mystery thriller

HALF IN LOVE WITH DEATH: 100% worth the stress

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It’s the era of peace and love in the 1960s, but Caroline’s life is no longer peaceful. Since her beautiful older sister Jess disappeared, fifteen-year-old Caroline can’t stop blaming herself and looking for leads. Her parents do nothing but drink and fight. The police have no solid leads. The only person who cares is Tony, her sister’s older boyfriend. Tony convinces Caroline that Jess has run away to magical, sunny California. Tony wants Caroline to go with him to find Jess. And Caroline sees no option but to follow, even if Tony scares her a little sometimes with his blue-eyed intensity.

Caroline’s innocence is slipping away with her sister’s disappearance. Having this story told from the perspective of a curious fifteen-year-old girl struggling with her identity does a tremendous service for the reader. Caroline is sad, but not bogged down in grief the way an adult would be. She’s optimistic about her sister’s fate and convinced that everything is going to be okay while the adults in her life are dismissive. And she’s convinced she and Tony are the only people who can solve the mystery of Jess’s disappearance.

The dynamic between a girl and her older sister is perfectly explored in this book. When you’re the younger sister, you want what your sister has. You want to feel what she feels. You want her boyfriend to look at you the way he looks at her, even if that’s a little creepy. You want to wear her clothes and be her, even if she has a way of finding trouble that disturbs you. This is the trap Caroline falls into. Her missteps are understandable, even if they make your heart race.

Emily Ross is a master of tension and suspense. Half in Love With Death grabs you from the first page, and doesn’t let go until long after the last word.

IT WAS ALWAYS YOU: Just because you’re paranoid…

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Morgan Kalson is an accomplished young woman with a troubled background. She’s confident and professional when it comes to her career as an up-and-coming psychology professor, but tragically bad at relationships. Stalkery bad, to be exact.

Her last relationship ended with a police report and restraining order, with her as the focus of both. So, when her boyfriend Justin dies after running the car off the road on their way to a romantic weekend getaway, the police and Morgan’s long-term doctor, Dr. Koftura, suspect Morgan is responsible for Justin’s death. Especially since Morgan and Justin had a huge public argument days before the accident.

Her best friend Annie is behaving strangely, and may or may not have been involved with Justin prior to his death. Dr. Koftura has turned on her. And just who was Justin, anyway? Information on him is hard to come by. Morgan has experienced bouts of paranoia in the past, so she can’t be sure of her instincts.

Morgan has successfully kept the worst parts of her past hidden. So hidden, she doesn’t remember important events. But if she’s going to prove her innocence, she’ll have to break through the barriers to her memory. And she’ll also have to figure out why Dr. Koftura is so convinced of her guilt.

Stephens uses her psychologist background to write believable characters struggling with mental illness and desperate to stay afloat. IT WAS ALWAYS YOU is a riveting psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.

THE EMPRESS OF TEMPERA: art & obsession in New York

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I started THE EMPRESS OF TEMPERA with a healthy amount of skepticism. My cousin/BFF has an art degree and whenever we visit a museum together, he goes on about history and aesthetic and meaning and it’s really interesting for about 30 minutes and then I need a big fat nap. I wasn’t sure an entire novel built around a painting could keep my interest. Then there was a bloody death almost at the very beginning, so I was hooked.

Paire Anjou moved to NYC to escape her dark past and reinvent herself. She’s an artist struggling to find her footing while her boyfriend Derek Rosewood is the toast of the city’s art scene. As she stands in front of the gallery that’s displaying some of his work, she becomes entranced by a painting in the window. An older man joins her on the sidewalk, and promptly stabs himself in the chest.

As far as suicides go, it’s a messy choice. But who am I to tell some old stranger how to do himself in? And the visual of Paire covered in blood while staring at the red-robed Empress is delightfully disturbing.

The incident draws Paire further into the local art scene, where she’s able to spend more time with The Empress and dig into the painting’s history. The Empress brings out emotions and actions in Paire that are frightening and exciting, both for her and the reader. She already has identity issues, and her new obsession causes her to question herself further. She changed her name from Katie Novis when she moved to NYC, and now she’s wondering what this new person she’s become is capable of. Maybe she’s capable of an art heist.

Paire isn’t naïve enough to believe the heist will be without consequences, but she has no idea how dire those consequences will be. She lands herself in the underbelly of the art world, where retribution is more important than beauty or legacy.

Alex Dolan’s story is an exquisite tale of what happens when greed overtakes artistry, and of the young woman hellbent on preserving one artist’s legacy while struggling to reconcile with her own past. THE EMPRESS OF TEMPERA is a gripping tale from beginning to end.

COTTONMOUTHS: heartbreak & meth in small-town Arkansas

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Emily Skinner was eager to leave her small Arkansas hometown and start over at college. But two years later, she has flunked out and has no choice but to move back in with her conservative parents. Her former best friend and childhood crush Jody is also back in town, but she has a baby in tow.

Their friendship ended abruptly years before with Jody disappearing from town and Emily’s life. Emily has spent years believing that Jody left because of Emily’s attraction to her. Against her better judgement, Emily can’t resist attempting to reconnect. But when Emily learns that Jody has a meth lab on her property, Emily knows she must stay away. That is until her parents kick her out and Jody offers her a job as a live-in babysitter.

The more time Emily spends with Jody, the stronger her feelings for her grow. She maybe loves Jody, but also fears what Jody is capable of. And Jody gives her just enough hope to keep her around. When Jody’s business partner goes missing, Emily suspects that Jody’s dishonesty is far more dangerous that she anticipated.

Cottonmouths is heartbreaking and beautiful. Kelly J. Ford weaves a mystery that is easily relatable. The relentless pain of unrequited love, returning to your past when you don’t want to, desperate actions to escape poverty. It’s the familiarity of the themes that makes Cottonmouths a beautiful gut-punch.