Tag Archives: book reviews

Mar31

The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester- review

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I haven’t done a review in a while as my husband passed away on March 4th and I haven’t been able to focus on writing for a bit. I have read a few books and hope to get more reviews done soon.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy for review.

Fire was the theme of this book. It played a large part in the story. A late 1950s, early 960s take on the Jane Eyre story, the author did an excellent job weaving in elements of the source material in this coming-of-age tale.

The young orphan, Aria Jones, after her parents died in a fiery automobile accident, comes to live with her aunt at the Chateau Marmot, an icon in Los Angeles. The aunt, a former actress has turned tranquilizer user after a mysterious event a number of years ago. She stopped acting and holed up in a set of rooms in the chateau when her engagement to a Hollywood producer ended. She wasn’t much of a substitute parent for her fourteen-year-old niece, the child of her brother.

Left to her own devices in the hotel, Aria tries hard to not make a nuisance of herself. Two young actresses sort of take her under their wings and act kind of like big sisters for her.

Over the years, Aria doesn’t leave the hotel much. She works to stay low profile but a lot of people in the chateau rely on her sensibleness. She calls the hotel doctor to help a lot of the young actresses who find themselves in bad situations. She also babysits a lot of the actors’ and actresses’ children and hordes money to save to live in Hawaii when she is an adult. Her biggest desire is to escape the hotel but she never seems to want to even walk all the way down Sunset Boulevard.

When she is almost an adult, a rock star purchases the chateau. He has a child whose mother passed away. Aria asks to babysit the child who happens to be the same age as Aria was when she moved to the chateau herself. She has success bonding with the teen and forms an attachment with the rock star father.

Several mysteries exist in the chateau. Why a friend of Aria’s aunt died in an apparent suicide; who lives in one of the bungalows secretly; what secrets does the famous producer hide; what does the rock star hide from his past as well as his present; and why did Aria’s aunt go from wildly popular as an actress to a recluse living on Quaaludes and other drugs?

Fire appears on the regular in this book and it haunts the protagonist’s life.

I absolutely loved this book. Lots of good meaty drama in the story. The protagonist was very likable and the two friends she made when she first came to the chateau were complicated young women who had deep side stories themselves.

The rock star who was based on Rochester was an enigma as well and the protagonist drew him out in the same way Jane Eyre drew out Rochester.

The protagonist’s story traces—in a 1960s fashion—the path of Jane Eyre. As someone who has been to the Marmont, I enjoyed the fact that the writer made the hotel itself a real character in this novel.

Overall, this is an excellent read and a very good, mystery heavy, take on the classic tale. 

BLURB:

A sheltered young woman living at the Chateau Marmont falls under the spell of a scandalous, secretive man as all of Hollywood’s glamour swirls around her—a stunning feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre from the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress.

In 1957, newly orphaned Aria Jones is sent to live with her aunt, a fading star who hides away in Hollywood’s infamous Chateau Marmont. There, two aspiring actresses, Calliope and Flitter, take grieving Aria under their wing.

But the Marmont isn’t meant for small girls with big hearts, and Aria’s first few nights reveal an insidious secret that continues to haunt her as she grows up in the hotel’s halls, where the bright lights of Hollywood cast even darker shadows. If Aria can just stay invisible and invite no trouble as she saves money, then she can leave the Marmont and live life on her own terms—alone, but free. 

All her carefully laid plans are shattered when the hotel is bought by Theo Winchester: a reclusive rockstar turned unexpected caretaker of his daughter Adele, and unlike any man Aria has met before. To earn the last bit of money she needs to escape, Aria becomes Adele’s tutor, which brings Aria closer to Theo and ignites a passion she never expected. 

Suddenly, Aria finds herself wondering if she still wants to remain invisible—and if inviting trouble is a risk she’s willing to take to pursue what she truly desires.

Jan26

The Red Queen by Martha Grimes

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I’ve read every book Martha Grimes has ever written and the Richard Jury series has been one of my favorite series since the 1980s when she first started writing them. I still own all her work and she has always been an “auto buy” for me.

I never, ever thought I’d say this about one of her books, but this one should never have been written, much less published. It was only about 250 pages in total. Probably about 180 of them were filler and nonsensical. It would have been a great short story if the murder part of the plot had been distilled to its essence and published that way.

I love the recurring characters of the series, but the whole subplot with Sgt. Wiggins and Brian Macalvie was a distraction that served no purpose other than to add word count and pages to the book. The promise in the blurb that it would tie into Jury’s investigation went nowhere and there was no reason to have this whole road trip escapade in the book.

Melrose Plant served no purpose other than to eat and drink in his club with Jury. Even his “job” working at the victim’s stables offered no clues to solving the mystery like they usually do.

There was a chapter about pigs that was absolutely ludicrous as well as a visit to the characters of Plant’s home town that basically only served to remind us of all the quirky people who live in the village.

Jury also popped into several pubs where he’d solved crimes in recent books and we got to see him interact with bartenders in those places.

In short, this seemed like a goodbye “tour” of the series. If I’d known that, I might not have spent $28.00 on a short story with a lot of filler and nonsense woven in. This sort of makes me livid. I get that the author is now 95, but maybe she should have stopped with the book before this one rather than leave us long term fans with such a bitter taste in our mouths.

Nov21

REVIEW: Miller and Kelby: Major Case Squad Files by Maxine Flam

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Thank you to the author and Rosie’s Reviews for the copy of this book to review.

It took me a while to get through these stories. Each was pretty short and could easily be read quickly. When I did read them, I read two at a time during my lunch breaks. They were okay reads but I wasn’t compelled to return to them promptly.

While the premise of each story was creative and well thought out, the two main characters were written with very similar personalities and I was glad there were a lot of voice tags so the reader could tell who was speaking.

There were a few things that bothered me about the whole series of stories. There was a police psychologist that the two main characters consulted on over 70% of the tales. This guy was a mind reading savant of some sort because every case, on very little information, he nailed what kind of suspect they should look for; it was especially jarring in the eleventh story. In that one, he barely knew one thing about the crime and spouted off a lot of details. When the reader was invited in the head of the perpetrator, his thoughts mirrored exactly what the psychologist said was the type of killer and the motivation for murder they were looking for in their quest to solve the case. This happened in each story where the psychologist gave advice to the main characters.

there was another thing that bothered this reader. The two partners would set up a stake out at a particular location and that very same night, the killer would show up to their location.  I know these are short stories, but they were too easily solved with the psychologist and the killer playing right into their set up to catch him.  There were no moments of disappointment that they had to try again at another time. I felt there was no real drama or really high stakes (until the eleventh story which was the one with car salesman murders).

My favorite story was the one with the food critic (story number ten) as none of the things that bothered me were present in that story. I’m wondering if the stories were presented in the order the author wrote them as it appears her story telling improved as this reader kept reading.

In short, the writer of these stories has a nice way with prose and plotting. I just wanted the stories to be more fleshed out and a little harder for the protagonists to solve, along with more high stakes as there were in stories eleven and twelve.

3 stars

BLURB:

“Two Detectives, One City

The time: the late 1970s

The place: Los Angeles, California

Joseph (Joe) Miller and William (Bill) Kelby are detectives with the Major Case Squad. They get the hard-to-solve cases. And they solve them the old-fashioned way with grit and determination, forensics, and help from the department psychologist.

Miller and Kelby are a dedicated detective team that Los Angeles turns to when there are unsolved murders in the city. And solving murders is their specialty. They put their lives on the line every day for the citizens of Los Angeles, a city that rarely sleeps.”

Oct13

Review: Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

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I bought this book back in July when the bookstore had a Christmas in July sale. I finally had a chance to read it and absolutely loved it.

The two main characters are Anna and Maryam. Anna was raised in a Christian household but had a Jewish stepmother. Maryam is a Muslim whose family comes from India.

Both live in Denver. Anna works for a magazine and has a boyfriend she’s been seeing for only about six months. He thinks she’s perfect, but she worries that he doesn’t know the real her.

Maryam is a pharmacist and works with her family in their drugstore. She’s always been the dutiful daughter. Her sister is a doctor with Doctors Without Borders. Maryam spends a lot of her time being the person who arranges things for her family and making sure all things run smoothly. She’s also been roped into planning her sister’s wedding during Ramadan.

Anna finds herself on a separate plane when she is to fly to Toronto to meet her boyfriend’s family for the first time for Christmas. She has to catch a later flight than him due to work commitments.

Maryam’s family ends up on the same flight as Anna. They find themselves as seat mates and when the plane hits turbulence, they each share secrets with each other.

The problem is Maryam shares her lifelong crush on a family friend, Saif. Who just happens to be seated behind them and hears the whole thing.

The plane is forced to make an emergency landing at a small airport as the snowstorm that had started at take-off has worsened. By the time their plane would arrive at Toronto, it would be impossible to land there.

They find themselves in a small town called Snowfalls.

Maryam’s sister is miserable and making everyone around her the same as she’s concerned about her wedding. Maryam has that worry as well as finding food for her family to break their Ramadan fast. She’s also concerned that her crush is staying at the same inn and is making no secret of overhearing the conversation with Anna.

Anna, on the other hand, has a boyfriend who is completely enraged that she was on a flight that was delayed. He’s making demands that she make arrangements to get to Toronto any way she can. She stops at a bar she finds open and makes the acquaintance of a man named Josh. He’s nice enough to help her find the inn where he’s staying and Maryam’s family as well.

Over the next few days, Anna makes friends with Maryam’s family as well as Josh and both women become involved with each other as well as the small town that is welcoming to all. Maryam spends time with her crush although she tries to push him away. Maryam’s sister remained self-centered and miserable for most of the book, blaming the family fixer, Maryam, for everything from the snowstorm socking them in to the fact she had to cancel the venues for her celebrations.

This book was charming and inclusive.  All three holidays were celebrated and this reader learned a bit more about Ramadan than she knew. It was interesting to learn those traditions as well as the various celebrations surrounding an Indian marriage.

The two main character women grew in themselves and faced their own faults and shared friendship and guidance with each other. One particular character this reader like a lot was the grandfather of Maryam. He was wise and warm to everyone.

The book celebrated Ramadan, Chanukah, and Christmas in a lovely way, along with the normal romantic tropes. The authors did a beautiful job merging the cultures and celebrations of the seasons of each of the holidays as well as showing growth for the two main characters. I recommend this one as a lively holiday story that could be a Hallmark movie.

BLURB:

Three times the holiday magic. Three times the chaos.

As strangers and seatmates Maryam Aziz and Anna Gibson fly to Toronto over the holidays—Maryam to her sister’s impromptu wedding, and Anna to meet her boyfriend’s wealthy family for the first time—neither expect that severe turbulence will scare them into confessing their deepest hopes and fears to one another. At least they’ll never see each other again. And the love of Maryam’s life, Saif, wasn’t sitting two rows behind them hearing it all. Oops.
An emergency landing finds Anna, Saif, Maryam, and her sister’s entire bridal party snowbound at the quirky Snow Falls Inn in a picture-perfect town, where fate has Anna’s actor-crush filming a holiday romance. As Maryam finds the courage to open her heart to Saif, and Anna feels the magic of being snowbound with an unexpected new love—both women soon realize there’s no place they’d rather be for the holidays.

Aug19

The Glass Eel by J. J. Viertel

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I received a copy of the ARC of this book from the publisher, The Mysterious Press in exchange for an unbiased review on behalf of Rosie’s Review Team. I thank the publisher and Wunderkind PR firm for this opportunity. It comes out in September and you should have it on your list to read, for sure.

The book was quite enjoyable and even educational. I didn’t know one thing about eel migration and spawning nor did I know about how they are harvested or transported for sale. The father/Son writing team clearly are well-acquainted with the process as well as the state of Maine.

But don’t think this is some boring tale about fisheries and eels. It’s a downright interesting mystery and thriller of a novel.

There are a few chapters from the point of view of sea creatures which add to the atmosphere of the story. It’s not like they’re anthropomorphic, but more like we, the readers, are included in the biosphere of the ocean and currents and how they interact with sea life. I thought it was a pretty cool concept that added richness to the story.

Jeanette, the main protagonist, is a woman with strength and conviction. She’s brave to the point of irrationality in some places, but I never felt like she was “too stupid to live” like sometimes happens in novels. She was sensible and bright and one steady-nerved person. She didn’t hesitate to move into danger when she needed to be strong and unafraid.

The other characters in the story who were her friends and close comrades were all well-written and fully realized. I liked all of them and they each added an important element to the story telling. It’s always a good read when the protagonist’s allies are also people the reader can root for and like. This reader is very much someone who needs to care about the characters to full enjoy a story. This writing team delivers that and more.

The bad guys were also well developed and each were a different brand of evil. None were caricatures which is always a good thing.

The story is intriguing and very nicely plotted and laid out.

Environmental issues play a part as well as the treatment of indigenous people in the state historically, as well as in the modern era. The authors didn’t bang the reader over the head with any of those things, though. They seamlessly wove those issues into the tale.

The action was fast and the suspects many and varied.

I truly enjoyed this book and hope to see more from these writers. It was a quick read. Filled with action, great plot points and a satisfying ending.

Five stars

BLURB:

In this gripping debut thriller, struggling divorcée Jeanette King becomes embroiled in a criminal ring when she discovers her ex-husband’s cache of baby eels.

Caterpillar Island is off the central coast of Maine―beloved vacationland of lobster bakes and quaint fried clam shacks, kayaking and country houses. At night, though, by the light of a headlamp, the island is alive with cash, guns, and poachers. Oxy addicts, struggling retirees, and unemployable deadbeats dip their nets in the creeks to catch elvers―two-inch-long baby eels that fetch $2000 a pound on the international black market.

Into this dark and dangerous world falls Jeanette King, who has, up to this moment, been earning her meager living mainly by picking and packaging peekytoe crab meat for shipment to New York and Boston. As Jeanette gets drawn into a fast-moving story of risk and violent consequences, she enlists the aid of a local policeman and an Indigenous activist. Together they try to set things right for the people and the planet. But the deeper they dig, the more dangerous things get. An ensuing procession of colorful locals, corrupt state politicians, and treacherous outsiders weaves a tale that reveals the underbelly of a deadly business.

Jul30

Wild Instinct by T. Jefferson Parker

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Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel set in California. A modern-day novel with some historical factors blended into the tale.

Lew Gale is a detective in Orange County, California.  He is also part of the indigenous Acjacheme tribe. He is sent to investigate the killing of a man by a lion. What he finds is anything but a simple man vs. wild animal scenario. In addition, the victim is a prominent citizen of the county.

Things get convoluted and the trail leads Lew and his new partner in many directions, keeping the reader engaged in the mystery and the action. The new partner wasn’t someone I really could get behind based on her spying on her child and other things the character had going on in her life.

There are flashbacks to Acjacheme tribe lore which was a fascinating part of the book. Clearly, the author did a lot of research into the tribe. I had not heard of this particular tribe before picking up this book and enjoyed learning about them.

Many social issues come into play in this story, like Lew’s PTSD from his time in the military, tribal rights, the historical treatment of indigenous peoples by the church, and greed of corporations and the people who run them.

Even with the social issues raised in the story, there is no feeling of lecturing by the author. It is all seamlessly interwoven into the mystery and action. The story may have bogged down in some places, but it was still an enjoyable read.

A really good read for the fan of the genre. The reader is also educated about many things without feeling as if they are in a classroom.

Four stars

BLURB:

The hunt for the truth is the deadliest game.

Former Marine sniper Lew Gale, now a detective with the Orange County California Sheriff’s Department, is assigned to track and shoot a mountain lion that has killed a man in the rugged country east of Laguna Beach, California. The victim is Bennet Tarlow, a rich developer and man-about-town in upscale coastal Orange County.

The investigation takes a chilling turn when Lew and his new partner, Daniela Mendez, discover that Bennet was dead long before the lion got to him. And while he might have been the first to die, he certainly will not be the last.

Jul22

Measured Deception by Richard E. Kalk and T. Ann Pryor

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Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book for Rosie’s Review Team.

This is a story set in the 1980s mostly in Los Angeles. The two main protagonists are LAPD Detective Nick Blaine and his partner, Phillips.

Faced with solving the crime of the murder of a young man who seemed to be loved by everyone, they’re led on a quest through the gay community of Los Angeles looking for any possible motive.  Blaine pretty quickly settles on a suspect or two, but kept an open mind for a while.

Blaine eventually enters into quite a cat and mouse game with the suspect he eventually settles on. The case takes him and his partner from Los Angeles to Chicago and even to Louisiana and Mississippi.

The story was interesting and held my attention. A couple of misused words threw me out of the story a few times, such as throws for throes and taught for taut.

Other than these small nits to pick, the story held up well and I liked the tenacity of the detectives in not letting the case grow cold as it so easily could have. They persevered and worked to find proof that their suspect was the right one.

It seems this will be a series (or it may already have earlier books) and I’m sure I’ll pick up the next one as well. An enjoyable, easy read.

Four stars

BLURB:

From the real life experiences of an award winning LAPD detective comes the riveting novel Measured Deception.

Justice doesn’t always come to those who seek it. Sometimes, in this world, justice is denied…

After twenty soul bending years as a detective with the LAPD, Sergeant Nick Blaine thought he knew evil. That was until he came across the murder of Ainsley Brown, a charismatic young gay man trying to live unapologetically in 1980s Los Angeles. Popular on the social scene, Ainsley was beloved by all but one man. The man who loved him so much he would rather see Ainsley dead than with another. Yet, the murders don’t stop with Ainsley Brown. Before he’s able to catch his killer, Nick Blaine will find himself taken from the streets of L.A. to the bayou of Louisiana and back again, all while hot on the heels of a killer.

Having suffered heart-breaking loss, Blaine must not only solve the case, he must also figure out a way to find comfort and solace in a world determined to let his demon chase him. With every step Blaine and his faithful partner in crime, Detective Phillips, find themselves falling deeper into a cesspool of murder, drugs, and sex. Will they be able to stay afloat?

Jul11

Death Ride: The notorious 1940s kidnap and murder of a New Orleans police detective by August Palumbo

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I picked this one up as I’m acquainted with Gus Palumbo. He’s a former officer with both the New Orleans Police Department as well as a former agent of the ATF. His previous book, Assassin Hunter (a memoir of a particular case he was investigating and his life at that time) was a great book so I knew this one was a not to be missed book.

Meticulously researched, with the author’s personal conversations with the surviving detective as well as copies of evidence that survives, including photos of the people involved, this book tells the story of post World War II era New Orleans and a particularly heinous crime involving the death of a detective. The book also highlights the differences in criminal procedure and the courtroom that are vastly different from today.

For example, the two robbery division detectives on duty had worked a full night shift and were within an hour of the end of their shift. A report of a person stealing $450.00 and a gun from someone in a hotel came in and the new NOPD policy was that these calls had to be taken by the officers on duty at the time and could not be passed on to the next shift.

This was the Monday morning of Labor Day weekend. One detective only wanted to spend the day with his two young sons fishing. The other wanted to rest and spend time with his pregnant wife.

The trip to interview the person at the hotel who was robbed turned into a trip to Gulfport, Mississippi which was about two hours away with the lack of an interstate and the speed limits of those days.

The next difference from today to back then was the detectives took the victim with them to question and/or arrest the perpetrator.

Two detectives who’d been awake all night, guns, a victim, and a perpetrator all in the same sedan driving back to New Orleans through small towns and some swampy, barely populated areas was a recipe for disaster. And a disaster it turned out to be.

The story has quite a number of twists and turns and sometimes unfathomable actions on the part of the criminals.

A number of people acted heroically in various ways and the death toll could have been much higher had certain individuals not taken on those brave actions.

As a lawyer myself, I was especially intrigued by the quickness of the trial being set and heard. It was also a big shock to read that the court conducted a capital murder case in two days.  Two very long days.  One day, proceedings went on until eight pm. The second day, testimony went on from nine a.m. until after midnight. The jury went out at almost three a.m. and returned a verdict at five thirty a.m.  That is insane.  These days, everyone is so conciliatory to juries, and they’d never be made to stay in a courtroom that long. That would be an appealable issue for sure. A tired jury who wants to go home and go to bed is a sure-fire way to get a new trial these days, but not then.

Of course, in those days, juries were all male so that’s another difference and probably a good thing as one of the defendants had a following of women who seemed fascinated with him.  I have personally never understood that bad boy attraction, but we all know it happens.

Today, I think we’d categorize the one defendant as a sociopath and narcissist. He definitely loved the spotlight on himself as well as had zero remorse for any of his actions.

This book was intriguing and very readable. I felt sad for the surviving detective as he had to navigate the rest of his life with the realization of the mistakes that he and his partner mad, the death of his partner and his own harrowing escape as part of his burdens in life. I was happy to learn he had made a success of two careers after the horror of that time period in his life.

If you like true crime books, this one is excellent.

5 stars.

Feb10

The Secret History of Audrey James by Heather Marshall

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I have been remiss in posting reviews lately. No excuses, just madness in my day job. I wrote a few this weekend, so I am trying to do better.

This was an excellent book. I very much enjoyed it. There are two distinct story lines with two heroines, Audrey and Kate. The stories intersect when the two characters meet at a large estate house that has been turned into a boutique hotel.

Audrey was an English young woman who was living in Berlin in the 1930s. Her mother had been German and her father was English. Her mother passed away when Audrey was young and she spent a lot of time with the neighbor girl where she lived. When her father returned to England, Audrey stayed in Berlin with the Jewish family across the street. The daughter of the house was her best friend. Audrey was a gifted pianist studying her craft and stayed to keep at her studies.  

Kate is a young woman in the early part of the 21st century. Her marriage and job ended and she had nowhere to go as the lease was up on the place she and her husband rented while married. Her parents had passed away in a car accident and she was going to be all on her own. She was lucky enough to land a job at the boutique hotel that came with a place for her to live.

The two ladies meet and, after some initial animosity, they form a friendship over a period of time. Slowly, both of their stories come to light.

Audrey was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Nazi party took over Berlin and the Jewish family she lived with had some harrowing times. Audrey refused to abandon them and her own life thereby became fraught with danger.

Kate was also in the wrong place at the wrong time and had her own life changing moments.

Without giving away any spoilers, I have to say the bravery and heroism of Audrey was amazing to read as her story unfolded. The time period she lived in held many dark days and she withstood a lot.

Kate’s story was not as full of life or death circumstances, but she had a rough go at life as well.

How both of these ladies persevered and overcame makes for a great read. This one is high on my list of favorites. I read a lot of stories set in Audrey’s early life time frame and this one ranks high on intrigue and a compelling story line. 5 stars.

BLURB:

Northern England, 2010. After a tragic accident upends her life, Kate Mercer leaves London to work at an old guest house near the Scottish border, where she hopes to find a fresh start and heal from her loss. When she arrives, she begins to unravel the truth about her past, but discovers that the mysterious elderly proprietor is harboring secrets of her own .

Berlin, 1938. Audrey James is weeks away from graduating from a prestigious music school in Berlin, where she’s been living with her best friend, Ilse Kaplan. As war looms, Ilse’s family disappears and high-ranking Nazi officers confiscate the house. In desperation, Audrey becomes their housekeeper while Ilse is forced into hiding in the attic. When a shocking turn of events embroils Audrey in the anti-Hitler movement, she must decide what matters most: protecting those she loves, or sacrificing everything for the greater good.

Inspired by true stories of courageous women and the German resistance during World War II, The Secret History of Audrey James is a captivating novel about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, the sacrifices we make for those we love, and the healing that comes from human connection.

Oct29

Run by Matthew Becker

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Thanks to the author for a copy of this book to be reviewed by Rosie’s Book Review team.

Ben’s wife, Veronica, is missing. She went out for a run and never came home.

A news story about the bodies of four runners being found causes Ben greater anguish as the route his wife Veronica runs goes right by the place where the bodies were found.

Ben works a high profile job as the aide for a politician. He enlists the assistance of his friend Jeremy who is mounting a run for president. With his contacts, perhaps they can get past any bureaucratic walls of the police investigation to find out if Veronica was a victim or perhaps just a witness who is hiding because of concerns she may be a target of the killer if he knew she saw him. But if that was the case, why didn’t she call and say she was fine?

Ben is sure they have a strong marriage and she wasn’t having an affair. She would never leave him and the two children. At least he’s adamant about that. Unsure of anything else, that’s one thing he knows in his gut.

When no real answers are forthcoming about her whereabouts, Ben decides to become an investigator himself. He believes he can find her if no one else can.

The story has many twists and turns. I figured out a lot of it early on as I always challenge myself to do. Two big surprises were obvious to me but I still enjoyed the story a lot. Great character in Ben and his relationship with his in laws is very good. I love how they all supported each other and stepped up to protect the children from worry about their mother.

This is a fast paced story and I enjoyed it very much. The only thing I’d say that bothered me was the formatting on Apple Books. The chapter headings were at the end of the chapter before and the page headings were in the middle of the page.  It was a bit distracting but fixable for the author and I still kept reading as the plot compelled me on.

Four stars.

BLURB:

‘I LOVE YOU. I JUST NEED YOU TO KNOW THAT.’
When Congressional staffer Ben Walsh receives this cryptic text from his wife he initially doesn’t think much of it.

But while waiting to hear from her again, Ben discovers that the text came an hour before a shooting that occured along her daily running route. Veronica won’t pick up her phone, and when she doesn’t return home, he knows she is somehow involved.

If she isn’t one of the victims, then where is she, and what did she know?

While Ben searches for his wife, he stumbles upon another violent death, with clear connections to the shooting. The police name Veronica as their main suspect, and when more evidence suggesting his wife’s involvement appears, even Ben has to reconsider what he knows about her.

Unbeknownst to Ben, a killer from Veronica’s past stalks his family, with his own reasons for wanting to find her. What Ben does know is his best chance at saving Veronica, and keeping her out of prison, is finding her and the truth before the police—or this killer—do. But what if the truth is even more deadly than he could imagine?