My Sister the Serial Killer is NOT a romance novel, but it might appeal to those of our readers with an interest in female rage and very dark humor. Set in Nigeria, the novel is narrated by a nurse named Korede. It opens as Korede is cleaning a crime scene. It’s clear that she has a lot of practice doing this: I bet you didn’t know that bleach masks the smell of blood. Most people … Continue reading My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite →
The Au Pair by Emma Rous is a slightly Gothic psychological thriller that focuses on one woman’s suspicion that she might not be physically related to her own family. The premise is excellent and while I kept turning pages well into the night, I found that when I finished the book, I was only slightly satisfied with the resolution. Part of that is because the final reveals are executed a little clumsily. The other part … Continue reading The Au Pair by Emma Rous →
CW/TW: domestic violence, violence against sex workers, depression, child neglect, and of course, murder, since it’s a murder mystery. I mentioned in my review for Murder on Astor Place, book one in the Gaslight Mystery series, that I tapped out after this book. In this installment, Sarah Brandt is called to what she thinks is a birth, but turns out to be a call to help Agnes, a pregnant mother whose younger sister, Gerda, has just … Continue reading Murder on St. Mark’s Place by Victoria Thompson →
CW/TW: in this book there is child assault, child sexual assault, incest, murder, more murder, and history of sexual assault revealed but not depicted on the page. I described the plot of this book to Elyse, and she, who reads all kinds of things that would scare me sleepless, said, “Holy mother of god. That is a PLOT.” Oh, yes. Yes, it is. Now, I can hear you thinking, “Sarah. Whoa. Why did you read this?” … Continue reading Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson →
Please note: this review is for both the plot and the audiobook performance. I mentioned on a recent podcast that I’ve been listening to the Evan Evans series by Rhys Bowen on audiobook while I cross stitch and cook (not at the same time – too many stains on the aida, I should think). I realized that listening to an audiobook is both very soothing and avidly addictive for my brain as long as two … Continue reading Evans Above by Rhys Bowen →
Zero Sum Game is an awesome, fast-paced, inventive science fiction thriller about a mercenary whose superpower is her ability to do complicated math almost instantly. She uses this to calculate trajectories and angles and so forth in order to navigate both crime scenes and combat sequences with incredible speed and precision. Cas takes on a simple job which drags her into a conspiracy involving her mysterious childhood, an evil psychic, and a lot of violence. She … Continue reading Zero Sum Game by S. L. Huang →
I finished this book and thought to myself, “What the hell just happened?” The answer: A LOT. A lot happens in this book. There is so much that if I attempted to recap it, even with the broadest of summaries, the text would be miles wide and tens of thousands of words long. The plot starts, throttles up to “I can’t comfortably open my eyes” speed and doesn’t stop until the end, with one or … Continue reading Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch →
Oh, boy. This book wrecked me, from giving me twitchy tense reading in the beginning to requiring that I ignore everything around me and read in a parking lot so I could finish it at the end. First, yes, you should read the prior two books in the series, A Study in Scarlet Women , and A Conspiracy in Belgravia . It might be possible to drop into book three and follow the majority of the story, but the slow … Continue reading The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas →
If you’re in the mood for a new historical mystery series, check out this guest review by Lara! Lara is a teacher, feminist, knitter and proud co-parent to the greatest three-legged black cat in the southern hemisphere. … I was bumbling along in a reading rut, neither excited nor bored, just, well… fine. Then, Lady Trent came along and blew me right out of my rut and into reading heaven. I love her! I want … Continue reading Guest Review: The Richmond Thief by Lisa Boero →
Girl at the Grave is a YA gothic mystery with a love triangle. It’s not deep, and the solution to the mystery is utterly unbelievable. However, I read it on a rainy day with a cup of tea and enjoyed it for the most part, despite its flaws. If you are in the mood for a weird village and plots and rich snobs and an old decrepit mansion, then this may pass the time quite … Continue reading Girl at the Grave by Teri Bailey Black →
I tend to have very girdy loins when it comes to dark and twisted fiction, so imagine my surprise when I discovered that The Forgotten Girls was a little too disturbing for me.TW/CW: discussions of sexual abuse and rape. The seventh book in the Louise Rick series can be read as a stand alone and centers around a Danish investigator (Louise Rick) who heads up a Missing Persons Deptartment. When the body of a woman is … Continue reading The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel →
