A teenaged girl’s body is discovered at a prom. She is not a student or guest but it is her 16th birthday. Death was caused by a single stab wound and she was drugged to reduce her suffering. The case sends shivers down the spine of Josie’s Chief who had a personal connection to a similar murder 25 years earlier…
Watch Her Disappear is the 14th book to feature Detective Josie Quinn and her team which includes her husband Noah. There are mentions of events from previous books but no spoilers. In this book, her rather mysterious Chief finally takes centre stage as Josie discovers secrets from his past which impact on their current case.
Josie and Chief Chitwood take on the majority of the investigation in this book, with the rest of the team in the background. This changes the dynamic of the book as the pair establish a more personal connection. The Chief has always respected Josie but now he needs her help to find closure for a case that had haunted him for 25 years.
There is little graphic detail as the murder victims are treated with forensic objectivity. However, there are flashback chapters to events in the recent past so we see girls held captive. This creates an emotive response in the reader as we anticipate their demise. There are not many characters to choose from to be the killer, but I Iiked the way the suspense is maintained until the end.
Watch Her Disappear is an entertaining detective thriller.
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Book: Watch Her Disappear
Author: Lisa Regan
Pub Day: april 12th 2022
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The girl’s prom dress, the color of champagne, shimmers in the dying light. A corsage of wilting pink sweetheart roses decorates her wrist. She is perfectly still, lying on the ground like a delicate china doll, trapped forever in a sleep from which she will never wake…
When a call comes in about a young girl found dead at a high school prom—her life drained away from a fatal stab wound—Detective Josie Quinn drops everything to attend the scene. Taking in the girl’s neatly braided hair, Josie feels a flicker of recognition. But no one comes forward to identify this innocent child, murdered on what should have been the happiest night of her life.
Trawling missing persons files, Josie realizes where she has seen the girl before. Gemma Farmer disappeared a few months ago, shattering her family. But why would her body appear now, on her sixteenth birthday? Josie’s only clue is the five neat little cuts on Gemma’s pale arm. Days later, another missing girl shows up, tucked neatly into her bed on the morning of her birthday, her favourite teddy beside her, her skin as cold as ice—and the autopsy reveals scars on her arm matching Gemma’s.
Her head spinning, Josie fears the marks are a serial killer’s twisted way of counting his victims. But where are the other girls he’s killed, and how many more could follow? The case takes a terrifying turn when a local teen goes missing just days before she turns sixteen.
Clock ticking, Josie turns the town upside down in search of answers. But when her own chief comes forward with a missing piece in this devastating puzzle spanning decades, will it be enough to get inside the mind of the most unexpected and elusive killer she has ever encountered, or will another precious life be taken?
An absolutely heart-stopping and totally unputdownable crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. You will be up all night biting your nails and turning pages! Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.
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Lisa Regan is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series. Lisa is a member of Sisters In Crime, International Thriller Writers, and Mystery Writers of America. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University. She lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the U.S. with her husband, daughter, and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip.
Detective Jo Fournier’s latest case is the murder of a woman accused of child abuse. Melissa Rollins died locked in a closet, the same way she allegedly treated her daughter. It quickly becomes clear that there are other women accused of abuse that have been targeted: a serial killer avenging abuse victims…
Her Silent Prayer is the fifth book to feature Jo Fournier. I have somehow missed book 4 but read and reviewed books 1-3 (The Dancing Girls, Taken to the Grave and Her Daughter’s Grave). There is a continuation of plotlines from previous books so I would advise reading the series in order.
I don’t want to give too much away but Jo is facing more than one killer in this book. First she has the killer of alleged abusers and then there are links to characters we have met in earlier books. There is a personal element and Jo and her family are in danger. However, this makes her even more determined to find the killer.
The majority of the book is writen to show Jo’s perspective but there are some chapters that give us glimpses into the killers’ minds and their victims. This increases the tension and anticipation are we wait for the next plot development. The deaths are handled objectively through forensic description although Jo’s emotional response makes them more vivid and therefore grisly.
Her Silent Prayer is an enjoyable detective thriller.
Title: HER SILENT PRAYER
Publication Day: April 7th 2022
Author: M.M. Chouinard
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“Help!” she screams, kicking as hard as she can against the closet door. But it’s nailed shut, and nobody can hear her. She drops to her knees and curls into a ball like she did as a little girl, praying someone will find her before it is too late…
When the body of single mother Melissa Rollins is found trapped inside a bedroom closet in her immaculate suburban home, Detective Jo Fournier races to the scene. The small town of Greenfern is sweltering in a heatwave, and Jo is horrified to find that Melissa’s heating was turned up to the max whilst she died of thirst. Who would kill a devoted mother in such a cruel way?
Searching the house for clues, Jo’s team discovers that the front door was locked from the inside. And with no sign of a break-in, they realise the killer must be someone Melissa knew. But everyone in the frame has an alibi…
As she delves deeper into the case, Jo uncovers a link between Melissa and a recent cold case: another single mother who was tied up and brutally murdered. Someone is on a mission to kill local mothers, and Jo knows they will claim their next victim soon.
But as temperatures continue to rise and the team works around the clock to stop a twisted killer, someone from Jo’s past catches up with her. They’re watching her family’s every move, and they will stop at nothing to get revenge… Can Jo save the people she loves and catch the killer before it’s too late?
From USA Today bestseller M.M. Chouinard, Her Silent Prayer is a completely addictive serial killer thriller that will not let you go until you turn the last heart-thumping page! Perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Gregg Olsen.
Author Bio:
M.M. Chouinard is the author of the Detective Jo Fournier mystery thrillers, and the standalone mystery thriller The Vacation. Her first fiction story was published in her local paper when she was eight, and she fell in love with Agatha Christie novels not long after. While pursuing a Ph.D in psychology and helping to found the first U.S. research university of the new millenium, the stories kept rattling around inside her skull, demanding to come out. For sanity’s sake, she released them.
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A woman escaping her violent ex. A derelict house with a reputation for bad luck with the locals. A killer on the loose on the fens…
Lakeview House is a psychological thriller and murder mystery with a splash of romance as well as ghosts!
I loved this book from the very first page and was totally engrossed in the plot and characters. We are introduced to Maddy, an author with writer’s block who is dealing with the realisation that her ex Connor is violent and dangerous. Her best friend Stella shows her the details for a caretaking job at a remote house in the Lake District and Maddy heads up there to clear her head and kickstart her writing.
But there is a killer in the area who uses the lake to dispose of his victims. Maddy is haunted by dreams and strange occurances begin to occur. Could her ex have found her or is there a ghostly presence in the house?
The book is written from various third person perspectives so we follow the individual plot strands and character development. The writing style was easy to read and the pace was fast with each chapter quite short to maintain the momentum of the plot. So tempting to read just one more chapter!
Danger and tension are cleverly created and sustained over the course of the book. I felt a mix of anger at Connor’s behaviour, fear for the safety of Stella and Maddy, genuinely spooked by the ghostly happenings and gruesomely fascinated by the killer.
Lakeview House was an absolutely gripping thriller!
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Book: LAKEVIEW HOUSE
Author: Helen Phifer
Pub Day: April 8th 2022
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Icy water laps against the wooden jetty. But the girl doesn’t notice the cold as she slips slowly under the freezing surface…
Running from a devastating relationship that almost cost her everything, Maddy Hart impulsively accepts a job as a live-in caretaker at imposing Lakeview House. She has no memories of having visited the crumbling mansion on the banks of Lake Thirlmere before, but when she arrives, something about the house feels familiar…
The more time Maddy spends in the house, the more unsettled she feels. Why does the local story about the last woman who lived here, who drowned on her wedding day, chill Maddy to the bone? By day, she clears out the dusty rooms, but in the dead of night it’s hard to explain away the eerie noises or crackly radio she hears hours after she turned it off. Slowly, Maddy begins to fear that her worst nightmare is coming true, has her past caught up with her…?
When a soaking wet wedding dress is left on Maddy’s doorstep she feels completely trapped. It is her exact measurements. Is her ex trying to send her a message? Or has Maddy’s digging uncovered an even deadlier secret? Will this perfect escape become the perfect trap?
A gripping thriller that will have you turning the pages until the final breathtaking twist. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Lisa Gardner and Ruth Ware.
Lakeview House was previously published as What Lies Below.
Author Bio
Helen Phifer is the #1 Bestselling crime and horror novelist of the Annie Graham, Lucy Harwin and Beth Adams series. Helen lives in a small town in Cumbria. Surrounded by miles of coastline and only a short drive from the beautiful Lake District. She has always loved writing and reading since the days she learnt how to in infant school. She loves reading books that make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and make her afraid to go to the toilet, alone in the middle of the night. Helen is eternally grateful to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert and Graham Masterton for scaring her senseless in her teenage years. Unable to find enough of the scary stories she loves to read, she decided to write her own.
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Hanni and Freddy find themselves facing another serial killer on the streets of Germany in the mid 1940s. A seemingly random selection of people are killed: what could connect them in the mind of the killer? And can Hanni and Freddy escape the shadows of their pasts?
The Pilot’s Girl is the sequel to The Commandant’s Daughter. It is set a few months after the events of the first book but there are no spoilers.
Hanni is the daughter of a high ranking SS officer who has evaded capture and has reinvented himself. She is keeping this a secret from Freddy who is Jewish and whose family was wiped out by the Nazis. This adds a strain and distance to their relationship which they need to overcome in order to work together and catch the killer. However, they cannot deny their romantic feelings for each other.
I really liked the descriptions of life in the immediate aftermath of the war as the Germans struggled to adjust to the changes. Holocaust details are interspersed across the book to show the motive fot he killer and the expereince of the main characters. The author has done considerable research to get the historical tone and context realistic which then makes the characters seem more real.
We know the identity of the killer quite early on and his motives are understandable, creating a moral dilemma similar to the first book. It becomes a cat and mouse game as Hanni and Freddy try to work out the killer’s identity and then struggle to find evidence against him. There is plenty of drama and danger for the detective duo as they deal with the combination of the killer, police politics, the aftermath of the war and their family circumstances.
The Pilot’s Girl is an enjoyable mix of historical drama and murder mystery.
The Pilot’s Girl Book Description:
‘Smile, nod, and don’t breathe a word of what happens here. Or I’ll put you on the next train to Auschwitz myself.’
Four years later. Hanni Winter shivers in her thin coat as she hurries through the empty Berlin streets to her job. Despite the freezing winter and poverty all around, her cheeks flush when she meets the man she is photographing today, charismatic Tony Miller, the American pilot risking his life to bring food and provisions to the starving people of the city. But her rush of joy turns to ash as she sees the man behind him…
It’s been years since Hanni fled her terrible past, but seeing Reiner Foss now brings back harrowing memories of the man they called The Showman, and of the concentration camp he commanded. The last time she tried to expose him, Hanni almost died, can she dare to try again? Or should she seize the chance she sees in Tony’s sparkling eyes to leave the horrors of the war behind?
Hanni is no longer the frightened child she was when the Nazis devastated her life beyond repair. She vows to avenge every person who suffered at Reiner’s hands. But does her attraction to Tony leave her vulnerable? Can Hanni protect her loved ones from her past, or will the cost of fighting her demons ultimately prove more than she can pay?
A devastating novel about finding the strength to survive when all hope seems lost. Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and The Tattooist of Auschwitz grab your tissues and dive into this heartbreaking story.
Author Bio:
Catherine Hokin is the author of several World War Two inspired novels set in Berlin, her favourite city. Following a History degree at Manchester University she worked in teaching, marketing and politics, while waiting for a chance to do what she really wanted, which was to write full time. Her short stories have been published by iScot, Writers Forum and Myslexia magazines and she was the winner of the 2019 Fiction 500 Short Story Competition. She is a lover of strong female leads and a quest.
Catherine now lives in Glasgow with her American husband. She has two grown-up children – one of whom lives, very conveniently, in Berlin – and a lifelong addiction to very loud music.
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Rachel, Molly and Cara are united in their grieving. First their mother dies of cancer and then their father dies suddenly just months later. They are truly shocked when they uncover a secret and it begins to drive them apart. But fear and danger force them together again…
The Killer’s Family is a psychological and serial killer thriller set in America.
I really enjoyed the premise of this book. Most of us feel that we know our paretns really well so how would it feel if we suddenly discovered a shocking truth about them? This is the dilemma faced by the three sisters in this book. Each sister has a different way of coping with the shock and wants to handle their discovery differently.
The plot then skips ahead a year and the pace changes. New murders are being committed with a connection to the sisters, but they are the only ones who know that the Gemini Killer can’t possibly have returned. Or have they been misled or mistaken in their understanding of their dad? There is a wonderful tension which develops as fear and doubt tease the sisters.
The Killer’s Family is an entertaining thriller.
We should never have kept our father’s secret.
Before, my sisters and I were close. Now, a year after our father’s funeral, we barely speak to each other. Molly won’t accept the truth. Rachel can’t forgive him. And I spend all my time digging through his life, trying to understand.
Then we hear the news. A woman has been found by the docks, her wedding ring stolen. The reporter says it appears the local serial killer has returned…
But I know that can’t be right, because I know who the killer was.
Henry Martin. Our father.
Someone is sending us a message. Someone knows we lied.
Now my sisters and I must work together to find out who is targeting us. How do they know what we’ve hidden? What do they want? And what other secrets lie buried in the past, putting us all in danger?
A brilliantly twisty suspense thriller that will have you flying through the pages and gasping at the twist. Fans of Lisa Jewell, Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware will love The Killer’s Family.
Author Bio:
Miranda Smith writes psychological and domestic suspense. She is drawn to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Before completing her first novel, she worked as a newspaper staff writer and a secondary English teacher. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and three young children.
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