The Quiet Tenant

The Quiet Tenant

by Clémence Michallon

Blurb:

Aidan Thomas is a hard-working family man and a somewhat beloved figure in the small upstate New York town where he lives. He’s the kind of man who always lends a hand and has a good word for everyone. But Aidan has a dark secret he’s been keeping from everyone in town and those closest to him. He’s a kidnapper and serial killer. Aidan has murdered eight women and there’s a ninth he has earmarked for death: Rachel, imprisoned in a backyard shed, fearing for her life.

When Aidan’s wife dies, he and his thirteen-year-old daughter Cecilia are forced to move. Aidan has no choice but to bring Rachel along, introducing her to Cecilia as a “family friend” who needs a place to stay. Aidan is betting on Rachel, after five years of captivity, being too brainwashed and fearful to attempt to escape. But Rachel is a fighter and survivor, and recognizes Cecilia might just be the lifeline she has waited for all these years. As Rachel tests the boundaries of her new living situation, she begins to form a tenuous connection with Cecilia. And when Emily, a local restaurant owner, develops a crush on the handsome widower, she finds herself drawn into Rachel and Cecilia’s orbit, coming dangerously close to discovering Aidan’s secret.

Told through the perspectives of Rachel, Cecilia, and Emily, The Quiet Tenant explores the psychological impact of Aidan’s crimes on the women in his life—and the bonds between those women that give them the strength to fight back. Both a searing thriller and an astute study of trauma, survival, and the dynamics of power, The Quiet Tenant is an electrifying debut thriller by a major talent.

My Reaction:

(DNF at over 50%.  I listened to the audiobook version.)

This was a disappointment.  I feel that I gave it a fair shot.  The first time, I struggled and stopped at probably around 25% through.  Months passed.  I read and listened to other books... And then I saw it, had nothing else to listen to, and decided I'd give it one more chance.  I picked back up where I'd left off, but unfortunately, all the problems I'd had with it the first time only intensified with the next quarter of the book.  

How did this annoy me?

First, it somehow manages to be terribly boring.  Very repetitive.

Second, I can't stand the way the narrator for Rachel voices Aidan (to the point I wanted to inflict physical pain on him for that alone, leaving aside all his crimes and abusiveness).  

Third, the whole story just made me angry.  If I feel worse every time I read or listen to a book, the story had better be fascinating to make up for the daily dose of negativity.  This wasn't all that fascinating, I'm afraid. 

Fourth, some of the characters' choices and behaviors just don't ring true to me.  Based on reviews I skimmed, you never get even an attempt at an explanation for why some characters are the way they are, either. 

Once a certain something happened (spoiler below), I just lost all interest.  I still gave it a bit longer, but when I realized I was only halfway through, I decided to spare myself the suffering and move on to something else.  Life's too short to push through books you dislike reading. No-one's handing out awards for finishing annoying books, these days.  I read a synopsis and a few reviews, and it doesn't feel like I've missed much by stopping where I did. 

**SPOILERS**

What was the "certain something" that made me stop caring?  I am beyond frustrated when characters who are held captive (or in some other dire position) don't at least try to escape when the opportunity presents itself.  Yes, I read this character's reasoning and I understand why she might not have acted—and maybe we're even supposed to think that she made the right call—but the fact remains that I loathe that trope.  

Don't ask me to care what happens to a character who won't even try to save herself/himself.  It's demoralizing to read, and I just don't need that in my life.  Then she ruined a second opportunity to run and was nearly killed as a result of her own stupidity.  (Argh!!)  

It felt clear that this book wasn't going to be a satisfying read for me, so why slog through another 150 pages (however many hours that would've been of listening) of torture?  Better to call it a DNF and be done!

Zero Days

Zero Days

by Ruth Ware

Blurb:

Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her.

Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.

My Reaction (with SPOILERS):

I am under no illusions about most of the modern thrillers I read. They are what they are, no more and no less—but some certainly are better than others, and this one had some problems.  

The biggest issue for me was repetitiveness.  The book opens up with a fairly active scene that's about as interesting as anything that happens later the story, but unfortunately, it soon gets bogged down with Jack's grief over her husband, despair over her present and future prospects, and discomfort after an injury.  

Is it realistic that a woman in her situation, newly bereaved and mired in such a shocking set of circumstances, would find her mind going in circles, treading the same ground over and over again?  Yes, absolutely!  Is it in any way enjoyable to read a book where the heroine's mind is going in circles, treading the same ground repeatedly?  Emphatically NO.  It's boring, at best.  I got so very sick and tired of listening to the narrator (audiobook) go on and on about Gabe and how he's now dead. It's just too much.  (My sympathy eventually dies along with him, I'm afraid.) 

After Jack's injury, we're treated to frequent updates on its status, and that, too, becomes just too much.  

Then there's the fact that Jack is missing obvious things that someone in her profession (or anyone of reasonable intelligence and familiarity with the modern world) should probably catch.  (Though to be honest, this bothered me much less than the never-ending grief monologue. I can accept that she's off her game, given the circumstances. Just... Maybe lay off the "I'm damn good at my job" stuff for a while when you're making stupid mistakes left, right, and center.)

This is more of an audiobook-specific complaint, but the male voices were... not good, in my opinion.  Listening to the two male characters with Cockney accents irritated me greatly.  (Gabe's constant refrain of, "Babe, you GOT this!" haunts me still.)  And as for the villain.  Oh my gosh.  He sounds like a cartoon villain. So incredibly annoying.  (And was he supposed to sound rather "posh"?  Because I thought he at least bordered on that, which felt odd and out of place for the character.)  Actually, come to think of it, Jack's own voice is frustrating to listen to, at times.  Whenever she tries to blend in or wheedle someone, she slides into this extremely tiresome whining voice that would make any right-thinking person take an instant dislike to her and be less likely to want to assist her!

I think that's enough nit-picking.  Those are the things that stuck with me most.  It's too bad, but this wasn't one of the author's best books.  

American Predator

American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

by Maureen Callahan

(Truncated) Blurb:
A gripping tour de force of investigative journalism that takes us deep into the investigation behind one of the most frightening and enigmatic serial killers in modern American history, and into the ranks of a singular American police force: the Alaska PD.  

Most of us have never heard of Israel Keyes. But he is one of the most ambitious, meticulous serial killers of modern time. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Described by a prosecutor as "a force of pure evil," he was a predator who struck all over the United States. 


My Reaction:
While parts of this investigation were vaguely familiar, it was definitely not one I immediately recognized or knew much about.  So as far as that goes, it was interesting, but it's one of those cases that just make you angry.  Listening to transcripts of this guy talk is enough to make you want to reach back through time and knock him out, to be honest.  He's infuriating.  The whole situation is infuriating.  

The book wasn't quite what I was expecting:  Based on the subtitle, I thought there would be more mystery—more of a manhunt.  There's plenty of mystery (far too many unanswered questions, in fact), but most of the book takes place after law enforcement have got their man.  It's much less about struggling to identify or locate a murderer than the title led me to believe.  Instead, the story is mostly woven around interrogation, strategic mind games, and trying to get the p.o.s. to talk after he's been apprehended.  

I listened to the audiobook version, which reconfirmed for me that I don't like it when narrators put too much into "doing the voices".  The male voices in particular just irritated me.  (Maybe it didn't help that I was already in a bad mood because of the subject matter.)

I've watched and listened to a lot of true crime, but it's rare I read books (or listen to audiobooks) in the genre.  I do find it interesting, but it can also feel a little too much at times.  Maybe I've just had enough for now.  I will say that my curiosity was piqued by the fact that this was a serial killer from my own generation.  Keyes was only a year older than I am, and most of the "big name" serial killers I'm aware of are from previous generations.  However, his upbringing was so utterly different from my own that I couldn't draw many parallels between our experiences, which was what would/could have been of interest.  His life during his formative years was far from typical.  Well, what did I really expect?  Few people who end up as serial killers have had an otherwise perfectly normal life.  

So, that's it.  The whole thing ends with a feeling of dissatisfaction, and there's nothing you can do about it.  

Tek Kill

Tek Kill

(TekWar #8)

by William Shatner & Ron Goulart

Blurb:

When his boss is wrongly accused of murder, detective Jake Cardigan finds himself trying to convince police to believe in a known drug user's telepathic visions rather than the videotape evidence they already have.

My Reaction:

Donald and I read this together for the 372-Pages podcast.  It's the second in the series the book club podcast has covered, the previous read being the first of the series.  

I have to admit, I never got the love (if that's the right word) some of the 372-Pages listeners apparently had for TekWar.  There were some unintentionally funny elements, but I found it less appealing than many of the other things we've read.  The story was just bland and very samey, and this one was... well, more of the same.  

I don't have anything to say about this, really.  The podcast episodes were mostly fun, as usual, but I think it was clear that this wasn't a favorite of the hosts, either.  

The main thing I took away from this reading is that in the TekWar universe, nearly everything is fake—plas-this, sub-that, neo, pseudo, etc.—to the point that even plants are all merely holograms.  It's a disturbing vision of the future that I'm glad to leave behind!

Listen for the Lie

Listen for the Lie

by Amy Tintera

Blurb:

What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.

But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast "Listen for the Lie," and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.

My Reaction:
DNF.  I don't know how far along I was when I gave up on it... 20-ish percent through?  I think it was soon after Lucy went to her old friend's shop... Wherever it was, I decided I couldn't face slogging through the rest of this one.  It's just not my style at all, and I don't understand the high average of ratings.  I skimmed through the last chapters just to see the solution of the mystery and... Nope, no regrets.  

I didn't like any of these characters, the humor fell flat for me, and that voice in Lucy's head was beyond annoying.  Oh well!

"Inscrutable Decrees"

"Inscrutable Decrees"

by E.F. Benson

Synopsis:

An unnamed narrator stumbles upon the death notice of a remarkable woman he once knew.  He then shares his memories of the woman, followed by a discussion with an old friend, which reveals the solution to a macabre puzzle.  

My Reaction (with possible SPOILERS:

I can no longer recall if I stopped writing reviews for individual stories in this collection of E.F. Benson's short stories that I have... I know I stopped reading, years ago, but am uncertain of whether or not there may have been a backlog of stories I had read but not reviewed.  At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter.  I thought I might try to finish the collection, so I'm picking up where I left off with reading (if not reviewing).  

I found the beginning of the story was actually more amusing than horrifying, which reminded me that it may be time to revisit the Lucia series again.  As for this story, it was merely okay.  There's some vague creepiness, but you see the culmination coming from a mile away, so there's no element of surprise, and if anything, I thought the crime committed was milder than expected.  The ghostly element undercuts the horror, I think.  I'm not big on stories with seances that reveal visible ghosts, and... well, spoiler alert, I guess!  There's a visible ghost called forth by a seance.  Not the best of his work, but the central character herself is an interesting one for an armchair criminological psychologist to ponder.  

Bitter Sun

Bitter Sun

by Beth Lewis

Blurb:

"Stand by Me" meets "True Detective" in this stunningly written tale of the darkness at the heart of a small mid-Western town and the four kids who uncover it. In the heatwave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder, but they dig too deep and ask too many questions. Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest, and the people teeter on the edge of ruin. As tension and paranoia run rife, rumors become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control, and John, Jenny, Gloria, and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left uncovered.

My Reaction:

DNF one-third of the way through the book.  

This book—or as much of it as I read, since I abandoned it after reading the first third—was such a disappointment!  I enjoyed The Wolf Road, the author's first published novel, and had high hopes for this one.  When I finally had a chance to read it, I jumped right in, but almost immediately it just wasn't working for me.  I think I gave it a fair chance, but instead of improving it was starting to seriously annoy me.  It's time to set this one aside and move on to something else.  I'm still interested in trying another of this author's books, in the hopes that they're more like her first work and less like... this.

So, what didn't I love about this? 

• Set in the United States, yet too often the characters use British words and turns of phrase that simply don't feel authentic to me.  I could overlook this in a more compelling read, but on top of everything else, it was grating.  
• I could have done without some of the tangents (commentary on the Vietnam War, for instance).  Maybe they're supposed to set the scene and paint a picture of the time, but I didn't like them, and in a slow-paced book, the last thing we needed was more blah-blah-blah that didn't advance the plot. 
• I couldn't believe half the things that happened (and that was just in the first third of the book).  Bizarre things, and way too many of them.  No, I don't think this is a fair portrayal of small-town America in the 1970s (or ever), and that annoys me (as someone from small-town America). 
• Gosh, these characters!  There's hardly a decent person in the book. Even the kids were utterly blah.  Everyone feels like such a cardboard cut-out cliche.  There's no joy in reading about these characters.  
• I need a plot that actually moves at something above a snail's pace.
• There are a LOT of "bad guy" characters in this book, and according to their descriptions, they're all absolutely disgusting.  (Quite a few of the baddies seem to be fat, too, by some strange "coincidence"...)

I skimmed some reviews to try to at least see what happens in the end, but I'm still not sure what (if anything) is the solution to the mystery.  What little I did gather about the conclusion is even darker than I was expecting, so I don't think I missed much.  Maybe I'll skip to the end and see if I can learn more, but I doubt it's worth the effort.  The impression I get is that it's not a particularly satisfying conclusion, even for those who like the book.  

I'm just glad to put this in the rearview mirror and try to find something that doesn't make me angry every time I read it!

His & Hers

His & Hers

by Alice Feeney

Blurb:  

There are two sides to every story: yours and mine, ours and theirs, His & Hers. Which means someone is always lying.

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

My Reaction:

This novel kept me guessing right until the end!  I developed a theory, changed it, then changed it again.  The final reveal took me back to one of my earliest suspicions, but hey, the author did a good job of luring me away from it!  You just can't be sure what's really going on, because there are too many equally good possible solutions.  

On the downside, there are some coincidences that are honestly too big to swallow, and most of these characters are fairly repugnant in one way or another—but I can't deny that I enjoyed reading most of the book.  (It always feels weird to say you "enjoyed" a book of this sort!  It's pretty dark in spots, not to mention enraging.)

I'll be keeping this author in mind for future reads.

Random Thoughts:

• There's an odd mix of UK and US English here... My guess is that whoever was responsible for editing the book for the American edition missed a few things.  We have American "candy bars", "chips" that are clearly the American version (as opposed to "crisps"), yet there are "biscuits" that really ought to be "cookies" in US English.  There are other examples of this strange blending of terms, but those are the only ones I bothered noting.
• Based on this and Daisy Darker, this author has a weakness for deep / meaningful / clever comments.  Here's one that didn't quite land for me:  "Lives are like light bulbs; they’re not as hard to change as people think."  Only... Do people think changing light bulbs is difficult?  Maybe the ones that you can't reach without a ladder...

These last two are a bit spoilery (I guess), so here's your spoiler warning, if you're worried about it...

• "Jack accused me of a few bad things when we were married, and a few more when we weren’t, but never murder. It makes me wonder whether he always had a negative view of me, even when we were together."  Sorry, but that just made me burst out laughing!  He'd never accused her of murder?  Well, I should hope not!  
• I'm not buying that the teenage craft-queen character would have known how to prepare fur.  I mean, you have to do something to the skin, right?  Tan them?  You don't just skin an animal, dry out the pelt, and use it as a fur, do you?  (Well, maybe it works for the short-term.  I could be wrong here.)  That whole part of the story felt really odd to me.  I can't picture that character being all excited about skinning dead pets... 

A Flicker in the Dark

A Flicker in the Dark

by Stacy Willingham

Blurb:

When Chloe Davis was twelve, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, Chloe’s father had been arrested as a serial killer and promptly put in prison. Chloe and the rest of her family were left to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in private practice in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. She finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to get. Sometimes, though, she feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. And then a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, and that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, and seeing parallels that aren't really there, or for the second time in her life, is she about to unmask a killer?

My Reaction:

I'm having difficulty rating this one, because I enjoyed reading most of it, but at the same time, there is room for improvement.  Some of the twists are predictable, though you're kept in enough doubt that it's still very readable in that respect—plus I'm always curious about how the finer details will work out.  

One of my main annoyances with this book is the way characters sometimes behave so illogically.  I know, real people do that, too, but... Eh, it frustrates me.  It can also be irritatingly repetitive, some of the metaphors really don't work for me, and at times the science and police procedures are questionable at best.  However, I still found it an interesting enough read.  

I'd certainly consider reading more by this author.  

Hidden Pictures

Hidden Pictures

by Jason Rekulak

Blurb:

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.

My Reaction:

I found this an enjoyable paranormal thriller.  It made a change to get a Christian main character.  It's been a long time since I've read anything (written in the recent past) that didn't portray Christians as either boring simpletons or evil hypocrites, so this was a nice surprise.  

Judging by some of the reviews I skimmed after finishing the book, this novel has struck a nerve with some readers, to an amusing degree.  I guess a book has to be 100% "woke af" to pass the smell test.  (Purity spirals are so much fun.)  

I, on the other hand, thought the author did a decent job of not being totally skewed in one direction or the other, politically.  I'm bemused that people read this and thought it was "right-wing propaganda" full of "conservative dog whistles", because that's not at all how it came across to me.  I didn't agree with or like everything in it, but on the other hand, it didn't slap me across the face with so many obnoxious political opinions that it was impossible to enjoy the story.  It walked the line better than many other recently published books I've read.

I wouldn't say this was amazing, unbelievably good, or mind-blowing.  On the contrary, some of the twists are predictable, and at times I found the writing style a bit odd, almost as though it were written for a slightly younger audience—but it was an entertaining read, all the same.  The drawings add an interesting element, too.  

This would probably ordinarily be a 3 or 3.5 for me, but I'll bump it up to 4 just because I appreciate reading about a Christian character presented as a normal person.  

The Overnight Guest

The Overnight Guest

by Heather Gudenkauf

Blurb:

True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.

As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them.

My Reaction:

It could have been better.  It was going to be a 3-star read for me, but thinking (grumbling to myself) about a couple of particularly annoying points has decided me in favor of knocking off another star.  Two it is!  

The story is told through three different timelines, which I wasn't expecting.  This method of storytelling seems to be almost the default choice for so many modern authors, at least judging by the books I'm reading and listening to, these days.  It's not necessarily a problem, but it's also not very original, at this point.  Sometimes it can lead to annoyance, as well, when it feels like stalling and padding out the plot.  Just when things start to get interesting in one storyline/timeline, you're shoved along to something else, and it's rare that all timelines are of equal interest.  

My minor gripes with this book:

• Wylie is kind of annoying.  I just didn't warm to her.  
• Coincidences abound.  (I can't really get into these without venturing into spoilers.)
• Characters make some monumentally stupid choices. (Again, spoiler territory...)
• Predictable in spots.  I must confess that one of the major twists never occurred to me until right before the reveal, but others are very obvious.  I suppose it's difficult to write something that's genuinely unpredictable without leaving your reader annoyed that you misled or hid information... But it's silly when characters don't see what's right in front of their eyes!
• Bad guy is a bit of a caricature. 
• Having Wylie say that Dateline is her favorite TV show?  Blatant pandering.

My final "issue" was with the way the audiobook narrator chose to voice some of the characters.  Some of the voices just irritated me.  Going into who and why would be spoilery, so I'll leave it at that. 

If you don't mind some really dark subject matter and can overlook some honestly idiotic decision-making, it's fine for mindless "entertainment" (though it feels wrong to describe it as entertaining), but it's not as good as I'd hoped.  

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

SPOILER

ALERT

!!!

So, what were the things that annoyed me so much that I knocked another star off my rating?  

First, Wylie tells Becky she's locked Suspect #1 in the shed, so they're safe.  Well, Becky knows who her captor was, but for some unknown reason she waits (and waits and WAITS) until the real Bad Guy shows up to tell Wylie that Suspect #1 isn't guilty.  That's just stupid writing.  Yes, Becky's been through it, has possibly suffered a concussion, and is likely somewhat in shock, but still... She's able to communicate and reminisce about the past, so I'm not buying that she couldn't find a way to process this information and speak up.  

Worse, even when Becky eventually says, "No, that's not the guy; THIS is the man who's held me prisoner for 20 years," Wylie tries to talk her out of it!  I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding.  It's so easy to forget the identity of the man who has held you captive for two decades, raped you throughout that period, impregnated you multiple times, beaten you, etc.  These things can be so confusing!  

Then there's the issue that Becky could have run away long before she finally did.  I just... What?!  She is able to pick the lock (or something) to her door and could have run away long ago, from my understanding.  She wasn't suffering from Stockholm syndrome, but her captor has lied to her, telling her no-one cares she's gone, he has eyes everywhere in town, etc.  (Would she really believe that?!  She was 12 or 13 when she was kidnapped, and seemed fairly savvy...)  

I know that people can be brainwashed and forced into a type of submission that is difficult to fathom if you haven't lived through it, but I find this whole thing impossible to comprehend.  She wants to leave.  She (finally!) plans to leave, even going so far as slowly gathering supplies and hiding them until the great escape can go forward.  But what is she waiting for?  Instead of just getting the heck out of there at the first opportunity, she waits.  For no apparent reason.  She waits until the storm of the century arrives to try to escape, making things much more difficult than they needed to be.  

It's mind-blowing, in a bad way.  

Anyway, putting that aside, when she finally decides it's time to leave, the door isn't an option, but no biggie.  Her young (5-ish?) daughter kindly points out that they can get out through the window.  And apparently that works.  I'd assumed the basement window they kept mentioning was a tiny sliver that wouldn't possibly be large enough for the woman to fit through, and she simply had stopped looking at it as a possibility, years ago, forgetting that the child could use it to get out, then come unlock the door from the other side... But no, it's big enough for a grown woman, so she would have fit through it easily as a young teenager.  

I'm sorry, but that is ridiculous.  Bad Guy never thought, "Hm.  I should probably board up that window or something..."  If there were explanations for these bizarre plot elements, they needed to be included in the book.  I'm not going to do the work for the book and make up reasons for implausible behavior.  

And that's not even getting into the dumb final confrontation scene(s) where characters almost intentionally put themselves in harm's way for no good reason.  Ugh!

Ragdoll

Ragdoll

by Daniel Cole

(Edited) Blurb:

William Fawkes, a controversial detective known as The Wolf, has just been reinstated to his post after he was suspended for assaulting a vindicated suspect. Still under close scrutiny, he's called to investigate a gruesome discovery dubbed "The Ragdoll"—a body made of the dismembered parts of six victims.  

Further complicating matters, Fawkes' reporter ex-wife has anonymously received photographs from the crime scene, along with a list of six names and the dates on which the Ragdoll Killer plans to murder them. The final name on the list is Fawkes.  

Wolf and his fellow detectives are faced with a daunting challenge and a looming deadline ticking away the rapidly dwindling hours of his life.

My Reaction:

Hm.  This one had a disappointingly "blah" conclusion.  I started out feeling ambivalent, then decided to stick with it, because there was just enough entertainment value to keep me reading.  Also, there were so many glowing reviews that I thought maybe it would surprise me...  It was okay for a while—not amazing, but readable—and I was holding out hope for some insane twist.  (I even had a couple of pet theories that came to nothing.)  Unfortunately, the end of the book (and specifically the identity of the killer) failed to impress.  

I was able to overlook the predictable, two-dimensional characters and the many, many cliches while I still held out hope for an interesting reveal and wrap-up, but as soon as the killer was unmasked (which in my opinion came too early in the book, extinguishing all interest), it was all downhill from there!  I sort of skimmed from that point on, because I just didn't care what else happened.  

For much of the book, the killer is portrayed as possessing an almost supernatural intelligence and ability to predict behavior, but when you finally meet the mastermind, it's a massive let-down.  I didn't believe that he could have arranged and divined all of that and then turn out to be so terribly incompetent at the end.  He was just... boringly predictable and cliched.  Exactly like the other cardboard characters (so I shouldn't have been surprised, really).  

There are more books in this series, but I'm not interested.  I guess this is a three-star book for me, but I almost feel that 3 stars paints too positive a reaction, based on how I feel after having just finished the book.

Daisy Darker

Daisy Darker

by Alice Feeney

(Edited) Blurb:

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.  

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

My Reaction:

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel while quilting, and found it entertaining... Until I didn't.  

—I loved the setting and the quirky details of the house.  Islands cut off by the tide are always a favorite!

—I loved the fact that it was obviously inspired by And Then There Were None.  

—I was intrigued by the mystery, and unlike some, I didn't mind alternating between the "then" and "now" timelines.  (Though to be honest, I've seen so much of that lately!  Maybe it's time for authors of thrillers to try something different, if only to set themselves apart from the rest.)

So yes, I was enjoying it, to begin with, but gradually a few things diminished that enjoyment.  

First:  
These characters!  Almost everyone is awful.  I know, I know!  You need conflict, and awful characters provide that.  The quality of a book isn't dependent on the likeability of the characters, etc., etc.  Yes, but the fact remains that if too many of your characters are just horrid, reading the book becomes an unpleasant experience.  And yes, I did say that I was happy that it was inspired by And Then There Were None, which is also full of awful characters... Look, I don't know what to say, except that while listening to this, I eventually had had enough of ALL of these people!

Second: 

The writing style was quaint and entertaining, in the beginning, but at some point I started to feel slightly annoyed by the "clever sayings" and "deep thoughts" generously sprinkled throughout the novel, both in dialogue and interior monologue.  Some of them are interesting or thought-provoking, but after a while they felt repetitive and irritating.

Third:

Predictable twists that kind of annoyed me.  I saw some of the twists coming, and I didn't love them.  The main twist in particular is just... Eh.  Maybe it didn't help that there was a similar(ish) twist in the last audiobook I listened to.  Maybe I didn't like it simply because it's so sad. 

Fourth:

Some of the motivations didn't make much sense to me.  To be fair, people's motivations in real life don't always make sense, either, so maybe it's not exactly unrealistic!  Still, it dragged down the end of the story, for me.  I spent too much time thinking, "Really?  Well, okay then!"

However—over all, yes, I liked it.  Despite my misgivings about certain aspects of this one, I think I'll round it up to four stars.  

A few SPOILERY final thoughts:

S
P
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I do have a question, though, about what happened to all those bodies at the end of the book!  What's going to happen when someone starts looking for one of these people?  Some of them were employed and would have people expecting them back at work within a few days!

END

OF

SPOILERS

The House Across the Lake

The House Across the Lake

by Riley Sager

narrated by Bernadette Dunne

Blurb:

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

My Reaction:

I listened to this audiobook while doing some patchwork quilting.  This was perfect for that—interesting to listen to, but not too complicated to follow while cutting, sewing, and pressing.  

I suspect that the format (audiobook vs. text version) may affect how I rate a book.  It takes less of a commitment in time and effort to simply listen to a book while I'm doing something else, so I might tend to rate an audiobook less harshly.  Also, I'm swept along with the flow of the story and am less likely to stop, think, and poke holes in the plot.  Or become annoyed by something.  And even if I am annoyed, it's not easy to highlight that section and to remember for my review.  

Anyway!  I did enjoy the book, mostly.  I wasn't thrilled when it turned out that the main character is an actress (just... meh), but later on I suppose it turned out to be important to the plot... In any case, I was mildly amused by the fact that the main character and her mother were clearly inspired by Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, even more so because the narrator sounded a lot like Carrie Fisher.  

However, that posed a bit of a problem, as well, because the narrator, while very talented at narration and probably a big part of why I enjoyed the book, sounds much older than the character is supposed to be.  Even after learning that the character is in her 30s, it's hard to picture a woman that age when you're hearing her thoughts and words in the voice of an obviously older woman.  Just not a good fit in that way, unfortunately.  (After searching other reviews, I see that I wasn't the only one to make this observation.  Not just me—though, is it ever?)

As for the plot... I don't think there's much I can say without getting into spoiler territory.  It starts off as you'd expect, especially if you've read the blurb.  It's very Rear Window-ish, which is never a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned.  I see a lot of reviewers didn't like the main character's excessive drinking/alcoholism, and I agree.  It's been used too often in too many popular books over the past several years, and it wasn't particularly fun to read, even on the first time around.  However, I don't mind travelling over familiar ground in terms of the "spying on your neighbors and deciding there's a crime in the offing" trope.  That's pretty much what I expected and signed up for, with this book.  

What I didn't expect was a very odd twist that came in the final quarter (or so?) of the book.  Again, I can't tell you much without spoiling the whole book, so I guess I'll just say that it's extremely unexpected and strange, and it comes completely out of the blue.  To be honest, I didn't like that twist.  It's just too weird for me.  I would've preferred something else, but oh well!  

This is the kind of thing that would prevent me from recommending the book to many people, because it just feels too outlandish and out of place in a book of this kind (or a book of the kind that I mistakenly thought this was).  Some people will love it, but others will find it incredibly annoying and stupid.  I think it was pretty stupid, to tell the truth, but I just kept listening, and by the end... Eh, it's fine.  Because it still gave me something to think about while I worked on my quilt, so it did its job.  And a month from now, I'll have forgotten all about it!

The It Girl

The It Girl

by Ruth Ware

Blurb:

April Coutts-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the second, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide… including a murder.

My Reaction:

This novel could have benefited from trimming down, in my opinion.  Too many paragraphs were just "round and round" clichéd internal dialogue.  Every time we had to hear about Hannah's blood pressure or the baby kicking or her present-day interactions with Will, it felt like a waste of words and time.  I started skimming those sections, at some point.  

More than once, I found myself wondering just how intelligent Hannah is actually supposed to be.  She made it into Oxford, and yet... There are several times that she doesn't seem like the brightest bulb.  

At a certain point, the murderer's identity became very obvious (more on that below), and from then on I was mostly just waiting around to see how long it took Hannah to realize.  I was still curious about the "why", though I could come up with a few plausible reasons on my own, based on April's behavior to her "friends" as a whole.  In the end, I was a bit "meh" about the explanation of why the murder happened.  It fits well enough, I guess.  A bit of a let-down, though I'm not sure what else I wanted from the explanation.  More of an emotional connection or motivation, maybe.

I found it difficult to connect with Hannah or care particularly much about April.  Also, the setting...  I don't know much about Oxford, except that it's old and "elite", and frankly, I'm not particularly interested in learning more about it.  I get the impression that we are supposed to care much more about Oxford than I do (or even can).  Maybe I'm a bit jaded by the whole college/university thing.  It's largely a racket!  Possibly I also found most of the circle of friends to be utterly obnoxious caricatures of rather bratty and unsympathetic college students.  Whatever the reason, my reaction to the setting was not positive.

Final note (before I get to spoilers):  When I first saw this book's title, I thought it was The IT Girl, as in "information technology"— so a mystery/thriller centered around a young woman working in IT, I guess?  That probably would have been fresher and potentially more interesting than a spoiled "It girl" in a college setting, to tell the truth!  

SPOILERS 

FOLLOW:

After a long while of not being sure who would be revealed as the killer, the solution suddenly became blatantly clear (to me, at least).  As soon as we learned that Hugh sent Hannah out of the room to seek help, I was positive that he'd killed April.  There were only two ways this could have worked.  In the first, he could have drugged April to render her unconscious (tricky to plan and time perfectly).  The second option was that April had arranged with Hugh to pretend to be dead to scare Hannah; paired with April's love of pranks (and the fact that she hadn't pranked Hannah), that seemed the likeliest scenario (though maybe still not foolproof).  ...Ta-dah.  (Is it better to guess whodunit ahead of time and feel a mild sense of superiority or have the fun of not having a clue until the very last minute?)

Another kind-of-a-spoiler:  Hannah needs to get over her guilt for supposedly being the one to send John Neville (was that his name?) to jail.  All she did was tell the truth of what had happened to her and what she'd seen with her own eyes.  Besides, Neville was a predatory creep and stalker who should most definitely not have been working in close proximity to vulnerable young women!  Maybe he didn't commit a murder, but he certainly seemed the type to do something nefarious, and I wouldn't lose too much sleep over his incarceration. 

Oh, and this isn't a spoiler, but do any modern-day, living, breathing English people— even the posh ones— actually unironically call one another "old bean" these days?!  Hugh does it repeatedly, which I found unbelievably ridiculous.  I ain't reading about Bertie Wooster here!  I know Hugh's supposed to be some sort of British version of Niles Crane, with the embroidered dressing gown and everything, but... Please, try to keep it realistic!

Murder in Christmas River

Murder in Christmas River
by Meg Muldoon

Blurb:

Cinnamon Peters is one tough cookie.

Every year at Christmas River’s annual Gingerbread Junction Competition, pie baker extraordinaire Cinnamon aims to win, taking down any competitor who gets in her way. But when she finds a dead body in the woods behind her pie shop just days before the big competition, Cinnamon realizes that there’s much more to worry about than cookies, frosting, and gumdrops.

Someone’s out to bring Cinnamon down. And they’re playing dirty. Only Cinnamon and a mysterious stranger who walks into her life one snowy evening can figure out the mystery.  But can they solve it before Cinnamon’s chances of gingerbread competition glory crumble?

My Reaction:

Yet another 372-Pages podcast/bookclub selection!  (Shared read with Donald, as usual.)

I don't have much of a reaction to this, aside from the podcast element.  It's not my personal cup of peppermint tea.  (Not that I drink peppermint tea; I don't.  The only tea I ever drink is sweet iced tea, and that's only at family get-togethers, these days...  But peppermint tea felt seasonally appropriate, so...)  

I've only ever read a few cozy mysteries, so I'm not really familiar enough with the genre to be an effective judge of them, but this was not nearly cozy enough for my tastes.  In my opinion, you should either go heavy on the cozy or just call yourself a regular mystery.  This was neither cozy nor much of a real mystery, so I'm not sure what I'd call it... A bland romance with an extremely lightweight mystery element, maybe.  Cinnamon, the protagonist, was ridiculously morose and self-pitying, as well, which made for a less interesting reading experience.

As for humor, there were a few moments of unintended mirth, but this was not one of the best 372-Pages selections.  Not one I believe will stay with me, particularly.  Even though there was a dog!  Even a cute dog couldn't save this one...  

Sweet Little Lies

Sweet Little Lies
by Caz Frear

Blurb:

Twenty-six-year-old Cat Kinsella overcame a troubled childhood to become a Detective Constable with the Metropolitan Police Force, but she's never been able to banish these ghosts. When she's called to the scene of a murder in Islington, not far from the pub her estranged father still runs, she discovers that Alice Lapaine, a young housewife who didn't get out much, has been found strangled.

Cat and her team immediately suspect Alice's husband, until she receives a mysterious phone call that links the victim to Maryanne Doyle, a teenage girl who went missing in Ireland eighteen years earlier. The call raises uneasy memories for Cat--her family met Maryanne while on holiday, right before she vanished. Though she was only a child, Cat knew that her charming but dissolute father wasn't telling the truth when he denied knowing anything about Maryanne or her disappearance. Did her father do something to the teenage girl all those years ago? Could he have harmed Alice now? And how can you trust a liar even if he might be telling the truth?

Determined to close the two cases, Cat rushes headlong into the investigation, crossing ethical lines and trampling professional codes. But in looking into the past, she might not like what she finds...

My Reaction:

This was far and away a better book than the last police procedural I read.  It's still not my very favorite genre-- but this one was pretty good.  It could have been tightened up a bit in places, and some of the things that were meant to be funny weren't really amusing to me, personally, but whatever.  I'd ideally give it 3.5 stars, but can't quite round up to 4, so it's staying at 3 stars.

I did see parts of the end coming.  In fact, when it looked like things were wrapping up in a certain way and my prediction hadn't been realized, I was bemused. "My" ending-- the one I thought I'd seen coming-- felt so much better (if I may be so bold), and I was disappointed that the author had just left it hanging there, unused.  And then of course we get it, after all, in that last twist.  So, yes, I'm pleased that I guessed it, though that probably only means it was a bit predictable by the final third of the book and not that I missed my calling and should have been a star detective.  

This is the first in a series.  I might give the second one a try, at some point.  Or maybe not.  It's not at the top of my list, but it could be interesting to see where the story goes from here. 

Death in the Andamans

Death in the Andamans

by M.M. Kaye

Blurb:

When a violent storm lashes the tiny Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, Copper Randal barely manages a safe return to Government House. She does get back in one piece with her hostess, Valerie Masson, Val's fiancé, and handsome naval officer Nick Tarrent, but one of the islanders is unaccounted for when the boats return to harbor. Cut off from the mainland and confined to the shadowy, haunted guest quarters, Copper and the other visitors conclude that one of their number is a murderer. The killer must be found before the storm destroys all trace of any possible clues.

My Reaction:

With this, I believe I've read all of Kaye's murder mysteries.  This (same as the others) was fine, but I always like the idea of her books more than the reality, unfortunately.  Apparently she's a solid 3-star author for me, based on past reviews (and this one, too).  Nothing amazing, but okay.  Good in spots, less impressive in others.  

These books always seem to have a peculiarly strong fixation on youth and beauty, which is rather off-putting.  Not that Kaye's the only author who loves heroines who are young, beautiful women-- they're the norm in this type of fiction, of course, and that's just the way it is-- but still, at a certain point the constant worship at the altar of youth and beauty is boring, if not irritating!  It almost feels as though a lack of personal beauty is a character flaw-- especially in female characters-- and your value decreases as you age or if you weren't blessed with attractive features.  Don't we get enough of that attitude in real life without being beaten over the head with it in our escapist literature?

Some of the attitudes between men and women in this book annoy me, too.  Men sending the women away from crime scenes as though they can't handle it, calling them "child", etc.  I never warmed toward Nick, and I'm not cuckoo for Copper, either (or her stupid nickname)... Valerie seems slightly less annoying than Copper, and for a while, I liked Charles pretty well, but eventually I got a bit sick of him, too!  (The Bertie Wooster routine eventually wore thin.  Not everyone has P.G. Wodehouse's ability to write Wooster-type characters without them grating on your nerves.  It takes some skill!)

That said, the settings in these books are perfect for a little escapism of the "travel mystery-romance" type, and they're easy to slip into for a little distraction from reality.  I did find it difficult keeping some of the secondary characters straight in my head, but oh well!  I also wonder if people ever actually quoted literature and poetry at one another quite as much as these characters do!  A little of that is okay-- only to be expected, in fact, from books of a certain type, from that era-- but it does get old after a while.  (Yes, you're educated!  Yes, you've read literature!  Yes, you have excellent memory!  Now, kindly shut up and get on with the story!)

Despite all my grouching, I do like aspects of these books, even if they're not perfect and don't always exactly hit the spot.  They have a way of making you feel nostalgic for (certain aspects of) a time you never knew.  Also, it was interesting to read the author's description of the storm, as someone who lives in "hurricane country".  

Near the Bone

Near the Bone

by Christina Henry

Blurb:

Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they're not alone after all.

There's something in the woods that wasn't there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws.

When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.

My Reaction:

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

Hm, not great.  The first half of the book lacked definite direction, which tried my patience.  There are too many detailed descriptions of what Mattie's doing, and none of it seems to matter (not to mention that I know what "doing X" entails, so don't really need to read a description of it).  Repeatedly, it would feel like something was finally going to happen-- someone was going to do something to set the story into motion-- and then it would all come to nothing, and we were instead meandering off on another tangent.  

The characters don't feel like real people to me.  The worst example of this is the disgustingly abusive William, who is nothing more than a hateful, one-dimensional caricature of a Bad Man with absolutely no nuance or depth to the character.  He doesn't seem to behave like even an evil person would.  He's just all over the place!  (Oh, and Mr. Evil is "Christian".  Of course.  Fits right in with everything he does, including kidnapping, murder, rape, shocking physical violence, and drug-dealing.  Here, author, have an eye-roll.)  

I also found it difficult to believe that Mattie would remember so little of her life before the kidnapping (or that she would recover so amazingly quickly from repeated brutal beatings).  I'm not sure how much of Mattie's story is supposed to be a mystery, but it's pretty obvious from very early on.  I understand that she's been brainwashed and literally beaten into submission, but I spent most of the first half of the book just sitting there willing Mattie to do something.  Maybe that was intentional, but it's so frustrating-- miserable to read.  

Then there's the creature... It's an interesting, rather bold choice to combine two such different types of survival stories-- one about a woman fighting to survive daily life with an abusive kidnapper, another about people trying to escape from an otherworldly creature-- but unfortunately, I don't think it works.  I see the intention, the parallels between the two very different "monsters", but it doesn't fall together as intended.  Instead, it feels like a jumbled mess with little in the way of satisfying conclusion.  (The final confrontation between William and Samantha was predictable and more amusing than emotional.  It felt very "written for the screen", in a cliché type of way.)

What bothered me most was the stupidity of the "three strangers" and the dialogue among those characters, once they come into the story.  It's just... completely wrong.  Surely real people don't act or speak this way, in these situations!  It doesn't ring true, and it makes the characters seem impossibly dumb and immature.  Was that the intention?  Who knows?!  

At about 52% I began skimming, but I read enough to follow the story until to the end.  It didn't redeem itself for me.  Too much of it makes no sense.  For instance, where did the creature come from?  Mattie and William have lived on the mountain for 12 years and the creature just appeared out of the blue in the past year, and yet Mattie says she thinks it's not an alien.  Okay... How would she know that?  And why not, since it just showed up one day?  Also, why was Mattie so shocked by the idea that there might be two of the creatures?  I mean, that's how these things usually work, isn't it?  Unless it was an alien just landed from another planet-- or the last of a species that lives for an exceptionally long time-- or a scout from another area (where, pray tell!)-- there must be more than one.  Right?  Animals, people, and "creatures" don't just pop into existence.  "A man needs sons"?  Well, a cryptid needs cryptlets-- cryptkits?  Whatever you'd call a baby cryptid.  

Meh.  Not a good read, in my opinion.  

Don't Look Now

Don't Look Now
by Mary Burton

Blurb:

Austin homicide detective Jordan Poe is hunting a serial killer she fears is the same man who assaulted her sister, Avery, two years ago. The details line up: the victims are the same age, same type, dead by the same grim MO. Luckily Avery survived. But the terrible memories linger, making Jordan more determined than ever to stop this monster in his tracks.

Texas Ranger Carter Spencer isn’t one to poach on a detective’s territory. Yet no matter how resentful a capable lone wolf like Jordan is, when she is attacked at a third crime scene and suffers a trauma that leaves her with limited vision, it’s up to Carter to help Jordan navigate a world she no longer recognizes. He needs her instinct, her experience, and her fearless resolve to crack this case. A case that’s about to get even darker.

A stranger is watching. He’s closing in on his ultimate prey. And no one but the killer can see what’s coming.

My Reaction:
I had to check out a book available on Prime, to qualify for a promotional deal.  This one looked okay.  I liked the name, and it had a good average over tons of reviews.  Apparently this author is prolific and successful, so it seemed promising.  Unfortunately, this simply isn't for me.  I like murder mysteries, but I don't enjoy anything too "police procedural"-y.  After years of watching Original Flavor CSI, I'm kind of burned out on that genre.  Films and miniseries are about as far as I'll stretch for a police procedural, these days, unless they are something very special.  They need to grab me by the collar and pull me in.  This didn't meet that requirement. 

Specifics?  I found certain aspects of it awkwardly written; fairly basic information any crime reader would already know was shoehorned into the dialogue, for instance.  The dialogue didn't feel natural to me.  Also, the level of detail on minor, inconsequential items and actions was over the top.  I just couldn't face slogging through a whole novel of that.  

I declared this a DNF (Did Not Finish) at the 10% mark.  No hard feelings, just not my style.