Suspense

Books that star an already married couple dealing with their relationship a little further down the road are a draw for me. Couples who know they love each other and are just not sure they can live together, or work together, or get past a tragedy, etc., are frequently so much more interesting then a…

It’s the rare novel written by an adult that can articulate a child’s point of view of the world in convincing fashion. Off the top of my head, I can think of books like To Kill a Mockingbird and A High Wind in Jamaica, to name two. I would add Kathy Hepinstall’s second novel, The…

I haven’t read anything by Tami Hoag since Thin, Dark Line, and I’m glad that I picked Dark Horse to go back to. It features dark characters to be sure, but it’s an oddly satisfying read. Elena Estes is a former police officer drowning in guilt over her part in the death of a coworker….

When I opted to review this book, I thought it was romantic suspense. It’s not; it’s a straight mystery/thriller, so if you’re looking for love, this’d be one of the wrong places. I enjoy straight suspense, and though Summer of Storms is a page-turner, had the heroine been a bit more on the ball (along…

Do you want me to try for a synopsis here, or should I just cut right to my complaints? Maybe I should just list the problems since the plot was so screwy anyway. I’m still trying to make some kind of sense of it. The story begins with Federal Special Agent Dillon Savich and his…

I have been on a mystery reading kick lately, finally catching up with all those authors I always meant to read but never had the time to. In the case of Erica Spindler’s Dead Run, however, all I discovered was how an interesting and timely plot can be marred by boring characters and less-than-stellar prose….

Lisa Gardner has become one of my favorite suspense writers. I thought The Third Victim was fantastic psychological suspense, and while The Last Accident wasn’t quite as good, my faith is restored with The Survivors Club. It kept me absorbed and drew me into the story while I was trying to figure out the mystery….

Ms. Johansen’s latest has got it all…and then some. And that’s still not saying much. Murder and mayhem in the bayous of Louisiana, explosions, poisoning, car chases – all the thriller elements are here, and yet this latest Eve Duncan opus falls remarkably flat. Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan first appeared in The Face of Deception,…

Grace Notes starts out at a very leisurely pace and never quite gets beyond that. As I read I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was a book-long wait. Grace Loring is a successful writer with domestic abuse in her past. That abuse prompted her to write her own story in order…