Category Archives: Crown

August 4, 2019 · 11:58 pm

Review: Lost You by Haylen Beck

Title: Lost You by Haylen Beck
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A provocative novel of psychological suspense about two women locked in a desperate fight over a child each believes is rightfully hers

Libby needs a break. Three years ago her husband split, leaving her to raise their infant son Ethan alone as she struggled to launch her writing career. Now for the first time in years, things are looking up. She’s just sold her first novel, and she and Ethan are going on a much-needed vacation. Everything seems to be going their way, so why can’t she stop looking over her shoulder or panicking every time Ethan wanders out of view? Is it because of what happened when Ethan was born? Except Libby’s never told anyone the full story of what happened, and there’s no way anyone could find her and Ethan at a faraway resort . . . right?

But three days into their vacation, Libby’s fears prove justified. In a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies:

“I’m his mother.”

What follows is one of the most shocking, twist-y, and provocative works of psychological suspense ever written. A story of stolen identity, of surrogacy gone horribly wrong, and of two women whose insistence that each is the “real” mother puts them at deadly cross-purposes, Lost You is sure to be one of 2019’s most buzzed-about novels.

Review:

Lost You by Haylen Beck is an enthralling domestic mystery  that is impossible to put down.

Life has not always been easy for Libby Reese, but she is finally in a good place. Her three year old son Ethan is the light of her life and she is about to become a published author. Despite a few misgivings, Libby decides to book a vacation for herself and Ethan. But their vacation in paradise goes terribly wrong when Ethan disappears inside their hotel. Who would want to take Ethan? And more importantly, will Libby locate her son before it is too late?

Libby and her now ex-husband Mason struggled for years to have a baby and she now is a devoted yet over-protective mom.  She leads a solitary life which is just fine because she enjoys her own company.  Libby and Ethan’s vacation is off to a wonderful beginning when they are befriended by a couple of guests at the resort. Finally kicking back and relaxing, she is not quite as vigilant as she normally is.  When Ethan vanishes after a moment of distraction, Libby is frantic to locate him. But why is she so reticent to answer Lieutenant Michal Cole’s questions?

With a breathless cliffhanger in the present, the story goes back in time and presents a heartrending portrait of a couple desperately trying for a baby.  Libby will do anything to fulfill her dream of motherhood even when Mason has doubts about their next step. But how does their decision in the past result in Ethan’s possible kidnapping in the present?

Lost You is a brilliantly executed twist-filled mystery. The characters are surprisingly sympathetic in spite of their troubled lives and deep flaws. The storyline is completely engrossing and Haylen Beck builds the suspense with each jaw-dropping revelation. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this clever, multi-layered mystery to readers of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crown, Haylen Beck, Lost You, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

February 4, 2019 · 11:56 pm

Review: The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor

Title: The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense, Supernatural (Ghosts)
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

The thrilling second novel from the author of The Chalk Man, about a teacher with a hidden agenda who returns to settle scores at a school he once attended, only to uncover a darker secret than he could have imagined.

Joe never wanted to come back to Arnhill. After the way things ended with his old gang–the betrayal, the suicide, the murder–and after what happened when his sister went missing, the last thing he wanted to do was return to his hometown. But Joe doesn’t have a choice. Because judging by what was done to that poor Morton kid, what happened all those years ago to Joe’s sister is happening again. And only Joe knows who is really at fault.

Lying his way into a teaching job at his former high school is the easy part. Facing off with former friends who are none too happy to have him back in town–while avoiding the enemies he’s made in the years since–is tougher. But the hardest part of all will be returning to that abandoned mine where it all went wrong and his life changed forever, and finally confronting the shocking, horrifying truth about Arnhill, his sister, and himself. Because for Joe, the worst moment of his life wasn’t the day his sister went missing.

It was the day she came back.

With the same virtuosic command of character and pacing she displayed in The Chalk Man, C. J. Tudor has once again crafted an extraordinary novel that brilliantly blends harrowing psychological suspense, a devilishly puzzling mystery, and enough shocks and thrills to satisfy even the most seasoned reader.

Review:

The Hiding Place by C. J. Tudor is a suspense-laden mystery with supernatural and horror elements.

Joe Thorne’s return to his hometown of Arnhill is not exactly altruistic. He is going back to hopefully get a job teaching at his alma mater Arnhill Academy. And yes, he has received an eerie message that what happened to his sister, Annie, is happening again. However, the impetus for his decision is to escape a loan shark’s increasingly threatening efforts to force Joe to repay his debts.  Upon his return, a sense of dread overcomes him as he settles in at the cottage whose occupants met a horrific end. Joe is also quickly target by his former friends, Stephen Hurst and Nick Fletcher, who resort to violence as they attempt to convince him to leave town.  Despite his increasing discomfort and unease, Joe must revisit the worst time in his past in order to hopefully put an end to the malevolent force threatening the town’s children.

Joe does not make much effort to overcome the demons that he brings with him to Arnhill.  He drinks too much, sleeps too little and often goes to work with vicious hangovers. He has long avoided facing the tragedies that occurred during his teen years, but it does not take long for him to realize he will have to confront the events that forever altered his life. Joe harbors many regrets about what happened to Annie and his friend, Chris Manning. Once he realizes that history is repeating itself, Joe reluctantly returns to the place that was essentially the beginning and the end of the horrific events that have forever changed him.

At one time, Arnhill was a prosperous town with the local coal mine providing jobs for the community.  The town barely survived the mine’s closure and years later, the abandoned mine still looms in the distance. It is also a source of fascination for the teenagers due to the unsubstantiated rumors that swirl around it. In 1992, Joe and his friends were unable to resist exploring an entrance to the mine. Their explorations lead them to a terrifying discovery that sets them on a path of unending heartache and pain. After the heartbreaking events that occur in the aftermath, Joe is certain he has made it impossible for anyone to enter the mine. Or has he?

The Hiding Place is a very atmospheric and increasingly spooky novel. Joe is a surprisingly reliable narrator whose growing unease forces him to revisit his heartrending past. He also manages to elicit readers’ sympathy in spite of his all too human flaws. With otherworldly elements and an gradual sense of overwhelming dread, C. J. Tudor brings the novel to a twist-filled conclusion. Fans of horror novels will enjoy this spine-tingling novel.

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Filed under CJ Tudor, Contemporary, Crown, Ghosts, Rated B, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, The Hiding Place

January 10, 2018 · 11:57 pm

Review: Lullaby Road by James Anderson

Title: Lullaby Road by James Anderson
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Penguin’s First to Read Program

Summary:

Winter has come to Route 117, a remote road through the high desert of Utah trafficked only by eccentrics, fugitives, and those looking to escape the world. Local truck driver Ben Jones, still in mourning over a heartbreaking loss, is just trying to get through another season of treacherous roads and sudden snowfall without an accident. But then he finds a mute Hispanic child who has been abandoned at a seedy truck stop along his route, far from civilization and bearing a note that simply reads “Please Ben. Watch my son. His name is Juan” And then at the bottom, a few more hastily scribbled words. “Bad Trouble. Tell no one.”.

Despite deep misgivings, and without any hint of who this child is or the grave danger he’s facing, Ben takes the child with him in his truck and sets out into an environment that is as dangerous as it is beautiful and silent. From that moment forward, nothing will ever be the same. Not for Ben. Not for the child. And not for anyone along the seemingly empty stretch of road known as Route 117.

Review:

Featuring many of the same people  from The Never-Open Desert Diner, Lullaby Road by James Anderson is an intriguing mystery starring independent trucker Ben Jones who once again finds himself caught up in the lives of the eccentric people along his delivery route.

Set against the backdrop of the Utah desert and lonely highway 117, Ben finds himself swept into drama of other people’s making.  Unable to refuse a virtual stranger’s plea, he reluctantly takes young Juan into his care temporarily. His day gets even more complicated when Ginny, the teen mom he has been helping, asks him to take her baby Annabelle for the day since her sitter canceled. With an early winter snowstorm on its way, Ben sets about making the day’s deliveries but every time he turns around, he is distracted by the problems that manage to find the people along his route.

Ben remains a complex man who has left his boozing and brawling days behind him. Despite his reluctance to take young Juan with him, the alternative is turning the young boy over to social services which is something Ben will only consider as a last resort. His admiration for how Ginny pretty much singlehandedly turning her life around also makes it impossible to tell her no when she finally asks for help. Ben’s interactions with the various people along his route really showcase how kind-hearted and compassionate he is.  He is respectful for his customers’ desire for privacy but he does not hesitate to push them when he needs answers.

The novel  is a little busy due to a number of secondary story arcs but the various storylines all play out rather neatly.  Ben is quickly distracted from his quandary over Juan after itinerant preacher John is severely injured in a hit and run accident.  Ben also faces the loss of someone dear to him but he also realizes that he must not interfere with their decision. He is also somewhat troubled by new information about diner owner Walt Butterfield but he avoids finding out what is going on with the elderly veteran.  Then there is the stunning double homicide that takes the decision about what to do with Juan out of Ben’s hands once and for all.

Lullaby Road is another intricately plotted character driven story that also features a perplexing mystery. Ben is a complex protagonist whose troubled past does not disguise the fact that he has a heart of gold. The desolate, beautiful and harsh desert is the perfect setting for the unfolding drama and James Anderson brings the novel to a somewhat hurried but satisfactory conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crown, James Anderson, Lullaby Road, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

December 31, 2017 · 11:55 pm

Review: The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

Title: The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Penguin’s First to Read Program

Summary:

A riveting and relentlessly compelling psychological suspense debut that weaves a mystery about a childhood game gone dangerously awry, and will keep readers guessing right up to the shocking ending

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he’s put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

Expertly alternating between flashbacks and the present day, The Chalk Man is the very best kind of suspense novel, one where every character is wonderfully fleshed out and compelling, where every mystery has a satisfying payoff, and where the twists will shock even the savviest reader.

Review:

Weaving back and forth in time between 1986 and 2016, The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is a suspense-laden, twist-filled tale of murder.

In 1986, Eddie Adams and his band of friends, Fat Gav, Metal Mickey Cooper, David “Hoppo” Hopkins and the lone girl in the group, Nicky Martin, are enjoying the last vestiges of summer before school resumes. Their days are filled with innocent pursuits as they ride their bikes, explore the nearby woods and write cryptic messages to one another in chalk.  Interspersed with their idyllic fun are a few tragedies and bullying from an older peer but a grisly discovery in the woods becomes the defining moment that haunts them for years to come.

Now thirty years later,  three of the gang still live in the same small town. Ed is a school teacher, Gav owns a pub and Hoppo is a plumber caring for his elderly mother. Ed remains deeply troubled by those long ago events and when Mickey comes back planning to write a book about that seminal summer, trouble quickly follows. Someone is sending them ominous letters and after one of them is murdered, Ed becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about the current death and the troubling discovery from their youth.

Ed is a bit of an unreliable narrator as the novel flips back and forth between the past and present. Suffering from nightmares, fearing his father’s early onset Alzheimer’s will strike him and a propensity to drink too much, he tries to make sense of what he remembers from their childhood and how these long ago events might be connected to what is occurring now. Ed also regrets that he might have inadvertently influenced the investigation in the past and he would like nothing more than to find evidence that someone he greatly admired is, in fact, innocent of the crime many believe he committed. But after so much time has passed, will Ed find the proof he needs to unmask a clever killer?

The Chalk Man is an intricately plotted and riveting mystery. Each of the chapters ends on cliffhanger which ratchets up the tension in this clever debut by  C. J. Tudor. The characters are remarkably well developed and incredibly life-like with all too relatable strengths and weaknesses. The novel moves at a brisk pace and comes to a jaw-dropping, twisty-turny conclusion. An absolutely brilliant mystery that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.

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Filed under CJ Tudor, Contemporary, Crown, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense, The Chalk Man

June 26, 2017 · 11:56 pm

Review: Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

Title: Here and Gone by Haylen Beck
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Length: 306 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Blogging for Books

Summary:

Here and Gone is a gripping, wonderfully tense suspense thriller about a mother’s desperate fight to recover her stolen children from corrupt authorities.

It begins with a woman fleeing through Arizona with her kids in tow, trying to escape an abusive marriage. When she’s pulled over by an unsettling local sheriff, things soon go awry and she is taken into custody. Only when she gets to the station, her kids are gone. And then the cops start saying they never saw any kids with her, that if they’re gone than she must have done something with them…

Meanwhile, halfway across the country a man hears the frenzied news reports about the missing kids, which are eerily similar to events in his own past. As the clock ticks down on the search for the lost children, he too is drawn into the desperate fight for their return.

Review:

Haylen Beck’s Here and Gone is an edge of the seat suspenseful novel about a woman who falls victim to a corrupt sheriff and his deputy in a small town in Arizona.

Audra Kinney, along with her two children, ten year old Sean and six year old Louise, are nearing the end of their cross country flight from New York to California when she is pulled over by Sheriff Ronald Whiteside. Nervous and fearful since she is fleeing from her abusive husband, Patrick, Audra is shocked when the routine traffic stop results in her arrest for drug possession. Worried about what will happen to her children, she complies with Whiteside’s orders and  she is only mildly relieved when her children are picked up by Deputy Mary Collins. But it is not until Audra arrives at the local jail that events take a truly terrifying turn when she asks about her children and the sheriff very chillingly replies, “what children?”

Right from the beginning of her horrifying ordeal, the deck is completely stacked against Audra. Her history of drug and alcohol addiction is used against her by the authorities and the media and her wealthy husband and mother-in-law do everything they can to smear her reputation. Crucified in the media, Audra tries to convince FBI Agent Jennifer Mitchell to look deeper into Whiteside and Collins, but Mitchell has no reason to doubt the law enforcement officers’ account of events.  Audra’s alarm about her children’s well-being increases as she tries and fails to  persuade anyone to take her claims seriously. However, just as she is running out of options, help arrives from a very unexpected source.

Danny Lee might not know Audra but her story about what happened to her and her children is all too familiar.  His arrival in the small AZ town does not go unnoticed and Whiteside immediately begins trying to intimidate the newcomer.  While Danny’s offer help is not altogether altruistic, aiding Audra might help him find answers he has been searching for the past several years.  Danny and Audra are soon in a race against time to locate Sean and Louise before Whiteside can carry out his end of a thoroughly evil deal.

Here and Gone is a fast-paced thriller without much mystery to the storyline since readers know exactly what happened to Audra, Sean and Louise.  The motivation for Whiteside’s despicable actions is also crystal clear right from the start as well. However, there is no shortage of suspense as Audra continues to try to convince anyone who will listen that her children are in terrible danger and that she is innocent of any involvement in their disappearance. With the clock ticking down to find Sean and Louise before it is too late, Haylen Beck brings the novel to a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-filled conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Crown, Haylen Beck, Here and Gone, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

January 23, 2017 · 11:58 pm

Review: The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry

Title: The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry
The Lace Reader Series Book Two
Publisher: Crown
Genre: Contemporary, Supernatural, Mystery/Suspense
Length: 448 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Beloved author Brunonia Barry returns to the world of THE LACE READER with this spellbinding new thriller, a complex brew of suspense, seduction and murder.

When a teenage boy dies suspiciously on Halloween night, Salem’s chief of police, John Rafferty, now married to gifted lace reader Towner Whitney, wonders if there is a connection between his death and Salem’s most notorious cold case, a triple homicide dubbed “The Goddess Murders,” in which three young women, all descended from accused Salem witches, were slashed on Halloween night in 1989. He finds unexpected help in Callie Cahill, the daughter of one of the victims newly returned to town. Neither believes that the main suspect, Rose Whelan, respected local historian, is guilty of murder or witchcraft.

But exonerating Rose might mean crossing paths with a dangerous force. Were the women victims of an all-too-human vengeance, or was the devil raised in Salem that night? And if they cannot discover what truly happened, will evil rise again?

Review:

The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Barry is an intriguing mystery set in modern day Salem.  However, the city’s dark past features heavily in a story that is rife with references to the Salem witch trials, mordern day witchcraft and psychic phenomena.  Although this newest release is the second installment in the The Lace Reader series, it can be read as a standalone.

In 1989, three young women (dubbed the Goddesses) were brutally murdered and although everyone in Salem is convinced Rose Whelan is the killer, the case still remains open.  Twenty-five years later, there is renewed interest in the case when a confrontation between Rose and three teens ends with the death of their ringleader, Billy Barnes.  Local police chief John Rafferty has doubts about Rose’s guilt and due to her fragile mental state, he arranges for her to go to the state mental hospital until she is coherent enough to answer his questions.  When Rose’s honorary niece, Callie Cahill, who  was present at the attack twenty-five years earlier, learns that Rose is alive and in trouble, she returns to Salem to help exonerate her aunt of the crimes she is suspected of committing.   Trying to keep her identity under wraps for as long as possible,  Callie stays with Rafferty and his wife, Towner Whitney, while she tries to figure out who is responsible for murdering her mom, Olivia Cahill and her friends Cheryl Cassella and Susan Symms twenty-five years ago.  At the same time, Rafferty has unofficially reopened the case and begins searching for the fourth Goddess, Leah, who has not been seen since the night the other three women were killed.  Is Leah the murderer?  Or is there a far more sinister reason behind her disappearance?

Before the Goddess murders, Rose is a well-respected historian and scholar of Salem’s rather colorful history.  Rose’s fascination with uncovering the truth about the exact location the deaths of those persecuted during the Salem witch trials figures prominently in the events of the night the three women were murdered.  In the aftermath of the horrible crime, Rose is convinced a banshee killed the women and her long battle with mental illness began.  Now homeless and obsessed with oak trees, Rose is feared by the townspeople so it easy for everyone to accuse her of murdering Billy.  She is once again committed to the mental hospital while Rafferty begins his investigation into both cases.

After her mother’s murder, Callie became a ward of the state and bounced between foster homes and a Catholic orphanage.  While she has a successful career as a musical therapist, she is plagued with nightmares from the night her mother and her friends were killed and she really has no close ties with anyone.  Shocked to discover the sisters lied to her about Rose, Callie drops everything to rush back to Salem to help her honorary aunt.  The secrets from the night the Goddesses died slowly return to her the longer she remains in town.  Her involvement with the Whiting family, whose history in Salem in also closely intertwined with Marta Hathorne and her ancestors, helps unlock many of her long forgotten memories of the events of the night of the Goddess murders.  Callie tries to ignore her startling attraction to Paul Whiting and when their friendship deepens into love, their romance has very unexpected consequences.

Although a little slow-paced,  The Fifth Petal is an engrossing mystery that has supernatural elements including modern day witchcraft and psychic abilities.  The investigation into the Goddess murders moves at a snail’s pace as Rafferty painstakingly reviews old case files and re-interviews witnesses. Brunonia Barry expertly weaves all of the novel’s various threads into a credible tale of suspense, murder and revenge.  It is an absolutely fascinating addition to The Lace Reader series that old and new fans are sure to enjoy.

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Filed under Brunonia Barry, Contemporary, Crown, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, The Fifth Petal, The Lace Reader Series