Category Archives: Supernatural Elements

Mystery Monday Review: Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano

Title: Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Contemporary, Supernatural, Suspense, Mystery
Length: 447 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher

Summary:

On a creepy island where everyone has a strange obsession with the year 1994, a newcomer arrives, hoping to learn the truth about her son’s death—but finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into the bizarrely insular community and their complicated rules…

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son’s bedroom, she’s perplexed. She’s never heard of it before, but soon learns it’s a tiny island off Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow’s home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island.

After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: This place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994: They wear outdated clothing, avoid modern technology, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, watch the OJ Simpson car chase every evening. When she asks questions, people are evasive, but she learns one thing: Close your curtains at night.

High schooler Lily Becker has lived on Clifford her entire life, and she is sick of the island’s twisted mythology and adhering to the rules. She’s been to the mainland, and everyone is normal there, so why is Clifford so weird? Lily is determined to prove that the islanders’ beliefs are a sham. But are they?

Five weeks after Willow arrives on the island, she disappears. Willow’s brother, Harper, comes to Clifford searching for his sister, and when he learns the truth—that this island is far more sinister than anyone could have imagined—he is determined to blow the whole thing open.

Review:

Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano is a suspenseful debut.

Harper’s search for his missing sister Willow on isolated Clifford Island drives this fast-paced mystery. Clifford Island’s small population is not exactly helpful as Harper tries to not only find Willow but understand what drew her there in the first place. The cast of eclectic islanders do not want visitors and they do not have an online footprint. The storyline is cleverly written with the chapters alternating between text messages, interviews, Willow’s letters, and various characters’ perspectives.

A deliciously eerie mystery with supernatural elements and a chilling conclusion.

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Filed under Dead Eleven, Dutton, Jimmy Juliano, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense

Review: The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

Title: The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense, Supernatural Elements
Length: 350 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect—a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases—a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea’s surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth’s mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she’s not looking, and she could swear she’s seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn’t right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

Review:

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James is a suspense-laden mystery with eerie ghostly elements.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shea Collins is a divorced survivor of a failed childhood kidnapping attempt. Although the kidnapper remains in prison, she takes great care to ensure her safety. She is a bit quirky and socially awkward and no one, including her sister, Esther, understands why she is so dedicated to her true crime blog, the Book of Cold Cases. With the still unsolved murders of two men in her hometown on the Oregon coast, Shea is thrilled when the woman acquitted of the decades old crime agrees to an interview.

Beth Greer is a wealthy recluse who still lives in her family’s secluded mansion. After the trial ended in an acquittal, she retreated to her somewhat creepy childhood home. Beth has never discussed the murders she was arrested for committing, but she believes Shea will not only treat her fairly but follow the clues she drops during their conversations.

Needless to say, Shea is excited but nervous about upcoming interview with Beth.  As Beth recounts her lonely childhood with her extremely unhappy parents, Shea is unnerved by the unexplained, otherworldly events she experiences at the mansion. Despite her continued unease, she becomes deeply invested in finding out the truth about Beth and the unsolved murders. With the help of private detective Michael De Vos and the retired detective who investigated the case, will Shea uncover the truth about whether or not Beth got away with murder?

The Book of Cold Cases is an atmospheric mystery with terrifying supernatural elements that are hair-raising. Shea is a sympathetic character who grows and evolves as she tries to uncover the truth about Beth and the killings. Beth’s revelations are shocking but is she being truthful with Shea? The storyline is well-developed and the various settings spring vibrantly to life. With a stunning denouement, Simone St. James brings this mesmerizing mystery to a highly satisfying conclusion.

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Filed under Berkley, Contemporary, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Simone St James, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, The Book of Cold Cases

Review: The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson

Title: The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Historical (80s), Supernatural Elements, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From Ragnar Jónasson, the award-winning author of the international bestselling Ari Thór series, The Girl Who Died is a standalone thriller about a young woman seeking a new start in a secluded village where a small community is desperate to protect its secrets.

Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World

Una wants nothing more than to teach, but she has been unable to secure steady employment in Reykjavík. Her savings are depleted, her love life is nonexistent, and she cannot face another winter staring at the four walls of her shabby apartment. Celebrating Christmas and ringing in 1986 in the remote fishing hamlet of Skálar seems like a small price to pay for a chance to earn some teaching credentials and get her life back on track.

But Skálar isn’t just one of Iceland’s most isolated villages, it is home to just ten people. Una’s only students are two girls aged seven and nine. Teaching them only occupies so many hours in a day and the few adults she interacts with are civil but distant. She only seems to connect with Thór, a man she shares an attraction with but who is determined to keep her at arm’s length.

As darkness descends throughout the bleak winter, Una finds herself more often than not in her rented attic space—the site of a local legendary haunting—drinking her loneliness away. She is plagued by nightmares of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. And when a sudden tragedy echoes an event long buried in Skálar’s past, the villagers become even more guarded, leaving a suspicious Una seeking to uncover a shocking truth that’s been kept secret for generations.

Review:

The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson is an atmospheric mystery set in a remote Icelandic village during the mid-1980s.

Una is a teacher in Reykjavík who is barely scraping by. With one exception, most of her friends have drifted away. Nor is Una close to her mother or stepfather. When her best friend shows her an ad for a teacher in the remote fishing village of Skálar, Una is at first not overly interested in the job. Since the position includes room and board along with a salary, Una decides to apply for the position.  After she is hired,  Una has plenty of time for doubts to set in during the long drive to the Langanes Peninsula. She is greeted warmly by Salka, the woman whose attic will be her temporary home for the next several months. Despite Salka’s welcome, Una realizes the remainder of the town’s resident are not happy she will be living among them.

Una uneasily settles into her new life and begins teaching her two young pupils. She and Salka get along but Una spends a lot of time by herself. In spite of the frigid temperatures, brisk winds and darkness, she takes walks on the beach in hopes of escaping her claustrophobic attic room.  Una soon learns Skálar is quite insular and not at all eager to bring her into their midst. She is intrigued by the man she meets soon after her arrival but she is confused by the mixed signals he gives her.

Una also quickly discovers Salka has failed to mention the history of her house. But after an unsettling dream that feels all too real, Una finds out about the young girl who died there sixty years earlier. She cannot get many answers about what exactly happened to her, but Una’s discomfort continues to grow over the months.

With a very spooky setting, a ghostly presence and a shocking death, The Girl Who Died is an engrossing mystery with supernatural elements. The characters are three-dimensional and quite interesting.  The chapters alternate between the events occurring the present and another unknown narrator who is facing an uncertain fate. Skálar, the winter weather and the oppressive darkness provide an unnerving backdrop for this suspenseful mystery to unfold. Ragnar Jónasson brings this mesmerizing mystery to a very unanticipated but satisfying conclusion.  I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend to readers of Icelandic mysteries.

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Filed under Historical, Historical (80s), Minotaur Books, Mystery, Ragnar Jónasson, Rated B+, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, The Girl Who Died

Review: The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon

Title: The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon
Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Supernatural, Thriller
Length: 336 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invited and The Winter People comes a chilling new novel about a woman who returns to the old family home after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool…but she’s not the pool’s only victim.

Be careful what you wish for.

When social worker Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a natural spring is showcased by the newest and most modern hotel in the Northeast. Once there, Ethel learns that the water is rumored to grant wishes, never suspecting that the spring takes in equal measure to what it gives.

A haunting, twisty, and compulsively readable thrill ride from the author who Chris Bohjalian has dubbed the “literary descendant of Shirley Jackson,” The Drowning Kind is a modern-day ghost story that illuminates how the past, though sometimes forgotten, is never really far behind us.

Review:

The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon is an atmospheric supernatural thriller.

Growing up, Jax Metcalf and her sister Lexi spend their summers at their grandmother’s house Sparrow Crest. The girls are mostly unsupervised as they roam around the grounds and go to town. But the best part of their days is when they are swimming in the natural spring pool. Breaking their grandmother’s rules, Lexi and Jax swim after dark and alone.

The girls are close until Lexi’s bipolar disorder leads to Jax distancing herself from her sister in adulthood. Jax is now a social worker whose resentment over Lexi inheriting Sparrow Crest causes her to ignore her sister. After not answering or returning Lexi’s frantic calls one night, Jax is shocked when her Aunt Diane discovers her sister has drowned. Returning to Sparrow Crest for Lexi’s funeral, Jax tries to figure out why her sister was apparently studying their family history, Sparrow Crest and the pool. Will Jax continue her Lexi’s research?

In 1929, Ethel Monroe and her husband, Will are newly married and trying for a baby. Ethel is so desperate to get pregnant she is willing to try anything. After one of her friends tells her of magic springs that grant wishes, she and Will spend a few nights at the new, luxurious hotel built by the magical water. Ethel ignores her friend’s warning that once the wish is granted, there will be a price to pay. She and Will are delighted when she soon becomes pregnant. But Ethel and Will go to great lengths to keep their baby healthy after her birth.

The Drowning Kind is a riveting supernatural thriller with a clever storyline. Jax’s remorse over not talking to Lexi takes her down a dangerous path. Sparrow Crest and the swimming pool have a dark history that is very intriguing. The story is well-written and features an interesting cast of characters. With unexpected twists and turns, Jennifer McMahon brings this eerie thriller to a shocking conclusion.

I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend this deliciously spooky novel.

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Filed under Contemporary, Gallery/Scout Press, Ghosts, Historical, Historical (20s), Jennifer McMahon, Rated B+, Review, Supernatural Elements, The Drowning Kind, Thriller

Review: Sort of Dead by Rob Rosen

Title: Sort of Dead by Rob Rosen
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Genre: Contemporary, Supernatural (Ghosts, Physic), Gay, Erotic, Romance
Length: 198 pages/Word Count: 65,171
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by the Author

Summary:

Nord wakes up to find himself sort of dead. Well, that is to say, he’s dead, alright — murdered, in fact — but not in heaven, at least not yet. In this limbo-like state, he meets Max and learns that everyone there is waiting for the final poof, hopefully to a better place. Only, with unfinished business back in the real world, like bringing his murderer to justice, Nord’s poof is nowhere in sight. So he and Max set out to find the killer and make things right again. Of course, that’s easier said than done when you’re nothing more than a couple of randy spirits.

With the help of Voltan, a diminutive mystic with a predilection for turbans, and Clark, a nerdy computer geek eager to shed his loner past, plus a ghost accountant Bruce, Bruce’s drag queen brother Eve O’Destruction, and Nord’s kick-ass mom, the newly enamored pair set out to hunt for the murderer, and are quick to discover how much they’d taken for granted when they were alive.

In this hysterically funny and often poignant mystery about fate and love and family, it ultimately takes dying for our heroes to have the times of their lives.

Review:

Sort of Dead by Rob Rosen is a madcap, ghostly mystery with romantic elements.

Nord wakes up to discover he was murdered and he is now in a heavenly holding room.  With Max to guide him through this disconcerting and unexpected twist in an otherwise normal life, they decide to try to figure out who killed him and why.  With assistance from a quirky yet lovable group, Nord and Max begin their hunt for a killer.

Nord, Max and their motley crew are wonderfully developed with plenty of um, interesting, eccentricities. The storyline is interesting with clever otherworldly abilities. The romance aspect is understated yet endearing. Fair warning-the romantic encounters are erotic. The search for Nord’s murderer yields vital clues but will their efforts uncover the motive and identity of the person responsible for his death?

Sort of Dead is a very entertaining mystery with a lively cast of eccentric characters.  The storyline is fast-paced, amusing and heartwarming.  Rob Rosen brings this zany mystery to a heartfelt, sigh-inducing romantic conclusion. Fans of the genre will enjoy this sometimes bittersweet but always engaging story!

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Filed under Contemporary, Erotic, Gay, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Rob Rosen, Romance, Sort of Dead, Supernatural Elements

Review: The Nesting by C.J. Cooke

Title: The Nesting by C.J. Cooke
Publisher: Berkley
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense, Mystery Supernatural Elements, Gothic
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

The woods are creeping in on a nanny and two young girls in this chilling modern Gothic thriller.

Architect Tom Faraday is determined to finish the high-concept, environmentally friendly home he’s building in Norway—in the same place where he lost his wife, Aurelia, to suicide. It was their dream house, and he wants to honor her with it.

Lexi Ellis takes a job as his nanny and immediately falls in love with his two young daughters, especially Gaia. But something feels off in the isolated house nestled in the forest along the fjord. Lexi sees mysterious muddy footprints inside the home. Aurelia’s diary appears in Lexi’s room one day. And Gaia keeps telling her about seeing the terrifying Sad Lady. . . .

Soon Lexi suspects that Aurelia didn’t kill herself and that they are all in danger from something far more sinister lurking around them.

Review:

The Nesting by C.J. Cooke is an atmospheric gothic mystery with slight supernatural elements.

Lexi Ellis is finally clawing her way out of a dark depression when her long term boyfriend breaks off their relationship and tells he to move out. She has also recently lost her job so not only is homeless but she also has no money.  So Lexi is desperate when she applies for a position as a nanny for Tom Faraday and his six year old daughter  Gaia and baby Coco. The family is grieving the recent death of wife and mumma Aurelia. Tom is returning to Norway in order to fulfill his promise to Aurelia.

Lexi and the Faradays soon leave Britain for the dreary, dilapidated house they will reside in until Tom builds a new family home nearby. With no adult company except for housekeeper Maren, Lexi gradually settles into caring for the girls who have stolen her heart. When eerie occurrences send a chill up Lexi’s spine, she is thrilled when Tom’s business partner Clive and his wife Derry Boydon begin staying at the house.  She feels safer but when Aurelia’s diary mysteriously appears in her room,  Lexi cannot help the suspicions that arise after reading the horrifying entries. Torn between what she should do with this stunning information, Lexi is uncertain what to do next.

Lexi remains troubled by her extremely dysfunctional childhood with her single mum.  Before her downward spiral into depression, she has a boring office job. As she begins to recover from the darkness that grips her,  Lexi is shocked when her boyfriends rather coldheartedly ends their relationship and evicts her from his apartment. She is truly frantic as she attempts to figure out what she is going to do. When she learns of the nanny position, Lexi will do whatever it takes to secure the job.

After her arrival in Norway, Lexi is quite dismayed at the condition of the home. It is very rundown and she has no idea what she is initially doing as she cares for Gaia and Coco. Despite her inexperience, she manages to find her footing and she is exhausted as each day comes to an end. When she starts seeing and hearing strange things, Lexi does not say anything to anyone else for fear of losing her position. What she does not realize is her experiences might be  supernatural forces at work. Despite her fears of these scary episodes, Lexi is soon consumed by suspicions that Aurelia might have been murdered…

The Nesting is an eerie, spine-tingling mystery that is quite riveting. Lexi might have used unorthodox means to become Gaia and Coco’s nanny but she and the girls truly love each other. Tom is mostly absent from the home as he feverishly works night and day constructing the new house. Maren is a bit odd and she is soon casting a suspicious eye Lexi’s way. The supernatural aspect of the storyline features a malevolent force felt both in and out of the house. With chilling twists and turns, C.J. Cooke brings this gothic mystery to a jaw-dropping conclusion. I enjoyed and recommend this engrossing mystery to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Berkley, CJ Cooke, Contemporary, Gothic, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, The Nesting