ARC Review: All This Could Be Yours by Hank Phillippi Ryan

All This Could Be Yours
Author: Hank Phillippi Ryan
Publication: Minotaur Books (September 9, 2025)

Description: Is a debut author's blockbuster bestseller about to ruin her life? A glamorous book tour becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse chase in this new and captivating thriller by "master of suspense" (Publishers Weekly) and USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Debut sensation Tessa Calloway is on a whirlwind book tour for her instant bestseller, All This Could Be Yours. In a different city every night, Tessa receives standing ovations from adoring fans while her husband Henry and their two children cheer her on from their brand-new dream house.

But there's a chilling problem with Tessa's triumphant book tour―she soon discovers she is being stalked by someone who's obsessed not only with sabotaging her career, but also with destroying her perfect family back home.

Tessa fears the fallout from an impossible decision she once made―what felt like a genuine deal with the devil―appears to be coming due. And she’s realizing that every high-stakes bargain comes with a high-stakes price. If Tessa can't untangle who's threatening to expose her darkest secrets, she'll lose her career, her family―and possibly her life.

My Thoughts: Debut author Tessa Calloway is on an extensive book tour with her instant bestseller All This Could Be Yours when she begins to experience odd things. She finds a locket in a hotel room drawer with a picture inside. Being social media savvy, she posts and asks for help from her many followers in locating the owner of the locket. 

As she travels from one exhausting event to another, she begins to feel as if she is being stalked. Odd questions about her hometown and her teenage years are following her from city to city. She has a secret about those earlier years that not even her husband knows and her publisher certainly does not know. Tessa fears that the secret will come out and ruin her new career.

Meanwhile back at home, her husband Henry is settling into their new home with their two children and Tessa is feeling that she's losing track of what is going on with her family. She only spent one night in the new home before the book tour began and now Henry's making friends with the neighbors.

This was a tense and suspenseful thriller. I liked Tessa even when her author's imagination seemed to be magnifying the suspicious events. There was a great feeling of creepiness that permeated the story that sent some shivers up my spine as I was reading it. 

I recommend this story for those who attend author events and wonder about the author off the stage. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Deepest Cut by P. J. Tracy

The Deepest Cut
Author: P. J. Tracy
Series: A Monkeewrench Novel
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (September 9, 2025)

Description: The Monkeewrench team is back in a brand-new nail-biting thriller from New York Times bestselling author P. J. Tracy.

Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth arrest a sadistic pair of killers for the murder of several women with the help of Monkeewrench, their eccentric, cyber-sleuth friends and partners. One of the killers dies in custody and the other, Wolfgang Mauer, is sent to a maximum security mental hospital in a rural corner of Minnesota.

There, Mauer plots his escape–and his vengeance. With the help of his mother, a former militia leader and assassin living an extravagant, reclusive life, he schemes to get out of the mental hospital and hunt down the detectives and the Monkeewrench crew that got him a life sentence.

When Mauer successfully escapes, an inexperienced county sheriff is thrown head-first into a massive manhunt for the murderer. When she finds three bodies and discovers that Mauer has kidnapped a young boy, she realizes that Mauer’s escape was just the beginning. With many lives on the line, Magozzi, Gino, and Monkeewrench join in the desperate search effort. The longer he’s at large, the more people will die, and Mauer is on a mission to find those who sentenced him, so they all have targets on their backs.

My Thoughts: P. J. Tracy returns to the world of Monkeewrench in this thriller. Minneapolis homicide detective Leo Magozzi is getting ready to retire to spend more time with the woman he loves and the daughter he adores. Before that can happen, Magozzi and his partner Gino Rolseth get involved in the prison escape of a sadistic killer that they had put behind bars earlier. 

The killer is Mauer and Mauer has a plan. Recover the money he secreted away before he was caught and imprisoned and then kill the eight people on his hit lit that he most blames for his capture and imprisonment. He is more than willing to murder anyone who gets in the way of his plans. 

Since he escaped from a mental hospital/prison in a small, rural Minnesota county, the inexperienced sheriff and her deputies are drawn into the case. They are the ones who discover the first three bodies left in Mauer's wake and set law enforcement in action when Mauer kidnaps a ten-year-old boy. 

The story is told from multiple viewpoints. The Monkeewrench gang all appear and have their plans interrupted whether the plan is proposing to the woman they love or adding to their kick-ass fashion collection. The inexperienced sheriff's viewpoint is included. As is Magozzi's who is thinking that it might not be time to retire after all. And Mauer's viewpoint and that of some his villainous counterparts add chills to the narrative.

This was an engaging story. I love the relationship between Leo and Gino. The story was filled with interesting characters in a nail-biting plot. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Knife in the Back by Karen Rose

Knife in the Back
Author: Karen Rose
Series: A New Orleans Novel (Book 4)
Publication: Berkley (August 12, 2025)

Description: From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Karen Rose comes another "intense, complex, and unforgettable” novel.

Officer Naomi Cranston was framed for stealing cocaine from the evidence locker and coerced—through threats to her young son—into not fighting the charges. After five years in prison, she has tried to put the ordeal behind her, but the crooks who framed her have returned, this time demanding she move drugs along with her flower shop’s deliveries. They threaten her son once again, but this time she’s not capitulating quietly. She hires Broussard Investigations to protect her and her son, to prove her innocence, and to put the real bad guys away.

As a former cop, Burke Broussard is well aware of the corruption in the New Orleans police department. He had always believed Naomi Cranston to be guilty and isn’t inclined to take her case. Until he sits down to listen to her side of things. Until he sees her tortured innocence written all over her beautiful face…

A relationship born amid an investigation is a fragile thing. Will it survive the danger and the threats? Will it survive the truth?

My Thoughts: Former police officer Naomi Cranston spent five years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. She's been out for a year and is working in a flower shop when the cop who railroaded her and threatened her son comes to her demanding that she move drugs for him. 

At the urging of her boss at the flower shop, Naomi goes to Broussard Investigations to get some protection for the teenage son who is being threatened. Burke Broussard is also a former NOPD officer who left to start his own investigations agency. At first, he believes like the rest of the NOPD that Naomi is a dirty cop, but her story convinces him and has strong echoes of his own departure from the NOPD.

But the dirty cops aren't ready to give up on getting Naomi to do what they want. They attempt to kidnap her son and attempt to kidnap the children of the other investigators at Broussard Investigations. Everyone at the agency and especially Burke want to stop those who are threatening their children. 

While all this tension is going on, Burke and Naomi fall in love. Burke never thought he would since the loss of his fiancée in a plane crash years ago broke his heart so badly. And Naomi whose ex-husband testified against her in a testimony filled with lies doesn't have much faith in love or men. 

I enjoyed catching up with the many characters at Broussard Investigations introduced in the three earlier books. And I really enjoyed seeing Naomi come out of her shell and champion her own agency. The romance between Burke and Naomi was also heart-warming. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

Dead of Summer
Author: Jessa Maxwell
Publication: Atria Books (July 22, 2025)

Description: Years after her best friend mysteriously disappeared from a remote New England island, a young woman returns in search of answers in this atmospheric and scintillating thriller from Jessa Maxwell, nationally bestselling author of the “deliciously entertaining” (Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author) The Golden Spoon.

Orla O’Connor hasn’t been to the isolated New England enclave of Hadley Island since she graduated from high school a decade ago. As a teenager, her best friend Alice disappeared from its shores without a trace—but with plenty of rumors.

Now, Orla returns to her family’s beachfront home to clean it out before her parents sell it. The island and her best friend’s house next door, abandoned after her family left in grief, are stirring up memories she would like to avoid. Then there are the locals, always gossiping and watching Orla’s every move. Worst of all, David, Orla’s childhood crush and son of a wealthy Manhattan family, is back for the summer with his new, impossibly pretty girlfriend, Faith.

Faith suspects that David is going to propose but as soon as she settles into his family’s sprawling Hadley Island estate, she feels out of place. She anticipated a luxurious summer of fun and romance, but David is never around—lured into business conversations with his entrepreneur father from dawn to dusk. With nothing else to do, Faith begins to investigate the island’s dark past, curious about what really happened to Alice all those years ago.

Meanwhile, local Henry hasn’t left his house since the young girl went missing, in an attempt to let the accusations against him die down. Except they never have. For years, Henry has had an endless supply of time to pursue his only hobby, watching the island from his telescope and recording the activities of its inhabitants. But Orla’s return has shaken him and lately he’s been seeing strange things: shadowy figures walking on the beach in the middle of the night and a light on in the upstairs window of the long-abandoned house of the missing girl.

When there’s another disappearance on the island, all three find themselves pulled into an eerie and twisty mystery that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

My Thoughts: DEAD OF SUMMER takes place on Hadley Island. It is a playground for the rich with all sorts of buried secrets.

Faith comes to the island as the girlfriend of David Clarke who is the son of billionaire Geoffrey Clarke. She's expecting to soon become his fiancée but finds his behavior on the island troubling. All of a sudden, he seems to have no time for her and is constant meetings with his father. 

Orla comes back to the island where she grew up to prepare her parents' home for sale. She fled after high school and had an excellent career as an artist in New York City until her last show failed spectacularly. She's home living on Xanax and trying not to be overwhelmed with the memories of her lost best friend. 

Henry has never left the island. He and his wife became recluses after being accused of the murder of Orla's best friend Alice. Now he spends his days with his telescope watching the town and making notes in his logbooks. 

Alice is the thread that ties all three characters together and is the mystery that needs to be solved. 

David, Alice and Orla were summer friends while they were children and teens. Alice and Orla had dreams of leaving the island for New York City, attending art school, and then becoming famous artists. But she disappears and is presumed drowned during the Clarke's famous 4th of July party. 

Years have passed but this year Geoffrey Clarke plans to renew the annual party and another young girl disappears. 

The story is woven between Orla, Faith and Henry's viewpoints and the secrets of the past and their own secrets are gradually revealed. It was an engaging story with interesting characters. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Rage by Linda Castillo

Rage
Author: Linda Castillo
Series: Kate Burkholder (Book 17)
Publication: Minotaur Books (July 8, 2025)

Description: In this gripping installment of the Edgar Award winning series, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates a brutal double murder that takes her into the dark underbelly of society and exposes the dangers of Amish lives gone wrong.

Summer has arrived with a vengeance in Painters Mill, and a macabre discovery by three Amish children brings the quiet to a grinding halt. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the dismembered body of 21-year-old Samuel Eicher, a local Amish man who owned a successful landscaping business. What twisted individual murdered him in such a sadistic way?

The investigation has barely begun when, miles away, a second body is found, stuffed into a barrel and dumped in a ravine. The deceased is 21-year-old Aaron Shetler, Samuel Eicher’s best friend. What could these two young Amish men have been involved in that led to such violent ends?

With a heat wave bearing down, Kate learns quickly that, for reasons she doesn’t understand, no one is willing to talk about what happened to the men. Just as she begins to fear the case may be hopeless, a mystery woman comes forward and reveals that fun-loving Aaron and Samuel had recently befriended some very unsavory characters―individuals who may have ties to a larger, more sinister, black market.

To solve the case, Kate must delve into the most sordid corners of her community, but when she gets too close, the killers target Kate herself. Will the secrets simmering beneath the surface of Painters Mill take another life before she can expose the truth? Or will Kate be the final victim?

My Thoughts: The seventeenth Kate Burkholder mystery begins with the discovery of the dismembered body of a twenty-one-year-old Amish man. He owned a successful landscaping business. And the investigation is no sooner begun than a second man's body is found stuffed in a barrel. 

The two men were friends but no one in the close-mouthed Amish society is willing to say much about either man leaving Kate with a bunch of dead ends. She did find a picture in the first man's home of a young woman and spends quite a bit of time trying to locate her. 

Kate's investigations take her to a local brewery, a local strip joint, and the prestigious country club patronized by visitors to the area. And somewhere along the way, Kate finds herself attracting the interest of bad guys who want to encourage her to stop investigating. 

Kate's investigation leads to a number of villains in a rather large conspiracy. I enjoyed this mystery. I thought it was fast-paced and exciting. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Believe Me Now by S. M. Govett

Believe Me Now
Author: S. M. Govett
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (June 10, 2025)

Description: A woman wronged and the detective investigating her husband’s suspected crime must work through a chilling and puzzling case in this twisty dual-narrator thriller where nothing is as it seems, perfect for fans of Hayley Scrivener and Lisa Jewell.

Natalie Campbell loses time. She’ll wake up in different places with no memory of how she got there. The blackouts are a symptom of her PTSD, which began after she was sexually assaulted by her boss, who was found not guilty. But she found ways to cope by setting up routines and relying on her supportive husband, Ryan. Then one day, her husband is accused of committing the same crime that ruined her life.

Natalie desperately wants to believe he is innocent, but when Alice Lytton, the young woman who accused him, is found murdered in the woods near their house, she begins to doubt the man she married.

DI Helen Stratton is also healing from old wounds. Her older sister disappeared when she was 16, and the police didn’t bother to investigate. Vowing to help other lost and vulnerable girls, she joined the force. Stratton is ready to do whatever it takes to catch the killer and bring justice to her sister and Alice.

Tightly plotted, fast-paced, and addictive, Believe Me Now will keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering if anyone is to be believed.

My Thoughts: BELIEVE ME NOW is a twisty, dual viewpoint thriller. Natalie Campbell is a suburban housewife who suffers from PTSD after an office rape and a trial that found her attacker innocent. Natalie has blackouts in which she loses time and finds herself in different places with no idea how she got there. These blackouts - what she calls "losing time" - seem to be stress-related. They began with the court case almost ten years earlier exacerbated by the arrival of threatening letters sent by her accuser's wife.

Some years have gone by since she has received new letters, but her anxiety hasn't ended. The stress is starting to increase again as some new letters arrive, and her husband is accused of raping his assistant. Natalie's relationship with her husband has changed over the years and now she doesn't know if she can believe him when he says that the accusation is false.

Stress ramps up still more when the young, pretty accuser is found murdered in the woods near their home at a time when her husband was out running.

DI Helen Stratton is the other viewpoint character. She's under stress of her own as it is nearing the anniversary of her older sister's disappearance. She joined the police force to find her sister and over the years of her career she has solved many crimes. However, her sister's disappearance remains a mystery.

Now, she finds herself being partnered with a fast-tracker - a young police officer being pushed up the ladder and with responsibility for this new murder case reluctantly given to her by her superior with whom she once had an affair. Helen is also dealing with a mother with dementia whose care home is hinting that another facility might be better for her. 

While Helen zeroes in on Natalie's husband as the murder suspect, Natalie is also trying to unravel the case. And when Natalie's husband apparently commits suicide, the case gets even twistier. 

This was a dark story which leaves the reader to put the pieces together even as the two viewpoint characters are trying to do the same. I enjoyed the twists and turns though I felt the ending came too fast and tied up the loose ends a bit too easily. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Knave of Diamonds by Laurie R. King

Knave of Diamonds
Author: Laurie R. King
Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes (Book 19)
Publication: Bantam (June 10, 2025)

Description: Mary Russell’s allegiances are tested by the reappearance of her long-lost uncle—and a tantalizing case not even Sherlock Holmes could solve.

When Mary Russell was a child, she adored her black sheep Uncle Jake. But she hasn’t heard from him in many years, and she assumed that his ne’er-do-well ways had brought him to a bad end somewhere—until he presents himself at her Sussex door. Yes, Jake is back, and with a load of problems for his clever niece. Not the least of which is the reason the family rejected him in the first place: He was involved—somehow—in the infamous disappearance of the Irish Crown Jewels from an impregnable safe in Dublin Castle.

It was a theft that shook a government, enraged a king, threatened the English establishment—and baffled not only the Dublin police and Scotland Yard, but Sherlock Holmes himself. And, now, Jake expects Russell to step into the middle of it all? To slip away with him, not telling Holmes what she’s up to? Knowing that the theft—unsolved, hushed-up, scandalous—must have involved Mycroft Holmes as well?

Naturally, she can do nothing of the sort. Siding with her uncle, even briefly, could only place her in opposition to both her husband-partner and his secretive and powerful brother. She has to tell Jake no.

On the other hand, this is Jake—her father’s kid brother, her childhood hero, the beloved and long-lost survivor of a much-diminished family.

Conflicting loyalties and international secrets, blatant lies and blithe deceptions: sounds like another case for Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes.

My Thoughts: The nineteenth book in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series reunited Mary with her Uncle Jake. She hasn't seen him for many years but remembers all sorts of childhood adventures with him. Jake has had a long career as a conman and thief.

He's come to see Mary after being sure that Sherlock wasn't around because he wants her help. Back in 1907, Jake was involved in the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels. The jewels disappeared somewhere along the way and Jake believes that he and Mary can find them now. 

Sherlock was also involved in the case at the request of his brother Mycroft. However, when the case led to uncovering homosexual scandal, the case was buried really, really deep. Holmes has had that unfinished case lingering in the back of his mind for many years. 

This story is told from three viewpoints. Jake, Mary, and Sherlock all take turns telling the story. It was another excellent historical mystery.  

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Hidden Nature by Nora Roberts

Hidden Nature
Author: Nora Roberts
Publication: St. Martin's Press (May 27, 2025)

Description: The #1 New York Times-bestselling author presents a novel about an injured cop who must fight to bring down a pair of twisted killers…

Natural Resources police officer, Sloan Cooper, and her partner had just taken down three men preying on hikers in the Western Maryland mountains. Driving back, she pulled in at a convenience store―and walked right into a robbery in progress. One gunshot from a jittery thief was about to change her world.

After being shocked back to life on the operating table, she has a long recovery ahead, so she moves back to her parents’ peaceful house in Heron’s Rest. As for the boyfriend who dumped her via text while she was in the hospital, good riddance.

She may be down, but she’s not out. So when a woman vanishes, leaving her car behind in a supermarket parking lot, Sloan searches online for similar cases. She finds them, spread across three states. Men and women, old and young―the missing seem to have nothing in common. And the abductions keep happening.

Luckily, the new man in her life shares her passion for solving this mystery. But it will take every ounce of endurance to get to the dark heart of this bizarre case―and she's willing to risk her life again if that's what it takes to stop the horror.

My Thoughts: HIDDEN NATURE was another excellent romantic suspense novel from Nora Roberts. Sloan Cooper is a Natural Resources police officer who is shot when she enters a convenience store where a robbery is happening. Her heart stops and she's clinically dead for some minutes while her chest is being operated on. Faced with a long, difficult rehabilitation, Sloan returns to her parents' home in Heron's Rest. 

Also landing in Heron's Rest is Nash Littlefield. After a career in finance that he was good at but which made him unhappy, Nash has purchased a fixer-upper in Heron's Rest and is planning to open business as a handyman. He's joined by his younger brother Theo who is a lawyer due to parental pressure but wants to work with Nash. 

Sloan is busy with her physical therapy, but it doesn't meet her need for mental stimulation. When she learns that a young newlywed has disappeared outside the local grocery store leaving her car and family behind, Sloan decides to look into the case. She soon learns that there have been other similar cases in the larger area. The victims don't seem to have anything in common as they vary in age, occupation, and sex. However, Sloan learns that they were all revived after being clinically dead.

We learn that the villains are religious fanatics determined to return those who have been revived to their destined afterlife. The scenes from the villains' point of view were really creepy. 

I liked the romance. I also liked the way family was central to the story. The contrast between Sloan's family and Nash and Theo's family was striking. I liked reading about the way both Nash and Sloan were rehabbing their two homes while growing their relationship.

This was an engaging story. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Language of the Birds by K. A. Merson

The Language of the Birds
Author: K. A. Merson
Publication: Ballantine Books (May 13, 2025)

Description: A brilliant but solitary teenager must unlock ciphers, unearth buried clues, and reckon with the outside world as she pursues an ancient secret in this brainteasing, puzzle-filled mystery.

Seventeen-year-old Arizona’s favorite things include cryptography, geocaching, the writings of Jules Verne—and exploring the Sierra Nevadas on her Russian Ural motorcycle, with her dog Mojo riding shotgun in his sidecar.

So when she learns her mother’s been kidnapped and finds a cryptic test accompanying the ransom note, she’s not just horrified—but electrified. Solving puzzles and cracking codes are what she does best, and she knows exactly how to tackle the challenge the kidnappers are dangling in front of her.

What she doesn’t yet realize is that she’s been enlisted in a treasure hunt, on the trail of an occult, centuries-old secret her father supposedly took to his grave. And if the prize at the end is real, it could shake the world.

As Arizona chases the truth through fiendish puzzles and ancient texts, unearthing clues both buried underground and hiding in plain sight in the Western landscape, she’s forced to navigate the outside world in ways she never has before―and begins to forge connections she never dreamed she could.

Featuring an indomitable young heroine and a plot that ingeniously weaves together real facts into a treasure hunt of epic proportions, The Language of the Birds is an irresistibly quirky, endlessly surprising adventure that will leave readers wondering where the truth ends and fiction begins.

My Thoughts: Seventeen-year-old Arizona and her mother are making a pilgrimage to a ghost town to scatter some of her father's ashes. He died just seventeen days before this story started in an accident while riding his motorcycle. She and her mother are both grieving as they travel.

But when Arizona's mother disappears as they went their separate ways at the ghost town, Arizona is left not knowing what to do. She's neurodivergent and talking to other people is hard for her. Asking the park rangers for help is hard and useless.

When Arizona gets a phone call telling her that "they" have her mother and that she needs to solve some puzzles for them if they are to release her mother, Arizona finds herself solving a variety of difficult puzzles and gradually uncovering clues to what might be a conspiracy that has hidden since the days of the alchemists. 

I enjoyed the puzzles and the many references to actual people, notably Herbert Hoover, and actual government documents. I liked the way Arizona and her trusty boxer Mojo traveled together to solve the puzzles and rescue her mother. 

This story was a journey ranging from the desert Southwest to a Pacific Island used as a US Navy missile testing ground. It was also a journey for Arizona from a lonely, isolated young woman to a more out-going young woman who proves herself and gathers some friends along the way. 

I thought it was an excellent story. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay

Parents Weekend
Author: Alex Finlay
Publication: Minotaur Books (May 6, 2025)

Description: From the bestselling author of If Something Happens to Me, comes one of the year’s most anticipated thrillers.

In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids―five residents of Campisi Hall―never show up at dinner.

At first, everyone thinks that they’re just being college students, irresponsibly forgetting about the gathering or skipping out to go to a party. But as the hours click by and another night falls with not so much as a text from the students, panic ensues. Soon, the campus police call in reinforcements. Search parties are formed. Reporters swarm the small enclave. Rumors swirl and questions arise.

Libby, Blane, Mark, Felix, and Stella―The Five, as the podcasters, bloggers, and TikTok sleuths call them―come from five very different families. What led them out on that fateful night? Could it be the sins of their mothers and fathers come to cause them peril or a threat to the friend group from within?

Told through multiple points of view in past and present―and marking the return of FBI Special Agent Sarah Keller from Every Last Fear and The Night Shift―Parents Weekend explores the weight of expectation, family dysfunction, and those exhilarating first days we all remember in the dorms when our friends become our family.

My Thoughts: PARENTS WEEKEND isn't going quite as anyone expected at prestigious Santa Clara University. Just before it begins, a coed named Natasha Belov who was reported missing is found dead in one of the local sea caves. And some of the students at Campisi Hall believe they know what happened to her. 

Still, they are planning to join their parents for dinner on Friday night, but none of them show up. This leads to the FBI being called in. Special Agent Sarah Keller is the one who answers the call. She's temporarily assigned to the office since she, her husband, and her twins are spending some time in California with her husband's father who is dying.

With one of the missing being the son of an Assistant Secretary of State who is under death threats, the situation could be political. As the situation develops, we learn more about the sets of parents who all have conflicts of their own to deal with from unreliable exes to stalkers. And we learn more about the students who all have a variety of secrets of their own. 

This was an engaging story told from multiple viewpoints. I especially liked seeing Keller again. I enjoyed the suspense and the revelations about the students and their parents. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Cold Burn by A. J. Landau

Cold Burn
Author: A. J. Landau
Series: A National Parks Thriller (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 29, 2025)

Description: Agent Michael Walker returns when multiple deaths at Glacier Bay National Park are just the first steps in a potential global disaster.

National Park Service investigator Michael Walker is battling smugglers stealing priceless artifacts when he’s dispatched to Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska, where, in the first stage of a potential global disaster, a team of scientists has gone missing.

Meanwhile, in Florida’s Everglades National Park, FBI special investigator Gina Delgado traces the murder of an environmental science intern back to another U.S. Geological Survey team’s ongoing experiments that are decimating the fragile ecosystem. That is before she’s dispatched to the scene of a sunken U.S. nuclear submarine, the entire crew of which has inexplicably been killed.

The connection between these disparate investigations lies in a deadly prehistoric organism, frozen for thousands of years in the ice until global warming brings it back to life in what could mean the death of all life on Earth. An organism that a rogue billionaire sees as the ultimate fuel source and a Russian strongman views as the ultimate weapon that can shift the global balance of power forever. Against that backdrop, Walker and Delgado find themselves desperately doing battle across multiple fronts against an ancient, unstoppable enemy.

My Thoughts: This was another excellent thriller starring National Park Investigator Michael Walker and FBI Agent Gina Delgado. When the story begins, Michael is in Alaska trying to track down smugglers of Native artifacts and Gina is in Florida looking into the death of young man associated with the US Geological Survey. 

Michael learns, after the people he was shadowing were murdered, that there was a mysterious substance in many of the artifacts he was tracking. Gina learns that the USGS in the Florida Everglades were experimenting with the water temperature to ease global warming. They were also using a mysterious substance. 

Another viewpoint character in the story is multi-billionaire Alex Cole who will do anything to fulfill his dream of going to Mars and who sees the mysterious substance as the key to his successful journey. And still another viewpoint character is a Russian general who wants to take over Russia and return it to what he sees as its glorious past. 

Since the mysterious substance has the potential to wipe out vast quantities and species of life, Michael and Gina need to find a way to stop the Russians from weaponizing it, the billionaire from misusing it, and elements from within the government from using it for political gain. Michael is aided by a Tlinglit microbiologist who got wealthy for her discoveries and has come home to her village in Alaska. 

I liked this story very much. It was packed with action. One quibble is that a number of chapters ended with the viewpoint character making a discovery but not saying what it was until their viewpoint chapter came around again. It did add to the suspense, but I still found it annoying. 

Fans of ecothrillers will enjoy this one. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Such a Good Mom by Julia Spiro

Such a Good Mom
Author: Julia Spiro
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 29, 2025)

Description: Bestselling author Julia Spiro's Such a Good Mom is a brilliant standalone mystery that's the perfect beach read. In the heat of summer, a murder on Martha's Vineyard rocks one new mom to the core, leaving her to search for answers.

With a healthy newborn baby, a devoted husband, a successful career, and a busy life on Martha’s Vineyard, Brynn Nelson should be the happiest she’s ever been. But Brynn is struggling. Her husband, Ross, grows more distant by the day, and the challenges and exhaustion of postpartum make Brynn feel like she’s slowly losing pieces of herself to motherhood. Pieces that she might never get back.

But it’s summer on the Vineyard, a beacon for wealthy visitors, and a place so beautiful that it seems immune to tragedy and crime. Except for locals, like Brynn, who know all too well that tragedy can strike at any point. And this time, it hits close to home when a friend of the family is found washed ashore. Dead. And Brynn’s already hectic life is turned upside down when Ross is arrested for the crime.

My Thoughts: This was a mystery where postpartum depression was the main character. Brynn Nelson has recently had a baby. She is struggling with managing her emotions and everything else. She keeps trying to tell herself that everything is fine - just fine. Neither she nor her friends believe that is true. 

When her husband Ross is accused of murdering a young college student who works on the island, Brynn feels even more stress. She wants to believe that her husband is innocent of the crime except she is so angry at him because of her depression that she is finding it hard. It doesn't help that her in-laws seem to have written him off.

Still, Brynn begins to look into the case and finds some glaring holes in it and some possible suspects really close to home. 

I learned more than I ever needed to know about postpartum depression and life on Martha's Vineyard while reading this story. The mystery almost took a distant second place. I also had some issues with the timing of the story. The first 90% of the story seemed to take place over just a couple of days. The last 10% neatly wrapped everything up and, by the end, more than a year had passed. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg

Hidden in Smoke
Author: Lee Goldberg
Series: Sharpe & Walker (Book 3)
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (April 22, 2025)

Description: When the crimes of a serial arsonist lead to murder, Sharpe and Walker need detective Eve Ronin to join the hunt in a blistering thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.

After dozens of Hollywood apartment buildings erupt in flames during a single night of terror, arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker are assigned to catch the serial torcher and end his spree. But then a catastrophic fire destroys a major freeway, crippling the city and forcing Sharpe and Walker to take on another massive case.

Desperate for help, they know exactly who to call: homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone. Together the four detectives must quickly figure out whether the freeway disaster was a tragic accident…or the work of a mastermind with a horrific plan.

As the investigations collide, an old foe with a revenge scheme enters the fray, igniting a race against time to stop a conspiracy of deception, corruption, and murder.

My Thoughts: Sharpe and Walker are back in this third adventure. Someone is setting cars on fire threatening the apartment buildings near them. While they are traveling between fires, someone sets a fire beneath a freeway overpass which threatens the city. Sharpe and Walker turn over their car fires to another pair of investigators and concentrate on the freeway fire. 

However, the State and city have already hired a construction firm to get the freeway back open and they discover that major cleanup has already happened. It's hard to investigate when all of the debris has been moved to landfills. 

Meanwhile, Walker has gone to visit master thief Danny Cole in Japan to ask for a favor. Walker's two-year-old son has epilepsy and only one medication helps. However, Roland Slezak has bought the company and raised the yearly cost from $10 thousand to $150 thousand. Danny and Walker had a previous encounter with Slezak, and both are still unsatisfied how it resolved. Danny plans a sting to get his final revenge on Slezak which will also help Walker. 

I liked the way the two different plots were interwoven. I liked the way Goldberg found a way to bring in Eve Ronin and her partner Duncan Pavone from another of his series. The characters are all interesting and the action was intense. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen

The Summer Guests
Author: Tess Gerritsen
Series: The Martini Club (Book 2)
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (March 18, 2025)

Description: From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a 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.

After 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.

My Thoughts: In this sequel to THE MARTINI CLUB, a group of retired spies is back on the case when a teenage girl disappears, and Maggie's neighbor is the prime suspect. 

Sheriff Jo Thibodeau is called to the Conover home when Zoe Conover, newly adopted daughter of younger son Eathan, goes missing. While Zoe's mother Susan seems very upset, the rest of the family are seemingly writing the disappearance off as typical teenage behavior. 

As Jo investigates, she learns that Maggie's neighbor Luther Yount was the last one to see her before she disappeared. He dropped her off at the boat dock near her home on Maiden Lake. Despite the fact the Zoe is an excellent swimmer, Susan demands that the lake be dragged in case something awful happened. 

But there are other clues. Her backpack was found along a highway some miles from town and the lake and her cell phone is discovered in the bed of a local lowlife's truck. But Zoe isn't found, and the lake is dragged. Divers find a skeleton that is definitely not Zoe but is a mystery of its own. 

The Martini Club are putting their skills to use to clear Luther's name, find Zoe, and identify the bones found in the lake. Their investigations lead them to a secret government operation that took place at Maiden Lake during the 1970s and a possible identification of the body in the lake. 

Then Zoe is found by some hikers in still another direction from her phone and backpack. She is severely injured from being thrown from a scenic overlook. Brain surgery and other broken bones keep her hospitalized and in need of guarding until the Martini Club manages to put all the pieces together and find the person who wants her dead. 

This was an engaging story told from multiple viewpoints. I liked the way the past and the present were woven together to make a thrilling plot. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn

Kills Well with Others
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Killer of a Certain Age (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (March 4, 2025)

Description: Four women assassins, senior in status—and in age—sharpen their knives for another bloody good adventure in this riotous follow-up to the New York Times bestselling sensation Killers of a Certain Age.

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie are called back into action. They have enjoyed their time off, but the lack of excitement is starting to chafe: a professional killer can only take so many watercolor classes and yoga sessions without itching to strangle someone...literally. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready tackle the greatest challenge of their careers.

Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power hungry plans and the aging quartet of killers is next.

Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it. Their enemy is unlike any they’ve faced before, and it will take all their killer experience to get out of this mission alive.

My Thoughts: Our favorite retired assassins are back in the sequel to Killers of a Certain Age. When a former colleague is murdered, they are recruited in an off the books assignment to find out who killer her and take care of the problem. 

The case has echoes from an earlier assassination conducted by the quartet. A child of their target has decided to get even. They need to find the intended killer before they are killed. There is also a tie-back to another case in which Nazi loot, including a very valuable painting by Raphael, was the focus of an investigation. 

The four along with Mary Alice's wife, Billie's significant other, and a mentee are off to England, Italy, and Montenegro on the trail of the one who wants them dead and who is dealing for the long-missing art. 

I enjoyed this story and the comradery among the four aging assassins. I liked the way they cleaned up problems from the past so that they could go on to a new future. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Bonded in Death by J. D. Robb

Bonded in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Series: In Death (Book 60)
Publication: St. Martin's Press (February 4, 2025)

Description: The #1 New York Times bestselling author J. D. Robb spins an epic tale of loyalty, treachery, murder, and the long shadow of war…

His passport read Giovanni Rossi. But decades ago, during the Urban Wars, he was part of a small, secret organization called The Twelve. Responding to an urgent summons from an old compatriot, he landed in New York and eased into the waiting car. And died within minutes…

Lieutenant Eve Dallas finds the Rossi case frustrating. She’s got an elderly victim who’d just arrived from Rome; a widow who knows nothing about why he’d left; an as-yet unidentifiable weapon; and zero results on facial recognition. But when she finds a connection to the Urban Wars of the 2020s, she thinks Summerset―fiercely loyal, if somewhat grouchy, major-domo and the man who’d rescued her husband from the Dublin streets―may know something from his stint as a medic in Europe back then.

When Summerset learns of the crime, his shock and grief are clear―because, as he eventually reveals, he himself was one of The Twelve. It’s not a part of his past he likes to revisit. But now he must―not only to assist Eve’s investigation, but because a cryptic message from the killer has boasted that others of The Twelve have also died. Summerset is one of those who remain―and the murderous mission is yet to be fully accomplished…

My Thoughts: This 60th In Death novel centers around an escaped criminal eager to get revenge on those he feels caused him to be caught and incarcerated. It all goes back more than forty years to the final days of the Urban Wars. Sommerset and those who were part of a select group called The Twelve is one of the targets of the traitor in that group.

This is very much a police procedural as Eve and her team need to follow the clues to find the killer before he can kill again.

I enjoyed learning more about Sommerset and what he did during the Urban Wars. I also liked meeting the people he worked with and seeing how their lives had gone in the years since the war ended. I liked the strong bonds and loyalty between all the remaining members of The Twelve. 

I also like seeing an echo of that bond in the team Eve has built around herself. Her detectives and officers, Feeney, Nadine, Reo, and Dr. Mira and most of all Roarke are her crew. The bonds and loyalties between them all look to stand the test of time. 

This was another excellent addition to an amazing series. 

Favorite Quote:

"She can be, and often is, stunningly rude." After topping off his own coffee, Summerset sat. "Honest, not to but beyond a fault, brilliant in her way and her focus, which does not include social niceties. Unflinchingly loyal to those who have earned her loyalty. And terrifyingly brave."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Dead Money by Jakob Kerr

Dead Money
Author: Jakob Kerr
Publication: Bantam (January 28, 2025)

Description: “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with some wild surprises along the way.”—Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter

Don’t call me a fixer. This isn’t HBO.

In her job as unofficial “problem solver” for Silicon Valley’s most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde’s gotten used to playing for high stakes. Even if none of those tech-bro millions she’s so good at wrangling ever make it into her pockets.

The lightning-rod CEO of tech’s hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in “dead money” frozen in his will. As the company’s chief investor, Mackenzie’s boss has a fortune on the line—and with the police treading water, it’s up to Mackenzie to step up and resolve things, fast.

Mackenzie’s a lawyer, not a detective. Cracking this fiendishly clever killing, with its list of suspects that reads like a who’s-who of Valley power players, should be way out of her league.

Except that Mackenzie’s used to being underestimated. In fact, she’s counting on it.

Because the way she sees it, this isn’t an investigation. It’s an opportunity. And she’ll do anything it takes to seize it.

Anything at all.

Featuring jaw-dropping twists and a wily, outsider heroine you can’t help rooting for, Dead Money is a brilliant sleight-of-hand mystery. Written by a longtime insider, it is also a dead-on snapshot of the Valley’s rich and famous—and a glimpse at the darkness lurking behind the tech world’s cheery facade.

My Thoughts: DEAD MONEY was a twisty thriller set in the high-pressure world of venture capital and fast-moving technology. Trevor Canon, who has taken an idea into a multibillion-dollar company is found murdered in his office. 

Mackenzie Clyde is assigned by her boss Roger Hammersmith to look into the case. Educated as a lawyer but now working as Hammersmith's investigator, Mackenzie has unique inside knowledge of the technology business. Hammersmith wants answers because his venture capital business has lent Canon's Journy $5 billion. 

When the San Francisco Police seem to come to a standstill, Hammersmith pressures the FBI to get involved and pressures them to include Mackenzie as a liaison. It looks like a complex case and Mackenzie and FBI Agent Jameson Danner begin interviewing Canon's top executives who would have been the only ones with access to his office after hours. All of them are eccentric techies and all of them have tight alibis. But the dead money clause in Canon's will which freezes his assets removes one of the major reasons why one of his crew would want him dead. 

I enjoyed this thriller. I loved an inside peek into the technology industry and the world of venture capitalism. I could understand Mackenzie's desire to succeed and what she was willing to do to reach that success. I liked the flashbacks to earlier points in time which showed Mackenzie's character. 

I also really liked the twist at the end. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Mask of the Deer Woman by Laurie L. Dove

Mask of the Deer Woman
Author: Laurie L. Dove
Publication: Berkley (January 21, 2025)

Description: To find a missing young woman, the new tribal marshal must also find herself.

At rock bottom following her daughter’s death, ex–Chicago detective Carrie Starr has nowhere to go but back to her roots. Starr’s father never talked much about the reservation where he was raised, but the tribe needs a new marshal as much as Starr needs a place to call home.

In the past decade, too many young women have disappeared from the rez. Some have ended up dead, others just…gone. Now local college student Chenoa Cloud is missing, and Starr falls into an investigation that leaves her drowning in memories of her daughter—the girl she failed to save.

Starr feels lost in this place she thought would welcome her. And when she catches a glimpse of a figure from her father’s stories, with the body of a woman and the antlers of a deer, Starr can’t shake the feeling that the fearsome spirit is watching her, following her.

What she doesn’t know is whether Deer Woman is here to guide her or to seek vengeance for the lost daughters that Starr can never bring home.

My Thoughts: Carrie Starr has just taken a job as marshal on the reservation in Oklahoma that her father came from. She's running from her past and trying to outrun her grief at the death of her seventeen-year-old daughter. She left the Chicago PD under a cloud. Now, she's self-medicating with whiskey and weed.

The BIA has hired her because so many indigenous women are missing or murdered. A dozen or so have disappeared from the reservation where Carrie is working. She arrives to find that another young woman has gone missing. Her mother is certain that foul play is involved. Carrie isn't so sure and doesn't put her all into the investigation. Then the body of another young woman is discovered which ramps up her investigation.

Meanwhile, we also hear part of the story from some other viewpoints including the town mayor and a local rancher who are both depending on an oil company deciding to do some fracking on reservation land and who might have reasons to want the first missing young woman to stay missing. She's investigating the possibility that there is a rare colony of rare beetles somewhere on the reservation. Proving it will scuttle the mayor and rancher's plans and cost them lots and lots of money.

The story was very atmospheric and introspective. It was hard reading about Carrie's grief and seeing her make bad choices. I liked the legend of the Deer Woman which infused the whole story.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: A Killer's Code by Isabella Maldonado

A Killer's Code
Author: Isabella Maldonado
Series: Daniela Vega (Book 3)
Publication: Thomas & Mercer (January 21, 2025)

Description: A dead man’s riddles―and secrets―thrust an FBI codebreaker into a deadly cross-country race for justice in a propulsive thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Cipher.

During a recent undercover sting gone bad, hit man Gustavo Toro died in the arms of FBI Special Agent Daniela “Dani” Vega. But Toro had secrets he refused to take to the grave.

In the event of his death, Toro left behind a video that promises to expose a mysterious mastermind who has been operating with impunity for decades. But there’s a catch. Dani’s team must follow Toro’s cryptic clues on a cross-country hunt for justice, and piecing together his past is more twisted than Dani could have imagined.

But as Dani and her team race to gather the evidence, it’s clear this powerful adversary will stop at nothing to keep their secrets―including eliminating those who threaten to reveal them.

My Thoughts: When Gustavo Toro was murdered, he left his secrets to the head of the FBI if his people could follow the clues to find Toro's buried treasure including evidence that will incriminate the person who hired and assigned him as an assassin, 

Dani Vega, Steve Wu, Detective Flint, and computer specialist Sanjeev Patel are the ones assigned to follow Toro's cryptic clues. But the enemies who want to find and destroy the clues first seem to always be one step ahead. 

The team goes on a nationwide hunt for Toro's treasure from New York to Miami and a cruise ship, to Denver and to the Arizona desert. 

I enjoyed the fast-paced action in this thriller and liked the flashbacks to the last days of Toto's life. I also liked the shifts in viewpoints from the heroes to the villains. The story was filled with interesting new technology and gadgets. It was also filled with complex characters who had to deal with moral dilemmas. 

This is the third Daniela Vega thriller. I like the way we get to see how Dani has changed.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Track Her Down by Melinda Leigh

Track Her Down
Author: Melinda Leigh
Series: Bree Taggert (Book 9)
Publication: Montlake (January 14, 2025)

Description: For Sheriff Bree Taggert, a gruesome double murder exposes the secrets of the dead in a shocking novel of suspense by #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh.

A teenager returns home from work and finds her parents shot to death in their bed. Responding to the call, Sheriff Bree Taggert realizes the crime wasn’t a burglary gone wrong. The couple was executed. The sole survivor: their traumatized teenage daughter, Claire Mason.

Bree teams up with investigator Matt Flynn to work the case, but together they uncover more questions than answers. When Claire is stalked at the park, it’s clear the killer isn’t finished―and she’s the next target.

As Bree and Matt sift through the past―suspect by suspect―a tangled web of deception emerges, and the truth becomes harder to see. Because the victims’ entire lives were a lie. And the only way to protect the vulnerable girl is to unravel her parents’ secrets.

My Thoughts: The ninth Bree Taggert mystery starts with an alligator sighting which is quite unusual for upstate New York. Bree dismisses it since the man who reported it had a bit too much alcohol, but a previous case did involve trafficking exotic animals. 

The main case in this one is the murder of two people in their beds which was discovered by their daughter Claire Mason, a schoolmate of Bree's nephew. As Bree, Matt, and her deputies investigate, they soon learn that the Masons were leading a secret life. Instead of being lawyers, they were scammers who made a good living by bilking small amounts of money from numerous people. 

But the real bombshell comes when it is learned that Claire is not their daughter. She was kidnapped at a five-year-old complete with prints on file. And it looks like someone is targeting Claire for some reason. Then, more secrets are discovered including the source of the alligator. 

This was another exciting entry into the Bree Taggert series. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.