Gothic-like story set in the 1990s

This is a delightfully gothic-style debut novel by Elisabeth Thomas, and I recommend it if you like books with some intrigue, some mystery, a bit of science fiction, and so much more. I warn you though you may finish the book with more questions than you started.

This book is set in the 1990s in a  secretive and  prestigious university in rural Pennsylvania.  It is incredible hard to get into this school, but those who successfully graduate go on to do great things.  Once you are accepted through the rigorous interview and application process, you are not permitted to leave the school for three full year nor are you allowed contact with family and friends.   The tuition is free….yes free.  Same with room and board.   Those who come to this school do not know what they are about to embark on.   The story follows a young woman named Ines who comes to the school to escape her current life, but she has no aspirations.  She just wants to fade away, but Catherine House has other ideas.

Not your typical fun-loving story of college students in the prime of their life….there is something more here.  I am pretty sure that I would not want to go to Catherine House, but you can make your own decision after reading.

 

The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day

I have finished this mystery/thriller novel, and I am still processing some of it.   It is about a 30 something woman, Alice, who was kidnapped when she was 3 years-old.   She has a few memories of the kidnapping and everyone considers her “the lucky one”.  Her father who was a policeman was able to rescue her from the kidnapper quite swiftly and return her to the safety of her home.  However, this experience has left Alice obsessed with missing people/cold cases.  She is part of an online group of people who research missing people and Jane and John Doe cases.   It is while she is on the site that someone posts a picture of a man who has gone missing….this man is easily recognizable to Alice.   He is the man who had kidnapped her all those years ago.

This begins Alice’s quest to track down this man along with two other women in the online group.   They begin to find a paper trail that leads to more unanswered questions than she could have anticipated. And when it turns dangerous, there is nothing left for Alice to do, but keep digging.  Does she really want to learn the truth about what had happened all those years ago?

Eight Perfect Murders

Wow!  It has taken me quite a few months to write a review..a global quarantine has done the trick.  Now that we all are sequestered in our homes, we have plenty of time to read.  May I recommend Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson?   The good is that you will be so engrossed in this book that you will forget all about the surreal reality going on outside your home.   The bad is that you will read this quite quickly and need another book to help you escape from it all. I an help you with that as well.

This book revolves around bookseller Malcolm Kershaw.  A 40-something widower who lives alone in Boston when he is approached by a FBI agent about a few unsolved murders in the area.   She is interviewing him because years ago he wrote a blog post for the book store called EIGHT PERFECT MURDERS.  The post was a list of the best and most perfect murders in mystery novels.   And now someone seems to be copying it.

I was hooked from the beginning….I loved the writing style, the characters, and the plot.   I highly recommend this book!!!  Stay safe and remember reading takes you places when you are forced to stay inside (or something like that).

 

A Bit of a Gothic Mystery

I will start by telling you that I figured this mystery out!   I rarely do this, so either I am on my way to becoming an amateur detective or this was way too easy to piece together.  Either way, I enjoyed the book.   It was slow to start, and I wasn’t sure if I really loved any of the characters…and to be honest…I am not sure I do after finishing.   But then again, that could gave been the Gilly Macmillan’s intention.

The story takes place in England in a gothic-type mansion belonging to the Holt Family.   It is rather a mystery how their money was earned, but it is eventually revealed.  The story involves a curious incident with the Nanny Hannah in 1988 that leaves young Jocelyn Holt scarred by the loss of her beloved caregiver.  It is now 30 years later, and Jocelyn  has returned to Lake Holt after her husband’s death.  Jocelyn brings her daughter with her to try and piece their live together.  Jocelyn and her mother, Virginia, have been estranged for many years since she blames her mother for Hannah’s sudden departure.   It is soon after Jocelyn returns home and that a skull is discovered in the lake.  The mystery of the skull transforms the story and Jocelyn begins to questions her entire childhood.

 

 

Couldn’t Put Down

Fans of Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, etc will love this story.   It is Laura Lippman’s latest:  Lady in the Lake.  It is the mid-1960’s in Baltimore, and Maddie Schwartz is married to a nice Jewish boy like she was expect to and has a teenage son.  Maddie is approaching her 40’s and finds that she is not satisfied with being married to Milton and wants some excitement…a change.   She makes a several bold choices and begins to pursue a job as a reporter…specifically a reporter who is looking to discover the truth about Cleo Sherwood who had disappeared and whose body was found months later hidden in a fountain.  Of course, the truth is not always pretty or safe….but Maddie is determined even if her life is in danger.

The characters are fantastic, and Lippman does a great justice in the description of Baltimore in the 1960’s….I wanted more.   I read this within 24 hours….it went by too fast.

When a silly game becomes dangerous

I am sure some of us have played the game Never Have I Ever…maybe.   I know I only played it a couple of times, and it was kind of silly.  However, in this book by Joshilyn Jackson, the game is not played innocently instead it heads down the path of ruining multiple lives.

In a suburban neighborhood in Florida, a group of women get together for book club.  The book club is the brain child of Charlotte, but her best friend Amy hosts the gatherings in her basement.   They are typically a mild affair that last an hour or so with wine and snacks and a discussion on the book, but not this time.  This time there is a new member to the group.  Her name is Roux, and she is as mysterious and bold as her name implies.  Roux has come to the book club to play with these women’s lives….not to discuss Jane Austen.

Immediately, she has the women under her spell as she gets them to drink more wine than they are comfortable with and then they begin sharing their secrets….though it seems Roux has already been made aware of Amy’s secrets and the past that she would like to leave behind here.   But Roux is here to play hard ball, she does not care whose life she has to ruin to get what she wants.

A quick read…twists and turns as usual.  The women are quite well-developed while the men are in the background and not the most interesting of characters except for Tig.   A good read for a lazy summer afternoon.

Suspense and Twists

 

This is one for the mystery lovers who love a twisty story.  A mysterious secret from her past has  Finn Hunt in a new city with an altered name and ego.  She finds herself working as a nanny for a wealthy and the politically connected Martin family for a 4 year old girl name Amabel.  She loves her job and all that it has brought her: a handsome and successful boyfriend, a pseudo-family, and a new start.  And then….(you knew this was coming)…a young red-haired woman begins to follow Amabel.   Finn’s first reaction is to protect Amabel,  but once Finn begins digging there is no turning away….even after tragedy strikes the Martin family.  Finn is now caught up in a possible scandal even though she is warned away by all those she has come to love and trust.

Twisted mystery with a Modern Day Gothic Feel

Once again, I flew through this book in an afternoon.  The story started out strong, and kept me reading without looking up.  No fillers…nothing unnecessary….just an engaging story filled with some awful….almost monster-like characters with dark secrets.

The story is set in Maine (I adore Maine and seriously would move there)….anyway…it is on the craggy coast of Maine which gives it this gothic feel. Harry Ackerson is a week away from his college graduation ceremony when he receives the news that his father has died.   They believe he has slipped and fallen during his daily walk along the coast.  Harry had already lost his mother to cancer, and he is coming home to handle the details of the funeral with his dad’s second and younger wife.   A woman named Alice that Harry has aways been a bit awkwardly attracted to, so much so that he has avoided spending much time with her.

As you probably realized, Harry’s father death is suspicious, and Harry begins to sense that something is not quite right in this small town.   A mysterious young woman named Grace appears at the funeral, and Harry feels that she knows something.   He is now spending time with both his stepmother and Grace in order to discover what is going on…and he learns things about his father that he never knew.   Bodies begin to pile up, and time is running out to discover the truth.

If you need to escape for a bit from the reality of your life….read this.   I guarantee you will love it and you will feel much better about the choices that you have made in your own life.

 

 

Edge of My Seat Thriller

 

I highly recommend this book for those who love a fast-paced thriller!  I read this book during the Super Bowl….yes, the entire book.   The action is swift and the characters are gritty, vulnerable, flawed that I could vividly imagine them as being someone I would pass by on the street….or in a rest area along a highway which is where this book takes place.   The entire story.  It takes place in one night.

Darby is in college in Colorado and has had a rough relationship with her mother.  She grew up in Utah, and she headed to Colorado to be on her own.   It is days before Christmas when her older sister calls to tell her that her mother has pancreatic cancer, and her prognosis is not good.   Darby heads out in her Civic to travel over the Colorado Rockies to see her mom.   Unfortunately, she gets caught in a horrible blizzard that comes fast….the highway quickly becomes impassable.  She is able to manuever her car into the parking lot of a tiny, out-dated rest area.   It is late in the night and there is no one manning the rest area, but it does have electricity and heat.   No wi-fi.  There are three other cars in the parking lot, so Darby feels that she will be safe with others until the storm passes and the roads are cleared.

During one of her attempts to send a text, she heads out to the parking lot and notices something particular about one of the other vehicles.  She goes in to investigate only to discover that inside the van is a small child locked in a cage…like a crate.  The girl has been kidnapped.  Darby has some decisions to make….can she save the girl? And how?  Which one of the trapped people inside the rest area owns the van?  There is no way to contact anyone outside of the rest area to help…who can she trust?

What follows is the events of the evening at a break-neck pace.   I couldn’t put it down….I had to find out what happened.

Such a exhilarating read!

Twisty Wintry Mystery

We have just experienced the Polar Vortex 2019, so I had some extra reading time since schools were cancelled. (I am not complaining)  I read this one quite quickly.   What I loved about this one was that there was a murder, and you know this right away, but what you don’t know is WHO has been murdered as well as who the murderer is.  You spend the time reading trying to piece together who was murdered, who is the murderer, and why?   Very much like the game of Clue (which is one of my favorite games).

In this book, a group of friends who went to Oxford together are getting together for their annual New Year’s Eve trip away.   Each year one of the nine friends plans the trip.   This year it is the newest member to their friend group, Emma.  She has planned a trip to a secluded wilderness with a loch and cabins and a beautiful lodge.  Lots of privacy and nature and wild animals….no wifi…miles from civilization…miles from other people.   There are a few people on the grounds who work there….Heather, Doug, and Iain….but other than that….the group is alone.  Perfect setting for a murder.

The group graduated ten years prior to this and their lives have changed drastically.  And yet each year, they get together to try to recapture the memories they had while they were in school.  Some memories are worth reliving…and then there are others that may best be forgotten.

The characters are well-developed and each chapter takes on a different voice of these characters as the story bounces between present day when the body is discovered back to when they arrived at the lodge three days prior…just before the snowstorm hits the area.

I figured out who was murdered fairly quickly, but the murderer was a bit harder.   I do believe the author made a logical connection at the end and it wasn’t a far-fetched ending,  so I was pleased.   I will be looking for more of Lucy Foley’s books.