The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day

 Liss Kehoe’s life changed the day her husband’s lover, Ashley Hay, dropped off their baby Callan and never returned in the page-turner mystery The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day coming out October 3. Never mind that Callan is a “love child”—Liss loved him unconditionally and raised him into the teenager he has become in a twisted tale of love, betrayal, and family secrets.

 

The plot starts 15 years later when a car is spotted in a quarry on the Kehoe family property consisting of the original home in which Liss, Link, and Callan lived until she kicked out Link  as well as the newer home where Link’s parents Patty and Rockwell live. Callan and his friends almost wind up in the quarry themselves when their driver loses control in the same area. Law enforcement arrives and begins a recovery of the submerged car, which appears to be Ashley’s vehicle.

 

Liss had always feared that Ashley would show up one day wanting to reclaim Callan, but Liss could never have guessed that Ashley might have run off the road the night she gave Callan to Liss. Will there be a body when the car is pulled out? If it turns out to be Ashley’s remains in the car, what caused her to drive into the quarry? Was she suicidal or was there something more evil going on?

After the quarry discovery and identification is complete, Liss starts receiving hangups at all times in the night and early morning. Someone paints “KILLER” in red on her white barn. Apparently, her mailbox has suffered an “accident.” She comes home one night to see a light moving around in her house so she flees and calls the police. She and Callan need not only protection but also answers that will put this seeming scandal and possible murder to rest.

 

Lori Rader-Day is also the author of Death at Greenway, a work of historical fiction about a mystery at the home of Agatha Christie where children were evacuated during World War II. Born in Indiana, she lives in Chicago, where she teaches creative writing for Northwestern University.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 23, 2023.

I would like to thank William Morrow and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

The Exchange: After the Firm by John Grisham

 Apparently, Mitch McDeere, the protagonist of The Firm (1991), was not finished with author John Grisham as The Exchange: After the Firm is Grisham’s latest legal thriller coming out October 17. This novel answers the question about what became of Mitch and his wife Abby after they revealed that Mitch’s law firm, Bendini, Lambert & Locke, in Memphis was corrupt.

 

The story picks up 15 years later with Mitch and his family – now including twin boys: Clark and Carter – living in Manhattan where Mitch has become a partner in the world’s largest law firm, Scully & Pershing, and Abby is a cookbook editor.

An Italian colleague in Rome, Luca Sandroni, has requested Mitch’s assistance in  dealing with a situation in Libya involving Lannak, a Turkish construction company that has not received full payment for a bridge it constructed for none other than Colonel Gaddafi. Sandroni’s health is failing, and he would like Mitch to partner with his lawyer daughter Giovanna in the London office in hopes this experience would help boost her career.

When Mitch and Giovanna go to Libya to see the bridge to determine for themselves the situation at hand, things go terribly wrong, putting Mitch right back into a situation that endangers not only himself but his family, friends, and colleagues. A kidnapping occurs requiring a hefty exchange of money  that no single entity could cover. The enemy proves to be ruthless killers with a penchant for WARNING: violence and gore.

The end of the tale leaves one to wonder, will there be a Firm volume 3?

 John Grisham made a name for himself with his very first  novel, A Time to Kill (1989), followed by other court procedural novels that made him king of the modern legal thriller. Having worked 60+ hour weeks in a Mississippi law practice, Grisham knows what he’s talking about.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews

The Tollivers have a Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina in the holiday novella Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews due out September 26. Usually, Murphy and his father Jock haul the trees to New York City to sell starting a month before Christmas, but this year, Jock’s health is interfering with their usual plans so Murphy tells his sister Kerry that she has to step up.

 

Kerry moved back home to NC recently after being termed “redundant” in her art agency job. She is reluctant to haul the Tolliver’s small, dilapidated camper to New York to provide a place for her and Murphy to live while selling the trees. But when push comes to shove, Kerry musters up the energy to hall “Spammy” to New York with her father’s truck.

 

The Tolliver family has developed great relationships over the years with the business owners and residents in Greenwich Village where they set up a lot to sell their trees. When another tree company tries to undersell the Tollivers, arranging their business just across the street, Kerry ups their game using her artistic abilities. The competitors challenge back with theft and vandalism until Murphy stands up to them.

 

Embraced by their temporary neighbors, Kerry becomes close with Patrick and his son Austin along with an aging gentleman known as Heinz as well as the retail shop owners. Restaurant owner Claudia feeds the Tollivers and provides restroom facilities while the bakery next door to her provides plenty of coffee and pastries.

 

When Heinz goes missing, Kerry and Murphy make a wide search of the area looking for him. Turns out, there is much that the Tollivers and the residents in Greenwich Village do not know about the elderly man who they think may be homeless.

When Patrick wants to dial up the friendship to romance, Kerry is reluctant, although she isn’t immune to his charms nor those of his sweet son Austin. She and Murphy are supposed to be heading back to North Carolina to spend Christmas with their mother and father; however, a snowstorm along with icy roads threatens to delay their plans to return home for Christmas.

 

Mary Kay Andrews, the Queen of Summer Reads, has provided readers with another holiday novella following her last one, The Santa Suit. Andrews, a pseudonym for Kathy Hogan Trocheck, splits her time between Atlanta and a second home on Tybee Island.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 13, 2023.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger

 The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger is a powerful novel due out September 5 about a small town in Minnesota on Decoration Day in 1958 when a wealthy and cruel man is found dead along the Alabaster River. Lots of grievances toward Jimmy Quinn over the years makes any number of people a suspect,

While the folks of Jewel have turned out for a parade honoring the sacrifices of those residents who fought in various wars of the past, one as far back as Wounded Knee in 1890, one citizen hightails it to town to report to the sheriff Brody Dern that he found Quinn’s deteriorating body.

Questions start emerging: why was he in the river in only his underwear? Did he drown while trying to swim? Why did he have a gun at his campsite where he told his family he would be fishing? War-scarred Sheriff Dern and his deputies weigh in on different leads as the investigation gains traction when the coroner surprises them with the actual cause of death.

Before the investigation gets very far, the townspeople start circulating rumors zeroing in on Noah Bluestone as Quinn just fired the Dakota from working on Quinn’s farm. Old resentments are stirred about Native Americans and land ownership in Black Earth County. Worse, Bluestone, a World War II veteran, brought home a Japanese wife, Kyoko.

As the mystery of Quinn’s death sparks anger, even though so many hated the man, various other townsfolk become involved in the story. Angie Madison, a widow, needs help finding her teenage son when he takes off with his best friend Del, a teen being abused by his mother’s lover, Tyler Creasy. Del is armed and plans to kill Creasy who had just beat Del and his mother to a pulp. Creasy  could also be  another suspect in Quinn’s death as the two did not get along.

A former sheriff and part-time deputy, Conrad Graff sees the need to protect Kyoko when her husband is arrested, partly to guard Noah, what with all the allegations flying. Both Bluestones are supported by the local newspaper editor, Sam Wicklow, and a retired female lawyer, Charlie Bauer. As the investigation develops, one of these characters learns that Jimmy Quinn was a monster while discovering who actually killed him.

William Kent Krueger, raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, makes a living as a full-time author. He writes the popular Cork O’Connor series about a sheriff in the north woods of Minnesota who is part Irish and part Ojibwe.  In addition, his stand-alone novel, Ordinary Grace, received an Edgar Award as best mystery of 2012. Krueger lives in St. Paul with his wife of 40-plus years.

 

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 12, 2023.

I would like to thank Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.