I picked this one up when I was out shopping before Christmas as it sounded intriguing and the cover was enticing. I enjoyed it immensely and read it in one day.
A ten day camping/hiking trip gone wrong for the protagonist ends up affecting her whole life when she meets up with various strangers on the trail.
It is a fast paced story that keeps you on your toes. I figured out some stuff early on but didn’t figure out one of the main things until pretty late in the tale. Which I love since I usually figure out solutions easily. A book that keeps me guessing is always a joy.
This one has a cool premise and the author executed it to perfection. She writes in a way that keeps the tension going but also gives the reader a bit of a rest in spots so it’s not a frantic read, but rather a story that has ebbs and then spurts of high action. A veritable roller coaster ride of a story. I can’t say much more than that due to the risk of spoilers but I can say it’s in your interest to go grab a copy if you like suspense as it’s well worth immersing yourself in the ups and downs of this one.
It was a quick read even though it was a densely packed almost 300 pages.
New Orleans. Mardi Gras. The Garden District. Two half-brothers, estranged. Families with issues. A private school. A murder. A perfect storm of ingredients that lead to a great read full of mystery, danger, and anxiety for the protagonists.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books in exchange for an impartial review.
Marcel and Amir are half-brothers who share a father and not much else. Marcel is the elder of the two and his father cheated on his mother with Amir’s mother. This led to their father leaving Marcel’s mother and his subsequent marriage to Amir’s mother. Family dynamics have been problematic since that time. The boys are now in high school and don’t communicate with each other.
Until the fateful night of Amir’s 16th birthday party when Marcel shows up at the invitation of Amir’s best friend, Chloe.
He and Chloe eventually leave the party and head to her house. A few hours later, Marcel wakes to the horrifying sight of Chloe’s lifeless body. Her room ransacked and her being stabbed panics Marcel and he runs. A Black young man found in the home of a dead white girl is always going to go sideways.
And indeed it does when he’s seen on a security camera leaving the house via the front door.
From this point, the story moves into trying to resolve the question of who really killed Chloe.
Amir is sure his brother is innocent and he’s on a quest to clear his brother’s name.
Along the way, we meet a cast of characters who all have something to hide. The family dynamics of several of the characters enter into the story. There’s also the discovery of a reprehensible game being played online at the private school. That part of the book absolutely turned my stomach and made my blood boil.
Amir and Marcel’s family dynamics are also an integral part of the story and I was rooting for a good resolution to that part of the story as well as the solving of the murder.
I loved this book. Lots of twists and turns and some parts kept me guessing which I love. The growth of the characters is super well done by the author.
Throughout the days as I was reading this, I found myself thinking about getting back to the story of Marcel and Amir when I should’ve been focused on other things. These characters were both well drawn and they seemed very real to me.
The New Orleans setting also appealed. It’s one of my favorite cities and I could picture all the places in the book which added to my enjoyment of this story.
This is going to be a strange review as, in the beginning, I hated both of the main characters in this book. One of them was a terrible, terrible, terrible human being. The other was a victim of the first. But he had a lot of unlikable characteristics himself. I almost put it down several times and walked away. I could only manage a chapter or two a day as I began this one.
The father character, Ronnie, was downright abusive to everyone he knew but mostly to his son. It was hard to read the awful things he did to the poor boy growing up.
Based on the blurb, I knew this was going to turn into a thriller type book even though it was slow getting there. By the end of chapter eight, I thought I had the story figured out. When I decided I’d figured the case out, it motivated me to keep reading and I was able to read more than a chapter at a time. I still was angry at Ronnie, but I was determined to see if I was right about how this would play out. LOL
I went on reading, getting more and more agitated at this Ronnie guy’s behavior. As I went on, though, the psychology classes I took kicked in and I became more sympathetic to the son. He was definitely a product of his upbringing. A mostly absent mother and an absolute jackass of a father. Of course, I did see that the father was also a product of some things that happened to him as a boy but, he was too far gone for me to have any sympathy for at all.
It turns out I did figure out the outcome of the story. I’m glad I finished it as it was definitely well written and the author must have some psychological training or had good advice on this work. She crafted a character in Ronnie that evoked strong feelings—albeit negative ones—that compelled me to keep reading. So, well done to the author.
To sum up, a slow start, a character who isn’t likable, and a female character who was clueless, along with a younger character we learn to understand, all add up to a read that is compelling and well written. I recommend plugging away at this one if you enjoy psychological thrillers.
I picked this up from our local library book sale a few months ago. It was published in 2005. It is a thriller set in New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. The type story as well as the setting immediately appealed to me since I live within a few hours drive of New Orleans and I love, love that city. Natchez is also a lovely, southern town. The racism in the story is a bit unsettling but it’s definitely true to some areas of the south—I’m not proud of that, but facts are facts. We do seem to have a lot of people who are unkind to others down here based solely on their skin color. I hate it and it makes me uncomfortable reading some of the language used.
The book itself is very intriguing. The premise is great with the heroine having a unique job as a forensic odonatologist. She inspects bite marks for criminal cases and I love that as a career choice for a character. I wasn’t sure I was going to like her from the blurb of the book since she is involved in an affair with a married man. Not only that, she and he jeopardize their careers with working together on various cases where she is not hired on officially as a consultant. He is a homicide detective who brings her into cases to help him look good as she has a good eye for details. She is also a functioning alcoholic. She has a family full of secrets. Her father was murdered when she was a small child.
I did end up liking her. The author piled on the trauma with this gal. She was messed up and even though she put on an appearance of being strong, she was an absolute mess.
As the story progresses, we learn exactly why she is a mess. It’s truly a miracle she wasn’t in a padded room of some sort with all that happened in her life.
The story is good. Complex and satisfying. She grows and learns and her character arc is well done. She makes some bone-headed moves a few times in the story and so does her homicide detective lover, but overall, it was an excellent read. It’s close to five-hundred pages, but it is really a pretty quick read with the page-turning plot.
A mash up of the book of Luke in the Bible and a thriller. It’s gruesome in parts, funny in parts, moving in parts, and maybe partially sacrilegious. Maybe.
What an interesting idea this author had to make the three wise men into common criminals who find themselves in a situation where they are protecting a newborn baby and his parents from King Herod and his soldiers. Pontius Pilate as a young centurion makes an appearance in this tale. We also come across John the Baptist as a child.
As the story progresses, we learn more about the main protagonist, Balthazar and how he became embroiled in a life of crime. He became a legendary thief called the Ghost of Antioch. A price on his head, part of the adventure is the chase as Herod sends his men after not only all of the male children under two years of age in Judea, but sends them out to find the Antioch Ghost as he wants to kill him as well. He feels the Antioch Ghost has made a fool of him and Herod wants his revenge against the man.
Lots of violence in the story which can get a bit over the top—some gore, rape, and child murdering takes place so beware of that—but it was a lawless time for many in that era. Or maybe not lawless, but dangerous and life was easily lost with the Romans in charge of the world. Man’s inhumanity to man is pretty obvious in this story. The common man and woman really didn’t have any rights—especially the women. They were forced to do things against their wills in this strongly patriarchal society. The author touches on that in the scenes related to the harem of Herod.
If this sounds depressing, I don’t mean for it to. I liked the story and the hero’s journey was satisfying as it progressed to the ending. Balthasar had a lot of issues—some rooted way back in his past, but the reader gets to enjoy watching him grow as a person and learn that violence doesn’t have to be the answer—unless the whole Roman Army is trying to kill you…
This author has a unique voice and is very clever and creative. This book was compelling and well written. As a lover of thrillers, I was entertained by this one. Lots of excitement, but also tender moments as well as a bit of humor mixed in. A good read if you can get past the violence and the sometimes disrespect for Mary, Joseph and the baby.
I bought this book after seeing the author on Jeopardy a couple of weeks ago.
The book was good, but it was one of those books where I didn’t really care for the protagonist. She was just thoroughly unlikeable throughout the book. We’re supposed to feel sorry for her for being trapped in a situation beyond her control and for having lost her job in the economic downturn in 2008. But she just grated on my nerves. She was a total snob and wouldn’t even consider a lower level legal job when she lost the Wall Street job, even to the point of choosing to live in the slums as a better option than taking a job she deemed beneath her. It was pretty weird. She also, to be such a snob, had a victim mentality and was a liar. To the point of lying on her resume which offends me greatly.
So, I asked myself, why are you keeping on reading? I don’t have an answer to that. But read on, I did. Lol.
The villain was very one dimensional and clearly a sociopath. He irritated me too. I wanted to smack him for his pure evilness with no redeeming qualities at all- such a vicious man.
A very big hint was dropped at a point in the story and I kept waiting for someone to mention it and check on that aspect of the protagonist’s story, but it never was mentioned again until the last two pages of the book.
The protagonist was a lawyer (as is the author) but she violated the number one rule you learn as a lawyer. If you’re detained by the police, you never, ever give a statement even if you are innocent as traps lay everywhere in an interrogation room. You invoke your right to counsel, discuss your knowledge of the matter with your lawyer, and make an informed decision with the benefit of counsel on what to share. This character rattled on to the police—not just once, but over and over—and was basically hoisted on her own petard. Her lies caused her way more distress than she ever needed to face. But I guess without that stupid move there would be no book, right?
All that being said, it was a pretty good story, just not really anyone to root for in the tale, except maybe the women who were ultimately saved.
I chose this one to review as I thought it took place in Venice, Italy. I love Venice and was looking forward to an adventure in that city. Imagine my shock when I started reading and the first chapters were full of graphic violence and not a canal or Doge’s palace in sight. I actually went back to the cover several times on my kindle to see if I was reading the right book. And yes, it still said Ashes in Venice.
The action takes place in Las Vegas and eventually, when the character got to the Venetian Hotel, I thought maybe that was where the title came from even though that was still misleading. I admit, I was liking the main character and was intrigued by how the various threads of the story were coming together, but I also have to admit I was very distracted by why I thought from the blurb that the story was set in Italy. Eventually, all that became clear but it was deep into the body of the book before it did.
The graphic violence was pretty startling. I’d warn potential readers about that. It wasn’t really gratuitous, but it was a bit over the top for this reader. I could see how it fit into the storyline, but sometimes, it was too much.
The story itself was gripping and the book was a page turner. I stayed up late to finish it when I got close to the end. I figured out a lot of it by about midway through, but it was compelling enough for me to read to the end and see if I was right.
Overall, I liked the story and the flawed detective who was trying to solve the crimes. He was a completely drawn personality, warts and all. His love for his wife who was ill was lovely. He had gambling and financial issues, but he was doing his best to make things good for his wife. The humor the author gave him in his internal thoughts was a welcome relief from the violence of the story. I really enjoyed the wit of the author.
The author’s imagination is a wild place based on the evidence in this tale. Some of the things he conjured were mind blowing. Clever, violent and unique is how I’d describe this book. If you’re squeamish, though, give it a pass. 4 stars.
I received a copy in exchange for a fair review. I give this one 3.5 stars for being readable and having a good plot. It’s clear the writer knows London, France and the military and she used that knowledge well.
Melisande, nicknamed Mel, is an unlikeable heroine. She’s a poor judge of character, quick to overreact and attack people (including slapping a colleague across the face in a moment of uncontrolled rage), and thoroughly annoying.
Despite that, I found myself drawn into the tale. It was a good story with a compelling plot.
The heroine is also a mass of contradictions. Some were hard for this reader to reconcile such as her compassion for the domestic partner of one of the villain’s while she was undercover living in the same home as the villain and his mate, all while scheming to bring down the villain and destroy the life of this man she seemed drawn to and befriended on a visit to the market. I know she was undercover and had to lie, but the way the author wrote the villain in the beginning and how she wrote him while the heroine was living with him (as well as his partner) was also a big contradiction. The man seemed like two different characters in places. Kind when he was in his apartment or car and ruthless and cruel when he was at his office or in the street. It was a little off-putting and odd. On the one hand, he seemed like he could kill the heroine without a thought and then, on the other, he was chatting with her as if they were cordial colleagues.
The heroine was also a contradiction in her dealings with her colleagues and other law enforcement members. Disrespectful to orders even though her actions ended up saving lives and just overall, someone who rubbed me the wrong way. I liked her partner, Jack McCracken as he reminded me of heroes who grow on the reader during the course of the story. He was unkind and annoying at the beginning, but he had motivation as he was investigating a murder where the heroine was a potential suspect. He eventually changed and softened.
I liked the intricacy of the plot, starting with the death of Mel’s fiancé and heading into the adventure of her working with the agency to solve not only his death, but an international intrigue involving a large cast of characters. The ultimate villain was easy to figure out as the author seemed to bang the reader in the head with his behavior.
This book made me angry in parts—mostly due to the heroine’s behaviors and attitudes—but ultimately, she seemed to have a straight moral compass and I liked that. She was adept at her job, a great shot, and savvy when it came to her military training, but she didn’t offer much in the way of interpersonal skills. She also didn’t appear to have any character growth at all during the course of the story. And I guess that was all right as I kept reading…
The blurb for this story set me up for a certain kind of story and, surprisingly, it wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, there were twists and turns and some surprises, and it definitely held my attention despite not leading me where I thought it would. The beginning was not like a traditional thriller. It was a slow start that built through the first almost ¾ of the book. I liked it a lot and being surprised by a few things made it even more enjoyable. It didn’t take me long to read it, because it moved fast and held my interest.
There were a couple of places where I thought the protagonist, Tess, was a little naïve and slow on the uptake, but it served the plot, so I can get past that. She wasn’t one of those heroines that make the reader want to slap some sense into her and the naivety was somewhat understandable.
The minor characters like Tess’s brother and husband were well-drawn with good back stories and motivations for their actions. Her husband, Josh, was a bit OCD, but that showed the author put a lot of thought into how he would act as well as react to Tess. I did get a bit peeved at Josh a few times, but to me, that’s a sign of a good story since it means I am relating to the characters.
I have a friend who lost her child in similar circumstances to how Tess and Josh lost Lily and so much of how these characters dealt with their grief was familiar to me from what my friend and her husband went through, the scenes dealing with the sadness, loss and lack of communication really resonated with me. Well done to the author for being able to realistically write about such horrific loss as well as making the story suspenseful.
This one is a 4.5 star read for me. A hard subject handled skillfully.
This story is set in my hometown, Pensacola, and features many local landmarks as well as restaurants I love to visit- all local owned and operated, some by more than one generation! It’s a tour of my town as well as a bit of a thriller with some romance woven in. Buy link
Ramblings of a Writer 