Book Review: "My Darlings" by Marie Still

This book was utterly unhinged and crazy, yet I couldn’t get enough of it! I think it’ll be running through my brain for a long while.

Eloise seems to have it all—a wealthy husband, a breathtakingly beautiful mansion just outside Washington DC, a talented daughter, and a circle of close friends. She’s even the president of the PTO at her daughter’s prestigious private school.

She’s also a serial killer. And her need to kill seems to be increasing.

As she searches for her next victim, drama within her circle of friends creates chaos. Eloise is always the problem-solver, the one who offers solutions. But the chaos offers her opportunities.

There’s someone out there with their eye on Eloise. They know what she’s doing and they know what she’s capable of. Can they stop Eloise before she destroys everyone in her path?

You’ll want to check the trigger warnings on this book. It’s so twisty and crazy and goes gloriously off the rails. There are multiple narrators and the story shifts between past and present. I know one thing: Marie Still is definitely an author I’ll be following from now on!!

Book Review: "Leave the Girls Behind" by Jacqueline Bublitz

“There are just so many ways, Ruth thinks, for a girl to disappear.”

When Ruth-Ann was 7 years old, her best friend Beth was kidnapped and later found murdered. The perpetrator was Ethan Oswald, music teacher and church choir director.

As Ruth grew older, she remained haunted by Beth’s murder and became obsessed with true crime websites which talked about Oswald. Ruth is convinced that Oswald was actually responsible for the deaths of other young girls across the country, but no one—not even the police—bought her theories.

When another young girl goes missing from Ruth’s Connecticut hometown, she starts becoming obsessed again. She believes that all those years ago Oswald had help in committing his crimes, and perhaps that person is responsible for the latest disappearance.

Ruth becomes single-minded in her focus on finding Oswald’s accomplice. Her search for answers takes her across the globe and connects her with three women, one who might be the person she seeks. But in order to figure out the truth, she’ll have to accept her own truths as well.

I was drawn into this story pretty quickly, and while the pacing was a little uneven at times, I couldn’t tear myself away. I enjoyed this take on the amateur detective trope, and while I’m not always a fan of paranormal storylines, this worked for me. Lots of twists and some unlikable characters, but a compelling mystery for sure.

Book Review: "The Coldest Case" by Tessa Wegert

One of the things I love about reading a long-running series is how attached you become to the characters. This book is the sixth installment in Tessa Wegert’s series featuring Senior Investigator Shana Merchant, and the series gets better and better.

It’s winter in New York’s Thousand Islands, which means brutally cold temperatures and driving snow, which could strand people for days, even months weeks. One island, Running Pine, is so remote and isolated that only a few people spend the winter there.

When Shana and the police learn that a social media influencer has disappeared from Running Pine, they snap into action. It turns out that Cary and Sylvie have moved to the island for a year and are documenting the experience for their thousands of followers, and have landed some significant endorsement deals on top of that. And then one morning, when Cary goes ice fishing with two of their neighbors, he disappeared.

The police put themselves in harm’s way getting to the island, as there is a storm coming. The more they dig into what happened, the more questions arise for them. What happened to Cary? Did he disappear of his own free will or is one of their neighbors responsible?

Time is running out. As Shana and her colleagues rush to find answers, she also is reminded of another unsolved murder from her days with the NYPD. And both cases have the potential for danger.

Wegert is definitely one of my favorite thriller writers out there right now. With every book in this series I worry it’ll be the last, but I’ll still read anything she writes!

Book Review: "My Murder" by Katie Williams

“I was supposed to be getting dressed for the party, the first since my murder.” (Yep, you read that right.)

Lou is married to a doting husband, Silas, and they’re parents to their adorable baby daughter, Nova. They’re like any other couple—except Lou was a victim of a local serial killer, and she was recently brought back to life by a government project.

She’s grateful for the second chance at life, but re-acclimating isn’t easy. She has to get used to her life again, to her husband, to being a mother, and returning to her old job. Lou also spends time in a support group with the other victims of the serial killer, all of whom were also brought back to life. It’s a fairly strange sorority to be part of.

It’s only natural that Lou has questions about her murder. Why did the killer pick her? The more time she spends with the other women, the more uncertainty she starts to feel about her life before her murder. It’s up to her to figure out just what happened—and if she is safe in her life.

I thought this was a very cool concept. There was some fascinating commentary about the public’s attitudes toward serial killers and their victims, some interesting technologies, and a few twists I didn’t see coming.

At times, I did feel a bit confused by some of the narrative, and had to read things a few times before it started to make sense. But this was a tremendously unique concept, a great twist on the traditional thriller.

Book Review: "The Echo Man" by Sam Holland

Wow. Just wow. This is one creepy serial killer novel!

This definitely was a #BookstagramMadeMeDoIt book. I kept seeing friends rave about how this was so great and it was their favorite book of the month or even one of their favorites of the year so far. And now I can definitely see why.

A series of brutal murders has rocked a town. As detectives Cara Elliott and Noah Deakin investigate, they realize that these crimes are connected—and seem to be replicating those of notorious serial killers from the past: Dahmer, Manson, the Zodiac Killer. They have no idea where he’ll strike next, or which killer he’ll pay homage to.

Meanwhile, Jessica Ambrose is on the run, accused of setting a house fire that killed her husband and injured her and her young daughter. She knows she’s innocent and doesn’t want to go to jail, and winds up connecting with Nate Griffin, a suspended detective with issues of his own. Together they realize the fire may be related to the other murders—but why would she be a target?

As the detectives draw closer to solving the case, no one is safe—not even them.

This was truly excellent. It’s creepy and violent and graphically brutal—plenty of triggers abound—but I couldn’t get through the book fast enough. It reminded me of Meg Gardiner’s UNSUB series. If you like crime novels and books about serial killers, this is one for you!!