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Scott and Elise have left their apartment in New York to stay at Elise’s childhood home for her father’s final days. The old man’s been sick for some time and Elise’s relationship with him isn’t great but he’s not expected to last long in hospice and so she spends her days there with him seeing to his needs. Meanwhile, Scott isn’t working and spends his own time watching the house next door. It’s empty, abandoned for the season, but the lights go on nonetheless. Every night at the same time on the dot. Boredom and obsession take over and Scott eventually breaks into the house, making a discovery that sets the couple on a crash course of bad mistakes and worse decisions.

The Winter Girl is truly twisted psychological suspense sure to please fans of the darkest of dark thrillers.

Scott and Elise have only been married for a few years but already the shine has worn off of the relationship. There’s a sense of unease between the two of them, sitting just beneath the surface. Part of it is the fact that Scott isn’t working. Part of it is the obvious resentment between Scott and Elise’s father. It takes some time for Marinovich to reveal exactly what’s gone on in the couple’s past. They’re otherwise a very normal couple.

When Scott opens up to Elise about what he’s been doing, at first she’s reproachful about his actions. But then she joins in. And then her father comes home.

The book is full of “and then” moments, each of which leads to more revelations about Scott and Elise and the house next door. There was a point when I honestly wondered if it was all some fever dream born out of Scott’s time alone. A tale he’d woven to keep himself amused as time passes by while they wait for Elise’s dad to pass. That’s definitely not the case, though.

This is a book that will draw some very obvious and appropriate comparisons. I’m hesitant to mention them, however, because I think they border on spoilery. It is a very twisted story, one that begins almost innocently and spirals into very dark territory. Readers who would normally shy away from that type of read should probably go into this one prepared. It went places even I didn’t expect.

1/16 Becky LeJeune

THE WINTER GIRL by Matt Marinovich. Doubleday (January 19, 2016).  ISBN 978-0385539975.  224p.

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Rory and Arden are best friends and almost identical cousins (remember the Patty Duke Show?!) who end up rooming together their freshman year of college. Soon after school starts, there is a fire in their dorm room and the girls end up jumping, both sustaining life threatening injuries and burns.

Arden’s mother Natalie tells her story in alternating chapters with Rory and Arden, so there are three points of view and the truth seems very far away. The families are incredibly close; in fact, Natalie had dated Rory’s father Vinnie before marrying his brother.

Natalie and Vinnie are partners in a restaurant that is having severe financial problems that just intensify when the girls end up in the hospital. Arson is suspected but both girls are unconscious and on life support, so it’s their families that have to deal with the serious repercussions when the cops decide that it may have been Arden who set the fire.

This is a journey through two marriages and a lifelong competitive friendship between the girls, but the mystery of the fire runs through it all. This is for readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult’s family dramas.

Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

1/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE GOOD GOODBYE by Carla Buckley. Bantam (January 12, 2016).  ISBN 978-0553390582. 368p.

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Bauer writes intense psychological thrillers that move on the backs of her fascinating characters, and her latest is no exception.

Latham is the “shut eye,” a psychic, who is called in desperation to aid in the case of a missing twelve year old girl. Detective Chief Inspector Marvel is a cold, single minded investigator who never gives up, and keeps the case open. Marvel also has a murder to work on, except his superior orders him off the murder investigation to find a missing dog, and Marvel is infuriated.

Meanwhile another child is missing; four-year-old Daniel wandered off after his father accidentally left the front door open. The only evidence is a set of Daniel’s footprints through wet cement which disappear into nothingness, and his mother, Anna, turns those footprints into a shrine.  Anna becomes understandably depressed, then agoraphobic and starts sinking deeper and deeper into madness, until she turns to the shut eye herself. Latham won’t help her, but Anna starts getting visions, and it seems all these cases may hinge on those visions. 

Bauer is a unique voice in crime fiction who has won awards in the UK; hopefully she will find a wider audience in the US.

Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

1/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE SHUT EYE by Belinda Bauer. Grove Press (January 12, 2016).  ISBN 978-0802124852. 304p.

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The Kovac-Liska Series

This is the latest entry in the popular Kovac-Liksa series, but they are no longer working together for the Minneapolis police homicide unit. Detective Nikki Liska is now working the new cold case squad in hopes of spending more time with her teenage sons.

Detective Kovac is lost without her but learning to deal with a young, green partner on a new case; a brutal home invasion. An Asian studies professor and his wife were killed by a Samurai sword from the professor’s collection.

Liska is assigned a twenty-five year old murder of a highly honored sex crimes detective, and for some reason, his family does not want the case reopened and Liska doesn’t even want it. There is no DNA, which is the primary resource to help solve cold cases, but she is determined to do the best she can anyway, even while envying her old partner his new case.

This is a dark, gritty thriller but Hoag manages to lighten it up now and then with some black humor. A real page turner that is sure to please her legion of fans.

Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

1/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE BITTER SEASON by Tami Hoag. Dutton (January 12, 2016).  ISBN 978-0525954552. 416p.

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The Sam Capra Series, Book 5

Sam Capra has been granted ownership by his employers of a chain of bars situated around the world, to be utilized both for expenses and income, as well as an excuse to travel to different areas. He works for a government agency and is a chief operative for them. Capra had previously seen a video of his brother, Danny, shot dead. At that time, he was picked up by the agency employing him and molded into the talented operative that he has become.

Capra has been looking on and off for his brother, not wanting to believe that he is dead. His search now takes him into the inner circle of Russia’s hierarchy, meeting with a group of men that support the corrupt Russian president Morozov. One of these men now wants Morozov killed and on American soil during a meeting there. Circumstances allow Capra to believe that it is his brother Danny that has been hired to assassinate Morozov.

The chase to find Danny, and stop him from killing the Russian leader, results in a worldwide, world wind search going from Pakistan to Brooklyn, New York and into the Caribbean, where the super rich enjoy themselves.

Like all books I’ve read by Jeff Abbott, action is continuous, writing crisp with a believable plot that draws the reader in and keeps him or her glued to the book.

1/16 Paul Lane

THE FIRST ORDER by Jeff Abbott. Grand Central Publishing (January 5, 2016).  ISBN 978-1455558414. 400p.

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Jammer Davis Thrillers, Book 3

Davis works for the government as an airline crash investigator. Larsen knows the technical aspects of crash investigation and projects this knowledge into his character.

Davis is called by his boss to take charge of the examination of a crash by a small passenger plane in the jungles of Colombia near Bogota. This time it becomes very personal.  Davis’s daughter was on that plane, heading for a semester of study in Colombia.

Davis gets himself assigned to the investigation and is allowed to do so by his boss with the admonition that he recuse himself if his personal feelings get in the way of his maintaining the focus to find out what caused the crash. His daughter is listed on the flight, and when the bodies of all the passengers killed have been identified, she and another girl that she had become friendly with are missing.

The book is a very readable novel involving crime, drug dealing and involvement at the very top of the U.S. and Colombian governments.  Davis works through the available evidence piece by piece in order to arrive at answers he needs as quickly as possible.

Another Jammer Davis novel is in the works and is sure to provide the excitement and interest that this one does.

1/16 Paul Lane

PASSENGER 19 by Ward Larsen. Oceanview Publishing (January 5, 2016).  ISBN 978-1608091676. 368p.

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A Cruxys Solutions Investigation

Nancy goes to her usual locker at the gym and finds a note telling her that her daughter’s been taken, to notify her husband Michael and not call the police. She runs home in a panic to find the front door wide open, her daughter and the nanny gone.

Somehow she remembers that her husband had told her in case of an emergency to call a certain number and tell them Code Red. The number leads to Cruxys Solutions, a private security firm specializing in kidnappings in drug war torn countries and other security issues.

Michael works for various charities in many of these countries as well as the Middle East, and is often out of cell phone range. Nonetheless, Nancy texts her husband as instructed then calls Cruxys.

The action speeds up as the security officers find several irregularities and dig deeper, and Nancy’s story and lifestyle gets more unbelievable with each passing day. Magson takes the suburban thriller overseas and gives it a good twist. Readers who enjoy Harlan Coben and Joseph Finder will happily get lost in the nightmare presented here.

Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

1/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE LOCKER by Adrian Magson. Midnight Ink (January 8, 2016).  ISBN 978-0738746722. 384p.