The Two Lila Bennetts by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

September 6, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Two Lila Bennetts by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (307 pages)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Lila Bennett’s bad choices have finally caught up with her. And one of those decisions has split her life in two. Literally.

In one life, she’s taken hostage by someone who appears to be a stranger but knows too much. As she’s trapped in a concrete cell, her kidnapper forces her to face what she’s done or be killed. In an alternate life, she eludes her captor but is hunted by someone who is dismantling her happiness, exposing one secret at a time.
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Lila’s decorated career as a criminal defense attorney, her marriage, and her life are on the line. She must make a list of those she’s wronged—both in and out of the courtroom—to determine who is out to get her before it’s too late. But even if she can pinpoint her assailant, will she survive? And if she does, which parts of her life are worth saving, and which parts must die? Because one thing’s for certain—life as Lila Bennett knew it is over.

Lila Bennett’s day starts out amazingly well. She won a big case and, despite the anger from the prosecution’s side, she’s flying high on that victory. That is, until her boss convinces her to meet him for a drink before going home. It is her biggest mistake in more ways than she’ll ever know.

This was one of the more unusual books I’ve read this year. At the moment of the attempted kidnapping, Lila’s world splits into two realities. In one, she narrowly escapes her captor and goes on to try and right all the wrongs she’s committed in the past, trying for a better life. In the other, she’s taken hostage and held captive. And right up until the very end, you’re not sure which reality is the real one. Even then, you’re still left wondering if maybe you were duped. I know I put the book down after I finished and wondered whether either reality had been real.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to think about Lila, but the more you get to know her and her past deeds, you realize she wasn’t a very good person. However, she really does strive for redemption though both realities, accepting her faults and wanting to make amends. Captured Lila has no other choice, but Free Lila is making amends as a thank you for avoiding the fate of Captured Lila.

I was very proud of myself with this novel, however. It’s very, very rare for me to figure out who the bad guy is when I’m reading this kind of book. I’m not sure if I’m not paying close enough attention or if I’m too absorbed in the story itself to care, but for the first time in recent memory, I figured it out. That said, every time I thought, “Oh, her captor is…” the next chapter had me doubting myself all over again. After all, Lila had no shortage of enemies. Even though I’d figured it out, the reasons for their behavior hadn’t ever occurred to me, so that was still a surprise in the end.

The Two Lila Bennetts is one of the most unusual and engaging novels I’ve read all year. Each reality grabbed my attention and held it. And those rare moments when the two came together made my nerdy little heart shout with joy. The writing duo of Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke have done it again. Every book gets better and better, leaving me eager for the next. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the next novel.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

I’ll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie

July 4, 2019 By Leave a Comment


I’ll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie
Publisher: Lake Union
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (380 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

What happened to Amanda Holmes?

Twenty years ago, she was found bludgeoned in a rowboat at the MacAllister family’s Camp Macaw. No one was ever charged with the crime.
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Now, after their parents’ sudden deaths, the MacAllister siblings return to camp to read the will and decide what to do with the prime real estate the camp occupies. Ryan needs to sell. Margaux hasn’t made up her mind. Mary believes in leaving well enough alone. Kate and Liddie—the twins—have opposing views. And Sean Booth, the groundskeeper, just hopes he still has a home when all is said and done.

But it’s more complicated than a simple vote. The will stipulates that until they unravel the mystery of what happened to Amanda, they can’t settle the estate. Any one of them could have done it, and each one is holding a piece of the puzzle. Will they work together to finally discover the truth, or will their secrets finally tear the family apart?

You never quite get past a tragedy that happens in your youth. It’s even harder when it’s of your friends involved in the accident. But how do you get past it when someone you love – a member of your own family – might have caused the incident in the first place? How do you cope with knowing someone you’re so close to has been keeping such a horrible secret?

Told from several points of view, I’ll Never Tell pieces together one summer night from twenty years previous. Bit by bit, the mystery is put together until you know who hurt Amanda Holmes. I love that one of the points of view is Amanda’s, it lends an authenticity and an emotional element to the novel. Her voice was probably my favorite because she was the only one you could truly trust. All the others had something to hide for one reason or another.

Of all the siblings, Ryan is the only one I felt badly for. He was outright accused by his father of harming Amanda, but never to his face. I can’t imagine how much of a gut punch it had to have been to find out in your father’s will that he suspected you of something so awful. Now, Ryan wasn’t a saint, but he had put in extra effort to become a better person after that summer. I think liked Margo the best though since she seemed to have it together more than Mary, Liddie, or Kate. Sean, I don’t know what it was about him, but he gave me the creeps from the very beginning. All in all, they make for an interesting and unique cast of characters. Each holding onto their own secrets, not telling a soul about what they’re harboring. It makes for a very effective suspect pool.

I’ll Never Tell is a rollercoaster ride of lies, deceptions, and secrets hidden for twenty years. The author does an excellent job of distracting you with false clues, making you suspect one person while all along it was someone else. I’ll say this much – I had two suspects high on my list and it wound up being neither in the end. The author is just that good. I’ll Never Tell is one of the most gripping, engrossing novels I’ve read so far this year.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

One Small Sacrifice by Hilary Davidson

April 3, 2019 By 1 Comment


One Small Sacrifice by Hilary Davidson
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (366 pages)
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

An apparent suicide. A mysterious disappearance. Did one man get away with murder—twice?

NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling has had her eye on Alex Traynor ever since his friend Cori fell to her death under suspicious circumstances a year ago. Cori’s death was ruled a suicide, but Sheryn thinks Alex—a wartime photojournalist suffering from PTSD—got away with murder.
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When Alex’s fiancée, Emily, a talented and beloved local doctor, suddenly goes missing, Sheryn suspects that Alex is again at the center of a sticky case. Sheryn dislikes loose ends, and Cori’s death had way too many of them.

But as Sheryn starts pulling at the threads in this web, her whole theory unravels. Everyone involved remembers the night Cori died differently—and the truth about her death could be the key to solving Emily’s disappearance.

Alex Traynor doesn’t have an easy life. Suffering from PTSD acquired during his years as a wartime photojournalist, bad luck seems to follow him wherever he goes. Accused – and then absolved – of taking part in the death of his friend Cori Stanton, Alex is haunted both by his lack of memory from that night as well as by the detective who can’t let the case go. When his fiancée, Emily, disappears, suddenly Alex is back in the crosshairs. But did he do something to Emily or are there bigger forces at work?

It’s easy to have sympathy for Alex Traynor. Early on in the novel, you see his PTSD kick in and you can feel his stress and anxiety as a result. He makes for a very sympathetic character who has some pretty awful moments. His relationship with Emily, a doctor he met in a war zone, is endearing and gives hope to the reader that maybe, he really didn’t hurt her. The crazy thing is, he has no idea whether he has or not.

I had a real love/hate relationship with Detective Sheryn Sterling. On one hand, I love that she wasn’t willing to let Cori Stanton’s death go until she had the answers she needed to close the case. On the other, she is borderline obsessed with Alex and often comes across as if she’s trying to set him up to pay for Cori’s death. About halfway through the story, once she realizes that things weren’t as clear cut as she’d thought, I really began to like her and understand her motivation. Her partner, Rafael Mendoza, is the perfect guy to mellow her out. He made me laugh often and smoothed out some of Sheryn’s rougher edges.

One Small Sacrifice is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in a long time. The author is a master at misdirection, leaving tidbits here and there to completely throw the reader off the scent. I’ll admit that I’ve never been very good at figuring these things out, but I was even less sure of the culprit here. Had Alex finally snapped? Was Detective Sterling setting him up? I had no idea what was really going on. When the actual bad guy was revealed, I was floored because it was one of the few people that hadn’t actually occurred to me until near the end. Excellent mystery that I’d highly recommend to anyone who loves a roller coaster ride of a novel.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan

April 2, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Perfect Girl by Gilly Macmillan
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks/Harper Audio
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (464 pages/audio 9 hours 34 minutes)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Zoe Maisey is a seventeen-year-old musical prodigy with a genius IQ. Three years ago, she was involved in a tragic incident that left three classmates dead. She served her time, and now her mother, Maria, is resolved to keep that devastating fact tucked far away from their new beginning, hiding the past even from her new husband and demanding Zoe do the same.

Tonight Zoe is giving a recital that Maria has been planning for months. It needs to be the performance of her life. But instead, by the end of the evening, Maria is dead.

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It’s not often you get a chance at a fresh start and that’s why Zoe Maisey is doing everything she can to be the perfect girl. She doesn’t want to be the one who destroys the second chance family after all. But what do you do when your past catches up to you?

Zoe was definitely my favorite character. She made a horrible mistake – one that cost three teens their lives – but she was young and I honestly think she was drugged or given alcohol she wasn’t aware of drinking. Despite all that, she really does feel guilty and has made solid efforts to become a better person. She knows that, even if she’s not at fault, she’s going to always be the first suspect due to her history.

The others didn’t make as much of an impression on me. Sam seemed to be a bit of an afterthought as he never really gets involved in Maria’s death. Tess isn’t too bad and I did like her more as we moved through the story, but she does make some questionable choices. Lucas’ relationship with Zoe is better than most step-siblings. You know he’s been through some tough things with how well he and Zoe get along, and it’s great that they had the support of the other in this. Chris bugged me from the very beginning, but I think a lot of that had to do with the way Maria was constantly micromanaging Zoe so that Chris wasn’t put out.

The idea of a second chance family – one where everyone gets a fresh start – is a good one. Maria and Zoe want to move past Zoe’s accident. Chris and Lucas want to move on from the death of Lucas’ mom. But what wasn’t great was Maria’s pushing Zoe to hide everything and maintain this ideal of the perfect family. Families aren’t perfect. Even the best ones are messy at times.

While I’m not generally a fan of novels told in the first person point of view, in an audiobook it seems to work better for me. Although, I did find myself talking back to the car stereo more often but I’m not sure if that’s because of the characters or the POV. The male narrator, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, had a soothing, pleasant voice and the way he voiced both Sam and Lucas was enjoyable. The female narrator, Penelope Rawlins, however, did a much better job of making you think that there were two separate narrators. It actually took me several alternating points of view before I realized there was one person for both Zoe and her aunt, Tess.

The Perfect Girl is an engaging story full of hidden secrets and lies of omission. Although it has a bit of a slow start, once the author gets the ball rolling, it doesn’t stop until the end. The ending was a bit of a cliché, but for once, I fully agreed with its use. Seemed like the perfect way to end it, in my opinion. I’ll be anxious to check out other books by this author soon.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

March 19, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Every You, Every Me by David Levithan
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery, YA
Length: Full length (256 pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he’s been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan’s starting to believe it’s Ariel that’s behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself.
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Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.

Losing your best friend is hard enough. But what if you think you’re losing your mind, too? Ever since Ariel left, Evan’s found himself adrift. Unable to sleep or concentrate, he’s falling farther and farther into a dark hole of what ifs. But when he finds the first picture, he begins to wonder if there is more going on than he suspects.

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Evan at first. You want to coddle this boy who has lost his best friend, but you also feel the need to shake some sense into him. However, as you get deeper into the story and begin to understand all that was going on with his friend, Ariel, it makes more sense why he’s being so hard on himself. Why these photos he’s finding are so important to figure out. Still, there are moments where he should have taken a step back and reevaluated his situation. He might have been able to better cope with certain things if he wasn’t forever pushing forward at a breakneck pace.

Although set in high school, the emotions and mental health struggles that both Evan and Ariel deal with throughout the story spoke to me on an adult level. So many times in our lives we’re going through something and believe that no one else will ever understand. That’s not unique to teens, it pursues us into our adult lives as well. It’s an unfortunate part of life, but one that most of us learn how to deal with in the end. I think that, by the end, Evan has started to understand this as well. It’s my hope for him anyway.

Told through both prose and a set of increasingly strange black and white photographs, Every You, Every Me isn’t your typical young adult fiction. This is a good part of the reason why I picked it up, I was intrigued by the concept of mixed media. In addition to the photographs, the story feels like an old journal entry, complete with random strike throughs in the text. Most of the time, the strikethroughs in the text make sense, as if Evan is editing his thoughts in real time, although there are moments where it didn’t seem to jive for me. In the end, Every You, Every Me is a tale of friendship, mystery, and finding mental wellness when you don’t think it’s possible.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

A Lily in the Light by Kristin Fields

March 15, 2019 By Leave a Comment


A Lily in the Light by Kristin Fields
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (288 pages)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

A harrowing debut novel of a tragic disappearance and one sister’s journey through the trauma that has shaped her life.

For eleven-year-old Esme, ballet is everything—until her four-year-old sister, Lily, vanishes without a trace and nothing is certain anymore. People Esme has known her whole life suddenly become suspects, each new one hitting closer to home than the last.
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Unable to cope, Esme escapes the nightmare that is her new reality when she receives an invitation to join an elite ballet academy in San Francisco. Desperate to leave behind her chaotic, broken family and the mystery surrounding Lily’s disappearance, Esme accepts.

Eight years later, Esme is up for her big break: her first principal role in Paris. But a call from her older sister shatters the protective world she has built for herself, forcing her to revisit the tragedy she’s run from for so long. Will her family finally have the answers they’ve been waiting for? And can Esme confront the pain that shaped her childhood, or will the darkness follow her into the spotlight?

What do you do when your world is turned upside down? Esme is only eleven when her sister, Lily, disappears one night, changing everything she once thought she knew about herself, her family, and the world around her. How will she manage to move forward, follow her dreams, and be all that she knows she can be when they can’t even find Lily?

Esme is a fascinating character and I immediately liked her. Honest, childlike, but more mature than you’d expect, she grabbed my attention and held it. She’s so torn between being free to live her own life and feeling guilty for not having paid more attention to her sister the night she disappeared. It’s heartbreaking to read at times because you can tell she truly had a bond with Lily. Although I have no doubt that her siblings, Nick and Madeline, cared about Lily, it’s also obvious that they didn’t have the same relationship with her that Esme did.

I loved being able to journey with Esme through the horror of her sister disappearing to her adult life as a dancer. She really grows and becomes her own person and I think a lot of that is because she was able to get away from her family who, in so many ways, stagnates and can’t get past Lily’s disappearance. Even though Madeline and Nick manage to move on, they don’t seem to have found the kind of freedom that Esme does with her dance.

A Lily in the Light is more than the story about a missing girl. It’s about faith, hope, and learning how to cope when you feel like you can’t even begin to understand what’s happened. I was totally swept up in this emotional novel, rooting not only for Lily to be found, but for Esme to find herself and a way to help heal her broken family.

Filed Under: Mainstream Fiction, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Fool’s Moon by Diane A. S. Stuckart

December 20, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Fool’s Moon by Diane A. S. Stuckart
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (338 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Two tarot-savvy cats and their tenderhearted human outwit a cruel criminal in this animal-centric whodunit.

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When her own life is threatened with a double dose of danger, Ruby begins to wonder if she’s being played for a fool. Luckily, she has Ophelia and Brandon—sibling black cats with a talent for tarot—and a feisty pit bull friend who all lend a paw in collaring the culprit before Ruby finds herself taking her final cat nap.

Abandoned and alone after their owner drowned, sibling felines Ophelia and Brandon are separated. When tarot reader Ruby Sparks walks into the shelter that day and discovers Ophelia, she has no idea what is about to enter her life. Her biggest worry is whether her half-sister will allow her to keep the cat when she returns. Little does she know that one cat will turn into two, and those two cats will lead her to murder.

Ruby Sparks is a great character. She’s both confident and not, knowing that she has the talent to read the cards but also knowing she’s not as skilled as her half-sister. This endeared her to me because she knew where she needed to improve and strove to do just that. Her love for her pit bull, Zuki, as well as her adopted cats, and even the roosters she saved from sacrifice, only made me like her more. Ruby is well-rounded and likable – the kind of person I would want as my friend. And if I were ever murdered? I’d hope she and her menagerie would help solve my case, too.

As for the animals, Ophelia was a bit overbearing at times, always thinking she had the answers. However, knowing how much she and Brandon loved the woman who had raised them from kittens, it’s understandable why she’d be so determined to solve her murder. Zuki was probably my favorite of the animals simply because she tried to be the voice of reason while also helping the cats do what needed to be done.

Fool’s Moon combines two of my favorite things into one cozy mystery: cats and tarot. I’m honestly a sucker for anything dealing with animals, kitties especially, but the addition of a tarot reading main character and I was hooked. I knew I had to read this book and I am so happy that I did. It was interesting to watch the investigation unfold as the animals helped guide Ruby to the truth. I appreciated that Ruby wasn’t made to seem incapable of making the connections herself, as can happen at times in cozies involving animal sleuths. Instead, Ophelia and her crew help lead Ruby towards the conclusions she already suspects. Although it took a little while to get to the actual mystery, Fool’s Moon was worth the wait.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Guilt by Amanda Robson

August 1, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Guilt by Amanda Robson
Publisher: Avon
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (417 pages)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Your sister. Her secret. The betrayal.

There is no bond greater than blood . . .

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Zara and Miranda have always supported each other. But then Zara meets Seb, and everything changes. Handsome, charismatic and dangerous, Seb threatens to tear the sisters’ lives apart – but is he really the one to blame? Or are deeper resentments simmering beneath the surface that the sisters must face up to?

As the sisters’ relationship is stretched to the brink, a traumatic incident in Seb’s past begins to rear its head and soon all three are locked in a psychological battle that will leave someone dead. The question is, who?

Blood is thicker than water, or so the saying goes. All their lives, Zara and Miranda have always been more than just sisters, more than fraternal twins. They were best friends, confidantes, and each other’s rock in times of need. The minute Zara meets Sebastian and brings him home to meet Miranda, life as they once knew it is thrown into chaos. Only one sister will make it out alive, but which one?

Guilt is told in an interesting fashion. You have the points of view of Zara and Miranda, naturally, as well as that of Sebastian. But the fourth is an unknown, the one in jail. For the majority of the book you don’t know which sister that fourth voice is, although you’re given a lot of misleading clues. I know I went back and forth thinking, “Oh, it has to be…” and then realizing soon that nope, can’t be that one. It was an intriguing way to move the story along and probably my favorite voice of the four. The author also works well in the first person, since all four voices are in that style, and it really helps you get inside each character’s head.

Miranda was probably my favorite sister simply because I could relate more to her logical, well-ordered life. Although I’d love to identify as a creative, free-spirit, I need routine and direction in my life. Zara’s way of living made me anxious. Together, however, they gave each other balance and excitement, all of which was upended when Sebastian comes into the picture. For some reason, I didn’t like Seb much from the beginning. I’m not sure why other than it seemed obvious that he wanted to drive a wedge between the sisters.

Guilt was an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. Never knowing what’s really going on, who is telling the truth, and which sister dies kept me on the edge of my seat. It compelled me from the beginning to the very end, not wanting to stop for any reason. I can’t wait to read more from this author because if her other is as good as this, I’ll be hooked for sure.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Punishment by Scott J. Holliday

July 26, 2018 By 3 Comments


Punishment by Scott J. Holliday
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (235 pages)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Do you want to know what it’s like to die, to kill, to really fear for your life? Then get hooked…

Detroit-based homicide detective John Barnes has seen it all—literally. Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.
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Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.

Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…

What if you could sell your memories so that others could experience them? Better yet, what if your final moments were caught on tape in a way that could help solve your own murder? Wonder no longer because that’s exactly what’s happening in Detroit thanks to an invention simply known as the machine. Step back, Detective John Barnes is on the case – and in your mind.

Detective John Barnes isn’t your ordinary law enforcement officer. He actually has a very special skill – he’s well versed in the uses of The Machine – making him more in-demand than other homicide detectives in Detroit. He’s literally seen – and experienced – it all. Barnes’ use of the machine, for both his personal reasons as well as his professional ones, makes for a very interesting character. Once he’s used the machine, the memories never really leave him. They taunt him, the coerce him, they even try to help him sometimes. Often, he feels like he’s losing his mind, but honestly, I think he copes well considering all he’s endured.

The idea of a machine that can extract memories from a person is fascinating to me. Of course, there are those who use the machine for pleasurable pursuits, but that’s only natural. Who wouldn’t want to step into the shoes of their favorite celebrity, athlete, or musician? But the application it was used for in the book – to see the last moments of a homicide victim’s life – is revolutionary. Calavera fascinated me as well. Between the poems and the sugar skull mask, he wasn’t quite like anything I had encountered before.

The author did an excellent job of bringing the idea to life and I’m eager to see what Barnes and his fellow officers get up to in the sequel. As someone who reads a lot of crime fiction and police procedurals, Punishment definitely was something new and exciting and I’m anxious for more.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

After Nightfall by A. J. Banner

July 19, 2018 By 6 Comments


After Nightfall by A. J. Banner
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (251 pages)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Cholla

Imagine your closest friend utterly betraying you. Years later, when she seeks forgiveness, you invite her to your engagement party as a gesture of reconciliation. But seething hostilities rise to the surface, ruining everyone’s evening. After an awful night, your friend’s battered, lifeless body is found at the bottom of a rocky cliff.
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Newly engaged Marissa Parlette is living this nightmare. She should be celebrating her upcoming wedding, but she can’t shake the image of her friend lying dead on the beach. Did she fall? Was she pushed? Or did she take a purposeful step into darkness? Desperate for answers, Marissa digs deep into the events of the party. But what she remembers happening after nightfall now carries sinister implications: the ugly sniping, the clandestine meetings, the drunken flirtations. The more she investigates, the more she questions everything she thought she knew about her friends, the man she once trusted, and even herself.

We all have something we’d rather not tell anyone else. Secrets are the things that make the world go round, it seems, and none of us are immune. While not every secret is bad, sometimes they can be very, very deadly. Just ask anyone who attended dinner for Marissa Parlette’s engagement party. Although, you’d better hurry – one of them won’t make it out alive.

Everything is perfect in Marissa’s world. She’s engaged to the man of her dreams, she’s got a sweet stepdaughter-to-be, and she’s even reconnected with her long-time best friend, Lauren, after a long estrangement. What could possibly destroy her dream life? Although Marissa appears to be happy, she has her problems, too. For the most part, she deals with them well enough and doesn’t let any one thing take over her world. Then Lauren dies and she becomes obsessed with finding the truth at any cost.

After Nightfall is full of complex, suspicious characters, each one hiding something from everyone else. Even young Anna, Marissa’s soon-to-be stepdaughter, has something she’s hiding from everyone. I found myself suspecting everyone but not really having the slightest clue who was actually responsible. The reveal at the end surprised me because I hadn’t even thought that particular person could have been involved. I had believed that it had to be one of the other, more arrogant and obnoxious dinner attendants.

If you’re looking for a page-turning thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat, After Nightfall is an excellent choice. Well-written and told in an easy style that makes it engrossing and engaging, I found myself unable to stop reading, even for the important things like dinner! This was my first book by A. J. Banner but it definitely won’t be my last. I’ve already added the rest of her books to my list. The trouble now is which one to pick?

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
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