Tag: Thriller

Kate’s Review: “Mask of the Deer Woman”

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Book: “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove

Publishing Info: Berkley, January 2025

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: To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself. At rock bottom following her daughter’s murder, ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation that raised him, but they need a new tribal marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home. In the last decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some dead, others just… gone.

Now, local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save. Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her. What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.

Review: Thank you to Berkley for sending me an eARC via NetGalley!

I’m always on the lookout for more procedural mysteries. It’s a sub-genre I have enjoyed for a long time, ever since I’d watch “Law and Order” with my father in middle and high school. So when a new one comes across my radar, I am usually all in to give it a try, and “Mask of the Deer Woman” by Laurie L. Dove was no exception. I was already sold on a story about a woman law enforcement officer looking for a missing woman, but when I saw that it had an Indigenous main character and a setting on a reservation I was even more sold. Expanding the possibilities in a sub-genre is always a plus for me.

As a procedural mystery, “Mask of the Deer Woman” had a lot of moving parts that worked really well for me as a reader. Our protagonist is Carrie Starr, a former Chicago detective who has taken a job as a tribal marshal on the reservation where her father grew up. Carrie is a deeply flawed and damaged protagonist, who is still reeling from the death of her daughter Quinn and has slid into depression and substance abuse. When she has to start investigating a missing woman on the reservation, she at first thinks that it’s just another person who ran off, but the more she digs the more she starts to see patterns of many missing and murdered women, and starts connecting dots to a higher and more complicated mystery. As a main character she is at times hard to like, but I didn’t need to like her to want her to succeed, and I found her grief and trauma realistic and made her all the more complex. I also enjoyed the dissonance that she has having returned to a culture that she has so little connection to, and her return starts to bring out memories, connections to locals when they are sure how much they can trust her, and a vision of Deer Woman, a story from her culture that speaks to the violence towards women and a vengeance because of that. And that’s the big mystery here: the missing girls, with Chenoa Cloud the grad student in the present and more missing women in the past. Many people want to write them off as runaways or addicts, but it’s clear to many that that isn’t the case. Carrie starts to look into many missing women and uncovers some dark truths that have long gone ignored. It is a strong and very pertinent plot point (more on that in a bit), and I enjoyed how Dove slowly revealed her cards, and how there were intricate and more powerful pieces in play than I expected. I found it to be well plotted and very, very sad as well, given how MMIWG2S is an epidemic of violence that is too often ignored.

My favorite aspect of this book is a reflection of this point, which was the way that Dove wove in very timely and important to talk about issues that many Indigenous communities face in America today, usually due to our country’s history with colonialism and genocide and the trickle down consequences of that. Carrie has returned to her father’s community on a reservation in Oklahoma to work as a tribal marshal, and the realities the rez faces play huge parts in this book. Whether it’s the poverty the community faces, the drug and alcohol addiction that is rampant, the large number of missing and murdered women and girls in the community, and the way that local governments try to take advantage of the Indigenous people for their land and money making opportunities, specifically with oil companies trying to grab up their land. The systemic racism that the Government still holds towards Indigenous communities is a huge undercurrent in this story, and Dove finds a lot of inroads to address these themes and to connect them to the violence and mystery at the heart of the story.

I enjoyed “Mask of the Deer Woman”. I hope that Laurie L. Dove keeps writing Carrie Starr stories, because I will absolutely continue reading them.

Rating 8: Tense, well plotted, and heartbreaking. “Mask of the Deer Woman” is a solid procedural mystery that also centers very real struggles that Indigenous people in America face due to colonialism and systemic racism.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Mask of the Deer Woman” is included on the Goodreads list “Diverse Releases of 2025 – Mystery, Thriller, Horror”.

Kate’s Review: “Tell Me What You Did”

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Book: “Tell Me What You Did” by Carter Wilson

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, January 2025

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: She gets people to confess their crimes for a living. He knows she’s hiding a terrible secret. It’s time for the truth to come out…

Poe Webb, host of a popular true crime podcast, invites people to anonymously confess crimes they’ve committed to her audience. She can’t guarantee the police won’t come after her “guests,” but her show grants simultaneous anonymity and instant fame—a potent combination that’s proven difficult to resist. After an episode recording, Poe usually erases both criminal and crime from her mind.

But when a strange and oddly familiar man appears on her show, Poe is forced to take a second look. Not only because he claims to be her mother’s murderer from years ago, but because Poe knows something no one else does. Her mother’s murderer is dead.

Poe killed him.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Dead Girl in 2A and The New Neighbor comes a chilling new thriller that forces the question: are murderers always the bad guys?

Review: Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an eARC of this novel via NetGalley!

I am someone who really enjoys her true crime and weird tales podcasts, and I really enjoy seeing podcasts being incorporated into horror and thriller fiction. A podcast that I discovered last year was one called “Radio Rental”, where people write in their strange experiences and then record the stories themselves so that they are the ones to tell the story to the audience as opposed to a static host. I fell off it a little bit, but its really fun and I should probably go back and revisit it. I couldn’t help but think about that podcast when I read the premise for Carter Wilson’s “Tell Me What You Did”, but instead of real life scary or strange stories it was a story about a podcast that lets people anonymously confess crimes to the host Poe, who has some secrets of her own. But then an unhinged guest calling himself Ian calls in and claims that he killed her mother when Poe was a teenager. Which doesn’t make sense, because Poe is convinced that she already killed her mother’s killer. All of this sounded great, and Carter Wilson was a new name to me, so I thought why not take a chance on it? And I’m so happy I did, because “Tell Me What You Did” was loads of fun.

While it’s true that I was able to predict a few of the reveals in this book, that didn’t stop me from feeling the suspense as it built up in pacing and intensity. There were also a couple red herrings that did make me question my predictions, and a few things did catch me by surprise. I think that one of the biggest strengths of this was that it was an effective cat and mouse game as Poe realizes she is being stalked by a very dangerous lunatic, but also as we learn about her own past with stalking and cat and mouse shenanigans as she hunted down the man she believe brutally murdered her mother. I found myself tearing through in the last third of the book, really itching to see how it was all going to shake out, and man, were the twists and turns effective. To add some icing on this cake we also have some REALLY scary moments involving Ian and the lengths he will go to torment Poe. He’s the kind of villain that would translate SO WELL to a screen, and he was well realized in this.

But I also liked the ambiguity about Poe herself and her characterization. We know that she’s deeply traumatized due to witnessing her mother’s murder, and we slowly learn about how she herself committed a murder against who she thought was her mother’s killer. Her circumstances definitely make you sympathize, but we also have to ask some hard questions about revenge and vengeance and whether her actions against this person were justified. Especially when there is a sudden possibility that maybe the man she was so convinced was the murderer was actually an innocent man. I liked seeing Poe have to reckon with this possibility, and have to reflect on her certainty and perhaps need to come to terms with not REALLY being able to know. I feel like sometimes these ‘messy female protagonist’ tropes fall into obvious and well worn categories, but Poe’s horrific backstory AND her murderous past elevated this trope to new heights.

All in all, what a fun thriller! I’m happy that I took a chance on “Tell Me What You Did”, because it was very entertaining and a suspenseful read. If you have a winter getaway planned, consider bringing it along!

Rating 8: Twisty, turny, fast paced and at times genuinely scary, “Tell Me What You Did” is a fun and breakneck thriller.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Tell Me What You Did” is included on the Goodreads list “Most Anticipated Releases of 2025”.

Ripley’s Reviews: “Ripley Under Water”

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“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the final book in the series, “Ripley Under Water”.

Book: “Ripley Under Water” by Patricia Highsmith

Publishing Info: Alfred A Knopf, October 1991

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Tom Ripley passes his leisured days at his French country estate tending the dahlias, practicing the harpsichord, and enjoying the company of his lovely wife, Heloise. Never mind the bloodstains on the basement floor.

But some new neighbors have moved to Villeperce: the Pritchards, just arrived from America. they are a ghastly pair, with vulgar manners and even more vulgar taste. Most inconvenient, though, is their curiosity. Ripley does, after all, have a few things to hide. When menacing coincidences begin to occur, a spiraling contest of sinister hints and mutual terrorism ensues, resulting in one of Patricia Highsmith’s most elegantly harrowing novels to date.

Review: Happy 2025! I guess? New Year, new me, etcetera, and while I’m feeling pretty nervous about what this year has in store, I feel like we have the perfect transition here about to begin with my “Ripley’s Reviews” series. For you see, in the spirit of out with the old and in with the new, we are ending the first phase of this ongoing blog romp, as we have reached the end of the Tom Ripley books with “Ripley Under Water”! Patricia Highsmith published this book in 1991 and then passed away four years later, and therefore we are at a crossroads for how we follow Ripley as my series continues. I was hoping we’d get a pretty slamdunk ending to Ripley’s adventures after some shaky twists and turns. Unfortunately, that isn’t really what we got here.

Me in the final pages of this novel (source).

I found this to be more of the same from this series. Tom Ripley is still living at Belle Ombre with Heloise (oh Heloise. I enjoy her, she’s so daffy), just trying to tend to his garden and live life in relative comfort and opulence. And once again someone enters his life potentially threatening his comfort and stature, this time in the form of a boorish American couple called The Pritchards, who know a lot about his past and plan to make him suffer for it because… reasons? I did like the idea of Tom being on the receiving end of a little bit of torment for once, though the Pritchards were pretty two dimensional as villains, and I felt like we sleep walked through the story as Ripley attempts to outmaneuver them and keep his secrets hidden, even as they escalate and a literal body end up on Ripley’s literal doorstep. It’s entertaining, but nothing really stood out as unique or original. At least in “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” we had some really campy moments to even out the drudgery of Tom playing cat and mouse again. Here it’s just the same old song and dance, and while I enjoy Ripley very much and find him to be quite a character, I’ve realized that he needs supporting characters to play off of for his stories to really be successful. But I feel like as the series has gone on we’ve just gotten roadblocks and warm bodies that we know aren’t going to succeed in outwitting him.

And the saddest part of this book is that while it’s the final book in the series, it just kind of ends. I don’t know if this was because Highsmith had more plans for Tom but then died before she could bring them to life, or if it was because she knew that it would be a payday for her should she keep writing Ripley books and this one was merely a vessel to get said payday. I hope it wasn’t anything as cynical as that. But man, this just kind of ended without much fanfare. Maybe it’s a statement about how people like Tom Ripley just get to keep getting away with things. But as a narrative ending for Tom Ripley as a character, it just wasn’t very satisfying. I don’t know if I wanted him to get caught. It’s something I’m struggling with as the Joe Goldberg series goes on as well. But I wanted more than this.

Sorry to say that with “Ripley Under Water” we have come to a less than satisfying ending to Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripliad”. I don’t think this was a failed experiment on my part, as now having his full trajectory was interesting to be sure. But I had higher hopes than were warranted.

Well we are officially done with the book series. But we aren’t done yet! We still have a few films and TV adaptations to take on! And my first review of a “Ripley” adaptation is the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, which I will review next month! AKA the first movie where I was made aware that Jude Law is a person who exists. Can’t wait to revisit this one.

Rating 5: I’m a bit sad this is how we end the literary adventures of Tom Ripley, as it was more of the same and a weak ending to the series about one of the thriller genre’s MVPs.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Ripley Under Water” is included on the Goodreads list “The Vilest Man in Fiction”.

Ripley’s Reviews: “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”


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

“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the fourth book in the series, “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”.

Book: “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith

Publishing Info: Lippincott & Crowell, May 1980

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: The Boy Who Followed Ripley, the fourth novel in the Ripley series, is one of Patricia Highsmith’s darkest and most twisted creations.

Tom Ripley meets a young American runaway who has a dark secret that he is desperate to hide. Soon this unlikely pair is drawn into the seamy underworld of Berlin and a shocking kidnapping. In this masterful thriller, Highsmith shatters our perceptions of her most famous creation by letting us glimpse a more compassionate side of this amoral charmer.

Review: Okay look, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. I went into this review series thinking that all of the “Ripley” novels were going to be deeply suspenseful and able to stand the test of time. Patricia Highsmith is a well regarded author, and Tom Ripley is an icon. In the penultimate novel “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”, we get a bit of a dip in quality. Okay, a pretty large dip in quality. As a thriller, it really is stilted. The pacing is totally off. We have Tom Ripley meeting a young American teenager named Billy, who is actually an heir to a fortune named Frank Pierson who fled his home in America because he threw his wheelchair bound father off a cliff. So Tom finding a kindred spirit in this murderous young man goes on a road trip to Berlin, where we vacillate between tedious travel to a weird kidnapping plot that makes the story feel like it’s stopping and starting. Yes, as a thriller “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” didn’t feel all that thrilling or compelling to me.

But as a queer romp with Ripley really REALLY leaning in to the at the very least bisexual side that Highsmith spent so many years denying? GOOD LORD DOES IT WORK.

The way this book was gagging me as Ripley was feeling his oats… (source)

I am just going to be putting a pretty heavy spoiler warning on this review because we have to talk about so many things. As I mentioned above, for years Patricia Highsmith flat out denied the speculations that Tom Ripley was written as a gay man, in spite of the fact that people were picking up on little signs and coded moments here and there. His obsession with Dickie Greenleaf in the first book is probably the biggest piece of evidence, so much so that both the 1999 adaptation with Matt Damon and the newest Netflix adaptation with Andrew Scott run with it (the latter more than the former, and I will be watching both of these down the line in this series). But in “The Boy Who Followed Ripley” it feels like either Highsmith decided to maybe take these fan theories and speculations for a whirl, or she just decided to troll her readers. Because my goodness is Tom in his experimentation era here. Whether he’s listening to and appreciating Lou Reed’s album “Transformer” (long regarded as an album that really taps into the queerness of Glam Rock), or admitting to himself and others that he doesn’t really crave sex from his wife Heloise, or hanging out in a gay bar in Berlin with Tommy and enjoying the people he is interacting with, or LITERALLY DRESSING IN DRAG TO HELP FOIL THE KIDNAPPING PLOT, this book is REALLY going places that I didn’t expect when it came to Ripley’s sexuality. I’m by no means saying this is some pride parade of a novel, nor am I saying that this book is somehow ahead of its time when it comes to queer characterization. But I will say that getting into Ripley’s head as he’s getting in drag and seeing him muse about how putting on this disguise is freeing, or seeing him look on with what could be longing as Frank finds a fleeting community at a gay bar on the dance floor, was oddly bittersweet, and perhaps some of the most poignant moments for the character yet.

I don’t know why Ripley was so interested in saving Frank. Does he see himself in him? Does he see a potential protege? Is he just fixated again? It’s not clear. It has a lot of questions it leaves unanswered, and then Ripley moves on and will be going into his final story in the next. But for being the weakest in terms of thriller elements, any book that has Tom Ripley fighting kidnappers in drag as a ruse is a okay in my book. There is also a BBC Radio dramatization of this book with Nicholas Hoult as Frank, and I MAY be adding that to my adaptation reviews if I can find it. Anyway, next up is the final book in the series “Ripley Under Water”. I don’t know how Highsmith is going to wrap it up, but there’s no way to top Ripley in drag, if I’m being honest.

Rating 6: As a thriller, this is probably the weakest of the “Ripley” stories yet. BUT AS A QUEER FEVER DREAM?? It’s everything.

Reader’s Advisory:

“The Boy Who Followed Ripley” is included on the Goodreads list “The Vilest Man in Fiction”, and “Drag Queen Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “Alter Ego”

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

Book: “Alter Ego” by Alex Segura

Publishing Info: Flatiron Books, December 2024

Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC at ALAAC24.

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

Book Description: Alex Segura, LA Times Book Prize–winning author of Secret Identity, returns with a clever and escapist mystery set in the world of comic books. In the present day, a comics legend is given the chance to revive a beloved but forgotten character. But at what price?

Annie Bustamante is a cultural force like none other: an acclaimed filmmaker, an author, a comic book artist known for one of the all time best superhero comics in recent memory. But she’s never been able to tackle her longtime favorite superhero, the Lethal Lynx. Only known to the most die-hard comics fans and long out of print, the rights were never available―until now.

But Annie is skeptical of who is making the offer: Bert Carlyle’s father started Triumph Comics, and has long claimed ownership of the Lynx. When she starts getting anonymous messages urging her not to trust anyone, Annie’s inner alarms go off. Even worse? Carlyle wants to pair her with a disgraced filmmaker for a desperate media play.

Annie, who has been called a genius, a sell-out, a visionary, a hack, and everything else under the sun, is sick of the money grab. For the first time since she started reading a tattered copy of The Legendary Lynx #1 as a kid, she feels a pure, creative spark. The chance to tell a story her way. She’s not about to let that go. Even if it means uncovering the dark truth about the character she loves.

Sharply written, deftly plotted, and with a palpable affection for all kinds of storytelling, Alter Ego is a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

Review: Thank you to Flatiron Books for providing me with an ARC of this novel at ALAAC24!

I will admit that when I saw that Alex Segura had written a sequel to his thriller “Secret Identity”, I was a little shocked. Not because I thought that “Secret Identity” was bad! In reality I really liked that novel, but I thought that it had been wrapped up really well, and that the story of Carmen Valdez and her comic hero The Legendary Lynx was finished. When I saw “Alter Ego” at ALAAC24, clearly I had to pick it up, even if I wasn’t sure where it could go. But I was more than happy to find out!

Note: The ARC I had doesn’t have the comic book excerpts included, as I imagine they were still in process when it was printed. So I can’t speak to that aspect of the story. That being said, I remember this device being used very well in “Secret Identity” and imagine it will be the same here. I intend to check out a finished copy ASAP!

As I said, I was way off the mark when I thought that there wasn’t much more to get from the Legendary Lynx’s story, as “Alter Ego” goes in a new, present day direction, and still finds suspense, passion, and a tantalizing mystery and story about being a woman in comics. This time it’s the story of Annie Bustamante, a comics writer, filmmaker, and author, who has been approached to reboot the Legendary Lynx by Triumph Comics and its CEO Bert Carlyle. Given that Annie loves the Lynx and has ever since she was a child, she is intrigued, but skeptical, in part because of the way Triumph wants her to team up with a controversial film director to execute the vision, but also because Bert seems… cagey. And because she’s getting messages of warning about a hidden truth about the Lynx and the danger she may be in. Segura does a great move in this book, as he picks it up a bit where he left “Secret Identity”… and then completely turns it on its head, leaving the Lynx’s still a mystery, and Annie the one to pick up the mantle of figuring it out. I loved how we got new clues, new revelations, and new moments of intrigue, while still harkening back to “Secret Identity” and the various characters within its pages, from Carmen Valdez to her illustrator to others, some of whom have a less than happy fate (no spoilers though). The mystery about the messages, how the Lynx’s true creator has still been hidden, and what it’s going to take to finally reveal the truth, and the dangers associated with it, are taut and well paced.

But what I liked the most about this book was our protagonist Annie Bustamante. Annie is driven, to the point, passionate, and a little cynical, and we are given such a rich backstory and character arc that it all falls into place very easily. She has dealt with a lot of hardship and loss, but has a resilience that makes it very believable for her to want to not only give justice to the Legendary Lynx, a character she has loved for most of her life, but that she would continue to pursue the truth about her origins even in the face of some pretty serious danger, conspiracy, and adversity. She is scrappy as hell and the perfect amateur detective, with a chip on her shoulder and a little bit of baggage to boot. And I loved that she is also a devoted and loving mom to her teenage daughter Margot, who never comes off as too precocious or unbelievable. As a Mom to a daughter who is my only child, stories like these always hit a little harder now, and I really appreciated the healthy relationship they had. Everything about Annie really worked for me, she’s one of the best thriller protagonists I’ve seen in a novel in awhile.

I am so glad that Alex Segura decided to do another book in the Legendary Lynx story, as “Alter Ego” really brings more complexity and depth to the story as a whole. If you liked “Secret Identity”, the follow up is definitely something to seek out.

Rating 8: A solid follow up with a really endearing main character and a well done mystery, “Alter Ego” continues the story of the women who pay homage to a long forgotten comics icon.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Alter Ego” is included on the Goodreads list “2024 Mystery Thrillers Crime To Be Excited For”.

Kate’s Review: “We Did Nothing Wrong”

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

Book: “We Did Nothing Wrong” by Hannah Jayne

Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Fire, December 2024

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: Lia thought of the dark night, of the broken street light.

Had Diana gone out to meet her? Had she been waiting for her, alone in the park? Or had someone been waiting for Diana?

Lia and Diana are the It girls of Empire Hill High. Their lives are perfect….until Diana disappears and the rumors start flying. Everyone thinks Diana is a runaway, including the police. Lia is secretly convinced it’s all a prank. Then she finds a crushed red rose tied with a candy-cane ribbon where Diana went missing. And next to it, a  YOU. It’s the same ribbon Lia’s received on gifts from a “secret admirer.” Did someone come for Diana that night? And will Lia be next?

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

It had admittedly been a little bit of a dry spell for YA thrillers before the past couple of weeks, but with “Heart-Shaped Lies” being spotlighted last week I broke that streak, and now I follow that up with “We Did Nothing Wrong” by Hannah Jayne. If the last YA thriller was a soapy murder mystery, this one is solidly missing person, a sub-genre I enjoy very much. So when I read the description for this one with a missing girl at its heart and a left behind best friend who is frantic (and feeling a little guilty), I was very eager to check it out. And it had some mixed results.

Firstly, however: the good. I will say that by the time we were getting to the last third of the book, the pace really picked up, the red herrings and reveals were flying, and I was quickly charging through because I was so interested in seeing how it was all going to shake out. I’d keep thinking “Diana has to be alive, right?” only for a few minutes later to think “No, Diana’s dead, that has to be it”, and then keep flip flopping as Lia keeps digging in and finding more clues. I liked that Lia was also what I would consider a ‘more realistic’ teen detective, as she has kind of been thrust into it out of desperation for Diana’s sake AND her own guilt about how their relationship had been as of late (namely, cheating with Diana’s boyfriend Eli), and therefore is more harried and chaotic as opposed to calculating and methodical. And finally, I also appreciated how Jayne tackled the role that law enforcement was playing in this story, as they go through the motions looking for Diana, but aren’t REALLY trying too hard, convinced that she’s a runaway and therefore not a priority. It’s a sadly common narrative in real life abduction cases sometimes, and having a story with a not necessarily malevolent investigative team, but certainly an inept and lazy one, was an interesting choice for this book to make, and it was one that worked for me.

But unfortunately, the pacing was a bit off in this book, with a lot of slow but not super engaging build up dominating for a little too long for me. I thought that the book was spinning its wheels for awhile, with a lot of it being Lia dealing with her guilt about her friendship with Diana growing distant, and her poor decision to sort of pursue Eli behind Diana’s back. We get some background throughout of their complicated relationship, one that certainly felt genuine (because as someone who DID have a very complicated relationship with one of my best gal pals in high school it was very relatable). But the ruminating and angsting on Lia’s part was a bit repetitive, and by the time we had finally gotten to the uptick in action and a very satisfying finale I felt that it was a little late getting there.

All in all “We Did Nothing Wrong” was pretty run of the mill. When it finally got going I was entertained, but I think we needed to get there sooner.

Rating 6: Once the pace picked up near the end I became invested, but it took a bit to get there.

Reader’s Advisory:

“We Did Nothing Wrong” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the Goodreads shelf “Missing Girls Books”.

Kate’s Review: “Heart-Shaped Lies”

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

Book: “Heart-Shaped Lies” by Elizabeth Agyemang

Publishing Info: Delacorte Press, November 2024

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

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

Book Description: John Tucker Must Die meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder in this tongue-in-cheek thriller about three feuding exes of a social media prank star who are forced to work together to solve the mystery of his death when his deactivated account resurfaces online with claims that one of them murdered him.

Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh have nothing in common—except they just found out that they’re all dating Tommy Harding, the internet’s most famous teen prank star.

KIARA is the girlfriend who the cameras know and love, the academic star who Tommy parades around in public to keep his image in check.

PRISCILLA is Tommy’s co-star. As a beauty influencer and an accomplice to Tommy’s notorious antics, she’s always known that the two of them could be the Internet’s power couple—if only he would confess to his girlfriend what really goes on during their ‘rehearsals’.

And NEVAEH is the good girl, the pastor’s daughter who’d never dream of dating a boy who’s already taken.

When a viral post from Tommy’s social media account exposes his cheating ways during their high school class trip to Florida’s biggest theme park, the girls are crushed—and furious. Tommy claims his account was hacked. Now, Kiara, Priscilla, and Nevaeh want him out of their lives. Forever. After all, Tommy doesn’t just hold their hearts—he holds their secrets, too. But when Tommy’s body is found the next morning, their so-called wish becomes a twisted reality. Because Tommy may be gone, but the internet is forever. And the girls are about to go from strangers to suspects….

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

I’m going to date myself a bit here, but as an Elder Millennial I kind of (very luckily) missed the bridge from the social media of my young adulthood (College only Facebook, Livejournal) to what we have today (TikTok, YouTube), and all the now defunct stuff in between (Vine!). So I haven’t really gotten sucked into YouTube personalities and influencers and the power that they can have over their audience and their narrative, sometimes enabling the very worst of people and giving them a lot of money. One that I think about a lot are the Paul Brothers, who got started on Vine doing provocative videos, moved to YouTube, and now have a HUGE cash cow of an audience and have made careers for themselves as a pro wrestler and a boxer, while being really TERRIBLE people (the list of their bullshit is endless). I really don’t get it, but hey, they’re worth millions so what the hell do I know? I kept thinking about the Paul Brothers as I read Elizabeth Agyemang’s new YA thriller “Heart-Shaped Lies” in which a wildly popular social media prank star is murdered, and his three lady friends are all suspects. Because man, Tommy Harding is the absolute WORST, and reading about his murder and the fallout proved to be VERY entertaining.

As a mystery thriller, I found this book to be well crafted and engaging. We have three perspectives that we are getting our information from, all three of them being teenage girls who have been involved with the narcissistic social media prank king Tommy Harding. The first is Kiara, Tommy’s official girlfriend who is driven, clever, and the perfect girlfriend to counter balance his ‘boys will be boys’ image. The second is Priscilla, a wannabe beauty influencer who is Tommy’s on camera collaborator, who he has been having an affair with off screen. And the third is Neveah, a somewhat sheltered girl who is has been having a long distance and text/picture relationship with Tommy and thinks it’s true love. They all are betrayed by Tommy in one way or another, and they all have reasons to possibly want him dead after his account is hacked and various damning things about each of them are leaked. I really liked how Agyemang lets us get into each of their heads while also keeping a bit of plausibility that any of them COULD have been the killer. It’s a device that can be hard to juggle, especially with multiple characters, but in this case their perspectives and the other clues that we get as the story goes on through their eyes separately made for a solid mystery at the sum of its parts, and I was left guessing about who the perpetrator could be up until the reveal!

And on top of the well thought out mystery that kept me guessing, I really do love a soapy story, especially in a thriller, and ESPECIALLY if it makes the characters more complicated. And man was the soap really bubbling in this book, which was a plus to be sure. You have a love quadrangle (but the center of the triangle is TERRIBLE so you don’t really have to pick a ‘team’), you have sneaky teenagers doing sneaky things, you have enemies turned allies, you have requited love and secrets and oh so much more! I really enjoyed the ongoing drama and tension going on between Kiara, Priscilla, and Neveah as they are trying to clear their names but don’t REALLY know if they can trust each other. And I enjoyed the way that I could just want to slap some of the characters for their choices and actions and yet was fully able to understand each of them to a degree (at least of the three main ladies. There’s no redemption for Tommy, and while he was two dimensional in some ways I’m going to allow it because as mentioned about, the Paul Brothers-ness of it all made it easy to hate him and is obviously realistic). I really love soap and I’ve been missing it lately, so this one really hit all the right notes for me.

All in all, I really enjoyed “Heart-Shaped Lies”. It had been awhile since I had scratched the particular itch of sudsy thrillers, and this gave me everything I needed and more in that department.

Rating 8: A compelling mystery, some nice soapy elements, and some interesting characters made this a fun thriller and a wild ride!

Reader’s Advisory:

“Heart-Shaped Lies” is included on the Goodreads list “YA Novels of 2024”.

Ripley’s Reviews: “Ripley’s Game”

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“Ripley’s Reviews” is an ongoing series where I will review every book in Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley” Series, as well as multiple screen adaptations of the novels. I will post my reviews on the first Thursday of the month, and delve into the twisted mind of one Tom Ripley and all the various interpretations that he has come to life within. Up next is the third book in the series, “Ripley’s Game”.

Book: “Ripley’s Game” by Patricia Highsmith

Publishing Info: Random House, March 1974

Where Did I Get This Book: The library!

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

Book Description: Living on his posh French estate with his elegant heiress wife, Tom Ripley, on the cusp of middle age, is no longer the striving comer of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Having accrued considerable wealth through a long career of crime—forgery, extortion, serial murder—Ripley still finds his appetite unquenched and longs to get back in the game.

In Ripley’s Game, first published in 1974, Patricia Highsmith’s classic chameleon relishes the opportunity to simultaneously repay an insult and help a friend commit a crime—and escape the doldrums of his idyllic retirement. This third novel in Highsmith’s series is one of her most psychologically nuanced—particularly memorable for its dark, absurd humor—and was hailed by critics for its ability to manipulate the tropes of the genre. With the creation of Ripley, one of literature’s most seductive sociopaths, Highsmith anticipated the likes of Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter years before their appearance.

Review: We took a break last month from my “Ripley’s Reviews” Series due to Horrorpalooza (though you got TWO in September), but we are now back to this project and Tom Ripley continues to be loathsome and a literary legend. I was not familiar with the premise of “Ripley’s Game” before I started researching this series, and when I did get to this title I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, outside of Ripley being the worst. And the worst he was. And it may be getting a LITTLE hard to handle for me.

Highsmith does breathe some new life into her Ripley stories with this third entry, as not only are we now delving somewhat into a Mafia thriller, but we also have two narratives we are following this time around. The first is, of course, that of Tom Ripley, who is still living his best life on his French estate with his vapid wife and all his ill gotten wares. He is approached to be a hitman for an acquaintance, but has no interest and instead suggests his friend seek out a man named Jonathan Trevanny, a lower class man with cancer, as he only ha a few months to live, surely, and may want the money to support his wife and child after he passes. Thing is, Trevanny doesn’t only have months to live, but the rumors make him think that perhaps he IS dying faster, and decides to take on the hits to keep his family supported. But Ripley can’t help himself, and inserts himself into Trevanny’s life further, and with that he’s up to his old tricks. I liked that we got to get into Trevanny’s head in this one, as it really showed his motivations and his anxiety and panic as he and Ripley are engulfed into Mafia dealings and the dangers that come with that. It was certainly interesting going in that direction as well, as you kind of wonder if Ripley may be biting off more than he can chew (but then we know he isn’t; we still have a couple books left). Also, this is another Ripley story that feels VERY queer coded, what with Tom once again obsessing over another man and inserting himself into his life. I know Highsmith had a lot of self loathing regarding her sexuality, and it’s interesting knowing that AND seeing Tom have these moments and layers.

But something that I did notice this time around is that I am starting to be a bit put off by Ripley and the things that he is doing. And I don’t mean that in a pearl clutching kind of way, after all this is Tom Ripley we are talking about here. It’s not like I think that he’s just ‘misunderstood’ or whatever. But I think that this time around, unlike in the two previous books, mostly the first book, Ripley seems to be absolutely destroying the life of Trevanny for no other reason than pettiness and a misplaced obsession. It’s one thing if Ripley is going in and wreaking havoc on the likes of the Greenleaf family, in that even though I’m not letting him off the hook for Dickie’s murder, at least there is some villainy of the selfish millionaire class that makes it feel more ‘fun’ in a way. Kind like in the “You” books where Joe Goldberg is a villainous murderer and stalker, but the people he is up against are all so unlikable and vile in their own ways that it’s more satirical and entertaining (while still making the various murders of the women he’s obsessed with just horrifying). In this book Ripley is gaslighting and setting up a lower class picture framer WITH CANCER to commit murders and drive him to the point of insanity all because he insulted him at a party once, and we don’t REALLY get the sense that Highsmith was unpacking the parallels of having a fun villain while dealing with the horrible things he’s done. I’m kind of grappling with this and trying not to feel like a hypocrite, and maybe that’s a feeling I have to own and Highsmith had the last laugh here. But this one felt a bit more misery filled than the previous two books, and as such I didn’t enjoy it as much.

We will see where we get with the next in the series, “The Boy Who Followed Ripley”. I don’t think that the bloom is off the rose yet, and I WILL say that I will be VERY interested to tackle a film adaptation of this one down the line.

Rating 6: I was quite in favor of two perspective narrative, but this was Ripley at perhaps his most vile, and the humor and satire didn’t balance it out as much for me this time.

Reader’s Advisory:

“Ripley’s Game” is included on the Goodreads list “The Vilest Man in Fiction”.

Kate’s Review: “This Girl’s A Killer”

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Book: “This Girl’s a Killer” by Emma C. Wells

Publishing Info: Poisoned Pen Press, September 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: Meet Cordelia Black. Cordelia loves exactly three things: her chosen family composed of her best friend Diane and her goddaughter; her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip); and killing bad men.

By day she’s a successful pharmaceutical rep with a pristine reputation and a designer wardrobe. By night she’s culling South Louisiana of unscrupulous men—monsters who always seem to evade justice, until they meet her. It’s a complicated yet fulfilling life that requires complete and total control at all times. But when the evening news starts throwing around the words “serial killer,” pressure heightens for her in the South, and it’s only exacerbated when Diane starts dating a man Cordelia isn’t sure is a good person—someone who might unravel everything Cordelia has worked for. Soon Cordelia’s world spirals, and she loses her grip on those tightly held threads that keep her safe.

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

Horrorpalooza is over, and now I start to work back towards the books that I read before October that didn’t fit a horror theme to fit within that month’s review schematics. We had a cartel thriller on Saturday, and now we get back to good old fashioned women’s centric thrillers with Emma C. Wells’s novel “This Girl’s a Killer”. This has been on my list for awhile now, and now the time has finally arrived. With admittedly mixed results.

There were definitely things that did work, however. Most obviously to me is that I do love stories like this, with sarcastic and quippy morally grey narrators doing pretty terrible things but for fairly understandable reasons. I enjoy the idea of a pharma rep named Cordelia (I just kept thinking of Cordelia Chase from “Buffy”) being professional and put together by day, and then murdering abusive and violent men by night after the legal system fails to do anything about them. I enjoyed the story arc at hand, with her having an ‘oh shit’ moment when finding out that her company is recalling the drug she uses for her schemes (as it works SO WELL to knock men out you see), and then things slowly falling more and more out of control. Partially because she kind of starts dating a cop, partially because she really hates her best friend Diane’s new boyfriend. The thriller aspects are more about how and whether she will get away with her crimes, but it’s also a little tongue in cheek which gives it a bit of zip.

But on the flip side, it isn’t really anything that I haven’t seen before in the women’s centric poppy serial killer tale. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I did find this book to be a very quick read and an entertaining one at that. After all, who doesn’t like to read about terrible predatory men getting justice doled out from a pissed off woman with a serial killing habit to feed? The problem is that Cordelia as a protagonist is trying to be “Promising Young Woman” vis a vis “Dexter”, but I didn’t feel like she had the complexities to back it up and is instead a bit of a caricature without the depth I was hoping for. Girlboss serial killer who loves her bestie and her high fashion labels and aesthetic is fine, but I was really hoping that she’d be a bit more interesting. I have similar criticisms for the supporting characters, with said bestie Diane being a little on the saccharine side and her daughter Samantha being precocious as hell bordering on a little unbelievable. As an escapist bloody romp this works, but I think that had the characters been stronger it really could have knocked it out of the park, and it didn’t quite get there.

It’s kind of strange to refer to a story about a serial killer in designer clothes as ‘cozy’ reading, but if you like thrillers you will probably feel that same vibe. Overall “This Girl’s a Killer” is pretty fluffy thriller fun that doesn’t take itself super seriously. I can dig that vibe this time of year.

Rating 6: Fun for what it is, but none of the characters moved outside of static two dimensional personalities and the story suffered for it.

Reader’s Advisory:

“This Girl’s a Killer” is included on the Goodreads list “Best Serial Killer Books”.

Kate’s Review: “All Our Wars”

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

Book: “All Our Wars” by Stephanie Vasquez

Publishing Info: SparkPress, October 2024

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: For fans of Katie Gutierrez’s More Than You’ll Ever Know and Netflix’s Narcos comes a high-stakes thriller about the daughter of a high-ranking Mexican cartel leader dragged back to the life she fought hard to escape.

Twelve years have passed since Sofia De Luna’s mother was murdered. Sofia now leads a quiet life, far from the cartel violence she was raised amidst. But when her narco father’s retirement catapults her to head of the family, that peaceful existence is upended.

Unhappy with this changeover of power, Sofia’s brothers and cousins are wary of her desire to legitimize the family and her insistent questions about her mother’s mysterious death. Meanwhile, in Mexico’s uncertain political climate, Andres Herrera, the ex-sicario accused of Sofia’s mother’s murder, sees the opportunity for his exit from the drug business. He just needs Sofia, his first love, to uphold the truce between the cartels before the war brewing at the border trickles down to Mexico City, marring the upcoming election.

After a chance meeting with a disenfranchised DEA agent reveals the true depths the Torres will go to keep their power, Sofia decides she must stop the war her cousins have put in motion. But if she sacrifices her family for the dream of peace, will she meet the same fate as her mother?

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

My organized crime fiction experience is pretty limited to mafia movies like “The Godfather” and lots of the Scorsese catalog (“Goodfellas” is a favorite movie of mine, Terror Tuesday people and I have made it a Christmas tradition to watch it and eat lasagna). I’m not really someone who reads a lot of organized crime stuff, and I can’t think of any off the top of my head. But I’m always game to try new sub genres, so when “All Our Wars” by Stephanie Vasquez ended up in the inbox I felt that it was a sign that it was time to try out an organized crime thriller.

The intrigue, politicking, and tension regarding a power vacuum in a cartel family in this book made for a suspenseful read. Sofia is the daughter of a powerful cartel boss in Mexico, who left her family behind after her mother Maria was murdered and her close friend/lover Andres, now an ex-sicario, was accused of the murder but never taken to task for it. When she comes to visit at her father’s behest, she is told that she is next in line to run the business, just in time for her father to be killed under murky circumstances. All of this alone is interesting from the jump because I liked seeing the way that Sofia has to balance her own desires to stay out of it along with the familial pressure to stay, especially since it could cause a hostile takeover from her cousins should she make the wrong move, especially since the brewing power struggle between cartels could have a ripple effect all across Mexico. I really liked Sofia as a main character, and seeing her try to do the right thing while uncovering lots of disturbing truths regarding her family had me invested, especially as she starts to work alongside a DEA agent to try and get more answers and potentially put herself in even more danger. The ins and outs of the crime family and the violent realities of the business are engaging and interesting.

But what I enjoyed most about this book was the way that Vasquez presents a number of complicated and passionate familial and romantic relationships, and seeing how these relationships fit into the political and business interests of the cartel and the groups that benefit from them. Some of the more obvious ones are the relationships between Sofia and her former love Andres, or the romance between her brother Diego and his lover Yolotli, both of which I found to have an aching longing that gave them some complexity. But the one that I really liked was getting insight into the backstory of Sofia’s mother Maria and her relationship with Andres’s father Martin, and their doomed romance that was stopped before it could really start thanks to the fact Maria’s father betrothed her to Alberto, the heir apparent to a powerful cartel, who ends up being Sofia’s father. We see the way that Maria has her own desires but feels like she needs to push them away, and how her involvement in Alberto’s business starts to make her fear for herself and her children, and how she is still drawn to Martin in the years after their romance never quite happened. We get a lot of information about Maria, and we see how she has affected Sofia and her own values. I think Maria was my favorite character, and seeing her path juxtaposed with Sofia’s was a great choice.

“All Our Wars” was outside of my sub genre box, but I’m happy I took a chance on it. Maybe I should check out more of this sub genre.

Rating 7: A cartel thriller mixed with some tense family drama, “All Our Wars” was outside my usual reading sub genres but was a satisfying detour.

Reader’s Advisory:

“All Our Wars” isn’t included on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on “Drug Cartel”.