Tight, suspenseful mystery
340812
Tana French does it again with her latest book drawing you in to this suspenseful nail biter. A good read!
923087
This is the eighth of the D.D. Warren mysteries, and it's a good one.

Flora Dane was kidnapped and held for over a year before she was rescued and her kidnapper killed. She's a survivor--but she's never really moved past it. Things happened during that year that she's never told anyone, and as a result she has a mission she's never shared with anyone, either. And one night in Boston, she goes out to a bar, and winds up killing the hunky bartender who tried to kidnap her.
D.D. Warren is the Boston P.D. detective who responds to the scene. One the one hand, they find evidence that this may not have been Devon Crawford's first kidnapping. On the other hand, Dane's responses and affect strike her as Not Right in ways that can't be pinned down precisely.

It's the start of a wild and confusing hunt. As she works her way through the very tangled evidence, D.D. is dealing with Dane, her mother, their victim advocates, and the family of another young woman, Stacy Summers, who was kidnapped three months ago. In the Summers case, video that shows the form but not the face of her kidnapper is still the only evidence they have.

They can tie Crawford to two missing women and, with less certainty, Stacy Summers. Crawford is dead, now, though, so what explains another kidnapping seemingly tied to him? We follow D.D.'s investigation, and Flora's recounting of her own kidnapping, starting with waking up in a coffin-shaped box. Flora's is a harrowing story, and her story and D.D.'s investigation slowly converge on the culprit and the answer from opposite directions.

It is, as always, tightly plotted, with fairly strong characterization.

And yet.

D.D. takes the time to describe what she says is a "traditional Boston triple decker." Unfortunately, she describes it as a three-story home with common rooms on the first floor, and private rooms (bedrooms, etc.) on the second and third floors. In short, a large, single-family home.

No. Just no.

A traditional Boston triple decker is a three-story home, three apartments stacked one on top of the other. Each apartment occupies an entire floor. Common rooms are in the front of the house; bedrooms typically in the back. Each apartment has two porches--one at the front, one at the back.

The triple deckers were Boston's civilized answer to tenement housing, and generations of working class and immigrant families became homeowners by buying triple decker and renting out the other two units.

I whimpered with pain at hearing the triple deckers I and so many others grew up hin described in a way that had nothing to do with them.

Despite my petty personal complaint on that point, this is a good book and an excellent read.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.
3336864
"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" is a historical mystery set in England in 1926 (though it was a contemporary mystery when it was written). It's a clever, clue-based puzzle mystery. I had suspects but no clear idea of whodunit until the final clues were revealed at the end. Everything fell into place perfectly, and I knew whodunit before whodunit was revealed. I love it when my knowing and the "big reveal" are so close together. (I like to be able to correctly guess, but I don't like spending half a book knowing while the "smart" characters blunder around.)

While the whodunit mystery was brilliant, I didn't find the ending very satisfying. I don't like it when Poirot decides to take the law into his own hands.

There was no sex. There was a very minor amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this mystery.
714423
Nice to read a mystery that doesn't involve murder(s) and overt danger to the main character.  And yet there's plenty of suspense.
4751867
False Impressions is a tightly plotted mystery that kept me guessing until the end.

Megan Scott suffers the ultimate betrayal when she learns of her husband's affair through a double murder. Her once-happy life unravels and even worse, she discovers that she and investigative reporter Michael Elliott are the prime suspects.

Megan wants to trust Michael, but the evidence says otherwise. Is he a victim too, or part of the deception? As they fight to prove their innocence, they also fall in love.

Can't wait to read the next installment in the Megan Scott/Michael Elliott series.

Colleen Cross, Author of Exit Strategy, Katerina Carter fraud thriller series
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Exit-Strategy-Kat-Carter-Fraud-Thriller-Series-1/dp/B0067PHJCO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Exit Strategy (Kat Carter Fraud Thriller Series #1)</a>
2718297
Six months after his parents died in an auto accident, Spencer Manning has turned away from following his father's career in the Chicago police force and become a private investigator, looking for his first case, which comes when the owner of a local diner asks him to find out the biological father of his young niece whose mother was murdered months earlier. His investigation brushes up against the stalled police investigation of the murder, riles the activities of a drug operation based at a local racetrack, uncovers dark secrets in the Mayor's mansion and unexpectedly discovers a darker shadow over his parent's accident. This detective mystery has a well-crafted back story that will leave many readers guessing as the pieces are uncovered and put together by our hero. For those like me who see where the path is turning, the journey is still nicely told with strong characterizations. I noted an Amazon review that railed against multiple spelling and grammar errors, but my Kindle copy was very well edited with very few errors. However, I sense that this recently published debut novel has been sitting in a drawer for awhile, waiting for a chance to strut itself, based on clues like Spencers 65 Mustang originally owned by his father, the tape-driven answering machine and pager that are Spencers main communication tools, and the Wrigley Field home game Spencer and a lady friend attends with Bill Buckner in the Cubs lineup (1989-1994).
1095040
Everyone's got a story to tell.

When a baby's skeleton is found on a building site, reporter Kate Waters becomes fascinated by the case and decides to delve deeper in the hopes of landing a big story for her newspaper. Her investigation leads her to two women  Emma Simmonds and Angela Irving.

Decades earlier and shortly after giving birth, Angela's baby Alice disappeared from the maternity hospital. Although Angela still has hope, no trace of her child was ever found. When the bones are unearthed at the building site, she is convinced they are those of her lost daughter's.

As a child, Emma and her mother Jude, lived in the house where the dead baby is found. Emma, now an adult and living with her supportive husband, is a book editor who suffers from severe anxiety. She also has many secrets. Over the years she has had a difficult and strained relationship with her mother.

At the heart of it all is an intriguing mystery in a slowly developing and engrossing story. Who is the mother of the baby and how did it die? Who buried it? As the women's lives intersect, more is revealed about them while the pace quickens.

The Child is well-written with a strong plot, detailed settings, complex characters and unexpected surprises. With it's intriguing premise and low-key suspense which builds to a crescendo, it is definitely a novel I recommend.
3568071
A super tight mystery - likable and interesting characters. Read it straight through could not put it down.  I 'm hoping this is the first of many mystery's solved by the detectives of Ketchum's Mill police department.
786863
Vanished is a wonderfully crafted mystery that keeps pulling you in and on your toes throughout. The story starts out simple -three best friends, and our protagonist, Kalah, was the third one to add to the dynamic duo. She is younger than the two other girls - Beth and Brit, and while she feels a bit left out from much of their shared history, she is also secure in the knowledge that they both like her enough despite it. This story revolves around the dynamics of their friendship and the idea that perception, not the truth, determines reality.

While the mystery is definitely the selling point of the book, we have a great narrative being set up by virtue of our protagonist Kalah. She has a past history of mental illness; anxiety is her enemy but is also what is making her see beyond. Not to romanticize it, but she has a sharp mind that worries even when not needed. Her relationship with Zach and Beth pull at her; she loves them both, but strongly for the latter, and so feels guilty over the way she is treating the former. She is bisexual but there is no gay panic over it; it is treated normally like how you would treat a person cheating on one with another. Hiding behind her lie means she can't really come out with her suspicions immediately, and that's how involved the character design is in the plot progression. I really don't want to give the details of the actual mystery away, so all I'll say is that the ending was a teensy bit out of the normal, because I don't see the police not investigating that! Nevertheless, the story, and the book overall, make for a very engaging read.
578534
This book is a quick and enjoyable introduction to Sydney private investigator Claudia Valentine. Claudia's usual area of expertise is insurance investigation, but when an ex-school friend calls on her about her dead brother she feels compelled to help determine whether his death was the accidental heart failure it was ruled, or something more sinister.

Not long into her investigation she gets the distinct impression that she is being followed, an impression that is confirmed telling her she must be onto something. Helped by friends and nosy neighbours alike, Claudia learns enough to get herself into more than one dangerous tight spot, mixing it up with the feared Harry Lavender.

THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF HARRY LAVENDER is the first book in the Claudia Valentine series and Valentine proves to be a no-nonsense, tough woman who views the world through a jaundiced eye, ready with a quip to lighten the moment. It's a fast-paced book that is tightly plotted moving logically from clue to clue. On the down side, coincidence seems to play a big part in the story with unlikely interconnections between characters popping up throughout the book.

This is an enjoyable though uncomplicated series introduction.
3104172
This mystery keeps you guessing, and ends with some unexpected turns. Very well written!
2780280
zips right along and is fun and suspenseful.  Thornhill writes a good plot and characters to fill the mystery.  no gore just good old-fashioned mystery of who did it, with a diverse cast of characters.
1741550
In her usually elegant and sophistocated style, Mary Stewart weaves a suspenseful mystery that leaves the reader guessing until the very end.

On the English countryside, a young Canadian woman, Mary Grey, is resting on a ruin while on holiday when she is suddenly interrupted by a furious man.  The man, Connor Winslow, recognizes Mary as his cousin and long-dead lover, Annabel Winslow.  After Mary explains that there must have been a mistake, Connor tells her about Annabel who disappeared years before and makes her an offer...

Mary can arrive at Connor's home, Whitescar, and masquesde as Annabel. She will inherit Annabel's fortune,if she gives Connor the land of Whitescar.

A woman does arrive at Whitescar. Is she, Mary Grey working to inherit money that is not her own? Or is she, Annabel Windslow returned home?

Upon arriving at Whitescar, Mary delves into the mystery of Annabel.  Why did the woman disappear without a word to anyone or perhaps was she forced to disappear?

With her usual genious, Stewart leds the reader down a dark but exciting path. Hints deeply embedded into the dialogue reveal the truth.
3609999
If you haven't figured out yet why P.D. James is considered the Queen of modern mysteries, her latest Adam Dalglish mystery novel, "Death In Holy Orders, " should definitely clue you in. From the very first chapter where she describes the bleak bit of coast of East Anglia where the small theological college of St. Anselm's is located, to the sands of the beach, to the very last chapter, where she resolves the mystery at hand -- she draws the reader into the little isolated world at St. Ansem's that she has created, leaving us quite enthralled.
When Ronald Treves is found smothered beneath a fall of sands, it is assumed that he had an accident. And indeed the result of the inquest is that his death was accidental. However Ronald's father, an arrogant, rich and powerful businessman receives an anonymous note that suggests that Ronald's death was anything but accidental; and he turns up at Scotland Yard, demanding that Dalglish investigate the matter. Since Dalglish is going on leave to East Anglia, and because he has a few nostalgic childhood memories about St. Anselm's, Dalglish sees no harm in visiting the college and asking a few discreet questions.
Dalglish's arrival however coincides with the unwanted arrival of Archdeacon Crampton. St. Anselm's however is facing foreclosure. It is not a big college and with only a small intake of students. The Church has decided that it is too expensive to keep open, and question right now is mainly when to close the college. And Archdeacon Crampton has come to St. Anselm's with the intent to see it's closing sooner rather than later. Crampton is an ambitious and rather brusque man who manages to get on everyone's bad side within minutes of his arrival, from Father Sebastian who runs the college, to the lay persons who live and work at the college. And at the college currently are two people whom Crampton has run afoul of: a visiting policeman, Yarwood, and a priest, John Betterton. Years ago Yarwood had been in charge of the Crampton's first wife's death; and he had been of the opinion that Crampton had somehow been involved in this death, but had been prevented from seeing the case to it's close because Crampton had complained of police brutality. While Betterton had served time in prison as a sex offender because of Crampton. Dalglish finds himself in the middle of a college swimming with undercurrents and emotions. And the very first night of Crampton's arrival also sees his murder. Who murdered Crampton? There are a host of suspects and motives, and Dalglish and his team will have much to go through in order to unmask the killer.
P.D. James is mistress in the art of storytelling, and this lates novel is a testimony to her artistry. Her writing style is short, succinct and lyrical. The deserted coast, the rickety cliffs ontop of which St. Anselm's is located, the wind and the sea -- James writes in a 'painterly' manner, and all these things come alive under her pen, along with the college and all it's inhabitants. But the thing that I like most about James is the manner in which she depicts all the characters in her books: she shades them in varying degrees of gray, so that no one is truly evil or conversely truly pure. "Death In Holy Orders" is a great read and an excellent novel.
3127844
A very enjoyable whodunit. Through the window of a moving train, a divorced alcoholic named Rachel starts to notice a young couple who live in a nice neighborhood along the tracks--in fact, it is the same neighborhood Rachel lived with her husband, who has now remarried and had a child. Rachel speculates on the young couple's life together, until the woman disappears, and Rachel believes she has some clues as to what happened to her--but her perceptions and memories are clouded in an ethanol haze. The plot is well-designed and suspenseful, but as often happens in thrillers of this sort, the characters start to robotically follow the demands of the plot.
4965964
This is not an extremely tense thriller, nor is it filled with extreme mind-boggling suspense.  Well, maybe just a bit tense in places and some mind-boggling pages; however, it is an easy entertaining read with just enough mystery to cause the reader to keep turning pages to find out who-done-it. It is well edited, and has likeable characters.

The case of a teenager, in a Texas juvenile detention center, who is found with broken and badly burned legs and whose life is hanging by a thread, is a bit more complex than the cold case homicide of 60 years prior across the Atlantic in England.

The heroine, amateur sleuth, Ali Reynolds is very involved in trying to solve both cases, as is her fiance, B., and her good friend Sister Anselm. Ali is spending a few days in England with her ageing British born friend and employee, Leland Brooks, who is getting reacquainted with long estranged family members.  He discovers that his father's death, so long ago, was a homicide and was never solved. He asks Ali to investigate. She does, and lands herself into a bit of personal danger which has the prospect of becoming life threatening. As Ali follows the clues, the reader may be a bit surprised at the development and ending of this cold case.

B. is in Japan on business and believes the Texas teenager's accident was an attempted homicide.  Well, of course, in spite of the land and water between, Ali gets involved in this case as well, and the investigations become interesting indeed. Sister Anselm is the guardian angel for the badly injured teen.  Sister Anselm, sometimes called the Angel of Death because of her role as a patient advocate to seriously injured patients, is quite a colorful individual herself. Ali and B. are putting the puzzle pieces together while body counts are climbing for those trying to either help or steal from the teenager. He has a secret that could be worth mega bucks and somebody wants it badly enough to kill for what is not rightfully theirs.

Slowly and methodically things fall into place to find a satisfactory ending for everyone......the good guys, that is.
912520
Stay Close starts out slowly bringing three troubled characters together. Megan Riley, ex-stripper turned suburban mom and housewife, heavy drinking bitter photographer Ray Levine, and lonely Atlantic City Police Detective Jack Broome. They all have one thing in common: a man who disappeared 17 years ago. Every year since then another man has gone missing. The mystery begins and falls into place when Ray's camera with a certain photograph is stolen, when Megan secretly visits her old haunts, and when another man goes missing.

Detective Broome is haunted by the first case, but still struggles with finding the truth. He also has a tough time dealing with two family members of the victims. Plus, he sadly misses his ex-wife. Megan and Ray are eventually brought together after 17 years and they must learn to trust each other and give up secrets from the past.

The book includes a good mystery with obvious suspects, a devious yet loving mobster, beautiful but psychotic torturers, the despair of lost love, a frail and fearful Alzheimer's patient with surprising secrets of her own, and some sights of Atlantic City.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the insights and the descriptions of the lives led by Megan, Ray and Jack. Coben is excellent at describing their inner thoughts and their emotional pain. What I liked least about the story were the scenes of torture perpetrated by "Ken and Barbie" hired by a missing man's father out of desperation to find truth. The conclusion of the mystery felt rushed.  It seemed to come out of nowhere, yet it was very surprising.

Overall, Stay Close is my least favorite stand alone, but it's not horribly bad. I was captivated by the three main characters. I'm glad I borrowed it from the library instead of purchasing it. Hester Crimstein from the Myron Bolitar series gets a mention as the villain's defense attorney.  That made me miss Myron more!