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Max Revere Novels, Book 2

Investigative reporter Maxine Revere returns in this terrific follow up to Notorious.

Serial killer Adam Bachman is on trial for five murders, but Max thinks there are more bodies to be uncovered. She specializes in missing persons cases that have gone cold, determined to bring closure to the families.

She’s suspicious that Bachman is responsible for the disappearance of a couple vacationing in New York City, but the D.A. doesn’t want to hear it, he just wants to get his conviction. Max scores a brief, pre-trial interview with the defendant and becomes convinced that he knows something about the missing couple. She also thinks he wasn’t working alone but can’t persuade the police to investigate further, so she investigates herself, along with her bodyguard, David, and her young intern, Riley.

They find enough evidence that one cop is willing to search further, with devastating consequences for all of them. The pacing is relentless and the suspense just keeps building until the satisfying ending. An excellent addition to the series.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

4/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

COMPULSION by Allison Brennan. Minotaur Books (April 7, 2015). ISBN 978-1250035028. 384p.

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Kenny has just learned that he only has a few weeks left to live. Before he dies, he vows to track down the people he feels he owes the most to and somehow make amends. The list is short: Mary, his ex wife; Thomas Kintry, a boy Kenny witnessed almost being kidnapped; Mr. Jeganathan, the convenience store owner who saved Kintry (Kenny was unable to identify the kidnapper in interviews with the police, something he’s always regretted); and Callie Barton, the only schoolmate who showed him kindness in his worst years of childhood.

Mary is easy, they’ve remained the best of friends but Kenny doesn’t want to tell her he’s about to die. Even Kintry and Jeganathan are fairly quick to track down. But Callie… Callie is a tough one. It seems Callie has been missing for quite some time and her husband is the prime suspect.

Cross, the creator of BBC’s Luther, has a very clipped and short style. His prose is quick and tight, but there’s very little in the way of setting or character development. Instead, much of the effort is in unexpected twists and violence. And in Captured he does excel at both.

All in all, this isn’t one that will likely blow you away with its clever plotting but it is one that reads quick and easy and packs a wallop in terms of action.

3/15 Becky LeJeune

CAPTURED by Neil Cross. Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller (January 27, 2015). ISBN: 978-1497692749. 268p.

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There is a serial killer loose in Montréal, and the mayor asks Martine LeDuc, his director of PR, to act as liaison with the police department. Four women have been killed, their bodies left posed obscenely on park benches.

When the police charge a homeless man with the murders, Martine is afraid they are grasping at straws and the real killer is still out there. Luckily, renegade police detective Julian Fletcher is assigned the case, and they both go rogue.

Martine uncovers a link between the four women; all were involved with the Duplessis orphans, a decades old scandal. Orphanages found they could get more money from the government if the orphans were mentally ill, so the children were sent to asylums where many of them received lobotomies, electroshock treatments and hallucinogens and other drugs.

The story alternates between the present day investigation and one of the orphans telling their story, which really brings the tragedy intimately to life. Why the Duplessis orphans are involved after so many years is at the crux of this complex and heartbreaking mystery.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

3/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

ASYLUM by Jeannette de Beauvoir. Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (March 10, 2015). ISBN 978-1250045393. 320p.

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It’s been a year since Franck Sharko and Lucie Hennebelle were brought together in the strange and shocking investigation of Syndrome E. And while the two were undeniably drawn to one another, fate has since torn them apart. Sharko has forgone retirement but has taken a voluntary step down in the ranks so that he can once again work the streets. Hennebelle, though, has left the police force altogether in an attempt to heal after the tragic events that led to their breakup. And yet, another odd case will force the two back together once again.

Sharko is called to the scene of a brutal attack at a primate research facility. The victim is a student who had been doing her graduate studies there. The case looks to be pretty airtight – the suspect, a chimp, is found locked in the pen alongside the girl’s body. But things aren’t quite as they seem. The chimp, trained in sign language, describes the killer to the best of her abilities and the evidence seems to indicate she’s telling the truth. And so Sharko must turn to the victim to find a motive behind her murder. At the same time, Lucie has started her own off the books investigation – one that brings her straight into Sharko’s territory and is undeniably linked to the student’s murder.

Franck Thilliez brings together science and mystery to create some of the most fascinating plots I’ve ever read. This time the two cursed detectives (‘cause Thilliez really does throw them to the wolves) uncover a link between evolution and violence that could trace all the way back to the Cro-Magnons. Their hunt for the truth takes them to some of the darkest recesses of the world and forces them both to confront the very thing that ripped them so suddenly apart.

Bred to Kill is just the second of Thilliez’s titles to be translated into English, though it does appear to be the fourth installment in the series (Syndrome E was apparently book three). There’s no word yet on future translations, but given that this has quickly become a favorite of mine I do hope we’ll see more of them here in the years to come.

2/15 Becky LeJeune

BRED TO KILL by Franck Thilliez. Viking (January 8, 2015). ISBN: 978-0670025978. 384p.

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Dr. Zoe Goldman is a resident in psychiatry at a Buffalo, New York hospital. She takes a real dislike to one of her patients, Sofia, a beautiful sociopath who murdered her mother, maimed her brother and has spent more than twenty years in one hospital or another. Zoe’s supervisor suggests that Sofia be released, which makes Zoe very uncomfortable.

Zoe is dealing with some personal issues as well. Her boyfriend recently moved away and the long distance relationship is strained. The mother who adopted her is suffering from increasing dementia, and Zoe is desperate for information about her birth mother. All she has is a name and a photograph, but doesn’t know much more.

The deeper she delves into her past the more confused she gets. She is having recurring nightmares from her childhood, when she was caught in a house fire, and her therapist reluctantly tries hypnosis with minimal results.

This is a serious look at a variety of mental illnesses, especially blocked memories, and the suspense keeps building throughout until the shocking ending. This is a riveting debut from a promising new thriller writer.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

2/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

LITTLE BLACK LIES by Sandra Block. Grand Central Publishing (February 17, 2015). ISBN 978-1455583737. 352p.

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The Agent Dallas Thrillers (Book 3)

While skydiving with an adventure group, FBI Agent Jamie Dallas overhears plans to carry out criminal acts against a politician. The bureau sends Dallas to infiltrate the activists, but to get inside the tight-knit clan, Dallas makes dangerous compromises and starts to sympathize with their cause. She ends up so deep undercover she can’t make contact with the bureau. 

Across town, a Washington DC detective investigates a death that looks like a simple “hooker homicide.” But as Detective Larson peels away the layers, she uncovers something far more sinister, something deeply connected to a high-profile judge’s death. 

Meanwhile, working against her own conscience, Agent Dallas struggles to gather evidence and push the activist group toward the major takedown the FBI has orchestrated. But inside the group’s safe house, another imposter lurks, and when the real motive surfaces, Dallas is caught in a cunning trap that will make her both a victim and a killer.

Can’t beat L. J. Sellers for twists and turns.

2/15 Jack Quick

THE TRAP by L.J. Sellers. Spellbinder Press (December 10, 2014).  ISBN: 978-0984008698. 258p.

Ian is an overweight, very unhappy little boy growing up in The Hollows, a small town in upstate New York that is as creepy as it sounds, where people know how to keep secrets. His mother has killed his baby sister during a severe bout of postpartum depression, and spends the rest of her life in an institution. He grows up bullied and prone to bouts of explosive anger, and his only solace is a young girl named Priss, who shows up in his yard one day and befriends him – and defends him.

Fast forward to Ian’s successful life as a graphic artist in New York City, where he is struggling with drugs and alcohol and a toxic relationship with Priss. Then he meets Megan, a young woman from a fine family, and they fall in love.

Ian wants to be a better person for Megan, and he decides to stop using drugs with her urging. Megan also wants to meet Priss, but Ian can’t let that happen. Priss is very jealous, and keeps moving in and out of his life, leaving all sorts of damage in her wake.

As the story weaves back and forth between his childhood and his adulthood, his relationships with Megan and with Priss, the story becomes more entangled and more riveting. Is Priss real, imaginary, or a ghost? Does Ian have anger issues, flying into rages and blacking out in the process, or is Priss doing all the damage?

This is a complex, intricate story yet the pages fly by as Ian, the most unreliable narrator since Nick Dunne in Gone Girl, leads us on a wild ride in this superb psychological thriller.  Unger is at the top of her game here.

Copyright ©2015 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

2/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

CRAZY LOVE YOU by Lisa Unger. Touchstone (February 10, 2015). ISBN 978-1451691207. 352p.

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Michael Sears worked on Wall Street for 20 years and is therefore more than qualified to bring us a novel involving white collar crime in the financial world. His main protagonist, Jason Stafford, has appeared in two previous thrillers and is presented as a person with flaws but very well equipped to work on problems associated with the complex world of high finance.

Jason served two years in prison for insider trading while working for a Wall Street firm. Now, not able to return to his trade, he is dedicating himself to helping others who find themselves involved with problems within his previous field. Stafford is a complex individual fleshed out very well by Sears. He is a single father raising an autistic son and involved with a woman he is falling in love with while attempting to rebuild a life changed radically by prison time.

Philip Haley, an engineer whose company is close to developing a biofuel breakthrough, has been indicted for insider trading based on the projected increased value to be derived by the development. He asks Jason to help him prove his innocence and convinces him that the accusation is false. Stafford does take the case and finds himself involved not only with a white collar criminal accusation, but with murder and hit men attempting to do so.

Sears is extremely good at fleshing out his characters and allowing the reader to see them as human beings that are real and react to situations as most normal people would. He holds the reader’s attention by building towards a logical climax. The one flaw that I noticed is the use of overlong descriptions of various details which are extraneous to the plot and not essential in moving the action forward. While the novel has an overage of these details they should not cause the reader to lose interest in the action. An interesting and basically well written book, excellent characterizations, and one that delves into a world that most of us know little about but with descriptions that do allow the reader to understand what is involved.

2/15 Paul Lane

LONG WAY DOWN by Michael Sears. Putnam Adult (February 5, 2015). ISBN: 978-0399166716. 352p.