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Most review copies I receive these days are digital, and I never thought I’d say this but I actually prefer it. Particularly because I don’t need to wear my glasses, but also because I don’t need a light on, and if I don’t care for something or I’m not in the mood for what I am reading I can easily switch to another book. It was not that long ago when a receptionist at a doctor’s office inquired why I was carrying two books and I had to explain that I only had a chapter left in one and would probably need the other before I saw the doctor. I know she thought I was crazy, and I didn’t really care, but two hardcovers are especially annoying to carry around. I usually have several books going at once, and to be able to carry them all around with me so easily (thank you, Kindle Paperwhite!) is truly a joy.

I tell you all this because I made the mistake of putting aside a pretty good book (that was women’s fiction) because I was in the mood for something grittier. The problem was that it was 9:00 at night, and this – The Good Daughter – was the book I picked up. Almost immediately I realized the error of my ways, this book was too good to put down and it was going to be a very late night, with an early morning at work to follow. Eventually, I had to go to sleep but I finished it the next day, spending every break and my lunch hour to do so. This is a standalone but also set in Georgia like Slaughter’s terrific Grant County/Will Trent series.

Charlotte and Samantha Quinn are sisters living out in the country in rural Georgia. Their father is a lawyer, a defense lawyer to be more precise, who repeatedly vexes the townsfolk by defending, well, criminals. And usually getting them off. To the point where two armed men come to their home one day to kill him – but he’s not there. Instead, they kill his wife and take the girls out into the woods. One is shot and buried, the other takes off running but is attacked by one of the men. That is all the story we get as the book opens, and then it is 28 years later.

The girls are both alive, both lawyers, but estranged. Charlie is working in her father’s practice, Sam is a patent lawyer in New York City. Then tragedy once again rears its ugly head in this small town, this time a school shooting. And Charlie is there.

As that story unfurls, so does the girls past and we get more details, a bit at a time. The stories are intertwined, but we don’t learn how for quite a while and the tension keeps growing. This is suspense at its best, with characters we care about and a complex storyline that is truly gripping. The violence is brutal; as Slaughter fans know, she holds nothing back. But never is it gratuitous, either.

This is an excellent read and one of my favorite thrillers this year for sure. Don’t miss it!

8/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE GOOD DAUGHTER by Karin Slaughter. William Morrow (August 8, 2017).  ISBN 978-0062430243. 528p.

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A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel, Book 5

I always look forward to a new Scottoline book, especially this series, and the reward is inevitably worth the wait.

This book has a very interesting premise at its heart, an ethics question. Can a partner in a law firm represent someone in a civil suit against another client of the same firm? This dilemma pits Mary against Bennie, and it looks like the partnership may not survive it.

Most of Mary’s clients are from South Philly, where her family lives. They are all so close, even friends feel like family so when Simon gets fired from his job, he goes to Mary for help. His daughter is suffering from leukemia and needs a marrow transplant. The company where he works is self-insured, and his boss keeps making comments about the medical costs. When his sales territory is cut and he misses his quota, he is summarily fired.

The parent company is one of Bennie’s oldest clients, and she doesn’t want Mary to take the case. But Mary can’t see how she can say no to this man she has known all her life, especially when she knows she has the company dead to rights.

It turns out there is more to the story than originally thought. When Simon’s boss is murdered, he is the prime suspect and Mary and Bennie end up working together to help him. There are a lot of twists to this story that really keep the pages turning, especially when Mary & Bennie get too close to solving the murder and have to fight for their lives.

I love the direction that Bennie is moving in – her personal growth is tremendous in this story. This was a one night read for me and now I have to wait another year for the next book in this series, but I comfort myself because it is totally worth the wait! Another excellent addition to the series.

8/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

EXPOSED by Lisa Scottoline.  St. Martin’s Press (August 15, 2017).  ISBN 978-1250099716. 352p.

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Detective Renée Ballard works the “late show”, the overnight shift, in Hollywood, California. It is considered a punishment shift, and it’s where she was moved after filing a complaint about Olivas, her boss in Homicide. He tried to kiss her at a party in front of her partner, but her partner wouldn’t back up her claim so Olivas got away with it and her partner got a promotion. Yes, workplace politics are alive and well on the Los Angeles police force.

Her partner on the late show is Jenkins, who has a sick wife at home and volunteered to work the shift so he could be home with his wife during the day. He has no interest in overtime, just wants to put in his time and go home. The night shift doesn’t usually handle cases, they just gather information and turn it over to the day shift detectives, but Ballard finagles her time management to keep the cases she wants – like the transgender prostitute that was beaten and tortured and left for dead, and an old lady’s stolen credit card. She gets a real thrill out of solving cases and is willing work her butt off to get the job done.

The big case at the center of the story is a shootout at a strip club. Four men are killed, as well as a waitress. When Ballard’s ex-partner is killed, she decides to do a little investigating on the side, as Olivas won’t allow her anywhere near his investigation. She soon figures out that the killer was probably a cop, which doesn’t play well with her brethren. All the storylines are tied up at the end, with one surprise after another.

This is the start of a new series for Connelly, and his first with a woman as the lead. Ballard is a terrific character, with enough backstory and trauma to make her really interesting, and enough guts and ingenuity to make her a terrific cop. The supporting cast is also well developed, and the multiple story lines are handled with Connelly’s usual finesse. And I loved the reference to the Amazon Prime series, Bosch – a nice Easter egg.

I was shocked to realize this book was over 400 pages, it was a very fast read for me. Connelly has a way of drawing me into his stories that make it almost impossible to put down the book. If you’re a Harry Bosch and/or Lincoln Lawyer fan, you will love this new one, too. This is an excellent series debut from the finest crime fiction writer out there. Don’t miss it.

7/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly. Little, Brown and Company (July 18, 2017).  ISBN 978-0316225984. 448p.

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A library, a bookstore, and a Florida setting – count me in! I couldn’t resist and I’m happy to say this was a really good read. I tend to run hot and cold with Grisham’s books, sometimes I love his books, other times, not so much. I put this one in the love column for sure. And interestingly enough, it’s not a legal thriller.

The premise starts with a heist. Princeton University is home to the only original manuscripts of all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels as well as his notes, letters and papers. The manuscripts are priceless, to say the least, so when they are stolen, all sorts of agencies get involved in trying to find them.

The insurance company investigator needs help. They think that the owner of a small but very successful bookstore owner may have the manuscripts. The bookstore is on Camino Island outside of Jacksonville, Florida, (which bears a strong resemblance to Amelia Island, where Grisham has a home.)

The investigator zeroes in a Mercer, a novelist who grew up on the island. Mercer has just been let go from her teaching job, has mountains of student debt to pay off, and is three years late on her contracted next book.  The investigator offers to pay off her student loans and pay her a ton of money besides. All she has to do is stay in her former summer home for a six month period, befriend the bookseller, and see what she can learn. She learns a lot about rare books, so I did as well, and it was completely fascinating.

I loved the premise of the book and Grisham really brought it home for me. Luckily, the library at Princeton is apparently nothing like the one described in the novel, lest someone get the bright idea to make fiction a reality. Grisham is quite a diverse writer, and he once again goes off in a different direction from his legal thrillers. This is a thriller, just no lawyering involved here. There are some reviews who cast this with a chick lit light, but I really didn’t see it. I will say that some of my favorite Grisham books, besides his first few legal thrillers, are his non-thrillers like Playing for Pizza and Skipping Christmas. Camino Island is just another really good read.

7/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

CAMINO ISLAND by John Grisham. Doubleday; First Edition edition (June 6, 2017).  ISBN 978-0385543026. 304p.

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Rumors of a deadly virus have already begun to spread, but Australia has so far remained safe. For Hannah, though, it is a concern. A cancer survivor always anxiously aware of any minute change in her own health, Hannah also has two sons and a husband to care for. And so when talk circulates of the virus’s potential spread, Hannah starts to prepare. Stockpiling food and other necessities is at the forefront of her mind in the beginning and she feels she’s done well enough at that, ensuring the men in her household don’t dip into the emergency stash along the way. But even she realizes that keeping her eldest son from participating in a school trip, when no infection has yet to reach their shores, might be a bit of a stretch.

And yet, her concerns are founded. The virus hits Australia while her oldest son is separated from the rest of the family. She berates her husband for heading into the office and keeps her youngest son home from school while the teachers and principal believe she’s being ridiculously paranoid. And again her concerns turn out to be founded when one of the men in the office and children at the school become infected. And when her son’s school trip is trapped by blockades and quarantine measures, Hannah’s husband finally agrees it’s time to take matters into their own hands.

I loved Amanda Hickie’s debut. In a time of ebola and zika, amongst others, the fear of viral apocalypse definitely seems like a reality we could very well face. Amanda Hickie herself was inspired to write the book based on her own fears after threats of a SARS outbreak.

And those fears ring true in Hannah. The story is tinged by that fear, imbued with a sense of paranoia and dread that infects the reader from the very first page. Which of course makes it a perfectly intense read.

Before This is Over is the kind of book that will appeal to a wide audience. The outbreak aspect makes it dark and satisfying for dystopian and post apocalyptic fans, but there’s a definite literary lean to the novel that will appeal to more than just genre fans. And considering the book raises a lot of questions, most importantly how far would you go to protect the people you love most, I think it would make a great pick for book clubs looking for a very discussion worthy and timely read.

7/17 Becky LeJeune

BEFORE THIS IS OVER by Amanda Hickie. Little, Brown and Company (March 28, 2017).  ISBN 978-0316355452. 400p.

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Finder takes a step outside his usual corporate thriller zone into political & suburban territory when there is a computer mixup at the TSA line at LAX. I have to say I loved the premise of this book; it seemed so believable.

Michael Tanner owns a small, wholesale elite coffee business that is not doing terribly well. In fact, he’s close to closing the doors. On a return trip home to Boston from L.A., he barely gets through security in time to catch his flight. Eventually he realizes that he must have grabbed the wrong laptop. This one has a little sticky note on the bottom with the password, and he quickly finds out it belongs to a powerful U.S. Senator. Curious, he pokes around and discovers some highly classified information, which he promptly shares with a Boston Globe reporter friend. When his friend commits suicide a couple of days later, Tanner is alarmed.

Meanwhile, back in Washington D.C., the senator’s chief of staff , Will Abbott, is in a panic. He’s the one who illegally downloaded the top secret documents onto the senator’s laptop so she could peruse them on her flight home from L.A. She knows the password is available, and they both are extremely worried – this could end her career, and Will could end up in prison.

It’s a fairly simple matter for the D.C. powers that be to determine whose computer they have and where the Senator’s computer should be, but when Tanner is confronted, he denies he has the Senator’s computer – and things go rapidly downhill from there.

There are a lot of bad – and often unbelievable – decisions made along this journey, and it often seemed repetitive. The characters weren’t really fleshed out enough to make me care what happened to them and I constantly had to think about who was who – who had the crying baby? Whose wife took off? So while I loved the beginning of the book,  in the end, the premise was better than the actual story. This was a disappointment from one of my favorite authors.

6/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE SWITCH by Joseph Finder. Dutton (June 13, 2017).  ISBN 978-1101985786. 384p.

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