Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

WITH MALICE by Eileen Cook

July 11, 2016

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Jill was looking forward to her trip to Italy – a chance to walk the very streets and alleys as some of her intellectual heroes. It was also a chance to spend some time with her best friend, Simone, with no parents over their shoulders. It was to be a true adventure.

But Jill is in the hospital with no memory of how she got there. She’s told she was in an accident in Italy. One so bad that the last six weeks or so have been wiped from her memory. She doesn’t remember the accident, she certainly doesn’t remember the trip, and she definitely doesn’t remember killing Simone. Without her memory to help her, she has no way of proving that the crime she’s been accused of never took place, but she knows without a doubt that she would never have killed her best friend. Never.

A trip to Italy and an American girl accused of murder might sound familiar but interestingly Cook says With Malice was not actually inspired by the Amanda Knox case, only somewhat shaped by it as the story progressed. And the story itself bears little similarity to Knox’s except for the basics: setting and the accused.

Much of the book is focused on Jill’s time in therapy and her attempts to unravel the truth about her final days in Italy. Reports claim there was a boy involved. They also claim that Jill and Simone had been arguing for much of the trip. And since Jill’s father had her quickly shipped back to the States, the Italian police are desperate to make a case for bringing Jill back to Italy to face trial. The pacing is quick and intensified by the fact that our own main character’s resolve about her innocence is shaken as the story progresses.

With Malice is an excellent psychological suspense tale, one that is sure to appeal to teens and adults alike.

7/16 Becky LeJeune

WITH MALICE by Eileen Cook. HMH Books for Young Readers (June 7, 2016). ISBN: 978-0544805095. 320p.

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THE HATCHING by Ezekiel Boone

July 9, 2016

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The Hatching Series, Book 1

Boone proves himself a master craftsman in the first book in a series about a hatching and emergence of a species that has lain dormant for hundreds of thousands of years.

Descriptions are posted about the sudden appearance in different areas of the world of a black slithering mass that attacks every living thing it encounters. A tourist in the interior part of Peru is actually eaten by the mass. The Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in a section of their country. Strange seismic activity registers in India.

While the world is shaken by these events, a package is delivered to a laboratory in Washington, D.C with something contained that is definitely trying to get out. The developing of the narrative offers a crescendo of horror that will shake the reader.

Emanating in all probability from a millennium old hibernation period starting in prehistoric times what it is becomes a logical event when the life forms of that period are considered. It is huge, predatory and determined to resurrect its place in nature’s scheme of things.

A brilliantly conceived and developing scenario what it is will just straight out keep the reader up and looking behind him or her while engrossed in the book. This, the first book of the series, sets the stage for what is obviously to develop into a fight for survival by the human race with the cards stacked against it.

7/16 Paul Lane

THE HATCHING by Ezekiel Boone. Atria/Emily Bestler Books (July 5, 2016). ISBN 978-1501125041. 352p.

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HOUSE OF SECRETS by Brad Meltzer & Tod Goldberg

July 7, 2016

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Brad Meltzer has demonstrated his lifelong interest in discovering hidden aspects of historical events. In addition to books dedicated towards fact, he has also written fiction utilizing Beecher White. a young archivist employed by the National Archives in Washington. White is shown discovering hidden stories, unknown facts tied to historical events.

In House of Secrets, Meltzer introduces a new protagonist, Hazel Nash, who has been taught from the age of six that mysteries need to be solved. Her father/teacher, Jack Nash, had hosted a long term show exposing conspiracies called, “The House of Secrets”.

We meet Hazel as she is recovering from an auto accident which killed her father and injured her brother. She has completely lost her memory from the trauma. She is visited in the hospital by an agent from the FBI who begins questioning her about her father and the body of a man with a book stuffed into his chest. The book is believed to have belonged to Benedict Arnold, the most famous traitor in American history.

Leaving the hospital, Hazel finds material in her house that she cannot remember obtaining nor have any reason to get. There is a large collection of guns and she has scars on her face that she doesn’t recall suffering. When Hazel digs into these mysteries, she begins to discover facts about her father that show him to be a very different person than he seemed to be.

What does Benedict Arnold’s book have to do with her father and why was it sewn into a dead man’s chest? What are the realities of her father’s directing the TV show?

A very engrossing novel, and one that leads the reader through an apparent maze into a logical conclusion with the possibility of a different direction in one of history’s events than normally perceived. Hazel appears to be developed into another protagonist for Brad Meltzer and his new writing partner, Tod Goldberg, that can expand the horizons of historical discovery into the international sphere.

7/16 Paul Lane

HOUSE OF SECRETS by Brad Meltzer & Tod Goldberg. Grand Central Publishing (June 7, 2016). ISBN 978-1455559497. 368p.

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ONCE UPON A MOONLIT NIGHT by Elizabeth Hoyt

July 6, 2016

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A Maiden Lane Novella

Hippolyta Royle has just escaped from a kidnapper. This is no ordinary kidnapper, however. No ransom was involved; instead the kidnapper, a Duke, wants to marry the wealthy heiress, but she’s not interested. More to the point, she wants out and with the help of a kind maid, makes her escape, wearing borrowed, ill fitting clothes and running through the rainy woods, the hounds after her.

Eventually she makes it to the road, a mud splattered mess, where she flags down a passing coach, begging a ride. The occupant, Mr. Matthew Mortimer, takes pity on her, thinking her to be a poor beggar girl or perhaps even a prostitute.

They have quite the adventure as they travel to London, where they each find out the other’s true identity and realize they are meant to be together.

This is a novella and available as an ebook or audiobook only, so I can’t say how long it is exactly. I can say I read it in an hour or so and enjoyed it. Hoyt is a good storyteller, and that comes across even in this abbreviated format.

7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ONCE UPON A MOONLIT NIGHT by Elizabeth Hoyt. Forever Yours (July 5, 2016). ASIN: B01CDDAF88. 464p.

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THE TRAP by Melanie Raabe

July 5, 2016

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Linda Conrads is agoraphobic, suffers from depression, anxiety, hallucinations and panic attacks, and hasn’t left her home since her sister was murdered eleven years earlier.

Fortunately, Linda is a very successful novelist so she has the means to live her life isolated on a luxurious estate. Unfortunately, Linda had discovered her sister’s body, caught a glimpse of the murderer as he left the apartment, and been haunted by the scene for years.

Her only links to the outside world are her editor, her part time assistant, and the television. She is watching the news when she suddenly realizes the reporter, Victor Lenzen, is her sister’s murderer.

She decides to set a trap; she writes a thriller utilizing all the details of her sister’s murder, then arranges for her first interview in twelve years – with Victor Lenzen. Linda hopes to maneuver him into a confession, but her careful plan goes horribly awry.

A fast, twisty read for fans of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn. Not for me.

7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE TRAP by Melanie Raabe. Grand Central Publishing (July 5, 2016). ISBN 978-1455592920. 352p.

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HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION by by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter

July 4, 2016

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Last fall, I was watching The View and Whoopi Goldberg raved about this new Broadway musical she had just seen. I was intrigued, and since I was planning a trip to NY this summer, looked into buying tickets. They were out of my price range, around $300 a ticket, so I didn’t buy them. That was a mistake – the weekend I was looking at coincides with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s last performance and that $300 ticket is now selling for thousands of dollars. I still wouldn’t have seen the show but I could have made enough to see several other shows!

My library offers Hoopla, a streaming service that offers music, movies, audiobooks and more. They have the Hamilton soundtrack, and I’ve checked it out several times now. This book is just the icing on the cake for me. It’s really gorgeous, the paper is just perfect for the subject, and there are dozens of interesting pictures. If you’ve seen the show, you will want this book (or so I hear!) and if you haven’t, like me, you can enjoy it vicariously through this book. Add the soundtrack and you can have Hamilton magic without ever leaving home!

From Amazon:

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Eleven Tony Awards, including Best Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s groundbreaking musical Hamilton is as revolutionary as its subject, the poor kid from the Caribbean who fought the British, defended the Constitution, and helped to found the United States. Fusing hip-hop, pop, R&B, and the best traditions of theater, this once-in-a-generation show broadens the sound of Broadway, reveals the storytelling power of rap, and claims our country’s origins for a diverse new generation.

HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION gives readers an unprecedented view of both revolutions, from the only two writers able to provide it. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages–“since before this was even a show,” according to Miranda–traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. In addition, Miranda has written more than 200 funny, revealing footnotes for his award-winning libretto, the full text of which is published here.

Their account features photos by the renowned Frank Ockenfels and veteran Broadway photographer, Joan Marcus; exclusive looks at notebooks and emails; interviews with Questlove, Stephen Sondheim, leading political commentators, and more than 50 people involved with the production; and multiple appearances by President Obama himself. The book does more than tell the surprising story of how a Broadway musical became a national phenomenon: It demonstrates that America has always been renewed by the brash upstarts and brilliant outsiders, the men and women who don’t throw away their shot.

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7/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION by by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter. Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (April 12, 2016). ISBN: 978-1455539741. 288p.

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COLD by John Sweeney

July 3, 2016

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John Sweeney’s credentials are such to cause a reader to assume that any novel he will produce will immediately grab the reader, pull him or her into the story and keep them there. The elements are here in the details, the action and an interesting plot.

The problem is a myriad of details that take Joe Tiplady, Sweeney’s protagonist, into a dizzying array of events that make him a priceless target but cause the book to become more than a little cumbersome for the reader.

The book opens with Joe walking his dog in London, in the snow, but shadowed by two men. He is then rapidly immersed into troubles that become overwhelming. A retired Soviet general is hunting for his missing daughter. A ruthless assassin is hunting something he lost that is so precious he will do anything to get it back. And in the background is Zoba ruler of Russia and master of the world’s darkest operatives.

The ending solves the problems but is disappointing for those that have waded through the book and expect something more to the point. The details are tied together logically, possibly allowing for future Tiplady novels to become tighter and more interesting for the reader. That is if Sweeney thinks a bit smaller and doesn’t try to solve too many problems in his books.

7/16 Paul Lane

COLD by John Sweeney. Thomas & Mercer (July 1, 2016). ISBN 978-1503934221. 398p.

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FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes

July 2, 2016

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A Dewey Andreas Novel, Book 6

Since Dewey Andreas’ first appearance in Power Down, Coes has brought him a long way. From a job on an off-shore oil rig in which his long dormant fighting skills acquired as a special forces operator reappeared when the rig was attacked by terrorists, to First Strike, where he has become a highly skilled counter terrorist agent, Dewey has come a long way. What hasn’t changed is the author’s talent for writing a novel in which the action is nonstop. And that is certainly the case here.

The Pentagon has created a scenario in which one handpicked man would emerge as the most powerful leader in the troubled middle east. But the individual selected turns the tables on the U.S.

Tristan Nazir twists the program to create the elite terrorist army of ISIS. When the U.S. is ready to send a final shipment of munitions to Nazir, it becomes suspect that ISIS is receiving the funding to pay for that delivery in order to use the material for their own ends.

Dewey Andreas is sent into Syria to find out what is going on and where the arms are actually being sent. Arriving in Damascus, Dewey is caught and held prisoner, but with the ingenuity he has always exhibited, escapes and returns to the U.S.

The second half of the novel is centered on an ISIS attack on America, which is geared to blackmail the U.S. into releasing the last shipment of weapons to them by a threat almost beyond belief. The action is rapid during the entire novel, but in this lengthy segment is staggering and does not let up. Dewey becomes involved with thwarting the terrorists, and his actions, as well as those of a force aiding him, will keep the reader breathless.

Coes has evolved during his five books involving Dewey Andreas into a master of writing the all nighter. Extremely well formulated and guaranteed to keep his readers awaiting the next book with bated breath.

7/16 Paul Lane

FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes. St. Martin’s Press (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-1250043177. 480p.

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Win the July ’16 bookshelf of signed thrillers!

July 1, 2016

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Welcome to the July bookshelf of signed thrillers! I am giving away some terrific books this month, all autographed by the authors. Don’t forget to check back…you never know when new titles will be added. To enter, go to the Win Books page. Best of luck!

GUILTY MINDS by Joseph Finder: Summoned to investigate potentially explosive charges of corruption levied by a gossip website against the chief justice of the Supreme Court, private intelligence operative Nick Heller is given forty-eight hours to prove that the story is baseless.

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF STONES by M.J. Rose: Designing trench watches and mourning jewelry in World War I Paris, ambitious young jewelry maker Opaline, the daughter of a dark sorceress, communicates with spirits using her rare lithomancy gifts before forging a powerful love with the ghost of a fallen soldier.

YOU WILL KNOW ME by Megan Abbott: When a violent death rocks her close-knit gymnastics community weeks before an important competition, the mother of an Olympic hopeful works frantically to hold her family together in spite of being irresistibly drawn to the crime.

FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes: When hundreds of American college students are taken captive by a radical Islamic group who demands a massive arms shipment in return for the hostages’ safety, Dewey Andreas obtains proof that the group has been secretly funded by a Pentagon black-ops program.

KILLER LOOK by Linda Fairstein: The shady underside of glamour challenges Alex Cooper, Mike Chapman, and Mercer Wallace, who embark on a murder investigation at the height of New York City’s Fashion Week to expose dark undercurrents in the garment district and the machinations of a resolved killer.

SOMEONE MUST DIE by Sharon Potts: When her six-year-old nephew vanishes from a neighborhood carnival, Aubrey Lynd’s safe, snow-globe world fractures; it shatters when the FBI’s investigation raises questions about her own family that Aubrey can’t answer.

INTO THE WHIRLWIND by Kat Martin: Turning to her former bodyguard, Dirk Reynolds, after her 3-year-old son is kidnapped, Megan O’Brien sees a new side of this man with whom she had a brief affair as they are both forced to enter a dark world of international crime to rescue her little boy.

BREATH OF MALICE by Karen Fenech: FBI special agent Paige Carson hoped she’d be able to start a new life in small-town South Carolina. But when a senator’s sister is murdered and a blank postcard is left next to the body, Paige realizes that a killer from her past has found her—and is sending her a very personal message.

SUNKEN DREAMS by Steven Kuehn: Archaeologists strive to bring the hidden past into the light of the present. In SUNKEN DREAMS, we discover that there are those who prefer to keep the secrets of the past buried – and they’ll kill to keep them that way.

THE TRAP by Melanie Raabe: A reclusive best-selling author, haunted by the unsolved murder of her younger sister, spots her sister’s killer on television and resolves to use the plot of her next novel to set an irresistible trap for him.

DEEP SIX by D. P. Lyle: Agreeing to investigate a suspected adultress, former professional baseball player Jake Longly finds himself in trouble when his target is killed and he runs afoul of Ukrainian mobster Victor Borkov.

FIELD OF GRAVES by J.T. Ellison: Nashville cop Taylor Jackson teams up with troubled FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin to search for a serial killer who is targeting college students at Vanderbilt University. “Well developed, multidimensional characters and an exceptionally strong plot.” Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

You can win autographed copies of all 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.

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 to enter this month’s contest.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn

June 30, 2016

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Eddy Harkness Novels (Book 2)

They call it Dark Horse and it’s a bit of an anomaly in the drug market: an almost pure heroin sold and darkened as though it’s not. And it’s deadly, resulting in death by overdose all over Boston. Eddy Harkness and his fellow Narco-Intel team members have had their eye on it for some time, but when a hurricane rips through the city a discovery of a large cache of the drug offers their first possible break in the case.

But while Dark Horse and Boston’s drugs are supposed to be the focus of their efforts, Eddy soon realizes there’s something larger going on in Boston’s neighborhoods – the Lower South End in particular. And when citizens of the neighborhood begin taking up questionably legal residence in Eddy’s old hometown, it’s inevitable that he’ll get involved.

I would love for more people to discover this fantastic series. Harkness is a man with a troubled past, much of which is covered in Dark Horse’s predecessor, Third Rail.

In this second of the series, Eddy has put much of that trouble behind him, regaining his place as head of Narco-Intel. He’s also in a much healthier relationship than his last and considering making it permanent.

A literal (and figurative) storm is brewing in Boston when the book begins, and Eddy finds himself caught in the very center. His actions have him branded a hero but it’s clear he may soon make some very powerful enemies.

This is a perfect follow up to Third Rail, another smart installment in what is a real standout series.

(I’d suggest reading them in order as there are some callbacks to Third Rail throughout Dark Horse.)

6/16 Becky LeJeune

DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (June 7, 2016). ISBN: 978-0544253247. 240p.

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