Mystery Thriller

The Dry by Jane Harper and One Little Mistake by Lucinda Berry

November 15, 2021 Leave a Comment

I read more thrillers!

The Dry by Jane Harper

Finance investigator Aaron Falk hasn’t visited the struggling farming community of Kiewarra in over 20 years—not since he was run out of town for his association with a dead girl. But when his childhood best friend commits a grisly murder-suicide Aaron is called to attend the funeral and gets roped into the investigation.

This was a solid crime novel, to quote one of the blurbs on the back; it has twists on every page. My favorite thing about Jane Haper’s books are her endings–she writes revelations right up to the last word on the last page.

I’ve been experimenting with crime thrillers this year and this is one of my favorites. I liked that it had a character-driven angle with Falk’s past.

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The Herd by Andrea Bartz

October 13, 2021 Leave a Comment

336 Pages | Ballantine | Mystery/Thriller | 3/24/2020

I rarely read long-form journalism but I devoured this piece in the New York Times Magazine about the false utopia of the all-female co-working space The Wing, so when I saw this book had a similar premise I had to pick it up.

In this book, the fictional aspirational feminist co-working space is called The Herd and the novel follows the twisty aftermath of disappearance of the founder, Eleanor Walsh.

The Bradley sisters, Katie and Hana, are best friends with the missing Eleanor and as they search for the truth their own dark secrets surface.

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The Lost Man by Jane Harper

August 7, 2021 Leave a Comment

11 Hours 3 Mins | Macmillan Audio | Mystery/Thriller | 2/05/2019

I devoured Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty a few years ago and have been on the lookout for a book with similar vibes ever since. I picked up this Australia-set thriller after Anne Bogel recommended it on the What Should I Read Next podcast. The book opens with two Bright brothers meeting in the middle of the Australian Outback over the body of their middle brother. We then follow Nathan Bright as he tries to piece together what lead to his brother’s mysterious death.

This is one of those slow atmospheric thrillers where secrets are quietly revealed until the truth comes out. I haven’t read much in this genre but once I understood the structure, I found this to be an intense and emotional read.

I was absolutely fascinated by the Outback setting and learning all the precautions people have to take to survive. They are isolated from pretty much everything and have to be prepared for the worse. Let me tell you; it wouldn’t be me.

The audiobook is narrated by Stephen Shanahan, he goes all-in during his dialogue and is a great narrator. While I liked hearing the Australian accent it was sometimes hard for me to understand as an American listener. I had to keep this one at 1x.

The Lost Man is a standalone, but the rest of Harper’s book are in the Aaron Falk series…which was just adapted into a movie. I want to go back and check these out!

I’m still not sure how to review thrillers without spoilers but…there is a lot of of violence against women. Is that just a common thing in the Grip-lit/thriller genre?

Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

November 7, 2020 Leave a Comment

331 Pages| Montlake | Mystery/Thriller | Release Date: 03/17/2020

This chilling new mystery/thriller series from Melinda Leigh follows Bree Taggert, a Philadelphia homicide detective, as she returns to the small town where decades ago her father killed her mother. Tragedy has struck again and now Bree is on the hunt for her sister’s killer. In a strange twist of fate her sister’s estranged husband is the main suspect– but his best friend, former deputy Matt Flynn, thinks otherwise. On opposing sides, Matt and Bree decide to team up and investigate under the watchful eye of a possibly corrupt police force.

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How It Happened by Michael Koryta

December 31, 2018 Leave a Comment

10 hrs. 39 min. | Hachette Audio | Release Date: 5/15/18

I love a good mystery thriller and I picked this one up because I saw Christine Lakin was the narrator. Lakin only performs the first chapter of this book and her performance of Kimmy Crepeaux, a guilt-ridden down on her luck, small town twenty-something opioid addict confessing her role in a double murder, was a stand out and chilling performance. Robert Petkoff takes the lead for the rest of the book and captures the anguish and heartbreak that follows the gruesome confession. They both commit to the distinct New England accent without overdoing it.

In most crime stories getting the confession is the end of the story, but for FBI agent Rob Barrett it’s just the beginning as he scours the small town of Port Hope, Maine to prove nothing about this crime is what it seems. Koryta makes excellent use of the setting and current events about class, false confessions, and opioid addiction to weave a mystery that forces Barrett to come to terms with what the truth really means.

I’ve never heard of Michael Koryta and based on what I’ve read online and seen in bookstores, at just 36 years old, he seems to be part of the new generation of authors behind the so-called “Dad Books” a la Dean Koontz, Lee Childs, and David Baldacci.

I also see on his website that Kroyta is an award-winning journalist, which is probably why Barrett’s journalist love interest was portrayed realistically, HOWEVER this means the book fails the Audie Cornishtest where the female journalist sleeps with a source.

Next time I need a page-turning read I know exactly where I’ll turn.

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

July 5, 2016 Leave a Comment

With all the discussion surrounding #ownvoices and representation in publishing I know some readers will be turned off this book because Ben Winters is White and judging by his Twitter feed is like all of this writer’s woke ex-boyfriends. That said, I saw Attica Locke praising this book and I thought I’d give it a try.

Spike Lee has this mockumentary C. S. A , about an alternate future where slavery never ended. Well, Underground Airlines is in that kind of world. It’s the 2010’s and there are still 4 Southern states where enslaving Black people is legal. We meet Victor, a runaway slave living in the North who has been conscripted by the US Marshall Service to locate and return runaway slaves to their owners. His latest mission takes him to Indianapolis, but he soon discovers this case isn’t all it seems.

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