by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 16, 2020 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
In Miracle Creek, author Angie Kim creates a whodunit with a side helping of the difficult realities of achieving the American Dream. Kim blends tragedy, kids with chronic illness, moms who will do anything to help them, teenage angst, and cultural pride. It’s a...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 17, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
In Disappearing Earth, author Julia Phillips transports the missing girl trope to a unique location. On the Kamchatka Peninsula in Eastern Russia, life is hard. It combines both modern conveniences like cell phones, and long-established behaviors like misogyny. So...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Nov 26, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Emil Ferris shows off her storytelling and artistic talent in My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Volume 1. In her graphic novel, she creates the art journal and diary of Karen Reyes. Karen is a 1960s Chicago pre-teen, balancing the difficulties of her own adolescence with...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Oct 30, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Alexis Schaitkin unspools a story of that 18-year-old we all know. The one with buckets of confidence and virtually no experience. Who wants to be thought well of, while never giving their parents the time of day. Who rolls her eyes, shows off her body, and keeps...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 23, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
It’s a joy to revisit the world of Sherlock Holmes with author Richard T. Ryan and his latest novella, The Merchant of Menace. Holmes and Watson need to catch a thief who’s angling for priceless, one-of-a-kind items. And threatening the owners’ loved ones as he does...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 4, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
X is the second-to-last Kinsey Millhone book from Sue Grafton. Although is was published in 2015, the action happens in 1989. As always, I smile at the things Kinsey has to do to make a phone call. It’s a reminder of what some people call “simpler days.” Unless, like...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 25, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
M. T. Edvardsson crafts an enjoyable psychological thriller in A Nearly Normal Family. It’s told from three viewpoints. First, the father’s voice lays out both current and past events. Then, the daughter fills in some gaps, but makes it clear that she’s an unreliable...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Aug 5, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Tosca Lee brings us a strong entry for the “young innocent woman tries to save the world” genre. The Line Between is a cult escapee, pandemic, dangerous emergency road trip book. Its heroine is likable, and the topic is fairly relevant.The young protagonist is Wynter...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 22, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Isaiah Quintabe (known to his friends as IQ) is a new and unique detective character. He doesn’t have a Ph.D. like Alex Delaware. Or a PI’s license like Kinsey Millhone. He’s just a young guy who dropped out of high school because it was more important to pay the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 14, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
After listening to her nonfiction book, Forensics, reading Val McDermid’s psychological thriller series was an easy choice. I liked her detailed writing style, and was glad to see it here also. The Mermaids Singing is told from two points of view. First we have the...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 12, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
I’ve been a fan of John Sanford mystery / thrillers for many years. My brother-in-law introduced me to the Prey series, featuring Lucas Davenport, back when there were just a few books in the series. Dark of the Moon is Sanford’s first entry in a spin-off series...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Apr 4, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Delia Owens crafts a genrebusting debut novel. It’s primarily a Bildungsroman—coming of age story. But Owens throws in elements of romance, adds a treatise on nature, plus a strong mystery and courtroom procedural.Her main character Kathryn Danielle Clark, nicknamed...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 25, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Ghost Gifts from author Laura Spinella was a good balance for my recent more serious reads. But it wasn’t much more than a fluff piece. Main character Aubrey Ellis is a journalist, working on real estate features at a small town paper. She’s also a medium, willingly...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 2, 2019 | RELAX: Historical Fiction, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Sujata Massey takes her readers back to 1920s Bombay, India in this intriguing legal mystery. Our heroine is Perveen Mistry, a young woman who’s broken with societal norms and gotten a law degree from Oxford. She’s working in the menial aspects of her father’s law...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 23, 2019 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
This was my first Jennifer McMahon book, which I started because of a Litsy buddy read. Normally I read wintry books in the summer, when I need to feel cooler! Nevertheless, I dived in and enjoyed the storytelling.Fundamentally, The Winter People is about grief and...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 1, 2019 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
This was my first venture into the Aimée Leduc series from Cara Black. So, I started with book one and took an armchair trip to the neighborhood in Paris called the Marais. Aimée is the owner of a small private detective agency in Paris. She’s the daughter of a French...
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