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.