Stone Creek By Kate Brandes

Kate Brandes’ novel Stone Creek is beautiful, heartbreaking, full of love and determination.  This story will take the reader through every single emotion.  This coming-of-age novel will follow Tilly as she learns how to separate herself from her father, Frank. 

All his life, Frank has been fighting a battle.  He fought alongside many and made bonds that could not be broken.  He taught Tilly how to survive.  She learned how to fight big industry, blow up dams and to do this without hurting people.  This was their way of life.  Living off the grid, doing what Frank believed was needed. “The thing you have to ask yourself is this: How bright will you burn? What is the source of your fire? What are you going to do with your life that means something?”   His passion was his purpose. Until, he had to separate himself from Tilly leaving her alone. 

Frank’s mission left Tilly to feel irrelevant, lost, angry and uncertain what would happen at any given moment.  The reader is immersed in Tilly’s life through two timelines helping us to understand what she is going through and even be empathetic to her father’s ideals.  This is a book that I will reread and will remain on my shelves.   So many layers beautifully woven together.  Thank you for letting me be a part of this book’s journey. 

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May The Wolf Die By Elizabeth Heider

Nikki Serafino is a detective in Naples, Italy.  She is the first woman to work in Phoenix Seven, a group meant to liaise and assist in investigations between local law enforcement and the US military whenever the paths cross.  Nikki is proud and strong.  She is resilient and hardheaded. Nikki is as strong of a female protagonist that I have ever read about, especially in hand-to-hand combat situations. Nikki loves her job and has the uncanny ability to take emotions out of the current situation, notice her surroundings and the ability to see a crime scene through multiple lenses. 

The author brings Naples, Italy straight to the reader.  The grit and seediness of what is happening in that city was so vibrant.  There are several subplots going, but that just sets the story up for so much more!  The story begins with Nikki and her best friend Valerio on their boat.  Just as they were about to pull up anchor, a violent scene erupts, and a woman nearly drowns.  As they are coming in off the water the body of a high-ranking naval officer is discovered.  (If you read any crime fiction, you know – you never believe in coincidence.)

Heider incorporated the challenges of coordinating an investigation across international agencies into the storyline including how presence of organized crime in Naples complicates everything.  Heider is a pro at building tension between characters and then letting you catch your breath before she starts again. There are characters to love and to hate.  There are some that you want to know more about just to uncover the truth.  May the Wolf Die is filled with layers of secrets and nefarious characters.  The stage has been set for several more books in what will be an unforgettable series. 

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Tempest North By Rodger Carlyle

Tempest North is Book 1 of 3 of the Gritt Clan series.  For those of us who have been along for the ride for the other books in this series, we got a prequel.  Just to be honest, now that I have finished this one, I want to reread the other two and see what I can glean from them with a new perspective and more background information on Captain Chad Grittenburg. 

Rodger Carlyle is an amazing storyteller.  He can take the reader and immerse them in real places during a culturally recognizable time allowing us to be part of the story.  Cpt Grittenburg is driven by duty and honor and hope.  After losing his fiancé, he needs to find peace.  However, that is not in his future. 

It blows me away to think that business dealings between countries even in the 1800’s affected so many things.  Expansions into new territories, money, new cultures and diseases and still the leaders have to make decisions that affect others, good or bad.  Cpt Grittenburg is no different and he must decide the future for several.  

If you are a fan of historical fiction (add in the thriller element) this is a must read.  Every single chapter is a new adventure.      See you in Nashville at Bouchercon Mr. Carlyle.  I can’t wait to pick your brain.   

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Show Game By Steve Anderson

Individuals with a lot of money, power and influence seem to be getting away with a lot of criminal activity including sexual crimes against minors and a plethora of other things.  A vigilante who goes by the name of Alex has decided that the judicial system can take a payout to look over things and is taking matters into their own hands.  The targets that Alex has in mind include a boy scout leader turned leader of a mega church, a politician, and a philanthropist.  Each individual is abducted and taken to a remote location where they are given 3 chances to earn 150 points.  They have to admit what they have done, give the names of those who helped them and apologize in order to avoid opening the case and any further damage. 

Enter Owen Tanaka, an investigative reporter who wants to get to the truth, tell the truth and let the truth bring justice.  He is hired to find the host of the game show and is given a team to unveil that person’s identity before any other news reporter can.  The closer Owen gets to Alex, the more entangled their circles become. 

Steve Anderson has written an original, thought provoking and fast paced novel that covers so many topics that are relevant today, but in a way that brings a sort of justice to the wrongdoers in a more timely fashion than the judicial system.  A grass roots movement of sorts for truth and justice.  This thriller is written with so much heart and brings out hope in people that good will prevail. 

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Three Burials By Anders Lustgarten

I wanted to simultaneously devour this nonstop and marinate on each topic covered.  Anders Lustgarten is bringing so many real, current topics to the forefront of his novel.  It would be easy to take it in, think about it and move on.  What we should do is take it in, understand it and change things.    As I read through this novel, I made so many annotations and notes and things that I wanted to look up.   

Immigration, politics, suicide, racism and corruption are intricately woven into each page.  Sometimes, with snarky remarks (which I enjoyed) and sometimes with the gut-wrenching truth.   Each character in the book has a backstory that brings them to where they all collide.  When you read the blurb about a head nurse (Cherry) being on the run with a police officer and dead refugee, don’t dismiss the idea that this is possible.

Each chapter is filled with adventure and social injustice.  There are corrupt individuals and truth seekers.  Some have hope and some deal with pain.  Three Burials runs the gambit of emotions.  I would love to see this added into high school and college classes as part of the curriculum.  Just because this book takes place in London, doesn’t mean that every topic isn’t applicable all over the world. 

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The Midnight Rambler By Don Carr

I am quickly finding that an environmental thriller is a sub genre that resonates with me and connects to so many current events. Sophie Grant, our FMC, is one bad a$$ Environmental Protection Agency Special Agent in Charge (she loves the SAC part). SAC Grant has worked her way through some tough cases, taking down some bad guys trying to make the planet a better place to live. This time she finds herself stationed at the base of Mount Vesuvius in Italy. She has a team, including Marines, to keep her safe.

An EPA Agent, who needs a group of highly trained professionals to keep her safe while she tests water you ask? Chemical waste must be disposed of through an EHS Hazardous Waste Program. The worse for the environment the waste is, the more expensive it is to dispose of. In comes the toxic pollution disposal business. Run by centuries-old crime syndicates who have feelers in every part of the world, she is up against some really bad people who find money more important than the cancer-causing chemicals they dispose of daily.

Midnight Rambler (yes, a very interesting connection to the song by The Rolling Stones) is filled with people from all over the world who have ulterior motives. They are up against SAC Grant who wants to make the world a better place. She is relentless in her quest to do so. Connections to Russians, Nigerians, Americans and others are all necessary to paint this picture of what is going on in the world, while we sit and think we are safe. The inner workings of the ‘bad guys’ are so entangled it blows my mind.

This is a nonstop immersive ride in the most beautiful parts of Italy along the Almafi Coast. A legendary Camorra assassin, Il Mezanotte Ramingo, has been tasked to stop the EPA at all costs. Fast-paced and heart-pounding, this is a deadly game of cat and mouse that will keep your attention from the very first sentence. This is a high stakes thriller from Don Carr, who spent over 15 years elbow deep investigating and writing about America’s worst polluters. I really hope to see more from this author in the very near future.

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Dreams In Incarceration By Cillian Dunne

David Spivey is a former inmate and member of the notorious Crip gang in LA.  When Spivey was 17 years old, he murdered an 18-year-old member of a rival gang in 2006 during a turf war. Spivey has since turned his life around and is currently a motivational speaker. Cillian Dunne tells Spivey’s story.  First of all, I would like to encourage the reader to go all the way through the book.  Research David Spivey for yourself and ask questions.  The amount of time, research, patience, understanding and pure heart that it took from all parties involved is mind blowing.  It is easy to google a prison sentence.  It is easy to follow the news. To know and to understand the journey that someone like David Spivey is often unheard of and not written or spoken of.  There are several players in the game of life and how one acts and interacts with them changes that individual’s future.  Life in LA in 2006, gang violence, growing up, how to handle the battles inside of prison – those are not always accurately portrayed in made for tv movies.  This is unlike anything I have ever read before and it makes me wonder, if we all took time to understand each other like Dunne did with Spivey, how would that change the outlook of our future?

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The Vixen Amber Halloway By Carol LaHines

The Vixen Amber Halloway, is Ophelia’s jailhouse confession as she retells her story and prepares for a parole board meeting to decide if she will be released from prison. Her husband Andy had an affair and fell in love Amber Halloway and Ophelia did not take that well.  The definition of an unreliable narrator could easily be described as Ophelia in this book (my favorite of 2024 - so far). 

Dante’s Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) has clearly been studied, as it is seamlessly integrated into this novel. I found myself bookmarking passages and then going to look them up. I loved that!  After the affair comes out, “the hole in my (Ophelia) heart the size of a shotgun wound” would have to be filled.  She filled it with anger, revenge, punishment (“fetid bog of the irredeemable”) and obsession. 

Ophelia claims to be shy and does not like to “unburden” herself or make a “spectacle” of herself, but broken heart be damned.  While dealing with what a psychiatrist calls “a break from reality” she doles out her punishment as she sees fit per her infinite wisdom of Dante’s Commedia. My favorite part of this book was that I found myself cheering on Ophelia. It’s not that I agree with what she did, but she made it seem right and just. 

This is a must read for a book club, for any woman who has ever been wronged, and for any one who needs a page turner full of obsession and rage. Bravo Carol LaHines. I loved this. 

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The King Street Affair By Jon Sealy

Wyatt Brewer is a journalist trying to ‘get a story’ and keep the newspaper alive in Charleston, South Carolina.  He is assigned to cover a story of an unidentified Estonian who washed up on Folly Beach.  What started as a usual day at work awakens memories of things that happened in his past.  Wyatt pulls on a string and unwinds a story that he wasn’t expecting.  People connected by love, corruption, money and possible nefarious activity.  Because greed is always a big player hiding in the dark. 

Jon Sealy will be an author that I will read from here on out.  He has taken a spy thriller and mixed it with a Southern mystery perfectly.  Love, duplicity, insinuations and coincidence play a part in every chapter.   If you need a book that has a deceased benefactor, global instability, agency operatives, international scandals, Estonian gangsters, economic opportunity zones and more, this is a must read.  I know that sounds like a lot, but Sealy places each topic perfectly together and the pages will continue to turn. This one left me with my mouth hanging open, wanting answers and knowing that there could easily be more to this story.

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A Better World By Sarah Langan

A Better World is a dystopian psychological thriller that will have you thinking about your future and asking yourself a lot of questions.  What secrets are being hidden from us?  How easy are we all led around?  What will you do for your family?

Richard, Linda and their twins are living in turmoil.  During the ‘Era of the Great Unwinding’ all things that people came to depend on (ie healthcare, government, roads) were falling apart. The world was split between the haves and the have nots, the colonies, and the cities, the clean and the dirty, the fed and the hungry.

Richard had the ability to get his family into a colony, Pleasant Valley (PV).  PV and other colonies are owned by Better World, the producer of Omnium and the only way to survive. BetterWorld offered everything they needed to stay alive, to raise their family and to prosper.  However, outsiders are not easily welcomed.  There are conditions to be met, barters to be made and traditions to learn. 

Once they get to PV, everything is not how it seems and fitting in does not seem possible.  They must learn, accept, and participate in a series of customs, events and beliefs called The Hollow.  Adapting must be quick and quiet without fanfare.  The family must break into the right clique to get their ‘Golden Ticket’ (a lifetime pass into the colony).  Linda breaks into the right group of women and is able to practice medicine.  However, she doesn’t like to take things at face value.  Linda is a doctor, her husband does research, they have lived outside the walls and the numbers are not adding up.  Linda is warned over and over again to stop asking questions.  The more answers she gets, the more frightened she becomes.  Can they ever leave PV?

Let me leave you with this… Cognitive dissonance is real.  Should you accept the discomfort you feel and get in line with the others, or do you do what aligns with your morals?

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The Hollywood Con Queen By Scott C. Johnson

Hargobind Tahilramani was able to cause at least 500 victims to lose around $2 million over the course of his (yes I said it – his) run.  While long believed to be a female, that was in fact wrong.   Tahilramani was able to impersonate both male and female Hollywood executives in order to take advantage of makeup artists, stunt actors and members of private security details.  There is an Apple TV docu-series based on this novel by Scott Johnson that is out now.

Scott Johnson didn’t just blog about this.  He spent years uncovering this scandal.  Even from the first page of the novel, you know that this investigative reporter went above and beyond to detail everything from weather and climate in areas that he was writing about to detailed conversations. 

Tahilramani didn’t just stop when one scam blew up.  He continued on.   Johnson’s extensive research and travel and hard work pays off when he gets to interview Hargobind after a decade has passed during which he was running this operation. 

For those of you who like books by Gregg Olsen, David Gran and Katheryn Miles this is for you.  True crime podcast junkies – yep – for you.  I love it when a nonfiction book reads like fiction and tells the facts.  I find it mind blowing the amount of time and effort that goes into something like this. 

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