Pretty Girls

Pretty Girls was published in 2016. The story is about a woman named Claire, whose sister disappeared twenty years ago in a mystery that was never solved. It scarred every member of the family, each reacting a little differently. The book contains many trigger warnings including rape, murder, torture, sex assault and suicide. In addition, it has intense graphic scenes. I loved the story but would not recommend the book for minors.

The publisher's summary:

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

This story is one wild ride! It was so suspenseful that I could not do my regular Friday errands yesterday until I finished the book. It had an amazing plot with an ending I did not see coming. There were alot of twists. I did not figure out where the story was ultimately going until I passed the halfway point in the story. However, the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. While I was reading I knew the ending was going to be good but was not prepared for it. It was incredibly satisfying. Author Karin Slaughter wrote a fantastic story and she is now one of my favorite authors. If you haven't read Pretty Girls you need to get a copy of it. You won't be disappointed but don't forget that you need an uninterrupted block of time to read it. I am actually speechless right now and cannot delve further into why the book is fantastic. 

5 out of 5 stars.

The Silent Patient

I selected The Silent Patient for the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge this month. It was published in February 2019 and qualifies for the challenge based on the February publication month. The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller about a woman’s act of violence against her husband and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

The publisher's summary:

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is awesome!  I did not see the ending coming and was totally surprised. Totally! The book was so well written that it's hard to believe that it's a debut novel. This book definitely had me sitting on the edge of my seat looking forward to finding out why Alicia killed her husband. I assumed that there was some domestic violence but I was wrong. I knew the reason that Alicia stopped talking was going to be a good one and so I read fast in order to finish the story in one sitting. Oh my, it was so good.

The author, Alex Michaelides, created some amazing characters. Alicia seemed sympathetic even though she shot her husband five times. She and Theo were both main characters. I liked Theo alot because he bent over backwards to help his patient. His boss gave him just six weeks to get her talking. With hospital finances being threadbare, the Grove faced being shut down. The boss hoped that if Alicia got better, the press about it would help keep the place open. The family members for both Gabriel and Alicia all hated her passionately. I knew there were good reasons for this and couldn't wait to find out why.

I can't think of any other book where I had to read fast in order to find out the who, what, when, where, how and why. The Silent Patient is an amazing read. Check it out if you haven't already. 5 out of 5 stars.

Her Every Fear

I selected Peter Swanson's 2017 thriller for the Calendar of Crime Challenge. It was published in the month of January and meets the publication month criteria of the challenge. As is usual for a Peter Swanson novel, this one was a fantastic read.

The publisher's summary:  

Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life.

But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered. When the police question her about Corbin, a shaken Kate has few answers, and many questions of her own—curiosity that intensifies when she meets Alan Cherney, a handsome, quiet tenant who lives across the courtyard, in the apartment facing Audrey’s. Alan saw Corbin surreptitiously come and go from Audrey’s place, yet he’s denied knowing her. Then, Kate runs into a tearful man claiming to be the dead woman’s old boyfriend, who insists Corbin did the deed the night that he left for London.

When she reaches out to her cousin, he proclaims his innocence and calms her nerves . . . until she comes across disturbing objects hidden in the apartment—and accidently learns that Corbin is not where he says he is. Could Corbin be a killer? And what about Alan? Kate finds herself drawn to this appealing man who seems so sincere, yet she isn’t sure. Jetlagged and emotionally unstable, her imagination full of dark images caused by the terror of her past, Kate can barely trust herself . . . So how could she take the chance on a stranger she’s just met?

Yet the danger Kate imagines isn’t nearly as twisted and deadly as what’s about to happen. When her every fear becomes very real. And much, much closer than she thinks. 

I was able to figure out early on the identity of the whodunnit. The why and how were not so easy to determine. In fact, the reason that the perpetrator of the crimes acted as he did was pretty chilling. It was what made this psychological thriller so scary. Any woman who lives alone is going to be afraid not only for Kate but for themselves as well. This book will make you second guess every odd sound you hear in your home. I believe that the "her" in the title "Her Every Fear" includes the reader.  

The story has a jaw dropping plot that turns into an awful tale of horror. Fans of psychological mysteries will love it. The plot becomes more and more scary and disturbing as the story unravels and it kept me sitting on the edge of my seat. It also made me get up out of bed and check my door multiple times during the night that I finished reading the book. I can say so much more about why this book is good but basically it scared me to death.

5 out of 5 stars.

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 Cartographers

I did not know what to expect when I started reading this novel. Peng Shepherd is a new author for me but I was impressed with this story from the first chapter. It is a suspense thriller about art, science and history, a combination that I enjoy reading. 

The publisher's summary:

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence . . . because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps. The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

Reading this book was an amazing experience. I had that warm feeling you get when you finish a satisfying novel. Author Peng Shepherd dreamed up a creative plot and executed the writing skillfully. There is also plenty of of character development as well as information on creating maps. 

Seven college buddies travel to New York State after obtaining their Ph.D's in cartography. Their plans are something only the young can dream up: to create the most perfect atlas composed of maps of fantasy lands, such as you would find for the Chronicles of Narnia. The work begins well but as time passes the group dynamics fall apart. Two couples cheat on each other while an odd man out is doing research that he keeps secret from the group. Trust begins to dissipate and the group separates after a tragedy, with most of them staying in New York. All but one has their dream job. Daniel Young heads the map room at the New York Public Library. He and his daughter Nell carry the story. His classmates found similarly fantastic jobs but to summarize the rest of the story would give out spoilers. 

These seven characters communicated with each other as only childhood friends can. Their dialogue was realistic and the author primarily used it to advance the story. There was very little narrative. The exuberance the characters had for their studies made me remember my own college days and, frankly, I haven't been that idealistic since then. Real life always interrupts those feelings. These characters experienced highs and lows on a scale most of us have never experienced. While the story refers to the lows, it is the highs that caught my interest. They were working on a huge discovery for cartography and this is what excited me about the book.

The Cartographers is simply magnificent. 5 out of 5 stars.

Valentine

Valentine was published in 1996. It is a novel of revenge and was made into a horror/slasher movie in 2001 with superstars Katherine Heigl and Denise Richards playing parts. Valentine is a tightly woven suspense story with a jaw dropping ending. I did not see this one coming and I cannot remember being this surprised by an ending before. In fact, I had to go back a few pages to confirm that the ending I read was correct. I just couldn't believe it.

The publisher's summary:

Jillian Talbot has it all: a beautiful home in New York's Greenwich Village, a string of bestselling suspense novels, and a handsome and adoring lover. She has something else too.  A silent stalker. A secret admirer who sends her pink, heart shaped messages with an unmistakable threat in blood red letters. His motives are as cryptic as the name he goes by:  Valentine. But his intentions are deadly clear. He has watched other women in the past, and he has killed them. Now he's ready to add Jillian to the list, to carry out the punishment he has chosen for her, retribution for a long-ago crime that only he remembers. For Valentine, vengeance will be complete. For Jill Talbot, the terror has just begun. Wherever she runs, he will find her. And soon she will meet him on his terrible day of judgment. His triumphant day. Her darkest day.  Valentine's Day. 

I was hooked on this story from the get go. The plot premise is about a nasty practical joke that went wrong and the long time repercussions of the joke. I would not say that the book is a horror/slasher novel as the movie turned out to be. It is a novel of terror, suspense and a psychological thriller all rolled into one glorious story. The chapters alternated the point of view from Jillian to the killer. It was impossible to figure out the identity of the killer until the author tells us his name late in the story. Not wanting to be a spoiler, I am refraining from telling you more about the plot. Just take note that Valentine is a must read.

I cannot imagine that any other book that I end up reading this year can top this one. 10 out of 5 stars!