At the outset of Shari Lapena’s first novel, Anne and Marco Conti are enjoying a rare night out at a dinner party next door. Their babysitter canceled at the last minute, so the Contis have brought along their baby monitor and are taking turns every half hour to go back to their place and check on six-month-old Cora. When the party wraps at one a.m., Anne and Marco return home to find their front door ajar—and Cora gone.
Detective Rasbach arrives at the scene, and suspects the Contis know more about their child’s disappearance than they’re admitting. There’s also tension between Marco and his father-in-law, and Anne’s wealthy parents may have been the real targets for ransom.
And what to make of the fact Anne can’t remember what her own baby was wearing the last time she saw her? Rasbach is determined to get to the truth, even if everyone he encounters seems intent on hiding it from him.
The prose is wooden, often stating the obvious (“The truth is there. It’s always there. It only needs to be uncovered.”), and the omniscient narrative voice makes it hard to form a clear picture of anyone. But this last quality works in the novel’s favor, because it means any or all of the cryptic characters could be guilty of something. The plot turns are many, and though not particularly shocking, they speed this psychological thriller along toward a satisfying ending.
This review originally appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers and is reprinted here with permission.
Ruddy McCann, the former high school football star turned repo man, returns in W. Bruce Cameron’s humorous second book of the series. The voice of dead realtor Alan Lottner is gone, and McCann discovers he’s lonely without the meddlesome spirit intruding on his thoughts.
Wayvonna Quinn was born in the back of a stranger’s car while her parents hitchhiked across Texas. Eight years later, her circumstances have improved, but barely.
I make no secret of my adoration of John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series. Whether you’re already a fan or the series is new to you, A Time of Torment is at once terrifying and comforting, a story that will, trite as this is, keep you up all night and stay with you long after.
Grace can’t believe her luck. Until she met Jack Angel, her relationships all fell apart over her devotion to her 17-year-old sister, Millie, who has Down syndrome. Not only does Jack have movie-star good looks and charisma to burn, he’s crazy about both Grace and Millie.
Let me start by saying I don’t read much historical fiction or many books about science. And this is a historical novel about science. Why in the world did I even look at it, you ask?
Beautiful Cambridge grad student Edith Hind goes missing, leaving behind her belongings, including her passport and phone. There’s also blood at her home, and the door wide is open.
Spencer Kope’s Collecting the Dead introduces Magnus “Steps” Craig, who works in the FBI Special Tracking Unit as the “human bloodhound.”
Chris Fabry’s lyrical writing style makes this charming story of three young outcasts growing up in t1970s Dogwood, West Virginia, moving and memorable.
Despite only having two published books, Donald Ray Pollock is one of my favorite contemporary authors. For over a year, I’ve been looking forward to the release of his new novel, The Heavenly Table. I was not disappointed, though I can’t quite say that his sophomore novel is better than his debut (The Devil All the Time is in a league of its own).
Duane Swierzynski never fails to surprise readers. His latest novel is his finest work to date, and is a story readers will be well advised to start without any preconceptions.
The Perfect Neighbors is a peek into the lives of those we live around and see daily but may not really know. It is about the facades we put on for the public vs. how we really are behind closed doors. It’s about how we all have secrets that we might not want to share, things that are private in our heart of hearts.
Bestselling author Linda Conrads hasn’t stepped outside her house in eleven years. Twelve years ago she discovered her sister stabbed to death, and her eyes met those of the murderer as he fled. When the investigation ultimately goes cold, Linda retreats from the world.
The one dress is more a style of a dress, not one dress worn by nine women. This is not The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
My recommendation this month was going to be Revolver, but since Erin eloquently covered it above, I’ll go with another July release I enjoyed.
Twenty years ago, Lucie was a young girl living on an isolated island in the Puget Sound. Twenty years ago, an earthquake devastated that region, sending tidal waves that ranged all the way from the coast of Alaska to the coast of California.
This is a stand-alone psychological thriller from Mark Billingham, whose Tom Thorne series of police procedurals is beloved the world over. Die of Shame concerns the members of an addiction recovery therapy group in London. They’re as different as the population of any large city, in terms of age, social circumstances, and the details of their addiction, but they are drawn together each week to share their deepest secrets and most personal experiences.
Prepare yourself for the tears; you might not want to read this one in public.
This is Bill Cameron’s first foray into the Young Adult genre. If you don’t know Bill’s work from his fantastic Skin Kadash crime fiction series, do yourself a favor and check that out along with Property of the State. Bill writes with more heart than perhaps any author I read, and that’s never been more evident.
If you’re looking for a tense, nail-biter of a read that just might scare the pants off you and make you want to pull the covers over your head but you can’t because then it would be dark and that would be worse, I’m Thinking of Ending Things should go to the top of your must-buy list.
This series by Beverly Jenkins is about a small town in Kansas—“Henry Adams, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The failing town had put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine (who had been awarded $275 in her divorce settlement) bought it.”
One day in March I received this book with no accompanying press materials to indicate what it’s about. There was only a slip of paper inside saying the less I knew about this book, the better, but it guaranteed I’d laugh and cry. And curse. I was intrigued.
” ‘I killed a man,’ I say to my new therapist.”
Shane Black, the screenwriter who shot to fame with the Lethal Weapon movies, may have had a few stumbles in the last three decades, but with The Nice Guys, a 1970s noir detective story Black cowrote with Anthony Bagarozzi, Black is firmly in his element.
L: That would be better than the one I have there now about the This is the next Gone Girl/Girl on the Train! phenomenon in book publicity.
I’ve been reading a couple of books in which a woman experiences or witnesses something shocking and she tells someone or several people. And no one believes her, not even her closest family members and friends.