Review: Shocking Crimes - Book #14 Detective Sophie Allen Series - Michael Hambling - November 2025 There's something uniquely unsettling about discovering a child's body in a suitcase which made me think of the New Zealand case, a couple of years ago when the two asian children were found dead in suitcases and left in a storage shed, and Michael Hambling doesn't pull any punches in this latest Detective Sophie Allen mystery. From the moment I opened Shocking Crimes, I knew I was in for a dark, compelling ride. The premise grabbed me immediately: a mummified child's body hidden in a loft, accompanied only by a heartbreaking, badly-spelled note – "Im Jan. im only 10. plees help me." Those simple words haunted me throughout the entire read. Hambling has a gift for making you feel the weight of every tragedy his characters uncover. What could have been a straightforward cold case investigation takes on layers of complexity when a young student, Holly Evans, ends...

VBT# Let's Play Dead - Elena Frost - 2025 Elena Frost delivers a gripping psychological thriller that left me checking my own door locks twice before bed. "Let's Play Dead" is the kind of book that makes you question every charming person you've ever met – and as someone who's always been a sucker for a good love story gone wrong, this one hit particularly close to home. Lisa's journey from hopeful newlywed to desperate survivor unfolds with the kind of slow-burn tension that made me physically uncomfortable in the best possible way. Elena Frost masterfully crafts Alex as the quintessential wolf in sheep's clothing – charming enough to sweep Lisa off her feet, yet sinister enough to make your skin crawl. The revelation about his first wife Polly feels both shocking and inevitable, a testament to Frost's skillful foreshadowing. What struck me most was Lisa's internal struggle between love and survival instinct. Having witnessed similar pattern...

Review: Road to Evil - Book #4 Bridget Bishop FBI Series - Melinda Woodhall - September 2022 One of my favorite authors is Melinda Woodhall as I have loved all her different series and how one way or another they just interconnect and flow together. The Bridget Bishop Series is the fourth series of her's that I am going through and after this, there are two more - the Bailey Flynn and Frankie Dawson. In Road to Evil, the Backwoods Butcher who Bridget Bishop put away after catching him when no one else could have escaped from the courthouse. What will he do, now that he is free? Will he chase down the people who put him behind bars or is he just wanting to be free and start over? The thing is though that there is another killer known as Max Bender and he is determined that he will never be caught as he almost got away with it once before with Tammy Vickers, but new DNA has come to light. This causes Max to come up with a plan and kill a few more in the style of Grady if the police a...

Review: Final Kill - Book #1 Maggie Flight Series - Kate Bold - November 2024 Scrolling through my Kindle trying to find something to read, I was in the mood for a thriller read, and what better than a freebie I scored from Amazon. Criminal Profiler Maggie has been called in as someone is killing in Hollywood and leaving bodies in public view, they are also replicating famous unsolved murders like the Black Dahlia case. The other reason why Maggie has come back to LA is that she is looking for her brother Cole. They haven't seen each other in years after he ended up getting into a bit of trouble, she hasn't given up and when one of their suspects mentions him, she looks like she has a lead. Maggie has to be careful though as no one from the FBI knows about her past and her brother. What will happen though when Maggie catches wind of the identity of the killer and ends up on his tail? Will she be his last victim or can Maggie catch the bad guy? Final Kill was a good thriller ...

Review: The 24th Hour - Book #24 Women's Murder Club Series - James Patterson and Maxine Paetro - May 2024 When The 24th Hour drops, you know you’re in for an edge-of-your-seat, chaotic ride. A wedding, a birthday, and an assault all collide, as trouble always seems to find the Women’s Murder Club. And trust me, this time it’s big trouble. Sergeant Lindsay Boxer and the gang—Medical Examiner Claire Washburn, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano, and crime writer Cindy Thomas—are just trying to enjoy a nice meal in San Francisco’s best restaurant. But before they can toast to life’s celebrations, violence crashes their moment. The case? Complicated. A victim with a memory that keeps shifting, a story full of holes, and a whole mess of lies. As Yuki digs deep into the legal side of things, Lindsay is on the hunt for a high-society killer whose skills in target practice might take out more than just a couple of lives. And the best part? The stakes are personal. The Women’s Mu...

As an undercover FBI agent, Kimi is no stranger to life-threatening situations. So when her latest assignment leads to one of Boston’s biggest crime families, she’s confident she can handle the pressure. But as she becomes embroiled in the lives of Finn and Lorcan Donaghey, Kimi realizes she might not be able to separate her job from her heart so easily this time. Readers who enjoy romantic suspense and mafia romances will want to sink their teeth into Retribution by Wendy Million, an enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity romance. Read Now! As an undercover FBI agent, Kimi is no stranger to life-threatening situations. When her newest assignment leads to the Donaghey brothers, one of Boston's biggest crime families, Kimi is confident she can handle the pressure. But as she becomes embroiled in the lives of Finn and Lorcan, she realizes she might not be able to separate her job as Kim from the heart of Kimi quite so easily this time. On the cusp of a mob war, Kimi must decide wh...

As an undercover FBI agent, Kimi is no stranger to life-threatening situations. So when her latest assignment leads to one of Boston’s biggest crime families, she’s confident she can handle the pressure. But as she becomes embroiled in the lives of Finn and Lorcan Donaghey, Kimi realizes she might not be able to separate her job from her heart so easily this time. Readers who enjoy romantic suspense and mafia romances will want to sink their teeth into Retribution by Wendy Million, an enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity romance. Blurb As an undercover FBI agent, Kimi is no stranger to life-threatening situations. When her newest assignment leads to the Donaghey brothers, one of Boston's biggest crime families, Kimi is confident she can handle the pressure. But as she becomes embroiled in the lives of Finn and Lorcan, she realizes she might not be able to separate her job as Kim from the heart of Kimi quite so easily this time. On the cusp of a mob war, Kimi must decide who to beli...

Review: The Truth about the Devlins - Lisa Scottoline - March 2024 One of my favorite authors and an auto-read is Lisa Scottoline ever over 15 years when I fell in love with one of her earlier titles. I was hooked as I enjoyed her legal thrillers, before reading her books - the only other Legal thrillers I had read was John Grisham, and here was a female author writing just as great or in my opinion even better - sorry John :P. So when I heard she had written a new one, I was excited to read it. This book introduces us to a family called The Devlins who are all lawyers except for TJ who is an investigator. TJ was the one in the family to go off the rails and since he has a criminal record now, this is the only role he can take. He loves it though as he feels he is doing his part to help get justice for those who can't by themselves. When his older brother John gets in a jam, he asks TJ for help and TJ would go to the end of the earth to help him which he does god, I hated John'...

Review: Murder Road - Simone St James - March 2024 Every year, I try and pick an author that has been on my mind and go through their backlist of books and read everything by them. This year, I had a couple of authors and one of those was Simone St James. After finishing this one I have only two left to read. I have found her a hit/miss author. Four of her books I have enjoyed and three have been DNF. Murder Road was one of those hits for me which I guessed it would be as the storyline was one I was interested in. This book starts with Eddie and April Carter who are newlyweds and traveling on their way to the Five Pines Inn for their honeymoon. Driving along the interstate, Eddie takes a wrong turn and they end up on a deserted road in the middle of the night. While driving along, they come across a young girl who needs their help - Rhonda Jean. She has been injured and by the time they get her to the hospital, she is dead and Eddie and April find themselves stuck in a small town...