterious circumstances, she starts to think there’s something else going on. Something deadly. And when Lilly starts dating one of the dead man’s friends, Maggie grows worried about her daughter being so close to another investigation and about what the investigation will uncover.

Old secrets, hidden relationships, crime, and village politics are woven throughout this small seaside community, and as the summer progresses, Maggie is pulled deeper into the web of lies, further from those she loves, and closer to the truth.


Review:

Menacing, twisty, and intriguing!

In this latest novel by Taylor, The Drowning Sea, we head back into the life of Maggie D’Arcy, who, after recently leaving her job as a detective on Long Island, heads for a vacation in West Cork, Ireland, where things aren’t as quiet and relaxing as she hoped when the town she’s ends up staying in is rife with misfits, mayhem, a history of drug smuggling, and an estate, Rosscliffe Manor, that seems to have a lot of long-buried secrets of its own.

The writing is crisp and tight. The characters are multilayered, dependable, and tenacious. And the plot is a captivating mix of twists, turns, red herrings, secrets, deception, obsession, manipulation, malicious intentions, small-town politics, and murder.

Overall, I found The Drowning Sea to be another fabulous addition to the Maggie D’Arcy series by Taylor with its complex characters, sinister storyline, and exceptionally dramatic ending.

 

This book is available now.

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

            

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Sarah Stewart Taylor

Sarah Stewart Taylor grew up on Long Island and was educated at Middlebury College and Trinity College, Dublin. She lives with her husband and three children on a farm in Vermont where they raise sheep and blueberries.

Sarah is the author of THE MOUNTAINS WILD, an atmospheric thriller about a Long Island homicide detective named Maggie D'Arcy who returns to Ireland twenty-three years after the unsolved disappearance of her beloved cousin Erin in the Wicklow Mountains. When a young woman disappears and new evidence from Erin’s case is found, Maggie will have to uncover the truth about the Irish man she's never stopped loving and, in order to help Irish police save the missing woman, the truth about who Erin was and what happened to her.

It will be published by Minotaur Books on June 23, 2020.

Sarah is also the author of the Sweeney St. George mystery series, about an art historian who studies funerary art, "the art of death," from Minotaur Books. The first book in the series, O’ Artful Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel.

Her non-fiction has been published in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and many other publications.

Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

#BookReview The Favor by Nora Murphy @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheFavorBook #MinotaurBooks #NoraMurphyBooks #FavorForAFriend #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Favor by Nora Murphy @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheFavorBook #MinotaurBooks #NoraMurphyBooks #FavorForAFriend #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: The Favor

Author: Nora Murphy

Published by: Minotaur Books on May 31, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 288

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Staying is dangerous. Leaving could be worse.

Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives.

They don’t—ever—find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t—ever—discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t—ever—acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped.

Because Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside. Driving past McKenna’s house one night, she sees what she knows only too well herself from her own marriage: McKenna’s “perfect” husband is not what he seems. She decides to keep an eye out for McKenna, until one night, she intervenes.

Leah and McKenna have never met. But they will.


Review:

Devious, alluring, and intense!

The Favor is a riveting, character-driven thriller that immerses you into the lives of two strangers, Leah and McKenna, as their eerily similar worlds intersect, unravel, and collide while anxiously surviving day-by-day dangerous, controlling, troubling marriages.

The writing is brisk and precise. The characters are complex, troubled, and resolved. And the plot unravels quickly into an unnerving tale of secrets, power, control, deception, jealousy, obsession, domestic abuse, unlikely friendships, and murder.

Overall, The Favor is an addictive, twisty, brilliant debut by Murphy that delves into all the emotional and psychological damage caused by domestic abuse and highlights just how easily intimidation, manipulation, and dominance can often be masked as love.

 

This novel is available May 31, 2022.

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

            

 

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Nora Murphy

NORA MURPHY attended law school in Washington, D.C., then worked as a judicial law clerk before transitioning to private practice. During law school, she participated in two clinics through which she represented and studied the issues facing survivors of intimate partner violence. A practicing attorney, Nora writes as much as she can, usually long before the sunrise or on her phone for brief moments when the inspiration strikes. Nora resides in Maryland with her husband, young son, and five rescue pets. When she’s not working, writing, or chasing her toddler, Nora can be found contemplating her next ice cream run or reading. The Favor is her first novel.

Photo by Crystal Tseng Photography.

#BookReview The Night Shift by Alex Finlay @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheNightShift #AlexFinlay #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Night Shift by Alex Finlay @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheNightShift #AlexFinlay #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: The Night Shift

Author: Alex Finlay

Published by: Minotaur Books on Mar. 1, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: Hardcover

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive.

Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words… “Goodnight, pretty girl.”

In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.


Review:

Devious, sinister, and propulsive!

In this latest novel by Finlay, The Night Shift, he transports you to Linden, New Jersey, a small town where tragedy seems to strike, secrets and gossip are rampant, and a mass murder of multiple teens at a local ice cream shop that is eerily similar to an unsolved crime that happened at the Blockbuster fifteen-years before on New Year’s Eve triggers strong emotions, tragic memories, and finally uncovers more suspects and skeletons buried within the community than anyone could have imagined.

The writing is intricate and tight. The characters are tormented, complex, and secretive. And the plot told from multiple perspectives keeps you on the edge of your seat as it submerges you into a menacing tale full of twists, turns, secrets, deception, manipulation, deduction, deviance, mayhem, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Night Shift is another adrenaline-pumping, twisty, highly satisfying page-turner that had just the right amount of suspense, tension, and nostalgia to keep me engaged, invested, and guessing until the very last page.

 

This novel is available now.

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

            

 

 

 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Alex Finlay

ALEX FINLAY is the pseudonym of an author who lives in Washington, D.C. His 2021 breakout thriller, Every Last Fear, was an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thriller of the year. Alex’s work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and optioned for film and television.

Photo by Kristina Sherk.

#BookReview The Shadow House by Anna Downes @WhatAnnaWrote @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheShadowHouse #AnnaDownes #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

#BookReview The Shadow House by Anna Downes @WhatAnnaWrote @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #TheShadowHouse #AnnaDownes #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers Title: The Shadow House

Author: Anna Downes

Published by: Minotaur Books on Apr. 5, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 320

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Minotaur Books

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A HOUSE WITH DEADLY SECRETS.

A MOTHER WHO’LL RISK EVERYTHING TO BRING THEM TO LIGHT.

Alex, a single mother-of-two, is determined to make a fresh start for her and her children. In an effort to escape her troubled past, she seeks refuge in a rural community. Pine Ridge is idyllic; the surrounding forests are beautiful and the locals welcoming. Mostly.

But Alex finds that she may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home. As a chain of bizarre events is set off, events eerily familiar to those who have lived there for years, Alex realizes that she and her family might be in greater danger than ever before. And that the only way to protect them all is to confront the shadows lurking in Pine Ridge.


Review:

Simmering, dark, and chilling!

The Shadow House is an eerie, enthralling thriller that takes you into the life of Alex Ives and her two children as they relocate to the Pine Ridge ecovillage in order to escape an abusive home, only to find themselves surrounded by witch tales, disturbing deliveries, creepy dolls, splatters of blood, and an unexplained disappearance that lingers and still haunts.

The prose is tight and menacing. The characters are scarred, hesitant, and vulnerable. And the plot told from differing points of view is a sinister tale of life, loss, deception, isolation, secrets, lies, intimidation, familial drama, relationship dynamics, and swirling emotions.

Overall, The Shadow House is an intricate, ominous, twisty tale by Downes that had just the right pace, mood, atmosphere, and surprises to keep me entertained and guessing right up to the very last page.

 

This book is available now.

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

              

 

 

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

 

About Anna Downes

ANNA DOWNES was born and raised in Sheffield, UK, but now lives just north of Sydney, Australia with her husband and two children. She worked as an actress before turning her attention to writing and appeared in BBC TV shows such as Eastenders, Casualty, Holby City, and Dalziel and Pascoe, as well as a long-running stage production of "The Dresser" in London's West End. She has degrees from both Manchester University (Drama) and RADA (Acting). She has been published in the Zodiac Literary Review, shortlisted for the Sydney Writers Room Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Margaret River Short Story Competition. The Safe Place was inspired by Anna’s experiences working as a live-in housekeeper on a remote French estate in 2009-10.

Photo by Ona Janzen.