​Genre: Mystery

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There is something captivating about the style of Alex Finlay’s writing. His first book, Every Last Fear, had me reading late into the night, and his latest, The Night Shift, did the same. His characters are multi-leveled, and his plots are creative enough to hold one’s interest as they develop.


The Night Shift starts with the murder of several young people at a Blockbuster Video store on New Year’s Eve 1999 and quickly shifts to a similar murder at an ice cream store in 2015. Alternating chapters are seen through the eyes of several characters. Sarah Keller is a “badass” FBI agent, who doesn’t let her being nine months pregnant stop her from doing her job. Chris is a defense attorney with a secret identity that could destroy his career if discovered. Ella is the sole survivor of the Blockbuster massacre, who is called upon to help the sole survivor of the current massacre.

Together these three voices tell a story that keep the readers on the edge of their seats. The supporting characters are equally interesting as the plot twists and turns and points in different directions before the truth is finally revealed. Hopefully, Finlay has been busily writing his third novel, because I, for one, can’t wait to read it.

-Beverly


Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - March 1, 2022​

Genre: Legal Thriller

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I came across Robert Bailey’s first book, The Professor, about five years ago. The legal thriller featured McMurtrie and Drake, two dynamic attorneys in a small town in Tennessee, and I was hooked from page one. Since that time Bailey has brought back McMurtrie and Drake in his series of four McMurtrie and Drake legal series books. My favorite part of the series has always revolved around the interesting characters that populate his books. Bocephus Hayes was one of my favorites.

Bo is the only African American litigator in Pulaski, Tennessee, and that is not easy for him. We found a bit of his past history in Bailey’s previous books, and though I don’t want to give anything away, I highly recommend you read the series if you haven’t yet. Another interesting character from previous books is Attorney General Helen Lewis, and she plays a key role in this novel, Legacy of Lies.

When Helen refuses to drop statutory and forcible rape charges against Michael Zannick, who is powerful, unscrupulous, and rich, she is visited by her ex-husband, Butch Renfroe. Butch knows where the skeletons are buried in Helen’s closet, and he threatens to reveal them if she doesn’t drop the charges. Butch is killed the next evening, and evidence leads them to Helen. Witnesses saw her at Butch’s house that evening, and a weapon is linked to her. She had a clear motive, and the Sheriff has no choice but to arrest her.

Knowing that she would be arrested, Helen tracks down Bo and asks him to take her case. Bo is going through his own family and career problems and is reluctant to take the case. He ultimately decides to do it for Helen, and what follows is another of Robert Bailey’s top notch Deep South legal thrillers. Each character adds another layer to Legacy of Lies, and the twists and turns will definitely keep you turning pages deep into the night.

- Beverly


​Publisher - Thomas & Mercer
Date of Publication - ​June 1, 2020

Genre: Fiction

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Although I haven’t read all of Lisa Scottoline’s books, I have really enjoyed the ones I have read. After Anna is an interesting story with several twists one doesn’t see coming. Noah and Maggie are obviously in love and happily married, and together they are raising Noah’s son Caleb. It should be a happily ever after story, but we find out from the beginning that it is far from that happy ending.

Told from alternating points of view, the story starts with Noah waiting for the verdict in his murder trial. Then we go to Maggie...before. We find that she has not seen her daughter Anna since her husband retained custody years ago. Maggie suffered from severe postpartum depression and couldn’t fight her husband for custody. Chapter two begins with Maggie hearing from a teenaged Anna who wants to see her. Thrilled, Maggie makes arrangements to meet Anna at her boarding school.

The plot jumps back and forth, and we find that their lives fall apart when Anna moves in with Maggie, Noah and Caleb. Although Noah seems to be trying to build a relationship with Anna, Maggie feels a tension in the air, so when Anna is murdered and Noah is accused, she doesn’t know what to believe.

Some readers might be put off with the writing style, but I found it interesting. As each chapter ended, I anxiously jumped into the next, trying to decide exactly who I believed. There was a bit of predictability, but there was enough mystery to keep me interested throughout.

- Beverly
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​Publisher - St. Martin's Press
Date of Publication - ​April 10, 2018

Genre: Mystery

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It is said that there are only a few storylines in the world, and authors spend their careers writing the same story in different ways. If this is true, than Rick Mofina has found the secret, because most of his novels are filled with twists and turns that feel as original as they are exciting. His latest offering, Their Last Secret, is one of his best offerings, filled with well defined characters and a mystery that is fun to delve into as we follow the clues.

Emma Grant is a school counselor in California with a wonderful husband and a step-daughter whom she is trying to win over. She is a far cry from the fourteen year old who made a blood pact with her friends to protect each other no matter what happens. When her author husband, Ben, agrees to write a true crime book about an event that happened years ago, suddenly Emma’s worlds seem to collide.

She is sure she is being followed, and when she tries to find out who is driving the suspicious car, an accident ensues and the mystery continues. When she finds a note on her car in the school parking lot that threatens to reveal her secret, Emma knows that she must do something to protect the family and life she has come to love.

Her step-daughter, Kayla, feels something is odd in the way Emma is acting, but her dad is sure she is imagining things because she misses her deceased mother. Emma’s balancing act gets more a more precarious as she finds that old friends aren’t always good friends, and memories can be startlingly different from one old friend to another. The desperate steps that Emma takes to right her world will have the reader on seat’s edge until the satisfying conclusion.

-Beverly


​Publisher - MIRA; Original edition
Date of Publication - ​​July 28, 2020

Genre: Mystery

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It is no secret that I have enjoyed David Rosenfelt’s series featuring attorney Andy Carpenter, and I am particularly pleased that he has written two a year over the last few years. The second book each year loosely follows a holiday theme, and since Andy’s wife Laurie believes that Christmas should be celebrated for four months each year, Andy has plenty of festive time to work out his mysteries. Silent Bite is the twenty-second Andy Carpenter mystery, so it stands to reason that there is nothing shockingly new in this tale.

Most people read for knowledge, excitement or comfort. I find that this series gives me a bit of excitement and a great deal of comfort. It is a bit like Thanksgiving, where I am surrounded by a lot of familiar people who make me laugh, and I just never know what is going to happen next. Rosenfelt feels most comfortable dealing in sarcasm where Andy is concerned, and that makes me happy. His other characters; Laurie, Edna, Marcus, Willie, Sam, Hike, Corey and the newest member of his firm, Eddie, play off of Andy perfectly as each mystery unfolds. Each book in the series introduces another dog or two, but Tara will always be number one in Andy’s (and my) heart.

In Silent Bite Willie asks Andy to help out his former cell mate who has been arrested for murder. Andy is reluctant to do so because he would much rather be retired (he is independently wealthy so money is no issue) but has trouble saying no to Willie.  The more the team investigates, the more it feels like his client is being set up, and Andy uses all of his power and wit to find out the truth.

Once again this book is a perfect opportunity for the reader to spend the holidays with old friends.

- Beverly


​Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - ​October 13, 2020

Genre: Historical Fiction

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Ronald Balson has an amazing understanding of the events that occurred during WWII, and he is one of the best storytellers among contemporary authors that I have had the good fortune of reading. His latest novel, Eli’s Promise, will grab at your heartstrings and pull you into a world filled with the struggle for survival and the strength of family bonds.

The empathy that Balson makes us feel for protagonist Eli Rosen never lets up, as we follow him from Nazi-occupied Poland to post war Germany and finally to Chicago during the Vietnam War era. While Eli was luckier than most Jews in Poland, his family's construction company kept them out of the camps for most of the war, watching what happened to most of Poland and eventually to Eli’s family was heart wrenching. I especially appreciate Balson’s ability to paint a realistic and terrifying picture of the camps without graphically describing the torture.

The sections of the book that focused on allied occupied Germany and the displaced persons camps was a true education for me. I certainly knew these places existed but didn’t realize how uncomfortable they were. Eli and his son spent time trying to help those with nowhere to turn, but the trading of illegal Visas often seemed the only way out. These people had their lives, but there was little else left from the world they once inhabited.

I also enjoyed the sections that took place in the mid sixties in Chicago. It is so alien to what Eli knows, but he is determined to find the truth as he searches for the wife he was separated from so many years before and tries to make his way among strangers who soon become friends.

Balson is a master at characterization, and the reader enjoys the warm relationships between his characters even as he/she is caught up in their pain. He focuses very little attention on the Nazi’s themselves but rather shows us what horrors these men brought to a people who did them no harm.

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- Beverly

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​Publisher - St. Martin's Press
Date of Publication - ​​September 22, 2020

​Genre: Fiction

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Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a story that might seem familiar to us, and it is easy to pass it by as redundant, but one would be making a mistake in doing so. In this book, as in every book that Picoult offers, the characters are so vividly drawn that it is difficult to let them go when that last page is reached. The reader will feel haunted by the “what if’s” that each of her characters will have to live with even after the story is well ended.

One day in a small New Hampshire town a young man walks into his typical American high school with two rifles, two handguns and a heart filled with vengeance. Nineteen minutes later ten lives are over, many more are injured and an entire school has to deal with an all too familiar tragedy. The question that haunts us is...could this have been avoided.

Written in flashbacks and real time, the story of Peter’s life is told with such insight that one must wonder if Picoult ever experienced bullying herself. It is said that some children are walking victims, and if this is so, then Peter is such a child. From his first experience on the school bus until the day he pulled the trigger for the last time, he was tormented by his peers and never understood why. With all the death and destruction, it is interesting that Picoult makes us feel the most sympathetic towards Peter himself.

Jodi, his best friend through elementary school is another victim in a way. She abandon Peter in high school and hangs with the popular crowd, but is all too aware of what their bullying is doing to her former friend. She is dealing with her own form of bullying from a controlling boyfriend while trying to come to terms with her relationship with her mother, superior court judge Alex Cormier.

The reader’s heart goes out to Lacy and Lewis Houghton who, after losing a son to a drunk driver, must face the possibility of losing another to the justice system. Picoult’s ability to make each character feel deserving of our sympathy is never stronger than when the reader begins hoping that defense attorney Jordon McAfee pulls that rabbit out of his hat and saves a boy who seems beyond saving.

There are some weaknesses in this book. Alex would have been forced to recuse herself from the case early on in a real life situation, and hopefully some teacher might have stepped in to protect Peter at some point in schools today, but they can be quickly overlooked as the reader spends several hours peeking into the heart and soul of some of Picoult’s most troubled characters.

- Beverly

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​Publisher - Washington Square Press; 1st edition 
Date of Publication - February 5, 2008

Genre: Thriller

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Years ago I came across Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series, and have been a fan ever since. In fact, I am a fan of the entire Kellerman family, or at least the three Kellerman authors. Wife Faye Kellerman has written 26 books featuring LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker, and son Jesse has written several by himself and several with his dad.

Half Moon Bay is the third in this series featuring Deputy Coroner Clay Edison. In this book Clay struggles with balancing family life (the exhaustion of a new daughter) and working the night shift. He is called to a local park where the decades old remains of a child are found by construction workers. When a local businessman believes that the body might belong to his long missing sister, Clay begins to investigate.

Unfortunately, there is more than one problem that Clay is dealing with while workers are razing the park (a haven for the homeless) so a building can be erected. Protesters become involved, introducing Clay to some not-so-friendly characters.  He works on the clock and off the clock looking for answers, and sometimes these trails lead him to places he doesn’t want to be.

The Kellermans have a way of putting everyday people into some really tenuous situations, but these likable characters usually find their way out and “save the day.” The book was a fast read filled with interesting characters, relationships, and twists and turns. Half Moon Bay is the first of this series that I have read, but I will go back and catch up when time allows.

- Beverly


​Publisher - Ballantine Books
Date of Publication - ​July 21, 2020

Genre: Mystery

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 In this time of uncertainty there is one thing I can count on...David Rosenfelt can always “take my sad day and make it better.” His familiar characters are like the friends that you look forward to spending time with, and his story lines draw you in as attorney Andy tries to make the world a little better place for the dogs he comes in contact with and the people who love them.

In fact, Andy is desperate to retire and spend his time rescuing as many dogs as humanly possible, but fate seems to have other plans for him. This time it comes in the form of the stray that his friend Beth found that seems to have been owned by a man who was recently murdered. When the owner shows up to claim his dog he shares a frightening story with Andy. He was on a boat with two other men discussing business when bullets started flying. He escaped and is now a person of interest in the murder of his colleagues.

Of course any man who comes out of hiding to retrieve his dog is worth helping in Andy’s world, and the excitement begins. Rosenfelt’s stories are always character driven and watching Andy and company go from jam to jam is always entertaining. While his bad guys are always bad, they won’t keep you up at night a la Hannibal Lecter, and his good guys will always make you smile.

There is a happily ever after in this book as in all of Rosenfelt’s novels, and this is the perfect time for the reader to get lost in a positive ending.


​-Beverly


​Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - July 7, 2020

Genre: Legal Thriller

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Truth be told, I have not read every book in Levine’s series featuring attorney Jake Lassiter. I am not sure why, and I just might go back and catch up on those I missed. Jake is an interesting character, and like Rosenfelt’s Andy Carpenter and Coben’s Myron Bolitar, he surrounds himself with equally interesting people. His fiancé, Melissa, and his nephew, Kip, feature heavily in Cheater’s Game as Jake tries to save Kip from himself.

The plot of this latest book is so timely that it is almost uncomfortable. Twenty year old Kip, who was raised by Jake since Jake's sister deposited the very young child on his doorstep, is exceptionally intelligent and seemingly equally naive. Kip gets involved with a wealthy con man who acts as a mentor and convinces him to join his business. He has Kip help him in conning millions of dollars out of parents who want to insure that their children will be accepted into the finest colleges in the country. In fact, with Kip's expertise in taking the SAT’s, which he does for the clients' sons and daughters, the young people are accepted into the schools of their choice. Everyone is happy...except for the government.

When his “mentor” cuts a deal with the government and throws Kip under the bus, Uncle Jake takes on his most difficult challenge yet. He must convince a jury to find Kip not guilty, even though the government has a rock solid case. Adding to the stress is Jake’s health issues, which cause him migraines, memory lapses and dizzy spells. Jake is suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition that many former football players are dealing with now. Jake, a former Miami Dolphin, is taking part in medical trials headed up by his fiancé.

This “ripped from the headlines” legal thriller is easy to read as a stand alone even though it is the fourteen book of his series.

-Beverly


​Publisher - Herald Square Publishing
Date of Publication - April 20, 2020