Tag: Suspense Thriller

The Final Episode is worth the wait


Hooked from the very first chapter, like heat lightning, Lori Roy’s The Final Episode sets your nerve ends tingling for the storm to come. The two-time Edgar-award winning and New York Times Notable Crime Book author gives readers a five-star amazing, can’t-put-it-down thriller.

Young Francie Farrow is a sick girl who goes missing from her bedroom while her parent’s slept. Miles away, soon-to-be 11-year-old Jennifer Jones believes in her bones that when she receives her foretold gift of “second sight” on her much anticipated birthday, she will find the missing girl. That summer didn’t turn out the way Jennifer expected.

Twenty years later, a true crime television series recreates the summer that changed everything for Francie’s and Jenny’s families. Claiming to shed new light, bringing speculation and attention back to the case, will the man convicted of her murder reveal where Francie is buried? Is the man convicted of her murder really guilty? Or is the murderer still out there? You’ll have to wait for the final episode to find out.

Told in present-day and flashbacks of Jenny (now Jennifer) and Francie Farrow’s mother, Roy easily places the reader wholly in each, giving readers a finale even bigger than the title teases.

I highly recommend The Final Episode to mystery, suspense and thriller fans and those looking for a great summer read. I received an advanced reader copy of The Final Episode from Thomas and Mercer publishers, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Bravo!

Bravo!

In A Long Time Gone, author Joshua Moehling delivers a beautifully written thriller full of mystery, emotion and suspense that leaves the reader sitting back in their chair saying, “Wow.”

Life hasn’t been easy of late for my favorite sexy detective. In this third book in the Ben Packard mystery series, we find our protagonist pulling court-security detail when a shooting puts him on leave and under investigation with too much time to think – not only about recent events and his future but his older brother’s decades earlier disappearance from the family’s lake house, as well.

After more details of that tragedy had come to light, a visit with his mother to visit the owner of his grandparent’s former home brings back memories. It also sends Packard on another investigation with life-threatening consequences.

Moehling should teach a master class on creating rich, fictional characters as real as they come. From Ben to his mother, his friends/coworkers and romantic interests, it’s all there with depth and easy, subtle strokes.

I highly recommend A Long Time Gone for mystery, thriller and LGBTQ fiction fans. I received this advanced reader copy of A Long Time Gone from Poisoned Pen Press, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Clever five-star suspense

From the first page to the last, award winning author Maggie Smith delivers a clever, five-star suspense thriller in Blind Spot.

The tantalizing first chapter finds Assistant District Attorney Rachel Matthews, in court for the defense, in the most important criminal case of her career. Having always prided herself on the fact that she could read people, now she’s never been so wrong. Who can she trust?

Raising a teenage daughter as a single mom is never easy. With old family secrets, office politics, a stalker, not to mention a murder to solve, juggling takes on a whole new dimension for the ambitious attorney.

In this, her second novel, Smith offers a deftly plotted mystery with rich characters, red herrings, and twists and turns that keep you guessing, plus a WOW ending!

I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend Blind Spot, published by Puzzle Box Press, to mystery and suspense thriller fans. I received my copy courtesy of the author.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Wow! Just Wow!

When was the last time a murder mystery/suspense thriller left you with tears in your eyes and a lump in your throat? For me, it was never but that was before I read Lori Rader-Day’s beautifully written, expertly woven The Death of Us.

The award-winning author of Death at Greenway and The Lucky One takes the reader on an emotional ride with rich characters, red herrings, subplots and suspects aplenty in Parkins, a small town where everyone thinks they know your story or they just fill in the blanks.

When a rusted old car with a dead body is pulled from the quarry down the road from Liss Kehoe, old secrets, wounds and gossip are dredged up that could destroy her and all she holds dear. Fifteen years earlier a young woman had shown up at her front door asking for her baby’s daddy, handed the infant Callan to Liss and disappeared into the stormy night. That now grown Callan and his friends had discovered the car poking out of the deep black water. What would happen if and when the truth came out?

I was reading The Death of Us on the beach practically oblivious to everything else around me except that my husband was trying to decipher a seller’s disclosure and condo association rules on his cell phone screen. I knew that I should really be paying close attention to the details – I did try – but my mind was with Liss and what was happening in the climax of this incredible novel.

I highly recommend The Death of Us to not only mystery and suspense fans but everyone. Lori Rader-Day is an amazing writer and I can’t wait to see what she has next for us.

I received this advance reader’s copy from William Morrow Books and William Morrow Paperbacks courtesy of NetGalley.
Order your copy online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

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