Month: January 2022

An Honest Lie

Mary Graydon House Books, Suspense, Tarryn Fisher, Thriller

An Honest Lie by Tarryn Fisher

Expected publication:  April 26, 2022 – Graydon House

Review galley courtesy of the publisher

Description:

“I’m going to kill her. You’d better come if you want to save her.”
 
Lorraine—“Rainy”—lives at the top of Tiger Mountain. Remote, moody, cloistered in pine trees and fog, it’s a sanctuary, a new life. She can hide from the disturbing past she wants to forget.
 
If she’s allowed to.
 
When Rainy reluctantly agrees to a girls’ weekend in Vegas, she’s prepared for an exhausting parade of shots and slot machines. But after a wild night, her friend Braithe doesn’t come back to the hotel room.
 
And then Rainy gets the text message, sent from Braithe’s phone: someone has her. But Rainy is who they really want, and Rainy knows why.
 
What follows is a twisted, shocking journey on the knife-edge of life and death. If she wants to save Braithe—and herself—the only way is to step back into the past. (publisher)

My take:

An Honest Lie is about an introverted new girl in town (Rainy), a group of women who’ve known each other for a while and get all the inside jokes, and a past the new girl would like to forget. When Rainy’s boyfriend seems beyond excited for her to be included in the girls’ weekend trip to Vegas she decides to give it a try despite her inner voice telling her it’s a bad idea. Her horrible past played out not far from Las Vegas and she doesn’t want to revisit those days.

From the start I was suspicious of everyone and every scenario that played out – almost to the point of wanting to rush to the end so I could be done. But I didn’t rush and was intrigued with how things unfolded.

The novel is told with two timelines: Now and Then. Aside from a few “Then” scenes dragging out too long for my taste I thought the author kept a good pace.

I can be a bit on the squeamish side so I was happy to skip the occasional paragraph. A novel that includes a cult, a murderer or two, and children who suffer the sins of the parents was bound to have a strong creepy vibe. But readers who don’t have a problem with dark and suspenseful novels can buy a copy on April 26, 2022.

Thanks to Blankenship PR for sending a review copy.

About the author:

Tarryn Fisher is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of nine novels. Born a sun hater, she currently makes her home in Seattle, Washington, with her children, husband, and psychotic husky. She loves connecting with her readers on Instagram.www.tarrynfisher.com

 

 

The Lady in the Silver Cloud

Mary David Handler, Mysterious Press, Mystery, Penzler Publishers

The Lady in the Silver Cloud by David Handler

Expected publication date:  February 1, 2022 – Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press

Review copy courtesy of the publisher

Description:

Ghostwriting sleuth Stewart Hoag investigates the murder of his wealthy neighbor—and discovers her dark, mobbed-up past

A 1955 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a fantastically expensive car, especially in the pristine condition of the one owned by Muriel Cantrell. Living in a luxury apartment building on Central Park West, the delicate, sweet 75-year-old woman is a neighbor of Merilee Nash, the beautiful movie star, and Stewart Hoag, whose first book was a sensation but whose career crashed when he became involved with drugs and alcohol. Divorced ten years earlier, Hoagy has been welcomed back into Merilee’s life and apartment.

Apparently universally beloved in her building, residents are shocked when Muriel is murdered after a Halloween party. No one takes it harder than her long-time chauffeur, Bullets Durmond, whose previous job was as an enforcer for the mob. Who in the world would want to harm the silver-haired lady whose major vices were buying shoes and Chanel suits (always in cash), and watching day-time soap operas?

Lieutenant Romaine Very of the NYPD is called to investigate and again seeks help from his friend Hoagy who, along with his basset hound Lulu, has been an invaluable aide in the past. The investigation leads to the unexpected source of Muriel’s wealth, the history of her early years as a hatcheck girl at the Copacabana, how her chauffeur came to be called Bullets, her desperate meth-head nephew, and her wealthy neighbors, who have secrets of their own. (publisher)

My take:

It’s the 1990s so no cell phones, PCs, etc that make solving modern day crimes much easier in many ways. But the criminal still needs to be found and that is usually the result of capable detecting – in this case, one of NYPD’s best and his friend and author Stewart Hoag. Also on the team is Hoag’s basset hound Lulu.
Stewart has (hopefully) reconciled with his ex-wife and is living in her upscale Central Park West co-op. When a neighbor is found dead in a service stairwell it’s only natural that Hoag, Lieutenant Very, and Lulu are on the case. Colorful characters and suspects abound and the team will have to narrow things down quickly if they hope to catch the killer.
I enjoyed the time spent with the apparently recurring characters in this ongoing series. I think The Lady in the Silver Cloud is #12 or #13 but I’m happy to say it can stand alone. I like David Handler’s style that had me often laughing. I felt a “Only Murders in the Building” vibe and would definitely pick up the next in the series if it continues.

About the author:

David Handler is the Edgar Award-winning, critically acclaimed author of several bestselling mystery series. He began his career as a New York City reporter, and wrote his first two novels-Kiddo (1987) and Boss (1988)-about his Los Angeles childhood. In 1988 he published The Man Who Died Laughing, the first of his long-running series of mysteries starring ghostwriter Stewart Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu.

 

The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd

Mary NetGalley, Pendler Publishers/Scarlet, Sam Lloyd, Thriller

The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd

Expected publication:  March 1, 2022 – Penzler Publishers/Scarlet

Review galley courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley

Description:

In a small fishing village on the Devon coast, Lucy Locke has built a life that anyone would envy. She and her husband, Daniel, own successful businesses and live with their two children in a picturesque home overlooking the harbor. But everything changes one morning when, following a monumental storm, the family yacht is found empty — and Lucy’s husband is nowhere in sight.

As the search for Daniel mounts, so does Lucy’s sense of dread, raised to a fever pitch when another, more terrifying revelation pushes her storybook life to the brink of total destruction. Lucy is reluctantly forced to face a harsh truth: the sea gives life, and just as quickly takes it away. And when the detective on the case uncovers suspicious details that Lucy had hoped would stay buried, she’ll have to confront the nightmarish possibility that she created her own undoing.

Beautifully rendered with evocative, atmospheric prose, The Rising Tide is at once a pulse-pounding, inescapably suspenseful thriller and a poignant tale of the power of the natural world. Its characters and settings are sure to stay with readers long after the final page—and after their heart rates finally return to normal. (publisher)

My take:

After a slow burn beginning this thriller gathered steam and led to a gripping, edge-of-my-seat read.

The seaside/fishing village setting drew me in and then little by little seeing a bit of the underside of the characters kept me turning the pages. By the end I was reading through my finger-covered eyes and wondering how the heck the author would work things out.

I wasn’t disappointed. I’ll be looking for the author’s previous book.

About the author:

Sam Lloyd grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His debut thriller, The Memory Wood, was published to huge critical acclaim in 2020. The Rising Tide is his second novel.