Tag: Thriller

Kate’s Review: “Almost Surely Dead”


This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Almost Surely Dead” by Amina Akhtar

Publishing Info: Mindy’s Book Studio, February 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I own it.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A psychological thriller with a twist, Almost Surely Dead is a chilling account of how one woman’s life spins out of control after a terrifying—and seemingly random—attempt on her life.

Dunia Ahmed lives an ordinary life—or she definitely used to. Now she’s the subject of a true crime podcast. She’s been missing for over a year, and no one knows if she’s dead or alive. But her story has listeners obsessed, and people everywhere are sporting merch that demands “Find Dunia!” In the days before her disappearance, Dunia is a successful pharmacist living in New York. The daughter of Pakistani immigrants, she’s coping with a broken engagement and the death of her mother. But then something happens that really shakes up her someone tries to murder her. When her would-be killer winds up dead, Dunia figures the worst is over. But then there’s another attempt on her life…and another. And police suspect someone close to her may be the culprit. Dunia struggles to make sense of what’s happening. And as childhood superstitions seep into her reality, she becomes convinced that someone—or some thing —is truly after her.

Review: I was such a fan of Amina Akhtar’s “Kismet” when it came out, and I knew that I was going to be waiting on pins and needles for her next thriller novel to make its way to my book pile. And the time has finally arrived, as “Almost Surely Dead” has finally been released! I preordered this book for my Kindle, as between my love for her previous book, the description, and the cover, it was a hugely anticipated release for 2024 for me. And much like “Kismet” before it, once I sat down with it, I basically devoured it in about two sittings.

As a thriller mystery, Akhtar has a lot of the twists, turns, and slow build of suspense that I like to see in the genre. When we first meet Dunia, she is being attacked in the subway by a man she has only seen in passing, and when his attack fails, he throws himself in front of a train, saying that he ‘had to’. This kicks off a strange and unnerving mystery about who wants Dunia dead, and what lengths they will go to to make it happen, with a narrative told from her perspective as she grows more and more paranoid, as well as a podcast transcript that fills in the gaps that she can’t see after she has gone missing. We also get flashbacks to her childhood, and see her family life that consists of her cold mother, her caring (but not long for this world) father, and hot and cold older sister Nadia, as well as an overall fear that she was being haunted by something as a child. Through all of these perspectives, we see a woman who has endured a lot of trauma in her life, and whose recent victimization and subsequent disappearance has a lot of reveals that worked well for me. Some things were a but more obvious than others, but then there would be a huge twist that did, in fact, catch me off guard, and made for a gripping read that I could hardly put down.

And I really, really liked the dark fantasy and horror beats that are whispering throughout this novel. Akhtar does a good job of weaving in the jinn myth and showing how sinister this creature can be, and the ways that it can mess with a person’s perception of reality while pulling them into a devious web. I liked the ambiguity of some of this, while also knowing that SOMETHING supernatural is going on, and that Dunia’s childhood interest in jinns may have had something bigger going on besides just a general fascination. While it’s clear from the jump there there is SOMETHING supernatural going on, Akhtar still manages to effectively blur the lines between otherworldly and all too worldly threats (obsessive exes, toxic parental relationships, trauma), which makes for a suspenseful tale that kept me guessing. I also liked how it was so tied to Dunia’s culture, and how the thing that she may be experiencing isn’t going to be wholly comprehended properly through a Western lens without the cultural context.

I did have one small quibble that I wanted to note, however. I mentioned the podcast transcript device earlier, and I overall enjoyed that choice and how it made it so we could see other sides of the mystery that Dunia herself couldn’t see or portray in a first person perspective. I also just love ‘found media’ and epistolary tropes. But the one thing that took me out of it a bit was how two dimensional the two podcast hosts, Amanda and Danielle were, and how they really just felt like personifications of the criticisms of ‘true crime appeal’ as a whole. Whether they are simpering over the mystery in a disingenuous way, or hawking products in a gauche manner, or being clueless and distasteful in how they present the case (or in how they have taken it on as a podcast), it felt a BIT like a not at all subtle ‘true crime is gross’ take that has been done a LOT in the past few years when it comes to using true crime as a plot point. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily fully disagree with this take (and this is coming from someone who listens to true crime podcasts), and do think that some platforms DO tread a bit into a distasteful and exploitative area. But as a take it’s not really a new one, and in this case it was ham-fisted and more about statement versus driving the plot forward. If it had been less obvious about it I’d probably have enjoyed it more.

But that’s merely a drop in a sea of a really fun and entertaining thriller! “Almost Surely Dead” was a breezy and suspenseful read, with dark fantasy and horror elements that meshed well with the story. Another win from Amina Akhtar!

Rating 8: A fast paced and suspenseful thriller tale with solid horror elements, “Almost Surely Dead” is another fun and gripping read from Amina Akhtar!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Almost Surely Dead” is included on the Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.

Kate’s Review: “The Night of the Storm”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Night of the Storm” by Nishita Parekh

Publishing Info: Dutton, January 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Houston. Meanwhile, single mom Jia Shah is already having a rough week: her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan, has just been suspended from school for getting in a fight. Still reeling from the fallout of her divorce—their move to Houston, her family’s disapproval, the struggle to make ends meet on her own—now Jia is worried about Ishaan’s future, too. Will her solo parenting be enough? Doesn’t a boy need a father?

And now their apartment complex is under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia’s sister, Seema, has invited them to hunker down in her fancy house in Sugar Land, and despite Jia’s misgivings—Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been just a little too friendly with her lately—Jia concedes it’s probably the best place to keep Ishaan safe during the hurricane. With Jia’s philandering ex scrutinizing her every move, all too eager to snatch back custody of Ishaan, she can’t afford to make a mistake.

When Vipul’s brother and his wife show up on Seema’s doorstep, too, it’s a recipe for disaster. Grandma, the family matriarch, has never been shy about playing favorites among her sons and their wives. As the storm escalates, tensions rise quickly, and soon someone’s dead. Was it a horrible accident or is there a murderer in their midst?

With no help available until the floodwaters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn’t commit—or becomes the next victim. . . .

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this novel!

Even though Minnesota has some pretty brutal cold and snow events in the dead of winter, I know that I would prefer this over hurricanes. I know people who have been in pretty intense situations surrounding hurricanes, and have even had relatives flee up to Minnesota to escape danger during particularly bad ones. But I do love the idea of a hurricane being a situational factor in a murder mystery, so when I read the description of “The Night of the Storm” by Nishita Parekh, I knew that I had to read it. I went in with high hopes, wondering how a combustible family and extended family unit would fare coming face to face with a potential murderer during Hurricane Harvey, and while I chugged along through it, it didn’t quite meet said high hopes.

But first the good! One of the most important things about a thriller, for me, is if it keeps me reading and keeps me questioning what is going on, especially if it has some outside the box elements. “The Night of the Storm” is a locked room mystery, but the locked room aspect is the fact that this family is trapped in a house during Hurricane Harvey, and they can’t leave due to the dangers and can’t contact anyone very well due to the power issues and the general chaos during a natural disaster. If you find a creative way to isolate people in a story like this, I am automatically going to have to give it some props. I also liked that in this thriller, a genre that can be pretty white, we have an Asian Indian American family at the heart of it, and how some aspects of the culture Jia and Seema were raised in brings other conflicts that could potentially exacerbate the dangers in the moment (Jia’s divorced status making her seen as less than or unreliable by family, the tension between a judgmental mother in law and her daughter in law, the narrow definitions of what success can look like for sons). It makes for a bit of a fun family drama on top of the very pressing ‘trapped in a hurricane with a murderer’ situation.

That said, I think that a way that this book stumbles is that outside of Jia the other characters weren’t as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be. I like that we got insight into their back stories through Jia’s perspectives, but I would have liked to see more depth to a few of them. As it was, I wasn’t as invested in them as characters, and that makes the stakes not as high as I would like them to be in a thriller. I really liked Jia, and I was worried about her and her son Ishaan (and even on an existential level, as she is in the midst of a divorce from a toxic husband whom she thinks wants to take Ishaan away from her), but as more danger cropped up for everyone I wasn’t super nervous about the outcomes of the actual mystery and more about whether or not Jia would maintain custody of her son after all was said and done. Add into that a thrill ride that doesn’t tread too far from what is usually expected from the genre and familiar tropes that aren’t too unexpected, and it’s solidly okay, but not something that blew me away too much.

“The Night of the Storm” is fine. I am curious to read more thrillers by Nishita Perekh in the future. There is lots of promise that she can wow me down the line from glimmers in this book, even if as a whole it was average.

Rating 6: It’s a perfectly serviceable thriller, but pretty familiar tropes and pretty flat characters make for a generic read.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Night of the Storm” is included on Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.

Kate’s Review: “Hanging the Devil”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Hanging the Devil” by Tim Maleeny

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, November 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received a finished copy from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: It was supposed to be a simple steal the paintings, leave the forgeries… When a helicopter crashes through the skylight of the Asian Art Museum, an audacious heist turns into a tragedy. The only witness to the crash is eleven-year-old Grace, who watches in horror as her uncle is killed and a priceless statue stolen by two men and a―ghost? At least that’s how the eerie, smoke-like figure with parchment skin and floating hair appears to Grace. Scared almost to death, she flees into the night and seeks refuge in the back alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Grace is found by Sally Mei, self-appointed guardian of Chinatown. While Sally trains Grace in basic survival skills, her erstwhile partner Cape Weathers, private detective and public nuisance, searches for the mysterious crew behind the robbery before they strike the museum a second time. As the clock winds down, Cape enlists aid from some unlikely allies to lay a trap for a ghost who has no intention of being caught―nor of leaving any witnesses alive to tell the tale.

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Wunderkind PR for sending me a print copy of this novel!

While I tend to branch out quite a bit in the horror genre into many a sub genre, when it comes to Thrillers I really tend to stick to a couple, rarely deviating. I love psychological thrillers, procedurals, and historical thrillers (and both of those sub genres have many branches), but rarely do I stray out from those. But sometimes I like to take a chance, and when I was approached with “Hanging the Devil” by Tim Maleeny, an action thriller with a heist theme at its center, I decided to give it a go. I like trying new things, and since it’s a new year I thought that it could be a good time to work on that, reading wise. It’s always a risk, and it wasn’t one that completely paid off in this case.

But first the good, and that probably applies to a LOT of people who could be a potential audience for it. The heist storyline, the international intrigue, and the cast of characters is the perfect combination for one of those 2000s and 2010s USA shows like “Burn Notice”, “Psych”, and “Monk”. Whether it’s sarcastic PI Cape Weathers or badass fighter Sally or precocious Grace, the characters are fun and fizzy and have the exact kind of jaunty chemistry that makes for a jovial cast. The action is very visual in the descriptions, and I had no problem visualizing it as I was reading it, from foot chases to fights to the helicopter crash from the jump. I also enjoyed the discussion of the ethics of art and museums and how collections came to be, and who has the rights to have the pieces and whether these pieces should be returned to their countries of origin. Repatriation of art has been a more discussed topic in recent years, and as someone who used to work in museums (one of which did have some discussion about repatriation regarding parts of its collection) it’s always gratifying to see themes like these discussed in places that I don’t expect it as much. It’s also important to note that this is the fifth book in an ongoing series, but Maleeny does a good enough job with the characters and the need to know information that I didn’t feel terribly lost even without the context of four prior outings with plot and character development.

But I think that at the end of the day, “Hanging the Devil” was a mismatched reading choice for me because I still just can’t quite get on board with heist stories. It’s a thriller sub genre that does very little for me, and while the focus was on the people who were trying to solve who was behind the heist and not the heist itself, it still felt within that kind of tale, and that, overall, doesn’t connect with me. I’m always trying to retry sub genres or story types that don’t suit me just in case something clicks, and enough about “Hanging the Devil” clicked that I found it entertaining (again, the similarities to the aforementioned TV shows really helped because I loved those kinds of shows back in the day). I think that fans of action packed thrillers dealing with underworld mayhem and daring do would probably like this book (and the rest of the series), so while it didn’t hit every mark I had hoped it would, it will probably hit them for fans of the sub genre and its conventions.

“Hanging the Devil” is entertaining and fast paced, an action thriller with humor and heart. If you consider yourself a fan of heist stories and the dramedies of the USA Network, it could be a fun read this winter!

Rating 6: It’s an entertaining romp that would work SUPER well on the screen, but overall the sub genre isn’t really the kind of thriller I connect with.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Hanging the Devil” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of yet, but it would fit in on “Thievery Tales”.

Kate’s Review: “The Nigerwife”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Nigerwife” by Vanessa Walters

Publishing Info: Atria Books, May 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: This twisty and electrifying debut novel about a young woman who goes missing in Lagos, Nigeria, and her estranged auntie who will stop at nothing to find the truth is perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Last Thing He Told Me.

Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband, a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria, and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a dark family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives—a community of foreign women married to wealthy Nigerian men.

But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her Auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation, and even violence. But the more she discovers about her niece, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.

An inventively told and keenly observant thriller where nothing is as it seems, The Nigerwife is a razor-sharp look at the bonds of family, the echoing consequences of secrets, and whether we can ever truly outrun our past.

Review: “The Nigerwife” by Jessica Walters is a thriller that had been on my list for awhile, but the wait at the library was long. Then when it finally did come in, my stack was so high that I had to send it back and re-request it as there was no way I could get to it. But once it did come back, I was pretty eager to check it out, as the cover and the description definitely made it sound like my kind of thriller, as well as one that had a setting I am not as familiar with. And overall, it was a pretty good reading experience.

There are a lot of things that I really enjoyed about this book. The narrative structure is one of those things, as we follow two perspectives, in two different moments in time. The first of the perspectives is that of Claudine, an English woman who has come to Lagos to search for her missing niece Nicole, who married into a wealthy Nigerian family and seemed to have it all. The other is of Rachel, in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, and seeing what her life was ACTUALLY like behind the veneer of perfection and wealth. Through both of these women we see the social structures, both of England AND Nigeria, and how they, in their own ways, keep women under the thumbs of violent patriarchy and misogyny. The mystery of what happened to Nicole slowly unfolds in her timeline, with a building suspense and dread as she finds herself more and more trapped due to her complicated marriage and some of the choices she makes when trying to push back against it, while in Claudine’s timeline we see just how precarious Nicole’s situation was from the outside. I liked seeing the perspectives of them both and how they had different clues to give the reader.

But unfortunately, after a really interesting dual perspective mystery with slowly peeled back layers and a nice bit of ambiguity along with closure, we had one of those ever-loathed moments where a last final reveal completely derailed my experience of reading this book. I’m not going to spoil anything here, but it’s one of those things that maybe works for some people, but REALLY didn’t work for me, as I didn’t understand what the point of it was. Why did this need to be tacked on in the last two pages? And it also left little explanation as to how we got from point A to point B, and since it was a literal ‘last pages’ twist there was no room to explore and expand upon it. I really hate it when stories do this unless you have REALLY set something up and earned this kind of narrative choice. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like “The Nigerwife did that.

So once again we get a thriller that goes off course due to a strange last moment choice, but up until then I really enjoyed the layers and ruminations of “The Nigerwife”. I will definitely be seeing what other mysteries and thrillers Vanessa Walters brings us in the future.

Rating 7: A complex and layered thriller that has a lot of interesting beats and details, though a strange and abrupt ending left a weird taste in my mouth.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Nigerwife” is included on the Goodreads list “Good Morning America Book Club List”.

Kate’s Review: “Their Vicious Games”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Their Vicious Games” by Joelle Wellington

Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Adults, July 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC2023.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon| Indiebound

Book Description: A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly, in this searing thriller that’s Ace of Spades meets Squid Game with a sprinkling of The Bachelor.

You must work twice as hard to get half as much. Adina Walker has known this the entire time she’s been on scholarship at the prestigious Edgewater Academy—a school for the rich (and mostly white) upper class of New England. It’s why she works so hard to be perfect and above reproach, no matter what she must force beneath the surface. Even one slip can cost you everything.

And it does. One fight, one moment of lost control, leaves Adina blacklisted from her top choice Ivy League college and any other. Her only chance to regain the future she’s sacrificed everything for is the Finish, a high-stakes contest sponsored by Edgewater’s founding family in which twelve young, ambitious women with exceptional promise are selected to compete in three mysterious events: the Ride, the Raid, and the Royale. The winner will be granted entry into the fold of the Remington family, whose wealth and power can open any door.

But when she arrives at the Finish, Adina quickly gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right with both the Remingtons and her competition, and soon it becomes clear that this larger-than-life prize can only come at an even greater cost. Because the Finish’s stakes aren’t just make or break… they’re life and death. Adina knows the deck is stacked against her—it always has been—so maybe the only way to survive their vicious games is for her to change the rules.

Review: Thank you to Simon & Schuster for Young Readers for providing me with an ARC at ALAAC23!

One of the most stressful aspects of my old job as an interpreter at a Gilded Age/Victorian Era historic house was when a coworker and I would have to run the Finishing School Summer Camp for a week. Picture it: Me and my coworker, decked in Victorian garb, leading about a dozen young girls on a history based summer camp where they would learn about Finishing Schools of the era and all the culture, etiquette, art, and history that came with it. I would lead various activities, involving tea parties, dress up, and putting together a LITERAL CONCERT involving dancing, singing and poetry, all to be performed at the end of the week, and when it was all over I would surely pass out at 8pm on Friday night and sleep for about twelve hours. Finishing School was high stakes for me, it was high stakes for the women back in the day, but it could NOT compare to the Finishing School-esque competition of Joelle Wellington’s thriller “Their Vicious Games”, in which a number of ambitious young women are plucked to participate in a wealthy family run competition that will place them into a prestigious societal position…. Except on the years when it’s a death match for the hand of the heir apparent. Does this sound like a fun book? Because IT IS.

But really, the premise of this is super fun and it definitely made for an entertaining read. While I haven’t watched any of “The Bachelor”, I am familiar enough with its ins and outs due to pop culture osmosis to just love a bit of a satirical death match dating competition (with some sprinkles of “Ready Or Not” as toxic wealthy family dynamics play into it as well). We follow Adina, a recent high school graduate whose future plans were shattered when a fight between her and a classmate went viral, and she lost her scholarship and acceptance to Yale. It’s already difficult for Adina, as she is one of the only Black students in her graduating class and has to deal with classism and racism alike. So when she is selected to participate in The Finish, a competition for college age teenage girls run by the school’s founding family the Remingtons, she thinks that perhaps winning will get her life back on track… Except, as mentioned above, the Finish this year isn’t the Finishing School set up she expects. I liked the set up of the Finish, as Adina has to maneuver through a cut throat competition based on background, privilege, and entitlement, as not only an outsider, but also as someone with perhaps even more to lose than the other competitors at first glance (you know, until it’s clear that most of these teenage girls are going to die). Seeing her go through this competition and learning how to function with strategy, manipulation, and cunning is definitely a story that has high stakes, and I liked the action sequences and the altercations as the contestants try and do ANYTHING to win Pierce Remington the Fourth’s hand, and to win their life. I also liked the soapy moments between Adina and the contestants (especially between her and Esme, the girl who she fought with initially, and Pen, Pierce’s high school girlfriend who is a surprise competitor), as well as Adina and Pierce Remington as she tries to gain his favor as protection, as well as the relationship between Adina and Pierce’s older brother Graham, the black sheep who is training her for the fight of her life behind closed doors. It’s a fast read as the action and conflict keeps it going at a clipped pace.

That said, it isn’t really anything new when it comes to the satire of the evils of the Haves and their exploitation of the Have Nots. This kind of satire of a privileged and uber wealthy family bringing harm to those below them is seen a lot lately, for pretty understandable reasons, but while it’s understandable and evergreen, I also want there to be something more to it to make it stand out against other tales that have come before it. I also think that we could have used a bit more background and context for The Finish and the Remington Family as a whole, as some of them came off as more cardboard cut out villains who could have benefited from a little more exploration. But I did like the metaphors of women tearing down other women as they try to get the spoils of patriarchy, even more so when white women target Black women within these systems, however, so that did give it a bit of an original edge in spite of well worn territory in other ways.

“Their Vicious Games” is fun and engaging, a young adult thriller that kept me interested and had some wicked fun moments of drama and gore, as well as social commentary that will connect with its readers. If you have some travel coming up with the holidays and anticipate down time, this will be a fun popcorn-y read.

Rating 7: An entertaining young adult thriller that feels like a blend of “Ready Or Not”, “The Bachelor”, and “Squid Game”, though it doesn’t really break new ground to stand on its own.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Their Vicious Games” is included on the Goodreads lists “YA Thriller Games”, and “2023 Dark Academia Releases”.

Kate’s Review: “The Professor”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Professor” by Lauren Nossett

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, November 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: On a spring afternoon in Athens, Georgia, Ethan Haddock is discovered in his apartment, dead, apparently by his own hand. His fatality immediately garners media not because his death reflects the troubling increase of depression and mental health issues among college students, but because the media has caught the whiff of a scandal. His professor, Dr. Verena Sobek, has been taken in for questioning, and there are rumors his death is the result of a bad romance. A Title IX investigation is opened, the professor is suspended, and social media crusaders and trolls alike are out for blood.

Marlitt Kaplan never investigated love affairs. A former detective turned research assistant, she misses the excitement of her old job, but most of all the friendship of her partner, Teddy. When her mother, a professor at the university and colleague of the accused professor, asks for her help, she finds herself in the impossible position of proving something didn’t happen. Without the credentials to interview suspects or access phone records, she will have to get closer to a victim’s life than ever before. And she quickly finds herself in his apartment, having dinner with his roommates, even sleeping in his bed. But is she too close to see the truth?

In her relentless pursuit to uncover the mystery behind Ethan’s death, Marlitt will be forced to confront the power structures ingrained in the classroom against the backdrop of a historic campus and an institution that sometimes fails its most vulnerable members.

Review: Thank you to Flatiron Books for sending me an eARC of this novel via NetGalley!

Now that we are out of October I’m trying to catch up on my other genres outside of horror. I feel like even outside of Horrorpalooza I’ve been neglecting my thriller tastes, and am actively trying to turn that around. So after “The Intern”, we now turn to another thriller with a professional label in the title: “The Professor” by Lauren Nossett. I do love a juicy scandalous read, and on paper it seemed like this book would deliver on that. Disgraced former detective? An academic scandal? A potential affair? Well all of that sounds pretty sudsy to me! But “The Professor” didn’t really go in that direction. Which was mostly a good thing.

As a thriller, “The Professor” checks a lot of boxes I’ve come to expect and it generally does them pretty well. As our protagonist Marlitt investigates a potential affair in the aftermath of a college student’s suicide, we learn about her disgraced departure as a detective and how she feels a need to prove herself as well as feels a need to do a favor for her mother, who is a colleague of a professor who is under investigation in the aftermath of the student’s death. As she tries to learn more about Verena, the professor who is surrounded by rumors, and tries to learn about Ethan, the student who ended up dead, she treads closer and closer to obsession. Marlitt has a lot of the features of a damaged female protagonist of the genre, but I liked that we don’t dwell on it too much within the narrative, nor did we get a lot of repetitive moments of how she’s damaged and why she’s damaged and OH LOOK HOW DAMAGED SHE IS. Her actions can be reckless, but they speak for themselves and never feel overwrought. I also found myself surprised by a number of reveals within the mystery of what happened to Ethan, be it from Marlitt’s investigation or the perspective chapters we would get from both Ethan and Verena in flashback form. Nossett lays out the clues and knows when to reveal them or piece them together. I will say, however, that sometimes the pace was a little slow and the story could drag, getting bogged down in these different investigations. But that said, things do speed up the closer we get to the big climax.

But the theme that really resonated with me in this book is how we slowly get to see just what was going on with Verena, and how due to who she was and the prejudices that come with that made her the perfect target for gossip and hostility in the wake of her student’s death. Through flashbacks we get to know Verena as a new German professor, and how her heritage of being Turkish and German and as an immigrant to America Other her not only with her students, but also with the public when rumors start to swirl. Marlitt’s investigation is being done at her mother’s behest, and as she learns more and as we learn more about Verena through her own experiences and flashbacks one starts to wonder if the hostility towards her is possibly due to misogyny and xenophobia and the way that academia hasn’t quite reckoned with the ways that it enforces these things. It’s an interesting angle that I don’t always expect from thrillers of this nature, and I found that refreshing.

“The Professor” is a solid thriller that goes outside the box in unexpected ways. It’s a bit slow at times, but I did think that the payoff was ultimately worth it.

Rating 7: Some pretty good reveals, a complicated protagonist, and a look at the toxicity thrown due to rumors and prejudices make for an enjoyable thriller (albeit at times a slow one).

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Professor” is included on the Goodreads list “2023 Dark Academia Releases”.

Kate’s Review: “Midnight Is The Darkest Hour”


This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “Midnight is the Darkest Hour” by Ashley Winstead

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks, October 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: From the critically acclaimed author of In My Dreams I Hold A Knife and The Last Housewife comes a gothic Southern thriller about a killer haunting a small Louisiana town, where two outcasts—the preacher’s daughter and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks—hold the key to uncovering the truth.

For fans of Verity and A Flicker in the Dark, this is a twisted tale of murder, obsessive love, and the beastly urges that lie dormant within us all…even the God-fearing folk of Bottom Springs, Louisiana. In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist.

Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners’ bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar—and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town’s secret underbelly in search of true evil.

A dark and powerful novel like fans have come to expect from Ashley Winstead, Midnight is the Darkest Hour is an examination of the ways we’ve come to expect love, religion, and stories to save us, the lengths we have to go to in order to take back power, and the monstrous work of being a girl in this world.

Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks for sending me an ARC of this novel!

Halloween is over but there is still a bit of Autumn left before things go full Winter over here (I mean, kind of…. it’s been VERY cold here, lately, so it feels more like Winter), and that means I’m still reveling in stories that just feel like the season. When “Midnight is the Darkest Hour” by Ashley Winstead ended up in my mailbox, the description made me think of dark nights and leaves and autumnal creepiness. It also caught my attention when the description made comparisons to “Thelma and Louise” and “Twilight”, because THAT is a combination that hadn’t crossed my mind before. So with my interest piqued and the seasonal aesthetic being perfect, I jumped in with high expectations, and I’m happy to say that they were pretty well met!

I was never on the “Twilight” train but I’m tickled that we are now at the place where it’s being referenced as a cultural touchstone in an adult thriller. (source)

With the “Twilight” references, not only in the description but also in the book itself, I went into “Midnight is the Darkest Hour” with certain expectations about how the story was going to go, but Winstead kept me on my toes and subverted them in many ways. I think that the biggest surprise for me was how much I really loved the relationship between our protagonist Ruth and her best friend Everett, and how that relationship defined not only themselves, but also in a way how the community saw them. While our story is from Ruth’s perspective, told through what’s happening in the present and also what happened in the past, I felt like I not only got a good sense of who she was, I also got a good sense of who Everett was, and how complicated they both are due to their various traumas and experiences of growing up in a hyper-zealous small town that sees them as threats (though their various social standings, her being the powerful preacher’s daughter and him being the son of a notorious criminal, makes the town approach them in very different ways). I really enjoyed how Winstead, instead of merely making them star crossed lovers, made Ruth and Everett have a connection that started as trauma bonding in a way as they try to hide a terrible secret, and then turns into a relationship that transcends both romantic and platonic into something that just feels correct. You know that a bond between characters really gets me in the feels when I don’t even need them to be together romantically, I just need them to be together in whatever way is going to work for them, relationship definitions be damned (Buffy and Spike are another of these, looping back to more vampire lore). True, there are some shades of “Twilight” here, whether it’s parallels or straight up references, but they are done in a way that I really liked even if I have no nostalgia for that story.

And as for the mystery, Winstead creates a sense of place and a slow burn urgency in Bottom Springs that puts both Ruth and Everett in danger and makes the stakes high from the jump. What starts as a skull found in the swamp, and an introduction to two characters who may know how it got there, soon turns into a mystery involving small town secrets, religious zealotry that infects and rots a community, corruption, and the superstitions of an urban legend known as the Low Man, and how they all tie together. Winstead throws a out there, but it never feels overwhelming or that she loses control over all of the threads that go into making a dark and eerie tapestry. She reveals pertinent details when she wants to and keeps the secrets close, and while I figured out some things, it was rarely too much earlier than she was intending. And I am always going to be a fan of thrillers and mysteries that take on the dangers of fundamentalism and the hypocrisies of many who pretend to be righteous within systems of oppressive power, and there were many a moment that my blood was somehow both boiling AND running cold as Ruth and Everett cross those at Holy Fire Baptist. Especially since Ruth is the daughter of the man who influences all of it. So many things in this book just click for me on a personal level.

“Midnight is the Darkest Hour” is an eerie and propulsive thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat, and made me swoon over its two main characters. I definitely recommend it for the fleeting Autumn season.

Rating 9: An addictive and otherworldly thriller about small town secrets, religious trauma, and unbreakable bonds between misfits.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Midnight is the Darkest Hour” is included on the Goodreads lists “R.I.P. Book Challenge”, and “Reads for Fall/Autumn”.

Kate’s Review: “The Intern”


This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Intern” by Michele Campbell

Publishing Info: St. Martin’s Press, October 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher at ALAAC23.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A young Harvard law student falls under the spell of a charismatic judge in this timely and thrilling novel about class, ambition, family and murder.

Madison Rivera lands the internship of a lifetime working for Judge Kathryn Conroy. But Madison has a secret that could destroy her career. Her troubled younger brother Danny has been arrested, and Conroy is the judge on his case.

When Danny goes missing after accusing the judge of corruption, Madison’s quest for answers brings her deep into the judge’s glamorous world. Is Kathryn Conroy a mentor, a victim, or a criminal? Is she trying to help Madison or use her as a pawn? And why is somebody trying to kill her?

As the two women circle each other in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, will they save each other, or will betrayal leave one of them dead?

Review: Thank you to St.Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC23!

Back in October I had the pleasure of interviewing Michele Campbell. I had been approached to do a Q and A and to write a review for her newest book “The Intern”, but the timing, review wise, was tricky, as it was right at the start of Horrorpalooza. But I committed to reviewing the book as soon as Horrorpalooza was over, and when I did sit down with it I tore through this book in probably two days because it ensnared me so thoroughly. There are so many things about “The Intern” that work. This is absolutely my favorite book I’ve read by Michele Campbell, and it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read in 2023.

I’m not beating around the bush, this was great. (source)

“The Intern” is told through the perspectives of two women. The first is Madison Rivera, an ambitious law student at Harvard Law who is desperate to rise above her difficult childhood and to make something of herself. The other is high powered judge Kathryn Conroy, who is respected in law circles and is Madison’s most liked professor turned boss once Madison becomes her intern. They have alternating sections in the book, with Madison being in the present and Kathryn being mostly in the past, and I liked getting one bit of information from Madison’s experience, and then getting more context and more information from seeing Kathryn’s past experiences. I felt that both women were pretty well rounded and complex, and once it was revealed that we were going to see what was going on in Kathryn’s mind, I knew that this was going to be a bit more than a run of the mill cat and mouse game thriller. Campbell really brought out her layers in particular, as while I anticipated her being a conniving antagonist, she ended up being quite a bit more than a potentially corrupt judge. Madison also had some well explored complications, and I really enjoyed watching her piece things together while also still feeling a certain loyalty to her boss, even when it could put her at odds with doing the right thing. Her ambition and her reasons for that ambition were wholly believable. It made for an interesting dual character study at the heart of the thrills (though Kathryn’s was the one that really drew me in).

And as a thriller this really clicked with me. The mystery has multiple mysteries within in, and as some questions were answered others would arise, all at breakneck speeds that kept me reading this book long into the night or any time I had ANY kind of down time. Campbell places clues in the past and present for the reader and Madison to parse through, while being skillful at misdirection and plot twists that completely caught me off guard. I don’t read that many legal thrillers, but this one has all the makings of a legal conspiracy story along with the elements of sudsier whodunnits, and Campbell balanced the tones of those sub genres with ease and combined them into a story that really grabbed hold. This is top notch stuff, it’s well thought out and well executed and was incredibly satisfying. Even though we get one big issue cleared up right away, there are plenty of other questions at hand to make for a fun and twisty read.

“The Intern” is an enjoyable thrill ride with some fascinating characters. If you are looking for a rollercoaster of a thriller, this is one to put on your list!

Rating 9: A suspenseful story with great twists and great characters, “The Intern” is Michele Campbell’s best novel yet!

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Intern” is included on the Goodreads lists “Legal Thrillers”, and “Chick Noir Novels”.

Author Q & A: Michele Campbell

Today we have a very special post, dear readers. We are very grateful and very honored to have Michele Campbell, the author of such books as “It’s Always the Husband”, “She Was the Quiet One”, the brand new “The Intern”, and more thrillers, here on the blog for an interview. Kate is a big fan of thriller books and of the aforementioned novels from Campbell, and in honor of the release of “The Intern”, we have some questions about writing thrillers, insights to her writing process and more. You can look for a review of “The Intern” on this blog as soon as Horrorpalooza is over. And we want to extend a special thanks to Michele Campbell for agreeing to answer some questions, and to Taylor Brightwell for arranging it!

Q.   What kinds of thrillers did you like to read when you first became a fan of the genre? Do you have any specific influences, whether it’s authors you like, or media, or specific sub genres?

A: The legal thriller was my first love, with Presumed Innocent an early favorite. I devoured the courtroom scenes and plot twists. As a young lawyer, I read a lot of Grisham. This was partly out of professional interest, but mostly just because I loved his books. The high stakes and fast-paced plots. The villains, who weren’t just evil, but smooth and sophisticated and smart. The heroes who were just as flawed as the bad guys — full of doubts, tempted by the dark side, always on the verge of moral collapse. Then, when Gone Girl came along, I fell hard for domestic suspense, like everybody did. I adored the nuanced characterization and strong female leads. In THE INTERN, I’ve tried to blend these two subgenres into one – a character-driven thriller with a propulsive plot, set against the glamorous backdrop of the Boston legal community.

Q.   You are not only an author, but you also have a law degree, worked as a federal prosecutor, and taught constitutional and criminal law. Does having that background in law affect your creative process in any way?

A: Yes, in terms of both subject matter and craft. After eight years as a federal prosecutor in New York, investigating narcotics and gang cases, going to court every day, standing up before juries, my books always include a criminal investigation. That’s true not only of my legal thrillers, but my domestic thrillers as well. For example, my international bestseller, IT’S ALWAYS THE
HUSBAND, is about the toxic friendships among three former college roommates. But when one of them turns up murdered, the local police chief and the young female detective investigating the murder get their own chapters. And that multiple-viewpoint style, I think, is a hallmark of my legal training. As a lawyer, I learned that there were at least two sides to every story, sometimes many more. Just as I never tried a case with only one witness, I wouldn’t write a book from the perspective of a single character. The use of multiple viewpoints builds suspense and lets the reader be the ultimate judge of the truth.

Q.  What inspired you to write “The Intern”?

A: THE INTERN was born from a desire to return to my roots. I actually began my writing career with a legal thriller series written as Michele Martinez (my full name is Michele Martinez Campbell), featuring federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas. Melanie (so I have been told) was the first Puerto Rican female protagonist of any crime series, and she’s based quite closely on me. After that series ended, I turned to writing psychological thrillers and domestic suspense. But I’ve always wanted to return to the excitement of the legal thriller, and write another character whose experiences mirror my own. Madison Rivera is that character. We’re both of Puerto Rican heritage, from modest backgrounds, and went to big-name law schools where we felt like outsiders. Madison matches wits with the mysterious (and possibly dangerous) Judge Kathryn Conroy. The funny thing is, once I started writing, I related just as much to Kathryn as to Madison. They both turn out to be complicated, fascinating heroines, hiding huge secrets and facing impossible choices. I love them equally.

Q.  What do you find most challenging about writing, whether in general or when it comes to thrillers as a genre?

A: To me, both the magic and the bane of writing is that there are so many ways to tell the same story. As the author, you have to choose, which by definition means there will be paths not taken. It’s a truism that every writer is either a plotter or a pantser (i.e., someone who writes by the seat of her pants). But I’m both. I start with a detailed outline. Then, as I write, the characters take charge, pushing the story in new directions. That’s when I most love writing — when I’m taking dictation from the muse, watching an alternate reality unfold that I don’t really control. And yet, to produce a coherent book, I have to maintain focus. I have to stick to one idea, to a plot, to a viewpoint. Otherwise, I’ll end up going down the wrong path. Yet too much focus can stifle inspiration. Navigating my way through that tension and finding the right balance is what I find most challenging.

Q: As a blog run by librarians, we love hearing what authors are reading and enjoying! What books, thriller or otherwise, have you been loving at the moment? Any you are looking forward to?

A: I read across all genres of fiction. Books I have read and loved recently outside of the thriller/suspense genre include: Elizabeth Chadwick’s Alienor of Aquitaine and William Marshal series; A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles; The Guest by Emma Cline; and Babel by S.F. Kuang. I of course also read a lot of great thrillers and crime fiction. Recent favorites include The Partner Track by Helen Wan and The House Guest by Hank Phillippi Ryan. I am most
looking forward to Kristin Hannah’s The Women, Jeneva Rose’s It’s A Date Again (because I love a great romance and a good laugh), and of course, the Winds of Winter, which I’ve been looking forward to for the past decade like everybody else.

Kate’s Review: “The Stranger Upstairs”

This post may contain affiliate links for books we recommend.  Read the full disclosure here.

Book: “The Stranger Upstairs” by Lisa M. Matlin

Publishing Info: Bantam, September 2023

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley.

Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound

Book Description: A social media influencer with a secret past buys a murder house to renovate, but finds more than she bargained for behind the peeling wallpaper in this gothic psychological debut.

Sarah Slade is starting over. As the new owner of the infamous Black Wood House—the scene of a grisly murder-suicide—she’s determined that the fixer-upper will help reach a new audience on her successful lifestyle blog, and distract her from her failing marriage.

But as Sarah paints over the house’s horrifying past, she knows better than anyone that a new façade can’t conceal every secret. Then the builders start acting erratically and experiencing bizarre accidents—and Sarah knows there’s only so long she can continue to sleep in the bedroom with the bloodstained floor and suffer the mysterious footsteps she hears from the attic.

When menacing notes start appearing everywhere, Sarah becomes convinced that someone or something is out to kill her—her husband, her neighbors, maybe even the house itself. The more she remodels Black Wood House, the angrier it seems to become.

With every passing moment, Sarah’s life spirals further out of control—and with it, her sense of reality. Though she desperately clings to the lies she’s crafted to conceal her own secrets, Sarah Slade must wonder . . . was it all worth it? Or will this house be her final unraveling?

Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!

The first thing that caught by eye about Lisa M. Matlin’s “The Stranger Upstairs” was the cover. I love seeing all these neon brightly colored and somewhat surreal thriller covers as of late! I also love the foreboding silhouette in the window of the house, which makes for a fun and weird dichotomy between the colors and the unease that lays below it. Cover aside, I was interested in this book because of the ‘murder house’ angle, as well as the influencer angle, which I had hoped would combine to make for a tense and fun thriller mystery. And I’m sad to say that we didn’t really get to the levels I was hoping for.

But first, the good! I thought that Matlin really set the scene well, building suspense in a well paced way with lots of good red herrings and misdirections while ratcheting up the tension. I liked the slow burn of the escalating stalking that is aimed squarely at Sarah, our influencer therapist who has bought an infamous murder house for content and the hope of profit. Sure, she’s harboring many secrets and her marriage is falling apart, but if this house flips well she could make money AND go viral. As strange things start happening and she starts to lose a grip on her collectedness, the plot is engaging and filled with lots of intensity. I also really liked the parallels between Black Woods House and the notorious Los Feliz Murder house, from similar crime scenes and murder details to infamy that leaks into local lore. It was a neat easter egg for people who are familiar with the crime.

But there were also things that didn’t really gel with me, which ultimately brought the book down overall. The first thing (and I’m not going to go into spoilers here) was how the entire thing shakes out. There was so much good suspenseful build up that could lead to some interesting solutions, and I was really hoping that it would all pay off. But I felt that by the end, the big reveal just kind of clunked out. It led to a twist that was okay but a bit unsatisfying, and then there was one more moment that happened right at the end that made it feel like the author couldn’t quite make up her mind as to what she wanted the ultimate reveal to be, and what kind of origin she wanted that reveal to be a part of. On top of that, Sarah was a little TOO unlikable. Let me explain that, as I generally think that female protagonists (especially in thrillers) should have the ability to be unlikable. The issue I had with Sarah was that there was a LOT of effort to make her sour, manipulative, snide, and proud of her cruelty, and it felt less like an interesting if flawed protagonist and more like a character that has a lot of checked boxes to make her unpleasant, without adding in layers and complexity to even it out. Generally, I can do with a let down ending if the main character is interesting, or vice versa, but when they are both underwhelming it makes for a disappointing read.

I do think that I would read more books by Matlin, because there was a lot of potential in “The Stranger Upstairs”. I’m bummed that it was a bit unmet.

Rating 5: There were some pretty good references and a build up I liked, but then the reveal fell a bit flat. Add in a main character who is almost too unlikable and it just didn’t hit the way I hoped it would.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Stranger Upstairs” is included on the Goodreads list “Fiction Featuring Social Media Types: Bloggers, Podcasters, Etc.”.