Category Archives: Hallie Ephron

August 4, 2019 · 11:57 pm

Review: Careful What You Wish for by Hallie Ephron

Title: Careful What You Wish for by Hallie Ephron
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

From the New York Times bestselling author of There Was an Old Woman comes a novel about a professional organizer with a deadly problem she may not be able to clean up.

Emily Harlow is a professional organizer who helps people declutter their lives; she’s married to man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. He’s filled their basement, attic, and garage with his finds.

Like other professionals who make a living decluttering peoples’ lives, Emily has devised a set of ironclad rules. When working with couples, she makes clear that the client is only allowed to declutter his or her own stuff. That stipulation has kept Emily’s own marriage together these past few years. She’d love nothing better than to toss out all her husband’s crap. He says he’s a collector. Emily knows better—he’s a hoarder. The larger his “collection” becomes, the deeper the distance grows between Emily and the man she married.

Luckily, Emily’s got two new clients to distract herself: an elderly widow whose husband left behind a storage unit she didn’t know existed, and a young wife whose husband won’t allow her stuff into their house. Emily’s initial meeting with the young wife takes a detour when, after too much wine, the women end up fantasizing about how much more pleasant life would be without their collecting spouses.

But the next day Emily finds herself in a mess that might be too big for her to clean up. Careful what you wish for, the old adage says . . . now Emily might lose her freedom, her marriage . . . and possibly her life.

Review:

Careful What You Wish for by Hallie Ephron is a tautly woven mystery about a professional organizer who unexpectedly finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.

Emily Harlow is thrilled to leave behind her teaching career for her growing business with her best friend Becca Jain. They are professional organizers who help their clients de-clutter their lives. Unfortunately, Emily’s long time husband Frank is a compulsive garage sale shopper. Although his hobby grates on her, she is mostly successful in her attempts to ignore his weekly purchases. Their marriage is also in a bit stressed due to their infertility problems. With Frank unwilling to work on their marriage, Emily busies herself with expanding her and Becca’s business.

Emily and Becca’s newest client, widow Ruth Murphy, hires them to clean out her deceased husband’s storage unit.  Since Ruth is in a hurry to get his belongings cleared away, Emily immediately heads over to the unit so she can work up an estimate. While in the midst of the task, Frank’s best friend and business partner, Ryan Melanson III, begs them to work with his friend, Quinn Newell.

With Becca busy with family, Emily reluctantly heads over to Quinn’s house. Bonding over several glasses of wine, Emily and Quinn find common ground as they commiserate over their irritation with their husbands’ collecting hobby.  Their joking takes a bit of a macabre turn, but the conversation is nothing but a lark for Emily. Unfortunately, Emily’s two newest jobs are soon intertwined when she discovers a body in the storage unit and she becomes a murder suspect.

Emily has good reason to be concerned when the police interest in her takes a bit of an ominous turn. As the evidence against her starts to pile up, Emily begins to wonder if someone is trying to set her up to take the fall for the murder. But will she uncover the real killer’s identity before she is arrested? And as she inches closer to finding out the truth, will Emily becomes the murderer’s next victim?

Careful What You Wish is a suspenseful mystery that is quite engrossing. Emily is a surprisingly clever amateur sleuth but can she trust her own instincts as she pursues her investigation? With unexpected twists and adroit turns, Hallie Ephron brings this ingenious mystery to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.

Comments Off on Review: Careful What You Wish for by Hallie Ephron

Filed under Careful What You Wish For, Contemporary, Hallie Ephron, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense, William Morrow

June 5, 2017 · 11:57 pm

Review: You’ll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron

Title: You’ll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

An addictive novel of psychological suspense from the award-winning author of Night Night, Sleep Tight, about three generations of women haunted by a little girl’s disappearance, and the porcelain doll that may hold the key to the truth . . .

Seven-year-old Lissie Woodham and her four-year-old sister Janey were playing with their porcelain dolls in the front yard when an adorable puppy scampered by. Eager to pet the pretty dog, Lissie chased after the pup as it ran down the street. When she returned to the yard, Janey’s precious doll was gone . . . and so was Janey.

Forty years after Janey went missing, Lis—now a mother with a college-age daughter of her own—still blames herself for what happened. Every year on the anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, their mother, Miss Sorrel, places a classified ad in the local paper with a picture of the toy Janey had with her that day—a one-of-a-kind porcelain doll—offering a generous cash reward for its return. For years, there’s been no response. But this year, the doll came home.

It is the first clue in a decades-old mystery that is about to turn into something far more sinister—endangering Lis and the lives of her mother and daughter as well. Someone knows the truth about what happened all those years ago, and is desperate to keep it hidden.

Review:

You’ll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron is a fast-paced and engrossing mystery that centers around the forty year disappearance of Janey Woodham.

Every year on the anniversary of her daughter’s disappearance, Miss Sorrel Woodham runs a newspaper ad offering a reward for the return of Janey’s porcelain doll which vanished along with the long missing girl. This year, a young woman brings a doll that Miss Sorrel is certain belongs to her daughter. However, Lis Strenger, who continues to feel guilty for her sister’s disappearance, is not as convinced. That same evening, an inexplicable explosion injures both women and when Lis’s daughter Vanessa returns to the family home, she is confused to discover Miss Sorrel’s prized doll collection has been stolen.  Equally puzzling is next door neighbor and family friend Evelyn Dumont’s insistence that Miss Sorrel’s conviction the porcelain doll belongs to Janey is nothing more than wishful thinking. Lis and Vanessa decide to locate the young woman who delivered the doll but will they find the answers they are searching for?

Lis wants nothing more than to find out the truth about what happened to Janey, so she is impatient with the local police department’s lack of urgency in locating the woman who brought them the doll. With Vanessa’s help, they quickly uncover the identity and address of the person they are searching for. Their arrival at the Maggie Richards’ home is just the first of many surprises surrounding Maggie and her mom, Jenny.

Despite police assurance they are taking the situation seriously, Lis continues her own investigation. She is puzzled when information she uncovers is quickly contradicted by the police.  Are her results wrong? Or is there a more sinister reason for the discrepancy?  Lis cannot begin to guess who would want to interfere with the investigation but she refuses to stop searching for the truth about what happened to Janey. The discovery that another young girl connected to her mother’s porcelain doll business also disappeared years after Janey’s kidnapping is yet another shocking bit of news and Lis is determined to continue looking for the truth. How far will the perpetrator go to keep their long buried secrets from being uncovered?

You’ll Never Know, Dear is an intriguing mystery that fans of the genre will enjoy. The storyline is unusual and the creepy porcelain dolls are shudder inducing.  While it is rather easy to guess the identity of the kidnapper, the motive for the crime remains elusive.  Hallie Ephron brings this suspense-laden mystery to an action-filled, satisfying conclusion.

1 Comment

Filed under Contemporary, Hallie Ephron, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense, William Morrow, You'll Never Know Dear