Books Set in North America; Georgia, United States

Pretty Girls, by Karin Slaughter (2025)

This novel was billed as a psychological thriller.  It's a horrible story.  The premise revolves around snuff porn and a disfunctional family.  Twenty-plus years earlier, Julia Carroll went missing and was never found.  Fast forward to present day, and Julia's younger sister, Claire, who seemingly has a perfect marriage, watches her husband murdered before her eyes.  When Paul dies, Claire reaches out to her estranged sister, Lydia, who is a former drug addict.  They are suddenly found in the midst of a snuff-porn scheme.  Is there a connection to their dead sister?

None of the characters were likeable and the premise was horrific.

I will not be reading other books by this author.

Read: May 20, 2025

2 Stars

Books Set in North America, Virginia, USA

The Perfect Marriage, by Jeneva Rose (2020)

Sarah Morgan is a high-level and successful defense lawyer.  She seems to have the perfect life with her husband, Adam.  Sarah, however, works long hours and Adam is a would-be writer with too much time on his hands.  He tries to write in their lake house, which is about an hour away from their home.  He spends most of his time there.  He runs into Kelly Summers, with whom he has an affair.  When she is found dead in his bed at the lake house, he is accused of her murder.  Sarah takes on the case to defend him.

There are lots of twists and turns in the book, but specific trial matter doesn't make sense.  That aside, it was a fun and quick read.

Read:  April 29, 2026

3 Stars

 

Books Set in North America; Louisiana United States

First Lie Wins, by Ashley Elston (2024)

This suspense thriller is narrated by a con woman calling herself Evie Porter who works for a mysterious man known only as “Mr. Smith.”  She is sent out around the South to find dirt on others.  The novel opens when she moves in with her latest mark, Ryan Sumner, who lives in a fictious small town in Southern Louisiana near the Texas border.

Although initially Evie was supposed to investigate Ryan’s mysterious side business, she soon finds herself falling in love with him.  One day Evie meets a woman calling herself Lucca Marino, which is Evie actual name.  Lucca is impersonating Evie and providing all the details of Evie’s actual life.  Soon after their meeting, the fake Lucca is killed in a car accident.

The plot goes back and forth in time as the layers of Evie’s life are slowly peeled back.  We learn of other jobs Evie has done for Mr. Smith and how these jobs impacted her life.  Evie realizes that some of the jobs she is assigned are actual jobs, but others are test of her loyalty to Mr. Smith.

When Evie is accused of murder and an arrest warrant is issued, she realized that Mr. Smith is testing her, possibly for a final time.  She must trust her instincts to take steps to protect herself, all the while considering who she can trust.

I have been reading some rather heavy books over the past few months.  This was just the ticket for a light and fast read.  Plus, the references to and about Louisiana were fun.  The suspense was sufficient to keep my attention.  A fun book.

Read: May 11, 2024

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Baton Rouge and Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

A Flicker in the Dark, by Stacy Willingham (2022)

A Flicker in the Dark is a thriller narrated by Chloe Davis, a psychologist from the small bayou town of Breaux Bridge, but now living and working in Baton Rouge.  When she was a young girl, her life was shattered when her father, Dick Davis, convicted of the murder of several teenaged girls.  Chloe was the one who turned her father into the police, an act that follows her where ever she goes.

Now as the twentieth anniversary of her father’s conviction and incarceration, more teenaged girls go missing.  Chloe is haunted by memories of the past with the news of more missing girls.  She is further troubled when Aaron Jansen, a reporter for the New York Times, approaches her for an interview for an anniversary story about the original murders.

Due to her past, Chloe has had a hard maintaining long-term relationships, so when she meets Daniel Briggs, he seems to be her savior.  She withholds telling him the full story of her childhood and her infamous father, however.  Daniel’s sister also vanished twenty years earlier and Chloe wonders if there may be a link to the earlier murders.

I picked up this book solely because it takes place in Baton Rouge and Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  The author description of the bayous and marshes of Louisiana in a way that the reader feels the humidity and moss covered trees.  It was a very quick read and was filled with twists and turns.

Read:  January 25, 2024

4.5 Stars

Books Set in Africa: Kenya

The Lioness, by Chris Bohjalian (2022)

 

This novel takes place in 1964 in East Africa, at a time when there was considerable violence in the continent.  Kate Barstow, a wealthy A-list Hollywood actress had just married David Hill, a struggling art gallery owner.  They were on a safari honeymoon in the Serengeti along with several of their closest friends.

 

David’s gallery isn’t doing well, and he is well aware that his wife is the main breadwinner.  After all, she is funding the trip for everyon ethe safari.  David’s father also holds some ambiguous position with the CIA, which adds to the political intrigue.

 

Kate’s inner circle, who are on the safari include her brother and sister-in-law, her best friend (a minor Hollywood actress) and her husband, Kate’s publicist, her agent and another fellow actor.  Their local guide is a big game hunter, who had to change is focus from clients who were more interested in shooting animals to clients more interested in shooting photographs.

 

While there were political uprisings in the Congo, the safari party has been assured that they will be perfectly safe in East Africa.  Unaware that there are political rumblings throughout the continent, the party seems oblivious to their surroundings.  They are luxuriating in the extreme pampering they are experiencing on their safari.

 

After enjoying a few spectacular days on the safari, in which the African porters tend to the company’s every need, things take a drastic turn.  Suddenly, they are caught in a kidnapping gone wrong.  Russian mercenaries burst upon their camp and separate the American tourists into smaller groups.  Immediately, one of their guards is shot and killed.

 

The novel goes back and forth between the events unwrapping in the kidnapping, and the events leading up to the trip.  The reader gets to know the background stories behind each tourist.  Before embarking on the trip, they knew of the potential dangers in the African plains but believed themselves to be in capable hands.

 

What is the motive of the kidnapping?  Is it money?  Who is behind the kidnapping?  Who has the most to gain?  What is the importance of David’s father?

 

We know from the first page, that very few of the party will survive, we just don't know who.  While I enjoyed most of the book, the ending left me wanting.  Why did one of the captors confess to the rationale of the kidnapping?  This was done in a manner that didn’t fit with the rest of the novel.

 

I find that this author often wraps up in novels quickly in a way that doesn’t fit with the rest of the book.

Read:  February 11, 2023

3.5 Stars

Books Set in the United States

Bring Her Home, by David Bell (2017)

A forgettable thriller about mistaken identities.  

I read this on the flight to Budapest, so I was a captive audience.

Read: June 5, 2022

2 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States, Nashville, Tennessee

No One Knows, by J. T. Ellison (2016)

 

No One Knows, by J.T. Ellison is a fast-paced thriller.  The novel begins on the day that Aubrey Hamilton’s husband, Josh, has been officially been declared dead.  He disappeared 5 years earlier, shortly before amending his life insurance policy listing Aubrey as the beneficiary of his $5M policy.  His mother, Daisy, however, always had an intense dislike of Aubrey and threatens to contest the policy.

 

Josh disappeared on the eve of his best friend’s wedding.  Aubrey and Josh were to attend separate bachelor parties, but Josh never showed up at the groom’s party.  What happened to him?

 

All that was left was a large pool of blood in their home.  Aubrey was immediately cast as suspect in foul play and was tried for his murder.  She was subsequently acquitted, but the experience, along with her past encounters with law enforcement left her shattered and bitter.

 

As we delve into the shared history of Josh and Aubrey, we go back and forth in time from Aubrey’s troubled childhood.  Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was a young child and Aubrey spent much of her childhood living in a foster home.  Her best friend there was her foster brother, Tyler, who became a druggie and minor criminal.  Josh had his own childhood traumas.  He grew up believing that his biological father was dead and was adopted by Tom, his step-father.

 

It was serendipity that Aubrey ran into Chase Boden, a man who resembles Josh.  After a one-night stand, Aubrey finds herself falling for him.  Chase claims to be from Chicago but is always just a few short minutes away from Aubrey.  What are his motives?

 

Aubrey begins to hear rumor that Josh is still alive, so seeks to find out more of his past.  The story is told from many points of view: Aubrey, Daisy, Josh, Tom, Chase … There is also Meghan, the care-free spirit who owns the coffee shop where Aubrey works to supplement her salary as a Montessori teacher.

 

Ultimately, the ending left me unsatisfied.  The ending just come to any logical conclusion.

 

Spoiler Alert:  I felt that Meghan should have played a greater role in the novel’s resolution.  Furthermore, when Josh did appear, his behaviour over the past 5 years changed him from the loving husband to a mean, bitter and controlling man.  We also learn that Daisy had been briefly been married before she was married to Josh’s father.  She had a brief affair and gave birth to a son, who turns out to have been Chase.  Thus, it was no coincidence that he resembled Josh and that he “bumped” into Aubrey.  Then, we learn that Aubrey was in on the disappearing scheme all along.  Sorry.  Up until the last few pages, however, I enjoyed the book.  I probably won’t seek out other books by this author, however.

 

Read:  May 15, 2021

 

3 Stars

 

 

Books Set in Europe: England

The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides (2019)

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller narrated by Theo Faber, a psychotherapist.  He is ostensibly out to help Alicia Berenson, a young woman accused of murdering her husband and who is now confined to a psychiatric facility known as the Grove.

Alicia was a famous painter with an equally famous fashion photographer husband, Gabriel.  The novel starts after Alicia had been convicted of binding her husband to a chair and shooting him in the face several times.  After the murder, Alicia refused to speak again.

The murder made headlines.  Theo Faber seemingly became obsessed with the murder and, several years after the crime, he got the opportunity to work with Alicia.  He was determined to get her to talk and get to motive behind the killing.  In the process of providing her with his version of therapy, he meets with Alicia’s family and friends and quizzes them about Alicia’s past.

As the novel unwraps, we learn as much about Alicia’s past as we do about Theo’s past.  Theo is trapped in a marriage with a woman he seemingly loves despite her affair.  There was a final twist that I didn't see coming, which really made for a good thriller.

This novel was a page-turner.  It was a very quick read and was just the ticket to get me out of my reading slump.

Read: January 3, 2020

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Ludwig Conspiracy, by Oliver Pötzsch (2011).

I have enjoyed Oliver Pötzsch’s Hangman’s Daughter books, which are a historical mysteries that focus on Bavaria in the 1660s.  So, I though I would give The Ludwig Conspiracy a try.  It is a novel loosely based in King Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria.  He’s the king who built the famous fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle.

Unlike the Hangman series, this book goes back and in the present and during the life of King Ludwig.  Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances on June 13, 1886.  His death was officially deemed to be a suicide by drowning, although there was no water in his lungs.  As a result, there have been lots of theories and conspiracies about whether or not he was actually murdered.  This novel delves into some of those conspiracies.

The novel opens when Steven Lukas, the owner of a bookstore that specialized in rare books finds that he has a journal, written in code, that explains how Ludwig actually died.  The journal was hidden in Lukas’ store by a professor, who, in the opening scene of the novel is killed by thugs after the book.

Lukas soon finds that these shady characters are after him for the journal.  Enter Sara Lengfeld, who claims to be the niece of the dead professor.  She, too, wants to find out the truth of King Ludwig’s death.  Together she and Lukas attempt to decipher the journal, all the while being chased by mysterious hooligans.

After Lukas’s bookstore is broken into and ransacked, he and Sara find themselves on the run from the police as well.  Unfortunately, there was too much in this novel that stretched the imagination.  There were car chases, shootings, murders, etc.  It read more like a thriller movie, than a good satisfying book.  The scenes narrated by Ludwig's physician, however, are more interesting.

I’ll stick with the author’s Hangman series.

Read:  Sept. 12, 2019

2 Stars

Books Set in the United States: Maine

All the Beautiful Lies, by Peter Swanson (2018)

I picked up this crime thriller from the library solely because the novel is set in Maine.  I’m glad I found this author.  The descriptions of the small coastal Maine towns is spot on.

Harry Ackerson is just about to graduate from college when he gets a call saying that his father, who lived in a small coastal Maine town, had died when he fell off a rocky cliff on his daily walk.  Harry immediately returned home to his young step-mother, Alice, and to attend to funeral arrangements.

Harry’s father had run a rare bookshop in Manhattan, but after his wife died, he moved to Maine and opened a second shop.  After relocating to Maine, Harry’s father married Alice, his realtor.

Alice has a mysterious past.  We slowly learn the details as the chapter alternate between “Now” and “Then”.

After the autopsy is completed, the police begin to suspect that Harry’s father didn’t just fall, but believe he may have been murdered.  Then a mysterious young woman appears at the funeral.  Harry meets her to find out why she has come to town and to find out why she was interested in attending the funeral.

Harry learns that his father’s life was more complicated than he thought.  Who was responsible for his father’s death?  As the relationships between the characters unfolds, the mystery slowly unravels.

I found this book to be a very quick read and very enjoyable.

Read:  May 10, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: North Sea and Norway

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware (2016)

The Woman in Cabin 10, by Ruth Ware is a psychological thriller.

Lo Blacklock, the narrator, is a British travel journalist who has just landed a plum job on an exclusive cruise on along the Norwegian coast.  Just a few days before the cruise, her apartment is burgled while she is sleeping off an alcoholic haze.  The incident shakes her up, leaving her unable to sleep.  To add to her anxiety, her long-time boyfriends suggests that she move in with him, but she is unable to make that commitment.

Thus, the cruise begins with Lo being in an emotional fragile state.  On the first evening of the cruise, she meets the woman in the Cabin 10, the cabin next to her, and borrows a tube of mascara.  Later that evening, she hears noise from Cabin 10, followed by a big splash that sounds like a body hitting water.  Lo calls security only to be told that Cabin 10 is empty.  There is no guest in that cabin.

She spends the next few days trying to convince her fellow passengers that she saw a woman in the cabin, and now she fears that woman has been killed.  No one believes her, and the “evidence” Lo thinks she has suddenly goes missing.  Is Lo losing her mind?  Was the woman in cabin 10 really a figment of her imagination?

The book was a page turner, but the ending fell apart as there was too much drama to be believable.  It would make a good movie, though.

Read:  February 25, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East, Europe and the United States

The Black Widow, by Daniel Silva (2016)

The Black Widow follows the exploits of Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy and art restorer.  After ISIS took responsibility for an act of terrorism in Paris, which killed a friend of his, Allon is tapped to find the mastermind responsible.  The terrorist is called Saladin, like the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who faced the Crusaders in the 1100s.

Allon recruits Natalie Mizrahi, a young French-Israeli doctor.  Natalie is fluent in many languages, including Arabic.  She is transformed and trained to become a Palestinian doctor to infiltrate the ISIS community and become an ISIS recruit.  Her cover story is that she was from a Palestinian village and her fiancé was murdered by Israelis, thus she is out for revenge.  The plan is successful and she ultimately comes face-to-face to an injured Saladin.  She faces a moral dilemma to save him, or end his life and stop his continued acts of terror.

While the novel is a work of fiction, it is inspired by true acts of terrorism that have occurred throughout the world by ISIS.  In addition, the book emphasized the healing work of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.  Doctors and nurses treat and heal victims of terrorist acts as well as the terrorist themselves.

Read:

April 30, 2017

4 Stars

Books Set in the United States: New Hampshire

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, by Joel Dicker (2012)

I just loved, loved, loved this novel.  It is a mystery/thriller with so many twists and turns.

What really happened to 15-year old Nola Kellergan on August 30, 1975?  And how is the writer Harry Quebert involved in her disappearance?

Thirty-three years after Nola's disappearance, up-and-coming young writer Marcus Goldman visited the quiet little town of Somerset, New Hampshire to get inspiration from his mentor, Harry Quebert.  Marcus' hope for quiet inspiration, however, are interrupted when Nola's body is found buried in the garden on Quebert's property and Quebert is accused of her murder.

There are so many interesting characters living in this small New Hampshire town, each with an interest in keeping Nola's murder unsolved.  I couldn't put this book down!


5 Stars

Read: May 23, 2015

Books Set in the United States

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (2012)


Read: July 15, 2013