Daughter Review

Author: Kate McLaughlin

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Release Date: March 8, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

4 Protected Hearts

Many thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book.

Review published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Kate McLaughlin’s Daughter is a novel about trying right deadly choices that were never yours to begin with.

Review:

Seventeen year old Scarlet is a typical teenager dealing with school, boys and parties while trying to get her overprotective mom to loosen the reins a bit.  She doesn't have a clue that her world is about to be shattered until two FBI Agents show up to talk to her and her mother.  The conversation that follows leaves Scarlet reeling, angry and in shock.  How is it possible that she is the daughter of serial killer Jeffrey Robert Lake aka the Gentleman Killer?  How is it possible that her entire life is a lie?  That she's been living in a witness protection program most of her life?  This revelation leaves her questioning who and what she is - a daughter with a serial killer's DNA. What does that make her?

Daughter is the story of a young, confused teenager facing difficult choices after being side-blinded with life-altering news.  Scarlet is led to question everything and everyone in her life while dealing with the information that her father is dying in prison and will speak only to her.  He'll only reveal the location of the bodies of more victims if she comes to see him.  The story that ensues is highly emotional as Scarlet struggles to accept reality and find her own way forward.  Through her point of view, readers will feel her confusion, pain and frustration.

Several questions about how families left behind cope when serial killers are incarcerated or killed are raised in Daughter.  It speaks of families, in this case a daughter, dealing with unwanted media exposure, being spurned by friends, and eschewed by society for things beyond their control like the sins of a father.  But most of all, it speaks of becoming a survivor, of a young girl finding her own identity and voice and finding a way to leave the past behind.  While I expected more thriller scenes between father and daughter, I feel like this book is meant to be an inspiration for those learning to live with reality while claiming their own space and future in this world as Scarlet does.  Daughter is a bit heavy in teenage high school party scenes with sex, drugs and alcohol that I honestly feel are more appropriate for a college age crowd, but I'm admittedly way out of touch with this particular age group.  It is, however, sad to think these things are now common in this age group.

For this reader, Daughter is more of a coming of age and romance story than a thriller although it does have some suspenseful scenes.  McLaughlin is a skilled writer with a talent for delivering emotional characters who grow and develop throughout the story.  She sets a pace that keeps the plot moving forward and paired with short, concise chapters, keeps readers flipping pages seeking answers.  Fans of young adult, coming of age stories will enjoy Daughter.

Synopsis:

Scarlet’s life is pretty average. Overly protective mom. Great friends. Cute boy she’s interested in. And a father she’s never known – until she does.

When the FBI show up at Scarlet’s door, she is shocked to learn her father is infamous serial killer Jeffrey Robert Lake. And now, he’s dying and will only give the names and locations of his remaining victims to the one person, the daughter he hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Scarlet’s mother has tried to protect her from Lake’s horrifying legacy, but there’s no way they can escape the media firestorm that erupts when they come out of hiding. Or the people who blame Scarlet for her father’s choices. When trying to do the right thing puts her life in danger, Scarlet is faced with a choice – go back into hiding or make the world see her as more than a monster’s daughter.

The Night Shift Review

Author: Alex Finlay

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Date: March 1, 2022

Order Link: Amazon 

5 Savage Hearts

Special thanks to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book

Review publisher in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

From the author of the breakout thriller Every Last Fear, comes the electrifying new novel about a pair of small-town murders fifteen years apart—and the ties that bind them.

Review:

I'm a sucker for a great opening line - one that entices me to buckle up and settle in for the long haul confident I'm in for an all-nighter. The Night Shift's first sentence - The night was expected to bring tragedy - grabbed my attention and yes, compelled me to read this one in mostly one sitting. Finlay's signature short, bare-bones chapters with mini-cliffhangers ensured that I kept burning through pages and even though I repeatedly said "just one more chapter" and I'll retire for the night, I found it impossible not to read on.

December 31, 1999 - Y2K and the world held its breath . . . and lo and behold nothing happened. The next day dawned bright and people went on with their daily routines. Except for the people of Linden, New Jersey where the overnight savage slaughter of four teenagers ending their night shift at the local Blockbuster paints the town blood red, leaving three dead and one lone traumatized survivor. Fast forward fifteen years and four teenage girls are ending their night shift at the local ice cream shop in the same town when someone enters and brutally attacks them with a knife . . . and yet again, one lucky girl survives. Are the two tragedies related?

The Night Shift is a multi-layered, complex thriller delivered in two timelines. Three well-developed characters with unknown connections narrate the story. The original survivor Ella is now a therapist counseling troubled teens although she herself carries dark, debilitating secrets, the second survivor Jesse is a mysterious, complicated teenager with an uncanny ability to scope out hidden details and truths, and FBI Agent Sarah Keller who is heavily laden with twins due within two weeks but allows nothing to stop her mission to find the missing link between past and present. And then there's Public Defender Chris Ford who stands for the lost and weary regardless of innocence or guilt - he too carries a potentially life altering secret.

As the investigation proceeds, the paths of these characters and their past and present lives begin colliding, spurning plot twists and turns that wreak damage and destroy lives with the velocity of a tornado as new shocking revelations pursue the light of day. Finlay's ability to toss several viable red herrings into the mix is sure to keep readers second guessing. His expertise in inserting jaw dropping scenes into the mix keeps readers on the edge of their seats, hearts pulsating to the rhythm of the expeditious pace. Excellent character development is crucial in The Night Shift as readers are slowly brought up to date on past events and the manner in which past tragedies affect current lives. I like that Finlay doesn't waste words on fluff or filler. Like a well fought court case, he presents his story in concise, short but highly effective chapters through characters he manipulates to build empathy from readers.

The Night Shift is an intense, soul searching thriller that delivers as promised - a fantastic, entertaining follow up to Finlay's previous novel Every Last Fear. Fans of mystery, suspense and thrillers will devour this book. And whether or not your sleuth skills lead you to discover the killer's identity prior to the reveal, you won't be disappointed in the epic ending.

Synopsis:

“The night was expected to bring tragedy.” So begins one of the most highly-anticipated thrillers of 2022.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Y2K is expected to end in chaos: planes falling from the sky, elevators plunging to earth, world markets collapsing. A digital apocalypse. None of that happens. But at a Blockbuster Video in Linden, New Jersey, four teenage girls working the night shift are attacked. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect who flees and is never seen again.

Fifteen years later, in the same town, four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked, and again only one makes it out alive.

Both surviving victims recall the killer speaking only a few final words. . . . “Goodnight, pretty girl.”

In the aftermath, three lives intersect: the survivor of the Blockbuster massacre who’s forced to relive her tragedy; the brother of the original suspect, who’s convinced the police have it wrong; and the FBI agent, who’s determined to solve both cases. On a collision course toward the truth, all three lives will forever be changed, and not everyone will make it out alive.

Twisty, poignant, and redemptive, The Night Shift is a story about the legacy of trauma and how the broken can come out on the other side, and it solidifies Alex Finlay as one of the new leading voices in the world of thrillers.

The Lady Tempts An Heir Book Tour & Review

 

Welcome to The Lady Tempts An Heir Blog Tour!  This book is a fantastic addition to the series. I love these sassy heroines and surly heroes.  When they clash wills, sparks fly. Scroll to the bottom for my review and a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card!

The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George

Publication Date: February 22, 2022

Berkley Publishing

Series: The Gilded Age Heiresses, Book 3

Genre: Historical Romance

A fake engagement brings together a lady with bold and daring dreams, and the heir whose heart she captured—perfect for fans of Bridgerton!

Tall, dark, and brooding—to say that American Maxwell Crenshaw stood out in the glittering ballrooms of London is an understatement. He vowed never to set foot in England again, but when a summons from his father along with an ultimatum to secure his legacy has him crossing the Atlantic for the last time, reuniting him with the delectable Lady Helena March, he can’t deny the temptation she presents. Or the ideas she inspires…

Lady Helena March is flirting with scandal. Instead of spending her time at teas and balls in search of another husband, as is expected of a young widow, Helena pours her energy into The London Home for Young Women. But Society gives no quarter to unmarried radicals who associate with illegitimate children and fallen women, and Helena’s funding is almost run out. So when the sinfully seductive Crenshaw heir suggests a fake engagement to save them both—him from an unwanted marriage and her from scorn and financial ruin—Helena finds herself too fascinated to refuse the sexy American.

As their arrangement of convenience melts oh so deliciously into nights of passion, their deception starts to become real. But if Max knew the true reason Helena can never remarry, he wouldn’t look at her with such heat in his eyes. Or might the Crenshaw heir be willing to do whatever it takes to win the one woman he’s never been able to forget…

Praise for The Lady Tempts an Heir

“With sizzling chemistry, brilliant banter, and an unapologetically strong, feminist heroine, Harper St. George sets the pages ablaze!”—Christi Caldwell, USA Today bestselling author of Along Came a Lady

“Harper St. George just gets better and better with every book, penning the kind of page-turning stories that you will want to read again as soon as you finish each one. Max and Helena are my new favorite couple in the series.”—Lyssa Kay Adams, author of Isn’t it Bromantic?

Amazon | B & N | Books-a-Million | Bookshop | Hudson Booksellers | IndieBound | Powell's | Target | Walmart

About the Author

 

Harper St. George was raised in rural Alabama and along the tranquil coast of northwest Florida. It was a setting filled with stories of the old days that instilled in her a love of history, romance, and adventure. By high school, she had discovered the historical romance novel which combined all of those elements into one perfect package. She has been hooked ever since.

She lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and two children. When not writing, she can be found devouring her husband's amazing cooking and reading. She would love to hear from you. Please visit her website at www.harperstgeorge.com. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Goodreads.

Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, February 22
Review at Chasing Leslie
Guest Post at Novels Alive
Excerpt at Bookoholic Café

Wednesday, February 23
Review at Michelle the PA Loves to Read

Thursday, February 24
Review at Books In Their Natural Habitat

Friday, February 25
Review at Bookworlder
Review at Pinkcowlandreads

Sunday, February 27
Review at Debjani's Thoughts

Monday, February 28
Review at Novels Alive
Review at Anna's Book Blog

Tuesday, March 1
Review at Fringe Book Reviews

Wednesday, March 2
Review at A Girl Reads Bookss

Thursday, March 3
Review at Dive into a Good Book

Friday, March 4
Review at The Literary Assistant
Review at View from the Birdhouse

Monday, March 7
Review & Excerpt at Elodie’s Reading Corner

Tuesday, March 8
Excerpt at Aubrey Wynne: Timeless Romance

Wednesday, March 9
Review at Gwendalyn's Books

Thursday, March 10
Excerpt at SplendeurCaisse
Review at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Friday, March 11
Review at The Lit Bitch

Monday, March 14
Review at Cross My Heart Writing & Reviews

Tuesday, March 15
Excerpt at Lisa Everyday Reads

Thursday, March 17
Excerpt at Coffee and Ink
Review at Bonnie Reads and Writes

Friday, March 18
Review at Reader_ceygo

Giveaway

Enter to win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on March 18th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

The Lady Tempts an Heir

My Review:

American Maxwell Crenshall returns to London at the news that his father is ill.  He finds him recovering and determined to force Max into a marriage by Christmas in order to secure a heir for Crenshaw Iron.  Max has no intention of marrying even though every woman in London would love to hook him, but his father plays the one card that will convince him otherwise.  The elder Crenshaw threatens to withdraw funding for a project Max's sister August is involved in if he doesn't choose a bride soon.  He can't allow his sister to be hurt so he hatches a plan for a fake engagement with the one woman he's never forgotten - Widow Lady Helena March.  Helena is skeptical but she agrees to go along with the charade in order to secure funding for a project near and dear to her heart - the London Home for Young Women which houses and secures jobs for the "fallen" women that society turned their back on.  Both Maxwell and Helena will gain what they want from a fake engagement and then go their separate ways, right?

Oh, I do love a good fake engagement story, and The Lady Tempts An Heir is perfect!  Readers who have followed the series are aware of the chemistry exploding between Maxwell and Helena from the previous book.  Harper St. George has upped the odds in this book and the result is a sinfully sexy story that also dives deeply into gender roles and social class prejudices of the time period.  Helena is the perfect heroine to buck societal expectations as she crosses barriers and spurns expectations.  She is feisty, strong and on a mission to provide a better life for the women of the home in spite of society's scorn.  She's also carrying a dark secret that delegates her to life as a single woman no matter how much she may wish otherwise.  Maxwell is a dashing, bold if somewhat brooding hero with a kind heart and strong determination to make it on his own.  The clash, bump and grind between these two makes for a deliciously sinful story with a whole lot of heart!  I highly recommend it to fans of historical romance and fake relationship tropes as well as to any reader who loves a good romance with a lot of meat on the bones.

The Golden Couple Review

Author: Greer Hendricks

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: St. Martins Press

Release Date: March 8, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

4 Golden Hearts

Special thanks to St. Martins Press for an arc of this book

The Golden Couple is the next electrifying novel from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind You Are Not Alone, An Anonymous Girl, and The Wife Between Us.

Review:

I'm betting there's at least one "golden couple" in everyone's life.  You know...the perfect couple who has it all - beauty, money, big house, expensive cars - living the dream.  Meet Marisa and Matthew Bishop aka the Golden Couple and their eight year old son Bennett.  Bright, beautiful, perfect.  So why do they seek out the help of unorthodox therapist Avery Chambers whose license was revoked?  

 Marissa and Matthew Bishop are a beautiful couple whose marriage is perfect in public but privately in deep trouble. Marissa had a one night stand with a guy she refuses to name, and she seeks Avery's help in revealing the infidelity to Matthew and convincing him to give their marriage a second chance.  Sharp, intelligent and snarky Avery is intrigued by the Bishop's both as a couple and individually so she agrees to apply her famous ten step treatment plan to their marriage on the condition they open their lives and home to her and do everything she tells them - when she tells them.  As the story unfolds, readers learn there's way more than meets the eye to all three of these characters as the lies, dark secrets and malicious threats begin to pile up.

Through Avery and Marissa's points of view, readers are privy to the present and past history of the main characters and how it leads to a connection between Avery and this couple.  It quickly becomes obvious that things don't add up.  Someone is not who they present themselves to be, but who and why?  The plot line is an extremely convoluted, multilayered, twisted masterpiece.  The multiple support characters are all viable red herrings in the big question of "who is the villain" in this story and what's really going on.  I found myself constantly changing my mind over who the culprit was and what the real endgame was.  One thing's for sure - by the big reveal, the golden couple's golden glow has dimmed considerably and their relationship is in dire danger.  Can their marriage be salvaged?

The Golden Couple is a gritty, character driven thriller with a multitude of players any of who could be the villain.  Someone is trying to destroy the Bishops marriage, and Avery is determined to unearth all the hidden secrets to expose the truth.  But will anyone survive the truth?  The Golden Couple unfolds layer by layer with new revelations exploding off the page with each new layer.  Fans of mystery and suspense will enjoy this story.  I also recommend it to fans of domestic thrillers. 

Synopsis:

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

Secret Identity Book Tour & Review

SECRET IDENTITY BOOK TOUR!

Author: Alex Segura

Genre: Literary Mystery

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Release Date: March 15, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

4 Secret Hearts

Special thanks to Flatiron Books for an arc of this book.

From Anthony Award-winning writer Alex Segura comes Secret Identity, a rollicking literary mystery set in the world of comic books.

Review:

Secret Identity by Alex Segura is a great introduction into the world of comics in the 1970's as they're expertly woven into this fictional story of mayhem and murder.  The end result is a beautifully rendered combo of work with compelling, larger than life characters and a big side serving of mystery and action.  Segura's obvious knowledge of the comic industry is evident in the creative writing, and his expertise in delivering a highly entertaining murder mystery will keep readers burning through pages.

Carmen Valdez works as an assistant to the head honcho of Triumph Comics with days spent copying scripts and carrying coffee and lunch to her boss.  But Carmen secretly dreams of writing her own comic script about a female super hero that she's secretly been drawing for years.  When she's approached by a junior writer about co-writing a new comic book starring Carmen's superwoman, she jumps at the chance even though she has to keep her identity secret.  Her boss will never accept it from her.  She agrees knowing it's her only shot of breathing life into her creation the Lethal Lynx.  The script turns into a roaring success, but when an unforeseen tragedy strikes her co-worker, Carmen is left empty handed with someone else's name on her work.  She can't step forward and claim the work now, can she?  Just when she thinks it can't get much worse, a shadow from her past comes calling, and Carmen is juggling secrets.

While I found the mystery intriguing, Secret Identity is character driven, and as the story unfolds through Carmen's point of view, I believe readers will find her quite easy to cheer on.  Carmen is tough - a girl living alone in 1970's New York City, struggling with her own sexual identity in a misogynistic work atmosphere where every day is an all-out brawl when all she wants is to be recognized for her own talent.  I have to admit my favorite part of Secret Identity surprised me - actually shocked me as I'm not a big comic book fan.  However, the comic scenes of the Lynx which are inserted between chapters of this book are out of this world!  The artwork is excellent, and the comic theme actually mirrors Carmen's own life journey seeking truth, identity and justice.  These sequences are a fantastic addition to this book and extremely well done.

Secret Identity is a gritty, unique story with a perfect marriage of noir fiction and comics including an up close and personal look at the comic book industry at the time - one that depended on eager freelancers for the hard work and creativity necessary to produce a winner.  Seguar does a great job handling controversial themes of sexual identity, gender roles and misogynistic attitudes in the workplace and the difficulty for women, especially queer women, to ever achieve success.  The setting is utterly fascinating - actually playing the role of a major character - the best and worst of New York City with all its tenacity, bright lights, dark shadows, grimy districts and still 100 % intoxicating.  I found Secret Identity to be well paced and hard to put down.  Highly recommended to fans of mystery, noir fiction and comic books.  Segura has gifted readers with the perfect blend!

Synopsis:

It’s 1975 and the comic book industry is struggling, but Carmen Valdez doesn’t care. She’s an assistant at Triumph Comics, which doesn’t have the creative zeal of Marvel nor the buttoned-up efficiency of DC, but it doesn’t matter. Carmen is tantalizingly close to fulfilling her dream of writing a superhero book.

That dream is nearly a reality when one of the Triumph writers enlists her help to create a new character, which they call “The Lethal Lynx,” Triumph's first female hero. But her colleague is acting strangely and asking to keep her involvement a secret. And then he’s found dead, with all of their scripts turned into the publisher without her name. Carmen is desperate to piece together what happened to him, to hang on to her piece of the Lynx, which turns out to be a runaway hit. But that’s complicated by a surprise visitor from her home in Miami, a tenacious cop who is piecing everything together too quickly for Carmen, and the tangled web of secrets and resentments among the passionate eccentrics who write comics for a living.

Alex Segura uses his expertise as a comics creator as well as his unabashed love of noir fiction to create a truly one-of-a-kind novel--hard-edged and bright-eyed, gritty and dangerous, and utterly absorbing.

Alex Segura is an acclaimed, award-winning writer of novels, comic books, short stories, and podcasts. He is the author of Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, the Pete Fernandez Mystery series (including the Anthony Award-nominated crime novels Dangerous Ends, Blackout. and Miami Midnight), and the upcoming Secret Identity (Flatiron Books). His short story “Red Zone” won the 2020 Anthony Award for Best Short Story, and his border noir short story, “90 Miles” will be included in THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE STORIES of 2020. He has also written a number of comic books, most notably the superhero noir The Black Ghost, the YA music series The Archies, and the “Archie Meets” collection of crossovers, featuring real-life cameos from the Ramones, B-52s, and more. He is also the co-creator/co-writer of the Lethal Lit crime/YA podcast from iHeart Radio, which was named one of the best podcasts of 2018 by The New York Times. By day he is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Oni Press, with previous stints at Archie Comics and DC Comics. A Miami native, he lives in New York with his wife and children.

Alex Segura

Goodreads Author

Born

in Miami, FL, The United States

Website

http://www.alexsegura.com

Twitter

alex_segura

Genre

Mystery & Crime, Mystery & Thrillers, Graphic Novels

Influences

George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, James Ellroy, Richard ...more

Member Since

August 2010

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/alexsegura

These Deadly Games Review

Author: Diana Urban

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Release Date: Feb. 1, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

3.5 Deadly Hearts

Reviewed published at Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Many thanks to Wednesday Books for an arc of this book.

Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, will keep you riveted until the final twist is revealed.

Review:

A young teenage gamer finds herself playing a high stake life or death game with an unknown opponent in These Deadly Games. Crystal is vying for a spot on a five person team of high school gamers hoping to win millions in a tournament. Her chances are good, and she desperately needs the money to help her mother pay the rent after her father walked out. When Crystal opens a menacing message on an app, her world collapses around her. The message says, "Let's play a game. You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies." The "she" the message speaks of is Crystal's younger sister, shown bound and gagged in the picture accompanying the message. Crystal already felt guilty for ignoring her sister for her gaming friends, and now she’s been kidnapped. She has to save her sister . . . but she has to play in that tournament. What choice does Crystal have? What would you do?

The games start off seemingly innocent with small, apparently benign directives. But as the game progresses, the stakes are raised, becoming hostile and threatening in nature. Crystal begins to notice bad things happening to some of her friends with each game she plays. Coincidence? Or are they connected?

Urban does a brilliant job controlling the pace and sinister tone of These Dangerous Games starting with an ill-boding opening that is sure to grab readers attention immediately. I found the plot line to be unique and yet quite fitting in today's world of young, obsessed gamers with their own gaming language which can be difficult for non-gamers to follow. As the story unfolds, the stakes continue to ramp up in this plot driven novel increasing the tension through a few twists and turns. The characters are the weakest link in this story as they feel a bit underdeveloped and come across as unlikable in most instances. And yet, for the age group, I think they are actually portrayed quite accurately so kudos to the author for staying true to the age group and story. While the ending is a bit predictable, it in no way lessens the enjoyment of this psychological thriller. Intense and twisted with a highly malicious atmosphere, many readers will find it hard to put These Dangerous Games down. Highly recommended to fans of young adult suspense thrillers.

Synopsis:

Let’s play a game.

You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.

Are you ready?

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a video of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.

But then Crystal realizes each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wants them to pay for what they did…

As Crystal makes the impossible choices between her friends and her sister, she must uncover the truth and find a way to outplay the kidnapper… before it’s too late.

Girl In Ice Review

Author: Erica Ferencik

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Release Date: March 22, 2022

Order Link: Amazon

5 Frozen Hearts

Special thanks to Gallery/Scout Press for an arc of this book.

From the author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle comes a harrowing new thriller set in the unforgiving landscape of the Arctic Circle, as a brilliant linguist struggling to understand the apparent suicide of her twin brother ventures hundreds of miles north to try to communicate with a young girl who has thawed from the ice alive.

Review:

Girl In Ice is a heart stopping, can't put it down, highly atmospheric thriller from cover to cover.  Everything about this story reeks of danger - the killer setting, the complex plot line, the unreliable characters, the dark ill-boding tone.  The only thing clear is that one or more people will die before the story ends.

Val Chesterfield gets a call from Wyatt, a friend of her deceased twin brother Andy, begging her to come to a remote island off Greenland to help him determine what language a young girl discovered frozen in ice is speaking.  Wyatt, a climate scientist, claims the girl thawed out alive.  Val, a linguist excelling in dead Nordic languages, is curious yet hesitant to travel to the locale of her brother's suicide.  She has her doubts as to what happened to her brother and ultimately, the need to know is what drives her out of her comfort zone to Greenland. What she finds upon arrival is a bitterly cold, harsh landscape where death comes quickly to those who dare venture outside without adequate protection.  And yet she's supposed to believe that her scientist brother walked outside in only boxers, laid down and froze to death.  Val is determined to learn the truth of her brother's death, the young girl's heritage and what's really going on with Wyatt and his assistant in this God forsaken frozen world.

To say Girl In Ice is highly atmospheric is an understatement.  The climate and landscape controls the story, dictating much of what happens while driving the maddening pace forward.  I imagine it's much like speeding downhill in a bobsled or on skis at breakneck speeds as it's hard to catch a breath reading this story.  I frantically turned pages looking for answers - afraid to stop, afraid to read on.  I don't recall the last time I read a book and felt so utterly immersed in a story that I had literally had chills and a growing sense of dread.  The sinister tone is ever increasing and the sense of danger is almost overwhelming.  Ferencik does a brilliant job of drawing readers into the story and holding them hostage along with the characters who are cut off from the rest of the world by the life threatening weather.  The story unfolds through Val's point of view as she struggles to survive one blow and one crisis after another.  Her work with the young mysterious girl is heart touching and yet even there, there's a sense of the clock ticking toward some disastrous event.  I'm not saying more about the plot line because readers need to travel this treacherous journey without prior knowledge other than what's known in the blurb to fully experience it. 

Girl In Ice is an intensely explosive, raw, gut-wrenching thriller that had me on the edge of my seat until I read the final page.  It's a story I won't forget anytime soon.  The escalating danger from surrounding sources, the unknown of what's really happening and the knowledge that there's no escape for these characters drives a fervent pace through unforeseen twists and turns to the epic ending.  I challenge any fan of suspense thrillers to put this one down before finishing once they get into it.  Girl In Ice left my heart a little raw with my emotions all over the place.  It's definitely a favorite of 2022 for me.  What a movie this one would make!  Highly recommended to fans of mysteries, suspense, and highly atmospheric thrillers.

Synopsis:

Valerie “Val” Chesterfield is a linguist trained in the most esoteric of disciplines: dead Nordic languages. Despite her successful career, she leads a sheltered life and languishes in the shadow of her twin brother Andy, an accomplished climate scientist stationed on a remote island off Greenland’s barren coast. But Andy is gone: a victim of suicide, having willfully ventured unprotected into 50 degree below zero weather. Val is inconsolable—and disbelieving. She suspects foul play.

When Wyatt, Andy’s fellow researcher in the Arctic, discovers a scientific impossibility­—a young girl frozen in the ice who thaws out alive, speaking a language no one understands—Val is his first call. Will she travel to the frozen North and meet this girl, try to comprehend what she is so passionately trying to communicate? Under the auspices of helping Wyatt interpret the girl’s speech, Val musters every ounce of her courage and journeys to the Artic to solve the mystery of her brother’s death.

The moment she steps off the plane, her fear threatens to overwhelm her. The landscape is fierce, and Wyatt, brilliant but difficult, is an enigma. But the girl is special, and Val’s connection with her is profound. Only something is terribly wrong; the child is sick, maybe dying, and the key to saving her lies in discovering the truth about Wyatt’s research. Can his data be trusted? And does it have anything to do with how and why Val’s brother died? With time running out, Val embarks on an incredible frozen odyssey—led by the unlikeliest of guides—to rescue the new family she has found in the most unexpected of places.