Wrap-Up of the 2023 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge

Twelve books were required for this challenge, one book for each month.  The book titles had to have certain words in them in order to qualify.  I read thirteen books but missed a required book for April.  I had planned on reading Axis Oh's The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea but did not finish it.  I just didn't care for the genre.  

Below are the books that I read for the challenge:

The Missing Girls of Alardyce House by Heather Atkinson

Whisper in the Night by D. K. Hood

Vanish in Plain Sight by Marta Perry

Five Steps Beyond by Luana Ehrlich

Stolen in the Night by Patricia McDonald

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

Poison by Charlot King

Final Call by Alex Lake

Date Night by Samantha Hayes

DNA Never Lies by Sue George

Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey

The Party on Laurel Street by Ruth Heard

Girl Forgotten by Karin Slaughter

Favorite Book:  A Beautiful Blue Death

Second Favorite Book:  The Missing Girls of Alardyce House

Least Favorite Book:  Vanish in Plain Sight

Girl Forgotten

Girl, Forgotten is one heck of a page turner.  I read it in one sitting and it kept me up into the early hours this morning until I finished reading it. The story is told in alternating time periods. During the present time, new U. S. Marshal Andrea Oliver arrived in Longbill Beach, Maryland on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. In reality, Andrea is there to find justice for Emily Vaughn. Emily is the Judge's daughter who was murdered forty years ago. The killer is still out there and it could be Andrea's biological father. No one knows that part of Andrea's history though. A few  years after Emily’s murder, Andrea's mother agreed to go into protective custody because she feared her ex-husband. Her unborn daughter, Andrea, has had to live this way her entire life.

The initial plot takes place in Longbill Beach in 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night should be the highlight of her high school career.  However, Emily has been ostracised by her former friends and expelled from high school due to her pregnancy, but she refuses to just disappear. Her only emotional support is her grandmother who unfortunately suffers from dementia. Emily has a secret though and by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. The present day plot takes place forty years later. Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks. Her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards and the small town moved on from her grisly attack. Andrea needed to be able to bring closure to Emily’s family and finally get Emily’s so-called friends to talk about that night.

I LOVED this book. Girl, Forgotten the first book of Karin Slaughter's that I have read and I will definitely read more from her in the coming months.  The two subplots were told in alternating chapters and each of those chapters ended with a bang. The twists were unique and kept coming.

The characters were quite interesting. Andrea's sidekick, Leonard "Catfish" Bible, is funny guy who was always spouting amusing sayings every time he opened his mouth.  With many years of experience as a Marshal, he gives the plot alot of twists by knowing exactly what should be done in order to advance their investigation. Emily’s friends continued to stick together even though they now hated each other. Something awful seemed to have happened the night of that 1982 party that had to be covered up. They all had toxic personalities and as these personality traits were exposed in the present day plot, it revealed what they were really like all along. One of Emily’s teachers, Dean Wexler, was a sympathetic character in the 1982 plot. However, he became a cult leader later in life and was abusive to everyone in Landbill.

Girl, Forgotten is a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Party on Laurel Street

I discovered author Ruth Heald last year and love her fast paced psychological thrillers. The Party on Laurel Street was published in June 2023 and I had to get a copy as soon as I heard about it. It did not disappoint. It is an unputdownable thriller with a shocking ending.

The publisher's summary:  

The party on Laurel Street was meant to be a celebration, of neighbours coming together as friends. But as I look at the shocked faces around me and the wine glass smashed on the floor, I know that our perfect community will never be the same.

I can’t stop thinking about the look on Gabbie’s face when she discovered what her husband had done. Her perfect life, shattered in an instant. She ran from the party as fast as she could but not before locking eyes with my own husband, Luke.

I try to think nothing of it. Gabbie’s probably just had enough, and Luke was being kind and concerned. She’ll be back soon…

But days later, my mind is racing. Gabbie is officially missing. And Luke was the last person to see her alive.

I try to help with the search, but deep down, I am terrified. Though not because of my husband… But because this isn’t the first time someone close to me has gone missing. Gabbie knows what happened all those years ago. And I know that if she isn’t found soon, then my secret is no longer safe.

So as I think back on all the faces at our perfect party on Laurel Street, I have to ask, is someone making me pay for what happened all those years ago? Will I be next to disappear? Or can I find Gabbie before it’s too late?

This story is one wild ride. I was hooked from the first page all the way through the end. Heald's books are always extremely fast paced and Party is no different. In fact, I would say that her stories are the fastest paced among all current authors. The possible whodunnits that I was looking at throughout the story were all wrong. The reveal of the killer was a total surprise and made for a satisfying ending. 

The setting is one street:  Laurel Street. The reader learns that it is not what it appears to be. On its face, Laurel Street is inhabited by wealthy people living in exquisite mansions. However, there is a darkness obscuring the facade. The reader feels it from the start of the story. While there is a scary wooded area surrounding the street, the houses also seem to be covered with gloom. The characters living here all have pasts that they want to hide from each other, furthering the mystery of the novel.

The Party on Laurel Street is fantastic. Mystery and thriller lovers will definitely want to read it. 5 out of 5 stars.

The Mistress of Bhatia House

This book is the 4th Perveen Mistry 1920s India mystery. I have read every one of them and can honestly say that all of them were fantastic. Our main character, Perveen Mistry, is a lawyer but cannot represent clients in court because women are not allowed to do so. She uses her education by drawing up wills and contracts and works at her father’s law firm. She is allowed to mix with British aristocrats who are stationed in India but may not enter their clubs because of her dark skin. Perveen has been able to build a life for herself despite the restrictions she must abide by.

The publisher's summary:

India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.

Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant, his young ayah, Sunanda, rushes to save him, selflessly putting herself in harm’s way. Later, Perveen learns that Sunanda, who’s still ailing from her burns, has been arrested on trumped-up charges made by a man who doesn’t seem to exist.  

Perveen cannot stand by while Sunanda languishes in jail with no hope of justice. She takes Sunanda as a client, even inviting her to live at the Mistry home in Bombay’s Dadar Parsi colony. But the joint family household is already full of tension. Perveen’s father worries about their law firm taking so much personal responsibility for a client, and her brother and sister-in-law are struggling to cope with their new baby. Perveen herself is going through personal turmoil as she navigates a taboo relationship with a handsome former civil service officer. 

When the hospital’s chief donor dies suddenly, Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s original case spirals into a complex investigation taking her into the Gujarati strongholds of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and up the coast to Juhu Beach, where a decadent nawab lives with his Australian trophy wife. Then a second fire erupts, and Perveen realizes how much is at stake. Has someone powerful framed Sunanda to cover up another crime? Will Perveen be able to prove Sunanda’s innocence without endangering her own family?

The mystery to be solved was not apparent in the first few chapters. It wasn't revealed until a third into the story. While this would normally upset me, the setting descriptions and character dialogue were interesting enough to keep me glued to the pages. Two thirds into the story I became bored. Conflict between Perveen and other characters, seemingly unrelated to the plot, was prominent and it wasn't as interesting as the beginning pages. Sunanda’s innocence or guilt was not fleshed out well as the author concentrated on using her in a cover-up of another crime.  As for the mistress herself, her role was not discussed much. Given that the title of the book was about the mistress, I expected more.

I am disappointed with The Mistress of Bhatia House. Let's hope the next installment of the series will be better. Two out of 5 stars.

DNA Never Lies

DNA Never Lies is the first book in a new series featuring Karen Copperfield as a genetic genealogist. Karen helps people make sense of the dark family secrets that are revealed by DNA tests as they ask: ‘what happens when nothing you believed is true?’ It was published in 2022.

The publisher's summary:  

As an ambitious young woman in the years following the Second World War, Barbara made some hard choices, decisions changing everything that came after. She had to fight for what she wanted; then the stakes got so much higher.

A continent away, and decades later, Barbara’s daughter hires genealogist Karen Copperfield to make sense of the family’s DNA tests. Nothing about the results ties in with what Barbara’s children believed, and the shock is tearing the family apart. Barbara seems to prefer death to revealing the truth, and Karen soon discovers there is more than one secret she intends to take to her grave.

But when threats start to come from both sides of the Atlantic, it soon becomes clear that Barbara is not the only person who wants the past to stay that way.

I was hooked on this story from the first page. It is told in an alternating format from California in the 1950s and England in 2018. The story begins with ninety-year-old Barbara Pendleton and her three adult children receiving DNA testing kits for Christmas. It was meant to be fun and if the family learned something new about their national origin it would be worth it. No one was expecting any controversial information to be revealed except for Barbara. Consequently, she threw her test kit in the garbage.

As the story continues we read about Barbara’s past as well as a girl named Jean Woods, an artist wannabe. Jean grew up in Lake View, California in a traditional post-war nuclear family. Church attendance was a must and alcohol forbidden. After high school graduation, Jean enrolls in a local college for art classes. She still lives at home, though, and continues to be sheltered by her parents. The lives of these two ladies are told as well as that of Barbara’s daughter Lynne.

I have read several geneology mystery series in the past but they are about historical research genealogists. This series delves into genetic geneology. I don't know how this type of geneology is done but am intrigued. Can I presume it's similar to murder mysteries where genetic information is used to solve crimes? Maybe. Nevertheless I am excited to learn more about it through this series.

DNA Never Lies is a page turner. I highly recommend it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Date Night

Date Night is a psychological thriller featuring married couple Libby and Sean Randell. Libby thinks that she has a solid marriage to Sean. Then one morning there's a note on her windscreen telling her that her husband is having an affair. She confronts him and of course, he denies it. She doesn't believe him but they go on a date night for dinner to try and ease the tension. The date does not go to well, so they return home. When they get there babysitter Sasha is missing. A few days later Libby is arrested under the suspicion of murder. 

The story alternates from the recent past to the present. This confused me in the first couple of chapters until I noticed the pattern. The writing, however, made the book a breeze to read and I couldn't put the book down until I finished reading it. There are numerous twists in the story that all lead up to the reveal of the murderer. With all of the characters having secrets, and the need to lie about them, I couldn't figure out the whodunnit. It was a total surprise when the killer was finally revealed. The whydunnit was not revealed until the last page and it was a shocker. Date Night is the perfect psychological thriller that reads like an Alfred Hitchcock story.

If you want to read something you know you will enjoy, pick up Date Night. 

5 out of 5 stars.

Poison

Poison is the first book in The Cambridge Murder Mysteries series by Charlot King. As the series title suggests, these mysteries take place in Cambridge, England. The series features an amateur sleuth by the name of Professor Elizabeth Green. Other regular characters include her sidekicks Inspector Abley and grandson, Godric.

The publisher's summary:  

When junior lecturer Edward Wiley dies a horrifically painful death and police pathology cannot establish the cause of death, amateur sleuth Professor Elizabeth Green is desperate to help, especially with the crime scene being her own back garden by the river. A professor of poisons, Professor Green is determined to find the murderer before there is more death on the cobbles of Cambridge.

When the Dean of Bene’t’s College seems to be involved, when other Fellows keep tight-lipped, and even Inspector Abley is spending too much time on the golf course instead of investigating, it feels like the killer will strike again.

Following another grisly murder, a tense Inspector Abley realises he can't solve this crime without Elizabeth. With people dropping like flies and dead bodies increasing in number, Elizabeth's unbridled curiosity embroil this meddling sleuth right in the heart of this mysterious thriller of a case in this historic city.

And what of Professor Elizabeth Green? In her fifties, this female protagonist is quintessentially English. An eccentric professor in her ivory tower, she maintains a sharp wit, yet is flawed by her inability to connect well with people, instead giving off a cold, opinionated and sometimes acerbic air. Though very kind to all animals (dogs, cats and the rest!) - a vegan - and a great gardener, in truth she keeps her friends close, and only lets a few dear people into her world.

The Cambridge setting is what I loved most about this novel. Reading about my favorite places in Cambridge, such as Jesus Green, the architectural bridges, St. Mary's Church, and the River Cam, transported me back to a city I once visited. Cambridge is a photographer's paradise and as each area was mentioned in the story, I remembered the photos that I took there.

The mystery to be solved was entertaining but the progress of the investigation was slowed by all of the setting descriptions. For me this was not a negative but for someone unfamiliar with Cambridge this might be a negative. Also note that the author is British and, as such, there are plenty of British slang words used by her. Some I had never heard of but they added charm to the story. 

I loved all of the characters as they were the typical quirky and eccentric British characters we have come to expect from British literature. Elizabeth Green is a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences but loves being an amateur sleuth. She annoys police detective Ably because she interferes in his investigations. Her grandson Godric brings us more up to date slang terms and adds his take on what happened to the deceased. The local M.P. Jonathan Smythe is also involved. Because I love everything British, I even love the politicians.

4 out of 5 stars.

Final Call

Final Call is Alex Lake's eighth psychological thriller. Lake is a British writer who now lives in Maine. The book was published on June 8, 2023. 

The publisher's summary:  

They thought it was a simple flight home. The pilot had other plans…

A moment of calm

Heading home after a conference, the senior leadership of a global corporation relax on their private jet ahead of their Christmas break.

A flash of fear

But their peace is shattered when they realise their jet isn’t taking them home. Instead, it’s heading east—out over the Atlantic Ocean.

A journey of terror

And things go from bad to worse when their pilot tells them she is going to crash into the ocean if one of them doesn’t confess to murder…

Final Call is a spellbinding read. The author had my full attention from the first page. After beginning the story I did not notice the passage of time until I had already read half of the book. I finished it in one sitting completely enthralled by all of the suspense that I just lived through in this story. It is simply superb.

The main character is the villain. Stacy Evanston lost her daughter and husband in a fire that destroyed their home. The police thought she also died in the fire but didn't find her body. Her daughter Cherry became deathly ill at school and almost died from sudden onset liver failure. Three other children in her school also got infected from something but they passed away. Stacy believes that the fire was an attempt by someone to silence her from asking questions about what happened to the children. While Stacy is a victim of something, no one really knows what, she sets out to get revenge on whoever killed her daughter. 

I believe the CEO of a food company was a secondary character even though she made up much of the action in the story. The food company was based in Barrow, Maine where the Evanston family had been living. Stacy believes the food company is at fault for the children getting sick but does not know what or how they were involved.

The setting of a flying plane inched up the suspense. There is a limited amount of fuel on the plane so the occupants have to quickly figure out how to survive the flight. This is where the truth is finally revealed and believe me, this was one wild ride.

5 out of 5 stars.

A Beautiful Blue Death

A Beautiful Blue Death is the first Charles Lenox Mystery.  Last year I read his The September Society and loved it. I decided to go back to the beginning of the series and read all of the books in order. 

The publisher's summary:

Charles Lenox, Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, likes nothing more than to relax in his private study with a cup of tea, a roaring fire and a good book. But when his lifelong friend Lady Jane asks for his help, Lenox cannot resist the chance to unravel a mystery.

Prudence Smith, one of Jane's former servants, is dead of an apparent suicide. But Lenox suspects something far more sinister: murder, by a rare and deadly poison. The grand house where the girl worked is full of suspects, and though Prue had dabbled with the hearts of more than a few men, Lenox is baffled by the motive for the girl's death.

When another body turns up during the London season's most fashionable ball, Lenox must untangle a web of loyalties and animosities. Was it jealousy that killed Prudence Smith? Or was it something else entirely? And can Lenox find the answer?

What can I say? This book was just as good as I expected. Poison was the method of murder. It was quickly identified as bella indigo, known as "the beautiful blue," but during the time period of the story, the Victorian Era, there wasn't much known about it. Another twist was that there was arsenic on the bottom of the bottle of bella indigo. Part of the mystery that was being unraveled was who had access to it, how was it used and what it really did to people exposed to it. The middle of the story was taken up with this howdunnit. The latter third concerned the whodunnit.  

I learned from the novel how the British police became known as bobbies. Robert Peel founded the police department on 1829. New officers used a variant of his first name when describing themselves.  Alot had changed regarding policing during the time period of the story. I enjoyed learning how procedures came into being. This was another fascinating part of the story. 

I think I enjoyed the howdunnit more than  the whodunit. It cannot be beat. I am rating this magnificent novel 5 out of 5 stars.

Stolen in the Night

I selected Stolen in the Night as my May book for the Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge. While I have read earlier books by Patricia MacDonald, it has been awhile since I have read them. It is time I rediscovered her as I remember that I enjoyed those books.

The publisher's summary:

TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Tess’s heart pounds and she rubs her eyes, wondering if she is really awake or in a nightmare. Her sister Phoebe’s blue eyes are wide with fear, a dirty hand with ragged fingernails covering her mouth. Pressed against Phoebe’s neck is a knife that makes a dent in her skin.

“If you make one peep or tell anybody, I’ll kill your sister here. Do you understand me?” the man hisses at her.

Nine-year-old Tess DeGraff is the only witness to the knife-point kidnapping of her teenage sister, Phoebe, at the beautiful lakeside New Hampshire campsite where she’s staying with their parents and brother.

Phoebe’s body is found two days later and a local offender is arrested. The trial lasts only three days after Tess describes the abductor and points to him in court.

NOW.

Tess has finally got herself together. She has a beautiful home and her ten-year-old son is the light of her life.

But new DNA evidence exonerates her sister’s killer. Tess is left questioning everything she thinks she knows. If he didn’t do it, who did?

Tess must go back to where it all happened and find out what really went on that night.

The book is advertised as a gripping psychological thriller.  While the mystery of the whodunnit was compelling, I wouldn't say that the story was gripping in any sense of the word. I felt more affinity with the potential perps than I did with our main character Tess or any of her family members. Tess was a little dull and her accusations against this person and that person based on nothing realistic was annoying. She was an excitable character that I did not like. What kept me reading? I really wanted to know who killed Phoebe. 

Most of the twists and turns came near the end of the story and I felt that they were almost on top of each other. I had to concentrate hard on catching them as they came quickly. Also, some of the twists seemed far-fetched but maybe that is just a result of them coming all at the same time. It would have been better to have them equally placed throughout the plot. 

The whodunnit drives this story although the whydunnit was surprising. For this reason I am rating the book at 3 out of 5 stars.

Five Steps Beyond

After beginning Five Steps Beyond I was soon astonished to discover that I was at the 60% mark in the story. Before I knew it I had finished reading the book. This shows how good this story is. The book is the final installment in the Titus Ray Thriller series by Luana Ehrlich. The main character is Titus Ray, an American Christian spy who works for the CIA.

The publisher's summary:

CIA operative Titus Ray took five steps. But not just any steps.

They were five steps beyond his expectations, five steps beyond his experience, five steps beyond his past.

He took five steps beyond his expectations . . .

When Titus is summoned to the White House, he expects to be offered a Top Secret assignment. What he doesn’t expect is where that assignment will take him, and how he’ll survive if he accepts it.

He took five steps beyond his experience . . .

Even though Titus has been through a lot in his twenty-year career with the Agency, he’s never had to learn about uranium enrichment, he’s never had his appearance altered, he’s never had to be a marriage counselor.

He took five steps beyond his past . . .

Operation Strike Out finds Titus revisiting his past to prevent the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon to annihilate Israel. When he discovers the tentacles of his past are reaching into his present, seeking to destroy his future, he realizes he has to act quickly.

Will his prayers be answered in time or has his time come to an end?

Five Steps is the second book in the series which I have read so I am a little sad that I just recently discovered the series when it is ending.  I can always go back and read the earlier books but its not the same as knowing that future books are coming. The Titus character is rather brave. He has returned to Tehran on a mission after almost losing his life there two years ago. In this installment of the series he is charged with getting a flash drive from a nuclear scientist that holds info on Iran's uranium enrichment program that would enable them to create a nuclear weapon. During the mission Titus comes face-to-face with the man charged with finding & killing him two years ago and, yes, this man recognizes Titus even though Titus is wearing a disguise. The suspense level is high. Titus's faith is more prominent than in the first book of the series which I read last year. Initially, I was put off by Titus's inner thoughts.  It seemed that Titus would not be able to be a great spy because there were actions that he did not want to take. However, the suspense kept me reading. By the time the story was over, Titus's faith did not bother me. 

4 out of 5 stars.

Vanish in Plain Sight

Vanish in Plain Sight is the second book in the Brotherhood of the Raven trilogy. The trilogy is an Amish suspense series. Most of the main characters in Vanish are different from those in Murder in Plain Sight, the first book in the trilogy. 

The publisher's summary:  

Since she was a little girl, Marisa Angelo has been haunted by the image of her mother walking away, suitcase in hand, to return to her Amish roots. Marisa and her "Englischer" father never saw or heard from her again. Now Marisa has received a shocking call from police. Her mother's bloodstained suitcase was found hidden inside the wall of a Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse. Desperate for answers, Marisa heads to Lancaster County. But no one—not the police or Marisa's tight-lipped Amish relatives—can explain what happened to her mother. Only one man is as determined as Marisa to unravel the mystery—Link Morgan, the handsome ex-military loner who found the suitcase in the house he inherited from his uncle. Now both Link's and Marisa's family members are implicated in the decades-old disappearance. The secret lies somewhere in the quaint Amish settlement. But someone will do anything to ensure the truth remains hidden forever. 

 I did not like the novel much. I could not connect with any of the characters, even those I liked from the first book in the series. There was no sense of drama of any kind nor any suspense which is strange as the series is advertised as Amish suspense. At one point in Marisa's investigation she was told her next step was to speak with the Amish Bishop. It took her 40 pages to do this and nothing happened in those 40 pages.

The mystery of the disappearance of Marisa's mother was compelling and I wanted to know what happened to her. The pages devoted to the disappearance were interesting. However, I skipped pages to reach the end of the story. It was unremarkable.

Yeah, I had to tell the truth. 1 out of 5 stars.

The Missing Girls of Alardyce House

The Missing Girls of Alardyce House is Heather Atkinson's first book in her Alardyce Trilogy. It takes place in Edinburgh during the Victorian Era and was published in June 2022. The second book in the trilogy was published in October 2022 and the third book will be published later in 2023. This is the first book of Atkinson's that I have read. I recognized her name when I selected the book but was not aware that she has published 50 novels. Wow! Why am I just getting around to reading her works?

The publisher's summary:

Edinburgh 1880. When Amy Osbourne’s parents are lost at sea, she is forced to leave her London home and is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at the opposite end of the country.

Alardyce House is depressing and dreary, her aunt haughty and cruel. Amy strikes up a friendship with her cousin Edward but his older brother Henry is just as conceited as his mother, and a mutual loathing develops between him and Amy. 

As her weeks of mourning pass, the realisation begins to dawn on Amy that her aunt has designs on her inheritance and the candidate she favours to be her niece’s husband fills Amy with horror. Struggling in this strange, unwelcoming environment, Amy begins to suspect that something isn’t right at Alardyce House. 

There are rumours below stairs of a monster on the loose, local women are being brutally attacked and her cousin Henry is the prime suspect. Alardyce House is full of dark secrets and Amy isn’t sure who she can trust…

The story is pretty fast paced for historical fiction. Amy's story dominates the book and the reader does not hear about any girls going missing from the house until the end so the title is misleading. The publisher's summary was also somewhat misleading. There is alot of sex, including rape, in the story but there are no graphic descriptions. We only read that it happens. If this would bother you, be on notice that you probably don't want to read the book. There is also physical and emotional abuse among the characters. Part of the mystery is figuring out who is abusing whom.

I thought the book was entertaining. The brutality that Amy experienced was something that women of the era were unfortunately subjected to so it seemed normal to me. 4 out of 5 stars.

Whisper in the Night

I had never heard of D.K. Hood before buying Whisper in the Night. I was surprised to find out that she has published 19 novels to date with her 20th novel coming out in March 2023. All of her titles are from the Detectives Kane and Alton series which are serial killer thrillers featuring Sheriff Jenna Alton and her ex-special forces deputy Dave Kane. I loved Whisper so much that I am going to need to read every one of these 19 other books. It is hard to believe that I never discovered her before since she is such a prolific writer.

The publisher's summary:

Fifteen-year-old Lindy Rosen has been having nightmares for weeks, waking in a panic, screaming that there's a man in her room watching her sleep.  Her parents assumed it was her overactive imagination, but when one morning they find Lindy missing from her bedroom, they're not so sure.  Detective Jenna Alton is called to investigate.  Within hours of the schoolgirl going missing, the kidnapper reaches out to Jenna with a video of Lindy bound and tied to a chair, crying to be set free.  And a simple message - you've got 24 hours to find her or I'll kill her.  Jenna's team work around the clock to try to find Lindy before the deadline, but time runs out, and Jenna receives a devastating message. The killer has made good on his promise. He's playing a dangerous game  and no one knows what his next one will be.  But just two days later, one of Lindy's school friends is taken in the middle of the night and the countdown begins again. 

I loved this book! I was engaged from the first page and couldn't put the book down until I had read through it completely in one sitting. There was one issue that I have though.  Around page 60 Lindy's body is found. However, there was no build up from the police officers working a scene before it is announced that the body was found. The reader finds out when Jenna mentions it as a past event. I think this is a mistake, but only because I have never read a mystery where the discovery of the body is not fully developed. It should be essential to the rest of the story. The rest of the story was intense and fast paced and the ending resolved all of the questions concerning the crimes. Again, I take issue with how Jenna resolved the crime. She didn't. The killer appeared in her home and told her who he was and that she was going to be his next killing. Jenna had no idea who the serial killer was until he showed up in her kitchen. The killer conveniently spilled out answers to the who, how and why questions about his crime spree before being handcuffed. While the beginning and ending were a little unorthodox, Whisper is still a fantastic novel because of the intense suspense the author created.

4 out of 5 stars.

2023 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge

The Monthly Key Word Challenge is a monthly challenge that runs all year long from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. Eight “key words” are given for each month. Your task is to read one book that includes one or more of the key words in the title that month. Synonyms and different suffixes are allowed. For example, if the keyword is ‘Lake’ you may also use the words ‘Lakes’, ‘Water’, ‘Sea’, ‘Ocean’. If the keyword is ‘Run’ you may also use the words ‘Running’, ‘Ran’, ‘Runs.' I wish that I had remembered this rule as I struggled to find books in a few months. 

However, this is a fun and easy challenge and I plan on participating next year. A check in post will be published on the host blog, girlxoxo.  Reviews can also be posted on Goodreads GXO Reading Challenges group and on Instagram each month. The challenge is also posted to Storygraph.  If you post what you’ve read to social media please use the hashtag #MonthlyKeyWordGXO. If you are on Goodreads, you can join the GXO Goodreads Reading Challenge Group. You can get book suggestions, do progress check-ins and meet other challenge participants. Below are the key words for 2023.