Shelf Life

Tag: Mystery-Thriller

  • The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

    The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

    “’You’ll never own any White Orchard designs, you murderer!’ Her voice cut through the room and there was dead silence. Everyone was staring at them.

    “Remi gasped, and Rory’s brows knitted in a frown. ‘Daisy Ann, what’s going on?’

    “Amber froze, her heart banging in her chest, as her eyes darted around the room, desperate for a way to disappear before things went any further.

    “A bitter laugh escaped Daisy Ann.

    “’This, this . . . gold digger, she’s the one who tricked my father into marrying her and then shot him point-blank. She got away with murder.’”

    From the The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine.

    Amber Patterson lied and seduced her way to displace Jackson Parrish’s wife Daphne, snagging the rich and ruthless millionaire to become his wife. But the passion that fueled their relationship barely lasted past the birth of their son Jax and by the time Jackson is sent to prison for tax evasion, and the money needed to fund their ultra-glamorous lifestyle has almost run out, Amber is plotting the next phase of her life. And it doesn’t include either Jackson or Jax, who she finds adorably cute but rather obnoxious in all his demands for her time and attention. But then what are live-in nannies for?

    When Amber discovers the valuable diamonds Jackson had hidden away she thinks all her problems are solved. Even with an unknown provenance—these very rare stones net Amber $14 million and she still has a few secreted away for a rainy day.

    That day may be coming sooner than she expects. She has her ticket to Paris booked and is planning on leaving the country before Jackson is released from prison. Unfortunately for her, Jackson gets home days early and discovering her plans, blackmails her into staying and helping him win back Daphne who has moved across country to protect their two daughters from their father.

    But Jackson isn’t Amber’s only problem. She has risen from her blue-collar roots by guile and murder. She tried to trick a wealthy local man to marry her by getting pregnant and when he refused, she sets him up for a rape charge and sends him to prison. Stealing money from her parents, she jettisons the care of her young son (yes, her maternal instincts are nil) and finagles her way into marrying a rich older man who dies shortly afterward in a mysterious hunting accident. “I thought he was a deer,” she told the authorities. They believe her, but the man’s daughter, Daisy Ann, is on the hunt for evidence that it was no accident.

    As if that wasn’t enough to fuel bad blood between the two women, Daisy Ann had her father change his will to protect the family fortune from his new wife. All that plotting for nothing. So when she snags Jackson, her next step is break into the high society of Bishop’s Harbor where Daphne reigned as queen. But when she is publicly humiliated by Daisy Ann who owns an exclusive line of handcrafted jewelry based upon her mother’s artistic designs, Amber becomes determined to acquire the business.  

    As if all this conniving isn’t enough, Amber and Jackson have set Daphne up to look like an addict who can’t adequately care for her children. When Jackson wins temporary custody, he forces Daphne to move back into the home they once shared. When she refuses to sleep with him, he makes it clear that her life depends upon her changing her mind.

    Though The Next Mrs. Parrish is a sequel to the million-copy, bestselling Reese’s Book Club pick The Last Mrs. Parrish (also available on Audible), it also is a stand-alone novel. Full of the plot twists and turns that fans of Liv Constantine, the pen name of sisters Lynne Constantine and Valerie Constantine, have come to expect and they deliver.

    The two sisters have produced a plethora of bestselling novels like The Stranger in the Mirror and The Wife Stalker. And like those, this is a page turner and immensely readable.

    This article previously ran in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Fiendishly Noir: Friend Indeed by Elka Ray

    Fiendishly Noir: Friend Indeed by Elka Ray

    “How far would you go for a friend in need if it meant your life and liberty might come crashing down upon you?”

    “Jo crawls over the bench and squats beside me. One sharp yank get the motor going. ‘I’ll drive,” she says tightly. ‘Move to the middle. And keep an eye out for debris.’

    “I crawl to the central bench and sink down. Jo turns us toward shore. Distant lights twinkle. Wind catches my hair.

    “It’s a relief to be moving, to flush my lungs with cold air.

    “I pull my hands into my sleeves. I’m wet through and chllled. My teeth chatter. For some minutes, we ride in silence.

    “’Dana?’ Although she’s driving slowly we’ve started to bounce again. Jo sounds ill.

    “’Did you love him?

    “I look back over my shoulder, toward my huddled friend and the black knuckles of islands. I find the spot we left Stan. I bite my lip, hard and spin the way we’re headed.

    “’Yes. I still love him.’”

    Two best friends, always there for each other. When Jo is fired from her job and her husband files for divorce, empties their bank account, and leaves her and their daughter homeless, she turns to Dana, married to Stan and living the life of an affluent wife in a ritzy subdivision in Texas. Dana is there for her, encouraging Jo to move back to Texas and gets her a job at the posh private school her children attend, even though Jo is without references.

    So, of course, when Dana calls in the middle of the night needing help, Dana gets into her dilapidated car with her daughter and speeds over. But while Jo’s situation had been dire, the trouble Dana is in takes it to a whole other level. She killed her husband during a domestic assault. Stan, she tells Jo, has been abusive throughout their marriage and she was defending herself. Is that true? It’s difficult to know at first.

    Dana has lived a life many women dream of—a handsome, filthy rich husband, a beautiful house, three children, and all the accoutrements that go with such a set-up. But Jo owes Dana big time and though she wants to call the police, Dana begs her to help dispose of the body.  So the two trundle Stan down stairs and into a boat, weigh the body down, and drop him in the water and then return to the house to scrub, hopefully, everything clean. Exhausted, Jo gets her sleeping daughter into the car to head home and accidentally blows a stop sign causing a speeding motorist to swerve and hit a pedestrian walking her dog. He speeds on but Jo stops and calls 911 though she knows it will tie her to a location near Dana’s home.

    It is not a good evening any way you look at it, but what will happen next will  only get worse as Jo and Dana seem to be surrounded by vultures including malicious gossiping neighbors, zealous cops wanting to crack the case, and a blackmailer. Will the two women, who have known each other for 30 years, withstand all these external forces coupled with their own horror at what happened and what they’ve done?

    Friendship is one thing but author Elka Ray, who was born in Canada, raised in the United Kingdom, and now lives in Central Vietnam, writes suspense novels, often with a touch of noir and poses intricate questions and situations. Her previous books include Divorce is Murder and Killer Coin. In her latest, A Friend Indeed (Blackstone Publishing), she asks, How far would you go for a friend in need if it meant your life and liberty might come crashing down upon you?

    This article originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

    The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

    When my friend David Brown asked me to read “The Year of the Locust” and give him my opinion, I was less than excited. Written by Terry Hayes, a former journalist, and Emmy-nominated screenwriter who wrote the screenplays for, amongst others, Mad Max 2 – Road Warrior, Dead Calm, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Payback, From Hell, and Vertical Limit, it definitely didn’t sound like my kind of book. I hadn’t seen any of the movies he’s written nor read his previous bestselling novel, “I Am Pilgrim,” published ten years ago to rave reviews.

    But friendship is friendship and if David, a book publicist that I’ve known for years, wanted my input, I’d give it a go. Downloading the book on my Kindle, I sat down with a cup of coffee and started reading.

    Two hours later my coffee was cold, but I was too entranced by Hayes’s book to make another cup as I followed CIA agent Ridley Kane, a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA meaning he can go wherever and do whatever needs to be done.

    Kane is sent to the baddest of the badlands, the remote and geographically hostile 1600-mile border where Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan meet. Known as one of the most dangerous spots in the world, it’s a lawless place, the perfect place for robbers, murderers, and terrorists to hide in its many caves.

    Kane’s job is to extricate an informant who has information about an upcoming Armageddon-like terrorist attack. He’s too late. The informant has been captured by The New Islamic Army of the Pure, and his family—a wife and two daughters staked out and left to die in the terrorist’s camp.

    If Kane followed protocol, he would fade back into the desert but he can’t leave the mother and daughters to die and shoots their captors, setting them free. A noble act but one that makes it personal with Abu Muslim al-Tundra, known as the locust and formerly a chief with al-Qaeda and ISIS and an extremely deadly adversary. It’s al-Tundra’s brother that Kane has killed.

    “The Year of the Locust” took Hayes ten years to write and it was when he was stuck in Portugal because of the COVID quarantine, away from his wife and three children, that he finally finished the 250,000 word novel.

    “I couldn’t go anywhere for two years,” he says.

    But Kane definitely goes places and among the many fascinating aspects of his book are his descriptions of locations I didn’t know existed.

    I mean who knew about Baku, which is where one of the climactic scenes from the book occurs? A city on the Caspian Sea in what is now Azerbaijan, the Rothschilds, and the Nobels (of the Swedish family, founders of the Nobel prize) established a thriving oil industry there in the 1870s, building mansions as they sucked the oil out of the ground.

    So why did it take ten years to write this novel which was due out in 2017?

    “I don’t care how long it takes, or how hard it is, I just want it to be good,” says Hayes, who threw out the entire first manuscript for “The Year of the Locust” and began again.

    Hayes says he always wanted to be the J.R.R. Tolkien of the spy genre and Locust has some aspects of Tolkien in its storyline. I found the spy technology of what the CIA can accomplish fascinating but was able to segue easily when it became more science fiction-like with its time-bending take. There is also a bit of romance between Kane and his wife Rebecca, a feisty emergency room doctor and the mother of his children.

    Loquacious and full of anecdotes, my conversation with Hayes lasted for three hours and ended only because I had another appointment. We chatted about his life in Hollywood when a movie writer (he spent a long time talking to a couple who looked familiar and only later learned they were Ringo Starr and his wife, actress Barbara Bach), his children (“I wish I could get them to listen to me”), and his wife (“she’s rolling her eyes now at what I just said”).

    I obviously owe David a big thanks.

  • Think Twice by Harlan Coben

    Think Twice by Harlan Coben

    “Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy . . . churn at the heart of Harlan Coben’s blistering new novel.”

    Harlan Coben may be a New York Times bestselling author, his award-winning books translated into 46 different languages and many such as Fool Me Once, The Stranger, and Gone for Good, made into such Netflix series but even now, he doesn’t call it in when it comes to suspense novels. Think Twice is an absorbing, intricately plotted thriller about a man who is presumed
    dead and then suddenly wanted for murder. It’s the 12 th mystery featuring Myron Bolitar, the sardonic and witty sports agent who time and time again somehow finds himself in the middle of a crime.
     
    How can a man who is already dead be wanted for murder?
     
    Myron is on the phone with his 80-year-old father who is talking about how he and Myron’s mother have discovered the wonders of gummies laced with marijuana when two FBI agents arrive in his office with new information regarding the murders of Cecilia Callister, a 1990s semi-supermodel and her 30-year-old son Clay. At the time, it was assumed the two were murdered by Callister’s fourth husband after she agreed to testify against him on fraud charges after discovering he was having an affair.
     
    New evidence indicates that Greg Downing might be involved in the deaths. But Downing is dead.
     
    Or is he?
     
    Coben is a master of twists and turns, and Myron lives in a world where nothing is as it appears. And that includes Windsor Horne Lockwood III, known as Win, his best friend who often helps him solve crimes. A prep school trust funder with a pedigree stretching back generations, Win might be mistaken for a man who lives for nothing more than fine meals, sexual dalliances, and golfing (his handicap is a three) all part of the privileges extreme wealth confers upon him.
     
    But, despite his efforts to show just such a persona, Win is more than that. A sixth-degree black belt holder in Tae Kwon Do—the highest ranking in the United States—he dispenses his own brand of justice on miscreants the law has been unable to touch. He’s completely loyal to Myron despite their background and social status differences. And, it turns out, he had been
    romantically involved with the murdered woman.

     A complicated case, it quickly turns deadly.
     
    “Myron was tied to a chair in the center of the room,” writes Coben in a descriptive scene that
    takes place after Myro n is knocked cold.
     
    “His left shoe and sock were off.
     
    “Next to his barefoot was a set of pruning shears. There was also a protective sheet under the foot.
     
    “Oh this wasn’t good.
     
    “There were four men. One was Sal. Two were the men who jumped in from the sides. And there was a new one. Clearly the leader, who stood in front of him.

     “Saw the pin drop to your friend,” the leader said. “Sal stuck your phone in the back of a truck heading west. Your friend is probably tracking you to the California border by now.”
     
    “The leader’s appearance screamed old-school bad guy. He had the greasy two-day growth on his face. His hair was slicked back, and his shirt was unbuttoned. He had gold chains snared in his chest hairs and a toothpick clenched in his teeth.

    “I guess you were some hot shot basketball player back in the day,” the leader said. “But I never heard of you.”
     
    “Wow, Myron said. “Now you’ve hurt my feelings.”
     
    Three years ago, sports agent Myron Bolitar gave a eulogy at the funeral of his client, renowned basketball coach Greg Downing. Myron and Greg had history: initially as deeply personal rivals, and later as unexpected business associates. Myron made peace and moved on—until now, when two federal agents walked into his office, demanding to know where Greg Downing is.

    According to the agents, Greg is still alive—and has been placed at the scene of a double homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.
    Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they homicide, making him their main suspect. Shocked, Myron needs answers.

    Myron and Win, longtime friends and colleagues, set out to find the truth, but the more they discover about Greg, the more dangerous their world becomes. Secrets, lies, and a murderous conspiracy that stretches back into the past churn at the heart of Harlan Coben’s blistering new novel.

    About the Author

    With over 80 million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the New York Times author of thirty five novels including WIN, THE BOY FROM THE WOODS, RUN AWAY, FOOL ME ONCE, TELL NO ONE and the renowned Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in 46 languages around the globe.

    Harlan is the creator and executive producer of several Netflix television dramas including STAY CLOSE, THE STRANGER, SAFE, THE FIVE, THE INNOCENT and THE WOODS. He is also the creator and executive producer of the Prime Video series Harlan Coben’s SHELTER, based on his young adult books featuring Mickey Bolitar. Harlan was the showrunner and executive producer for two French TV mini-series, UNE CHANCE DE TROP (NO SECOND CHANCE) and JUST UN REGARD (JUST ONE LOOK). KEINE ZWEIT CHANCE, also based on Harlan’s novel, aired in Germany on Sat1.

    This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • The Hunter’s Daughter: Is She As Evil As Her Father?

    The Hunter’s Daughter: Is She As Evil As Her Father?

    “And I didn’t ask any questions,” the narrator of Nicola Solvinic’s debut mystery-thriller The Hunter’s Daughter (Berkley ), says in her first-person account of what it’s like having been raised by a serial killer. “I truly didn’t want to know the answers. When the rifle went off, did I kill my dad? Or Agent Parkes? Did I miss them both, and did they fight it out? Did Dad get arrested, or did he kill Agent Parkes and run.”

    These obviously are not the typical questions most children have regarding interactions with their fathers. But police officer Anna Koray is the daughter of a notorious serial killer, a fact she keeps hidden with the use of a different name, a move far from home, and estrangement from her mother who did little to protect her.  

    It works for a while until a traumatic incident triggers long-repressed memories and Anna’s past, sealed off by her therapist in a controversial and experimental hypnosis treatment, begins to emerge. Her father, known as the Forest Strangler, murdered more than a dozen women, their bodies decorated and left as sacrifices to the god of the forest. But he also taught Anna to love the woods, to be one with the forest and nature. The dark dense woods with rustling trees that line the perimeter of her yard call out to her, beckoning her forward. In many ways, it’s where she feels most at home—the feel of dirt between her toes, the smell of the rotting leaves. But as much as it entices her, that forest also harbors secrets and possibly malignant forces that may harm or even destroy her.

    There are many questions confronting Anna as she deals with her surfacing memories. Can she trust her lover who may be hiding his own addictions? Is her father, who is supposedly dead, really alive? And is Anna herself a killer—someone who has her father’s propensity as well as his genetics to do evil? She has killed, supposedly in self-defense. But is that true? Or does she enjoy killing just as he did? And will she do it again?

    When her psychiatrist, the woman who hypnotized her into forgetting her past, is found murdered, Anna has to wonder if she played a part in the death. After all, she had broken into her office to steal her file folder before the police, who are closing in, can locate it and discover her true identity. Did she do more than take the file? Did she destroy the woman who can reveal her past?

    Desperate to keep people from realizing that she is the daughter of the Forest Strangler, Anna also has to try to determine that even though she became a police officer to help others, she may be as evil as her dad.

    A tense psychological thriller, terse plotting, and Anna’s own uncertainty about who she is, what acts she’s committed, and whether she can trust her own thoughts, feelings, and actions, keeps this book a page-turner.

    About the Author

    Nicola Solvinic has a master’s degree in criminology and has worked in and around criminal justice for more than a decade at local, state, and federal levels. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and cats, where she is surrounded by a secret garden full of beehives.

    This review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly

    The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly

    “Moxie Castlin was easy to underestimate, but only on first impression. He was overweight by the equivalent of a small child, didn’t use one word in public when five others were loitering nearby with nothing better to do, and had a taste for the reminiscent of the markings of poisonous insects or the nightmares of LSD survivors. He subsisted largely on fried food, coffee, and the Maine soda that had given him a nickname, now long since passed into common usage: since he had been christened Oleg. Moxie sounded better to him. He lost cases, but not many, and his friends far outnumbered his enemies.”

    And so, in the first chapter of The Instruments of Darkness (Atria/Emily Bestler Books), the 21st book in the Charlie Parker series by international and New York Times bestselling author, John Connolly, we meet Moxie who is defending Colleen Clark, a mother accused of abducting and possibly murdering her two-year-old son Henry. It’s a heinous case and everyone, the police and general public, and especially the politicians who have an election coming up, think Colleen is guilty. After all, she was home, supposedly asleep when Henry disappeared. Her husband, Henry’s father, had been away on a business trip.

    But it doesn’t matter if the world is against you when you have Moxie and Charlie Parker, a private investigator

    Everyone does seem to be against Colleen, including Henry’s father, Stephen Clark, who stirs the pot. Because of his outspoken concerns, the police search Colleen’s car and discover a blanket soaked in Henry’s blood in the wheel well of her car. Rumors about Colleen begin to circulate and as Parker, who narrates the story, wryly says they were unfounded, but that is no obstacle as unfounded rumors are the best kind.

    The book lives up to its title, there is definitely darkness surrounding the case and the community. Others have disappeared without a trace. And there’s a touch of the supernatural to give the readers a few shivers as Parker tries to help Moxie take on a case where even before the trial a guilty verdict has been decided.

    Connolly, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, has written more than 30 books, is the author of several series including the Samuel Johnson trilogy, the Lost Things stories, and (with @JennieRidyard), the Chronicles of the Invaders. He writes long, weaving  a complex mystery-thriller full of twists and turns, and peopled with intriguing characters, some benign and eccentric, others scary including a gang of fascists who are readying for war; and a psychic who says that the dead, including a woman named Verona Walter, frequently appeal to help from Walter, who, it seems, is dead and buried but still in contact with the living.

    But there’s more to deal with than fascists and a psychic that talks to the dead, there’s the house, seemingly in ruins, deep in the dark Maine woods and exerting an unnatural and dangerous force.

    As Connolly describes an interaction between two people as they approach the isolated home.

    “Pinnette tried to tear his gaze away from the house but found he could not. While it might have looked abandoned, he was not convinced it was quite empty. Certain structures, while appearing uninhabited, retained about them a sense of occupation, as though a latent presence had infused the very boards. As he and Unger observed the house, Pinette could not help but feel that the house was observing them in turn: not someone in the house but the house itself.”

    It will take all of Parker’s detective skills to overcome the obstacles he faces to help Moxie with his client, all the while trying to stay safe.

    This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with Romance and Brews

    Celebrate Independent Bookstore Day with Romance and Brews

    On Saturday, April 27 at 3:30 pm, join the folks at The Book Stall for an afternoon of Romance and Brews to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day! Author Stephanie Jayne joins us at The Book Stall (811 Elm Street in Winnetka) with three fellow Romance authors for a meet & greet with some frosty refreshments! Stop by for a brew and say hello to romance author Kelly Farmer, romance and mystery author Sharon Michalove, and historical romance and mystery author Felix Alexander. Copies of their titles will be available to be signed! Ms. Jayne will be signing her new book, I’ve Got My Mind Set on Brew. A down-on-her-luck craft beer brewer and her privileged new boss clash as they work together to save a quirky brewpub in this enemies-to-lovers workplace rom-com. 

    More About the Book: Kat Malone is left cash-strapped after a job loss and a bad breakup when she discovers a surprising new career path: craft beer brewer. When the brewpub is sold, the new owner places his light-on-experience son in charge of the pub. Ryan is as basic as a pale lager and aims to turn quirky Resistance into a run-of-the-mill sports bar. Despite clashes between Kat and Ryan, he confides that Resistance is in financial trouble and that drastic changes will be needed if the pub has any hope of survival. Forced to collaborate, Kat realizes Ryan isn’t as bland as she assumed—he might even be exactly what she’s been craving.

    More About the Authors: Stephanie Jayne loves to write relatable characters striving to make their mark on the world as they fall in love in the process. When not crafting quirky love stories, she’s often found playing video games or fangirling over romance books with a book club. She lives in the greater Chicago area with her multi-talented creative husband and two persistent cats.

    Kelly Farmer, author of It’s a Fabulous Life, has been writing romance novels since junior high. The stories have changed, but one theme remains the same: everyone deserves to have a happy ending. She loves telling tales with a touch of snark and a lot of heart. Kelly lives in the Chicago area, where she swears every winter is her last one here.

    Felix Alexander is a Mexican-born, American-raised novelist and poet of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. Being third-generation military, after a grandfather and three uncles who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, respectively, Alexander is proud of his service in the U.S. Army and grateful for his experience. He lives in the Chicagoland area and volunteers to promote literacy among youth. His books include the Aiden Leonardo mystery series and the Labyrinth of Love Letters historical romance series. 

    Sharon Michalove writes romance, suspense, and traditional mystery, as well as being a published historian. After growing up in suburban Chicago, she spent most of her life in a medium-sized university town, working as an academic professional. Sharon moved back to Chicago in 2017 and started writing fiction, publishing her first book in 2021. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Chicago-North Romance Writers. Currently, she is president of the Sisters in Crime Chicagoland Chapter and an at-large board member of MWA Midwest. Her Global Security Unlimited series is a finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Award for Genre Series.

    Independent Book Store Day is a national effort to recognize the importance of independent bookstores. This national one-day party held on the last Saturday in April celebrates independent bookstores across the country online and in-store. It’s a party you don’t want to miss!

  • Young Rich Widows: Big Hair, Big Egos, and Big Trouble

    Young Rich Widows: Big Hair, Big Egos, and Big Trouble

    “It sounds like the opening of a joke: Four lawyers die in a plane crash.

    “But no one is laughing inside the brand-new 1985 Cessna careening toward the dark icy Atlantic waters. One engine is already on fire and the other about to blow.

    “On the manifest: three men, one woman, and a screaming pilot.

    “’MAYDAY MAYDAY’

    “All four partners. The only partners. The foundation of the firm. This group has never traveled together before. It’s like the virgin who gets knocked up on her wedding night: It was just one time. But once is enough to end it all.”

    Four award-winning mystery writers, Vanessa Lillie, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, Kimberly Belle have teamed up to write Young Rich Widows (Soucebooks), set in 1980s (for those who weren’t around think big hair and  big shoulder pads, ostentatious living like that seen on such shows as Dallas and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous thriller about four rich widows who have not only lost their partners in a mysterious plane crash but also are realizing four million dollars is missing as well.

    And to make it worse. That’s mob money and they want it back. Not next week, but right now.

    The women don’t like each other. Indeed, one, Camille, a former saleslady and now a much younger second wife, is having an affair with Peter, one of the partners who was married to Justine, a former fashion model, while another, Meredith is a stripper who was in a passionate relationship with the only female partner.

    Complicated? Well, it gets even more so, in this comedy/mystery written by Lillie (Blood Sisters), Fargo (They Never Learn), Holahan (Lies She Told), and Belle (The Personal Assistant).

    For one, there’s the long-simmering romantic spark between Crystal and the mobster who is threatening them. He happens to own the strip club where Meredith works. And is Camille more than a homewrecker? Is she a thief like her former employer claims? And then there’s the land deal if they can make it happen, will restore their fortunes—but is that handsome developer who is chasing after Camille to be trusted? Is anyone?

    When you’re in danger, you have to work together or die alone and that’s what these women do, bonding in a way that never would have happened before the crash, and they learn to trust one another as they fight to stay alive.

    The review originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

    It is available on Kindle and as an audiobook.

  • Reese’s Book Club Pick: “First Lie Wins”

    Reese’s Book Club Pick: “First Lie Wins”

    “This is Ashley Elston’s debut adult novel and it’s a real page turner, so good you hate to turn the last page.”

    “My mind splits, showing two different paths; This is definitely a crossroads moment,” recalls Lucca Marino alias Wendy Wallace alias Mia Blanchard and a whole long list of other names. “Taking the job Matt offers moved me deeper into the world but comes with the support that would make the feel of these cuffs biting into my wrist a distant memory. The other path requires me to go straight. To get out before I’m in any real trouble because as Saturday night proved, it will only be a matter of time before something else goes wrong.”

    And, of course it does, in this complicated and entrancing novel, “First Lie Wins” (Pamela Dorman Books 2024).

    Lucca, known by the people in her life as Evie Porter when we meet her, chooses the darker path. She’s agreed to work with Matt and his boss, Mr. Smith. The latter is just a mechanically altered voice over the phone, a devious man who likes to play his operatives against each other, but the pay is very good, and Evie is an expert at her work. Her job? To take on another identity and infiltrate the mark’s life, securing the necessary information that Mr. Smith wants. Sometimes it’s so he can blackmail them, sometimes to take over their business, or steal some vital data.

    As Evie, she starts a romance with Ryan, her latest victim. She isn’t sure what Mr. Smith wants from him; her instructions are parceled out over time. But she soon learns that Ryan, who invites her to live with him and meet his family and friends, is more than just a successful small town businessman who has taken over the family business. He’s somewhat shady, just as she is, helping move stolen goods.

    But Evie has a heart, as she has proven in her other jobs, and now, she’s falling for Ryan and the nice life he has to offer. Unfortunately, no one easily leaves Mr. Smith’s business. It’s not exactly the kind of job you retire from as she finds out when several other operatives meet untimely deaths.

    Whom do you trust? Evie is discovering that she doesn’t really know. Even Ryan may be more than a unwitting dupe, he may be in the plot to destroy her that Mr. Smith has put in place, framing her for a murder she didn’t commit.

    First Lie Wins is the ultimate cat-and-mouse caper, leaving you guessing until all the loose ends are neatly tied up. This is Ashley Elston’s debut adult novel and it’s a real page turner, so good you hate to turn the last page.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Journal of Books.

  • Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

    Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody

    Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom, a high school teacher dealing with the mysterious vanishing of her sister, Angie, ten years ago, is dealt another blow when her father drives his car off of a bridge on the anniversary of her disappearance.

    She is, at this point, the last in a long line of the socially elite Angstrom family, only now irreparably tarnished by her father’s affair and desertion of his family to marry Teddy’s mother, a loss of money, and cratering social status.

    This is how dire it is.

    “I discover in my digging that Dad gave up around Christmas,” says Teddy in Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody (Soho Crime). “The bills have been past due for months. The cable company gives me a hard time clearing the balance because my name is not on the account. Mom’s name is not even on the account. They finally let up when I explain that the account holder can’t come to the phone because he launched himself to the bottom of a river. I use my own savings to take care of the remainder.”

    . “The bills have been past due for months. The cable company gives me a hard time clearing the balance because my name is not on the account. Mom’s name is not even on the account. They finally let up when I explain that the account holder can’t come to the phone because he launched himself to the bottom of a river. I use my own savings to take care of the remainder.”

    Teddy is left to take care of her mother, a spendthrift who refuses to deal with the fact they have no money except for her teacher’s salary and to unwind exactly what her father was up to before he died.

    Besides that, she’s embarked on a love affair with the family’s former gardener, has to teach her students while she’s becoming emotionally undone, and finds herself being drawn into the Reddit discussions about what happened to her sister. She is, indeed, descending into a rabbit hole, one that has her chasing phantoms, making friends with people who are just as unstable as she is, and attempting to determine if her father was a bad guy or just someone so overcome with grief he couldn’t go on.

    As if that isn’t enough to manage, Teddy’s dog, the one the family got as a puppy before Angie suddenly disappeared one night, is pitifully dying. It’s enough to drive anyone into a downward spiral, and that’s where Teddy finds herself as she learns that she can’t trust anyone to tell her the truth. And so, it’s left for Teddy to be strong enough to determine what happened to both her father and sister—and to live with the truth.

    • Amazon Editors’ Pick
    • Indie Next Pick
    • Aardvark Book Club Selection
    • Powell’s Pick

    About the author:

    Kate Brody lives in Los Angeles, California. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Lit Hub, CrimeReads, Electric Lit, The Rumpus, and The Literary Review, among other publications. She holds an MFA from NYU. Rabbit Hole is her debut.

    This review initially appeared in the New York Journal of Books.