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.