Category Archives: Modern Mysteries

by Jilly Gagnon Overall: A solid whodunit set in an isolated hotel in the present day.  Becca is expecting a fun 20s-themed weekend and an opportunity to reconnect with her husband Blake after recent tensions in their marriage.  It turns out he’s actually signed them up for an immersive murder mystery experience, supposedly as aContinue reading “All Dressed Up”

by Laura Dave Overall: I enjoyed this thriller centered on the relationship between a mother and her teenage stepdaughter a lot more than I anticipated! Hannah and Owen have only been married for a year when Owen disappears, leaving Hannah marooned on their houseboat (or “floating home”) in Sausalito with Owen’s daughter Bailey. The question,Continue reading “The Last Thing He Told Me”

by Shea Ernshaw Overall: I went into A History of Wild Places blind – I hadn’t even read the synopsis. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t exactly this book. It begins conventionally enough for a supernatural thriller, with a detective (Travis) who can learn about people’s past history by touching objectsContinue reading “A History of Wild Places”

by Catherine Ryan Howard Overall: This thriller has a lot going on.  Told from different perspectives, it jumps around in time, presenting the lead-up to the crime, the crime itself, and the investigation in out-of-order vignettes to build suspense.  Honestly, the less you know about this one going in, the better!  I’ll just say itContinue reading “56 Days”

by Will Leitch When Stephen King, Richard Russo, and Chris Bohjalian blurb a book, I’m going to pick it up.  And I’m so glad I did!  How Lucky is told by Daniel, who happens to be on his porch in Athens, Georgia, early one fall morning and sees a young woman get into a down-at-the-heelsContinue reading “How Lucky”

by Sulari Gentill Overall: Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Australian author who’s won a prestigious fellowship, is attempting to write in the Boston Public Library when she hears a woman scream.  In the scream’s aftermath, she bonds with a few of the people sitting around her: Marigold Anastas, a psychology student, Whit Metters, a law student,Continue reading “The Woman in the Library”

by Simone St. James Overall: a solid thriller mashed with a ghost story, told by two narrators.  One is Shea, a recently divorced true crime blogger (the Book of Cold Cases is her website) and survivor of a childhood abduction.  She’s drifting through her life, a prisoner of many understandable fears, when she accidentally meetsContinue reading “The Book of Cold Cases”

by Zakiya Dalila Harris Nella, the only Black employee at published Wagner Books, initially feels elated when Hazel joins the staff.  Then she starts receiving anonymous notes telling her to leave the company.  And why won’t anyone tell her what really happened to former star editor Kendra back in the 1980s? Likes: This book tookContinue reading “The Other Black Girl”

by Liane Moriarty Stan and Joy have recently retired from running a tennis academy in Australia when Joy goes missing. Likes: fast-paced, told by multiple narrators, keeps you guessing until the very end, no one is perfect or completely horrible Dislikes: a few of the minor plot points felt contrived (looking at you, Steffi!) Overall:Continue reading “Apples Never Fall”