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Daughter of Mine | Megan Miranda | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS* | ARC

The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish and The Only Survivors.

when Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake's longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she's warily drawn back to the town - and people - she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel's not the only relic of the past to a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge...including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother's disappearance.

Hazel Sharp returns to Mirror Lake after the death of her father, Perry Holt. She reunited with her brothers, Gage and Caden, but their relationships with each other have a lot to leave desired. When Hazel receives word from her uncle Roy, Perry's brother and the family lawyer, that Perry has left her his home in the will, she is shocked.

The shock mostly comes from the fact that she and Perry, along with Gage and Caden, are not related biologically. Hazel's mother, Libby, married Perry when she was young and then suddenly disappeared when Hazel was a teenager, vanishing as if she were a ghost.

Due to several months without rain in the forecast in the small mountain town, Mirror Lake is losing its water, revealing the secrets buried underneath their waters. On the day of Perry's memorial, a car was removed from the water, and the following weekend when she returned to help her brothers clear up the house, watching her niece swim, Skyler ultimately locates another car under the swim platform in the alcove behind the Holt home.

The car, once removed, once belonged to Libby Sharp, and the suitcases that she took with her were located in the trunk of the car. But nothing else was found inside. Hazel later realizes that the first car found in the water belonged to Perry's first wife, once believed to have died in a biking accident when she hit a tree.

Hazel, despite wanting to return to her normal life, feels as if something crazy is happening in the town and within her home. She often feels the remnants of a person being in her home before she got there, and it's beginning to create paranoia for her.

In the meantime, she also rekindles a former romance with Nico, the son of one of Perry's partners in the police department, whose father had killed himself. Gage, Nico and Hazel once found a secret room hidden inside the Pritchard home where photos, of crime scenes, had once been found. Nico has kept that secret for his father for a long time, and soon enough, Hazel begins to question whether or not the elder Pritchard or even the younger Nico, were involved in the deaths of Audrey and Libby.

Ultimately, Hazel is able to decipher that it was neither Caden, Gage or Nico involved in the deaths of both of these women, and the disappearance of Jamie, her former best friend and Caden's wife. Jamie has been missing for several days, and is likely unaware that her own mother had died of an overdose.

Hazel is able to figure out that Jamie is being hidden away in the Mirror Lake Motel, and she was believed to have been involved in the death of a missing teenager, who was found near the Barrel, an overlook by the lake. It is discovered that he had snuck up on her while she was waiting for Hazel to bring Skyler to her, believing that someone was after her. In a moment of haste, Jamie pushed the teen to his deathg and ran, unaware that she had just killed a teenager.

And then she realizes that Caden and Gage weren't involved in some murder scheme with their father. It was Roy. Aubrey was intending to leave Perry for Roy, and that the two of them would be together. Perry, unaware of her plans to leave him for his brother, runs after her with the kids in the car, and unable to stop, she hit the car while riding her bicycle and died. Perry attempted to keep that fact hidden, as it had been an accident regardless of what happened, but Caden was riddled with guilt over what he witnessed inside of the car.

After confroting Hazel, Roy attempts to get rid of her but Caden arrives, understanding that he is no longer the family member he once thought he was and tells Hazel to run. Caden is shot in the process, and she eventually leads Roy into the water, where she is able to ride the currents to get away, but he is unable to withstand them and goes under the water.

In the end, Caden, Gage and Hazel get rid of their angst for each other, as Hazel was no more involved with her mother's leaving. Caden believed it to be his fault that she left, after he confessed to her what had happened to his mother. Libby, under the impression that her husband was involved in his first wife's murder and cover up of her death, attempted to flee, along with finding out that Roy was skimming funds from his work. In the end, Roy got rid of her, and made it seem that she had taken everything from Perry and disappeared, leaving her daughter behind.

The siblings now have an understanding of each other. The Holt family home will now be owned by the three of them, with Caden's family living in the home for the time being, and Hazel can begin to heal and move on, along with continuing what was once a hidden relationship between Nico and Hazel.

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Bad Summer People | Emma Rosenblum | Published 2023 | *SPOILERS*

None of them would claim to be a particularly good person. But who among them is actually capable of murder?

Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker rule the town of Salcombe, Fire Island every summer. They hold sway on the beach and the tennis court, and are adept at manipulating people to get what they want. Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island since childhood, despite lifelong grudges and numerous secrets. Their one single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he's the tennis pro-or someone else's husband. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other.

Until a body is discovered, face down off the side of the boardwalk.

Stylish, subversive and darkly comedic, this is a story of what's lurking under the surface of picture-perfect lives in a place where everyone has something to hide.

Salcombe is a tight-knit community on Fire Island off the shores of Long Island, New York. The majority of the town's residents have owned their real estate for years, only passing it down through generations that come after them.

But like most smallt owns, Salcombe isn't without its gossip. Filled almost entirely with the privileged of Manhattan's Upper East Side, gossip, hatred and cattiness is something that occurs daily. Most of the occupants within the small town arrive after the completion of Memorial Day and leave right after Labor Day, choosing this small island instead of summering in the Hamptons, a much more obvious choice for New York's elite.

For Jason and Lauren Parker, a whiny stay-at-home mom whose children attend an elite private school that recently went through a scandal involving their headmaster, Salcombe is the home away from home, especially for Jason. He spent summers here with his best friend, Sam Weinstein, from when he was very young up through college, through their young adult years in their 20s, before finally settling down in Salcombe in his own home purchased after he married Lauren and they had their children.

Sam and his wife, Jen, inherited their summer home through Sam's parents, who went through a nasty bitter divorce in hope of making him happy. With their three children, they always spent summers on Salcombe along with the Parkers, their children becoming fast friends. Jen and Lauren simply tolerate each other, though they don't hate one another. They're just entirely different people.

However, they are now connected in ways that neither woman planned on. Jason is now sleeping with Jen, and had been for the last year. They had previously slept together right after they met more than 10 years ago. Ultimately, Jason is under the impression that he and Jen are in love but this is far from the truth. Jen is admittedly a serial cheater, and has not only been cheating on Sam, but also Jason, with several others throughout the year.

Sam is nonethewiser about Jen, but through a friend, Rachel, another Salcombe lifer, he ultimately finds out about Jen's indiscretion, later learning that it was with Jason.

Entirely upset about this, Jason takes off in hiding, away from his wife, Jen and Sam while Sam goes in search of him. Together, the two women ultimately begin attempting to locate them both, finding them in a standoff of sorts. When their anger bursts into ending the life of one of the senior residents on the island, they all take off in separate directions.

The next morning, a young boy finds that woman, Susan, on the beach where she had fallen from the boardwalk. Listed as an accidental death, nobody knows the truth, but Jen is hellbent on throwing Jason under the bus.

After finding him uninvolved in Susan's death, continuing to list is as an accident, Jen and Sam begin their divorce proceedings, initiated by Sam. Jen will receive the house on Salcombe, Sam choosing to give it up along with the memories with it. Rachel, the friend who threw Jason and Jen under the bus, also sold her home and is moving to California to be closer to her sisters; Jason and Lauren are continuing with their relationship, as Lauren was also unfaithful throughout the summer with the tennis pro giving lessons on the island, Robert; Robert is now living in the city and working for one of Salcombe's residents in finance/project management. He spent the entire summer skimming funds from the unsuspecting members he had been giving tennis lessons too, and amassed a large amount in order to put a down payment on an apartment in the city.

What nobody knows except Robert is that Robert is ultimately responsible for Susan's death. After the two couples fled the scene of the supposed crime, Robert returned to the boardwalker in an attempt to retrieve the ledger that Susan had taken, her suspicions of his thefts confirmed there in writing. When Robert looked at Susan, he realized that her eyes were open, and she was still alive, albeit injured. He killed her by suffocation with his t-shirt over her mouth and nose so he could live his life.

I gave this book 3 stars. Maybe it's because I come from a lower-to-middle class family, including the one that I created with my husband. We're well off, but not by Manhattan and summer house standards, so I thought the characters in the book were insufferable, and had no redeeming qualities. The story was entertaining, almost like reading the script for a reality TV show. But, overall, I just couldn't handle it.

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Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus | Published 2022 | *SPOILERS*

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one. Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approaching to cooking proves revolutioanry. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. But as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to changef the status quo.

Laugh out loud funny, shrewdly observant and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrants as its protagonist.

In a world where women living in the 1950s and 1960s are happy to become devoted wives and mothers, enter Elizabeth Zott. Determined to become a chemist, she is succesful in doing so but is forcefully removed from entry into a PhD program due to sexual assault allegations against her adviser, allegations that prove to be true. But, in a world where it's a man's word over a woman's, she moves on.

With her only job prospect being at Hastings, a research lab in Commons, California, she begins researching but her time there is much the same as it was in school, where the work she does is taken by her male counterparts.

It isn't until she meets fellow chemist, world-famous and a Nobel Prize nominee, that her world begins to change, and oftentimes not for the better. Their love story isn't one for the books, but it is their love story. After meeting after she steals beakers from his lab claiming she had permission from her boss, and then a chance meeting with him at a movie theater where he pukes on her, they quickly delve into a relationship that changes them both for the better.

It quickly turns into the two of them living together, though no marriage is on the horizon for either of them, though not without Calvin's trying. The two of them adopt a dog that Elizabeth names Six-Thirty, and their live is seemingly perfect. Calvin attempts to teach her how to row and using her intelligence, becomes quite a good one. But, after a freak accident while running with Six-Thirty on a leash for the first time since new leash laws went into affect leaves Calvin dead, Elizabeth is devastated.

It is also told that she is pregnant, that her sickness she is experiencing is she because she is with child. And because of this, she loses her position at Hastings. Spending her time in the house rebuilding her kitchen from a normal kitchen into a lab in the home she shared with Calvin, that he left to her in his will, and helping out her Hastings colleagues with their own research, she is able to keep herself mostly afloat for the time being.

After giving birth to their daughter, whom is accidentally named Mad legally on her birth certificate, deciding to call her Madeline any other time, she strikes up a friendship with her neighbor across the street, named Harriet. Harriet begins helping with the baby, and the two of them strike up an unlikely friendship.

Over the years, Elizabeth only helped with others research, but whens he returns to Hastings only to have her research stolen and the credit given to a man, she decides to quit and takes a job at KCTV, becoming the host of a television show titled Supper at Six. Within the show, she uses her knowledge as a chemist in order to help wives all around California make nutritious dinners for their families. And when it goes to syndication after the producer of the programs has a heart attack, and her producer takes over as the head of the afternoon shows, she becomes famous across the country.

She tries to keep this fact a secret from her daughter, but she quickly learns that her mother only took this job because of what happened to her at Hastings. Overtime, Elizabeth learns the truth about Calvin and the family that he had once had, and that the donor that had been funding the research was doing it because of Elizabeth and the faith that Calvin had in her work. It also turns out that that donor was also Calvin's birth mother, having been forced to give up her son while she was 17-year-old pregnant and unwed mother.

After years of trying to reconnect with him, it became too late after he had died, and Avery Parker had buried her son for what she thought was the third time, after being told that he had been born stillborn, then again when the All Boys orphange he had lived in stated he had died and took the funds given to them in his "honor".

Ultimately, Elizabeth realizes that she has a large family that she has created with the love that she and Calvin had for each other, and with Avery Parker's blessing, she continues the research she had started so long ago.

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The Other Woman | Tania Tay | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS* ARC

Jade has the life she always wanted; a husband and three perfect children. She's happy. Except, recently that isn't enough. Her husband is never home, and when he is, he's distant. She's a constant source of disappointment to her mum, and even her children are starting to push her away.

Then she unexpectedly finds herself reconnecting with Christina, an old friend from University, and she starts to feel like herself again.

As the women become closer, and Christina needs a place to stay, Jade welcomes her into their chaotic family home. But when Jade discovers a suspicious text on her husband's phone, she starts questioning those around her.

A twisting, compulsive and unputdownable thriller that will have you turning the pages long into the night. Perfect for fans of Samantha Downing, Teresa Driscoll and Claire McGown.

Jade and Christina were former flatmates while attending university in Edinburgh, Scotland. Christina was shy and heldback a lot, while Jade was a bit more open and free-spirited. Their unlikely friendship should have lasted years, but after a devastating emergency left Christina with no other option but to leave university to return home to London, Jade didn't hear anything from her for nearly 20-years.

Now that she is married and a mother to three small children, Christina has decided to reach out to Jade after finding her "picture perfect Instagram". The two meet for coffee, and with this, sparks their friendship backup as if nothing ever happened.

Christina begins caring for Jade and her husband, Sam's, children, Amber, Eddie and Leo, so Jade could return to work part-time as a freelance copywriter. Despite initially being excited about having Christina around to help mind the children, Jade becomes exasperated by Christina's parenting methods, as it clashed with her own. Jade tells Christina her misgivings, but Christina decided to go around her back and continues doing as she has done for the children while they were in her care.

Ultimately, their relationship becomes strained after Jade begins to suspect Sam of having an extramarital affair. She once discovered a text message from an unknown number on his phone, and despite his reassurances that nothing was going on, this wasn't quite the truth. She begins to notice that Sam and Christina are flirting while the two of them are together, and Christina begins making mistakes with the children, even going so far as to cook dinner with a sauce made with fish sauce, which her middle child, Eddie, is allergic too and causes a terrible bout of anaphylaxsis.

When Jade ultimately catches Christina and Sam having sex while he thought the others were sleeping, Jade tells the two of them to get out and when they don't, she leaves. When she returns the next day to pick up the children from school, she is horrified to learn that the children were picked up from school by Christina at lunchtime, and they are nowhere to be found.

Jade ultimately realizes that Christina has taken them to the loch in Scotland, where the two of them and other friends spent a weeks holiday that is a happy memory for Christina. Jade has ultimately figured out that Christina had become pregnant the night she left her at a party on her own, and a few weeks later, she suffered a miscarriage.

When she finds Christina and the children at the house where they spent that week, Christina confesses that it was never her that she wanted to harm...it was Sam. The person responsible for her pregnancy, and ectopic at that, as Christina shares, was Sam. Sam and Jade didn't meet until after university, and Christina is devastated to learn that Sam hasn't really changed, that he still has a front for women and spends his time being a sleazeball while his wife and children remain at home waiting for him to return all day. Even worse, Christina swears that their sexual encounter was not conseusal.

After the police arrive and saved the children and Jade, Sam meets up with them in the hospital. When confronted with what happened, Sam denies ever having raped Christina, and that he spent a lot of his last year at university sleeping with multiple women. For Jade, this is the straw that breaks the camels back, and she returns to her children.

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The Silent Wife | ASA Harrison | Published 2013 | *SPOILERS*

A chilling psychological thriller about a marriage, a way of life, and how far one woman will go to keep what is rightfully hers.

Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event.

He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can't be made, and promises that won't be kept.

Expertly plotted and reminiscent of Gone Girl and These Hidden Things, The Silent Wife ensnares the reader from page one and does not let go.

Jodi and Todd are involved in a common-law marriage, and after 20 years, you'd think that they had the perfect life together. Todd is a successful property developer while Jodi spends her days being the perfect housewife, while working part-time in her psychology practice, seeing 1 or 2 patients a day.

What isn't so perfect about their "picture perfect life" is that Todd is a habitual cheater, and has been for the majority of their life together. Even worse yet, is that Jodi knows about his indiscretions and turns a blind eye. But, when Todd begins seeing and sleeping with his childhood best friend Dean's daughter, Natasha, all bets are off.

Natasha discovers she is pregnant, and it is her wish and desire for Todd to leave Jodi for the two of them to begin their life together. Todd, seeing no other option but to appease the woman in his life carrying his child, does so. He informs Jodi that he has rented an apartment and is leaving to live there with Natasha. Jodi has no choice but to let him go.

With the loss of her routine, Jodi is unsure of what to do. Her nights of staying home to make home cooked meals for her husband are long gone, but when she invites him to dinner one night, the two of them end up sleeping together and Natasha knows the next day when he returns home smelling of his former wife.

When Todd begins to make proceedings to evict Jodi from their home, Jodi begins to think of the long-term. With the help of her friend, Allison, they comeup with a plan to end Todd's life. With a little bit of cash, Allison can reach out to her ex-husband, who has contacts, and have them end his life. Without thinking about it, Jodi agrees and comes up with the money to effectively end her former lover's life.

When Todd is sitting at a red light on his way to a lunch with a woman that is not his new fiancee and mother of his child, he is shot in the head and killed instantly. Jodi is informed while she has been away at a conference in Jacksonville, Florida, the location of her alibi while the hit on Todd's life was completed.

When she returns, she believes that the police will be waiting for her but their investigation turns up that it was actually Dean who paid for the hit on Todd's life. He left a paper trail a mile long that led to his conviction. Jodi, who has not heard from Allison since giving her the money, has no idea what has happened but in her confusion, she realizes that she has gotten away with murder.

This book was entirely too long, with unnecessary descriptions that just took up empty space. It was not a physcological thriller, as there was nothing psychological about it. It was a drama, with a little bit of mystery involved since I didn't see the ending coming with the killer actually being Dean. But, thankfully I did not pay for this book, because if I did, I would be asking for my money back. I hate to say something about a book written by an author who died shortly after it was released, but still, I can't NOT say something and someone unsuspecting reads the book and thinks it was the next Gone Girl...because it wasn't.

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The Idea of You | Robinne Lee | Published 2017 | *SPOILERS*

Solene Marchand, the thirty-nine-year-old owner of an art gallery in Los Angeles, is reluctant to take her daughter, Isabelle, to meet her favorite boy band. But since her divorce, she's more eager than ever to be close to Isabelle. The last thing Solene expects is to make a connection with one of the members of the world-famous August Moon. But Hayes Campbell is clever, winning, confident, and posh, and the attraction is immediate. That he is all of twenty years old further complicates things.

What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate and genuine relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as Solene and Hayes navigate each other's worlds: from stadaium tours to international art fairs to secluded hideaways in Paris and Miami. For Solene, it is a reclaiming of self, as well as a rediscovery of happiness and love. When Solene and Hayes' romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solene must face how her romantic life has impacted the lives of those she cares about most.

Solene Marchand is a 39-year-old single mother to teenage daughter, Isabelle, along with having a successful career as an art gallery owner, which allows her the privilege of traveling the world to art shows. After Solene's ex-husband and Isabelle's father, Daniel, backs out of taking Izz and her friends to a concert in Las Vegas for their favorite boy band, August Moon, Solene finds herself thrown into the throngs of being a teenage girl in love with her favorite boy band.

The tickets won awarded the girls the opportunity to meet the band underneath Mandalay Bay, where they were performing. Solene finds the members charming, albeit on the younger side, the youngest of them being just 19 years old.

But, what transpires after that meet and greet and concert in Vegas sends Solene on a whirlwind romance with 20-year-old Hayes Campbell, founder and main songwriter for the band. Solene is at first hesitant, understanding that their age difference could have her be his mother's age, but that doesn't stop Hayes, and later, it doesn't stop Solene. She quickly finds herself falling in love with this young musician, and despite saying he wouldn't, he finds himself falling in love with her.

They try to keep their relationship a secret, especially from Daniel and Isabelle, but after photos are captured of the two of them on a private boat in the Carribean capture the two of them in illicit acts, everyone is midly disappointed in this, including Solene. She didn't want her romance with Hayes to come in between her and her daughter's relationship, but it continues to do so, especially after kids at her private school begin making fun of her because of what her mother has been doing.

Despite thinking everything would be okay, Solene ultimately decides to end their relationship, joining him on the Japan leg of their world tour. She returns home, and attempts to get back to normal but she knows that like herself, Hayes is completely heartbroken. When he shows up on her doorstep a few weeks after she ended it, he tells her that he quit the band so that they could be together, but Solene doesn't allow this.

For months, he tried to reach out to Solene, but she ignored his advances. Eventually, he stopped his attempts and the two of them could begin to move on.

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Becoming the Boogeyman | Richard Chizmar | Published 2023 | *SPOILERS*

A riveting, haunting sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller Chasing the Boogeyman - a tale of obsession and the adulation of evil, exploring modern society's true-crime obsession with unflinching honesty, sparing no one from the glare of the spotlight. Will those involved walk away from the story of a lifetime in order to keep their loved ones safe? Or will they once again be drawn into a killer's web? As the story draws to its shattering conclusion, only one person holds all the answers - and he just may be the most terrifying monster of them all.

After 30+ years of evading capture, the Boogeyman, Joshua Gallagher, who terrorized a small Maryland town in 1988 and 1989 is finally captured and placed behind bars. Richard, the recent college graduate who placed himself in the investigation at the time, living in the town and having been somewhat friendly with Joshua during high school, finds himself interviewing Josh in a variety of different occasions in order to receive information on potential further victims.

After Josh's capture and arrest, Rich's book, Chasing the Boogeyman, once again becomes a popular novel especially after he updated the narrative. The release of the book and the subsequent movie catapults Rich, and subsequently, his family into the spotlight, with visits to movie sets and premieres, book store discussions and signings, television interviews, book club meetings, and a literary agent that is constantly requesting another book.

But, Rich's life, along with his family's, is about to become a massive cluster. One evening, while walking one of his dogs on the vast property he lives on, he comes across a foul smelling black, industrial strength garbage bag. And inside is the cut up body of a human. Lt. McClernan, the woman responsible for finally identifying Joshua Gallagher as the Boogeyman, heads the investigation along with another detective, Gonzalez. The individual inside of the bag is identified as Annie Riggs, the sole survivor of Josh's reign of teror in 1988.

Rich is devastated by this discovery, as Annie was an incredibly strong and successful person. Two more women, young women in their teens, are also abducted and murdered, their ears severed and numbers left behind by the killer. Rich becomes obsessed with watching the security footage from the cameras surrounding his home, finding clues left behind by the killer.

Everything seems to be falling apart around him. His longtime friend, Carly Albright, also returns after the loss of her husband and taking some time off to travel the world and spend time with her three daughters on her worldly excursions. After Carly's return, things really begin to fire up, and the two of them are able to find clues that were missed by the police, including the fact that three of Rich's personal items that have been missing inside of his home had been located in a window well of the infamous Meyer's House in Edgewood, a home that has haunted Rich's dreams and nightmares for as long as he could remember. Additionally, while watching the footage of when Annie Riggs' body was left on his property, Carly notices something off about the walk of the person who left the body there, that it is possible that this individual's leg may be shorter than the other, as her husband had been a former NFL player and later physical therapist.

Lt. McClernan is able to identify two people who have similar gaits, both of which are close to Rich: Daniel Kelly, who is their post man and another individual named Sean Phillips, who had previously done work inside of the Chizmar home. Daniel Kelly is also in a relationship with a young woman named Alice Fetterman, who is renting the house in which Rich previously lived and grew up in in Edgewood.

With the help of a search warrant, it is determined that Daniel Kelly and Alice Fetterman abducted and murdered the girls, along with help from Sean Phillips. The garage of Rich's former childhood home had been soundproofed, along with items that assisted in the murders of the three women in 2022. Sean Phillips attempts to attack Rich inside their home, but he is able to be saved by his wife, Kara, killing him with a fire poker. Rich is stitched up and taken care of off the record without having to go to the hospital, especially after his last stint after being attacked inside the woods near his property during his annual bonfire with his childhood best friends by the father of one of the victims.

After confessing to Kara that he was involved in potentiallly ruining the lives of two Cumberland Pentiteniary employees after bribing them for help in gaining access to things he wouldn't have otherwise, he also confesses that he is no longer interested in speaking with Joshua Gallagher any longer, after it becomes apparent that Josh has been playing him this entire time, using people in the outside world to continue his reign of terror, simultaneously attempting to get close to Rich and his family in the meantime.

In the end, Carly returns to her life in DC after taking her year sabbatical, finally feeling up to returning. Rich's two sons are home for the summer and enjoying life at their home with their friends, and life seemingly gets back to normal for them. But, after a call from Lt. McClernan announces that Joshua Gallaghter has somehow escaped prison, presumably with the help of a friendly prison guard whom Rich actually liked, he knows that this reign of terror is far from over!

I HAVE NEVER ONCE, IN MY LIFE, EVER READ ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE! And yes, I will scream that from the rooftops for the rest of my life. And I probably will never read anything like this ever again. Richard Chizmar is a MASTER of fear and terror. I am FOREVER a fan.

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Talking to Strangers | Fiona Barton | Publisher 2024 | *SPOILERS* ARC READ

When the body of forty-four year old Karen Simmons is found abandoned in remote woodland, journalist Kiki Nunn is determined this will be the big break she so desperately needs.

Because she has a head start on all the other reporters. Just a week before Karen was killed, Kiki interviewed her about the highs and lows of mid-life romance. Karen told her all about kissing strangers on the beach under the stars, expensive meals, roses. About the scammers, the creeps, the man who followed her home the other night...

While the police appear to be focusing on local suspects, Kiki sets out to write the definitive piece on one woman's fatal search for love. But she will soon learn that the search for truth can be just as deadly...

Four women. Four lives intertwined by the actions of the men around them. TRIGGER WARNING: MENTION/DESCRIPTIONS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT; MENTION OF CHILD DEATH.

Kiki Nunn, a journalist and mother, is attempting to get her groove back by becoming a “real writer” again, undertaking the responsibility of covering the murder of Karen Simmons, a local hairstylist. Karen has spent the last several months combing the dating apps and websites, setting up a singles group for others in the area to meet and mingle, called the Free Spirits. But, when she turns up dead the day after Valentine’s Day, it opens up a web of questions that have been left unanswered for years. For Annie, she has spent the last 16 years going through the motions after the death of her young son, Archie, believed to have been murdered by a convicted sexual predator. Her older son, Xander, has lived with secrets since he was a child that has been eating away at him all of these years, but the actions of six men bring everything to light. For Elise, a police officer working the case on Karen’s murder, and working through her recent diagnosis of breast cancer, leaves her questioning her own sanity sometimes.

For all of these women, things have taken a deadly turn because of the men in their lives. Kiki’s ex-husband and father of her teenage daughter, left for a young woman, leaving her lonely and wondering what went wrong. But, when she begins investigating the apps that Karen was using during her dating trysts, she gets taken up with a man who ultimately sexually assaults her, and she goes on a rampage in order to get her revenge, but not in the angry, murderous way that happens in these kinds of cases. Kiki works diligently along with the police, including Elise, to bring her attacker down and he is none other than the man that Elise has been seeing, her neighbor, who went by the name of Mal, but used several aliases during his time on the websites.

Unfortunately, for Annie, Karen’s murder brings up a string of questions regarding her son Archie’s death that was she never sure she wanted answered. But after Karen’s untimely death, it began nagging at her due to the proximity to the location of where Archie had been found. Her marriage with her husband has been slowly deteriorating for the last 16 years, especially after his confession that he had been in a relationship with the murder victim, intending to leave his wife and children to start up a new life with her. But, when it is confirmed that Karen’s DNA was all over a jacket that had been found within their home, Annie isn’t sure what to think, until he is charged with her murder, and Xander, her older son, confesses to accidentally killing his younger brother after he himself had been sexually assaulted, Archie wanting to tell their mother what happened and Xander wanting to protect her from the truth.

In the end, every single women gets the answers they had been looking for, but through his own confession, Xander comes forward to the reader stating that he was responsible for the death of Karen, having swiped on her profile. When Karen realized that she was with the son of the man she had once loved, she tried to leave but Xander ended up killing her in the exact area where he killed his younger brother. He also accepts responsibility for the deaths of a local man named Ash, who was also in the woods when Archie had been killed all those years ago and knew the truth and was going to confess, as well as the death of the man who had assaulted him in the woods on that fateful day, though not directly. That man killed himself while in police custody when he had been coerced into lying about Archie’s death.

In truth, this story took me a WHILE to get into. After having read Fiona Barton’s trilogy, The Widow, The Child and the Suspect, I became a HUGE fan of this author. Each of those three stories had me hooked from the very beginning. This one, however, took me quite a bit. I found it to be a bit slow going to start, but it really did start picking up around the time that the character, Kiki, began identifying members of the group that called themselves the Band of Brothers. Each women’s story within this book is INCREDIBLY tragic. For Kiki and Elise, they’re just older woman, who are lonely and are wanting to get rid of that loneliness with a little male companionship. For Annie, the death of her son, the eventual birth of another son and then dealing with her older son and husband’s infidelity is something that no woman or mother should have to deal with.

Fiona really got down deep into the trials and tribulations that a lot of women face in the dating culture, especially when there is sexual assault involved. The constant victim blaming is something that happens every single day, though it is never the fault of the victim…EVER, and this is something that Fiona herself says multiple times throughout the story. I truly hope that any one who reads this book who has been through similar situations understands that it is never their fault…myself included.

Overall, 4/5 stars from me! I’d recommend this story to anyone, though I do leave the trigger warnings in place for those who are sensitive to the topics mentioned. Thank you to NetGalley, Fiona Barton and Berkley Publishing Group for this ARC.

[readingforsanity]

Chasing the Boogeyman | Richard Chizmar | Published 2021 | *SPOILERS*

In the summer of 1988, the mutilated bodies of several missing girls begin to turn up in a small Maryland town. The grisly evidence leads police to the terrifying assumption that a serial killer is on the loose in the quiet suburb. But soon a rumor begins to spread that the evil stalking local teens is not entirely human. Law enforcement, as well as members of the FBI are certain that the killer is a living, breathing madman - and he's playing games with them. For a once peaceful community trapped in the depths of paranoia and suspicion, it feels like a nightmare that will never end.

Recent college graduate Richard Chizmar returns to his hometown just as a curfew is enacted and a neighborhood watch is formed. In the midst of preparing for his wedding and embarking on a writing career, he soon finds himself thrust into the real-life horror story. Inspired by the terrifying events, Richard writes a personal account of the serial killer's reign of terror, unaware that these events will continue to haunt him for years to come.

A clever, terrifying and heartrendering work of metafiction, Chasing the Boogeyman is the ultimate marriage between horror fiction and true crime. Chizmar's writing is on full display in this truly unique novel that will haunt you long as you turn the final page.

In the summer and fall of 1988, in the town of Edgewood, a normally quiet Maryland suburb, a horrific scene begins to unfurl. Written in the first person from Richard Chizmar, he eventually would become an integral part of the investigation.

Richard is a recent college graduate, returning to his hometown of Edgewood after graduation to live with his parents before marrying his high school sweetheart, Kara, in January of 1989. Excited to begin using his journalism degree, but not for journalism, he begins working on his own short stories to sell and putting together a magazine that will put out its first issue in the next few months.

Excited to be back home with his parents, Richard is struck by the notion that a former classmate, Joshua's younger sister was murdered. At only 15, her body was discovered after her mother awoke to a harrowing scene of her bedroom window wide open, and the screen on the ground below. Shortly after that, another 15 year old girl goes missing, named Kacey Robinson, and she is also found to be murdered as well as sexually assaulted.

Two more young girls are also murdered in the same manner, as well as sexually assaulted over the coming months. Another young girl, named Annie Riggs, was the only person who was able to succesfully get away from what the media has now begun dubbing as the Boogeyman, simply because he has been able to allude capture, despite being cornered by the police at least twice.

The town of Edgewood is on edge for lack of a better word. All leads are investigated, but nothing ever comes of them. Rich begins working with Carly, who is a journalist for the Aegis, the local paper, and the two of them strike up a friendship with each other, often giving each other leads. But despite their attempt to help law enforcement, Detective Lyle Harper is never able to bring the Boogeyman down for the crimes he committed that summer.

In the follow-up, Rich is now middle-aged, still married to Kara and father to two boys, their ages 21 and 17, both incredibly smart and athletic. Rich's magazine is still going strong, and he had even written a few novels with his close friend, Stephen King. When he receives a call from Carly, whom he has remained close with all of these years later, informing him that detectives had finally caught the Boogeyman.

A new detective was taking over the cold files from Maryland, and began working them with new eyes. Working through her list, she was saddened to discover that the Gallagher family hadn't provided DNA samples at the time of Natasha's murder. Eventually, they did, but Josh had never been able to give his, and it had fallen through the cracks.

During her new investigation, Lt. Clara McClernan began speaking with Mrs. Gallagher, trying to find the answers to the questions that she has. But, she feels as if Mrs. Gallagher is hiding something and the following morning, she learns that Joshua Gallagher isn't their biological son, that he had been adopted and Natasha was a "miracle" baby that came a few years later after she and her husband experienced infertility prior to adopting Josh and eventually having Natasha. They never felt the need to tell Josh due to his uncanny resemblance to Natasha, and they didn't want to make him unhappy with the knowledge that he wasn't theirs biologically.

She also learns the truth about why Josh left Penn State University; he had gotten involved with a young woman named Anna, and after bouts of abuse, she left him and had orders of protection against him, but he was eventually expelled from school from being unable to adhere to them. All of the girls murdered in 1988 all had similar statures to Anna, and Lt. McClernan knows she has her man.

After his arrest, he confesses to everything, including murders that occurred in 2001, 2006 and 2018. But, Joshua Gallagher only wants to speak with Richard Chizmar. The two of them sit down to discuss the events that happened, and Rich is able to coerce Josh into confessing to his father's murder, which had initially been said to be a suicide. Josh states it was after his father caught him harming animals when he was younger, and he was never able to get it out of his mind. It is apparent that the elder Gallagher suspected his son of the murder of his daughter and the three other young women, and was going to go to the police with this knowledge but was killed by Josh.

In the end, the Boogeyman is taken down after more than 30 years on the run, living a somewhat normal life except for those subsequent murders and others that he has yet to confess too. And he has agreed to continue taking to Rich in subsequent interviews.

I went into this book totally thinking it was based on true facts. I told myself that I wouldn't look into anything of it until after I finished the book, but I got curious and caved, and learned THAT THIS BOOK IS ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. Okay, that isn't completely true. The author DOES use true facts from his childhood and his early young adulthood within the book to insert himself into the story, but the pictures and everything else regarding Joshua Gallaghter, is entirely fictional.

THIS is what makes the story incredibly unique and amazing. I was completely riveted the entire time, and immediately purchased the follow-up book as soon as I finished. I cannot wait to get my hands on the second book, and finish this incredible story, but honestly, I hope it never ends. I could read ANYTHING that Richard Chizmar reads for the rest of my life and be completely happy doing it!

[readingforsanity]

The Stranger in Her House | John Marrs | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS*

A stranger has infiltrated your family...and now he's taking over.

Paul's just here to help, or so he claims...sent by a charity for vulnerable people to do off jobs for elderly widow Gwen. But for Gwen's daughter Connie, there's just something about Paul that rings alarm bells from day one. He's a little too kind, a little too involved...Worse still, Gwen seems to have fallen under his spell.

The last thing Connie wants is a stranger meddling in the safe routine she's built around Gwen. She loves being the one Gwen turns to for cooking, cleaning and company. But the more Paul visits, the more Gwen is relying on him. By the time he conveniently finds himself between homes and has no choice but to move in, Connie is certain he's trying to push her out completely.

It's her word against his, though, and as her attempts to unmask him become ever more desperate she's not the only one left wondering if she's lost her grip on reality. But when events start spiraling rapidly out of her control, should Connie wage all-our war on Paul and risk losing Gwen forever - or has that been his plan all along?

Connie is in her forties, struggling to deal with her mom's burdening dementia and Alzheimer's disease that often makes her irritable, and forgetting who she is. The two of them get into a routine of sorts, when that routine is suddenly upended by the presence of Paul Michael.

Paul is an attractive man similar in age to Connie, who begins working around Gwen's home as part of a charity outreach that matches handymen to elderly people in need of assistance. Paul is "hired" to help with landscaping, eventually making repairs to the inside of the house. He's also helped several other elderly neighbors around them, showing him their charms.

Connie becomes suspicious of Paul by his evergrowing closeness with Gwen. She senses that something is off about him, and when Paul begins pushing Connie out, and Gwen's Alzheimer's begins to make her more aggressive, Connie has no other choice but to back off as much as she can. After she leaves to return to Italy to finish out the wedding season, something she claims that she can't get out of it, Connie returns after six weeks to find that her mother has died, that she and Paul had married while she was away, and none of her previous wishes for funeral arrangements had been followed.

This has dampened her plans to attain her mother's estate, and she is determined to prove that Paul had something to do with her untimely death, which was found to have been an accidental fall and bash on the head when it hit the radiator at the bottom of the stairs. Connie works diligently to prove this.

Eventually, she proves that this is true; Paul's name isn't Paul Michael, but instead Paul Fernsby. She locates his mother, whom neighbors believe had died about two years prior, but instead she is living in a vegetative state due to her own Alzheimer's at a care home. Connie is able to peak Paul's interest and the two of them meet to talk.

What we learn is that Connie isn't really Connie; her name is Rachel Evans, and she has been playing the same game as Paul in taking advantage of Gwen's rapidly declining condition. Connie herself admits that she found Gwen in a stroke of luck, and began getting close to her. During their conversations, she found out that Gwen and her husband Bill couldn't have children due to a medical condition he acquired shortly after they were married, but that they had attempted to adopt a baby while living in Spain, but at the last moment it didn't work out.

Connie attempts to blackmail Paul, but this turns out to be the worst thing she can do. Connie was able to get information that damned Paul in several other elderly women's deaths, including a medication that could be used to create their combative personalities. Connie wants to take this to the police but she attempts to use the help of another elderly neighbor, Walter. This leads to his death when Paul figures out what Connie is up too. Devastated by this, Connie knows that she should have gone to the police with the information she had, and that it ultimately led to Walter's untimely death, but she also begins making a friendship with Gwen's only living relative, a distant cousin named Meredith, whom she had heard about from Gwen but couldn't figure out who she was.

She returns a cat figurine to Meredith that had belonged to her and Gwen's grandmother, and insists that she hold onto the will that Gwen drew up leaving everything to Connie.

After Paul attacks Connie on the train, several months pass before she is able to return to Meredith's home. When she does, she learns that Meredith had went in and removed the final page of the will that had the signatures on it, leaving her with absolutely nothing and Meredith with everything.

We learn that Meredith and Gwen were not close at all, and that they even had a very competitive relationship with each other. Meredith and Bill were actually engaged to be married, but he grew close to Gwen. Meredith decided to get pregnant by Bill to ensure that she was the one to marry him, but at their wedding, he walked out and took Gwen with him, eventually marrying her. Unfortunately, Meredith lost the baby she was pregnant with, and due to an infection, lost her ability to have any more children in the future.

Meredith is now traveling the world on cruises in order to live the life she deserved to have, while Connie is floundering in hostels back in England. Meredith feels no remorse over what happened, after learning the truth of Connie's identity from Paul during written correspondence while he was in jail awaiting sentencing. In fact, she was the reason she changed his not guilty plea to guilty, as she accepted the fact that if he couldn't get Gwen's estate, nobody should but the person who truly deserved it.

Not quite sure how I felt about this one. 3/5 for creativeness, but it dragged on way too long. The entire book should have ended about 100 pages before it did.

[readingforsanity]

The Fury | Alex Michaelides | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS*

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that's not quite true. At its heart, it's a love story, isn't it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know the story. You probably read about it at the time - it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind...and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse - a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I'm going to tell you a story unlike any you've ever heard.

This is a story of murder, but just when you think you have it all figured out, you will learn that you are sorely mistaken.

Following the lives of seven people, including Lana, a former star of the silver screen who is still frequently recognized in public despite leaving Los Angeles behind and retiring from acting, preferring to live her quiet life in London; Kate, a Broadway star, and Lana's closest friend; Elliott Chase, a screenwriter whose one and only play awarded him a Tony Award nomination; Lana's husband, Jason, and her son from her first marriage to a big shot Hollywood producer, named Leo; Agathi, Lana's loyal assistant and Nikos, the caretaker of the island in which our story takes place.

Over the weather, Lana wants to invite her friends to her private island off to Mykonos, Greece. Known for being haunted, Lana spent many years avoiding the island after her first husbands death, but has recently been visiting at least twice a year, sometimes more, to get away from the rain of England.

When they arrive, things seem to be going well; drinks are flowing, food is abdundant, and the laughter even more so. But, this quickly turns sour on their second night when after three gunshots are heard, and Lana's dead body is found near the column ruins on the land.

This ends our first act, and we come into the second, where we learn that this entire thing is an act, brought together by Lana and Elliott themselves. They are the only ones in on the plan, and they are faking Lana's death after it was discovered that Kate and Jason were having an affair, discovered after Kate's earring is found on one of Jason's jackets by Agathi when she picked up the dry cleaning for her employer.

But, we quickly learn that nothing is at it seems. Elliott makes it clear that he isn't who we think he is. After enduring a terrible childhood, he was determined to make something of himself, and becomes a sort of pet to writer Barbara West. The two of them engage in a long-term relationship, although neither of them feel anything toward the other. Elliott is really in love with Lana, and has been since he was a child seeing her on the big screen. He will do anything to have her become his, and he means anything.

He concocted the plan after discovering that Kate and Jason were having an affair, and he documented their every move, and even began writing down murder plots in a notebook. This is discovered by Lana, whom had run to Elliott's apartment the night that she discovered the affair, and the following morning, after they came up with what Elliott thinks is the plan for her to become his once and for all, she discovers the notebooks and is sickened by what she reads.

She goes to Kate, who confesses everything but promises that her affair with Jason is over, that it was never anything to him, despite it meaning everything to her. The two of them begin working on forgiving one another, and decide to make Elliott pay for what he is planning to do.

The plan ends with Elliott being shot with a prop gun by Kate, who was confronting Jason at the jetty on the island supposedly awaiting for the police to arrive on the island, as it is still presumed that Lana is dead. But, when Lana appears on the sand, with Leo holding her hand, Jason knows that he was left out of something very dire. Lana deems this his punishment, and watching him flounder was Kate's.

They return to the home, Lana telling Elliott that she wishes to have nothing to do with any longer, and they begin to celebrate the success of their production. But, suddenly, Elliott is overcome with the wind, which is known around the island to be called The Fury. He arrives at the house, finally releasing the little boy in him that he has kept bottled up inside for many years and completes his plan of having Lana murdered.

In the end, we understand that Elliott is a deeply disturbed man after having endured abuse at the hands of his parents while he was younger. He did what he could to hide his true self, but Barbara West was able to see right through him, and he simply mistook her judgement as hatred of him, but in truth, she was fearful of him. After pushing her down the stairs, he found the notebook of a screenplay she had written detailing their relationship, and made it his own, allowing him to receive that Tony Award nomination, and the play to become a commercial success in both the UK and US. But, we also know that Elliott is now behind bars, presumably for murdering Lana.

[readingforsanity]

The Arsenic Eater's Wife | Tonya Mitchell | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS*

A woman is accused of killing her husband, but is she actually guilty? Inspired by a true historical case.

Liverpool, England, 1889: In the shadowy streets, the air is think with secrets and the line between guilt and innocence blurs. Twenty-six-year-old Constance Sullivan is brought to trial charged with poisoning her husband, William. But William was no ordinary victim...

As Constance's barrister fights to prove her innocence, a sinister web of deception unravels, exposing the dark underbelly of their seemingly idyllic marriage. One by one, witnesses emerge with incriminating testimony and facts about the dark side of Constance and William's marriage are revealed. For many, the widow's guilt seems clear. But is someone holding the key to the whole truth?

Constance Sullivan, a young American woman, appears to be in a somewhat happy marriage with Englishman, William Sullivan. Having met several years before aboard the Baltic, while Constance was traveling to Paris with her mother, the two of them left the ship betrothed to each other.

But, their seemingly happy marriage is hampered by the discovery that William has a mistress, with whom he has children, many children, and has been in a relationship with her for many decades, William being nearly two decades her senior. In addition, William's younger brother, Edward, attempts to woo her away from her marriage with William, to no avail. It isn't until she meets Timothy Worth, another broker in the cotton industry, that she is able to be swayed away from her marriage. But their affair doesn't last long, Timothy in fear of the repercussions of their trysts if it were to get out.

In the spring of 1889, William succumbs from an illness that begun several days before. Connie herself was also ill toward the end of his life, and missed his funeral and burial, and it isn't until later that she learns that she was kept away from his end of life events because she was under suspicion of having poisoned her husband. But Constance is innocent of this, having brought it up several times that her husband was a self-medicator, and a known arsenic eater.

Constance's trial lasts a few days, and at the end, despite her barrister's best intentions, she is found guilty and charged to be hung. However, her sentence is commuted in the end and she spends the next 14 years in prison. When she is finally released, she works with an individual known as Mr. Topp. Topp worked in length with Sir Charles, who had died a few years before, and they were attempting to have Constance's charges overturned completely. Unlike the United States, England didn't have any sort of appeals process, but Sir Charles worked until his dying day to ensure that she would get the truth.

First Connie meets with Ingrid Berkshire, whom was a close friend of hers and William's up until the time of his death. But, instead she learns that Ingrid was in love with William and was jealous of Constance's relationship with William, whom she felt should have been with her instead. Ingrid worked closely with Edward to ensure that everything would be left to Edward, and that Constance and William's children would be left in their care. The children are now living in the British Columbia and California.

Edward agrees that he wrote up a fake will to ensure that everything would be left to him. Finally, she learns that Anne, the nanny whom they hired to care for the children, was really one of William's children with Sandra,and that she despised Constance because of what she and her own children had that Anne and her siblings did not. After attempting to attack her, Anne is pushed away from her by her own mother, who saved Constance's life.

The truth was that William was never murdered, that he ultimately killed himself from his years of his constant arsenic consumption, and Ingrid, Edward and Anne all conspired against Constance.

I first heard about this case from the Morbid Podcast. When I first grabbed the book from Kindle Unlimited I didn't put the two together, but I'm glad I did. I enjoyed the fictional rendering of it, the mystery of why Constance went to jail for so long despite being innocent. If only times had been different. 4/5 stars!

[readingforsanity]

Mother-Daughter Murder Night | Nina Simon | Published 2023 | *SPOILERS*

Nothing brights a family together like a murder next door.

A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls, but with murder.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she's built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Jana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage - and hoping that boredom won't kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack - tiny in stature but fiercely independent - happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Kana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She'll put on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack and Beth's help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snopping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they've always depend on each other.

Real estate mogul, Lana Rubicon, has her world rocked when she is diagnosed with cancer. In order to get away from her busy life and avoid telling her colleagues and friends about his diagnosis, Lana reaches out to her daughter, Beth, who lives 5 hours away from LA near the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay, California. Beth's own daughter, Jack, spends a lot of time on the water, paddleboarding in the water before school and working for a kayak tour business whenever she can, working in the hopes of purchasing a sailboat of her own to visit the open seas.

After a daytime tour leads Jack to finding a dead body, their entire lives are turned upside down. With chemotherapy and exhaustion keeping her from working in her field, Lana takes up investigating the murder of a young man named Ricardo Cruz, a naturalist who worked for the land trust nearby.

Eventually, Beth and Jack take up investigating with Lana. Beth using her good looks to get close to Martin Rhoads, the son of her former patient, Hal, who is looking to sell his father's ranch to a cash buyer, and Lana using her professionals charms to speak with Martin's sister, Diana, who wants to turn the property into a equine spa for women.

Lana's investigation takes her through a slew of suspects, including Paul Hanley, the owner of the Kayak Shack where Jack works as a tour guide; Diana, whom she believes was having an affair with Ricardo, who had been close to the Rhoads family for almost his entire life; and Martin himself.

When Lana finally is able to come to the conclusion that Paul wasn't involved in anything other than illegal growing of marijuana, she enlists his help after Diana requests her help in trying to convince her brother to go along with her deal instead of selling the property.

Martin eventually is seized for the murder, along with arson, including that of the land trust building that he attempted to burn down after he became aware of the plans that Ricardo and his father had concocted for the property, in addition to the fire that killed his own mother and Ricardo's father many years ago, along with several other crimes. Lana is injured when Martin hits her, but three weeks after the events, everyone makes a full recovery.

In the end, Lana's cancer goes into a somewhat remissive state, and she begins subletting an office space near the marina, where she will now be working. She also gives Jack her bedroom back, the location where she had been sleeping for the last several months and moves in Beth's garage, to be close to her daughter and granddaughter, something she never thought she would be.

4/5 stars. Definitely a cute coming of age story for Jack, and a mother-daughter murder night for sure.

[readingforsanity]

Engaged to a Serial Killer | Steena Holmes | Published 2020 | *SPOILERS*

I've have it all and lost it all. But now I'm finally getting things together. My fiance seems like the perfect guy. He gave me the job at his landscaping business. He's on my side. And when he proposed, I couldn't believe what he saw in someone like me.

But there are red flags.

He says we have to keep the engagement secret. And why does his ex-wife still wear the ring from their ruined marriage?

Now my mom calls me up. She says my fiance's on the TV news. In handcuffs. Three charges of third degree murder.

Did he really do what they're saying he did?And will they come after me next? I've been in trouble before. And I'll do anything to stay out of jail.

Former con artist and inmate Starla Bishop finds herself in quite the predicament. After being released from prison, she accepted a job working for Soil and Springs Landscaping Company in their office, and ultimately finds herself falling in love with one of the owners Donald Dixon. Donald is well-reputed in the town of Bervie Springs, and he works closely with his ex-wife and business partner, Alexius.

When Starla's mother announces one evening that Donald was arrested, the police arrive at her doorstep as well. She does everything to protect herself from going back to prison, and leads them in the direction that it was really Alexius that was the culprit.

But, what we learn is that scattered all around the town of Bervie Springs, bodies have been buried in the gardens of the homes at Soil and Springs have worked on. Multiple dead bodies, with pieces of their skin missing...ultimately leading the police to understanding that the keychains Donald gave out at his dealership, handmade keychains of fresh leather, was human skin.

We learn that Donald and the men in his family have been killing young women for many years, as one of their "trophies" listed the victims name and the year as 1974. On a rock on the property of his family's cabin etched with a line indicating every victim.

Starla figures this out on her own somehow, and like the true con that she is, ultimately plays him in the end, leaving his entire fortune to both her and Alexius, while he will be going to jail for murder.

Honestly, this book was ultimately super hard to follow along too. The entire first half of the book was boring, and I couldn't get interested in it until the very last chapter, when it was revealed that Starla ended up conning Donald. That was the most exciting part of the book. It was on KU, so I wasn't too upset since I paid zero dollars for it, but I wouldn't recommend it whatsoever.

[readingforsanity]

The House of Last Resort | Christopher Golden | Published 2024 | *SPOILERS*

The next high concept horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden.

Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or the cities. The beautiful, crumbling hillltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild - selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It's a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy's grandparents, his closest living relatives.

It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy's grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they've bought.

There are rooms in an annex in the back of the house that they didn't know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they're certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as the House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years...and how many people died in the strange chapel inside.

While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina...something stirs.

Kate and Tommy have uprooted their lives from Boston and have relocated to Becchina, Sicily, where Tommy's father had once lived and where his grandparents currently live. Lured with the amazing offer to purchase an empty home for one euro with the intent of livening up Becchina's growing ghost town, they decide to make a new start, just for the hell of it.

Purchasing a house at the end of a dead end road, essentially hanging from a cliff, they begin the work needed to restore it back to what they believe was it's former glory. But, the ghosts of the house are menacing them, but not in an unfriendly way. They seem nearly protective. They begin exploring what is called the annex of their house, which had previously been unexplored until the door remarkably opened one night. Inside, they find bedrooms on the lower level perfect for what would be their home offices, along with a shower room. On the second floor, they find what they begin calling the chapel.

Which turns out to be a fitting name. The house, they learn, was called The House of Last Resort. It was here that the church sent their most hopeless cases; the ones who were possessed by demons and who they had been unable to exorcise back to normalcy. It was here that the hopeless would eventually be tortured to their deaths, nothing able to help them.

Kate and Tommy refuse to believe this, instead attempting to believe that these people had unknown mental illnesses that weren't known at the time of their deaths, and they were simply misunderstood.

But as time goes on, Kate and Tommy learn that the possessions were true, and that his grandfather was one of those men who had been sent to the House of Last Resort, but was released and had lived a virtually normal life after. However, when he attacks Kate in his kitchen in a surprising moment of clarity for the 96-year-old man, before suffering a stroke, Tommy doesn't want to believe that his docile grandfather could have attacked his wife. When a month later he dies, and Don Pino, the priest of their local church, intends to preserve him the same way as the cadavers in the catacombs underneath the city, but keep him locked away with the others, known as the hopeless cases, underneath Tom and Kate's home.

When a particularly bad earthquake erupts in the city, shattering the back half of Tommy and Kate's home, Tommy finds the undiscovered catacombs with the bodies of the possessed underneath. Kate, unaware of its existence, runs home after she comes to from being unconscious, having been outside at the time of the earthquake on the back of a friend's Vespa, she learns the truth from their real estate agent, Franca.

Nonno had been possessed by a particularly bad demon, and now that his body has died, this demon is going to be searching for new blood, but preferably from the same blood line and it will now be coming after Tommy. Franca holds Kate hostage while she tells Tommy to return to the catacombs underneath his home, and he does so, to protect his wife.

But deep inside these catacombs, he learns that the evil awaits him, and he is breathing it in. And the voice of his grandfather is calling to him. When he becomes trapped inside the catacombs, Kate enters through the public entrance, and with help, attempts to get him out, but when she does, Tommy is not the same person. Tommy is now possessed by the evil that possessed his grandfather, and now the other evils within the walls of the hidden catacombs are coming and possessing other people in their paths.

When the now deceased exorcists within the walls of his home make themselves knwon to him, he begins to lash out, though it is the demon doing so. In an attempt to take his own life, and effectively end that of the demon within him, he thrusts himself off the side of the house that had collapsed.

But what could have been days or months later, he comes too, fully aware. Kate returns to him, though injured, and she shares with him that he is still within their home in Becchina, living in the same house, and that priests have now come to him, attempting to exorcise him.

While the story was ultimately enjoyable, I felt that it could have ended way better. I may be alone in this notion, but I don't understand the point of the end. I get the fact that the House of Last Resort was essentially reopened, and that they were attempting to exorcise him, I think? The ending was just a bit too confusing, and I don't understand what is going on. I gave it 3/5. Unfortunately, the only book I've enjoyed from this author was All Hallows, and now everything else isn't measuring up.

[readingforsanity]

The Good Sister | Sally Hepworth | Published 2020 | *SPOILERS*

There's only been one time that Rose couldn't stop me from doing the wrong thing and that was a mistake that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her rountine can be...dangerous.

When Rose discovers that she cannot get pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.

Fern's mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of what families keep hidden.

Twin sisters Rose and Fern may have been born on the same day, but they are incredibly different people. Rose is stout and short, while Fern is tall and skinny; Rose has no cognitive disabilities while Fern has sensory issues to almost everything, from sound to touch. Rose works as an interior designer, and Fern takes after the happiest memories she has a child from the library and became a librarian.

Their relationship is very much caretaker with their subject, as Rose has spent the entirety of her life caring for Fern, helping her navigate the world as a neurotypical person.

However, Rose is struggling to conceive a baby, and Fern, whom is presumably healthy, concocts a plan to meet a man, and get pregnant with the intention of giving the baby to her sister, whom wants a child more than anything. While Rose is away visiting her husband in London, Fern meets a man named Rocco Ryan, an American living in Australia where he has dual citizenship thanks to his mother, and because of his uncanny likeness to the character, Where's Wally?, Fern has dubbed him Wally.

The two of them are essentially a match made in heaven, and despite her initial desire to be with him in order to get pregnant for her sister, she quickly forgets this when she begins having real feelings for Wally and the two of them have begun a relationship. When Rose returns from London early, she is concerned about Fern's relationship with Wally, and begins to talk her out of it. Eventually, Fern does learn that she is expecting, and Rose informs her that she needs to end things with Wally, telling him that she has met someone else, and Rose has offered to take the baby and raise him or her as her own, which Fern consents too.

At the age of 12, their mother had an accidental overdose and has been struggling with speech ever since, but within the last year, with the help of a speech therapist, has begun speaking in small sentences. When Fern informs her mother that she is pregnant, and what her intentions are with the baby, her mother urges her not to give her baby to Rose. Wally also makes insinuations that there isn't something right with Rose, and boy was he right.

For the last several months, Rose had been writing in a diary, depicting their childhood as something awful, with a mother who was neglectful and abusive, whereas it was the furthest from the truth. Rose was under the impression that her mother always picked Fern over her, due to their likeness, and Rose would act out. After a camping trip with their mother and her new boyfriend, Daniel, and his son, Billy, ended in Billy drowning in the creek after Fern held him under, we learn that Rose was actually the master manipulator of this plan: she informed Fern to hold him under the water for 40 seconds, but in truth, it was much longer than that until he stopped moving and drowned.

For years, Fern has felt responsible for this, and their mother kept it covered up in order to protect Fern, as Rose never did come clean about it. But, now their mother has died, under suspicious circumstances, and Rose is the number one suspect.

After Fern gives birth to her baby, she realizes that the last thing she wants to do is give her daughter, named Willow, over to her sister and she attempts to run away to freedom with her, but Rose tells the police that she has kidnapped the child, and Fern is sent to the psychiatric ward of the hospital, while Willow is taken to the pediatric ward. But, a police detective informs Fern that she is the rightful mother to the child, as the adoption paperwork hadn't been finalized.

To further her decision, Owen, Rose's estranged husband comes to visit her in the hospital, and explains that he was never in London, that he was living on the opposite side of town after their marriage ended due to her constant changes in behavior. Rose was trying to use the baby to get him back, but it didn't work, and now Rose was going to go to jail for her responsibility in the death of their mother and attempted kidnaping of a child that wasn't hers.

Wally and Fern are back together and they're going to raise their baby together, while Rose remains in jail. It is insinuated that everything she discussed in her diary is actually true but the story ends without a definitive answer to the many questions left remaining.

This story I believe dragged on a little longer than it needed to be. I understand the lead up, and the second half of the book read quickly. But, I am left confused as to who the true narcissist is in the end. Is it Rose? Is it Fern? Are they both masters at manipulating the people around them, Fern just less so because of her sensory issues? We may never know. 3/5

[readingforsanity]

The House in the Cerulean Sea | TJ Klune | Published 2020 | *SPOILERS*

A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentified green blob, a were-Pomeranian and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they're likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren't the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place - and realizes that family is yours.

Linus Baker is an ordinary man working an extraordinary job. He is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. These children, deemed strange and unusual by ordinary people, are kept in orphanges or schools until they hit adulthood, where they would then be registered with the Department in Charge of Magical Adults, where they can be monitored in everything they do, everyday.

When Extremely Upper Management requests Linus for a special assignment, he begins to question what their motives are. He is told that he would spend a month on the island of Marsyas, where an level four orphanage is being run by a man named Arthur Parnassus. In his tutelage are six magical youth. Linus is given their files on what is known of them.

There is Talia, a garden Gnome who is 246 years old. She is considered strange as Gnomes are typically male and not female. She keeps a wonderful garden on the property surrounding the orphanage, and despite her hardened demeanor is actually quite a joy to be around. There is Theodore, a wyvern, one of the few left of his kind, who keeps a hoard of treasures that he finds or takes, usually in the turret of the orphanage where he sleeps, or under the couch. He only lets the most trusted of people see it. Next we have Phee, a young forest sprite who remained next to her dead mother who had starved to death until she was rescued and brought to the orphanage. With the help of an island sprite, she has been able to control her powers, which for someone so young is rumored to be quite strong, something also unheard of and quite feared. There is Sal, a young broken boy, the oldest of the lot at 13, but who had been through so much. Within the last few months, he had been shipped to several different orphanges, and the more times this occurred, the less he felt like he was being accepted and at home where he was. His magical being is a Pomeranian, which he turns into when he is scared or angry, and after being struck by the master of his last orphange, was sent to the island, where he feels a bit more accepted but is still scared to come out of his shell. There is Chauncey, whose magical being isn't quite known or understood, but he resembles an octopus. His greatest desire in life is to become a bellhop and help people, and he does a wonderful job practicing with others in the orphanage as well as with Linus upon his arrival. And lastly, and quite honestly the biggest shock for Linus, is Lucy, short for Lucifer. He is titled as being the Antichrist - his mother deceased and his father is the devil himself. He is a 6 year old boy struggling with many emotions, and isn't quite sure how to handle the nightmares that occur, but with Arthur's help, these nightmares have become few and far between.

When Linus arrives on the island, he is determined to get to know the children in an unbiased way, as well as Arthur. He is unsure of Arthur's past, as his file had been suspiciously lacking in information. But, Linus begins to get to know the children, and Arthur, and his time on the island begins to open his once closed-off mind to the wonders of each of the kids.

During the week, he observes them during their schooling and personal time. He is invited to see their rooms and spaces that are theirs, and with a little determination, he earns the trust of Sal, who was once terrified that he had been there to send him away once again.

As the month goes on, Linus finds himself opening up more and more. And to his surprise, he also learns that Arthur is a magical being: a Phoenix, the last of his kind. Linus is absolutely floored by Arthur's beauty and their flirting becomes stronger and stronger. And through perserverance and Linus's help, Arthur is able to take the kids into the village where they are despised so much.

But, at last, Linus's time with with the children and Arthur has come to an end. Zoe, the island sprite, is devastated at Linus's choice to leave, and while Linus himself is hesitant to do so, he knows that the orphanage relies on his final report findings.

When he returns back to his home and his regular life, Linus feels lost. He explains to Extremely Upper Management that the orphanage should remain open, and that they should remain with Arthur, who has become a father to these children who have otherwise been burned by the government.

After weeks of hearing nothing, Linus learns that they had agreed to keep the orphanage open, and with that, Linus packs up his desk and quits his job, determined to return to the island, which he does, where he is accepted with open arms. He and Arthur begin a relationship, and everything is fine. It is when the mayor of the village comes to the island with a request to take in a new, undocumented youth, whom is a Yeti named David, that we learn that Arthur and Linus have decided to put in a petition to adopt the six children in their care together, and that Linus has officially moved into the home with the family he now loves so much. It is also alluded that he and Arthur will get married, and they can live their happy lives in the Cerulean Sea.