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AI Creation |
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AI Creation |
The latest suspense thriller by Harlan Coben
As the story begins, David Burroughs is in his fifth year of a life sentence for murdering his three-year-old son, Matthew. Only one problem; he didn't do it.
David was alone with his child that night, as his physician wife was working a night shift. He knew he got drunk the night it happened and apparently slept through the whole thing. He woke up to discover that Matthew had been murdered. Since there was no evidence pointing to anyone else, and since David had no real alibi, he was convicted and sent to prison.
Half a decade later, his wife Cheryl has divorced him and remarried. David has had no visitors all this time. Then, Cheryl's younger sister, Rachel, comes to see David to show him a strange photograph taken by friends of Rachel's on vacation at an amusement park. In the background is a boy who bears an eerie resemblence to David's son. It doesn't seem possible; it just can't be, yet David just knows. Matthew is still alive.
Somehow David has to get out of prison, search for his son and discover what really happened. To do so, he plans and successfully accomplishes a daring prison escape.
Now David's life is on the line and the FBI is following his every move. Can David evade capture long enough to discover what really happened, save his son and clear his name? The shocking truth will be revealed in the final moments of the story.
Another thriller by this master of suspense. I Will Find You is Harlan Coben's most recent (March 2023) novel.
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Who do you love and how far would you go to save her?
A D.D. Warren novel by Lisa Gardner
The Massachusetts State Police are called to the residence of Tessa Leoni, a young State Trooper from their barracks. Her husband lies dead on their kitchen floor and Tessa claims she has shot him in self-defense. Her bruises and injuries appear to back up her tale. But the worst part is that her six-year-old daughter, Sophie, is missing.
Because the state police cannot investigate one of their own, Detective D.D. Warren of the Boston Police Department is called in to handle the homicide investigation. Bobby Dodge, investigator for the State Police (and D.D.'s former lover) is assigned as liaison to work with Detective Warren. Bobby's input is helpful in seeking to understand the inner workings of a trooper's mind. Would a trained police officer shoot her own husband and would a mother harm her own child?
Tessa is hospitalized for her injuries and is represented by her Union Rep and a lawyer and is not immediately available for questioning. The investigation into how and why Tessa's husband, Brian Darby, was shot three times mid-torso with Tessa's own police revolver is nearly stalled while they wait for Tessa to be able to answer their questions.
Meanwhile, for Tessa Leoni, the worst has yet to happen. She has nowhere to turn and trusts no one even as the clock ticks down to a terrifying deadline. Tessa has one goal in sight and uses her training to do what must be done. Because ~ a mother knows who she loves!
Love You More is Book 5 of 11 in Lisa Gardner's D.D. Warren suspense novels series.
This story features two very believable female protagonists. Trooper Leoni tells us her own story in the first person while Warren's investigation is narrated in the third-person. Tessa Leoni's motives are discovered as the story continues, but her passion and conviction draw us in even before we know whether she is guilty or innocent. The reader roots for Warren and Dodge to make sure justice is done, but we cannot argue with Tessa's absolute drive to find her daughter.
Fans of Gardner's D.D. Warren series will definitely enjoy reading Love You More.
*Love You More Book Review is written by Wednesday Elf.
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Available on Amazon |
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Above the Bay of Angels |
Meg Williams, aka Maggie Littleton and Melody Wilde, is supremely gifted in becoming who you need, or want her to be. She is a master of psychology and Internet research. By the time you meet her, she knows you better than you know yourself.
Meg/Maggie/Melody, the three-in-one, shape-shifts between personas. Some know her as a college student, others as a life coach, and now a Senate candidate has hired her as his exclusive real estate agent. Ron Ashton is going to wish he had never met Meg Williams. You'll see.
Kat Roberts, a victimized journalist, has waited ten excruciating years to take Meg down. Kat is desperate to expose the grifter for who she really is, and at the same time, to right the wrong that wrecked her own life and career. Kat believes she can go head-to-head with Meg because she knows the games she plays. In this cat-and-mouse chase, could it be that the mouse has underestimated the cat?
How will it all end? Will Meg get the justice she seeks? Does Kat get the revenge she has longed for (and the publishing deal of her dreams)?
And you: Will you be cheering at the end, or shaking your head? How will you feel about the choices that are made? What would you have done? I hope you read The Lies I Tell and return here to respond to these questions.
I love a book with a surprise ending. This read kept me highly engaged the entire way. And, I have to tell you, it makes me want to lock down my social media accounts. Repelling a couple of scammers online this week really brought home the message of how very real and present are the Meg, Maggie, and Melody's of the world. This is just barely a work of fiction.
We first met Wilde in The Boy From the Woods, reviewed earlier here on ReviewThisReviews!
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Available on Amazon |
But suddenly a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings his lost past closer than he ever dreamed when he finds a match to his father. Wilde tracks his father down only to find the man extremely hesitant to establish a relationship. So then Wilde reaches out to his last lead ~ a second cousin. Before they can connect, he discovers that the cousin has disappeared after experiencing a fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare. This is connected to a Reality Show where the cousin was very famous and popular, only to have lies told about him and his wife that brought about his downfall.
How Wilde discovers the circumstances surrounding his cousin's life and exposes a family's darkest secret, while also discovering the shocking truth of his own past, is a thrilling story that will keep you reading deep into the night.
Another outstanding novel by Harlan Coben.
The Boy From the Woods, Wilde, Book 1
*Book review of The Match written by Wednesday Elf
A really good book is one you cannot put down. An excellent book is one you literally cannot stop reading! In my opinion, Killing Season by Faye Kellerman is such a book.
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Sunset in New Mexico - Pixabay |
Ben, his parents and younger sister had all suffered the anguish of not knowing what happened. Later, the family also becomes friends with another local couple whose teenage daughter Katie went missing and she has never been found.
As the story begins, Ben, now seventeen, has committed himself to finding the monster who abducted and strangled Ellen. The police continue to investigate, but there is nothing new. But Ben, who is a math genius, sees patterns that don't fit and conducts his own investigation. As he gathers data, he discovers clues to other similar unsolved murders.
As Ben's senior high school year begins, he becomes friends with the new girl in school, Ro Majors. They bond over the fact that Ro lost a sister to cancer around the same time Ben lost Ellen. Ro ends up helping him with his research, and together they discover 3 other unsolved cases of teenage girls whose murders were almost identical to Ben's sister. And then.... they go on a hike in an area Ben has figured out is a logical place to find where the killer might have buried Katie, and they find her grave.
The police are not happy that Ben is investigating on his own, even though the police detective who was lead investigator on Ellen's case likes Ben and is as anxious as the family to solve her case.
As Ben gets closer to discovering who the killer is, his obsession marks him as a threat. The police want him to stop investigating, but Ben is worried about Ro and about his little sister Haley and her best friend Lilly. The little girls are now going on 15 and Ro is 17, all in the age-range the killer targets.
Learning the truth may not be enough to keep Ben and those he loves from this relentless killer.
I have been reading books by Faye Kellerman since 1986 when she began the 26 books in her Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series. I've always enjoyed those books, and now am enjoying her stand-alone thrillers. Killing Season is the first one I have read that wasn't in the series I have been following and, as much as I liked the series, I like this one even more. Kellerman has done an outstanding job capturing this mystery fan's attention.
Note: Faye Kellerman is married to Jonathan Kellerman, also a writer, and together they are the parents of Jesse Kellerman, who has had several books published on his own and has co-authored several other books with his dad, Jonathan. A real writing family.
Links to other Kellerman books reviewed here on ReviewThisReviews:
*Killing Season Book Review written by Wednesday Elf
Image from Pixabay, adapted via Canva by Lou16 |
A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home
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Available on Amazon |
The protagonist of this story, Clay Edison, is a deputy coroner. Caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble.
The Burning, set in the San Francisco Bay Area during one of the state’s terrible wildfires, is Book #4 in the Clay Edison series by Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman.
A murder scene becomes personal for this deputy coroner when he discovers a link to his brother, Luke, while investigating the crime scene.
Luke is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. But when Clay calls Luke to find out why his lovingly restored vintage Camaro is in the murdered man's garage, he discovers his brother is missing.
While trying to find his brother before anyone else can, Clay is forced to do his job, as well as cope with a wildfire and a massive blackout occurring in his northern California area. Is his brother a killer or a victim? And, where is he?
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Image Source: Pixabay |
Jonathan Kellerman is the well-known author of the Alex Delaware Series (36 books to date) and is married to author Faye Kellerman (known in particular for her 29 mystery novels in her "Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus" series. Now, Jonathan is joined by their son, Jesse, a writer in his own right. To date, Jonathan & Jesse have co-authored 5 books, including four in the Clay Edison series.
The Kellermans are an amazing family of writers of mystery thrillers.
The Burning is a real page-turner – a harrowing collision of family, revenge, and murder.
For more book reviews on ReviewThisReviews, check out ReviewThisBooks.com
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The Bone Box by Faye Kellerman – a Decker//Lazarus Novel
*The Burning – a book review written by Wednesday Elf
A man with a mysterious past must find a missing teenage girl in this shocking thriller by Harlan Coben
A high school girl who was relentlessly bullied, disappears. No one seems to take it seriously, but a classmate is worried. When Matthew asks his grandmother (the well-known television criminal attorney, Hester Crimstein) for help in finding her, Hester asks Wilde to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.
Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past, not even that of his name. But his unique tracking abilities and knowledge of the woods give him an advantage in looking for Naomi.
To do this, Wilde must also go back into the community where he has never fit in and confront the powerful whose wealth and fame protect them even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions. Wilde must uncover these secrets before it is too late.
"The Boy from the Woods is as much an action as a psychological thriller, as much a riveting read as a superb character study in which Coben challenges himself by taking his story outside his suburban comfort zone. A must-read for any mystery or thriller fan."―Providence Journal
"The crafty Coben knows how to weave a compelling story with intriguing characters, and Wilde is one of his best . . . The narrative veers into such unexpected directions that even a true thriller aficionado will not see the multiple surprises the ending delivers." ―Associated Press
"There may be no other thriller writer alive today who has mastered that fundamental trick of the genre. When you start a new Coben novel, or just pick one up and read the jacket copy, you know that nothing will unfold as it seems. You can be assured that surprises will keep appearing until the final page."―BookTrib
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Available on Amazon |
More Book Reviews by Harlan Coben:
*Book Review of The Boy From the Woods written by
Wednesday Elf
Ocean Prey is a Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel.
The Virgil Flowers Series
The main character of the series, Virgil Flowers, is described as tall, lean, late thirties, three times divorced, with long hair. He often wears t-shirts featuring rock bands. Virgil works at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). He is good friends with Lucas Davenport and is frequently mentioned in various 'Prey' novels.
The Lucas Davenport 'Prey' Series
Davenport has been a police officer, a Minneapolis detective and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator. In later books, including Ocean Prey, he now works for the U.S. Marshall's Office. Lucas is tall with black hair, gray at the temples, blue eyes, and dark complexion.
Although each character has been mentioned occasionally in each other's series (as they are friends), this is the first book where they are featured working together on the same case.
Fan-favorite heroes Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers join
forces on a deadly maritime case
Since they are federal officers killed on the job, the FBI investigates. When the case stalls out, the FBI calls in the U.S. Marshall's office in the form of Lucas Davenport and his team.
When the case turns lethal, Davenport brings in a detective whose biggest asset is having a fundamentally criminal mind: Virgil Flowers.
Working undercover posing as a deep sea diver, with Davenport and the FBI supporting him in the background, Virgil infiltrates the group of notorious drug runners operating off the coast of Miami. They want the men responsible for the deaths of the Coast Guardsmen, but also the head of the organization which has been bringing in tons of illegal drugs in an unusual way. The main goal is to shut down the entire operation once and for all.
Ocean Prey brings us an outstanding and exciting story starring Sandford's two favorite characters, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers. This may be a suspenseful mystery story, but it is also filled with humor of the type frequently used by police personnel to lesson the tension. The jokes and wisecracks among the characters made me smile often, and actually laugh out loud in two places. A very enjoyable read.
Quick Links:
Ocean Prey Book Review written by
Wednesday Elf
For the first time, we get the true inside story of Win. Myron Bolitar is not featured in this book, except for a few references about the two of them together. Instead, for the first time, this book gives us the background on the Win we have known and loved throughout the Bolitar series.
Windsor Horne Lockwood III (Win) is an extremely wealthy man with impeccable taste and a personal approach to justice that too often lands him on the wrong side of the law.
When the FBI takes Win to a murder scene in the upper West Side apartment of a recluse, Win doesn't know why. Then he sees two objects there, a stolen Vermeer painting and a suitcase bearing the initials WHL3 - his initials.
Win is baffled how his family heirlooms came to be in a dead man's apartment. All he knows is that they were stolen from Lockwood Manor over twenty years ago when his Uncle was murdered and his cousin Patricia was kidnapped. Even though Patricia escaped her captors, they were never apprehended, the murder of her father was never solved, and the stolen items were never recovered.
Now the FBI reveals that the murder victim in the apartment was also the mastermind behind a notorious act of domestic terrorism. Win must figure out the connection between the two cases.
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WIN by Harlan Coben |
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*Book Review of WIN by Harlan Coben written by
~Wednesday Elf
Neon Prey, a mystery suspense thriller in John Sandford's Lucus Davenport series.
Lucus Davenport is a former Minneapolis homicide detective and later worked as an investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension. He is now with the U.S. Marshall's Service. In Neon Prey he is given the assignment of finding a small-time criminal (Clayton Deese) who skipped out on bail after being arrested.
Deese worked as a muscle-for-hire for a loan-shark. The Marshalls are looking for him mainly because they think he might be their best chance to bring down his boss and the whole illegal loan-sharking operation.
Lucus and his team, Rae and Bob, track Deese to his home in rural Louisiana where they discover he has disappeared. When they check out a dirt path behind Deese's cabin, they find a jungle full of graves. Now Deese is no longer a simple crook who beats people up for his loan-shark boss; he is a serial killer who has been operating for years without notice.
Tracking a serial killer instead of just a low-level criminal who skipped bail, the Marshall's office teams up with the FBI. The search takes them to Los Angeles where Deese has a brother who may be harboring him. It is soon discovered that the brother is also a crook and has a gang of thieves who rob wealthy people in home invasions. A Los Angeles police detective is extremely anxious to catch up with the brother and his gang. Deese and his brother are finally located in L.A., but a planned swat team attack fails to catch all of the gang members. Deese and his brother, along with two other gang members, manage to escape.
Through evidence found in the quarry's house, they figure out the four remaining criminals have gone to Las Vegas.
Now, not only are Lucus Davenport, Bob and Rae from the U.S. Marshall's Office looking for them, but also the FBI, the L.A. Detective and the Las Vegas police.
Except - the quarry is ruthless and – as Davenport will come to find – full of surprises.
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Available on Amazon |
by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
In 2012, she began a new series with a new character, Kendra Michaels, who has keen senses from being blind for 20 years. Kendra now uses those exceptional senses as a consultant to the FBI and local authorities to solve difficult cases. What makes this series different from her other novels is it is written in conjunction with Iris Johansen's son Roy.
Roy Johansen is an author in his own right, having published three mystery novels prior to collaborating with his mother on, to date, eight Kendra Michaels books.
This is a book review of Iris and Roy Johansen's latest Kendra Michaels book, Blink of an Eye.
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Blink of an Eye |
Kendra was blind for her first 20 years of life, until a revolutionary surgical procedure allowed her to regain her sight. Her powers of observation became honed during her years in the dark, allowing her to detect what other investigators don't.
When Delilah (Dee) Winter, one of the hottest pop stars in today's music world, is kidnapped in the middle of a show at the Hollywood Bowl, authorities cannot figure out how it is done. Dr. Kendra Michaels agrees to lead the race to rescue the young singer before time runs out.
Kendra is joined by Jessie Mercado, her long-time friend and the singer's former bodyguard who knows Delilah well. As they close in on the hideout location of the kidnappers, casualties mount up. Desperate for leads to where Dee is being held, Kendra also joins forces with Department of Justice Special Agent Adam Lynch with whom she has had a personal relationship. His special skills aid in the search for Dee Winter.
But, as the true purpose of the kidnappers become clear, the trio uncover a plot they never could have imagined – leading to a showdown they won't soon forget.
Even though Blink of an Eye is Book #8 in the Kendra Michaels series, it reads easily as a stand-alone story, so it doesn't really matter in which order you read any of the books in the series. Starting with Book #8 works just fine as an introduction to this fast-paced thriller series.
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Blink of an Eye book review written by
Wednesday Elf
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