I'll Smile More When You're Dead by Sarah K. Stephens

Description from Amazon:

IT TOOK HER 10 MINUTES TO LOVE HIM...
AND 10 YEARS TO KILL HIM.

Another gripping thriller from the author of It Was Always You, The Girl in the Fire, and The Good Life, I’ll Smile More When You’re Dead will keep you guessing until the final twist!

When Lauren Hearst discovered her book club was special—as in, they-can-rid-the-world-of-terrible-men-without-leaving-the-couch special—she brought a bottle of Pinot Grigio and a list. But when their group of vigilante feminists choose Lauren’s brother-in-law as their next target, she realizes her book club might be more about causing trauma than healing it.

Professor Lauren Hearst is getting by just fine, thank you very much—if you call being addicted to sleeping pills, avoiding your twin sister’s husband because you’re in love with him, and bottling up an indeterminate rage ‘fine’. When fellow academic Sybil Fellcourt invites her to join her book club, Lauren considers it a good opportunity to expand her horizons. What she doesn’t realize is these women chose her for a reason—and that they’re not a book club. As violent men on campus start dying from supposed suicides, Lauren realizes Sybil and her fellow book club members have a collective power born of their own traumas. A power they believe Lauren also possesses, given her past. As the book club’s goals become more destructive and Lauren considers leaving them behind, Sybil discloses their next target: Lauren’s brother-in-law, Arne. The man Lauren has secretly loved for ten years. As she sets out to exonerate him from Sybil’s accusations, Lauren uncovers secrets long hidden in her town, her family, and her own mind. When it becomes clear Arne isn’t the man she thought he was, she must decide whether she’ll let her newfound power transform her life or destroy it.

 

The premise sounded very interesting, and while the idea of collective powers manifesting physically isn’t entirely new, it was used here in a fresh way. It also pulls you in two directions. Punishing wrongdoers can seem like the right thing to do, but the way they went about it—and the fact that they took on the roles of judge and executioner themselves—felt wrong.

Lauren’s past is laid out well, and the incident that forms the basis of her anger sets the scene for many of the decisions she makes. I liked the glimpses into her childhood, particularly her relationship with her twin sister and their mom using the fact that they were twins to help pay the bills, followed later by their involvement in studies. It created an interesting foundation, and yet we find out how much of it was manipulated.

None of the characters are quite who you initially think they are, and my feelings about them changed throughout the book, which I enjoyed.

I did find it very odd, however, that Lauren kept jumping to the conclusion that women she had only just met were sexually interested in her. The first time it happened it felt strange, and when something similar happened again, it almost felt as though the author had tried the idea once and then hurriedly decided to use it again because it turned out not to be true. Neither interaction felt particularly real to me.

The pacing also became too frenetic at times. There were sections I wanted to settle into and enjoy, but things kept happening so quickly that some scenes didn’t have the detail or breathing room needed to round them off properly. Characters repeatedly told Lauren that they would explain things later, and after a while the repetition became frustrating. Although explanations eventually came, it often felt as though Lauren was being brushed off—and, by extension, so was the reader.

I also found it frustrating that Lauren’s twin, Claudia, so often seemed to know that things were about to happen before they did. Twins are often portrayed as having an almost magical connection, but for me this was pushed a little too far.

There are some very dark aspects of human nature explored in the book, though, and I thought the author did a good job of shining a light on them.

Unfortunately, there were also quite a few typos and editing issues that let the book down. These ranged from missing commas before direct address, missing quotation marks, to ellipses being broken across lines, inconsistent use of “ok” and “okay,” and words such as “breaks” being used instead of “brakes.” There were also unnecessary hyphens in words or phrases such as “follow-me” and “pick-up,” and occasionally even missing spaces between words. Individually these may seem like small things, but together they interrupt the flow of the reading experience.

Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. There were parts I genuinely enjoyed and others that worked less well. It was clearly a tricky story to bring together at the end, and at times events seemed to have to be manipulated into place to make everything fit. That said, the story ultimately ended the way I felt it should.

I received this prerelease from the author as an arc read.

Live Bait by PJ Tracy

Description from Amazon:

When elderly Morey Gilbert is found, lying dead in the grass by his wife, Lily, it’s a tragedy, but it shouldn’t have been a shock - old people die. But when she finds a bullet hole in his skull, the blood washed away by heavy rain, sadness turns to fear. It looks like an execution...

Soon a whole city is fearful as new victims are found, killed with the same cold precision. All elderly. All apparently blameless.

Detectives Gino and Magozzi, race to uncover a connection and their best hope of doing so may be Grace McBride, beautiful, damaged survivor of an earlier killing spree. And the answers, it seems, are buried in a terrible past.

 

I enjoyed the first book so thought I’d continue with this second one, but I must say I didn’t find it as good as the previous one. Considering it is the second book in the Monkeewrench series, it felt like they didn’t feature as much as a group in this. The premise sounds promising – elderly people being murdered with no obvious connection. Until the Nazi camp tattoos they have that link them somehow.

 Morey’s son-in-law, Marty, watched his own wife get killed in front of him without being able to stop it from happening. He has spiralled into a trap of alcohol and is ready to kill himself. Luckily, he is prevented just before this happens, only to find out his father-in-law, who is apparently the saint of all saints, has been murdered. Marty must choose whether to spiral further or rise up and help the detectives solve why the murders occurred and who did it.

Magozzi is still besotted with Grace, and Grace is softening ever so slightly towards him. But she has news for him that could change the dynamic of their relationship. The Monkeewrench group have set off to apply their new programming skills elsewhere, but Grace is able to use part of their genius programming to help the case, so they are only touched on briefly. However, yet again, Annie is spoken of as fat and obese and can turn heads wherever she goes. It’s just too many times!

As the detectives delve deeper into Morey’s son – a rather unhinged personal injury lawyer – it turns out he may know more than he is letting on. And the connection isn’t just about these bodies, but extends around the globe.

The idea behind the killings was not new and I felt you’d really have to buy into this just as a story without thinking about the improbabilities of pulling this off. As usual, there is a twist at the end and some of the next book that takes up space.

It wasn’t bad... just not as good as the first and put me off reading on in the series.

Holmes, Marple & Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts

Description from Amazon:

Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple and Auguste Poe run the most in-demand private investigation agency in New York City.

The three detectives make a formidable team, solving a series of seemingly impossible crimes which expose the dark underbelly of the city - from a priceless art theft, high-stakes kidnapping and a decades-old unsolved murder, to a gruesome subterranean prison and corruption and bribery at the highest levels of power.

But it’s not long before their headline-grabbing breakthroughs, unconventional methods - and untraceable pasts - attract the attention of the NYPD and the FBI.

After all, it’s no surprise that there’s a mystery or two to unravel in the city that never sleeps . . . not least, who really are Holmes, Margaret and Poe?

 

Oh how the title drew me in and how disappointed I was with this.

I haven’t read a decent Patterson for a while. In fact, I swore off them as soon as the ghostwriting became generic and all the books sounded the same. But I figured this was the start of a new series that connected a horror/mystery writer and two fictional detectives' names so there must be some goodies inside. The combination of characters and author was a bit odd, though.

So... three detectives who set up shop to solve cases. A lot of cases. Bits and pieces scattered throughout. It was like a bunch of short stories thrown together to create a novel, and while murders don’t necessarily need to be connected, there were so many in this book that the reader kept being sent on different threads. The stories were not deep, the clues not difficult, and no twists or shocks forthcoming.

Then to the characters. If you are going to name them and have them somehow associated with famous figures then just saying one is a drug addict, the other an alcoholic, and the third an old lady who knits in a corner is not enough. Even with Holmes’ hyperosmia allowing him to smell things out at a distance. That in itself felt odd as sometimes it affected him and sometimes not. Even though it’s the start of their arcs, you never connect with them, their backstories, or what drives them (solving cases doesn’t count). I never got a full sense of any of them and only really enjoyed Veronica the receptionist and the cat!

I’m all for a good “just enjoy the plot for the sake of the plot” book, but this just had me closing the book at the end and going “Oh...”

Want to Play? by PJ Tracy

Description from Amazon:

A small American town.

A brutally cold autumn.

A killer is at work.

Two bodies are found; two slayings that the police treat as unrelated. But games-creator Grace MacBride knows different.

The murders are exact copies of those in a game she’s designing - one that already has hundreds of eager players.

As the copycat killings mount up, Grace knows that she is both suspect and potential victim.

And with the serial killer getting closer, she is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse . . .

 

This is the first book I have read by this author(s) and I enjoyed it! I know it’s rather old and I seem to have somehow missed the series, but I must say that it had a quirk to it that made it fun to read.

Not that reading about murders should be fun. But I liked how the sets of detectives were brought together over shared cases and how the murders were based on the levels within the game. The way the murders were pulled off was quite ingenious but you could tell that the book was older in how the characters interacted.

Speaking of characters, the whole Monkeewrench group is such a diverse bunch with fabulous characters. And their backstory about protecting Grace and the history they share makes for an intriguing element. However, the descriptions of Annie... really? Apparently she is large. Very large. In fact, she is described as obese and fat, and having men fall at her feet at the way she walks. And this is said over and over again. Enough already. But Charlie the dog? Super sweet...

I enjoyed the slight romantic element of it and how the author did not hold back on whether it was good or bad guys who died. The layers of the book are good, so the backstories, the murders, the connection between detectives who get to meet, and how it all plays out keeps you going until the end. With a twist, of course.

And while I appreciate when authors put in a chapter of the next book to entice you to buy the second one, for me it’s a bugbear as I think I still have more to read in the book and the next thing it’s done. Oh well... I’m going to try the second book in the series too.

Return to Breakneck Island by Tom Ryan

Breakneck Island: nestled precariously off the coast of Maple Bay, the lighthouse atop this rocky outcrop is all that stands between safe passage and nautical disaster.

For generations, the MacLeary family lived on Breakneck Island in an isolated and physically-demanding existence. One night in 1932, after a ruthless storm battered all of Maple Bay, the MacLearys disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only whispers of a missing fortune. 

Nearly a century later, three people are drawn to Breakneck Island and its perplexing past: Peter Barnett, a recent Maple Bay transplant who’s piecing his life back together and possibly catching feelings for a charming professor; Dandy Feltzen, a wistful teenage girl searching for new beginnings while juggling the arrival of an unexpected visitor; and Cass Jones, a successful author given a cryptic tip for a haunting new story.  

As Peter, Dandy, and Cass are drawn into the orbit of one of Maple Bay’s darkest mysteries, dangers past and present collide on the rocky shores of Breakneck Island, and the real story of the MacLearys finally comes into focus. But if the island is to reveal its oldest secrets, it may demand fresh bodies in return.

 

This was a fun sequel to the previous book and brings the gang back together, even if they don’t get to spend too much time with one another throughout the book. Since the characters and their backstories are from a previous book, it does help to have read it since the treasure and their exploits and the book written about it need context.

Cookie Dodge (what a name!) has some information for Cass about a secret treasure and a family that disappeared, but she vanishes before she can share it. Also entering the picture is Dandy’s deadbeat dad, Dodge, and Dandy is not happy to see him.

Peter is still trying to sort out Bellwoods and an artefact coming from there could point them to the answer of the family from the lighthouse’s disappearance. Plus he is dealing with the tension between Victor and Kate with the job tasks he has given them and the signals that Victor seems to be sending his way.

Dandy and Parker’s relationship is growing closer, and Bryson needs to sort out the fallout from the diving incident.

Add in the Obelisk Treasure that is still missing and you have a treasure mystery galore!

I enjoyed the two timelines and how they intersected and the mystery of the MacLearys is well thought out.

The writing is so easy to read and you can literally fly through it. The places are well depicted and when the rocks are described around the island, it feels as though you are there rowing and trying to navigate the swells. The characters feel real, as though you have been invited into their lives and are not just reading a book, and even though you have to take some incidents with a pinch of salt, it’s still well worth the read.

The book ends with a setup for the third, so we know we are in for another adventure. I can’t wait!

Thanks to NetGalley, Grove Atlantic, and the author for an advanced reader copy.

Dead Famous by Ben Elton

Description from Amazon:

One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones.

Yet again the public gorges its voyeuristic appetite as another group of unknown and unremarkable people submit themselves to the brutal exposure of the televised real-life soap opera, House Arrest.
Everybody knows the rules: total strangers are forced to live together while the rest of the country watches them do it. Who will crack first? Who will have sex with whom? Who will the public love and who will they hate? All the usual questions. And then, suddenly, there are some new ones.

Who is the murderer? How did he or she manage to kill under the constant gaze of the thirty television cameras? Why did they do it? And who will be next?

 

I really wanted to love this as I’ve found some of his other books funny and this plot sounded good. But honestly, it was a slog to read it. I kept going just to find out who the murderer was.

It’s basically Big Brother with a murder and you’ve got the police looking at all the footage of the show that was not aired, trying to figure out what happened. Reading it thus is two timelines as you have the police watching it now, with what is happening in the house on the recordings in the past. However, the rest of the cast are still in the house as the show went on even after the murder.

What’s frustrating is you don’t find out who was murdered until quite far into the book, and unless you are open to some crude language and actions this one is not for you. Picture a bunch of drunk people naked stuck tightly in a hot box together for four hours in the dark and what they could get up to.

When the murderer is caught it’s a proper “raise your eyebrows” moment because it’s quite a lot to swallow. The edited footage also goes to show what gets manipulated for the public but to have the reader buy into what happened takes it a bit too far.

The characters themselves are all unlikable and their dialogue childish. This could have been done so well but it feels like a good plot wasted.

South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver

Description from Amazon:

When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive.

But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter's urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it? Colter and Dorion must race against a ticking clock to uncover the truth and save the citizens before the village washes out completely, destroying everything and everyone in its path.

 

Okay, I admit that the Colter Shaw character has grown on me. I think it’s because the survivalist rules his dad imparted are not used as often in the later books – it felt like the first book was full of them.

But in saying that, this felt a little all too over the place. Part of the story here and part of the story there. In fact, it seems that there were about five subplots to the main one and yet Shaw manages to solve them all! There was a lot of technical stuff about the flooding and it did feel like wading through the flood reading parts of it.

Getting to know Dorion more helped the story along, but Mary’s response to the new family member seemed too easy. I guess each to their own.

The author in the car at the front before the collapse has an interesting storyline, but adding in so much of her book took me out of the actual book, so going from action and shooting and chasing people on bikes to chapters from a fantasy book was odd.

All in all, the usual twists and turns and misdirection but this is becoming predictable too. And as for the character who is the mayor and temporary police chief who has to be told not to fiddle with the loaded weapon in his holster? Um, nope.

The ending sets it up for a new story. But this was an average one for me...