Book Review: "The Blue Flame" by George Pelecanos

George Pelecanos is one of my favorite crime writers of all time. He’s definitely an author that should be so much more of a household name because his books are really excellent. I was so excited that he had a new book come out and that it featured a familiar character, PI Derek Strange.

“Everything that used to be complicated and laborious was easy now. But an investigator still needed to know how to talk to people and do the job.”

Derek Strange is still working as a private investigator, still operating out of his office in Washington, DC. And he’s still as dogged as ever when trying to figure out a case. When he’s approached by a drug lawyer, asking him to help clear his client of a murder charge, Derek is ready to search for answers.

What Derek discovers is a series of crimes affecting young men who grew up together, playing football in high school. But now one is dead, one is accused of his murder, and the younger sister of another is the link between the two. He figures out what happened and tells the police, although he keeps some of the details to himself.

Shortly thereafter, another murder occurs, and Derek feels a responsibility to clear it up. Of course, the police have warned him about interfering, and he finds himself treading in some dangerous neighborhoods, but it’s all in a day’s work.

I love the amazing details Pelecanos brings to his books, both in setting and habits of his characters. This is a crime novel but it’s also about greed, family, protecting your own, and second chances. I hope we’ll see Derek back again—I’ve missed him!

Book Review: "Hot Girl Murder Club" by Ashley Winstead

I’ve read all of Ashley Winstead’s books, and one of the things I love about her is she’s never content to write the same book twice. Every one of her books is different from the next, and she always keeps me guessing!

Ten years ago, Scout Sage’s younger sister Georgia was murdered at a Hollywood executive’s Christmas party. The alleged killer was never brought to justice.

Now, with her musical career just on the cusp of exploding, Scout is always surrounded by a posse of beautiful women. Some of them are famous for having overcome abusive relationships or other toxic situations. But with a string of revenge-type murders occurring, suddenly Scout (and her so-called “Hot Girl Murder Club”) is the prime suspect.

Detective Grey Holloway is tapped to lead the investigation, despite her youth and Barbie-like appearance. Is Scout a vigilante murderer, or is someone trying to frame her and call her out for her past transgressions? The deeper Grey digs, she finds that there have been many crimes perpetrated against women in Hollywood that have gone unpunished, and there may even be a more personal tie to these incidents.

This book is really quite timely given the way the pendulum has swung back from the #MeToo era. There are characters in the book who give voice to the anti-woke, pro-male perspective that seems to be prevalent in today’s society.

There are A LOT of characters in this book and a lot of perspectives. I found the two main narrative threads to be the most interesting, and when either of them were the focus, I was much more dialed in. But I love some good vigilante justice, and Winstead again delivered a compelling read!

Book Review: "Ironwood" by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly has written more than 40 books and I’ve been reading them since 1992, when his first book was published. He has created some prolific characters, which have spawned several series. Ironwood is the second book in a new series, and this one kicked ass.

Stilwell is a detective sergeant stationed on California’s Catalina Island. Those who get stationed there are usually paying for making someone higher-up angry, or for doing something illegal or inappropriate. Stilwell was sent to Catalina for similar reasons, but he’s grown to like that it’s separate from the chaos of Los Angeles.

One night, acting on a tip one of his deputies got from a confidential informant, Stilwell and two of his deputies are staking out the island’s airstrip. They’re waiting for a plane to land and drop off drugs. But when it does, the deputies close in on the plane, shots are fired, and the plane leaves.

The whole incident has tragic consequences. As the police investigate, Stilwell is relegated to the side. But he wants to know who was responsible and where everything went wrong, so he does some investigating on the side.

Meanwhile, when sorting through the list and found, he finds an expensive backpack that belonged to a woman who disappeared while hiking four years earlier. But the backpack was found only two months ago; why is that? Stilwell’s looking into this connects him to the cold case unit led by Detective Renée Ballard. And what this partnership uncovers is another tangled web he’ll have to deal with.

Connelly is so good at taking his time to lay out the details and then gradually ratchet up the tension. He always keeps me guessing one way or another. I hope there will be a third book in this series!!

Book Review: "A Violent Masterpiece" by Jordan Harper

This was definitely one of the darker and more disturbing crime novels I’ve read in a while. But the images that Jordan Harper’s prose evoked definitely were cinematic, which really amplified the book’s power. Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the complimentary advance copy!

Like most big cities, Los Angeles is both playground and a hotbed of crime. Jake is a live-streaming nightcrawler, taking his audience on a no-holds-barred trip through the city each night, showing up at crimes in progress and the detritus of crime scenes. It’s all an adrenaline rush for him.

Kara works for a private concierge company that serves an exclusive clientele. Whatever their clients need—drugs, sex, even more nefarious things—the company provides. Yet Kara is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend Phoebe, and the scene she witnessed at Phoebe’s apartment after she went missing.

Doug is a defense lawyer for the downtrodden. But when he is hired to defend a Hollywood pedophile, it launches him into the public spotlight—and into a web more tangled and dangerous than he can ever imagine.

These three characters become intertwined with each other as the city is reeling from an apparent serial killer and the pedophile’s vow to seek revenge. The scandal, the fear, the danger all run very deep—can they find the answers they’re seeking before their enemies attack? And who are they anyway?

This is a really gritty book which pulsates with violence, rich and powerful people behaving badly, and those who try to keep their heads above water. It would make one hell of a movie, but it’s a pretty terrific read.

The book publishes 4/28.

Book Review: "Johnny Careless" by Kevin Wade

Many thanks to Celadon Books for the advance copy of this terrific crime novel! It definitely has a cinematic flair, which isn’t surprising, since the author is a screenwriter as well as showrunner for the television show Blue Bloods.

Gerald “Jeep” Mullane is the chief of police for several towns on Long Island’s North Shore. He’s living in his childhood home and still dealing with the class divide that exists between the mostly wealthy residents of the area and the “have-nots” like him.

One night, a body is found in the water near Bayville. It turns out it’s the body of Johnny Chambliss, Jeep’s best friend since childhood and the son of a prominent family. Johnny has always been one step away from trouble, so while his death might not be surprising, it hits Jeep hard and stirs up many forgotten memories.

Given his relationship to the deceased, Jeep can’t investigate Johnny’s death—at least directly. But he definitely gets the sense that Johnny’s death wasn’t the accident that everyone wants to label it. And as he deals with Johnny’s enigmatic and powerful parents, as well as his ex-wife, whom Jeep has known for years, he finds himself being simultaneously warned about and welcomed to keep digging into the truth.

While dealing peripherally with this investigation, Jeep is under political pressure to stop a massive auto theft ring targeting the wealthy residents of the cities he serves. As the two cases intertwine, he finds himself caught between anger, grief, and fear.

The narrative shifts between present and past, tracing Jeep and Johnny’s relationship and the changes it went through, as well as Jeep’s efforts to uncover the truth. This is gritty and emotional, and I hope we’ll see another book with Jeep in it.

The book will publish 1/28/2025.

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: "An Honorable Assassin" by Steve Hamilton

Nick Mason was a federal prisoner who was released into the possession of a Chicago crime lord. He may have been free from jail, but now he was expected to be an assassin on command. At least until he gained his freedom.

It wasn’t really freedom, however, as the next thing he knew, he was flying to Jakarta to be in the employ of a shadowy global organization. He had one job: kill Hashim Baya, aka The Crocodile, one of the most dangerous fugitives in the world. And he failed.

Of course, his failure to kill Baya isn’t taken quite well by his employer. They threaten to kill Nick’s wife and daughter if he doesn’t put Baya down once and for all. And after one failure, Baya’s team is on high alert to protect their guy.

To make matters even more challenging, Nick and his employer aren’t the only ones trying to hunt Baya down. Martin Sauvage, an Interpol agent, holds The Crocodile responsible for tragedies in his own life. But while Sauvage wants Baya to pay for his crimes, Nick just wants him dead. Who will succeed first?

This book has some fantastic action scenes that read like a movie. The opening scene was tautly plotted and had me holding my breath even though I knew the whole book needed to unfold. The book felt as if you mixed a little bit of James Bond with the competitive nature of Valjean and Javert.

Steve Hamilton is a fantastic writer who really should be a household name. He’s written a number of books, including a spectacular crime series featuring PI Alex McKnight. This is the third book featuring Nick Mason, and being that the last one was released seven years ago, it can be read as a standalone. If you like crime novels, Hamilton is an author worth exploring.

Book Review: "The Life and Death of Rose Doucette" by Harry Hunsicker

Dylan is an ex-cop turned private investigator in Dallas. He is surprised when his ex-wife Rose, a homicide detective, asks to meet him, since it’s been three years since they’ve seen one another.

Rose tells Dylan about a murder case she’s handling, but the powers-that-be want her to call it a suicide. She doesn’t believe the victim killed himself, and apparently Rose has been taken off the case. After a short disagreement, Rose leaves, but when Dylan sees a car starting to follow her, he gives chase. The next thing he knows, Rose has been shot, he gets hit in the head, and the assailant gets away.

Dylan is the leading suspect in Rose’s death. But the last thing he remembers is Rose asking him to keep looking into the murder case, so even though he’s warned not to investigate, he is determined to keep his promise to her.

Teaming up with Rose’s current husband, Tito, they begin looking into who might have killed Rose and why. The men learn that there were many things in Rose’s life she kept a secret from both of them. And the more they dig into these secrets, the more danger they put themselves—and others—in.⁣⁣⁣

Trying to find answers only leads them to more questions, and puts them in the middle of a dangerous web of corruption, violence, and blackmail. As Tito and Dylan both deal with their grief over Rose’s death, they need everything to fall into place before it’s too late.⁣⁣⁣

I thought this was an excellent read. I really enjoyed these characters and the emotions that transpired among them, and the plot definitely kept me guessing. I’d love it if this was the start of a series!

Book Review: "Into the Fire" by Rick Mofina

Sometimes a crime novel is all that will hit the spot for me. I read an article about crime writers and found Rick Mofina, author of a trilogy of books featuring investigative reporter Ray Wyatt.

Ray Wyatt is a reporter in his early 40s who is trying to rebuild his life after the tragic loss of his wife and young son. He finds purpose in the stories he writes, because he’s making a difference rather than wallowing in his own misery.

A young boy is found by hikers in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. He is traumatized, unable to speak. When the hikers retrace his steps to a cabin, they make a gruesome discovery of what’s inside.

FBI Special Agent Jill McDade is put in charge of the investigation. The young boy is still unable to speak, but after a while the FBI is able to begin making inroads into the case, and Ray is doing his own detective work. It’s not long before they realize the case is far more complex than meets the eye.

As they try to find out what happened, they’re up against a ticking clock. Who will find the information first, and will they find it before it’s too late? At the same time, both Ray and Jill have their own personal issues to deal with, too.

While there weren’t any surprises in the story, I was definitely hooked. I really liked both characters and the vulnerability each showed. It’s always fascinating when you don’t know whom to trust. I’ll definitely be picking up the next two books in this series!!

The Best Books I Read in 2023...

Happy New Year! Here's wishing all of you a happy and healthy 2024, full of joy, laughter, and lots of great books.

This past year was a tough one for me. As some of you may know, over the summer I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Luckily it was caught early and we're enthusiastic that it won't recur, but I did have surgery in late October to remove part of one kidney. All this to say, this wasn't a typical year for me where reading was concerned. I didn't do a great job of recording (or reviewing) what I read, so I don't have an exact count of how many books I did read in 2023—I'd say it's around 200, but we'll never know. LOL

This year I put together a list of my 20 favorites with an additional 10 books which were too good not to mention.

As always, I'd love your thoughts on what you loved reading this year!

The Top 20

1. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett: One of my favorite authors at the top of her game. This is such a gorgeously told story of family, love, memory, motherhood, and recognizing that happiness can come from a path other than the one you dreamed of. It's a quiet but utterly beautiful book.

2. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck: Lewis and Wren fall in love and get married. Not long after, Lewis learns he has a rare mutation which will turn him (rapidly) into a great white shark. As crazy as this sounds, this book is an unforgettable, powerfully emotional look at love, loss, and creating a meaningful life.

3. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston: The author of one of my top three favorite books of 2022 makes the top three again! If you’re not a fan of magical realism and weird time loop-ish storylines, you may not enjoy this. But this left me a puddle of emotions.

4. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez: Another home run from Jimenez, who deftly meshes romance, quirky characters, and more serious topics (this one deals with social anxiety) into a book that made me smile and cry, sometimes simultaneously.

5. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane: A tense (and intense), sometimes sad, and tremendously thought-provoking book set in Boston in the summer of 1974, in the midst of the forced desegregation of schools. This one will make one heck of a movie.

6. Search by Michelle Huneven: This is a quietly compelling and dramatic story of a church searching for its new minister. (Plus recipes!!) It’s gorgeously written, a fantastic study of human dynamics, and I found the conversations about theology and philosophy to be fascinating and never heavy-handed.

7. In Memoriam by Alice Winn: Two young men, close friends at an English boarding school at the start of World War I, deal with their attraction to one another and the horrors of war, as Henry, who is part German, feels the need to enlist, but wants Sidney to stay safe. This feels like a more emotional E.M. Forster classic.

8. The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters: A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family, and remain unsolved for nearly 50 years. It's such a beautiful book and unbelievably, it's a debut.

9. Glitterland by Alexis Hall: How do you convince yourself that you’re worthy of love? Hall delivers a powerful story of love, heartbreak, and emotional turmoil, which had some incredible moments of beauty.

10. We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian: I feel like this book made my heart grow two sizes larger. It was full of self-discovery, romance, tension, and a good dash of history. I couldn’t get enough of these characters!!

Book Review: "Saving Emma" by Allen Eskens

Allen Eskens is a tremendously talented writer who should be a household name. His books, including the amazing The Life We Bury, are a great blend of crime novel, contemporary fiction, and occasionally, legal thriller. While his newest book, Saving Emma, isn't my favorite of his, it's still a well-written and gripping story.

Boady Sanden is a former attorney who is now a law professor that works for The Innocence Project in Minnesota. When a woman comes to Boady asking him to look into the murder conviction of her brother, he feels like there's not much he can do. Elijah Matthews has been a patient in a mental institution for the last four years, since he was accused of murdering the pastor of a megachurch. Elijah believes he is a prophet, sent to do work given to him by God.

But as he digs into Elijah's file, he learns that he was originally defended by Ben Pruitt, Boady's former colleague and best friend, who was killed in Boady's study four years earlier. Ben's life was unraveling in the middle of Elijah's trial, which makes Boady wonder whether Elijah received the vigorous defense he deserved. The more he looks into the case, he finds Elijah both infuriating and sympathetic, but he isn't sure if he actually is a murderer.

At the same time, Ben's daughter Emma, who has lived with Boady and his wife since Ben was killed, has become sullen and withdrawn since she turned 14 years old. Emma makes a decision to trust someone who doesn't have her best interests in mind, and she turns against her surrogate parents. This devastates both Boady and his wife, although he needs to examine the way he has treated Emma to see if he's at all to blame for her decisions.

Can they get Emma to return home before it's too late? What is the truth behind the murder that Elijah is accused of, and how complicated is the web Boady will step in as he tries to find who is responsible?

I really enjoy Eskens' storytelling ability, but I struggled a bit with this book. I didn't find any of the characters particularly appealing, and there's a lot of scripture quoted in the story, which isn't something I'm familiar with. There really aren't many twists in this story, but it's still a very quick read.

Book Review: "City Under One Roof" by Iris Yamashita

City Under One Roof is a compelling crime novel that gives a new twist to the locked-room mystery.

During the summer, the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, is full of tourists. But in the winter, the population of this town—only accessible via a tunnel that closes for bad weather—shrinks to about 200 people. And they all live in the same high-rise building, where nearly everything is located.

When local teens find a severed hand and foot washed up on the shore, the police believe it’s the remains of someone who jumped off a cruise ship. The case raises the suspicions of Cara, a police detective from Anchorage, who comes to Point Mettier to investigate. But her reasons for investigating aren’t entirely above-board.

She is stranded in the town during a blizzard, and has to stay in the same condo building as everyone else in town. When a severed head is found, Cara, who teams up with local policeman JB, realizes the killer may be someone they’re all staying with. More and more, she discovers that everyone in Point Mettier is hiding something. And the arrival of a dangerous gang from a nearby Native village only complicates matters further.

First of all, the book had me at Alaska. It’s one of my favorite settings for books. And I loved the concept of the town and the condo—I totally felt claustrophobic.

This reads like a movie, which makes sense because Yamashita is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, and it’s definitely full of unusual characters, some of whose stories definitely felt incomplete. I’m guessing a second book is in the works, especially given the twist Yamashita threw in at the end?

Book Review: "My Darkest Prayer" by S.A. Cosby

Sometimes doing a favor can cause more trouble than you bargained for.

It’s good to see S.A. Cosby starting to get a bit more recognition for his books. The truth is, however, he should be a household name. He’s just that good.

Nathan is a former Marine and deputy sheriff who works at his cousin’s funeral home. His life has been touched by tragedy but he’s known as a solid guy, one with a short fuse, but one who can get things done for people when all other channels fail.

When Reverend Esau Watkins is found dead, local law enforcement rules it a suicide. But a few of his parishioners don’t agree, and they offer to pay Nathan to look into things. He figures he’ll either find it was a suicide, or find enough evidence to convince the state police to investigate.

Nathan expects resistance from the local police, but he doesn’t realize he’s about to step into a gigantic web of corruption and lies that is more far-reaching than he could imagine. It’ll take everything he has—and then some—if he’s to survive.

I just love the way Cosby writes. His characters are flawed and complex, but you can’t help but root for them. This is a little slower-paced than his other books but it’s excellent.

Book Review: "The Kind to Kill" by Tessa Wegert

Don’t you love it when a series keeps getting better and better?

I am so glad that Tessa Wegert has written her fourth book in the Shana Merchant series!! This has become one of my favorite series, and Shana is a phenomenal character. She’s a badass but she’s really vulnerable as a result of all she’s been through in dealing with a serial killer and the fallout when their identity was revealed.

A senior police investigator in the Thousand Islands in upstate New York, she’s hoping that the chaos will die down now that the killer’s case is finished. But the national publicity surrounding it—and Shana’s role—continues to rile up the community, and many call her fitness for duty into question.

In the heat of summer, the famous Pirate Days festival is about to bring thousands of people to the area, giving local businesses a much-needed boost. But when a visitor disappears after an argument with her husband, another murder is the last thing the community needs—or Shana, for that matter. Because the feeling that the community was safer before Shana arrived is starting to grow—and she’s not sure they’re wrong.

I kept the plot a bit vague because while you can read this as a stand-alone, it’s even better if you start with the first book in the series, Death in the Family. These books are mysteries and psychological thrillers with some fantastic character development, even a little romance.

Hope the series keeps on going! Thanks so much to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Severn House, and NetGalley for inviting me on the tour and providing an advance copy of the book. This publishes 12/6. Don’t miss it!

Book Review: "The Deal Goes Down" by Larry Beinhart

In Larry Beinhart's new book, a retired detective finds chaos after a random meeting on a train.

“The woman on the train asked me to kill someone. I liked the train. I didn’t especially like the woman.”

Tony is an ex-private eye living a fairly solitary life in the Catskills. His house is about to be foreclosed upon, and it seems like more of his friends are dying than he'd care to think about.

He meets a young woman on a train to New York City. She proceeds to drink a few cocktails and then she tells him how her wealthy husband is abusive and cruel. As they progress further on the trip, she offers him money—a lot of money—to get rid of her husband.

Tony knows he shouldn’t have anything to do with this, and figures when the woman sobers up she’ll forget they even had the conversation. But she doesn’t, and the money she’s offering could help him get control of his life.

Of course, he has no idea what a web he’ll wind up getting tangled in, including an attorney who wants to hire Tony to “take care” of other abusive husbands of wealthy women, a former business associate who wants a cut of the money, and federal agents. And that’s even before he has to travel overseas to rescue a woman.

I picked up this book because I liked the cover and the description. I didn’t realize that this was the fourth book in a series, so I definitely felt I was missing some pieces. And I felt like the plot took some strange tangents every now and again. But Tony is a fascinating, complex, flawed character, and I’d be interested in starting the series from the beginning.

Book Review: "The Heist" by C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose

With The Heist, this fun, glamorous caper series set in the late 1950s comes to a close.⁣

⁣ I’ve really enjoyed this series of novellas, which started with The Steal and The Bait. In this book, Ania Thorne has been hiding as she plots her next move to try and take down the notorious jewel thief, the Leopard. And she’s figured the perfect bait—she’ll design special jewelry for the Oscar-nominated actress of a major film.⁣

⁣ Jerome Curtis has been living a bleak existence in London, mourning the end of his relationship and the fact he threw away his career for the woman who abandoned him. A friend offers him a security job at her father’s movie studio, but unbeknownst to him, this job will put him right in the middle of Ania’s plan to trap the Leopard, who has gotten the jump on both of them before.⁣

⁣ This is really a series you should read in order, but since each book is less than 200 pages, it’s not that huge of a commitment. I love the glamour of old Hollywood that runs throughout the series, as well as the relationships and characters.⁣

⁣ Thanks so much to Get Red PR Books and Blue Box Press for the complimentary copy of the book. Here's hoping that C.W. Gortner and M.J. Rose team up again, or at the very least give us another installment in this series! ⁣

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!!

Book Review: "Under Red Sky: The Chief" by J Calamy

This thriller was action-packed and steamy!!

One of the things I love about Bookstagram is being introduced to books and authors I might not have heard of otherwise. I’m grateful not only for recommendations from friends but also from tours I’ve been fortunate to participate on.

Earlier this year I partnered with Pride Book Tours to read The Boss, by J Calamy. It was a great book, complete with action, intrigue, and lots of steamy romance. The second book in Calamy’s Under Red Sky series, The Chief, was just released and it’s another page-turner that got my pulse racing because of the suspense and the steam.

Natalie has one more assignment before she retires from her career as a counterterrorism agent. She’s posted to Sri Lanka and the beach is the perfect setting for a hot hookup with a sexy, bisexual surfer. And wouldn’t you know it? He’s her final assignment.

Alex is a money launderer for Red Sky, the behemoth crime syndicate in Southeast Asia. He wants out but he sees it as the best way to raise his younger brother, plus he’s loyal to the boss of Red Sky. But the deeper he gets in with Natalie, he’s torn about what to do.

Natalie has had a stellar career of following orders. But her connection with Alex makes her question her job for the first time, and the more she discovers what the powers that be have in store for Red Sky, the more she realizes she may have to turn her back on everything she’s held dear for someone she hopes she can trust.

I really got into this story and the steam factor is 🔥!! I definitely recommend this series if you like a mix of intrigue, crime, and hotness.

Book Review: "When Ghosts Come Home" by Wiley Cash

Wiley Cash's new book, When Ghosts Come Home, is a brooding and evocative crime novel.

It’s late October 1984. The sound of a low-flying plane overhead awakens Sheriff Winston Barnes and his wife at around 4 am. Although he can see no fire or wreckage, he knows that something is not right, so he goes to the nearby airfield to investigate.

He’s correct: something isn’t right. He finds a large plane has crash-landed on the runway, but there is no sign of a pilot or any cargo. He does find the body of a local man who has been shot dead, and he later finds that the plane has been wiped clean of prints.

The investigation into this murder rocks the town, as the man was Black and racial tensions were already out of control. To make matters worse, Winston is up for re-election in less than a week and he faces a formidable and corrupt challenger. There’s no doubt that his every action on this case will determine his future—as if it hasn’t been determined already.

As his own past comes to light, he also has to deal with his wife’s terminal illness and the return of his adult daughter, who is struggling to deal with a difficult loss. It’s all weighing on him in ways he never expected.

This was a well-told story, one where you know things are going to happen but you don’t know what. The anticipation in this story was powerful and well-teased-out, and there definitely were surprises. It’s a slow pace at times but not noticeably so.

Thanks to William Morrow Books for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Book Review: "Gathering Dark" by Candice Fox

Candice Fox's Gathering Dark is a twisty thriller that gets your pulse pounding from the very start.

Blair was once a pediatric surgeon, renowned and respected. Until, that is, she killed her neighbor and spent a number of years in prison. Now she’s trying to rebuild her life, stay out of trouble, and hopefully gain custody of her son.

When she gets an unexpected visit from Sneak, her former cellmate, Blair’s carefully laid plans for keeping a low profile fall out the window. Sneak’s daughter, Dayly, has gone missing, and Sneak asks for Blair’s help in tracking her down. Even though she knows the risks of associating with Sneak, Blair can’t think about leaving any person’s child in danger.

Meanwhile, police detective Jessica Sanchez is ostracized by her department because she was left a sizable inheritance after she found the killer of a wealthy man’s daughter. Her treatment from fellow officers gets increasingly cruel—she’s left without backup and her private life is made public.

When Jessica gets a visit from Blair, whom she arrested for murder years before, she’s expecting retribution. But Blair is looking for help, not revenge. She asks Jessica to help her and Sneak and another person they’ve recruited to find Dayly. Should Jessica turn Blair in or help?

I’ve not read any of Candice Fox’s books before but this definitely kept me turning the pages. Some of the twists were a little unbelievable, but I was hooked from start to finish.

I was glad to be part of the blog tour for Gathering Dark. Storygram Tours and Forge Reads provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!