Author of The Malleus Witches
THE BROKEN GIRLS by Simone ST. James
Genre Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 326
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Take a 1950s boarding school for unwanted girls, a ghost that shows you your darkest fears, the murder of two girls found at the boarding school, a mystery, and you have one gripping novel.
THE GREY BASTARDS by Jonathan French
Genre: Fantasy
Series: The Lot Lands #1
Publisher: Crown
Pages: 432
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
THE GREY BASTARDS is one of the best fleshed out fantasy worlds I have read this year. Hell, it’s one of the few fantasy books I finished this year. Jonathan French is a talented storyteller and created a cast of characters I enjoyed following.
INTO THE BLACK NOWHERE by Meg Gardiner
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
Series: Unsub
Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 368
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Meg Gardiner doesn’t waste any time jumping right into the action with INTO THE BACK NOWHERE. I love how lean her writing is and how she focuses on the meat of the story, sprinkling enough FBI procedural, profiling and intimate looks into her character’s lives to keep you hooked.
THE GIRL IN THE MOON by Terry Goodkind
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
Series: Jack Raines
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Pages: 488
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
We have all seen news footage or read actual accounts of people and their families lives torn apart by the brutality and senseless acts of killers and madmen. I’m sure we all have wanted those monsters found, and justice served so they couldn’t do it again. Well, Terry Goodkind lets us live that fantasy in THE GIRL IN THE MOON through Angela Constantine.
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
Series: Pendulum Trilogy
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 496
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Pendulum is a high octane thriller in the same vein as The Fugitive. Andy Hamdy plunges the reader right into the action from page one with John Wallace coming to conscious with a noose around his neck and his killer still in his apartment, and it goes from bad to devastating for Wallace.
DODGING AND BURNING by John Copenhaver
Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Pages: 365
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
When I began reading John Copenhaver’s DODGING AND BURNING, his language and the way he started the story to me were reminiscent of To Kill A Mockingbird. And like To Kill A Mockingbird this story is about love, family, friendships, and coming of age.
Genre: Thriller & Suspense
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Pages: 368
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Debut author Ellison Cooper had me up until 3am reading her dark and disturbing novel CAGED.
What I enjoyed about this book, besides being a great story, was how Copper’s vividly described her characters physically. For example with this passage describing a killer.
The man filled the space around him like a mountain forged from solid rock. Thick Jowls hung like slabs of met off his face. Matted blond hair sprung from his head like a bird’s nest. Most terrifying were the killer’s hands, with fingers like muscled eels.
Genre: Thriller and Suspense
Series: Thea Paris #2
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Pages: 368
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
SKYJACK was one of the most thrilling and suspenseful books I read this year. What really impressed me about the book is how K.J. Howe populates her world with so many diverse and interesting characters.
I love Thea Paris, and the best way to sum her up is how her enemies see her from this conversation between Prospero and priest during a confession.
MAZE MASTER by Kathleen O’Neal Gear
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pages: 352
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
If Michael Crichton and Dan Brown had collaborated on a book MAZE MASTER would be the result. But, Katheleen O’Neal Gear beat them to it. She uses her adept storytelling skills combined with her archaeologist and scientific knowledge to create a superb apocalyptic thriller.
IT SLEEPS IN ME (IN ME #1) Kathleen O’Neal Gear
Genre: Fiction/Native American
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 320
Author’s Website
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Kathleen O’Neal Gear created a complex and intriguing character with Sora, the High Chieftess of the Black Falcon Nation. Gear pulled me immediately into wanting to know who Sora is with the first sentence in the book,“OF COURSE, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. HOW COULD ANY SANE person believe that he is still alive inside me?” As I delved deeper into Sora’s world it nt only showed me a culture’s beliefs, customs, and mythology but how the Native Americans explained schizophrenia or epilepsy. Not only does Sora have to deal with her condition, she has to decide the fate of her clan, their relationship with the other tribal nations, conspiracies, and deal with the return of her dead ex-husband’s soul—which was the most interesting scenes in the book.
