THOUGHTS ON THIS 'n THAT

  One girl murdered...another one missing...and a medical examiner desperate to uncover the truth in  When I'm Dead (Minotaur) , the latest Black Harbor mystery by acclaimed author Hannah Morrissey. On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery—her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But, not without a trace. A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart. Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: karma has finally come to collect. Hannah Morrissey is the author of the BlHello, Transcriber, The Widow...

  Just in time for Halloween, THE SPIDER (Knopf), A Killer Instinct Novel by the duo, Lars Kepler. THE SPIDER is the ninth book in the series, but you can read these novels out of order. But it'd be great if you could make time to read them sequentially. Reading one of these Scandinavian serial killer novels puts fear into the person reading. But I love reading this genre. THE SPIDER kept me up reading knowing it was going to scare the heck out of me, but I was hooked and wanted to find out what happened next. Three years ago, Detective Saga Bauer received a postcard saying her partner, Joona Linna is going to be killed. It describes the gun and nine white bullets, one for Joona. Time passes and the threat is forgotten until dead bodies begin showing up hanging and dissolving in bags. The killer begins leaving clues for the next murder, but the police are always a step behind. THE SPIDER is a terrifying non-stop roller coaster. The twists and turns create an intricate web into the ...

  Angela Terry's new novel THE PALACE AT DUSK (MinotaurBooks) explores the complexity of love in an illicit office romance Harvard-educated corporate attorney Jasmine “Jae” Phillips promised herself that she wouldn’t date anyone at the office. She’s too focused on the job, and her meh dating history can be summed up with a shrug. Then came Brad Summers.  When Jae’s colleague Brad enters her office—boyish and handsome with his tousled hair and sparkling green-gold eyes—and asks if she’d like to grab a drink, she’s flattered. Their conversation makes her feel alive, fascinating, and fun, and the lonely Jae can’t help but bask in Brad’s attention. Soon Jae is breaking her never-date-at-the-office rule. And when she later discovers that Brad has a wife and child, she finds herself breaking a much more serious rule.  After Jae spends years in love with a man who isn’t hers and jeopardizes her career in the process, a series of unexpected developments shake her awake and force ...

  Two lovers caught at the crossroads of history. A daughter’s search for the truth. Sarah Freethy's novel, THE PORCELAIN MAKER (StMartinsPress) is an epic story of love, betrayal and art that spans through the horrors of WWII to the 21st century Americia. Germany, 1929. At a festive gathering of young bohemians in Weimar, two young artists, Max, a skilled Jewish architect, and Bettina, a celebrated avant-garde painter, are drawn to each other and begin a whirlwind romance. Their respective talents transport them to the dazzling lights of Berlin, but this bright beginning is quickly dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism. Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where only his talent at making exquisite porcelain figures stands between him and seemingly certain death. Desperate to save her lover, Bettina risks everything to rescue him and escape Germany. hh America, 1993. Clara, Bettina’s daughter, embarks on a journey to trace her roots and determine the identit...

  Get ready for Michele Campbell's new fast-moving political crime thriller, THE INTERN (StMartinsPress). Madison Riviera is at the top of her class at Harvard Law School when she lands an internship with her idol, Judge Kathryn Conroy. But both have secrets that could get them killed. THE INTERN is about status, family. ambition and murder. Think John Grisham and John Sandford on steroids. I was immediately captured by the narrative and loved the characters, especially the shady ones.  S o many things are happening in the numerous plots, I wondered how Campbell could pull it all together.  Well, she did. I definitely didn't expect the ending. Thank you St. Martins Press for providing a copy of THE INTERN for an honest review. FYI: I hope this is turned into a movie or mini series. Michele Campbell is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and a former federal prosecutor in New York City who specialized in international narcotics and gang cases. A while bac...

  In Rebecca Hanover's novel, THE LAST APPLICANT (LakeUnionPublishing), two women hide their darkest secrets while striving to achieve the best for their children and themselves. Audrey Singer has the power to decide who gets into a prestigious private school. Sarah Price is desperate to get her child accepted at any cost. Knowing Audrey has the power to decide, neurotic Sarah will do anything to get her child admitted, including crossing a very unacceptable line. Their lives get entangled and someone is bound to get hurt. THE LAST APPLICANT is a psychological thriller about forgiveness, obsession and fear creating intense suspense.  Rebecca Hanover is the New York Times bestselling  author  of THE SIMILARS duology. After graduating from Stanford University with a BA in English and drama, Rebecca joined the writing team of the CBS daytime drama GUIDING LIGHT, where she earned an Emmy Award. Still, she never lost her love of books—particularly YA. She now writes Young...

  Laney Kilpatrick gets a vacation home on an isolated island in her divorce settlement. To pay the bills she's been renting it to strangers, and the latest family, escapes after finding blood and claw marks in a closet. In Kelley Armstrong's latest novel, HEMLOCK ISLAND (StMartinsPress) Laney shows up to investigate with her teenage niece, Madison, her ex, Kit, Jayla, Kit and Laney's former best friend. Another high-school friend, Sadie arrives with her brother who is a cop. Once on the Island, there are secrets and tension, especially when they find an arm coming out of the ground, and then find the rest of the body.  Other strange scary things start happening, leading everyone to believe someone or something doesn't want them to leave the Island alive. On top of it, the one motor boat used to bring them to the Island is ... gone! Hemlock Island isn't the first place I want to vacation, but the novel is entertaining and will definitely hook you in. Broken belongin...

  Welcome to book #3, THE RAGING STORM (Minotaur) in author, Ann Cleeves, Matthew Venn series. Fierce winds, dark secrets, deadly intentions . When Jem Rosco—sailor, adventurer, and legend—blows into town in the middle of an autumn gale, the residents of Greystone, Devon, are delighted to have a celebrity in their midst. But just as abruptly as he arrived, Rosco disappears again, and soon his lifeless body is discovered in a dinghy, anchored off Scully Cove, a place with legends of its own. This is an uncomfortable case for Detective Inspector Matthew Venn. Greystone is a place he visited as a child, a community he parted ways with. Superstition and rumor mix with fact as another body is found, and Venn finds his judgment clouded. As the winds howl, and Venn and his team investigate, he realizes that no one, including himself, is safe from Scully Cove’s storm of dark secrets. Ann Cleeves novels are never too dark or gory, but they leave the reader seriously unsettled. Ann is the au...

  She's lonely, rich, and ten years too young for him—but she’s also his "sugar daddy," and they couldn't have less in common. Opposites attract in Katie Shepard's charming new romance, SWEETEN THE DEAL (Berkley).   MBA student Caroline Sedlacek knows her personal balance sheet is a little lopsided. On the asset side, at twenty-two she’s got an NCAA trophy, a great education...and the two million dollars she unexpectedly inherited. Liabilities? She's never had friends, a boyfriend, or any life experiences away from the tennis court or the classroom. She'd love to invest herself in everything else, but "everything else" never came easily for her.   In the ten years since he left art school as a vaunted prodigy, Adrian Landry has won shows and major prizes—and done his best to shed his reputation as a pretty man who makes pretty paintings. Though currently broke and sleeping off a bad break-up on his college roommate’s couch, he knows this is the c...

  Beware the blackbirds… It’s Halloween in Vermont, in Paula Munier's new novel, HOME AT NIGHT (Minotaur) and winter is coming. Five humans, two dogs, and a cat are a crowd in Mercy Carr’s small cabin. She needs more room—and she knows just the place: Grackle Tree Farm, with thirty acres of woods and wetlands and a Victorian manor to die for. They say it’s haunted by the ghosts of missing children and lost poets and a murderer or two, but Mercy loves it anyway. Even when Elvis finds a dead body in the library. There’s something about Grackle Tree Farm that people are willing to kill for—and Mercy needs to figure out what before they move in. A coded letter found on the victim points to a hidden treasure that may be worth a fortune—if it’s real. She and Captain Thrasher conduct a search of the old place—and end up at the wrong end of a Glock. A masked man shoots Thrasher, and she and Elvis must take him down before he murders them all. Under fire, she and Elvis manage to run the guy...

  The discovery of a hidden label on a famous gown unearths the story of a talented young seamstress in this glittering novel, THE ROARING DAYS of ROARING LILY (MIRA/HarperCollins) It's a story of family, love, ambition, and self discovery. 2023, The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History: A costume conservator is preparing an exhibition featuring movie costumes from the 1920s to present day. As she gingerly places a gown once worn by Greta Garbo on a mannequin, she discovers another name hidden beneath the designer's label, leaving her to wonder—who is Zora Lily? 1924, Seattle: Poverty-stricken Zora Hough spends her days looking after her younger siblings while sewing up holes and fixing hems for clients to bring in extra money, working her fingers to the bone just to survive. But at night, as she lies in the bed she shares with one of her three sisters, she secretly dreams of becoming a designer like Coco Chanel and Jeanne Lanvin. When her best friend gets a jo...