The Kennedy Girl by Julia Bryan Thomas

 Mia Walker, dubbed The Kennedy Girl in the historical fiction novel by Julia Bryan Thomas due out January 14, admires the style of Jackie Kennedy, the wife of the United States president. While Mia would love to fill her closet with the fashions of the 1960s, her bakery job does not support that dream.

When a stranger offers Mia a modeling job in Paris, she ponders the proposal before flying to Paris and becoming an employee at the House of Rousseau, where she learns about the world of fashion from the ground up.

As she adjusts to life in Paris where she does photoshoots and runway walks, she finds it odd but does not question it when her employer gives her cryptic messages to deliver to various people at special events. When she meets a man who is an agent for the United States government, she learns she has unknowingly become part of an espionage ring, which is breaking the law.

What can Mia do to clear her name? How will she be able to refuse when she is given the next bit of information to pass long and still keep her modeling gig? How much danger is Mia in?

Born and raised in Tulsa, Julia Bryan Thomas  grew up studying literature. A graduate of Northeastern State University and the Yale Writers’ Workshop, she is married to mystery novelist Will Thomas.

 

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry

 Inspired by the story of a real writer who wrote her first book at age 12 and created words of her own like British authors Roald Dahl invented Gobblefunk and J.R.R. Tolkien developed Elvish, Patti Callahan Henry’s latest book is The Story She Left Behind coming out March 18.

Bronwyn Newcastle Fordham created a dictionary of her invented words and took it with her when she abandoned her family--never to be heard from again--after a fire in their home injured her daughter Clara in 1927 in Bluffton, South Carolina. Shattered by the loss of her mother, Clara has become an illustrator of children’s books as she raises her own daughter, 8-year-old Wynnie, in Clara’s childhood home where her father still lives.

Bronwyn left behind a sequel to her work but without the dictionary of created words, little hope remained for ever translating it. In 1952, Clara is contacted by a stranger in London who claims to having found her mother’s handwritten dictionary in his late father’s home. Charlie Jameson says there are instructions that Clara must pick up an envelope addressed to her in person, prompting a getaway to London for Clara and Wynnie.

Unfortunately, London is experiencing the Great Smog, attacking Wynnie’s asthmatic lungs. Charlie whisks them away to his family home in the Lake District of England, right down the road from Beatrix Potter’s home. Clara gets more than the envelope and the dictionary: a chance to discover what happened to her mother and the story she left behind.

Patti Callahan Henry, a former pediatric nurse, is a co-creator and co-host of the weekly Facebook podcast Friends and Fiction. She won the 2019 Christy Award for Christian Fiction for her book Becoming Mrs. Lewis, a historical fiction novel. A full-time author, wife, and mother of three, she has homes in both Alabama and South Carolina.

The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel, The Jackal's Mistress, has its roots in the Civil War when a Vermont Lieutenant left to die in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley was nursed back to health by a Confederate soldier’s wife. This March 11 offering has taken the seed of that fact, budding into a tense historical fiction novel.

Libby Steadman has been keeping the home fires burning after her husband Peter left to serve the Confederate cause, even though he had freed his own slaves after taking over the farm from his father. While Libby clings to the hope that Peter will return, she knows that he was captured by the Union Army at Gettysburg, his future in limbo.

When her servant Sally, a freed slave, discovers Captain Jonathan Weybridge, left for dead in a neighbor’s vacant house, Libby and her servant Joseph manage to get him to Libby’s house where she nurses his amputated leg and his missing fingers. Of course, this is treason, and if the Confederate Army learns she abetted an enemy, she could be put to death along with her servants. Her goal is to restore his health in order that she may return him to the Union in exchange for her husband.

Libby and Joseph keep the gristmill going, providing food requisitioned by the Confederate Army, visited from time to time by soldiers looking for Billy Yanks. So far, they have been able to hide Weybridge, nicknamed The Jackal by her niece Jubilee who lives with Libby since her mother is dead and her father is off fighting for the South. But what might happen if--worse, when--the Rebels catch Libby off guard, finding the rumored Union captain? Already the farm has been visited numerous times, soldiers taking food and livestock, leaving Libby with little to feed herself, her niece, and her servants.

Chris Bohjalian always spins a remarkable story, and The Jackal’s Mistress does not disappoint. The author has already seen four of his books turned into movies, and he writes plays as well as novels. He enjoyed success with his book The Flight Attendant that became a series for HBO. Bohjalian lives in Vermont with his wife, photographer Victoria Blewer.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting November 4, 2024.

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

 

Blood Moon by Sandra Brown

 When Beth Collins, a senior producer in New York on a true crime show, has a theory about the murder of a teenager that occurred more than three years ago in Auclair, Louisiana, during a blood moon, Detective John Bowie shrugs off her idea in Blood Moon by Sandra Brown coming out March 4. Most important, if Beth is right, the two must work together to prevent another young woman from disappearing during the next blood moon…in four days.

Bowie is still smarting over the investigation of Crissy Mellin’s disappearance that was derailed by his corrupt boss, who is being interviewed for Beth’s show, “Crisis Point”. Bowie has been commanded to keep to himself his criticisms about how poorly the investigation was handled. The more Bowie follows Beth’s lead about the timing of blue moons and murders, the more determined he is to go rogue and partner with three other police agencies who have had murders during a blue moon.

The cop and the producer race to pool the clues they have gathered to find the murderer before he acts again. At the same time, they are on the run from the dirty cops who want to silence the pair before they spoil everything for Bowie’s nemesis.

Publishing since 1981, Sandra Brown has written more than 70 novels. She is primarily a writer of romantic suspense with detailed sex scenes, with Blood Moon no exception.  Brown has also written historical fiction about the Great Depression, titled Rainwater.  Four of this native Texan’s books have been adapted to film.

 

Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

 Two bodies still unidentified seven years after the crime, their hostage taker still in the wind: thus begins Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister due out February 25. Camilla Deschamps has become a single mother of a 9-month-old child with her husband Luke, likely now a murderer and nowhere to be found.

After seven years and no word from Luke—is he dead or alive?—Camilla seeks to have him declared dead so that she and little Polly can leave their house and start life anew in a different place. She has gone back to using her maiden name in her job as a literary agent. Yet, she has not forgotten the love she shared with Luke, keeping his cell phone in service so she can call and hear his voice.

One day she gets a cryptic message with coordinates and a time that take her to a street in Central London. However, the police, who have been monitoring Cam’s life all this time, have intercepted and altered the message, making her an hour late to the street, while a detective has already been there, evidently scaring away whoever sent the text to Cam.

Cam’s sister Libby has been pushing Cam to move on so she is dating a colleague from work but is he who he says he is? Who is the dark figure caught by her motion detector in the back yard? What is the possibility that it was Luke who sent the coordinates, and he is alive? Why can’t Cam give up on Luke since it seems he became a criminal?

British-born Gillian McAllister has had her seven novels translated into 40 languages with several optioned for television and film. She is also the creator and co-host of the popular Honest Authors podcast. She lives in Birmingham, England.

What the Nanny Saw by Kaira Rouda

 In the latest psychological thriller by Kaira Rouda, What the Nanny Saw, an unreliable narrator in the form of a nanny stretches the series that started with Best Day Ever with the narcissistic character Paul Strom. Strom’s role in this book is more behind-the-scenes than as a player, and instead, the soon-to-be ex-wife Cecilia Strom  takes center stage in this novel coming out November 13.

Cecilia has rebuilt her life after removing Paul from it but she is a new mother who is still recovering from spinal injuries she suffered before the pregnancy. She was building a new life with a new man but he takes a long time-out once baby Peyton has made her debut. Cecilia is exhausted because the baby’s father Evan not only doesn’t lift a hand, but he has also moved on with another lover. It’s out with Evan and in with the nanny Lizzie so that Cecilia can get her life back and enjoy her baby.

All of this plays out with Paul in jail but he’s still communicating, unwelcomely, with Cecilia, letting her know he is not interested in divorce but he looks forward to when he is out of jail and can spend their money together. Dealing with exhaustion, Cecilia must battle the enemy she knows as well as the enemy she does not yet know.

Cecilia’s attorney vetted the newcomer to the household but not all is as it seems. Cecilia becomes suspicious of the nanny, and she takes it upon herself to investigate Lizzie’s room where she discovers enough to realize Lizzie is not the God-send she thought she was. When little Peyton disappears from her crib, Cecelia is beside herself as the story plays out.

A master of the psychological thriller, Kaira Rouda is a writer of suspense novels that explore “beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives.”  She lives in Southern California with her family and is always at work on her next novel.

My review will be posted on GoodReads starting October 23, 2024.

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

 

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks

When a rare albino deer has been spotted in the Uwharrie National Forest in Southwest North Carolina, an elderly man becomes obsessed with protecting the animal, putting himself in peril in Nicholas Sparks’ latest, Counting Miracles, coming out September 24. Jasper has been on his own for years, living in a cabin that borders the forest. A patient of Dr. Kaitlyn Cooper’s, he is also teaching her son how to carve.

Kaitlyn’s daughter is beside herself after a confrontation with an unwanted admirer in the parking lot of a restaurant, which distracts her as she backs out of her parking space only to crash into Tanner Hughes’ brand new reproduction 1968 Shelby GT. This leads to Tanner meeting Kaitlyn as she assures him that her insurance company will take care of his car.

Tanner is in Asheboro tracking down a possible clue to his biological father, putting off his next career move in Cameroon. However, he is immediately drawn to divorcee Kaitlyn, who offers to drive him to his hotel since his car is out of commission.

While Jasper, Kaitlyn, and Tanner seem to be on separate trajectories, they will all come together as Sparks crafts a story about love, loss, and hope, as only he can do. Nicholas Sparks, one of the world’s most beloved romance-drama writers, started his career with The Notebook in 1996, and many of his novels have been made into movies. Once again he has set his latest book in North Carolina where he lives.

 

 

 

The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict

Inspired by a true story in detective novelist Dorothy Sayers’ life, Marie Benedict has written The Queens of Crime coming out February 11. In the spring of 1927, Sayers accompanied her journalist husband Mac Fleming to France to report a story about an English nurse who went on a day trip to Boulogne in October 1926, never to be seen again.

With this fact nugget, Benedict has created a story in which Sayers not only goes to France with her husband to learn more about the missing nurse case, but she also bonds with four other British crime writers to see if they can solve the crime and elevate their status with their male counterparts. These writers-turned-sleuths included Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy, the Queens of Crime along with Sayers.

May Daniels and fellow nurse Celia McCarthy were to return to England on a 5:30 p.m. ferry. While May went to the cloakroom to tidy up, Celia waited and waited for May to return but May had disappeared, never to be seen again until her body was found in a bush in a park in Boulogne months later. The Queens quickly identified the first part of the disappearance as a locked room mystery, and from there, Sayers found a way to duplicate May’s disappearance in plain sight.

Other parts of the puzzle included determining why the ground underneath the body was soaked in blood when the cause of death was determined to be strangulation and/or a drug overdose. More sleuthing by the Queens turned up a locker key and a letter penned by May. Working together, they may just solve the entire case, but getting the police to take their investigation seriously presented another problem.

Things turn ugly for Sayers when she is physically attacked by an assailant. After recovering from that, she receives a threat to expose a secret that she has concealed for years if she does not drop the search for May’s killer. Sayers and the Queens must work fast to confront suspects in May’s killing while keeping the writer’s private life just that: private.

Marie Benedict  has made her writing career by sharing the hidden stories about strong women in history including Mitza Maric the physicist wife of  Albert Einstein, mystery writer Agatha Christie, movie star Hedy Lamarr, and Clementine Hozier, the wife of Winston Churchill. Benedict lives with her family in Pittsburgh.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

 Gail Baines is negotiating the Three Days in June that involve her daughter Debbie’s wedding in Anne Tyler’s short novel coming out February 11. Who should show up on Gail’s doorstep—with a cat no less—on the day before the nuptials but her ex-husband Max who needs a place to stay.

What an already unsettling Friday this has been for Gail:  at school the retiring headmistress tells Gail that she does not have the people skills to succeed her. Gail responds by walking out of the school, heading home. For Debbie, it was a Day of Beauty provided by her soon to be mother-in-law, an event from which Gail was excluded.

A crisis is afoot as Debbie is rattled by something she learned at the spa about her husband-to-be. She shares this with her parents, leaving them just as anxious as Debbie. The situation throws Gail into a backspin as she recalls the events leading up to the deterioration of her own marriage.

Tyler perfectly captures the tension of the parents and the bride-to-be as they face a rehearsal dinner and a wedding that may or may not come off. On top of everything else, come Monday Gail must figure out how she moves forward in the workforce as she is not ready to retire yet.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anne Tyler writes books that are witty and engaging. Born in Minneapolis, she grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, graduating from Duke University. She lives in Baltimore, the setting of Three Days in June.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting September 9, 2024.

I would like to thank Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

 

The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eske

 Hana Babic is The Quiet Librarian in this historical fiction offering from Allen Eskens hitting shelves on February 18, 2025. Being a librarian in Farmington, Minnesota is a refuge for Hana who was born Nura Divjak and became a teenager in the mountains of Bosnia during war there in the 1990s.

Hana does her best to bury the memories of what happened to her family during the war and other atrocities but the recent murder of her best friend Amina Junuzovic has flooded her with feelings and memories she has tried so hard to push away. She suspects the killing of her friend is tied to Nura’s actions as the deadly Night Mora, a fierce warrior. Nura is still “wanted” in Bosnia.

From there the story takes place on two timelines that are interwoven until they lead the reader back to the present. David Claypool, the detective with the St. Paul Police, has brought the news to Hana about Amina’s murder and her request that in the event something happened to her that Hana raise her grandson, Dylan. This announcement sends Hana back to Bosnia in her mind where she recalls her life as a teenager who survived the Bosnian War, first a victim of it and then a soldier fighting in it.

Claypool’s news and the facts she wheedles out of him lead her to the conclusion that Amina was only a stepping-stone to the hunt for Nura, the Night Mora. Hana becomes a soldier once again as she plots to  protect Dylan and find Amina’s killer before he comes for them.

Allen Eskens developed this novel about Hana/Nura, Amina, and the Bosnian War after listening to Bosnian refugees in his community who told their stories of survival during the war and of making their homes in Minnesota. Eskens, an award-winning author, first found success with his best-selling novel The Life We Bury (2014), a book club and reader favorite. He and his wife live in greater Minnesota.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 27, 2024.

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

 

 

 

 

To Die For by David Baldacci

 
To Die For is the third David Baldacci novel featuring Travis Devine, “the 6:20 Man,” set to hit the shelves on November 12. A former Army Ranger, Devine is currently dodging an enemy known to him as Girl on the Train who has been after him ever since he escaped her knife on a train in Switzerland.

 
He will stay off the GOTT’s radar as he is being sent to the Pacific Northwest to assist the FBI’s Special Agent Ellen Saxby with a12-year-old girl being held in protective custody by the government. He suspects he was chosen for this job because the girl’s uncle, who is under investigation for racketeering, was known to him from their military time in Iraq.
 
Devine’s first task is to escort orphaned Betsy Odom to a meeting with the uncle she has never met, Danny Glass. At the same time, Devine is investigating the apparent drug deaths of Betsy’s parents—people who Betsy has never known to go near drugs. When Devine interviews the coroner, he finds the doctor’s report has been altered by the police. 
 
As Devine digs in, he learns that what he is up against is a conspiracy that could threaten the whole country. How an orphaned girl and an uncle she has never met figure into this means Devine is going to have to enlarge his team, with two unusual allies as well as his handler in Homeland Security.
 
David Baldacci has published nearly 50 novels for grownups since his first book Absolute Power in 1996. A Virginia native, Baldacci and his wife Michelle co-founded the Wish You Well Foundation that works to increase literacy in the United States.
 
My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 15, 2024.
 
I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hatchette Book Group, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

 

The Note by Alafair Burke

 May Hanover, a former district attorney turned law professor, takes a vacation in the Hamptons with two long-time friends Lauren and Kelsey in The Note by Alafair Burke coming out January 14, 2025. A prank by Kelsey involving a note put on the car of the couple who rudely stole the parking place in Sag Harbor that the women were waiting for turns into a police investigation.

Each woman has a complicated past. May recently had an episode of extreme anxiety that a stranger caught on video causing her great embarrassment and a threat to derail her career. Lauren, involved in an lengthy and on-going affair with a wealthy married man who happened to be her boss, finds her job at risk when the wife reveals the affair to Lauren’s current employer.  Kelsey, a suspect in her husband’s murder five years ago, still lives under the shadow of doubt.

When the driver of the pranked car goes missing, the trail eventually leads back to the three friends.  Now they scramble to try to figure out what went so terribly wrong that the police were at their ocean-side rental. Do they confess that Kelsey put the note on the car? She really does not need to be on the wrong side of the law again.

Alafair Burke’s use of unreliable narrators and twisty plots keeps the reader engaged to the very end, with a surprising conclusion. Burke, a Stanford Law School grad and a former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, is a law professor at Hofstra Law School where she teaches criminal law and procedure.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

 Charlotte Cross worked as the associate curator at the Metropolitan  Museum of Art in New York City for 40+ years  after having spent a brief time in Egypt when she was first starting out in The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis coming out January 7, 2025. Her career at the Met had stalled since she was an Egyptologist who had not returned to Egypt since a tragedy had occurred when she was there in 1937.

Still, Charlotte was fascinated with Hathorkare, a fictitious pharaoh, inspired by the real ruler Hatshepsut, an Egyptian queen of the 18^th dynasty. She had been developing a theory about Hathorkare for the last three years regarding the destruction of the pharaoh’s likenesses by her fictional successor Saukemet II, inspired by the true successor of Hatshepsut named Thutmose II.

When Charlotte sees a broad collar, a type of necklace worn by the royal women of Egypt, being put on display, she immediately questions her boss Frederick about it as she herself found it enclosed in the wall of the tomb of Hathorkare during her time in Egypt in the 1930s. The broad collar’s last whereabouts was likely at the bottom of the Nile River since Egyptian artifacts and passengers were lost in a shipwreck in 1937. Her attempts to learn the owner of the loaned piece are thwarted by the Met’s director.

As Charlotte’s story unfolds, it is interspersed with a narrative about Annie Jenkins, 18, who in 1978 landed a job with former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who was responsible for organizing New York’s most famous party, the Met Gala. Vreeland, a demanding boss, charged Annie with nearly impossible tasks such as gathering butterflies to be released at the Gala.

Charlotte and Annie join forces at the Gala when Charlotte notices the fragment of a statue known as the Cerulean Queen is missing from its gallery. She and Annie chase a man in a dark suit carrying a bowling bag through the crowd at the Gala. While the thief gets away, Charlotte decides to chase the stolen piece to Egypt where she suspects it will be shipped by a group that has been stealing artifacts to return them to Egypt.

After being fired by Vreeland when moths were released at the Gala instead of butterflies—later discovered to be a diversion allowing the thief to steal the Queen--Annie decides to join Charlotte in Egypt. Together they attempt to solve more than one mystery, and Charlotte may be able to validate her theory regarding Hathorkare.

Packed with lots of information about the Met, archeology, art smuggling, and mummification, this is a book for those who love all things Egyptian. As always, author Fiona Davis has done her homework when it comes to the buildings that make up the Met with a special focus on the 1978 Metropolitan Gala directed by Vreeland.

Davis is a Canadian-born author who has made a career out of combining intriguing historical fiction plots with the stories of various New York buildings including the Barbizon Hotel, The Dakota, Grand Central Terminal, the Chelsea Hotel, the New York Public Library, and the Frick Museum. She lives in New York City.

Catch You Later by Jessica Strawser

Catch You Later said Mikki Jensen to Lark Nichols as she impulsively joined a stranger in a BMW heading to a wedding in Florida in the latest novel from Jessica Strawser coming out October 22. Mikki had just made the man her fabulous iced coffee recipe when he extended his invitation. Open to a trip anywhere out of fictitious Becksville, Ohio, where she and Lark were still stuck working at a truck stop in their thirties, Mikki jumped at this opportunity to see the ocean.

The trouble is Mikki went to the wedding in 2016 yet never returned, never made contact again with her long-time best friend forever, leaving Lark with the responsibility of Mikki’s grandmother as well as her own child Dove. Lark created a campaign to find Mikki, even hiring a private investigator, who returned no results in the eight years since Mikki vanished without a trace.

Still working at the truck stop, Lark is startled when the BMW driver turns up again in 2024 asking for Lark and wondering where he might find Mikki. Lark calls the police who take in Chris Redmond for questioning about Mikki’s disappearance, and the search for Mikki gains new tread.

With Redmond showing up in Becksville again, Lark finds herself questioning if Mikki is actually missing or is it she just does not want to return to her life stuck in Nowhereville Ohio. Law enforcement briefly resurrect the case of a missing person only to drop it as soon as Redmond’s story about Mikki checks out. Lark persists even as she is warned off the case by police.

Where is Mikki? Why does Redmond say that Mikki came into some money? Why does he insist Mikki was on her way back to Lark after the wedding? What has happened to Mikki? The shocking conclusion holds answers to these questions.

Jessica Strawser, with seven  novels under her belt, is a full-time writer and a popular speaker at writing conferences, book clubs, and book festivals. The Next Thing You Know was a People magazine pick for 2023. She lives with her family in Ohio.

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

 The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave coming out September 17 refers to Liam Noone who either fell, jumped, or was pushed off the side of a cliff at his most beloved cottage on the California coast. When two of his three children by different marriages, Nora and Sam, decide to do their own investigation after determining the police review lacking, they will finally discover their father’s secret he had kept hidden for 50 years.

Noone, a self-made boutique hotel entrepreneur, includes both his sons, Sam and Tommy, in his real estate business, with Nora wanting no part of it or anything else from her father who cheated on her mother with the sons’ mother. They are not quite estranged, but Nora has drawn specific boundaries in the father-daughter relationship.

While Noone kept his families strictly apart, Nora and Sam forge an alliance to uncover what truly happened to their father that day on the cliffside. With little cooperation from Noone’s best friend Joe, Joe’s girlfriend, and the company’s legal ace Jonathon, the two revisit the site of their father’s death, beginning a journey that will lead them to astonishing answers about the father they thought they knew.

Laura Dave is known for her family dramas. She recently collaborated with her husband Josh Singer to write the screen play for her thriller The Last Thing He Told Me, which is now a limited series on Apple TV+ starring Jennifer Garner. Her other books include Eight Hundred Grapes and The First Husband. Dave lives in Santa Monica, California.

A Season of Perfect Happiness by Maribeth Fischer

 A Season of Perfect Happiness by Maribeth Fischer coming out August 20 will gut its readers as it tells the story of Claire who left her home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, 10 years after an illness and an accident for which she punishes herself. She starts over in Wisconsin, where she has lived a quiet life all to herself until she met Erik, a project manager at Ten Chimneys, the once summer retreat for theatre actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Even from Erik, Claire keeps her past a secret, until she realizes that to move forward with this new relationship, she must risk revealing what happened to her back in Delaware. After telling Erik her secrets, her truth is more than he can handle at first, but given some time, Erik realizes the truth of what her doctor told her: “…what you did is not who you are.”

Soon Claire is swept up in Erik’s life where he has three children, an ex-wife, and a set of longtime pals. Recognizing that her life can once again be joyful, she chances becoming a wife, a step-mother, and a friend.

Claire’s former life catches up with her when her once-best friend undertakes an opportunity to be a director of a play at Ten Chimneys. Not realizing that people in Claire’s circle of friends are unaware of what happened in Delaware, the former friend reveals part of the story, the details of which get back to Erik’s ex-wife, who blows up Claire’s new life.

Maribeth Fischer skillfully keeps the tension on as she puts off revealing what actually happened in Claire’s past until one-quarter of the way into the story. She keeps readers invested in the story to the very end.

This is Fischer’s third novel after The Language of Goodbye and The Life You Longed For. In addition, Fischer is an essay writer having received two Pushcart Prizes for “Stillborn” in The Iowa Review  and “The Fiction Writer” in The Yale Review. She lives in Lewes, Delaware

 

The Waiting by Michael Connelly

 The Waiting, the title of the latest from author Michael Connelly, is an allusion to the Tom Petty song by the same name, referring to all the waiting law enforcement officers have to do from the time of taking evidence to the processing of same being “the hardest part.” Renée Ballard is featured in this offering coming out October 15, but Harry Bosch and Maddie Bosch are also characters in this novel.

Ballard, the leader of the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit, works with a team of volunteers to get these incidents solved, reaching back in the cold cases to as far as 1975, reasoning that anything older than that is not likely to turn up a living suspect.

Using modern techniques like DNA matches allow the team to tie a recently arrested man to a serial rapist and murderer who dropped off the radar 20 years ago. Evidence shows that the Pillowcase Rapist is clearly the young man’s father but the pursuit of the father is complicated by a series of secrets and legal snags.

Complicating life for Ballard occurs when she is out surfing before work, and her badge, gun, and ID are stolen from her vehicle. She is not in a position to report the theft fearing it could end her career thanks to the enemies she has made over the years in the department. Instead, she decides to investigate the theft herself, turning to Harry, who is now retired and undergoing cancer treatments, to help her recover these items after discovering  possible evidence on the beach. Together they uncover a far greater danger than just some stolen goods, referring the situation to the FBI.

Maddie approaches Ballard about becoming a volunteer on the cold case unit, saying she wants to use the experience to help her become a detective rather than continue as a uniformed officer on street patrol. What Maddie does not tell Ballard is that she has a strong lead on a famous unsolved Los Angeles murder, and having access to the library of cold cases could further her personal investigation.

Michael Connelly does not disappoint with this unputdownable crime thriller. Clearly his experience in crime reporting in Los Angeles years ago has given him an inside track to policing and lawbreaking. His most recent fictional creation is Renée Ballard, and he is developing a TV series for her as he has done with both Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 11, 2024.

I would like to thank Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review. 

 

The Second Mrs. Strom by Kaira Rouda

Author Kaira Rouda was not finished with her narcissistic character Paul Strom from Best Day Ever (2017) as she continues his story in The Second Mrs. Strom in this twisty psychological thriller coming out August 16.

Paul has been the playboy since his first marriage blew up five years ago, finding favor with the rich, twice-married, twice-divorced Esther Wilmot in Palm Beach. Esther has been showering her lover and companion Paul with gifts including a Bentley, and in death, she has rewarded him with her entire estate.

At Esther’s funeral, Paul, ever on the make, flirted with the lovely Cecelia Babcock who had designed the funeral program, asking her to marry him after a short courtship. They live in a mansion in Malibu as Paul is breaking into the whole Hollywood producer scene. Now they are in Paris celebrating their first anniversary, though both have a hidden agenda.

Cecelia feigns love with Paul to carry out a master plan that has been in place long before she met him at the funeral, not the coincidence he thought. Paul, while seemingly doting on Cecelia, has already had an affair, securing his mistress in her own bungalow in Brentwood.

How far will each spouse go to secure a future that each believes is entitled to them?

Kaira Rouda is a writer of suspense novels that explore “beneath the surface of seemingly perfect lives.” The Second Mrs. Strom is a standalone book but pairing it with the Best Day Ever makes for a double-dip read. A master of the psychological thriller, Rouda lives in Southern California with her family and is always at work on her next novel.

My review will be posted on GoodReads starting July 10, 2024.

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

 

A Great Marriage by Frances Mayes

 

Dara Wilcox, engaged to be married to Austin Clarke, is a bride on the run in A Great Marriage by Frances Mayes out on August 13. When the two met at an art gallery during Dara’s weekend in New York in 1995, it was love at first sight, but now Austin’s devastating news from a friend in England has detoured them both.

Dara Wilcox, engaged to be married to Austin Clarke, is a bride on the run in A Great Marriage by Frances Mayes out on August 13. When the two met at an art gallery during Dara’s weekend in New York in 1995, it was love at first sight, but now Austin’s devastating news from a friend in England has detoured them both.

Her parents are supportive even when she does not give them the specifics for calling off the wedding. She is in shock and in full-on flee mode to visit her grandmother Charlotte in South Carolina and then on to college friends in San Francisco while Austin is headed back home to London to deal with a situation that is going to change the course of his life forever.

Dara contemplates attending law school in California since she is now questioning returning to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown Law School. She finds the beauty of driving the coastal highway in California to be a balm for her troubles. Meanwhile, Austin has his hands full dealing with life and death matters in London, finding support from his father and sister.

With enough time, what is the way forward for the couple? When the dust settles, how will their situations shake out? Could they have what it takes to make a great marriage? Or maybe a great marriage with someone else?

Frances Mayes is an author who splits her time between her homes in Cortina, Italy, and Durham, North Carolina. Her 1996 memoir Under the Tuscan Sun was on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than two years and was the basis for the 2003 romantic comedy of the same title starring Diane Lane. Mayes is also the author of Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir. She writes fiction and poetry as well.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting July 5, 2024.

I would like to thank Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review. 

 

Her parents are supportive even when she does not give them the specifics for calling off the wedding. She is in shock and in full-on flee mode to visit her grandmother Charlotte in South Carolina and then on to college friends in San Francisco while Austin is headed back home to London to deal with a situation that is going to change the course of his life forever.

Dara contemplates attending law school in California since she is now questioning returning to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown Law School. She finds the beauty of driving the coastal highway in California to be a balm for her troubles. Meanwhile, Austin has his hands full dealing with life and death matters in London, finding support from his father and sister.

With enough time, what is the way forward for the couple? When the dust settles, how will their situations shake out? Could they have what it takes to make a great marriage? Or maybe a great marriage with someone else?

Frances Mayes is an author who splits her time between her homes in Cortina, Italy, and Durham, North Carolina. Her 1996 memoir Under the Tuscan Sun was on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than two years and was the basis for the 2003 romantic comedy of the same title starring Diane Lane. Mayes is also the author of Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir. She writes fiction and poetry as well.

 

The Unwedding by Ally Condie

Young adult and middle grade fiction author Ally Condie has turned the pain of an unwanted divorce into her first venture into writing for adults in the novel The Unwedding that was released June 4.

Ellery Wainwright decides to take her now defunct second honeymoon celebrating 20 years of marriage even though her husband is off with another woman after seeking a divorce from Ellery. Her friend Abby has suggested Ellery take the trip to a luxurious resort in Big Sur, California, since the reservation is not refundable.

Unfortunately for Ellery, the resort is the destination of a high-profile wedding on the same weekend as her visit. Worse, she discovers a body floating in the pool when she goes out for an early morning swim. Even worse, everyone is trapped at the resort and the police cannot reach them thanks to a mudslide that takes out the road to the resort.

While neither guests nor staff are pleased to be stranded, they are not terribly alarmed about their safety until a second body is discovered. Suddenly, everyone becomes a suspect, workers and visitors alike.

Ellery, a high school history teacher, decides to do some investigating to see what clues she can uncover and preserve for the police when they can finally reach the resort. In the middle of her amateur sleuthing, another guest has disappeared.

Ally Condie, a former high school English teacher, lives outside of Salt Lake City with her second husband and four children.