Older Reviews
An archive of past book reviews in mystery, thriller, crime, horror, and other suspense-related genres.
Murder at Keyhaven Castle
By the end of the day one of them is dead and all of them are suspects
The Bombay Prince
She tries to bring justice to the family of a murdered student
Where Ravens Roost
While on suspension, the detective’s estranged father leaves a message
Kill All Your Darlings
The police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder
A Darker Reality
A spy thriller set in the 1930s when the world was a place of uncertainty
The Steal
They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend—until they’re stolen
The Diva Serves Forbidden Fruit
The victim scratched a clue into the soil
One Child Alive
A calculating monster who seems to know her every weakness
The Bookshop Murder
Everything changes when she discovers a body among her own bookshelves
The Trawlerman
The brooding waters of the Kent coastline offer an ominous backdrop
A Time to Swill
A saloon owner is after a murderer with skeletons in the closet
56 Days
Lockdown provided the opportunity to commit the perfect crime
Dance with Death
In 1893 Queen Victoria is arranging marriages for royals
Crooked In His Ways
He disappears just before Christmas in 1856, and reappears in several pieces
The Forest of Vanishing Stars
She uses her knowledge of the wilderness to help Jewish refugees
The Watcher Girl
A woman’s suspicions about her ex-boyfriend become an obsession
Dream Girl
He wakes up next to a dead body and realizes his nightmare is just beginning
Murder in an Orchard Cemetery
The Reverend Mother’s annual retreat is shattered by sudden, violent death
House of Crows
A girl walked into the woods and vanished forever
The Hollywood Spy
She trades bomb-ravaged London and Nazi-occupied Europe for LA
Everything We Didn’t Say
A mother must confront the dark summer that changed her life forever
Daughters of Sparta
The Siege of Troy, told through the perspectives of two women
Striking Range
The killer has a cold-blooded plan that threatens K-9 and detective
Cajun Kiss of Death
Blood may be thicker than water, but this case is thicker than gumbo
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Her predecessor mysteriously died
The Lies We Tell
A mother is faced with a terrifying decision: to save her son or herself
The Babysitter
There was one thing she didn’t know: their babysitter was a serial killer
The Whispering Dead
In the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering
The Burning
For a deputy coroner, a murder hits close to home
Searchers in Winter
A new French Empire is rising from the shadow of the Reign of Terror
The Therapist
A house that holds a shocking secret
The Heron’s Cry
A detective is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists
Hell’s Jaw Pass
Train holdups, ranch wars, slaughter—this little boomtown’s got it all
The Grandmother Plot
Death isn’t unexpected in a nursing home, but murder is
The Witness For The Dead
His skills lead him into a morass of treachery, murder, and injustice
The Maid
An eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed
Relentless
His enemies have turned him into a fearsome weapon
Loch Down Abbey
It’s the 1930s and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland
The Third Grave
a crime writer and her detective husband are working a cold case
The Library of the Dead
A cynical teen explores the shadowy magical underside of Edinburgh
The Good Sister
Sisters who protect each other from a sociopathic mother
Shadow Target
Someone is assassinating CIA field officers and his name is next on the list
Dark Intercept
A Navy SEAL gets a call from a friend whose daughter has been kidnapped
The Plot
A story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it
These Silent Woods
A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains
Secret Enemy
He should be the last man she wants, but she can’t help herself
The Other Passenger
A daily boat trip commute upended when one of the regulars disappears
The Guide
Hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, he uncovers a plot
Our Kind of People
Among New York City’s Gilded Age elite, one family will defy convention
Falling
Thirty minutes before the flight, the pilot’s family was kidnapped
A Good Day for Chardonnay
A bar fight gone bad and a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer
We Were Never Here
An annual backpacking trip has deadly consequences
Painting the Light
A storm strikes, a ship sinks, and a husband and wife are presumed dead
The Perfect Family
A prank sets the perfect family down a path of suspense
The Heathens
A woman is found dead and three delinquent teens go on the run
Shutter
A young woman agrees to star in a filmmaker’s latest isolating project
Her Three Lives
A family must determine who the real enemy is after a brutal home invasion
Fatal Family Ties
A Texas genealogist deals with murders in both the past and present
The Serial Killer’s Wife
They’re saying he’s a monster, and that she knew
Silence in the Library
A Regency widow finds a corpse when visiting a family friend
Warning Light
An aircraft makes an emergency landing at an Iranian military base
Rogue Strike
He’s hunting the shadowy figures behind a global conspiracy
Black Flag
After years of relative calm, piracy has returned to the high sea
Castle Shade
A queen, a castle, and a dark and ageless threat await Sherlock Holmes
Razorblade Tears
A black father, a white father, two murdered sons and vengeance
Our Woman in Moscow
A woman vanishes from her home with her diplomat husband and children
To Cook A Bear
A revivalist preacher investigates a murder in the village
The Betrayals
The best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu
Don’t Look Now
A homicide detective hunts a serial killer she fears assaulted her sister
Her Last Holiday
Two years ago, her sister disappeared on a wellness retreat gone wrong
Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche
Enola is the younger sister of Sherlock
The Rocky Road to Ruin
A stranger is camping behind the farm and her brother turns up dead
Death of an Irish Mummy
The would-be heir to an Irish earldom, come to claim her heritage
Choose Me
A murder mystery about a reckless affair and dangerous secrets
Scorpion
Twenty-two people have been murdered, all branded with a number
Falling
The only way the pilot’s family will survive is if he crashes the plane
Another Kind of Eden
A tale of justice, love, brutality, and mysticism set in the 1960s
The Secret Staircase
The discovery of a staircase that had been walled in years earlier
Stargazer
Her friend confessed to the murder of an estranged husband
The Collector’s Daughter
She was the first person to crawl inside the tomb for three thousand years
Where the Truth Lies
A teenage girl goes missing, and her friend sets out to discover the truth
A Distant Grave
The body of an Irish national turns up in a Long Island beach community
The Perfect Marriage
A second chance at true love, but not without collateral damage
The Death of Jane Lawrence
A marriage of convenience and an agreement never to visit one location
Viral
A family’s exposure to a rare virus puts them at the center of danger
Suburban Dicks
A former FBI profiler gave up her career to raise her four children
Hard Target
Reports of a terrorist attack in Chicago during the Vice President’s speech
People Like Them
Their lives are upended when a family of outsiders moves in
Dominus
The most storied empire in history from the eternal city at the center of it all
Undercover Wolf
An unexpected partnership leads two wolves to reconsider everything
Finding Tessa
They appear to be a young couple in love with nothing to hide
Hold Back The Night
A female SWAT team operative hunts two escaped convicts
The Deadly Mystery of the Missing Diamonds
Missing diamonds, mysterious deaths
Chasing the Lion
An extremist terrorist organization targets America and its western allies
I Don’t Forgive You
After a neighborhood party, this mom is the prime suspect in a murder
The Art of Betrayal
An antique dealer’s spring is cut short when a body turns up at the pageant
The Influencer
Adored by her followers, the social media megastar is an inspiration
The Next Wife
Lies, suspicion, and secrets can poison the perfect marriage
August’s Eyes
Dreams bleed into reality, and a social worker faces the mistakes of his past
Girl One
Nine “Miracle Babies” are conceived without male DNA
Buried Secrets
Share the secrets or become part of the lie?
The Shape of Darkness
A Victorian murder mystery, with threads of spiritualism and supernatural
When Ghosts Come Home
A haunting story of crime and forgiveness, race and memory
The Perfect Lie
He jumped to his death, now his wife is charged with murder
The Pretty One
Secrets and sibling rivalry can tear even the strongest families to shreds
Six Weeks To Live
Diagnosed with cancer, she sets out to discover if someone poisoned her
The Missing Piece
A man is murdered, surrounded by the loot from his latest scam
His First Wife’s Secret
Two women married to the same man at different times in their life
Reserved For Murder
More bloodshed at a bibliophiles’ bed-and-breakfast
Emily’s House
She was Emily Dickinson’s maid, her confidante, and her betrayer
A Death at Seascape House
Has her nemesis stolen the most valuable book in the collection?
A Trail of Lies
A human remains detection dog finds no evidence of the body
Paradox Lake
The lake transforms into a nightmare when a monster targets her daughter
A Peculiar Combination
Spies, murder, and romance in England during World War II
A Deadly Influence
Someone has kidnapped her son and is demanding a $5 million ransom
The Best of Friends
After a sticky divorce, she moves to a small town for a fresh start
The April Dead
An American sailor from the Holy Loch Base goes missing
Sucker Punch
A brutal murder, a suspect in jail, and an execution planned
Legacy
A childhood crush, romance, text-messaged threats, and murder
The War Nurse
Sixty-five nurses to relieve the British before reinforcements can arrive
The Bath Conspiracy
Stolen loot in the trunk of their car after a trip to Stonehenge
The Saboteurs
An attempted assassination and the sabotage of the Panama Canal
Project Hail Mary
Three astronauts embark on a last-chance mission to save humanity
Our Last Echoes
A girl’s hunts for the truth about her mother’s disappearance
Did I Say You Could Go
Families and friendships torn apart by obsession, secrets, and betrayal
The Royal Secret
A secret so explosive it could change the entire face of Europe
The Devil May Dance
An investigation into Frank Sinatra leads to a world of Hollywood scandals
The Radio Operator
A German immigrant becomes embroiled in a Nazi spy ring
Bone Rattle
Gruesome murders in Alaska set a Deputy US Marshal on the hunt
Death on Ocean Boulevard
Two mysterious deaths ten years ago, investigated in this true crime story
When The Stars Go Dark
A detective hides from the world while disappearances reach into her past
Hairpin Bridge
Her sister drove to a remote bridge and jumped. Or did she?
Mr. Campion’s Coven
A luxury yacht beaches on a mudbank, its captain very dead
Arsenic and Adobo
A nasty food critic drops dead moments after a confrontation
The Dinner Guest
Four people walked into the dining room; one would never leave
Widespread Panic
The 1950s Hollywood underground teems with FBI finks, smut films & more
Tender is the Flesh
Working at the local processing plant, in the business of slaughtering humans
M, King’s Bodyguard
Assassination in Edwardian London and one detective’s mission to save the king
Passenger 23
A transatlantic crossing becomes a nightmare
Howls From Hell
A horror anthology with a foreword from Grady Hendrix
Crimson Lake Road
A prosecutor races to catch an art-obsessed serial killer
The Lake
A mother’s falls apart when her teenage son drowns in the waters by his school
Jackpot
Two young men are framed for cheating in a Macau casino
When A Stranger Comes To Town
Terrifying encounters with strangers from bestsellers in crime fiction
The Mirror Man
The pharma company creates a clone, and he begins to doubt himself
A Dark and Secret Place
Her late mother had been secretly corresponding with a serial killer
Forest of Secrets
A former spy investigates rumors of a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth
Fugitives of the Heart
An orphan and a man with a dangerous past strike up an unlikely friendship
This Is Why We Lie
The popular cheerleader drowned, but it was no accident
The Great Mistake
The rise of one of NYC’s famed planners, and his murder