What’s better than reading a book that takes place at a Christmas party in front of your very own Christmas tree? How about if that book contains a devious murder plot too? Reading a holiday book during the holidays certainly ratchets up the tension and the dark pleasure of a good winter read, which is…
Are you a fan of ‘noir fiction’ ? Do you even know what ‘noir’ means? There are various definitions for it, but I found this wikipedia listing pretty thorough, and the first sentence does enough for my purposes here: “In its modern form, noir has come to denote a marked darkness in theme and subject…
I read Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay in a place far far away from any kind of elevator. I was staying in a cabin in Northern Ontario, dodging mosquitoes but blissfully distant from any and all high rises. Barclay’s name is well known to me, as I’ve read previous books by him AND listened to…
I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m getting sick and tired of the unreliable female narrator trope in thrillers these days. This cliché is so overused that I can feel my temper rising as I make my way through a novel that uses this technique to generate cheap twists. Thankfully, I am so happy to…
Most books that get sent my way for review are ones I’m interested in reading right away; mystery, thriller, suspense, literary coming-of-age stories, even the occasional memoir. But every once in a while, something is sent to me that’s clearly out of my reading comfort zone. Lipstick Voodoo by Kristi Charish is one of those…
When I received this book in the mail for review, I was immediately hooked after reading the premise; a tropical couples retreat headed for impending doom when a hurricane is about to hit? Count me in! As you know, I love reading about marriages (especially those that are imploding) and the fact that this book…
How do you feel about books that jump from one time period to another? Is it jarring? Does it annoy you when it’s in a suspense novel especially? Of course it does, when you’re on the cusp of a cliff (hanger), you want to leap to the next page as quickly as possible to find…
What’s that you say? Another Alan Bradley book? Why yes please! The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley is the tenth installment in the Flavia de Luce series, which begins after a short period of time has gone by since the last Flavia book, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place. Released once…
When Transcription by Kate Atkinson came out in September 2018, there was lots of buzz around it. Many said this was Atkinson’s best book to date, and it has been on a bunch of ‘best of 2018’ lists. Despite this hoopla (and I use the word ‘despite’ on purpose, because book buzz tends to be…
This is the first book I’ve ever read that has been published by Amazon Crossing. After a bit of research googling I’ve discovered that Amazon Crossing is the translation arm of Amazon Publishing, so it’s not self-publishing, but you can propose a book to be translated on their website. Regardless, I was fairly happy with…
Before I read this book, I had seen a ton of buzz about it on my twitter feed, so I had pretty high expectations going into it. I won’t say I was disappointed by it, because I really did enjoy reading it; it was one of those books you kept wanting to read ‘just one…
Ooooookkkkaaaayyyyy-do you ever read a scary story and think “what happened to that author in his/her life that gave them the inspiration to write such a dark book?” That is exactly what I was thinking when I read A Killer Harvest by Paul Cleave, because this novel scared my socks off! There’s two murders within…
