Penitence Review

Author: Kristin Koval

Narrator: Therese Plummer

Publisher: Celadon Books/MacMillan Audio

Release Day: Jan. 28, 2025

Many thanks to Celadon Books for a complimentary arc of this title. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness. It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.

Review:

PENITENCE by Author Kristin Koval is a complex, heartbreaking domestic suspense highlighting how impulsive decisions can change the trajectory of lives. Not only for the people directly involved, but also for the waves of people that wash in and out of lives over time. It's a story of profound grief, life altering choices, guilt, redemption and forgiveness. It's a story of the extraordinary power of love.

The story opens with thirteen-year-old Nora sitting in a jail cell while local police ponder what to do with a child that has just confessed to killing her older brother Nico. Nora hasn't spoken a word since the early morning hours when gunshots woke her parents, sending them rushing into the horrifying nightmare of their son lying in a pool of blood, their daughter holding the smoking gun. Fighting shock and tears, Nora's father David contacts small town lawyer Martine to plea for her to defend Nora while her mother Angela falls apart. Martine in turn contacts her son Julian, a successful New York City crime defense attorney who specializes in seeking justice for minors and asks him to take the case. This is where things get tricky . . . Julian and Nora's mother, Angela, were teenage sweethearts with plans for marriage after college before a tragic accident claimed a life, tearing the young lovers apart and banishing Julian to New York to live and finish school at the home of his grandmother. Both went on to marry others and appear to live normal, happy lives, but the burden of guilt, secrets and unanswered questions remain between them over what happened that dark night on the ski slopes. And now questions about what happened the night Nico’s killed are threatening to rip this family apart. Did Nora enter her brother's bedroom and shoot him with her father's gun in cold blood? Nora says she doesn't remember what happened, but is she telling the truth?

PENITENCE, Koval's debut novel, is an amazing, poignant, heart wrenching domestic thriller with a depth of characterizations and plot lines seldom found in debut novels. The story unfolds through dual timelines, the present with the tragedy unfolding with Nora and her family, and the past with Angela and Julian's tragic story with all its ugly secrets becoming known. Along the journey there are a multitude of broken promises and lives, all buried beneath some dark, take to the grave secrets that have festered for years. Koval's ability to tap into human emotions following unspeakable trauma is a stunning achievement. Richly drawn characters render flawless performances as the author delves deeply into the flawed juvenile justice and legal system highlighting the tendency to punish vs. rehabilitation. From the first page to the last, the pace escalates as Nora's situation plummets at every twist and turn until the final verdict is rendered. Some readers may find the ending too open ended, while others will nod their heads in agreement that justice is served. This reader is somewhere in the middle.

I highly recommend the audiobook version of PENITENCE as narrator Thérèse Plummer delivers an outstanding performance rich in emotion bringing each character to life. PENITENCE is a stunning, gut wrenching domestic thriller that encourages self-reflection. One this reader couldn't put down. Two stories of unfathomable tragedy, two shattered families entwined in crisis, two snap decisions decades apart forever changing the course of lives. Highly recommended to fans of soul-searching domestic suspense and family drama. I look forward to more from the talented Author Kristin Koval.

Synopsis:

When a shocking murder occurs in the home of Angie and David Sheehan, their lives are shattered. Desperate to defend their family, they turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn’t just legal counsel—she’s also the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian, a now-successful New York City criminal defense attorney. As Julian and Angie confront their shared past and long-buried guilt from a tragic accident years ago, they must navigate their own culpability and the unresolved feelings between them.

Spanning decades, from the ski slopes of rural Colorado to the streets of post-9/11 New York City and back again, Kristin Koval’s debut novel Penitence is an examination of the complexities of familial loyalty, the journey of redemption, and the profound experience of true forgiveness.

Dead Man's List Review

 

Author: Karen Rose

Series: San Diego Case Files #3

Publisher: Berkley

Release Day: March 4, 2025

Special thanks to Berkley Publ. for a complimentary arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

First reviewed in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Homicide Detective Kit McKittrick's latest case exposes San Diego’s seedy underbelly in this nerve-shattering tale of romantic suspense from New York Times bestselling author Karen Rose.

Review:

DEAD MAN'S LIST is the third book in author Karen Rose’s San Diego Case Files series featuring Detective Kit McKittrick and Dr. Sam Reeves. As always, Rose delivers an intense, complicated, twisted murder mystery that keeps fans guessing right up to the shocking climax.

DEAD MAN'S LIST is a complex, multi-layered thriller featuring a gritty, introverted heroine who keeps her emotions tightly wrapped and others at arm's length as much as possible. Kit's horrific experience bouncing around the foster system left her toting a great deal of baggage but extraordinarily little trust before she hit the lottery with foster parents Harlan and Betsy McKittrick whose unconditional love and security chipped away at her defenses helping form the capable woman and resolute detective she is today. Her keen sense of duty and dedication drive her not only to seek justice for victims, but to also give back to the foster parents who saved her by mentoring other young girls and women.

Dr. Sam Reeves, a police psychologist working with the San Diego Police Department, breathes a sigh of relief when SDPD Detective Kit McKittrick finally agrees to go out with him. Sam understands Kit's emotional state remains precarious when it comes to forming relationships, but he's a patient man willing to invest the time to show her he intends to be part of her future. Wanting to share his love of hiking with her, he takes Kit and their dogs to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for a casual date. Just as he feels he's making progress breaking through her defenses, they stumble over the partially buried body of a well-known city council member named Brooks Munro. Multiple stab wounds indicated a vicious crime of rage and given the unpopularity of the politician, Kit and Sam know the suspect list will be a long one. As Kit and her team begin working on the case, it's clear several powerful and influential people have dark secrets they’re determined to keep hidden. However, there's a missing binder of names and rumors of extortion circulating, and when more bodies surface, Kit’s certain someone is working through a kill list eliminating witnesses one by one. As Kit gets closer to unmasking the killer, she becomes a complication the killer can't ignore.

Author Karen Rose excels at weaving taut, intricate suspense thrillers with detailed characterizations and multiple plotlines that keep readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. Dedicated support characters with their own issues help to steadily drive the pace forward as the action increases through twists and turns, crisis after crisis before exploding in a shocking climax most will never see coming. Multiple red herrings provide readers with several possible villains for consideration, and armchair detectives should watch closely for the bread crumb clues the author sprinkles throughout. A budding, slow burn romance between Kit and Sam adds a human touch, allowing readers to join the couple as they explore new emotions, especially Kit as she struggles with accepting she’s worthy of this man. Like the seasoned expert author she is, Rose maneuvers readers and characters through another fantastic suspense thriller. I recommend DEAD MAN'S LIST to fans of murder mysteries, romance suspense and police procedurals as I look forward to the next one.

Synopsis:

On a long-anticipated second date with police psychologist Dr. Sam Reeves—right as things are getting steamy—Kit stumbles across the mutilated body of a local San Diego politician. The politician is loved by many of his constituents but is hated and reviled by many more. That the suspect list is long is no surprise to anyone, but exactly who ends up on it stuns Kit and her team.

As the SDPD reveal the victim’s sinister dealings, Kit and Sam are forced to navigate the lawless world of the city’s most rich and powerful citizens to find answers. But time is rapidly running out, with their sources of information dropping like flies as the killer methodically eliminates loose ends—and anyone else who stands in the way.

Get Lost With You Review

Author: Sophie Sullivan

Series: Rock Bottom Love #2

Publisher: St. Martins Press

Release Day: Feb. 11, 2025

Special thanks to St. Martins Press for a gifted arc of this title for review. Opinions expressed are my own.

A second chance at love, small-town romance that’s all sweet with just a hint of heat from the “queen of sweet romance” (Falon Ballard) Sophie Sullivan.

Review:

Small town, everybody knows everybody vibes radiate throughout the pages of GET LOST WITH YOU by Author Sophie Sullivan. Childhood friends with secret crushes on one another both return to their hometown and suddenly sparks are flying. One leaves behind a successful career as a New York City chef and the other is looking for a new beginning with her young daughter after a messy, ugly divorce.

Jilly and daughter, Ollie, return to Smile to live and work on her brother's resort, Get Lost Lodge. She fights her attraction to Levi who's now accepted a job as the lodge's chef. Levi has returned home in hopes of mending his broken relationship with his dad which appears to be hopeless. However, it doesn't take Levi long to know he wants the woman and her adorable daughter in his future, but Jilly is reluctant to enter another relationship after having been burned badly by her cheating ex-husband. As Jilly and Levi are forced into close proximity, all the warm, fuzzy feelings explode into a sizzling inferno, but Jilly still refuses to let her guard down while continuing to hold Levi at arm's length. Can he convince her that he's sincere and hopelessly in love with her and Ollie?

Author Sophie Sullivan has delivered another low angst, small town, second chance romance in spades. The characters are well-developed and likable, and I find it a nice change of pace that the hero falls first or at least acknowledges to himself that he's in love first. While the pace is a little slow, I enjoyed the journey as the pair spend time together before declaring forever and ever love. It feels more realistic, and an adorable child added an element of cuteness and a few laughs to the mix. Highly recommended to fans of small-town romance.

Synopsis:

Jillian Keller took the long route to her best life, but is now happily settled in her hometown of Smile, raising her little girl alone while helping her brother run Get Lost Lodge. A lover of structure and routine, she doesn’t need anything, or anyone, disrupting her carefully curated life.

After chasing and achieving his culinary dreams, Levi Bright realizes he’s still missing something. Something he can’t find in a big city. Returning home to Smile, he intends to build a different future for himself that includes mending fences with his dad, reconnecting with friends, and creating elevated comfort food for a town he loves.

When Levi and Jilly run into each other one day in Smile, once requited feelings that never had a chance to bloom as teens flare between them immediately. Jaded from her past, Jilly is cautious and convinced that she can handle being just friends, as the two have to work closely together to prepare for Get Lost’s official summer opening, spending time together, camping, laughing, kayaking, and reminiscing. But when her brother hires sweet, funny, ridiculously hot Levi as the new chef at the lodge, and she and Ollie are getting more attached, things are moving more quickly than she anticipated--and Jilly has been hurt before. If she wants to be head over heels in love, she'll have to learn that the past doesn’t always repeat itself. Sometimes, it just leads you where you’re meant to be.

Nemesis Review

Author: Gregg Hurwitz

Series: Orphan X #10

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Day: Feb. 11, 2025

No greater friend. No deadlier enemy. In the latest explosive novel in this New York Times bestselling series, Evan Smoak, having shaped his life with a rigid set of rules, finds himself at odds with his oldest friend in the world, where principles are in conflict with honor—and everyone is the loser.

Review:

Orphan X aka The Nowhere Man aka Evan Smoak returns with a vengeance in NEMESIS, the tenth book in Author Gregg Hurwitz's explosive Orphan X series. Evan, once a highly successful black ops government assassin, now operates under the radar as The Nowhere Man, a protector of innocent victims only an anonymous phone call away. He lives a rigid, solitary life driven by a strict code of conduct known as the assassin's Ten Commandments. His strong belief in these commandments drive his every move, every decision, and he believes it's his duty to not only obey the commandments but to also enforce them by going after anyone who breaks one of the codes. Much to Evan's chagrin, his longtime friend and armorer Tommy Stojack has apparently broken a code by providing weapons to an assassin who targets innocents. In spite of the internal turmoil it creates within Evan, he has no choice but to have it out with Tommy. His strong moral beliefs will not allow him to let it slide. What ensues threatens everything Evan has ever known and believed to be true, turning his world upside down while leaving him questioning exactly who he is and what he's doing. Commandment #4 says: Never make it personal, but it doesn't get more personal than this for Evan. Going up against one of the only friends he has allowed into his solitary world guts him, throwing him off his game and messing with his ability to focus leaving him vulnerable to other outside deadly threats currently slivering through the shadows. When the smoke settles, who'll be left standing? Will Evan be able to live with the consequences of his actions?

Author Gregg Hurwitz knocks it out of the park with this addition to the highly successful, epic Orphan X series. Through introspection, readers are allowed inside to witness Evan's inner turmoil and moments of self-reflection as he deals with personal issues he usually keeps locked away. It's a side of Evan fans of the series haven't seen before - a crack in the armor of this cold, deadly assassin, and it's a reminder that he is indeed human. Side plots involving Tommy honoring a promise to an old friend and Joey dealing with her own identity crisis while trying to fit in add to the suspense while driving a fast and furious pace forward through revelation after revelation. The action is nonstop, as always, from the first page through to the last, and the tone is dire. This reader refused to put the book down until the dust settled at the end.

NEMESIS is a story of friendship, self-reflection, loyalty, forgiveness and emotional turmoil. It's a lesson in making the correct decision based upon one's interpretation of the fine line separating right and wrong and knowing the difference. New readers to the series will have no issues reading NEMESIS as a standalone as the author does a fantastic job of filling in the blanks with any needed backstory. However, this is an outstanding series that is best consumed one book at a time - beginning with ORPHAN X, book one. Not only is the character development important, but the books build one upon the other, and you'll be missing a great reading experience if you choose to skip previous books. Highly recommended to fans of the series and readers who enjoy intense, high action, fast paced suspense thrillers.

Synopsis:

 

At one time, Evan Smoak was a highly successful black ops assassin known as Orphan X, dedicated to a rigid set of operational rules. Now, even after breaking with the government program, going deep underground, and remaking his life, Smoak is dedicated to his assassin's Ten Commandments. But for the first time, those principles have put him on a collision course with the man who might be his best friend in the world, Tommy Stojack.

Stojack, a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan's own weapons and combat gear, has apparently crossed one of Evan's sharply delineated lines. When Evan decides to go to his workshop and have it out with Tommy, Evan finds himself under attack by a group attempting to ambush and kill him. But, with all his training and skills, Evan is extremely hard to kill—and the dispute explodes into open warfare between him and Tommy. Now Evan has no choice, in his mind, than to track down and face down his only friend.

In the meantime, Tommy is honoring an old promise to an Army friend and goes to help his dead friend's son. In a depressed rural area, with conflicts flaring up, that son is partially responsible for the death of an innocent. And while Tommy is trying to keep him, and his friends, alive, Evan arrives, with vengeance in mind.

The scary thing? Evan isn't even the most dangerous threat to arrive on the scene.

Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave Review

Author: Elle Cosimano

Series: Finlay Donovan #5

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Release Day: March 4, 2024

Special thanks to Minotaur Books for a complimentary arc of this title. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Review first published in Mystery & Suspense Magazine

Review:

Finlay Donovan and sidekick nanny Vero return in FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE, the fifth book in the widely popular Finlay Donovan series by Author Elle Cosimano. Fans of the series will love catching up with these characters again as they bumble their way through yet another murder mystery, digging themselves out of a hole not entirely of their own making. Prepare for all the chaos, mischief, banter and laughter as Finlay and Vero take readers on another wild ride through their crazy, mixed-up lives!

Finlay Donovan is happily working on her next book and going through the daily routine of being a single mom when trouble arrives at her door in the form of neighborhood busybody, the dreaded Mrs. Haggerty. It's a known fact that the pair of neighbors are not friendly, having clashed previously, so imagine Finlay's shock when Mrs. Haggerty's grandson dumps her and her suitcases in Finlay's living room and announces she needs a place to stay because her house is a crime scene and has no heat. A body discovered buried in Mrs. Haggerty's backyard threatens to draw attention to things Finlay and Vero need to stay buried. If they want to keep their own skeletons under wraps, they need to get Mrs. Haggerty out of their house and hair as soon as possible, so once again, they slap their detective disguises on and start digging into the case in an attempt to uncover the identity of the killer. The stakes are raised when Finlay's ex-husband is arrested for murder, and late-night escapades by dear old Mrs. Haggerty make it clear she has a few dark secrets of her own. With shady pasts threatening to land them in hot water, Finlay and Vero navigate murky waters while trying to solve the case and stay out of jail themselves. At the same time, Finlay's relationship with a certain sexy police officer is yet again in jeopardy because of the secrets she can't share. It can't possibly get any more complicated, right?

FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE is a perfect blend of mystery, slapstick style comedy and romance all rolled into a delightfully entertaining romcom mystery that's highly addictive. Well-developed, larger-than-life main characters are likable and easy to identify with. While plot lines are a little over the top, Cosimano manages to make it work with lots of drama and humor interspersed with scenes designed to touch the heart. Include the promise of a sizzling romance on the side, and readers are guaranteed to love this addition to the series where the action and laughs never stop. I can't help but compare it to the old I Love Lucy shows featuring Lucy and Ethel and all their shenanigans. This one is good old-fashioned fun! I highly recommend FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE to fans of mysteries and romcoms.

 Synopsis:

Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero have not always gotten along with Finlay’s elderly neighbor, Mrs. Haggerty, the community busybody and president of the neighborhood watch. But when a simple call to a plumber turns into the discovery of a dead body in her backyard, Mrs. Haggerty needs their help.

The police take Mrs. Haggerty in for questioning and, though she swears she’s innocent, it’s clear to everyone she’s keeping a secret . . . but whose? With her house now an active crime scene, she’s released from custody with nowhere to go. Her concerned grandson, Brendan, an aspiring politician, doesn’t have room in his one-bedroom apartment for her and appeals to Finlay to let her stay at her place until the investigation is over.

Finlay and Vero have no interest in getting involved in another murder case—or sacrificing either of their bedrooms so they’d have to share. After all, they’ve dealt with enough murders over the last four months to last a lifetime and they both would much rather share their beds with someone else. But when the focus of the investigation widens to include Mrs. Haggerty’s neighbors, Finn and Vero are left with little choice but to uncover the woman’s secrets before the police start digging up theirs.

Desperate to clear his grandmother’s name before his upcoming campaign for local office, Brendan Haggerty makes Finlay and Vero an offer that seems too tempting to give their grandmother a place to stay under their watchful eyes and he’ll help Finlay and Vero find a killer. But who will solve the mystery first? And will the name Brendan turns over to the police exonerate or implicate them?