I don’t read a lot of suspense novels. I like books that are driven by characters, while most suspense is driven by plot. Hush by Anne Frasier is not a romance; it’s straight suspense. Still, it features characters who are more interesting and compelling than those in many of the romances I’ve read lately. And…
It’s hard for a reader to get involved with a work of fiction when she doesn’t care about the characters. Fictional characters needn’t be nice, but there has to be something about them to draw the reader’s interest. Unfortunately, I was never drawn to the characters in Jill Jones’ Every Move You Make. The problem?…
A couple of things occurred to me as I sat down to write this review. First of all, (and this is something you’ll notice very quickly) the review is going to be primarily about plot. There isn’t much I can do about that because the book is all about plot, which kind of goes with…
I’m starting to think they’ll let just about anyone publish a suspense novel these days. Apparently some readers must be gobbling them up like candy. I thought I’d read this one because it sounded exciting. World War II! British Intelligence and American OSS! Pilfered Nazi Gold! Unfortunately, this was nowhere near as interesting as it…
The spine of Since You’ve Been Gone reads “fiction” and it is clearly billed as a work of suspense, rather than the hybrid called “romantic suspense.” While it does contain a romance, the story’s focus is not on the love story but on the main character’s efforts to save a kidnapped child. Rebecca Ryan has…
I gave this book a C. For page-turning suspense and police procedure accuracy, the book certainly deserves an A. For the problems I encountered in not having read its prequel, the issues I had with the female protagonist, as well as its over-the-top heartbreak, this book deserves an F. So, C is the median grade,…
A common complaint about much of the suspense being written today is that it’s too gory. Serial killers abound and each crime is described in excruciating detail. Nothing is too gross or detailed. Enter Alex Kava. She has written a serial killer novel that has relatively few scenes of gore and mayhem. And though I’ve…
I’m told Iris Johansen used to be a romance novelist. You wouldn’t know it from her latest effort, Final Target, which falls clearly into the suspense genre. It contains a minor romance subplot, but no one would mistake it for a romantic novel. It excels as a suspenseful read with pulses pounding and pages turning,…
I can sum up the theme of Bitter Harvest pretty easily: “Greed is bad and will not go unpunished.” It’s a good moral, but in this case, it’s not delivered with much subtlety or style. Michelle Tyler is living a quiet and happy existence when the book begins. She has her own business and a…
While this book kept me turning pages, it was more out of curiosity than intense interest. The mystery was intriguing (until it was revealed) and I wanted to see whodunnit, but other than that, Delayed Diagnosis sort of died on the table. Dr. Rhea Lynch has been away. She and her fiancé broke up and…
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