The Spring by Melissa Larsen

This one started as a slow burn and ended with me sacrificing sleep to people who don’t even exist.

The Spring started slowly enough that I wasn't quite sure where it was taking me. I wasn't even sure if the title was referencing the season, a gadget, or a body of water. Several hours later, it was 2 a.m., I had about fifty pages left, and my body staged an intervention. I woke up this morning with my iPad on the floor. Of course, I immediately finished those last pages.

Shay has never had an easy life. After a terrible childhood, she was taken in and eventually adopted by Alma, the mother of her best friend, Phoebe. Now Alma can no longer care for herself, and Shay is working three jobs to pay for Alma's care facility. Meanwhile, Shay and Phoebe haven't spoken in five years. Then, out of the blue, Phoebe calls.

She's living in California with Daniel, a wealthy and charismatic man, and it quickly becomes obvious that something is wrong. Phoebe buys Shay a plane ticket and asks her to come. But by the time Shay arrives in California, Phoebe has disappeared. 

And a woman's body has washed up on the coast.

This one definitely takes its time getting started, but once the pieces began falling into place, I was hooked. Shay was a character I liked immediately. She's carrying an enormous amount of responsibility, particularly when it comes to Alma, and her complicated relationship with Phoebe makes sense. They may have been estranged for five years, but Phoebe was once Shay's best friend. When Phoebe asks for help, Shay can't walk away.

There were several times when I desperately wanted Shay to develop a slightly stronger sense of self-preservation. When your gut is telling you something is off, that's a million years of evolution telling you to get out of there. You should listen.

Daniel made me uncomfortable almost immediately. He's charming, wealthy, and very good at uncovering people's secrets. There is also a group of underage girls, possibly runaways, living on his property, and his apparent control over them gave the whole situation an unsettling, almost cult-like atmosphere. Watching him manipulate Shay only made that feeling stronger. I knew there was something wrong with Daniel. I just couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

Then there's Liv, the surly teenager who picks Shay up at the airport. She has plenty of teenage attitude, but oddly enough, I trusted her almost immediately. Apparently my fictional-character survival instincts are alive and well.

I did have a hunch about the identity of the murderer, but that didn't spoil the ending for me at all. I may have suspected one piece of the puzzle, but I did not anticipate how all of those pieces would eventually fit together. I don't want to spoil anything, but let's just say it was sleep-deprivation great.

The slow beginning is really my only criticism, and considering this book eventually kept me reading until 2 a.m., I'd say it recovered nicely. The tension builds steadily, the atmosphere becomes increasingly sinister, and by the final stretch, I needed answers ... and I needed to know whether Shay was going to survive long enough to get them.

Five stars. It started as a slow burn and ended with me sacrificing sleep to people who don't even exist. That's about as good an endorsement as I can give.

Content warnings should include murder, violence, difficult childhood/child abuse and neglect, coercive control and manipulation, and potentially exploitative situations involving underage/runaway girls.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for providing an advance copy of The Spring in exchange for an honest review.

 

Still Mad by Ava Strong (Lily Dawn #5)

Now we have sacrifices to storms. Lily and Xander might want to reconsider their travel plans. 

I just finished listening to Still Mad by Ava Strong, the fifth book in the Lily Dawn series, and this series continues to be exactly what I want for my commute. This time, Lily Dawn and Xander Jackson are hunting someone who apparently thinks storms need human sacrifices.

Because apparently murder in paradise wasn’t already dramatic enough.

People are being killed as storms approach, and Lily and Xander have to figure out who is behind the deaths before the weather (and the body count) gets worse. The premise was creepy, strange, and just different enough to keep things interesting.

I’m still really enjoying Lily and Xander as a team. Their relationship has been developing gradually throughout the series, and I like that progression. It gives me something to stay invested in beyond whichever whacko happens to be terrorizing the islands this week.

Tim Alexander continues to do a very good job with the narration. His style is easy to follow, he doesn’t go overboard trying to give every character a wildly different voice, and he lets the story do the work. At this point, his narration has become part of what makes this series such a good commute listen for me.

Still Mad was another solid entry in the series. It didn’t keep me up all night, and the audiobook did manage to remain in the car, but I was always happy to hit play again when I got behind the wheel. 

Because apparently paradise has a surprisingly high whacko-per-capita rate.

Still Here by Ava Strong (Lily Dawn #4)

 Come for the tropical paradise. Stay because a body is tied to the mast.

I am going to be sad when my perfect commute series comes to an end. Still Here is the fourth book in Ava Strong’s Lily Dawn series, and once again, it delivered exactly what I wanted: an entertaining mystery, a strong female protagonist, a partner I enjoy, and enough murder in paradise to make me seriously question the Caribbean tourism board.

This time, people are turning up dead and tied to the masts of boats. FBI agents Lily Dawn and Xander Jackson are called in to figure out who is doing the killing and stop them before yet another body becomes part of the nautical décor. Naturally, things get complicated.

Their investigation leads them to a religious cult with possible ties to the murders. Normally, I might have rolled my eyes a little at the sudden appearance of a creepy cult, but it works here because of the larger storyline running through the series. Lily’s sister, Cara, disappeared years ago, and Lily has never stopped looking for her. We learned earlier in the series that Cara had been delving into the occult before she vanished. So now the questions start piling up.

Is the cult involved in the murders? Does the occult connection actually mean something? Is the old witch we found out about in the last book involved? Could any of this lead Lily closer to finding out what happened to Cara?

Or is it all coincidence, and Lily and Xander are dealing with yet another nutjob killing people in paradise?

I liked the uncertainty. Strong gives us enough possibilities that I wasn't immediately convinced I knew where the story was going. Better yet, the Cara storyline makes the cult feel like part of the larger series rather than something tossed into this particular book just to make things creepier.

I also continue to really like Lily and Xander together. Lily is strong without being obnoxiously invincible, and Xander's personality plays well against hers. Their partnership has become one of my favorite parts of the series, and after four books, I'm invested in both of them, I wonder if they'll get together for real, and I need to find out what happened to Cara.

Tim Alexander's narration continues to work beautifully for me. He doesn't perform vocal gymnastics trying to make every character sound wildly different. His narration is clear, natural, and easy to follow, which is exactly what I want when I'm listening in the car.

Four stars for Still Here. It didn't escape the car and keep me up all night, but it didn't need to. This series has found its niche in my reading life: solid mysteries, likable characters, an ongoing mystery I'm invested in, and just enough tropical murder to make my commute considerably more interesting.

Apparently paradise is dangerous. Good thing I don't drive that far.

Nothing Human Left by Logan Hart

When everyone might be crazy, picking the murderer gets complicated.

I finished Nothing Human Left at about one o'clock in the morning. That should tell you something right there. Forget the dust bunnies. This one stole sleep. The story begins slowly, but give it time. The author is laying the groundwork, and once that foundation starts cracking, good luck putting the book down.

Grace was raised by her single mother, Marge, whose problems go considerably beyond your average overprotective parent. Marge is obsessed with keeping Grace safe. Every time Grace spends time outside or away from her mother, Marge checks her from head to toe for bugs and other dangers. Sometimes she refuses to let Grace leave the house at all. Because according to Marge, there are monsters out there. She calls them People Faces. They look human, but they aren't, and Marge believes that only she and Grace can see them.

As a child, Grace witnesses increasingly frightening behavior from her mother, including an incident in which Marge becomes convinced that a man she has been seeing is a People Face and tries to kill him in front of Grace. Eventually, Marge's delusions, and the murders she is accused of committing, land her in prison. Years later, Grace is left with the aftermath of a deeply traumatic childhood and gaps in her memory. Then Marge insists that she is innocent of the murders that put her behind bars, and Grace begins looking for the truth. 

The story alternates between present-day Grace and her childhood, and the two timelines work extremely well. Normally, jumping back and forth in time can make me twitchy, but here it serves a purpose. We are discovering Grace's past along with her, and what she remembers, or doesn't remember, matters.

What I particularly loved was how thoroughly the author made me question everyone. I started out absolutely convinced that Marge was dangerously delusional. Then I began questioning Grace's perception of events. Before long, I was side-eyeing her aunt Vivian and cousin Desi, too. At some point, apparently nobody in this family was getting through my imaginary psychological screening. The plot becomes increasingly disturbing and twisty as Grace searches for answers. Just when I thought I had some idea of what was happening, something shifted. I was completely blindsided.

This is psychological horror that gets under your skin. The idea of People Faces is creepy enough by itself, but the real horror comes from never being completely certain what (or whom) you should believe. It left me questioning what was real right along with Grace.

My only caution is that the beginning does take some time to build. Don't expect the story to come screaming out of the gate. For me, though, that slow buildup paid off enormously. By the latter part of the book, putting it down was no longer an option. Hence the 1 a.m. bedtime. And this book is DARK. It is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Content warnings include murder, violence, gore, childhood trauma, child abuse/endangerment, mental illness and delusions, and attempted murder.

Readers who enjoy dark psychological horror, unreliable memories, dysfunctional families, disturbing secrets, and mysteries that keep shifting underneath them should find plenty to love here. If you need likable, well-adjusted people making sensible life choices, however, you may have wandered into the wrong book.

Five stars. Nothing Human Left disturbed me, fooled me, and cost me sleep. With very little adaptation, I could easily see this becoming one seriously unsettling, award-worthy horror movie.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

 

Still Awake by Ava Strong (Lily Dawn #3)

 Resort service, cocktails, and the coroner. Right up my alley.

I have officially found my perfect commute audiobook series.

Still Awake is the third book in Ava Strong’s Lily Dawn series, and Lily and her partner, Xander Jackson, are rapidly becoming one of my favorite crime-fighting teams. Lily is a strong female protagonist without being insufferable about it, while Xander is a hotheaded Southern boy who seems to quite enjoy getting on her nerves. They work well together, they annoy each other just enough to keep things entertaining, and I genuinely like spending time with both of them. This case, however, was DARK.

Someone is murdering people at various resorts and then posing their bodies so they appear to still be alive. They're sitting around looking like perfectly normal vacationers until some unsuspecting resort employee wanders over to see if they need anything. Another drink, perhaps?

Surprise! Dead person.

At that point, they're really not requiring much of anything except the coroner.

It is a wonderfully creepy premise because the victims are left right out in the open. There's no body buried in the woods or stuffed into a trunk. They're simply sitting there among vacationers who have no idea they're sharing the resort with a corpse.

Lily and Xander once again made the story work for me. I especially like Lily because she's capable and determined without falling into that particular fictional-female-investigator trap where "strong" apparently means "obnoxious to everyone within a ten-mile radius." Xander's temper and Southern-boy personality make him a great counterbalance, and their banter adds some much-needed lightness to an otherwise very dark case.

The audiobook continues to be exactly what I want for my commute. It kept me interested, was easy to follow while driving, and apparently I liked it enough that it escaped the car once. That's significant. My four-star audiobooks generally remain obediently in the vehicle.

Four stars. Still Awake didn't keep me up at night, but it did escape the car, and I've already downloaded the next book in the series. At this point, Lily and Xander can ride along with me anytime.

Preferably somewhere without a resort.

Or suspiciously motionless people sitting beside the pool.

The #1 Lawyer by James Patterson and Nancy Allen

 Never ask, "What else can go wrong?"

Stafford Lee Penney is the #1 lawyer in Biloxi, Mississippi. He’s successful, confident, and very good at what he does. Then his life begins to fall apart.

Spectacularly.

After Stafford Lee wins a high-profile murder trial, things start going wrong: personally, professionally, and pretty much everywhere else. At some point, I stopped wondering whether things could get worse and started wondering exactly what fresh disaster Patterson and Allen were going to throw at the poor man next.

For the most part, I liked Stafford Lee. I understood his anger and frustration as his carefully constructed life crumbled around him. That said, there were a few times when he behaved like a spoiled two-year-old, and I wanted to tell him to pull up his big-boy lawyer pants and deal with it. Sympathy only goes so far.

The mystery itself kept me guessing. I had my suspicions that the murders were connected to one particular man (or at least to someone associated with him), but I was never completely sure. I happily followed the clues, changed my mind a few times, and thought I had at least a reasonable handle on things. Yeah, I didn’t.

The ending completely blindsided me. Those are my favorite kinds of endings: the ones that make sense once everything is revealed but still manage to catch me looking in entirely the wrong direction.

The #1 Lawyer was a good, solid four-star read for me. It kept me engaged, I wanted to know what happened next, and I enjoyed the combination of courtroom drama, murder, and Stafford Lee’s spectacularly unraveling life. It didn’t keep me awake half the night, but household chores were definitely in danger.

The dust bunnies are history.

The Pendleton Family's Guide to Accidental Murder by Brianna Heath

Nothing says family togetherness quite like Grandpa’s 91st birthday, a house full of criminals, and a dead body in the fountain. 

The entire Pendleton family is gathering at the family estate for Grandpa’s birthday, and Em is trying to keep everything under control. She is the organizer of the family, the one with the spreadsheets, the schedules, and apparently the ability to keep a collection of grifters, thieves, and contract killers functioning as something resembling a family. She’s the only Pendleton who hasn’t chosen a criminal “specialty” of her own, preferring to stay in the background and help everyone else with theirs. Unfortunately, everyone arrives early.

For Em, this may be the first crime of the weekend.

Then a body turns up in the fountain. The man has been stabbed, nobody seems to know who he is or why he was there, and considering the Pendleton family résumé, the suspect list is rather inconveniently close to home.

Running alongside the murder mystery is a second storyline beginning several weeks earlier, when an inept private investigator continues his predecessor’s legacy of digging into the Pendletons. He is determined to expose the family and finally bring at least one of them to justice. The two storylines gradually work their way toward each other, adding another layer to the mystery without giving away too much too soon.

Em was easily my favorite character. I loved that the person holding this entire criminal enterprise together is armed primarily with organizational skills and spreadsheets. I also found it hysterical that she can manage the complicated lives of her relatives but cannot be bothered to remember the names of her nieces and nephews, referring to them simply as Things 1 through 4.

Even better, Em is genuinely appalled to discover that members of her family are lying to her.

Ma’am. They are criminals.

The humor throughout the book is tongue-in-cheek rather than slapstick, and much of it comes from the Pendletons treating completely abnormal situations as ordinary family business. That worked very well for me.

The mystery itself was solid and kept me interested. I wanted to know who the dead man was, why he was on the property, and, perhaps most importantly, which member of this highly suspicious family put him in the fountain.

My biggest complaint was the romance. There were moments when I wanted the story to stop worrying about who might be attracted to whom, whose feelings were getting hurt, and return to the more pressing matter at hand.

Priorities, people! There is a dead man in the fountain!

Those moments occasionally earned an eye roll from me because the mystery and the wonderfully dysfunctional Pendleton family were more than enough to hold my attention. I didn’t need the romantic elements competing for page space while I was busy trying to solve a murder.

Still, this was a good, solid four-star read. It kept me entertained and curious, and I genuinely enjoyed Em and the bizarre family she somehow manages to keep functioning. It didn’t keep me up past my bedtime, and the dust bunnies remained in moderate danger, but I had fun.

Readers who enjoy quirky family mysteries, dark humor, criminal hijinks, LGBTQ+ representation, and some romance mixed with their murder should have a good time with the Pendletons. Readers looking for a darker crime thriller or a tightly focused murder investigation may find the romantic side plots a little more distracting.

Content warnings should include murder, violence, drowning/death by drowning, and criminal activity. Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

Still Hope by Ava Strong (Lily Dawn #2)

Nothing says "island paradise" quite like a treasure map leading to a body.

I think I've found myself another audiobook series for my various commutes! 

Still Hope is the second book in Ava Strong’s Lily Dawn series, and this one was another solid four-star listen for me. It didn’t make me sit in the car after I got home or keep listening when I had other things to do, but it kept me entertained and made the drive go by much faster. That’s exactly what I want from a commuting companion.

This time, FBI agent Lily Dawn and her partner, Xander, are hunting a serial killer who has come up with a particularly creepy calling card: treasure maps leading to the locations of his buried victims on the islands. Because apparently simply murdering people wasn’t disturbing enough. We needed arts and crafts too.

I continue to like Lily. She’s smart, capable, and flawed enough to feel human. I also like her partnership with Xander, and I especially enjoyed the fact that the investigation gave us plenty of suspects. Lily and Xander knew who the killer was several times. So did I. We were all wrong together.

That was actually one of the things I enjoyed most about the story. There were enough believable possibilities to keep me guessing without making the eventual solution feel like it came completely out of nowhere.

Tim Alexander returned as narrator, and I think I’ve figured out exactly why I enjoy his narration so much: he doesn’t perform vocal gymnastics. He’ll change his pitch a little or use an accent when it makes sense, but he never goes overboard trying to give every character a wildly different voice. His narration is smooth, natural, and very easy to follow, which is particularly important when I’m listening while driving.

Four stars for Still Hope. A creepy premise, a solid mystery, characters I’m happy to spend more time with, and a narrator who knows he doesn’t have to sound like seventeen different people.

Lily Dawn can ride with me again. I've already reserved the next in the series. 

Buried Embers by Alex Sigmore

 Calla Rowe tried to leave fire investigation behind. Then the fire came looking for her.

When I saw Buried Embers by Alex Sigmore available on NetGalley, I hit the request button so fast I may have left scorch marks. I've read several of Sigmore's books and thoroughly enjoyed them, so my expectations were high. Apparently, I needn't have worried. I found this to be a five-star, I'll-sleep-when-I'm-dead kind of read.

Calla Rowe was once an ATF fire investigator, until a fire killed her partner and mentor and changed everything. Haunted by his death and convinced she needs to get away from the life she once knew, Calla retreats to a remote cabin near the small town of Pinecrest, Oregon. Then a wildfire breaks out nearby, and Calla's expertise tells her something isn't right. Before long, she's back doing what she does best: investigating fire. And that leads to questioning everything she thought she knew about the blaze that killed her partner.

One of my favorite things about this book was the fire investigation itself. I read a lot of crime thrillers, and let's face it, I encounter plenty of serial killers with ropes, knives, guns, and assorted personality disorders. Wildfire and arson investigation gave this one a completely different feel. The details about fire behavior and determining how and why a fire started were fascinating without overwhelming the story. Calla's respect for the environment was another aspect of her character I particularly appreciated.

I wasn't completely sold on Calla at first. She spends a little too much time in the beginning reminding herself (and me) that she's been running away from her problems. At some point I wanted to tell her to get a therapist, and if she already had one, get another. Problems don't generally solve themselves through prolonged wallowing. 

Fortunately, Calla eventually comes to much the same conclusion, and that's when she really grew on me. Once there was work to be done, I saw exactly why she had been so good at her job. She's smart and highly skilled, respects the law, knows fire, and has a stubborn streak that serves her very well when things get dangerous.

I also really liked Beks from the FBI. She provides both friendship and professional support, including access to resources Calla no longer has after leaving the ATF. Their relationship worked particularly well for me because Beks doesn't swoop in and solve everything. Calla still has to do the work; Beks simply gives her a connection to the professional world Calla left behind.

And that plot ... Sigmore got me. I didn't figure it out. Even better, the mystery becomes bigger as the story progresses, and while I got enough answers to feel satisfied, I was left with the distinct impression that there is much more to Calla's story. If Sigmore decides to go through that door, I'll be the first in line with my book money.

Buried Embers should appeal to readers who enjoy fast-paced crime thrillers, strong female investigators, law-enforcement stories, outdoor settings, and mysteries involving specialized investigative work. The wildfire and arson angle makes it stand out in a very crowded thriller field.

Content warnings include murder, death by fire/burning, arson, wildfire danger, grief and trauma, and peril.

Five stars. Alex Sigmore cost me sleep again. Apparently, I'm okay with that.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of Buried Embers in exchange for my honest review.

 

Still Alive by Ava Strong (Lily Dawn #1)

I came for the serial killer. I may stay for Lily Dawn. I will stay for Tim Alexander.

I just finished listening to Still Alive by Ava Strong, the first book in the Lily Dawn series, and this one gets a solid four stars from me.

Lily Dawn is an FBI agent sent to the Bahamas to meet her new partner and investigate a disturbing string of murders. Someone is killing brunettes at an alarming rate, and Lily has more than a professional interest in finding the person responsible. Years ago, her sister disappeared in Aruba. She was never found, and Lily’s parents still blame Lily for what happened.

That history gives Lily some baggage. She’s strong, capable, and good at her job, but she’s also flawed. Her sister’s disappearance still affects her, and this particular case hits much closer to home than she would probably like. She’s exactly the kind of protagonist I enjoy following: smart and tough without being superhuman.

The story itself was solid and kept me interested throughout. It didn’t quite reach the “audiobook has escaped the car and followed me into the house” level, but I never lost interest. More importantly, by the end I was already considering book two. That’s always a good sign with the first book in a series.

And I have to give a big round of applause to Tim Alexander, the narrator. He was excellent. No strange mispronunciations. No ridiculous voices. No stretching his vocal cords into places vocal cords were never intended to go. He simply narrated the book really, really well. Apparently that shouldn’t feel remarkable, but after listening to enough audiobooks, I have learned otherwise. Alexander understands that narrating an audiobook is not an Olympic event.

Four stars for a good mystery, a strong but nicely flawed new protagonist, and a narrator I would happily listen to again. In fact, whether I move on to book two may depend heavily on whether he comes along for the ride.

One Good Eye by Kevin Wade

One good eye, several bad secrets, and absolutely nobody telling the whole truth.

One Good Eye by Kevin Wade was a solid, engaging read from beginning to end. It didn't keep me up half the night insisting on "just one more chapter," which is generally my requirement for that fifth star, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Jeep Mullane is the police chief of Center Brookville and the kind of character I immediately like: a genuinely good guy who wants to do the right thing but understands that occasionally a rule may need to bend a little to get there. When Nicole, a former Suffolk County police officer, comes to Jeep about an assault on his childhood friend Jenny Racine, she puts him in a difficult position. Jenny doesn't want him involved, and technically, the crime isn't even in his jurisdiction.

But Jenny has more going on than she's willing to admit.

Years earlier, Jenny was in a terrible car accident that cost her an eye. Questions still surround what happened that night, including who was actually driving, and now someone is using the past to blackmail her. Meanwhile, another thread involves the death of Carl Stubblefield, brother of Jenny's husband, Aaron. Carl died in what appears to have been a motorcycle accident. But was it really an accident?

Wade tells the story through alternating timelines, moving between the present investigation and incidents from the past that shaped Jeep and Jenny into the people they are today. I'm sometimes wary of books that jump back and forth in time, but this structure worked very well for me. The past chapters weren't simply there to hide information until the author was ready to reveal it. They added context to the relationships, explained old wounds and loyalties, and gradually filled in pieces of the larger puzzle without becoming confusing.

I particularly liked Jeep. He's decent, loyal, and believable, with just enough willingness to operate in the gray areas to make him interesting. I also enjoyed his prickly friendship with retired Nassau County detective Ron Arbogast. Jenny was more complicated for me. I certainly sympathized with what she'd endured, and the past timeline helped me understand her, but I never completely warmed to her. She could be self-absorbed, and I occasionally thought Jeep might want to reconsider his choice of childhood friends.

The mysteries themselves kept me guessing. I didn't figure everything out before the reveals, but more importantly, the answers felt like a natural result of the story Wade had been building rather than twists dropped in simply to surprise me. The plot moved steadily, the different threads worked together well, and I never felt lost despite the number of characters, relationships, and events involved.

This was a very good four-star read for me. It didn't have me sacrificing sleep or abandoning everything else until I knew the answers, but it held my interest from start to finish and gave me characters I wouldn't mind spending more time with, especially Jeep. Readers who enjoy character-driven crime fiction, cold secrets coming back to cause trouble, morally decent cops who occasionally recognize that rules aren't carved in granite, and mysteries that unfold across past and present should find plenty to enjoy here.

Content warnings: assault and violence against women, death, fatal motorcycle and boating accidents, and infertility.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for providing me with an advance copy of One Good Eye in exchange for an honest review.

 

Cult Leaders: Their Sinister Techniques and Goals by Al Cimino

Apparently, ‘charismatic leader’ is sometimes just ‘control freak’ with better branding. 

I don't often read nonfiction, but somehow ended up with a change of pace. I picked up Cult Leaders: Their Sinister Techniques and Goals by Al Cimino as an audiobook because I’ve always been fascinated by cults, particularly what draws people into them and makes them stay.

This book doesn’t really answer the first part of that question. Instead, Cimino focuses primarily on the cult leaders themselves: the techniques they use to gain control, maintain it, and manipulate the people who follow them.

And wow. Humans can be truly awful.

The book looks at a number of different cults and their leaders, including several I had never heard of before. Obviously, it would be impossible to cover every cult and every charismatic charlatan who decided that what the world really needed was someone else telling everyone how to live. But Cimino provides a broad enough selection to make the patterns painfully clear.

Again and again, leaders identify the things their followers hold most dear: family, relationships, faith, possessions, independence. They then use those very things to manipulate them. Often, those things are gradually stripped away, leaving followers increasingly dependent on the group and its leader. And disturbingly often, sexual exploitation becomes part of the equation.

It’s sickening, but it’s also fascinating to see how similar the methods can be even when the groups themselves are very different.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narration was excellent. Considering some of the material, I’m impressed that the narrator managed to simply present the facts without sounding as disgusted as I frequently felt while listening. I’m not sure I could have managed the same restraint.

I’m giving this one four stars. It’s informative, accessible, and covers enough different groups to provide a solid introduction to the subject. Someone already deeply familiar with cults and coercive control may want something more comprehensive or psychological, but for someone beginning to research cult leaders and the methods they use to maintain control, this is a very good place to start.

Four stars, and further proof that charisma should occasionally come with a warning label.

Tear It Down by Nick Petrie (Peter Ash #4)

 Peter should have just stayed in the truck. But nooo....

I just finished Tear It Down by Nick Petrie, and once again, Peter has proven himself to be one of my favorite trouble magnets. I started it today. I finished it today. I'll be up half the night getting things done I should have done earlier. Oh, well. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

This time, Peter heads to Tennessee as a favor to June, who has asked him to check on her friend Wanda. Wanda is a photographer, and and Peter arrived at her home to find someone has rather aggressively introduced her home to a dump truck. And not accidentally. I'd say that was a pretty big clue someone has an issue.

Peter arrives intending to help figure out what's going on, which would probably be enough excitement for most people. But this is Peter Ash. Before long, his truck is stolen by Eli, a desperate young man with plenty of problems of his own. Now Peter has two very different situations demanding his attention, and naturally, he can't leave either one alone.

That's one of the things I love about Peter's character. He doesn't go looking for people to rescue. Trouble simply wanders into his path, waves hello, and hands him a detailed itinerary.

Nick Petrie does a terrific job of keeping both parts of the story moving while gradually pulling everything together. There is plenty of action, plenty of danger, and enough unanswered questions to make "one more chapter" a very bad decision. Peter's white static is still there, adding another layer to a character who is already much more interesting than your standard tough-guy hero. He's smart, capable, damaged, decent, and occasionally terrifying to people who richly deserve it. My kind of guy.

Five stars for Tear It Down. Peter Ash went to Tennessee to help a friend of a friend. A dump truck went through a house, his own truck got stolen, and everything went downhill from there.

Seriously, Peter. Next time, stay in the truck.

To The Hilt by Dick Francis

Some people have comfort food. I have a Scottish painter, an embezzled fortune, and a brewery on the brink of disaster. 

I swear I have read To the Hilt at least twenty times. Maybe more. At this point, I've stopped counting. But when I want something I know will be good, something I can pick up and immediately disappear into, I find myself reaching for it again.

Alexander Kinloch is a painter who lives alone in a bothy on a Scottish mountainside, happily removed from most of civilization. Then his mother calls to tell him that his stepfather, Sir Ivan Westering, has suffered a heart attack, and Alexander reluctantly comes down from his mountain.

Turns out the heart attack is the least of his worries.

Sir Ivan owns King Alfred's Brewery, and the company is in serious trouble. The finance director has embezzled just about every penny he could get his hands on and disappeared ... and he didn't do it alone. The brewery is facing financial disaster, the bank is breathing down everyone's neck, and Alexander suddenly finds himself involved in a mess of missing money, family complications, questionable loyalties, and people who are definitely not playing nicely.

And because this is Dick Francis, somehow horse racing, fine art, brewery finances, a ceremonial sword, and a painter who would really rather go home to his mountain all fit together perfectly.

But after all these rereads, I've realized the plot isn't really what keeps bringing me back. It's Alexander.

There is something about his character that restores my faith in humanity a little bit every time I read this book. He's intelligent and capable without needing everyone to know it. He isn't particularly interested in wealth, status, or recognition. He's perfectly content with his paintings, his bothy, and his quiet life. But when the people he loves need him, he shows up.

Completely.

Alexander isn't perfect. He's stubborn, unconventional, and occasionally makes decisions that make me want to put my arm around him and gently say, "Perhaps we could THINK about this first?" But underneath all of it is a fundamentally decent human being. He doesn't behave honorably because everyone around him deserves it. He does it because that's simply who he chooses to be.

I already know the secrets. I know where the money went. I know who can and can't be trusted. I know how all the seemingly unrelated pieces eventually fit together. None of that matters.

At this point, I'm not rereading To the Hilt to find out what happens.

I'm going back to spend a little time with Alexander Kinloch.

Five stars. Again. Obviously.

Pawnbroker by Jerry Hatchett

Everybody wants ‘it.’ Nobody will say what ‘it’ is. At this point, I’d confess just to get an explanation.

“Just one more chapter.” Famous last words that never end well for my sleep schedule. Enter awnbroker by Jerry Hatchett. I stayed up way too late last night because I wanted answers, then picked it up again today and finished it as soon as I could. 

Gray Bolton owns a pawnshop, and one day a man walks in, points a gun at him, and demands “it.” There’s just one little problem.

Gray has absolutely no idea what “it” is.

When the situation turns deadly, Gray shoots the man. It appears to be an obvious case of self-defense. His security cameras recorded the whole thing, he gives his statement to the police, and he figures that’s the end of it. Instead, he’s charged with murder. The security video that should prove his innocence is mysteriously wiped. His family is threatened. Powerful people seem determined to get their hands on something they are absolutely convinced Gray possesses.

And STILL nobody will tell the man what “it” is!

That mystery hooked me. Every time I thought I might finally get an answer, Hatchett gave me another reason to keep turning pages. The stakes kept getting higher, the danger moved closer to Gray and his family, and it became very clear that someone powerful was pulling the strings. 

I especially enjoyed being just as much in the dark as Gray. He doesn’t know why his life is suddenly being dismantled, and neither do we. We discover what’s happening right along with him, which made the suspense work beautifully for me.

Five stars for Pawnbroker. It kept me up past my bedtime, brought me right back to the book the next day, and managed to fool me all the way to the answers.

The dust bunnies never stood a chance.

Code Blue by Fern Michaels (Sisterhood #37)

Justice is easy when you’re rich, connected, and apparently immune to things going wrong.

I just finished Code Blue by Fern Michaels, and I’m giving it a solid three stars. On paper, this book should have been right up my alley. A group of wealthy, well-connected women who have the money, resources, and determination to right wrongs and seek justice outside the system is usually more than enough to sign me up. I am always willing to spend some time with women who look at the regular channels of justice, decide they aren’t getting the job done, and take matters into their own hands.

Theresa discovers she has an aunt living in an assisted living community in Arizona. That said aunt is apparently at death’s door. She immediately drops everything and heads to Arizona, only to be turned away by a rude nurse who tells her she’ll have to make an appointment for the next day. When Theresa returns for her appointment, things get even stranger. The woman who is supposedly at death’s door isn’t her aunt at all, while her actual aunt appears to be heavily drugged and confined to a wheelchair.

Well, now we have a mystery.

It soon becomes apparent that something is very wrong at this assisted living facility, and the trail leads to some pretty hefty fraud with connections reaching all the way to the Senate. Naturally, Theresa and her very wealthy, very connected friends decide something needs to be done about it.

I was pretty ambivalent about the characters. They were all okay, except for the two evil nurses. Let’s face it. What’s a thriller without a couple of evil nurses? But I didn’t love anyone, and I didn’t really care enough about anyone to want to throttle them either. The whole thing just wasn’t that...suspenseful.

And I did keep reading. I wanted to see what these women were going to do and how everything would play out. The problem was that I had to completely suspend my entire belief system to get there.

These women don’t just make complicated plans; they make complicated plans that work perfectly. Every. Single. Time. They have the right connections, the right resources, the right people, and apparently the universe itself is cooperating with them. Nobody screws up. Nobody throws an unexpected wrench into the works. Nothing goes spectacularly sideways and forces everyone to scramble. Where’s the fun in that?

For me, a big part of the tension in a thriller comes from wondering whether the characters are actually going to pull something off. I want that moment when the brilliant plan falls apart and everyone has to figure out Plan B while I’m happily turning pages and ignoring whatever productive thing I was supposed to be doing. Code Blue never really gave me that feeling. Once these women decided what they were going to do, they did it.

I also struggled with the writing itself. Despite some very adult subject matter, the prose often felt surprisingly simplistic to me, almost as though the book had been written for a young adult audience. I kept wanting more depth, more complexity, and a little more sophistication from both the storytelling and the characters.

Still, the premise was good enough to keep me reading, and I certainly didn’t hate the book. There’s something undeniably satisfying about watching powerful women use their resources to help people who have been failed by the system. I just wish getting there had been a whole lot messier.

Three stars. A great premise, some satisfying vigilante justice, and a group of women I wanted to root for...but apparently even Murphy’s Law knows better than to mess with rich women with connections.

Peace River Village by Christopher Amato

 "Retirement" is apparently detective-speak for "Sure, I'll get involved."

Practically everything a girl could ask for in a crime thriller: evil guys kidnapping young women to sell them, corruption in the police department, murder, and four retired detectives who discover that apparently retirement is more of a suggestion than an actual rule.

What’s not to love?

The four retired detectives were easily my favorite part of Peace River Village. Art, Jarvis, Lois, and Diego completely won me over. Art and Jarvis are regular old guys who seem perfectly content to enjoy retirement, desperately trying to do absolutely nothing. Lois and Diego, on the other hand, just can’t help themselves. There are crimes happening, people need help, and apparently you can take the detective out of the police department, but you can’t take the police detective out of the retiree.

This isn’t really a whodunit. Because of the way Christopher Amato tells the story, I knew who the bad guys were, and I knew who the dirty cop was. But that didn’t bother me at all. The fun and suspense came from watching the pieces come together.

There is some seriously ugly stuff going on beneath the surface of Peace River Village. Young women are being kidnapped and sold, people are being murdered, and police corruption makes it difficult to know exactly who can be trusted. Fortunately, four people with decades of investigative experience have a hard time ignoring trouble when it lands practically in their laps. Even when two of them would really rather be doing nothing.

And I have to admit, I particularly enjoyed Art and Jarvis dispensing just a teeny bit of home-style justice before the decidedly un-retired police department arrived. Was it strictly by the book?

Well...

They’re retired. They don't have a book anymore.

Peace River Village was a solid four-star read for me. It had plenty of crime and corruption, genuinely nasty villains, likable characters I enjoyed spending time with, and enough action to keep me turning pages. But the four retired detectives are what really made this one work for me.

Apparently retirement just means you get to solve crimes without having to fill out the paperwork.

Past Tense by Lee Child (Jack Reacher #23)

Come for the family history. Stay for the deeply satisfying application of Reacher’s fist.

I really need to stop pretending my audiobooks are going to stay in the car. This one escaped the vehicle more than once because I needed to know what happened next. 

Reacher is on his way to San Diego when he sees a sign for Laconia, New Hampshire. His father, Stan Reacher, was born there, so Reacher does what Reacher does. He changes direction. He decides to poke around a little, see the old family home, and learn something about where his father came from. Naturally, nothing is quite that simple.

While Reacher is digging into his family history, a young Canadian couple named Patty and Shorty are traveling through the area when their car breaks down. They end up stranded at a remote motel where the owners seem helpful enough at first.

Their situation goes from inconvenient to creepy to absolutely horrifying. There are some truly evil people in this world, and Lee Child apparently rounded up several of them and put them in one place. The more I figured out what was happening at that motel, the more horrified I became. It became impossible to hit the pause button.

Of course, those particular evil people have one rather significant problem they don't know about yet. Jack Reacher is in the neighborhood.

Child keeps Reacher's search for his family history and Patty and Shorty's nightmare running separately for much of the book. I knew they had to come together eventually, but I couldn't figure out exactly how he was going to do it. Those evil people needed to meet Reacher. Or, at the very least, Reacher's fist.

I also really enjoyed learning more about Stan Reacher. Reacher goes to Laconia thinking he knows the basic story of his father's childhood and discovers that some of what he knows doesn't add up. One revelation in particular finally explains something that has popped up before in the series: why Stan could never remember his own birthday. I love when a long-running series reaches back and answers a question I didn't even realize I was still carrying around.

And, because this was an audiobook, Scott Brick deserves some of the credit for those five stars. His narration kept me completely invested in both storylines. After spending this many books with Reacher, the voice matters, and Brick did a great job bringing him, and the suspense, to life.

Past Tense gave me everything I want from a Reacher novel: mystery, suspense, truly awful bad guys, some fascinating Reacher family history and the enormous satisfaction of knowing that some very evil people have absolutely no idea who just wandered into their general vicinity.

They really should have picked a different motel.

The Best Wild Idea by Lily Parker (Off Limits #3)

Sometimes you just need a billionaire and a sunset or two. 

Sometimes I want a book that twists my brain into knots, makes me suspicious of everyone, and has me scribbling notes in an attempt to figure out who killed whom. And sometimes I want to go to France with a billionaire. The Best Wild Idea by Lily Parker was exactly what I was in the mood for.

Grant, Silas, and Juliette were best friends throughout college. Eventually, Grant and Juliette fell in love and became engaged, while Silas inherited his father's billion-dollar company. Unfortunately, Silas didn't handle his father's death particularly well. In his grief, he turned into a rich jerk, pushed away the people who cared about him, and badly damaged his friendship with Juliette. Then Grant became terminally ill.

Before he died, Grant made one final request of his best friend. Exactly one year after Grant's death, Silas was to take Juliette on the trip of a lifetime and help her remember how to enjoy living again. There's just one tiny problem. Juliette hates Silas.

Of course, I knew this was a romance when I picked it up. I knew where we were probably headed. There would be forced proximity. There would be feelings. There would be page turning of the decidedly non-plot-related variety. I knew what I had signed up for. And you know what? I enjoyed myself.

I bought the developing relationship between Silas and Juliette. That was important because Grant wasn't some conveniently awful fiancé who needed to be removed from the picture so these two could get together. They both genuinely loved him, and his loss mattered. Juliette is trying to figure out how to have a life after Grant, while Silas has his own regrets to face and relationships to repair.

As for the billionaire lifestyle, I cannot speak to its accuracy. I have never met a billionaire. I have also, somewhat regrettably, never been one. I'm therefore willing to take Lily Parker's word for it. 

But honestly, realism wasn't what I wanted from this book. I wanted something light that didn't require me to think too hard. I wanted to suspend reality for a while, travel somewhere beautiful, picture a gorgeous sunset in Spain, and watch two people who had been through some pretty awful things find their way forward. The Best Wild Idea gave me exactly that.

Was it realistic? I have no idea. Ask a billionaire.

Was it a lovely escape for a few hours? Absolutely.

Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan #5)

Nothing says ‘just one more chapter’ quite like human remains in a septic tank.

I finished Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs at 1 a.m. this morning. That should probably tell you everything you need to know about the rating.

I enjoy Kathy Reichs' books immensely. Give me a strong, intelligent female lead, plenty of forensic science, a complicated mystery, and an author who can keep me three steps behind until she's good and ready to show her cards, and I'm a happy reader. Apparently, I'm also a reader who doesn't need sleep.

This time, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is in Guatemala, helping excavate the remains of 23 people who were "disappeared" during the country's brutal civil war in the early 1980s. It's grim, heartbreaking work, and the fact that the story is rooted in Guatemala's very real history gives this book considerably more weight than your average murder mystery.

But Tempe is a classic overachiever. One collection of human remains is apparently not enough. She's asked to consult on another investigation involving four young women who have disappeared without a trace. Then human remains turn up in a septic tank.

Yes. A septic tank.

I'm just going to give you a moment with that.

Reichs does what she does so well here: she gives us multiple investigations, piles on the forensic evidence, explains the science without making me feel like I accidentally signed up for a graduate-level anthropology course, and somehow makes me believe I'm keeping up with Tempe. 

I wasn't.

I happily followed her around Guatemala, collecting clues and learning fascinating things about bones, decomposition, identification, and forensic anthropology, while Reichs quietly stayed several steps ahead of me. I didn't figure out how everything fit together, and I didn't particularly want to. Half the fun of a Tempe Brennan novel is watching all those seemingly disconnected pieces finally click into place.

There's also something especially powerful about the setting and the cases Reichs chose to bring together. Tempe is helping recover and identify people someone tried to erase from history while young women are disappearing in the present. The past and present sit uncomfortably close to each other throughout the story, giving the mystery an emotional weight beyond simply figuring out whodunit.

And through all of it, Tempe remains exactly the kind of protagonist I love. She's smart, capable, curious, stubborn, and very human. She doesn't magically know the answers. She follows the evidence, trusts the science, asks questions, makes connections, and occasionally walks straight into situations that make me wonder whether forensic anthropologists come with a self-preservation setting that Tempe has simply turned off.

This proves to me that intelligence and common sense are sometimes mutually exclusive.

Grave Secrets had everything I want from Kathy Reichs: fascinating forensic science, a strong female lead, a complicated investigation, history woven into the mystery, and enough twists to keep me happily clueless until Reichs decided I was finally allowed to know what was going on.

And it kept me reading until 1 a.m.

Oh, well. I'll sleep when I'm dead.

The Witness by Nora Roberts

One woman versus the Russian Mafia? Umm...Sure.

There are five-star books that make me forget I own a mop, and then there are very good four-star books that allow the dust bunnies to remain at least mildly concerned. The Witness falls into the second category.

At sixteen, Elizabeth Fitch makes one spectacularly bad decision involving a fake ID and a nightclub and ends up witnessing a Russian Mafia hit. Suddenly, she's running for her life. Over the next twelve years, she changes identities, moves repeatedly, and does everything possible to stay one step ahead of the people who still want her dead.

Eventually, as Abigail Lowery, she settles in a secluded home in Arkansas, where she has security systems, a very large dog, and absolutely no interest in making friends. Naturally, this catches the attention of Brooks Gleason, the local chief of police.

I genuinely liked both Abigail and Brooks. Abigail is brilliant, socially awkward, extraordinarily cautious, and equipped with an eidetic memory that has helped keep her alive for twelve years. Brooks is persistent without being obnoxious about it, and I enjoyed watching him slowly work his way past the walls Abigail has built around herself. Their relationship gave the book a warmth I wasn't necessarily expecting from a story involving witnesses, murder, and the Russian Mafia.

Eventually, though, I had to ask my disbelief to go sit quietly in a corner.

Do I believe an extraordinarily intelligent woman who has spent twelve years preparing and protecting herself could be a formidable opponent? Absolutely. Do I believe one woman with an eidetic memory can essentially take on a major criminal organization and bring it down?

Ehhhhhh ... Okay, Nora. I'll go with it. 

There was plenty of suspense to keep me interested, but The Witness never became a book that required a lot from me. I didn't need a notebook. I didn't need to keep track of seventeen suspects and four timelines. I didn't spend half the night saying, "Just one more chapter." It was exactly what I wanted today: something suspenseful but light enough that I could simply relax and enjoy the ride.

And yes, there are the requisite Nora Roberts sweaty sex scenes. They're not my thing, but I knew perfectly well what I was getting into when I picked up a Nora Roberts romantic suspense novel. Pages turn. I turned them. 

The Witness didn't keep me up all night, and it didn't save the dust bunnies from their eventual fate, so it doesn't quite make five stars on my personal rating system. But it was a very good, satisfying, feel-good romantic suspense with two characters I genuinely enjoyed spending time with.

And as a bonus? The majority of the story takes place in Arkansas. One more state down in my 50 States Challenge! Apparently all I needed was Nora Roberts, a brilliant woman in hiding, and the Russian Mafia.