WITHOUT SANCTION by Don Bentley

March 9, 2020

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A Matt Drake Thriller, Book 1

From the publisher:

After surviving a clandestine operation that went tragically wrong, Matt Drake escaped Syria with his life, but little else. Now, to save the life of another, he must return to Syria and confront his biggest failure in a debut thriller Lee Child calls “sensationally good.”

Defense Intelligence Agency operative Matt Drake broke a promise. A promise that cost three people their lives and crippled his best friend. Three months later, he’s paralyzed by survivor’s guilt and haunted by the memories of the fallen. Matt may have left Syria, but Syria hasn’t left him.

In the midst of his self-imposed exile, Matt is dragged back into the world of espionage and assets that he tried to forget. A Pakistani scientist working for an ISIS splinter cell has created a terrifying weapon of mass destruction. The scientist offers to defect with the weapon, but he trusts just one man to bring him out of Syria alive—Matt Drake.

This is the first book in a new series featuring Matt Drake, a flawed hero, but one with the brains, patriotism and the will to get things resolved. In a mission taking place before the beginning of this novel, three men were killed and his best friend, also with them, was permanently crippled. Matt blames himself for the failure of the botched action.

After three months of feeling sorry for himself and drowning his sorrows, he is unexpectedly called back by his supervisor to undertake a mission into Syria. The task will be to extract a Pakistani scientist working for ISIS who has perfected a new and terrible chemical aimed at killing Americans. He has offered to bring the formula to the United States in payment of being taken out and granted asylum there. The condition put is that he wants Matt to handle the operation.

Matt undertakes the job after learning that an American agent, the only survivor of a raid into the area has been captured and will be beheaded by his captors with the execution filmed to be used as propaganda. There is also a background scenario that takes place in the White House. The president is facing reelection for a second term and there are two high-level officers of the government that are looking to control his actions to control events for their own benefit. The background action is a great piece of writing to underline the actual scheming, plotting and double-dealing that occurs in government circles. And of course, plans are laid, discarded and done again by the people working behind the scenes.

Unfortunately for Matt, the president and those on his high-level staff are playing off the rescue of the captured American in different ways in order to seek their own gain. Bentley does indeed have a low opinion of politicians and their maneuvering to bring themselves the greater good by just discarding the needs of those caught in their schemes.

Don Bentley has done a great job in building Matt’s character. He has his faults, his missteps, but in the final analysis, will do the right thing to protect lives and punish his enemies. An excellent beginning to what I trust will be an anticipated series based on well-described counter-terrorism operations.

3/2020 Paul Lane

WITHOUT SANCTION by Don Bentley. Berkley (March 3, 2020). ISBN: 978-1984805119. 384p.

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ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RESURRECTION by Joshua Hood

March 8, 2020

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From the publisher:

The first novel in an explosive new series inspired by Robert Ludlum’s Bourne universe, The Treadstone Resurrection introduces an unforgettable hero and the shadowy world that forged him…

Treadstone made Jason Bourne an unstoppable force, but he’s not the only one.

Operation Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. The top-secret CIA Black Ops program trained him to be an all but invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life. Which is why he was determined to get out. Working as a carpenter in rural Washington state, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone in the past, until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site.

Adam must regain the skills that Treadstone taught him–lightning reflexes and a cold conscience–in order to discover who the would-be killers are and why they have come after him now. Are his pursuers enemies from a long-ago mission? Rival intelligence agents? Or, perhaps, forces inside Treadstone? His search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.

Joshua Hood is the author of several previous novels involving men and women at war. His books were action-packed with a great knowledge of weaponry and methods used in armed combat. He takes up a theme developed by the late Robert Ludlum and creates a scenario revolving around the actions of a group working for the CIA. They purportedly developed a method of creating a super warrior, naming that project Treadstone.

The soldiers created by the Treadstone group have superior reflexes, superb analytical skills and a personality that incorporates a no prisoners taken attitude towards any enemy they face. The character used by Hood is Adam Hayes and the Jason Bourne of Ludlum’s novels does not appear in the story.

Hayes has resigned from the CIA and is working as a carpenter in the state of Washington. He is married and has one son and while not satisfied with the tedium of everyday life has no plans to return to the active lifestyle of a CIA assassin. With no warning, Hayes is attacked by a hit squad at his job site but finds that he still has the skills to kill the would-be killers and escape with his life. His plan then becomes finding the people that attacked him, and in so doing, is pulled into a Venezuela that is completely destitute due to their government robbing the country blind with one man in particular singled out and destined for elimination. From Venezuela Hayes then travels into Colombia attempting to find and kill the members of the group that is after him.

Ludlum’s characters were always cast as regular people that could get hurt or even killed in the action they were subjected to in his novels. Adam Hayes, on the other hand, is presented as a superman moving at the speed of light from one dangerous situation to another. He gets beat up, almost killed and just keeps on trucking. The ending of the book has Hayes already looking for the next assignment and ready to jump into whatever awaits him. For those that like their novels action-packed and moving like an express train, Joshua Hood’s creation of Adam Hayes will be very satisfying.

3/2020 Paul Lane

ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RESURRECTION by Joshua Hood. G.P. Putnam’s Sons (February 25, 2020). ISBN: 978-0525542551. 384p.

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YOU ARE NOT ALONE by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

March 7, 2020

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From the publisher:

One of Newsweek‘s Most Anticipated Books of 2020
One of SheReads Most Anticipated Books of 2020
One of PopSugar’s Most Anticipated Books of 2020
One of HelloGiggles’ Most Anticipated Books of 2020
One of Marie Claire’s Best Fiction by Women in 2020
One of Woman’s Day’s Best Fiction Books Coming Out in 2020

The electrifying #1 New York Times bestselling authors of THE WIFE BETWEEN US and AN ANONYMOUS GIRL return with a brand new novel of psychological suspense.

Shay Miller wants to find love, but it eludes her. She wants to be fulfilled, but her job is a dead end. She wants to belong, but her life is increasingly lonely.

Until Shay meets the Moore sisters. Cassandra and Jane live a life of glamorous perfection, and always get what they desire. When they invite Shay into their circle, everything seems to get better.

Shay would die for them to like her.
She may have to.

This is the third novel the two authors are publishing together and they get better and better. Will they reach a plateau and top out? Hope not because what they are doing is causing a lot of sleepless nights among an ever-increasing group of grateful readers.

This book tells a tale of a group of women caught up in a delusion of omnipotence and acting on a psychopathic fixation of righting wrongs that they alone decide are wrongs, and that their remedies are the best for those caught up in the schemes.

Shay Miller has come to New York City with a dream of finding love and a fulfilling career path. By a quirk of fate, she is getting ready to ride the New York subway system and while awaiting the arrival of the next train is witness to a suicide, with a woman throwing herself in the path of the train. Traumatized by the experience, Shay begins looking into the life of the woman that killed herself. In so doing, she meets the woman’s group of friends, is befriended by them, and helped in many ways to better her circumstances. The gist of the novel concerns the reasons behind the group going overboard to help her. This includes a remake of Shay and changing her look for their own reasons.

Why two brilliant and very successful sisters who are the guiding persons behind that group go to extremes to help Shay forms the basis of the story. That the reader will not be able to put the book down until finished is an absolute fact. That the end results in reading the novel will be to begin to look forward to the authors’ next book is a given. Without any doubt a five-star novel by the writing team.

3/2020 Paul Lane

YOU ARE NOT ALONE by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen. St. Martin’s Press (March 3, 2020). ISBN: 978-1250202031. 352p.

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ALMOST JUST FRIENDS By Jill Shalvis

March 6, 2020

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From the publisher:

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis returns to Wildstone with the touching story of finding your place in the world—and the people who make it home.

Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

I love Jill Shalvis’s books; no matter the subject, she is just a terrific storyteller. This book is a perfect example. It is family fiction and romance, and the combination is just perfect here. Piper is a woman who has not had an easy life, but she has done the best she could with the hand she was dealt. Raising her siblings when she wasn’t much more than a child herself was no picnic, but now they are grown and off on their own. Or so she thinks.

Piper is a helper. She is an EMT by profession, with dreams of becoming a Physician’s Assistant, so she is not in the market for a romance. But of course, you just can’t plan those things. Told with Shalvis’s usual charm and warmth, I couldn’t help but fall for these characters and their story.

There is a lot of love and laughter here, along with some drama, and it all combines to make this book a real page-turner. I couldn’t put it down and highly recommend it.

3/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ALMOST JUST FRIENDS By Jill Shalvis. William Morrow Paperbacks (January 21, 2020). ISBN 978-0062897800. 384p.

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IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle

March 5, 2020

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From the publisher:

Perfect for fans of Me Before You and One Day—a striking, powerful, and moving love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.

I really loved the description of this book. It put me in mind of What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty, more than Me Before You. But after reading it, it is not really like either of those books, but wholly original. Can’t sell a book that way though, you have to have comparables. Preferably huge, bestselling comparables. I am not familiar with One Day, and there are stark differences between Me Before You and In Five Years, but I can see the same reader enjoying both. I did.

I tend to like anything with a whiff of time travel, and Dannie’s vision certainly seems to fit the bill. Was it a dream? I am too much of a pragmatist to think otherwise, until of course, she meets the man of her dream. While this book is being touted as a romance, it’s really not. It is women’s fiction about two best friends, and it is a tearjerker. To say more than that would spoil the book, I think, so I will leave it there.

On a more personal note, there is mention of a Catskills wedding and the Roxbury Inn. I almost dropped my Kindle when I read that – my son got married in June in Roxbury, NY! What a coincidence; Roxbury is a small town about an hour from Albany, and I mean small. Like drive twenty minutes to the next town to get to a supermarket or any other kind of store small. But completely charming and utterly gorgeous, especially in June. I would imagine fall to be quite spectacular as well. If you have a minute, scroll through some of the pictures on the Roxbury Inn website. Every room has a theme and no two are alike. But I digress.

I was almost envious of the friendship the two women had, it was quite special and I loved that about this book. The romance, not so much. I devoured this book in a day, but I was a tiny bit disappointed at the ending. It is certainly worth a read.

3/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

IN FIVE YEARS by Rebecca Serle. Atria Books (March 3, 2020). ISBN 978-1982137441. 272p.

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A STATEMENT FROM REED EXHIBITIONS – ORGANISERS OF THE LONDON BOOK FAIR

March 4, 2020

Reed Exhibitions has today announced that The London Book Fair 2020, scheduled to take place at Olympia, London, from 10 to 12 March will be cancelled following the escalation of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Europe.

The effects, actual and projected, of Coronavirus are becoming evident across all aspects of our lives here in the UK and across the world, with many of our participants facing travel restrictions. We have been following UK government guidelines and working with the rolling advice from the public health authorities and other organisations, and so it is with reluctance that we have taken the decision not to go ahead with this year’s event.

We recognise that business has to continue. With this in mind, we will of course support and collaborate with exhibitors and visitors to keep our world moving during this difficult period. We thank all those from the UK and a multitude of other countries who have prepared over the last year to deliver what promised to be a wonderful book fair showcasing, as ever, the exciting best of the global book industry. The London Book Fair will return, better than ever, in 2021.

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ADAM by Chris Keniston

March 4, 2020

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Farraday Country, Book 1

From the publisher:

Welcome to Farraday Country, a twist on the popular 7 brides for 7 brothers set in cattle-ranching west Texas, with all the friends, family and fun that fans have come to expect from USA TODAY Bestselling author Chris Keniston.

On a barren road in the pre-dawn hours, Adam Farraday, the oldest of seven siblings, happens upon a disabled sports car and an angel in white searching for a disappearing dog. What is it about this secretive redheaded beauty that intrigues him as no woman has before?

After learning her fiancé’s true nature minutes before her wedding, Meg O’Brien drives as fast and as far away from her world as she can. Stranded with no money, and nowhere to go, the city girl must learn to fit in to small town life and all its quirky trappings. Too bad falling in love with her handsome rescuer is not an option.

This was a super fun read. I loved the damsel in distress idea, especially with her being stranded as it upped the tension considerably. Amazon is giving away the Kindle version of this book (as of this writing) so I got to read the first book of the series. There are 11 in total, and I look forward to reading the rest.

Keniston does a really good job with such a short book – I think it falls into novella territory. Regular readers here may remember I often complain about short books because they lack character development. That holds especially true when it’s the first book of a series that is introducing multiple characters. But I am not complaining here! Shocking, I know. I really liked the story, the characters, and the setting, so that bodes well for the rest of the series. Count me in.

By the way, if you don’t have a Kindle, you can also read this on a tablet or phone using the free Kindle app. If you want a Kindle, there are often sales. I linked to a sale price of $59.99 for however long that lasts, no guarantees. So go for it!

3/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ADAM by Chris Keniston. Indie House Publishing (October 13, 2016). ISBN 978-1942561095. 162p.

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EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson

March 3, 2020

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Malcolm Kershaw, Book 1

From the publisher:

From the hugely talented author of Before She Knew Him comes a chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans: the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders.

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list of the genre’s most unsolvable murders, those that are almost impossible to crack—which he titled “Eight Perfect Murders”—chosen from among the best of the best including Agatha Christie’s A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin’s Death Trap, A. A. Milne’s Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox’s Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald’s The Drowner, and Donna Tartt’s A Secret History.

But no one is more surprised than Mal, now the owner of the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston, when an FBI agent comes knocking on his door one snowy day in February. She’s looking for information about a series of unsolved murders that look eerily similar to the killings on Mal’s old list. And the FBI agent isn’t the only one interested in this bookseller who spends almost every night at home reading. There is killer is out there, watching his every move—a diabolical threat who knows way too much about Mal’s personal history, especially the secrets he’s never told anyone, even his recently deceased wife.

To protect himself, Mal begins looking into possible suspects . . . and sees a killer in everyone around him. But Mal doesn’t count on the investigation leaving a trail of death in its wake. Suddenly, a series of shocking twists leaves more victims dead—and the noose around Mal’s neck grows so tight he might never escape.

The book is introspective of many of the great murder mystery novels of the past 80 to 90 years. Peter Swanson is obviously a fan of the genre and exhibits a deep knowledge of those books that have been accepted as classics in the field.

Malcolm Kershaw, the principal protagonist and the first-person narrator of the events, has grown up with a deep love of mystery stories and over his life has read most of those considered classics. He has worked in the bookstore trade since he started working and currently is the working partner in a two-owner book store called the “Old Devil.” The store has a reputation and makes a living in a field that has narrowed over the years with the advent of competition like Amazon. One of Malcolm’s projects was to compile a list of eight fictional murders, which he termed “Eight Perfect Murders,” as they all were not solvable with the list developing interest in the store.

Malcolm did get married but his luck did not carry outside of the bookstore where he worked. He found that his wife was cheating on him but did not know how to handle the situation. Fate intervened when his wife left a pot party drunk and was killed in a one-car accident while driving home. Malcolm, in thinking about the accident, placed the blame on the man that was her escort and possibly her lover. The problem was, of course, that if her escort was murdered as Malcolm dreamed of, the police would automatically put the blame on him. His solution was one that was written about by Patricia Highsmith in her 1951 book, Strangers on a Train. The novel postulated two men meeting accidentally on a train they were both on. Each had a person that he wanted to kill but not to take any blame for it. The solution arrived at was that each, at different times, would kill the person the other man wanted dead while the first one set up an alibi completely away from the murder location.

Entranced with the idea, Malcolm went on a web site and broached the idea for anyone needing help and familiar with the novel. The query was answered by someone and the murder pact agreed to. On the date that his wife’s lover was killed, Malcolm was away from the area with an iron-clad alibi. Then, in doing his part, he found that the act was far from disagreeable. Consumed with curiosity Malcolm began trying to locate and talk to the man that had killed his wife’s lover.

While the action involving Malcolm was playing out, a series of murders started to occur which seemed to follow the crimes committed in the books shown on the “Eight Perfect Murders” list. Malcolm was made aware of this when an agent with the FBI visited him, claiming she had noted the similarity to those described in the books and asked Malcolm if he would help her. He jumped in and became fascinated with the situation.

The novel is a draw with the added attraction that it produces an education into the leading books written within the “Murder Crime” genre and for those readers wanting to take their interest in that direction, a superb guide. If the lists of books are not important, Peter Swanson has presented an excellent trip into another world with a glance into twisted minds, and a definite all-nighter.

3/2020 Paul Lane

EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson. William Morrow (March 3, 2020). ISBN: 978-0062838209. 288p.

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SEPARATION ANXIETY by Laura Zigman

March 2, 2020

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Zigman’s latest (Animal Husbandry, Her) features Judy, a 50-year-old mother going through some serious life changes. Her career as a successful children’s book writer has tanked, leaving her writing clickbait for a self-help website. Her parents have recently died, her best friend has terminal cancer, her 13-year-old son is growing up and away from her, and her anxiety-ridden husband has turned to cannabis to an extreme, all of which is debilitating to the marriage.

Judy has a two-fold approach to her problems; she tucks her Sheltie dog into an old baby carrier and wears the dog everywhere, all while she wallows in self-pity and whines about her life.

Anxiety is a serious issue, but here it is treated as comedic fodder, while the dog in the sling leaves the reader to ponder whether it is animal abuse or to just accept it as farce.

Verdict: Readers who enjoyed the far superior Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, or Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, may enjoy this, but it is not her best effort even though Zigman is a popular author.

©Library Journal, 2020

3/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

SEPARATION ANXIETY by Laura Zigman. Ecco (March 3, 2020). ISBN 978-0062909077. 288p.

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Win the March 2020 bookshelf of signed thrillers!

March 1, 2020

So many books to win, it’s absolute madness! Like March Madness, minus the basketball. There is definitely something for everyone. One of my favorite authors, Allison Brennan, is kicking off a fantastic new series. There are a couple of debuts; Stephanie Wrobel’s Darling Rose Gold, which is a Library Reads top ten books for March, and Don Bentley’s Without Sanction, that none other than Lee Child is raving about! I am super excited about Peter Swanson’s Eight Perfect Murders, which is so in my wheelhouse, not to mention several other fantastic new books from some of the best thriller writers out there.

Don’t forget to check back, additional titles may be added. To enter: Win Books

Best of luck!

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THE THIRD TO DIE by Allison Brennan: A disgraced detective teams up with an ambitious FBI special agent to prevent a cycle of murders by a killer who ended the life of a colleague’s sister. First book of a new series (yay!) by the author of the Lucy Kincaid series.

EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS by Peter Swanson:  Years after establishing a literary career through his compilation of the mystery genre’s most unsolvable classics, an unsuspecting bookseller is tapped by the FBI for help solving murders that eerily mimic the books on his list.

DARLING ROSE GOLD by Stephanie Wrobel: Enduring decades of serious illness as a victim of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy before exposing her mother’s behavior, Rose Gold invites her unrepentant mother back into her life to secretly settle the score. A first novel.

THE LAST TOURIST by Olen Steinhauer: Retired agent Milo Weaver has his hideout in the Western Sahara invaded by a young CIA analyst who questions him about suspicious deaths and the possible return of the Tourists, in the fourth novel of the series following An American Spy.

LAVENDER BLUE MURDER by Laura Childs: Attending a traditional English bird hunt, tea-maven Theodosia Browning and her sommelier, Drayton Conneley, stumble on the wounded body of their host before suspicious accidents prompt the organization of a séance to expose the culprit.

THE GOOD KILLER by Harry Dolan:  In the newest thriller from best-selling author Harry Dolan, former soldier Sean Tennant stops a deadly mass shooting, and captures the attentions of two dangerous men from the past, including one who blames him for a brother’s death.

THE DEEP by Alma Katsu: Surviving the sinking of the Titanic, Annie takes a job as a nurse on the Britannic before encountering a fellow survivor who forces her to reckon with past demons. By the award-winning author of The Hunger.

A REASONABLE DOUBT by Phillip Margolin: When a magician linked to suspicious deaths goes missing in the middle of performing a new trick, criminal defense attorney Robin Lockwood untangles dangerous clues to identify a killer among numerous suspects.

CROSS HER HEART by Melinda Leigh: When her sister Erin is murdered and Erin’s husband goes missing, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death but when the danger hits close to home, her own family is caught in a death grip.

WITHOUT SANCTION by Don Bentley: An operative struggling with PTSD in the aftermath of a mission gone wrong is forced to confront his biggest failure to prevent an ISIS splinter cell from creating a weapon of mass destruction. A first novel.

You can win autographed copies of these books! If you are new to the site, each month I run a contest in conjunction with the International Thriller Writers organization. We put together a list of books from debut authors to bestsellers, so you can win some of your favorites and find some new favorites.

What makes this contest really special is that all of the books (except eBooks) are signed by the author! Books with multiple authors will be signed by at least one of the authors.

Penguin Random House books for giveaway were provided by the publisher. #PRHpartner

Don’t forget, if you subscribe to the newsletter or follow this blog, you get an extra entry into every contest you enter. Check out the Win Books page for more information on all these books and how you can enter this month’s contest.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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