Good Reads & Views

Deception Point by Dan Brown
Fiction

What is it? I listened to the audio version of this book. The book was gripping and difficult to pause. There were SO MANY twists and turns in the plot until it was impossible to distinguish who could be trusted. At the end, Brown wraps everything up in a well-ordered, satisfying way.

Is it for you? If you enjoy a thrilling plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end, you need to read this book! Even though there are many different characters, Brown does a brilliant job of making sure we know each one and eventually their surprising motives.

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You’re Dead by Chris Knopf
Fiction

What it’s about: Dr. Waters, an organizational psychologist for an aerospace manufacturer, comes home one night to find the dismembered head of his boss lying in a pool of blood in a guest bedroom. When the rest of the body shows up in Water’s storage locker, his mortgage is paid off, and a large sum of money ends up in his checking account, he becomes suspect #1.

Reviewers say: “Finally, a professional-grade detection-cum-actioner with a hero who actually has a logical reason for being so emotionally disengaged. More, please” (Kirkus).

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Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
Fiction

About the author: Catherine Steadman is an actress and writer. She is best known in the United States for her role as Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey. Something in the Water is her first novel.

For fans of: Motive by Jonathan Kellerman and Heartsick by Chelsea Cain.

Reviewers say: “With unreliable characters, wry voices, exquisite pacing, and a twisting plot, Steadman potently draws upon her acting chops. . . . A darkly glittering gem of a thriller from a new writer to watch.”— Kirkus Reviews (starred review).

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The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
Fiction

What it’s about: Famous bestselling author Henry Hayden is happily married to Martha, who, unbeknownst to everybody, is the one actually penning all his books. Life is good, but then Henry’s mistress Betty, whom truth be told he is not particularly fond of, informs him that she is pregnant. Before long, Martha ends up dead and Henry has to try to keep the carefully created façade of his life from unraveling.

Want a taste?  “But men are never more cowardly and their lies never more pathetic than when they’re caught with their pants down. Isn’t that so, gentlemen?”

Reviewers say: “this is one wicked tale. You keep waiting for the author to slip, plot-wise, but, as with his protagonist, you wait in vain” (Kirkus).>

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Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh
Fiction

About the authors: Clare Mackintosh is an award-winning New York Times and international bestselling author. She spent twelve years on the police force in England and has written for the Guardian, Good Housekeeping, and other publications.

For fans of: Into the Water by Paula Hawkins and Liar Liar by Lisa Jackson.

Reviewers say: “[A] deliciously creepy tale of urban paranoia.”—Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10.

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The Outsider by Stephen King
Fiction

Starring: Ralph Anderson, Flint City detective, and Holly Gibney, former assistant to Bill Hodges of Mr. Mercedes fame.

What it’s about: It looks like an open and shut case when Terry Maitland, local coach and all-around great guy, is arrested for the brutal murder of an 11-yr old boy. There were reliable witnesses who saw Maitland, and his DNA and fingerprints are all over the evidence. Ralph Anderson is sure he has the right guy and arrests him at a public event. But then Maitland produces an iron-clad alibi that has witnesses and DNA evidence putting him in a different place when the murder was committed. The contradictory evidence is grounds to bring in investigator Holly Gibney, who played a crucial part in King’s Bill Hodges trilogy. This being Stephen King, the supernatural eventually finds its way into the plot and if you have a phobia about worms you may want to let someone else recap the last part for you.

Audio note: This is a great experience on audio; Will Patton does an excellent job voicing all the characters, with much emotion and expertise, as he did for King’s Bill Hodges trilogy.>

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The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney
Fiction

What the reviewers say: “Dazzling, startling, and above all cunning—a pitch-perfect novel of psychological suspense.”—Lee Child

Book Buzz: Soon to be a major motion pictures directed by Ron Howard.

For fans of: Girl on the Train by Paula McLain and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn./a>

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Whispers of the Dead by Spencer Kope
Fiction

Starring: FBI agent Jimmy Donovan, who has a knack for profiling, and Magnus “Steps” Craig, Donovan’s partner, who has the special ability of seeing an individual’s “shine” – a unique color and texture signature specific to each person. Both work for the FBI’s Special Tracking Unit and first appeared in Collecting the Dead.

What it’s about: Jimmy and Steps investigate after a styrofoam ice box containing a pair of severed feet is left at the house of a federal judge. The “ice box killer” leaves behind a trail of ice blue “shine” for Steps to follow when more severed feet show up.

Reviewers say: “Thriller devotees will devour this unpredictable mystery, wanting more from Steps and Jimmy” (Library Journal). “With its deadpan banter and gritty narrative, Kope's second case has a Dirty Harry vibe and finds a sweet noir groove” (Kirkus).

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How It Happened by Michael Koryta
Fiction

What it’s about: FBI interrogation specialist Rob Barrett takes on the case of a double murder in Maine and gets a confession out of local drug addict Kimmie Crepeaux. She confesses to having helped conceal the murders and accuses well-known and well-liked local resident Mathias Burke of committing the murders. Problem is, when the lake where Burke supposedly dumped the bodies is searched, nothing is found and Kimmie is branded a liar. Only Barrett believes her and starts to investigate Burke, making enemies of the local community and law enforcement.

Reviewers say: Kirkus calls it “flawless, unpredictable storytelling,” and Publishers Weekly writes that Koryta “has few peers in combining murder mysteries with psychological puzzles.”

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Force of Nature  by Jane Harper
Fiction

What it’s about: Five female employees of an accounting firm are sent on a team-building exercise in the Australian wilderness, but only four return. Federal Agents Falk and Cooper get involved in the search for Alice, the missing woman, because she was their inside source in an investigation of possible money laundering by the firm.

Series alert: This is Harper’s second thriller featuring Aaron Falk, after The Dry, which won The British Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award for the best crime novel of the year in 2017.

Reviewers say: Publishers Weekly calls it “a gripping tale of an elemental battle for survival,” and Kirkus writes that “Harper layers her story with hidden depths, expertly mining the distrust between Alice and her four colleagues, and the secrets that simmer under the surface.”

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