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Former celebrity Janie Jenkins gets out of jail on a technicality after serving ten years for killing her society mother. She doesn’t remember doing it, and she didn’t like her mother very much, but once out, she’s determined to find out what really happened.

Janie’s smart but she also has a smart mouth, which tends to put people off. She has her attorney Noah on her side, but she has a hard time telling him – or anyone else – the truth. Meanwhile tabloid reporter Trace is after her, convinced she’s guilty and willing to put his money where his mouth is, offering a large reward for her whereabouts.

Jenkins starts digging into her mother’s past, which leads her to Ardelle, South Dakota, a small town filled with small town secrets and a cast of quirky, sketchy characters, including a suspicious police chief, but Janie keeps them all guessing. It seems that the more she finds out, the more she needs to find out as the mystery deepens with every passing page.

Janie is an unusual protagonist but readers who favor strong, smart women will be intrigued.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

7/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

DEAR DAUGHTER by Elizabeth Little. Viking Adult (July 31, 2014). ISBN 978-0670016389. 384p.

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Nick Fennimore nearly lost his mind when his wife and daughter went missing, and allowing him to overstep his bounds earned DCI Kate Simms a demotion. She fought her way back and when heroin overdoses start multiplying in a seedy part of town, no one really cares until a pop star joins their ranks.

The case is dumped on Simms, who quietly enlists Fennimore’s help. Then another prostitute turns up dead, brutally beaten, tortured and raped, and Fennimore really needs to put his skills to the test. Misogynistic bosses and lying witnesses are thwarting Simms in her investigation, but she soldiers on, until her family is threatened, and then things really come to a head.

Working around the clock puts her family life in shambles, and there is some definite tension between Fennimore and Simms, but their back story is tantalizingly glossed over, adding more intrigue to these characters.

This is not your cozy British mystery but rather a gritty urban thriller like those of Jeffery Deaver, Ken Bruen or George Pelecanos.

A.D. Garrett is a pseudonym for author Margaret Murphy and forensics Professor Dave Barclay.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

7/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

EVERYONE LIES by A.D. Garrett. Minotaur Books (July 15, 2014). ISBN 978-1250045720. 432p.

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In this sequel to The Doll, Vanessa Michael Munroe is utilizing her gift for learning languages, living in Djibouti as Michael, a man, working as an interpreter for a private maritime security company. Her boss, Leo, forces her into working on a ship, which she quickly discovers is running guns.

The ship is attacked by pirates off the Somali coast, but Munroe escapes, taking the captain with her. Turns out the captain is really what the pirates were after, and she hides him in a small private hospital while she tries to figure out her next move. She contacts Leo’s wife, who is desperate to get her husband back and Munroe agrees to help. They figure out that they are going to have to hijack the ship back, and those negotiations are complicated and deadly.

This action adventure thriller moves along at breakneck speed with the requisite violence peppering most pages. Munroe is a smart, fiercely strong yet damaged woman in the vein of Lisbeth Salander, who could hold her own with Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne or Barry Eisler’s Rain.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

7/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE CATCH by Taylor Stevens. Crown (July 15, 2014). ISBN 978-0385348935. 352p.

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Madge’s husband Frank has her kidnapped in hopes of collecting on an insurance policy, but she finds out, shoots him in the knees, and takes off with the $200,000. She plans on taking a Greek cruise with her best friend Karen, but Karen’s crazy one-eyed wolf-dog bites the ear off a man, so she takes the dog on the lam. Several characters, including Madge’s ex-husband, the kidnapper, a cop on suspension, a narcoleptic driver and more are following the money from Ireland to Greece.

This is screwball comedy at its most complicated, with super short chapters told from the viewpoints of myriad characters. These characters would be right at home in a comic book, but none are very sympathetic or believable, so it’s hard to find one to root for. The book is dialogue heavy, which helps move it along at a frantic pace. It’s not dark enough to be considered noir, but should appeal to Tim Dorsey fans and readers who like comic capers.

This is the sequel to The Big O and picks up right where that book left off, so it’s probably better to start there.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

7/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

CRIME ALWAYS PAYS by Declan Burke. Severn House Publishers; Sew edition (July 1, 2014). ISBN 978-0727883759. 256p.

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Buckell was raised in the Caribbean before he returned to the U.S. His novel provides an insight into the politics and problems of the islands that are currently mainly tourist areas. It is set a little into the future and brings the islands into a setting that has made them economically much different than they are today.

They have improved their infrastructures due to the finding and selling of large oil deposits in their offshore waters. Most important, an agency termed the Caribbean Intelligence Agency was formed by a consortium of the islands’ governments, trained by the CIA and British MI6. It consists of highly trained and capable agents fighting the enemies of the Caribbean.

Prudence (Roo) Jones was an agent of the Caribbean group until he built himself a personal fortune,retired and decided to dedicate his life to beach combing and traveling on his boat. Events that occurred prior to this novel’s opening made him the caretaker for his orphaned teenaged nephew. He is immersed in making sure that the boy goes to school and takes an interest in making sure that his nephew grows up to be a good citizen and adult.

A message is received from a former colleague marked, “You will get this if I am dead.” Roo had worked with that man while both were agents of the Caribbean Intelligence Agency and were firm friends. Roo goes after the package indicated in the message in the interest of following through on their friendship.

Shortly after the message arrives, a beautiful young lady knocks on his door announcing that she is his now deceased friend’s sister. While Roo knew that there was no sister he goes along with her to try and determine what she is after.

Buckell creates an atmosphere of constant action both with bad guys coming out, and several hurricanes starting up in a Caribbean whose weather patterns have greatly changed. The book retains the reader’s undivided attention and is definitely an all nighter as the various blanks are filled in including the young lady’s intentions and definitely setting up the next book in this series. Excellent read.

6/14 Paul Lane

HURRICANE FEVER by Tobias S. Buckell. Tor Books; First Edition edition (July 1, 2014). ISBN 978-0765319227. 272p.

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The Accident is a somewhat more conventional thriller than Pavone’s fine debut (The Expats, 2012), but he excels at developing characters back stories.

New York literary agent Isabel Reed plows through an anonymous manuscript in one night and immediately knows two things: the manuscript, a biography of a media mogul, will be a blockbuster, and people will die if word of its existence leaks. She’s also fairly sure she knows who the author is, but he’s dead – or is he?

Word does leak, in New York and Hollywood, and ambitious young women in publishing quickly die violently. Isabel and her chosen editor, Jeffrey Fielder, are on the run from resourceful, relentless killers.

Pavone’s plot twists nicely, shifting focus among a large cast of well-drawn characters and using flashbacks and changes of locale (Copenhagen, Zurich, Manhattan, Hollywood, the Hamptons) to build suspense. Isabel and Jeffrey, for example, are successful but frightened that changes in their business and the onset of middle age might make them has-beens, and they’re both recalling the mutual attraction they once had but didn’t act on.

Like Isabel, many readers will read this one through the night. Highly recommended.

6/14 Jack Quick

THE ACCIDENT by Chris Pavone. Crown; First Edition edition (March 11, 2014). ISBN 978-0385348454. 400p.