The Last Mile (Blood Ties #2) by Kat Martin (2023)

 

Abigail “Abby” Holland, the granddaughter of legendary treasure hunter King Farrell, has inherited a map from King that he claims will lead to the gold for which he spent the last 10 years of his life searching. When someone breaks into Abby’s house looking for the map, Abby is even more convinced her grandfather was on to something. Abby contracts with another professional treasure hunter, Gage Logan, to help her find the treasure. Their quest leads them into the Superstition Mountains with danger following and then to Mexico where their biggest obstacle is the government and the cartels.

Abby is a beautiful woman who knows what she wants so expect a lot of conflict between Abby and Gage. Gage is your typical tall, dark and handsome male with a phobia about commitment. Mention of the sexual tension between the two characters gets a bit monotonous and distracts from the story.

Kat Martin is one of my go-to authors. Her books have never disappointed and this one does not either, although it is not one of her best. The “Blood Ties” series follows the three Logan brothers but can be read as standalone novels.

4.04 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 on Amazon

The Exchange: After the Firm by John Grisham (Firm #2) (2023)

 

Every time I read a John Grisham novel I am reminded of why I enjoy them so much. They are well written, fast paced, and engaging stories and The Exchange: After the Firm is no exception. The story begins 15 years after The Firm. Mitch and Abby McDeere now live in Manhattan with their where twin sons, Carter and Clarke. Mitch is a partner in the largest law firm in the world and Abby edits cookbooks.

When a mentor in the firm’s Rome office asks Mitch to go to Libya to negotiate the settlement of a lawsuit between a Turkish construction company and Gaddafi’s Libyan government Mitch, who is always looking for the next adventure, says yes. He also agrees to take his mentor’s daughter, an associate in the firm’s London office. When things go very wrong and the mentor’s daughter is kidnapped by terrorists, Mitch finds himself in the middle of the a high-stakes hostage negotiation that endangers everyone around him.

Some of the reviews I’ve read complained about the frequent mention of Mitch’s air travel, meals, etc. but I found the everyday minutia of life an interesting contract to the stress of the main event.

Although The Exchange is considered a sequel to The Firm, having read The Firm is not a prerequisite to enjoying this story.

3.72 stars on Goodreads, 4.0 on Amazon

Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen (2023)

 

Seven years before the story begins, the entire world was hit with a fast moving virus (“The Blinding”), resulting in complete blindness for the entire population. Millions of people died that first year due to panic and the resulting drug overdoses, suicides, rioting, and fires. The following year, Eye Tech, now the most powerful corporation in the world, introduced a cranial implant called a vidder which downloads visual information directly into the brain on what the eyes should be seeing. Blind Spots is the story of what happens when someone learns to hack the technology and can change what the wearer sees.

Homicide detective Mark Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding. When a scientist is murdered and the only witness insists the killer was blacked out of her vision, Owens doesn’t believe her―until he experiences the phenomena himself. No one believes him either until they witness the same thing right before they die. Suspects range from the tech billionaire who designed the vidder to anti-modernity cultists. Owens must investigate them all knowing he can’t trust his own eyes. Parallel to the murder plotline is the internal affairs investigation into the suicide of Owens’s wife Jeanie.

The reader can’t help but draw parallels to today’s world- the COVID pandemic, those that get vaccine and those that won’t or can’t afford it, search engine type results, complete with pop-ups, fake news, and corporations that hold the real power. I found Blind Spots a fascinating read.

3.89 stars on Goodreads, 4.1 on Amazon

The Dead Room (Harrison Investigation #4) by Heather Graham (2007)

 

If you are looking for mystery suspense book with an unconventional twist, The Dead Room is for you. Leslie MacIntyre is an archaeologist who barely survives an explosion that takes the life of her fiancé, Matt Connolly. As a result of her brush with death, Leslie now has the ability to communicate with ghosts, something she is slowly coming to grips with, with a little help from the people at Harrison Investigation.

Leslie is returning to lower Manhattan’s historic Hastings House, the site of the explosion, to work on a newly discovered burial ground in the area. She insists on staying at Hastings House to conquer her fears of her new abilities and come to terms with the loss of her fiancé the year before. Restless spirits, including Matt, inhabit both the house and the burial ground and lead Leslie to not only important archeological discoveries but also put her in grave personal danger.

Although Leslie can’t see Matt’s ghost he visits in her dreams, warning Leslie about the house and offering clues to the truth about the explosion which both Leslie and Matt’s cousin Joe believe was no accident. Torn by her feelings for both men Leslie finds herself caught between the worlds of the living and the dead. As she gets closer to solving the mysteries surrounding the house, Leslie must ultimately face the evil mind of someone very much alive.

The secondary plot centers around female prostitutes in the area who are disappearing without a trace. When the niece of a wealthy socialite disappears in much the same manner, Matt’s cousin Joe Connelly is the PI hired to find her. And, of course Leslie has to help him which puts her in even more danger.

There are 10 books in the Harrison Investigation series. This series, which ended in 2010, was followed by Graham’s The Crewe of Hunters (38 titles and still growing). This series also features Adam Harrison and his staff of investigators but on a much larger scale. The first title in that series, Phantom Evil, is also reviewed in this blog.

3.95 stars on Goodreads, 4.6 on Amazon

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (2021)

 

Reese Witherspoon Book Club Selection.

Being develop as a series starring Julia Roberts on Apple TV+.

Hannah, a skilled wood turner and furniture designer and has been married to Owen, for a little over a year. Owen works for a software tech company and has a 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, who wants nothing to do with Hannah after having her father to herself for most of her life. The three live on a houseboat in Sausalito, CA.

The story begins with Owen’s disappearance. Before running, Owen manages to get a note to Hannah with only two words – “Protect Her”. Hannah knows without a doubt that the “her” Owen refers to is Bailey. As Hannah tries to figure out what happened to Owen, his boss is arrested by the FBI for fraud.

When a U.S. Marshall from Austin, TX appears offering to put Hannah and Bailey into Witness Protection, Hannah is even more confused. Hannah refuses to upset Bailey life like that and determines to figure out why Owen disappeared.

Hannah and Bailey set out to discover the truth, together. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realize they are also building a new future, together. Their budding relationship is the crux of the story.

The book is well-written and the characters are well developed. Hannah narrates events in present tense but there are lots of flashbacks of her relationship with Owen. The book is definitely more a mystery that a suspense thriller.

There have been lots of books written about a husband or wife who don’t really know who they married and struggle to find the truth. Dern takes the genre somewhere it hasn’t been before, at least to my knowledge. I never saw the ending coming and that alone is a good reason to read The Last Thing He Told Me.

One of Us is Lying (One of Us Is Lying #1) by Karen M. McManus (2019) (YA)

 

One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention at Bayview High and only four come out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has a secret.

Bronwyn Rojas is the Yale-bound brain, Adelaide Prentiss is the beauty, Nate Macauley is on probation for drug dealing, and Cooper Clay is the school’s all-star baseball pitcher. Simon Kelleher, the creator of the Bayview’s gossip app, is the outcast.

Simon is dead before detention ends and the police rule his death a homicide. All four fellow detainees become suspects when the police discover Simon planned to post juicy reveals about all four of them on his gossip app the very next day

How far would you go to protect your secret?

4.05 stars in Goodreads, 4.6 on Amazon

This book is not available at EPL. Ask any of the reference librarians to get it for you from an area library. The second book in the series, One of Us Is Next, is available at EPL.

Woman Without a Past by Phyllis A. Whitney (1994)

Before the advent of psychological and romantic thrillers, there was the adult suspense novel. And one of the masters of that genre was Phyllis A. Whitney. It was refreshing to read a book that didn’t cover two generations, wasn’t told by the point of view of more than one character, and contained no sex. This story is told by the main character, Molly Hunt, as she reviews events that have already occurred.

Molly Hunt is a mystery writer in Long Island when she learns she was stolen from her aristocratic Southern family as a  baby and sold to her loving adoptive parents.  She also learns that she has an identical twin sister. Eager to meet her twin and learn about this newly discovered past, Molly travels to her family homestead in Charleston and finds herself surrounded by deceit, distrust, and mystery.

Phyllis Whitney wrote 76 books in her 65-year career, including 38 adult suspense novels. See a full list of her titles here.

3.71 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 on Amazon