Blackwater Falls by Ausma Zehanat Khan #bookreview #series

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Blackwater Falls in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: November 8, 2022   Summary: From critically acclaimed author Ausma Zehanat Khan, Blackwater Falls is the first in a timely and powerful crime series, introducing Detective Inaya Rahman. Girls from immigrant communities have been disappearing for months in the Colorado town of Blackwater Falls, but the local sheriff is slow to act…

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The Ravenous Dead by Darcy Coates #bookreview #series

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press, #partner for the advanced copy of The Ravenous Dead in exchange for my honest review.   Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press Published: March 15, 2022 Summary: He’ll never let go…. Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard’s new groundskeeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They’ve been desperately waiting for help moving on—and only Keira can hear them. But…

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The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Hachette Audio, #partner for the ALC of The Inheritance Games in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Hachette Audio Published: September 1, 2020   Summary: Avery Grambs has a plan for a better future: survive high school, win a scholarship, and get out. But her fortunes change in an instant when billionaire Tobias Hawthorne dies and leaves Avery virtually his entire fortune. The catch? Avery has no idea…

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Murder at Mallowan Hall by Colleen Cambridge #bookreview #series #backlistreview

Thank you Kensington Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Murder at Mallowan Hall in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Kensington Books Published: October 26, 2021   Summary: The first in an exciting new historical mystery series set in the home of Agatha Christie! Colleen Cambridge’s charming and inventive new historical series introduces an unforgettable heroine in Phyllida Bright, fictional housekeeper for none other than famed mystery novelist Agatha…

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Kisscut by Karin Slaughter #bookreview #audiobook #series

I borrowed this audiobook from the library. Publisher: HarperAudio Published: February 10, 2015   Summary: Saturday night dates at the skating rink have been a tradition in the small southern town of Heartsdale for as long as anyone can remember, but when a teenage quarrel explodes into a deadly shoot-out, Sara Linton – the town’s pediatrician and medical examiner – finds herself entangled in a terrible tragedy. What seemed at…

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Phantom by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: April 23, 2013 (first published 2012)   Summary: When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn’t…

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Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner for the ALC of Listen to Me in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: July 5, 2022   Summary: Rizzoli & Isles are back! From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, this “shocking and fast-paced” (Karin Slaughter) thriller has Jane and Maura investigating a brutal murder with dire implications, and this time, with Jane’s intrepid mother, Angela, looking into a mystery of her own.…

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Blackmail and Bibingka by Mia P. Manansala #bookreview #audiobook #series

Thank you @GetRedPrBooks & Berkley Books, #partner, for the finished copy of  Blackmail and Bibingka in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the audiobook for my own collection. Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: October 4, 2022   Summary: When her long-lost cousin comes back to town just in time for the holidays, Lila Macapagal knows that big trouble can’t be far behind in this new mystery by…

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The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews #BlogTour #BookFeature

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Belle of Belgrave Square. Thank you Austen Prose for inviting me to participate. I have a book spotlight and excerpt for you today. Publisher: Berkley Romance Published: October 11, 2022   Summary: A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive…

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The Leopard by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #series

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: June 26, 2012 (first published 2009)   Summary: In the depths of winter, a killer stalks the city streets. His victims are two young women, both found with twenty-four inexplicable puncture wounds, both drowned in their own blood. The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of…

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The Retreat by Sarah Pearse #bookreview #series

I purchased this book for my own collection. Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books Published: July 19, 2022   Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Sanatorium, a Reese’s Book Club Pick, detective Elin Warner’s second outing, as she uncovers the truth behind the suspicious deaths on a stunning island getaway. Most are here to recharge and refresh. But someone’s here for revenge. . . An eco-wellness retreat has opened on an…

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Stolen Remains by Christine Trent #bookreview #series #backlistbook

Thank you Kensington Books, #partner for the advanced of Stolen Remains in exchange for my honest review. I got the audiobook from Scribd. Publisher: Kensington Books / Tantor Audio Published: April 29, 2014 / November 30, 2021   Summary: After establishing her reputation as one of London’s most highly regarded undertakers, Violet Harper decided to take her practice to the wilds of the American West. But when her mother falls…

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The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception by Katherine Cowley #BlogTour #BookFeature

  Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for The Lady’s Guide to Death and Deception. Thank you Austen Prose for inviting me to participate. I have a book spotlight and excerpt for you today.   Publisher: Tule Publishing Published: September 22, 2022   Summary: What is a spy willing to do when both her heart and her country are at risk? Life changes…

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Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano #bookreview #series

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Finlay Donovan Knocks “Em Dead in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library. Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: February 1, 2022   Summary: Finlay Donovan is―once again―struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to…

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The Key to Deceit by Ashley Weaver #bookreview #bookseries

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the finished copy of The Key to Deceit in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: June 21, 2022   Summary: The second in the Electra McDonnell series from Edgar-nominated author Ashley Weaver, The Key to Deceit, is a delightful World War II mystery filled with spies, murder, romance, and wit. London, 1940. After years of stealing from the rich and giving to the…

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Long Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen #bookreview

Thank you Minotaur Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Long Gone in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: August 9, 2022   Summary: Long Gone, the next installment of Joanna Schaffhausen’s critically acclaimed Detective Annalisa Vega series. Chicago detective Annalisa Vega shattered her life, personally and professionally, when she turned in her ex-cop father for his role in a murder. Her family can’t forgive her. Her fellow…

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The Heist by C.W. Gortner & M.J. Rose #bookreview #bookseries

Thank you to GetRedPR, #partner, for the finished copy of The Heist in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: August 2, 2022   Summary: To catch a leopard wear diamonds. A year after THE BAIT, Ania Throne is on the prowl. Gone into hiding, she’s planned her next move to perfection, intent on winning her dangerous game of cat-against-cat with the Leopard. But Ania doesn’t know that…

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Blood Ties by Ruth Lillegraven #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner, for the ALC of Blood Ties in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: July 26, 2022   Summary: Betrayal, secrets, revenge, and murder: they’re in the blood in a provocative novel of psychological suspense by the award-winning, internationally bestselling author of Everything Is Mine. As Norway’s newly appointed minister of justice, child-rights advocate Clara Lofthus has a chance to accomplish something meaningful on behalf…

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Everything is Mine by Ruth Lillegraven #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Brilliance Audio, #partner, for the ALC of Everything Is Mine in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: March 9, 2021   Summary: Family secrets, revenge, and righteous fury collide in an international bestselling novel of psychological suspense and intrigue. Clara and Henrik are married and living in a beautiful inherited villa in Oslo. She is a single-mindedly ambitious child-rights activist at the Ministry of Justice.…

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Fatal Witness by Robert Bryndza #bookreview #audiobook #netgalley #seriesreview

Thank you Raven Street Publishing, the author & Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced copy of Fatal Witness in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Raven Street Publishing Published: July 7, 2022   Summary: Detective Erika Foster is back in Fatal Witness–with a chilling new serial-killer case in Robert Bryndza’s multimillion best-selling crime-thriller series! How do you find a killer who has destroyed all the evidence? Detective Erika Foster is on a…

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One Night Stand by Patricia Gibney #bookreview #shortstory

I received this short story as part of the author’s early reader’s club by subscribing to her newsletter. Publisher: Patricia Gibney / Bookouture Published: 2022   Summary: A short story featuring Boyd and what motivated him to join the Gardai.   My thoughts: Patricia Gibney’s Detective Lottie Parker series is one of my favorite crime fiction series, so I was thrilled to be able to get access to read this…

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Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Simon & Schuster Audio for the ALC and Scribner Books #partner, for the advanced copy of Cold, Cold Bones in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Scribner Books / Simon and Schuster Audio Published: July 5, 2022   Summary: #1 New York Times bestselling thriller writer Kathy Reichs returns with her twenty-first novel of suspense featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan who, after receiving a box containing a human eyeball, uncovers…

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The Ghosts of Paris by Tara Moss #bookreview #netgalley #seriesreview

Thank you Dutton / Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced copy of The New Neighbor in exchange for my honest review.    Publisher: Dutton Published: June 7, 2022 Summary: A thrilling tale of courage and secrets set in postwar London and Paris, in which a search for a missing husband puts investigator and former war reporter Billie Walker on a collision course with an underground network of Nazi criminals It’s 1947.…

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The Guilty Girl by Patricia Gibney #bookreview #audiobook #seriesreview

Thank you Bookouture Audio for the ALC and Bookouture & Netgalley, #partner,  for the advanced copy of The Guilty Girl in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Bookouture Published: June 15, 2022   Summary: Something whistling through the door behind her caused her to turn. A shadow spread across the opening. She clasped a hand to her mouth, stilling the fear that was rising. The menacing shadow was followed by…

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The Friendship Pact by Jill Shalvis #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Harper Audio for the ALC and @GetRedPrBooks & Avon Books, #partner,  for the finished copy of  The Friendship Pact in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Avon Books / Harper Audio Published: June 14, 2022   Summary: New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Sunrise Cove with a powerful, moving story about a young woman on a quest to find the truth about her father who learns…

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After the Funeral by Agatha Christie #bookreview #librarybook #seriesreview

I borrow this book from the library. Publisher: William Morrow Published: June 14, 2011 (first published 1953)   Summary: When Cora Lansquenet is savagely murdered with a hatchet, the extraordinary remark she made the previous day at her brother Richard’s funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard’s will, Cora was clearly heard to say, “It’s been hushed up very nicely, hasn’t it.…But he was murdered,…

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A Face to Die For by Iris Johansen #bookreview #audiobook

Thank you Hachette Audio for the ALC and @NovelSuspects & Grand Central Publishing, #partner, for the finished copy of A Face to Die For in exchange for my honest review.  Publisher: Grand Central Publishing Published: June 14, 2022   Summary: Eve Duncan attempts to unearth one of history’s most intriguing lost secrets in this adventure ripped from the pages of Greek mythology, by number one New York Times best-selling author Iris Johansen.…

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The Snowman by Jo Nesbo #bookreview #shortandsweetreview #seriesreview

I purchased this book for my own personal collection. Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: June 28, 2016 (first published 2007)   Summary: Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity. Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his…

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Short & Sweet Review: The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Published: September 9, 2014 (first published 2005) Source: Personal copy   SUMMARY A fantastically gripping thriller from the best-selling author of The Snowman. Christmas shoppers stop to hear a Salvation Army concert on a crowded Oslo street. A gunshot cuts through the music and the bitter cold: one of the singers falls dead, shot in the head at point-blank range. Harry Hole—the Oslo Police Department’s best investigator and…

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Short & Sweet Review: The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo

  Publisher: Vintage Published: April 6, 2016 (first published 2003) Source: Personal copy   SUMMARY: A young woman is murdered in her Oslo flat. One finger has been severed from her left hand, and behind her eyelid is secreted a tiny red diamond in the shape of a five-pointed star – a pentagram, the devil’s star. Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially…

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Short & Sweet Review: 21st Birthday by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Published: May 3, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: Detective Lindsay Boxer vows to protect a young woman from a serial killer long enough to see her twenty-first birthday. When young wife and mother Tara Burke goes missing with her baby girl, all eyes are on her husband, Lucas. He paints her not as a missing person but a wayward wife—until a gruesome piece of…

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Review: Little Bones by Patricia Gibney

Publisher: Bookouture Published: September 22, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: She lifted up her granddaughter from the cot, clutched her to her chest and, without looking at her beautiful daughter lying dead on the floor of her bedroom, ran from the house. Only when she was outside did she let a wail escape her lips, frightening the baby who joined in her screams. When Isabel Gallagher is found…

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Blog Tour & Review: A Life for a Life by Carol Wyer (Print/Audio)

Today, I’m so happy to be a tour stop on the blog tour for A Life for a Life by Carol Wyer. Thank you #ZooloosBookTours for inviting me to participate. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer / Brilliance Audio Published: March 15, 2022 Source: E-galley via Publicist / Audio via Brilliance Audio   Summary: Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer – except an unpredictable detective. When a young man is found…

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Review: Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala (audio)

Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Audio Published: February 8, 2022 Source: Print – Paperback via GetRedPR / Audio via Library   Summary: Death at a beauty pageant turns Tita Rosie’s Kitchen upside down in the latest entry of this witty and humorous cozy-mystery series by Mia P. Manansala. Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two…

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Review: Dead Wind by Tessa Wegert

Publisher: Severn House Publishers Published: March 1, 2022 (e-book) Source: ARC E-copy via Suzy Approved Book Tours   Summary: Senior Investigator Shana Merchant must dredge up dark secrets and old grudges if she’s to solve the murder of a prominent local citizen in the Thousand Islands community she now calls home. The body is discovered on Wolfe Island, under the shadow of an enormous wind turbine. Senior Investigator Shana Merchant,…

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Review: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie – Reread (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (first published 1937) / HarperAudio Published: Print – September 29, 2020 / Audio – July 3, 2012 Source: Print – Paperback via Publisher / Audio via Library   Summary: Following the success of Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh returns to direct and star in this adaptation of the classic Hercule Poirot mystery for the big screen, also starring Gal Gadot. Beloved detective Hercule Poirot embarks on a…

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Short & Sweet Review: Nemesis by Jo Nesbo

Publisher: Vintage Published: 2008 (first published 2002) Source: Personal copy   Summary: How do you catch a killer when you’re the number one suspect? A man is caught on CCTV, shooting dead a cashier at a bank. Detective Harry Hole begins his investigation, but after dinner with an old flame wakes up with no memory of the past 12 hours. Then the girl is found dead in mysterious circumstances and…

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Review: Last Seen Alive by Joanna Schaffhausen

Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: January 25, 2022 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: The fifth book in Joanna Schaffhausen’s heartpounding Ellery Hathaway mystery series. Boston detective Ellery Hathaway met FBI agent Reed Markham when he pried open a serial killer’s closet to rescue her. Years on, their relationship remains defined by that moment and by Francis Coben’s horrific crimes. To free herself from Coben’s legacy, Ellery had to walk away…

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Review: Arsenic And Adobo by Mia P. Manansala (audio)

Publisher: Penguin Audio Published: May 4, 2021 Source: Library   Summary: The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes – one that might just be killer…. When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to…

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Blog Tour & Review: Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron

Publisher: Soho Crime Published: February 8, 2022 Source: ARC Paperback via AustenProse PR   Summary: May 1816: Jane Austen is feeling unwell, with an uneasy stomach, constant fatigue, rashes, fevers and aches. She attributes her poor condition to the stress of family burdens, which even the drafting of her latest manuscript–about a baronet’s daughter nursing a broken heart for a daring naval captain–cannot alleviate. Her apothecary recommends a trial of…

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Review: Behind the Lie by Emilya Naymark

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books Published: February 8, 2022 Source: Hardcover via Booksforward PR   Summary NYPD detective turned small town PI Laney Bird is in a fight to save lives–including her own–after a neighborhood block party turns deadly. A transplant to the upstate New York hamlet of Sylvan, all Laney wants is a peaceful life for herself and her son. But things rarely remain calm in Laney’s life–and when her…

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Review: The Bait by C.W. Gortner & M.J. Rose

Publisher: Blue Box Press Published: August 10, 2021 Source: GetRedPR   Summary: Revenge is a diamond best served cold. A year after THE STEAL, Ania Throne is determined to take back what the Leopard stole from her. Together with her lover and partner, Jerome, she stages a spectacular heist during the Venetian Carnival, to lure out the treacherous mastermind they unmasked. She’s willing to risk it all—until her revenge takes a…

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Review: The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis (audio)

Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio Published: January 11, 2022 Source: Paperback via GetRedPR / Audio via Library   Summary: Beloved New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis begins a new series–Sunrise Cove–set near beautiful Lake Tahoe, with a heartwarming story of found family and love. During the snowstorm of the century Levi Cutler is stranded on a ski lift with a beautiful stranger named Jane. After strong winds hurl the gondola…

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Review: Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter (audio)

Publisher: HarperTorch / HarperAudio Published: October 2002 (Originally published Sept 2001) / Audio – February 10, 20215 Source: Print – Mass Market Paperback via Publisher / Audio via library   Summary: A small Georgia town erupts in panic when a young college professor is found brutally mutilated in the local diner. But it’s only when town pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton does the autopsy that the full extent of the…

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Review: We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal

Publisher: Harper Published: October 28, 2021 Source: Personal copy   Summary: A missing girl, a hidden body, a decades-long cover-up, and old sins cast in new light: the classic procedural meets Scandinavian atmosphere in this rich, character-driven mystery, awarded Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year, that heralds the American debut of a supremely skilled international writer.  It’s been more than twenty years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to…

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Review: As the Wicked Watch by Tamron Hall

Publisher: William Morrow Published: October 26, 2021 Source: Netgalley  via Publisher   Summary: The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award–winning journalist Tamron Hall, in which a reporter unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two black girls, the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago. When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s…

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Review: The Redbreast by Harry Hole

Publisher: Harper Perennial Published: 2006 (First published January 2000) Source: Personal copy   Summary: Detective Harry Hole embarrassed the force, and for his sins he’ been reassigned to mundane surveillance tasks. But while monitoring neo-Nazi activities in Oslo, Hole is inadvertently drawn into a mystery with deep roots in Norway’s dark past, when members of the government willingly collaborated with Nazi Germany. More than sixty years later, this black mark…

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Review: The Mirror Man by Lars Kepler

Publisher: Knopf Published: January 18, 2022 Source: Publisher   Summary: In the latest internationally best-selling installment of the Killer Instinct series, Detective Joona Linna is on the trail of a kidnapper who targets teenage girls and makes their worst nightmares a reality. Seventeen-year-old Jenny is abducted in broad daylight and taken to a dilapidated, isolated house where she is chained and caged along with several other girls. Their captor is…

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Review: One Step Too Far by Lisa Gardner (audio)

Publisher: Brilliance Audio Published: January 18, 2022 Source: ALC via Brilliance Audio   Summary: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a thrilling new novel that sends Frankie Elkin into the woods in search of a lost man–and the shocking truth about why he went missing in the first place. Frankie Elkin, who readers first met in Before She Disappeared, learns of a young man who has gone missing in a…

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Review: Dark Night by Paige Shelton

Publisher: Minotaur Books Published: December 7, 2021 Source: Netgalley via Publisher   Summary: Dark Night is the third book in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series by beloved cozy author Paige Shelton, in which Beth is met with an unexpected visitor: her mom… Winter is falling in the remote town of Benedict, Alaska, and with the cold comes an uninvited guest. The dreaded “census man,” seemingly innocuous, is an unwelcome…

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