Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

Click to purchase

Audrey Harte is a successful Los Angeles criminal psychologist working with children and appearing on a television series called “When Kids Kill.” She hasn’t returned to Edgeport, Maine in several years, moving as far away from her past as possible.

Growing up in the small town left some serious scars – Audrey’s best friend Maggie was sexually abused by her father, and no one would help. The teenage girls took matters into their own hands and killed him. Maggie was sent for psychiatric help and Audrey was sent to a girl’s juvenile facility, where she was mentored by the psychologist in charge, who led Audrey to her career.

Returning home to her alcoholic father, her bitter sister, her estrangement with Maggie, not to mention Jake, the heartbreak of her life, is extremely stressful. A day later, Maggie is dead, Audrey is the prime suspect, and the tension really starts building.

Jake has become extremely successful and owns a good chunk of the town, but is still single. He and Audrey are wary of one another, but after Maggie’s death, they work together to try and clear Audrey’s name and more importantly, find the killer. Along the way, Audrey mends fences with the town and Jake.

An intriguing mystery and terrific characters make this a compelling read, sure to appeal to Nancy Pickard or Lisa Unger fans. First book of a series.

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

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

IT TAKES ONE by Kate Kessler. Redhook (April 26, 2016).  ISBN 978-0316302500. 416p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

Lisa Lutz writes a wonderful, funny mystery series featuring the irrepressible “Izzy” Spellman, that started with The Spellman Files. She has a unique voice so when I heard she wrote a standalone thriller, I was intrigued.

The Passenger is about Tanya Dubois, but that’s not her real name. Tanya has been on the lam for most of her adult life for reasons that aren’t made clear until the end of the book. But boy, did I get sucked into her story.

Tanya is definitely an odd duck but somehow also a sympathetic character. When we first meet her, her husband Frank has just died from a fall down the stairs. She takes off, not because she had anything to do with it, but because she doesn’t want to deal with the cops.

At another town with another name, she wanders into a bar and meets Blue, a pretty blonde bartender that immediately sees something is off about Tanya. Blue is also on the run and they become friends, for lack of a better word, until circumstances and a murder force them to part ways.

There are emails throughout the book between “Joe” & “Ryan” and we don’t really know who they are. Tanya wanders the country, changing her name, her hair, her job and her car until she finally goes home and all is resolved.

There have been several books out with unreliable narrators like Gone Girl, The Girl on a Train, and others, and I didn’t really care for them as the characters were just so unlikable. Lutz has taken that same premise but turned it on its head with a relatable yet still unreliable narrator.

This is a dark thrill ride and I enjoyed being the passenger.

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE PASSENGER by Lisa Lutz. Simon & Schuster (March 1, 2016).  ISBN 978-1451686630. 320p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

Jess Moulson is a heroin addict who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of why or how she got there. Eventually she learns that she started a fire in her apartment, where she suffered severe burns requiring multiple surgeries, but that’s not the worst of it; she is also under arrest for killing Alex, the little boy upstairs.

She won’t cooperate with her lawyer and ends up in Fellside, a women’s prison in Yorkshire, England. There she goes on a hunger strike, the only way she can take her own life.

As she is just a day or two from death, Alex appears in her room and tells her he needs her help. He haunts her until she acquiesces, and makes a rapid and miraculous recovery.

Jess is moved into the general prison population, where she is branded a child killer and treated accordingly. Alex tells Jess that she is not his murderer and he wants her help to find the real killer. This is a dark and occasionally brutal paranormal mystery with an unreliable narrator.

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

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FELLSIDE by M.R. Carey. Orbit (April 5, 2016).  ISBN 978-0316300285. 496p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

Jonathan Caine is living the dream; successful hedge fund manager with multi-million dollar bonuses, trophy wife, New York City apartment with breathtaking views. The hedge fund relies on the Russian ruble; when that starts tumbling, so does the hedge fund and Caine pulls a fast one to recover.

Of course he gets caught, then fired, which he neglects to tell his wife. Eventually everything comes to a head; there is an FBI investigation and his wife throws him out, demanding a divorce.

With all his assets frozen and nowhere else to go, Caine ends up back home, while his father, suffering from dementia and other ailments, is in a nearby nursing home.  Caine starts mending fences with his father and his sister, and while home he attends his 25th high school reunion where he hooks up with Jackie, the former prom queen, still beautiful and stuck in an abusive relationship.

Things develop quickly between Caine and Jackie and when her husband finds out, everything just spirals out of control. Caine is an unlikely hero, but his smarts ultimately redeem him in this fast paced, twisty thriller.

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

4/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE GIRL FROM HOME by Adam Mitzner. Gallery Books (April 5, 2016).  ISBN 978-1476764283. 336p.

Kindle

From Paul Lane:

Adam Mitzner presents an extremely engrossing story revolving around Jonathan Caine, a brilliant and very successful currency trader.  Jonathan has made himself a fortune trading currencies for a huge hedge fund.  He has a beautiful wife,  a multimillion dollar condo in a prestigious part of Manhattan and nothing but expectations of continuing in the same vein.  A problem crops up when a big customer suddenly gets edgy and demands that he be paid off on his investment.  The fund at that moment does not have the liquidity to pay and Jonathan has to resort to what is actually an illegal move in order to get the funds.  He is caught, fired from the fund and possibly subject to prison for the crime.

This debut novel turns a marriage inside out and upside down. Ellie and Rob are in love when they get married, but that love is not based on reality. When Rob reveals a life-changing secret on their wedding night, Ellie is thrown for a loop – but she has her secrets too.

Can two people who barely know one another make their marriage work?

Their story utilizes flashbacks via alternating chapters of “now” and “then,” except the flashbacks are not in any kind of order and can be confusing to follow, plus they add many extraneous and unnecessary characters. But despite all that, the tension becomes almost unbearable as Ellie tries to determine if she can save her husband, and her marriage.

While these characters are not especially likeable, the many loose plot ends are mostly woven together as the story hurtles towards it shocking, yet not quite believable ending.

The popularity of thrillers centered on an enigmatic husband and wife continues here, with the inevitable comparison to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
Copyright ©2016 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

03/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

JUST FALL by Nina Sadowsky. Ballantine Books (March 22, 2016).  ISBN 978-0553394856. 304p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

Jill and David are living the suburban dream; he’s a lawyer about to make partner and she’s a photographer who can afford to do charity work on a regular basis.

Their strong willed three-year-old daughter, Sophia, disappears in the park one afternoon, and a frantic search turns her up a short while later. Jill notices what appears to be a needle mark on her arm, but the doctor thinks it is a bug bite and the child has no drugs in her system.

A few weeks later, Sophia disappears again, this time during the night.

The parents are always the first suspects and as the cops dig into their lives, things take a real turn for the worse. Sophia is eventually assumed dead, but Jill refuses to believe it.

The novel is divided into “before” and “after” the kidnapping, and interspersed with journal entries from the kidnapper. Drake created a fast paced story with enormous tension until the muddled ending. This page turner is a nice addition to the suburban thriller genre, made popular by Harlan Coben.

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

03/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

ONLY EVER YOU by Rebecca Drake. Thomas Dunne Books (March 22, 2016).  ISBN 978-1250068910. 304p.

Kindle

Retired U.S. Army Capt. Maya Stern Burkett has had a hellacious time of it since her return from Kuwait. While she was given an honorable discharge, her days as an army helicopter pilot were over after a snafu involving her killing civilians, including children. Whistle blower Corey Rudzinski released video of the assault but not the audio, and Maya is waiting for the other shoe to drop – and it’s not going to be pretty.

Maya is suffering from PTSD, which manifests itself into audio hallucinations – basically, she keeps replaying that night over and over, especially when she tries to sleep. She can’t stop the screaming in her head, and it really upsets her two year old daughter.

And that was just the beginning of the bad news. While Maya was out of the country, her sister Claire was murdered. A few months later, after she gets home, her husband Joe is killed in a Central Park mugging which Maya barely escapes.

Maya’s best friend gives her a nanny cam and a few days later she is watching the video and sees her daughter climbing onto Joe’s lap. Her dead husband Joe. She confronts the nanny, who denies seeing anything on the video, gives Maya a face full of pepper spray, steals the memory card with the video and disappears.

Meanwhile, Joe’s family is acting a little odd and her sister-in-law tells her that the family is paying off the detective investigating Joe’s murder. Maya decides to investigate on her own, and things really start spiraling out of control – or so it seems.

This standalone is Coben at his best, moving the story along at a breakneck pace, leading the reader on a terrific romp up to the incredible, shocking ending. I loved it.

3/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FOOL ME ONCE by Harlan Coben. Dutton (March 22, 2016).  ISBN 978-0525955092. 400p.

Kindle

Audiobook

FROM PAUL LANE:

One of the most prolific authors of constantly challenging fiction is Harlan Coben. Fool Me Once is another of those books that catch the reader at the onset and never lets him or her go. Maya Stern was a captain, a special ops pilot in the army, and saw action in a combat zone. She met her future husband Joe Burkett while on leave and never returned to the military.

The novel opens at Joe’s funeral. He has been killed while with Maya at Central Park in New York; seemingly during a robbery gone sour. The police investigating the crime and apparently picking up the probable killers have put closure to the case, but Maya is sure that these men are not guilty of the murder. She decides to handle her own investigation, but two weeks after Joe’s funeral she sees him walking about on a tape taken from a nanny cam used to watch her two year old daughter while cared for by her housekeeper.

The shock of seeing Joe still alive and walking around their house galvanizes her into wondering what is the truth of her husband’s murder. And secondly what is the connection if any, with Joe’s death: the murder of Maya’s sister and 17 years ago the accidental drowning of Joe’s brother while on a boat trip in the Caribbean.

Coben again proves himself an expert in providing one scenario after another, leading the reader to one set of conclusions and then yanking these away for another set of facts. The ending is not telegraphed at all but one that is logical and a result of everything established. An extremely mesmerizing read, one that is completely stand alone and will continue to allow readers to constantly look for Harlan Coben’s books.

Click to purchase

Promise Falls Trilogy, Book 2

Barclay presents the second novel in Promise Falls trilogy, taking place in the town of Promise Falls. No surprise that characters and situations from the first book are present in this novel.

Further developments of action take place and lead the reader into additional insight into the people and plots that began in Broken Promise. The book opens when the horrific happening of a drive in movie screen falling down occurs, killing four people in their cars while watching the movie.

The daughter of one of the victims asks Cal Weaver, a private investigator, to look into the situation.  Cal investigates and discovers a secret room in the father’s house, which has obviously been used for sexual activities. He immediately finds that a number of DVDs have been stolen and may be the prime cause of the “accident” killing the woman’s father. At the same time, detective Barry Duckworth is attempting to solve two murders, one of which is three years old but believed by Duckworth to be connected to the present one.

Barclay is a master at making the protagonists in his books become real and having faults like everyone else. Detective Duckworth is overweight and is starting to experience the symptoms of cardiac problems.  These do not stop him, but do make him appear more normal. Duckworth’s wife is on him to watch his diet and take care of himself as would any spouse in a like situation.

As the lies surrounding the murders start, Weaver discovers facts pointing towards evil once buried, which is present in Promise Falls. Another murder occurs and both Duckworth and Cal pursue their investigations no matter where their findings take them.

The evil in the town’s past seem to point towards involvement with the present day. Far From True ends on a complete cliffhanger, with some things solved, but others still pending and awaiting solution.

The question arises, how many books are planned by Barclay involving Promise Falls, and can they be written as episodes rather than opening and closing.  There is no doubt that Linwood Barclay can almost effortlessly keep his readers glued to his books. Will he continue to do so if the series extends far out into the future?  I am a fan of his, and will continue to look for anything he comes out with as long as he keeps coming out with novels.

3/16 Paul Lane

FAR FROM TRUE by Linwood Barclay. NAL (March 8, 2016).  ISBN 978-0451472700.  480p.

Kindle

Click to purchase

A McGill University doctoral candidate, Patricia Mason, has made an amazing discovery; she has found some of England’s crown jewels in a locked room under the city of Montreal, where they were hidden from the Nazis during World War II.

The mayor believes this find could be great publicity for the city, and calls in publicity director Martine LeDuc to put a good spin on it. It shouldn’t be difficult, until a skeleton is found alongside the jewels, a stone goes missing, and Mason is murdered.

LeDuc once again calls on her friend, Detective-Lieutenant Julian Fletcher, whose family’s wealth and prestige allow him great latitude with the police department, in this terrific second book (The Asylum, 2015) of the series.

Turns out a Neo-Nazi group is interested in the jewels, as they believe, as did Hitler, that the stones possess mystical powers. The story moves back and forth from very interesting World War II flashbacks to the present day, a riveting mystery. LeDuc’s personal life adds to her stress level, as her husband wants his children to move in with them on a permanent basis. Steve Berry fans should enjoy this.

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

3/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

DEADLY JEWELS by Jeannette de Beauvoir. Minotaur Books (March 8, 2016).  ISBN 978-1250045409. 352p.

Kindle