Mystery

Quick Review: THE FINAL ACT by Lisa Gray (Thomas & Mercer)

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GrayL-FinalActUSHCA missing actress, the uncaring world of Hollywood, and the peculiarity of fame in America

All she wanted was to see her name in lights. Now, her disappearance has made her front-page news.

It’s been twenty years since Madison James had any kind of success in Hollywood. Now she’s disappeared and a TikTok sleuth has found her purse discarded in a Los Angeles park. The news spreads like wildfire across a nation hungry for celebrity tragedy, and the struggling actress’s mysterious disappearance quickly becomes a national obsession.

Detectives Sarah Delaney and Rob Moreno of the LAPD Missing Persons Unit take the case. But truth is a rare commodity in Tinseltown; some people will stop at nothing to get what they want and Delaney and Moreno soon find themselves mired in Hollywood’s dark underbelly with little in the way of clues.

As revelations from the past emerge, it becomes apparent there is more going on than meets the eye. With an obsessive public watching every step of the investigation, can the police find Madison before she becomes more than just missing?

This is the first of Gray’s novels that I’ve read, and I very much enjoyed it. Long-time readers of CR will know that mysteries/crime novels set in and around Hollywood are like catnip for me, and this one was engaging and quickly paced. Thanks to a bout of insomnia, I ended up reading this in just two sittings. Continue reading →

Upcoming: THE SUMMER GUESTS by Tess Gerritsen (Penguin/Thomas & Mercer)

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GerritsenT-MC2-SummerGuestsUKHCIn March 2025, readers will be able to get their hands on The Summer Guests, the second novel in Tess Gerritsen‘s Martini Club series. The Spy Coast was, somewhat surprisingly, the first of Gerritsen’s novels that I read, and it left me very keen to read more. As I finished it, the sequel had already been announced by Thomas & Mercer (North American publisher), and yesterday I noticed that the cover artwork had been unveiled for both the UK and North American editions. One of my most-anticipated reads of next year, here’s the synopsis:

The chilling follow-up to The Spy Coast, plunging the Martini Club into the search for a missing teen — with a startling connection to their own pasts.

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything.

Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance.

GerritsenT-MC2-SummerGuestsUSHCAfter a teenager vanishes — and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect — she joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family pushes for an arrest. And when authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to long-buried secrets.

As Jo grapples with two unexplained mysteries, the Martini Club races to uncover the truth behind shadowy secrets… before more lives are lost.

Tess Gerritsen’s The Summer Guests is due to be published by Bantam Books in the UK (March 27th, 2025) and Thomas & Mercer in North America (March).

Also on CR: Review of The Spy Coast

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Quick Review: DEVIL’S KITCHEN by Candice Fox (Forge Books)

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FoxC-DevilsKitchenUSHCAn undercover investigator works to bring down an arson crew in New York City

The firefighting crew of Engine 99 has spent years rushing fearlessly into the hot zone of major fires across New York City. This tight-knit, four person unit has faced danger head-on, saving countless lives and stopping raging fires before they can cause major destruction.

They’ve also stolen millions from banks, jewelry stores, and art galleries. Under the cover of saving the city, these men have used their knowledge and specialist equipment to become the most successful heist crew on the East Coast.

Andy Nearland, the newest member of Engine 99, is good at keeping secrets. She’s been brought on to help with their biggest job ever — hitting New York’s largest private storage facility, an expensive treasure trove for the rich and famous.

She’s also an undercover operative, charged with bringing the crew to justice.

Keeping Andy’s true motives hidden proves more and more dangerous as tempers flare and loyalties are tested. And as the clock counts down to the crew’s most daring heist yet, her cover might just go up in flames…

This is only the second novel by Candice Fox that I’ve read. Given how much I enjoyed this and Gathering Dark, it’s a bit strange that I haven’t read more. Devil’s Kitchen is a fast-paced, engaging mystery with great characters. I enjoyed this a lot. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE EDGE by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

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BaldacciD-TD2-EdgeUSHCTravis Devine returns, in a strange mystery in small-town Maine

The 6:20 Man is back, dropped by his handlers into a small coastal town in Maine to solve the murder of a CIA agent who knew America’s dirtiest secrets — can Travis Devine uncover the truth before his time runs out?

When CIA operative Jenny Silkwell is murdered in rural Maine, government officials have immediate concerns over national security. Her laptop and phone were full of state secrets that, in the wrong hands, endanger the lives of countless operatives. In need of someone who can solve the murder quickly and retrieve the missing information, the U.S. government knows just the chameleon they can call on.

Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine spent his time in the military preparing to take on any scenario, followed by his short-lived business career chasing shadows in the deepest halls of power, so his analytical mind makes him particularly well-suited for complex, high-stakes tasks. Taking down the world’s largest financial conspiracy proved his value, and in comparison, this case looks straightforward. Except small towns hold secrets and Devine finds himself an outsider again.

Devine must ingratiate himself with locals who have trusted each other their whole lives, and who distrust outsiders just as much. Dak, Jenny’s brother, who’s working to revitalize the town. Earl, the retired lobsterman who found Jenny’s body. And Alex, Jenny’s sister with a dark past of her own. As Devine gets to know the residents of Putnam, Maine, answers seem to appear and then transform into more questions. There’s a long history of secrets and those who will stop at nothing to keep them from being exposed. Leaving Devine with no idea who he can trust… and who wants him dead.

The second novel in Baldacci’s 6:20 Man/Travis Devine series takes the action from New York to a small town in Maine; a town of secrets that stretch back a decade. This novel is a marked improvement on The 6:20 Man, and I think this character could stick around for a while. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: THE 6:20 MAN by David Baldacci (Grand Central)

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BaldacciD-620ManUSHCA cryptic murder pulls a former soldier turned financial analyst deep into the corruption and menace that prowl beneath the opulent world of finance…

Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building — presumably a suicide, at least for now — prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power… where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.

I’ve decided to get caught up on David Baldacci’s novels — he’s one of my favourite authors, but for some reason I’ve allowed myself to fall very far behind (he’s increased his output, lately, which is partly to blame for this). The 6:20 Man is the first in his Travis Devine series, and it’s an interesting, timely mystery set in the world of New York finance. Continue reading →

Upcoming: GRAVEYARD SHIFT by M. L. Rio (Flatiron)

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RioML-GraveyardShiftUSHCBack in 2017, I read an ARC of M. L. Rio‘s excellent If We Were Villains (which seems to get a new edition every few months). Ever since finishing it, I have been periodically checking to see if the author has a new book on the way. And the wait if almost over! Flatiron Books recently announced the author’s hotly-anticipated next book, a novella: Graveyard Shift. Due out in September, here’s the synopsis:

A story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks — and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

M. L. Rio’s Graveyard Shift is due to be published by Flatiron Books in North America and Wildfire in the UK, on September 24th.

Also on CR: Review of If We Were Villains

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Excerpt: EXTINCTION by Douglas Preston (Forge)

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PrestonD-ExtinctionUSHCIn a couple of weeks, Forge Books are due to publish Extinction, the latest thriller by best-selling author Douglas Preston. A thriller that is “in the Michael Crichton mode”, it “explores the possible and unintended dangers of the very real efforts to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other long-extinct animals.” To whet readers’ appetite for the book, we have an excerpt to share — comprised of the first two chapters! Before we get to that, though, here’s the synopsis:

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire’s son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators.

As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection — but extinction.

Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE FURY by Alex Michaelides (Celadon)

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MichaelidesA-FuryUSHCA satisfying, twisty tale

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex-movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind… and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

I hadn’t read either of Michaelides’s best-selling and acclaimed previous novels — The Silent Patient and The Maidens — but the premise for this third novel really caught my attention: a reclusive ex-movie star and a few of her famous friends take a spontaneous trip to a private Greek island, and it’s a trip that ends in murder. I dove in pretty much as soon as I received the review copy, and I very much enjoyed the ride. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton (Raven)

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TurtonS-LastMurderAtTheEndOfTheWorldUKHCSolve the murder to save what’s left of the world.

Outside the island there is the world destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched. On the island it is idyllic. 122 villagers and 3 scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they’re told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And they learn the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay.

If the murder isn’t solved within 92 hours, the fog will smother the island – and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone’s memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer – and they don’t even know it…

Like many readers, I have very much enjoyed Turton’s twisty mysteries — The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water. I was a little late to the author’s work, but when I received this for review, I didn’t wait. It’s another twisty and engaging novel, and I enjoyed it. Continue reading →

Upcoming: ASSASSINS ANONYMOUS by Rob Hart (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

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HartR-AssassinsAnonymousUSHCThis summer, Rob Hart returns with Assassins Anonymous, a novel S. A. Cosby has described as “The best kind of thriller… Suspenseful, sentimental, and ultimately redemptive.” I haven’t had the chance to read any of Hart’s other novels, yet (despite thinking they all sound very interesting), but I think this one sounds especially interesting. It’s due out in June, to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Check out the synopsis:

In this clever, surprising, page-turner, the world’s most lethal assassin gives up the violent life only to find himself under siege by mysterious assailants. It’s a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the first option is off the table. What’s a reformed hit man to do?

Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind, and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.

When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him. All without killing anyone. Or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns, nonviolence is a real hassle.

Rob Hart’s Assassins Anonymous is due to be published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons in North America on June 11th.

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