#psychologicalthrillers – Page 2 – Rosepoint Publishing

The God of the Woods: A Novel by Liz Moore #Audiobook #FamilyLifeFiction

#11 this week

Goodreads Choice Award Winner for Readers’ Favorite Mystery & Thriller (2024)

Book Blurb:

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST THRILLER OF 2024
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF 2024
PEOPLE MAGAZINE’S #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY TOP 10 PICK OF 2024
ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S “100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2024”

When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

My Review:

Longer doesn’t always equate with better.

I’m the salmon battling up the river and over all the fish ladders as this novel appears to have done quite well and as usual I wasn’t all that thrilled.

While it started out with a hook and sparked my interest, the further I got into it, the less compelled I was to continue.

A seventeen-year-old girl disappears from summer camp and in the search for her the reader is introduced to myriad characters and their own POVs. Unfortunately, many times it is also the cause of timeline switches which disrupted the train of thought, derailed the plot line for me while I tried to digest the new time, the character in that time frame, and how they related to poor Barbara Van Laar whose family owns the camp.

Her brother disappeared from the same camp fourteen years previously. Yeah, now introduce a subplot. Why and how did he disappear?

What began as a nice pace became a slow burn, a mystery, that the longer the search, the more characters, timeline switches, and dysfunctional family memories are shared, the less I cared about any of them.

While there are some truly badass women, they are countered by milksops. My favorite character is TJ. She is smart, solid, and doesn’t let the money power behind the Van Laars lessen her authority. When it’s time for Alice’s POV (she is such a mess), I just want to slap her up the side of the head and tell her to shut up.

Well, are they ever going to find her? I don’t know—did you successfully navigate the twists and turns that lead nowhere? There is an interesting writing style, you can’t say the characters are not fully developed, but the atmosphere of the woods and the camp gets depressingly descriptive at times. Short chapters and slow passages kept me reading when I’d hit another interesting advance to the storyline. It was touch and go.

Perhaps better for you if you enjoy slow burn mysteries and character driven timeline switches. In any case, maybe that denouement will catch you by surprise. By that time though it just seems obvious.

I received an audiobook of this title from my local library that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Family Life Fiction, Literary Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN-10: ‎ 0593418913
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0593418918
ASIN: B0CL1YQLB5
Print Length: 490 pages
Publication Date: July 2, 2024
Source: Library

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Liz Moore is the author of five novels: The Words of Every Song, Heft, The Unseen World, the New York Times-bestselling Long Bright River, and The God of the Woods. A winner of the 2014 Rome Prize in Literature, she lives in Philadelphia and teaches in the MFA program in Creative Writing at Temple University.

Deep Freeze: A Novel by Michael C Grumley #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

From the bestselling author of the Breakthrough series: In his next near-future thriller, Michael C. Grumley explores humanity’s thirst for immortality—at any cost…

The accident came quickly. With no warning. In the dead of night, a precipitous plunge into a freezing river trapped everyone inside the bus. It was then that Army veteran John Reiff’s life came to an end. Extinguished in the sudden rush of frigid water.

There was no expectation of survival. None. Let alone waking up beneath blinding hospital lights. Struggling to move, or see, or even breathe. But the doctors assure him that everything is normal. That things will improve. And yet, he has a strange feeling that there’s something they’re not telling him.

As Reiff’s mind and body gradually recover, he becomes certain that the doctors are lying to him. One by one, puzzle pieces are slowly falling into place, and he soon realizes that things are not at all what they seem. Critical information is being kept from him. Secrets. Supposedly for his own good. But who is doing this? Why? And the most important question: can he keep himself alive long enough to uncover the truth?

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

My Review:

Sci-fi? Well, sorta, maybe. But cryogenics may be the next big thing. It’s long been an idea and evolving—how rapidly? Perhaps the near future?

It takes awhile for Army veteran John Reiff to wake, his eyes blinded by the strong overhead lights. It hurts to breathe and he is, taking internal inventory, unable to move. Where is he? How did he get here?

It is a great hook—the bus plunging into the freezing water below and John’s heroic efforts to save those abroad. Did he get out too or succumb to the temperature of the water closing in around him?

So, yes, the development holds the interest and begs additional information. John is enormously empathetic. A true miracle, brought back to life. But as he gradually gains control of his thoughts, memories, body, he begins to suspect this might not be a normal hospital. What are all those animals doing here?

I invest in the animals quickly, who wouldn’t? The circumstances are suspect, the atmosphere irregular. The main character is easy to like—but appears to be a pawn? As the reader becomes more suspicious and John discovers little secrets, gleans more clues, he begins to realize he is being lied to. Who to trust?

And by the way—what year is it?

We good so far?

I was, too, but somewhere near the middle or two-thirds of the book it veers into more dastardly purposes for the experimentation and that’s where it begins to lessen my interest. There is growing tension, but appears to revert to a trite but successful trope. I might have tripped over this idea before—what I haven’t is the engagement of the MC as he battles remnants of recovery, his body having sustained long-term damage only latently becoming obvious.

Certainly lots of ideas to ponder, twists and turns, interesting support characters, but it can’t be resolved in this new serial debut and must be continued. Rats. The narrator does a good job and if you enjoy technothrillers might be a great one to get in on at the beginning.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Technothrillers, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0C3NRZ3XM
Listening Length:
Narrator: Scott Brick
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Deep Freeze – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: For years, Michael Grumley dreamed of writing thrillers the way he thought they should be written; unique and complex stories with plots that ‘move’. Enter BREAKTHROUGH, AMID THE SHADOWS, and THE LAST MONUMENT: all deeply human stories with endings you will never see coming.

Michael C. Grumley lives in Northern California with his two young daughters. He’s an avid reader, runner and most of all father. He dotes on his girls every chance he gets. His website is http://www.michaelgrumley.com and his email address michael@michaelgrumley.com. He loves hearing from readers.

He is currently working on the next Monument story.

Have a merry Tuesday!

Waking Up in Vegas by J E Rowney #BookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

in West Mountain United States Travel Books

Book Blurb:

Five best friends. One unforgettable bachelorette weekend. A Vegas adventure that will change their lives forever.

Jess has always been the responsible one, the planner. But for her bachelorette party in Las Vegas, she’s ready to let loose with her four best friends. VIP passes, exclusive clubs, and a weekend of carefree fun – what could possibly go wrong?

Everything, as it turns out.

When Jess wakes up in a bathtub full of ice with no memory of the night before, she knows something has gone terribly amiss. Her maid of honor and best friend Rachel is missing, and the other girls are scattered around their luxurious suite in various states of disarray. As they piece together the events of their lost night, they uncover a web of secrets that threatens to unravel their tight-knit group.

In the glittering, high-stakes world of Las Vegas, Jess and her friends must confront their deepest insecurities, question their trust in each other, and navigate the complex dynamics of female friendship. With each revelation, they’re forced to reevaluate not just their weekend, but their entire lives.

“Waking Up In Vegas” is an addictive psychological thriller that will resonate with anyone who’s ever tested the bonds of friendship. It’s about the choices we make, the secrets we keep, and the strength we find in each other when the chips are down.

Perfect for fans of “The Hangover” meets “Gone Girl,” this is one bachelorette party you won’t want to miss.

My Review:

What could have been one of “those” women fiction novels, and certainly starts as if it will with the bachelorette weekend plans orchestrated by Rachel, this one veers in the thriller direction rather quickly. Jess, the bride for whom all the plans have been laid, wakes the morning following their inaugural night out in Vegas in a tub of ice water.

OOPS! I’m wondering if she’s also missing a kidney, but this isn’t that type of thriller. It doesn’t take long before Jess takes in the destruction of the hotel suite but does take a little longer to find three of the others, Rachel being among the missing. The common denominator between them all, found in various bazaar conditions, is that none of them have any memory of the night before. So what happened? And where is Rachel?

They are a tight-knit group of five, with the last addition of Olivia. Lisa is handcuffed to a Bellagio employee and the other two are in equally outrageous circumstances. After some deliberation, they begin to pool what little memories each have of the night before. Jess thought Rachel’s constant attention to her phone with Cynthia, the party coordinator, felt suspicious and they determined their first consideration had to be to find Rachel.

As the day wears on, each character is described, developed, and the reader engaged. They investigate each new clue, where they went, what they did, and where it could have led to Rachel’s disappearance.

In the meantime, Vegas is first depicted as the exciting spectacle it is with lights, sounds, and most especially the searing heat, varying little between night and day, and then the somewhat dark, sinister crush of humanity in the underbelly. Each nuance adds to the tension and lays on another level of psychological stress. Trust each other? Trust Jess’s fiance’s warning? What kind of hold does Cynthia have over Rachel? Trust no one, including the police?

I have to admit I tired of some redundant angst but was also thrown by several twists that headed off in a totally different direction than I’d imagined and discovered there was no way I could second guess this one. That and the final denoument in conclusion provided a satisfying ending. Certainly unusual and well paced after a leisurely start and kept interest but I’d have my reservations with the way lessons are bestowed.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Rating: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: West Mountain United States Travel Books, Travel, Heist Thrillers
ASIN: B0DG9NL9S9
Print Length: 280 pages
Publication Date: October 25, 2024
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon-US | Amazon-UK | Barnes & Noble

J E Rowney - author — J E Rowney – author

The Author: “Gaslight” is a gripping novel that tells the story of a young woman named Ella, who becomes convinced that she is being gaslit by her partner. As she struggles to uncover the truth, she is forced to confront the dark secrets that lie hidden in her own past.

Rowney’s writing style is known for being fast-paced and suspenseful, with a focus on building tension and keeping readers on the edge of their seats. She is skilled at creating complex, multidimensional characters and weaving together intricate plots that keep readers guessing until the very end.

In addition to her work as a writer, Rowney is also an advocate for mental health awareness and works to support mental health charities. This theme is often present in her books, which explore the impact of trauma and mental illness on the lives of her characters.

Overall, J.E. Rowney is a talented author who has gained a following for her gripping psychological thrillers. “Gaslight” is just one example of her ability to create unforgettable stories that leave readers on the edge of their seats.

Ms. Rowney says: “I always dreamed of being a writer, until I realised that I was. Then I started to write.”

You can find out more about JE Rowney on her website at jerowney.com, or follow @jerowneywriter on social media and @jerowney on TikTok

#TuesdayBookBlog

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton #AudiobookReview #TuesdayBookBlog

Book Blurb:

Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds with each other in this rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow.

Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective–or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she’d ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing–the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.

Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.

The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a giant music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise is drawn back into her detective work and starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it’s full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.

My Review:

I do enjoy mysteries and whodunits and always willing to try a new author to me. The blurb sets up a mystery involving conflict between the residents of a little seaside village and the seasonal weekenders who are buying up the older homes and turning them into luxury getaways.

And that prospect begins the storyline with a music festival that ends in tragedy when two teenagers OD. Guess I expected that’s the direction the plot would take, but you know what happens when you jump to assumptions.

The reader is introduced to Elise King, fighting her way through a cancer regime and still experiencing chemo brain. Admittedly, she acknowledges brain fog, memory loss, and concentration. She was a successful detective prior to her diagnosis and treatment and now would love to return to work. But she’s a little afraid to push it, recognizing her current limitations.

So when the teenagers OD and Charlie Perry disappears, Elise is a bit reluctant to jump back into her role when requested to do so by her old boss. Fortunately, she has a rather nosy older neighbor who would love to be an unofficial associate and is more than happy to help when Elise requests her assistance with Ronnie’s expertise in researching.

In the meantime…enter the housekeeper of many of the local homes forced into the role by the loss of her hubby’s job and income. Dee Eastwood has discovered she’s “invisible” to those whose homes she quietly goes about cleaning, while being privy to their conversations, secrets around the house, and their relationships.

Charlie Perry becomes sympathetic when the reader is introduced to his wife Pauline who appears to be more than a little narcissistic. But then it’s also discovered that Charlie wasn’t the sweet, friendly neighbor thought to be and in fact had put himself in a precarious financial position trying to care for his daughter.

Multiple POVs, lots of characters, many of whom are not wholly developed. The plot breaks down into sub-plots. I did like Elise and admired her successful struggle with her health circumstances, but with all the characters and a rather slow moving pace, there were times when I tuned out the narration of the audiobook. There is a twist at the end I didn’t expect and in the end a surprising discovery in conclusion.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Detective Mysteries, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B09J1RPG7N
Listening Length: 10 hrs 19 mins
Narrators: Gabrielle Glaister, Jayne Entwistle, Nicholas Guy Smith
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Local Gone Missing – Amazon-US
Amazon-UK

The Author: Fiona Barton’s debut, The Widow, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and has been published in 36 countries and optioned for television. Her second novel, The Child, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Born in Cambridge, Fiona currently lives in Sussex and south-west France.

Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.

While working as a journalist, Fiona reported on many high-profile criminal cases and she developed a fascination with watching those involved, their body language and verbal tics. Fiona interviewed people at the heart of these crimes, from the guilty to their families, as well as those on the periphery, and found it was those just outside the spotlight who interested her most . . .

#TuesdayBookBlog

The Heiress: A Novel by Rachel Hawkins #AudiobookReview #GothicHorrorFiction

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BAD

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.

And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

My Review:

I had no idea I was tackling a Gothic thriller, but I can tell you that this dysfunctional family makes you happy you aren’t rich. Good grief, with money comes treachery, woes, and misery. Or perhaps the McTavish family is unusual? I hope so.

Cam and Jules have been married for a while, solid and comfortable, childless but happy in Colorado far away from the family who adopted him and the mother who denied her birth children the home and fortune she left Cam. The siblings, who were never thrilled with him, are now left bitter and conniving after Ruby’s death.

Cam is called by his uncle to Ashby House to straighten out a financial mess. It’s Jules who convinces him he should return, reconcile with his adopted siblings.

Then it does read like a Gothic novel, describing a home of monumental proportions on a palatial estate, breathtakingly beautiful. It’s easy to veil the secrets, tension, and suspicion each family member heaps on each other. Narcissism screams with each character, whose personalities have been defined by money, power, and privilege.

The plot deepens with revelations from each of the characters, beautifully captured by multiple narrators. Adding to the tension are the little letter vignettes from Ruby, disclosing the stories of her four unfortunate husbands, all having met suspicious deaths.

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller and the trove of unreliable narrators, ramping suspense. From a slightly slow start through the twists, one last zinger at the end, and the satisfying denouement, this novel may well be enjoyed by Gothic and psychological thriller fans and it doesn’t hurt that the area descriptions become so atmospheric.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Gothic Horror Fiction, Gothic Fiction, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0C3NX3ZK6
Listening Length: 8 hrs 20 mins
Narrator: Dan Bittner, Eliza Foss, John Pirhalla, Patti Murin
Publication Date: January 9, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Heiress [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Rachel Hawkins (http://www.rachel-hawkins.com) was a high school English teacher before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her family in Alabama, and is currently at work on the third book in the Hex Hall series. To the best of her knowledge, Rachel is not a witch, though some of her former students may disagree….

Happy (Audiobook) Thursday

Daughter of Mine: A Novel by Megan Miranda – #AudiobookReview – #psychologicalthrillers

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Book Blurb:

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

Riveting and suspenseful, Daughter of Mine is Megan Miranda’s best novel yet, filled with “delicious twists, dark secrets, and a deadly past” (Ashley Elston, New York Times bestselling author of First Lie Wins) that will keep you listening late into the night.

My Review:

Not my first dance with Megan Miranda and her style of writing–slow burn dark family secrets held tightly to the chest with closed fists and set determined jaw. I found much the same in The Last to Vanish.

The first and most obvious twist in this novel is the way the author sets out the timeline and chapters, fusing Hazel Sharp’s story with an area-wide ongoing drought and beginning each chapter with the number of days without rain. Indeed, it’s changing the landscape of her childhood home and Mirror Lake is now revealing secrets that directly impact her.

Hazel has returned after her father dies to discover, and to her brother’s shock, that he left his home and property to her—not them. She is bewildered; they are disgusted. It’s not as if they were ever close as step-siblings.

Her father was a respected law enforcement officer of the community when her mother up and left—never to return. The devastation and feelings of abandonment have never really left. But the cars being exposed by receding waters have opened a shocking new twist to the story—what really happened to her mother?

Clever, the way the chapters add atmospheric tension to the plot as Hazel grapples with her brothers over the home and now whether or not her dad might have had something to do with her mother’s disappearance. The heat causes rise to short tempers; everyone is on edge.

While there was interest in the storyline, I could not fully engage with Hazel nor wrap my head around the backstories of her brothers…(I don’t remember them ever being designated as “step”). So many family secrets, not much of a bond. She and her mother came rather late in their family story.

Lose attention until the next little twist, then re-engage. It’s a weird family dynamic. Once the rain begins the pace rushes into denouement and it’s over. Eh, okay. If you are an MM fan, then you may find this of interest with the way she’s noted chapter headings or you appreciate her build of tension. I just needed it to move a little faster, I guess.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
ASIN: B0C7YD57GS
Listening Length: 10 hrs 27 mins
Narrator: Inés del Castillo
Publication Date: April 9, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Daughter of Mine [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Megan Miranda is the New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls; The Perfect Stranger; The Last House Guest, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick; The Girl from Widow Hills; Such a Quiet Place; and The Last to Vanish. She has also written several books for young adults. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children.

Her next book, The Only Survivors, will be published on April 11th, 2023.

Follow @MeganLMiranda on Instagram, @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook, or visit http://www.meganmiranda.com

Audiobook Review

Headphones courtesy Racool Studio

If Something Happens to Me: A Novel by Alex Finlay – #AudiobookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken.

With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him.

Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me…

Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night.

As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.

In classic Alex Finlay form, If Something Happens to Me is told by several distinct, compelling characters whose paths intersect, detonating into a story of twist after pulse-pounding twist. The novel cements Finlay as one of the leading thriller writers today.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

My Review:

It appears there are many more people who enjoyed this one than I did. I listened to the audiobook and will add kudos to the female narrator. But for some reason, I had a problem getting into it and staying with it.

Three POVs, Ryan being the main character, who kicks off the backbone of the storyline by reliving the night he was pulled from his girlfriend’s car and sustained a blow to the head. He can only remember small glitches of that night, but remembers her screams as she is taken. He escapes an arrest for her disappearance, but public opinion as well as his schoolmates tries and convicts him. He changes his name and goes to law school, but it catches up with him in Italy five years later.

We are good so far, huh?

Okay, I’m digging the female deputy. Poppy McGee is earnest, giving it her all. This is it for her as her military experience didn’t go all that well. She is new on the job, suspects she’ll be handing out traffic tickets, when small town law enforcement needs her to follow up on leads for the car pulled out of the local lake with two male bodies inside. It could happen—it’s a small town remember (Leavenworth, KS). Coincidentally, it’s the missing girls’ car.

Okay, so behind the scenes, there is a little mischief going on with the local mob. Now we start getting twists, tropes, and the suspense ramps up. I love how the mob grandpa nurtures his grandson—it’s sweet—never mind what he’s doing with his business—the revenge third of the plot.

Then there’s the cryptic note found in the submerged car and there is much to do regarding decoding what the note says. But, generally, there is a lot going on and the narrative flips between one of the three POVs until there is gradually a connection and an audible, “Ohhh…”.

So, yeah, it is entertaining, engaging in sections while others appeared to lag a bit (for me anyway). Suspend a little disbelief and just go with the flow as the conclusion might just do it for you.

The CE read two of his previous books, What Have We Done in 2022, and enjoyed both.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Thrillers, Suspense
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0CKM1LNKW
Listening Length: 7 hrs 16 mins
Narrators: Helen Laser, John Pirhalla, Paul Dateh
Publication Date: May 28, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Links: If Something Happens to Me [Amazon-US]
Amazon-UK
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Alex Finlay is the author of the 2021 breakout novel, EVERY LAST FEAR, the 2022’s GoodReads Choice nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller, THE NIGHT SHIFT, and his latest 2023 release, WHAT HAVE WE DONE. His work has been an Indie Next pick, a LibraryReads selection, an Amazon Editor’s Best Thriller, as well as a CNN, Newsweek, E!, BuzzFeed, Business Week, Goodreads, Parade, PopSugar, and Reader’s Digest best or most anticipated thrillers of the year. Alex’s novels have been translated into nineteen languages and are sold around the world. All of his books have been option for film and television, and EVERY LAST FEAR is in development for a series on a major streaming service. Learn more at https://alexfinlaybooks.com/

#TuesdayBookBlog

Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea – #AudiobookReview – #womensleuthmysteries

Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

In this engrossing, masterfully twisting new thriller from the #1 internationally bestselling author, a forensics trainee learns through a DNA test that she mysteriously disappeared as a baby thirty years ago—and her life is still in danger …

When Dr. Sloan Hastings submits her DNA to an online genealogy site for a research assignment, her goal is to better understand the treasure-trove of genetic information contained on ancestry websites. Brilliant and driven, Sloan is embarking on a fellowship in forensic pathology, training under the renowned Dr. Livia Cutty.

Sloan has one reservation about involving herself in the experiment: she’s adopted. Grateful for a loving home, she’s never considered tracking down her biological parents. The results of her search are shocking. Sloan’s DNA profile suggests her true identity is that of Charlotte Margolis, aka “Baby Charlotte,” who captured the nation’s attention when she mysteriously disappeared, along with her parents, in July 1995. Despite an exhaustive search, the family was never seen again, and no suspects were named in the case.

Sloan’s discovery leads her to the small town of Cedar Creek, Nevada, the site of her disappearance. It also leads her to Sheriff Eric Stamos. The Margolis family’s influence and power permeate every corner of Harrison County, and Eric is convinced that in learning the truth about her past, Sloan can also help discover what happened to Eric’s father, who died under suspicious circumstances soon after he started investigating her disappearance.

Slowly, over the course of a stifling summer, Sloan begins getting to know her relatives. Though initially welcoming, the Margolis family is also mysterious and tight-lipped. Not everyone seems happy about Sloan’s return, or the questions she’s asking. And the more she and Eric learn, the more apparent it becomes that the answers they both seek are buried in a graveyard of Margolis family secrets that some will do anything to keep hidden—no matter who else has to die …

My Review:

Don’t you just love it when the blurb saves you the time of reading the book? I listened to it anyway and for the most part found it very engaging.

It’s fun when a big topic of interest is used to create a unique book plot and the author takes this one and really runs with it. At the beginning, I found Sloan Hastings to be intelligent, independent, a pathologist who secured a fellowship under a forensic pathologist, an avenue Sloan was keen to explore. Her assignment is a DNA study and she is required to submit her own to create her dissertation.

Oops! She’s always known she was adopted, but isn’t sure how her adoptive parents will receive that news. But no prob. They’re cool with it.

There is a shocker, of course. She is “Baby Charlotte” (Margolis) who disappeared with her birth parents almost thirty years ago. Now for the fun part.

The Margolis family are very well to do and pretty much have the little town of Cedar Creek, Nevada wrapped up. They appear to receive her with open arms, thrilled at the discovery she is not only alive but back to discover her birth family. It’s her chance to dig into the mystery of her birth parents and get some history.

And here’s where it changes for me from her being a brilliant pathologist to a naïve, under-educated woman who requires detailed explanations that had me rolling my eyes and slapping my forehead.

Can she learn what happened to her parents and discover secrets buried for thirty years? The switch in timeline provides insight into Sloan’s birth parents, but you’ll have to start swallowing some disbelief. Twisty plot, interesting and engaging characters, and fast pace keep you flipping pages (sometimes looking for credulity). And I must admit, though I had my suspicions (eeny, meany), I picked the wrong one.

It’s entertaining. I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Women Sleuth Mysteries, Psychological Thrillers, Women Sleuths
Publisher: Recorded Books
ASIN: B0CQZ3GZ48
Listening Length: 9 hrs 19 mins
Narrator: Vivienne Leheny
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Long Time Gone [Amazon]
Barnes & Noble
Kobo

The Author: Charlie Donlea is the USA Today and #1 International bestselling author of propulsive, female-driven thrillers including The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Twenty Years Later, and Those Empty Eyes. His eighth thriller, LONG TIME GONE, explores the science of forensic genealogy.

A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel–THE FIRM by John Grisham–and knew he would someday write thrillers. Published in forty countries and translated into nearly twenty languages, his books have sold more than 1.5 million copies in the U.S. alone and have been optioned for film and television.

Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly).

He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children. Learn more at his interactive website at CharlieDonlea dot com.

happy thursday!