Older Reviews
An archive of past book reviews in mystery, thriller, crime, horror, and other suspense-related genres.
Overboard
Dark secrets and corruption buried in Chicago’s neighborhoods
Shadow in the Glass
The victim was seen with a mystery man right before she disappeared
Smile and Look Pretty
their posts go viral and hundreds of other women come forward
Enola Holmes and the Elegant Escapade
Once again, for Enola, the game is afoot
The Golden Couple
It’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger
The Shadow House
She may have disturbed barely hidden secrets in her new home
The Shadow of Memory
The teens had discovered more in the house than they had realized
Lessons in Chemistry
As her following grows, not everyone is happy
Passersthrough
She disappeared in the wilderness of Mount Rainier National Park
Something Wicked
Trapped in a castle filled with feuding relatives with conflicting agendas
The Devil Himself
She knows too much and he lives in the crosshairs of narco machinations
The Echo Man
A copycat killer is working on his horrifying masterpiece
Dirt Creek
A twelve-year-old girl disappears on the way home from school
An Honest Lie
She can hide from the disturbing past she wants to forget, if she’s allowed to
Lost and Found in Paris
She decides to get out of town, booking a last-minute trip to Paris
The Marlow Murder Club
The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself
The Flight of Anja
All she longs for is to spread her wings and head for the horizon
Take Your Breath Away
A woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house?”
Hide
Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught
A Blizzard of Polar Bears
She must rely on her skills and tenacity to survive and carry out her mission
Mango, Mambo, and Murder
Her snooping may turn out to be a recipe for her own murder
Murder in Immunity
This case seemed no different than the usual—a murder-suicide
The Lost Kings
She’s desperate to find out what happened and where her brother is
The Observer Effect
The missing time traveler disappears the second anyone sets eyes on him
The Ravaged
Living hand to mouth, they build friendships
Strangers We Know
The search for a serial killer leads her into the tangle of her own family tree
The Verifiers
She has no interest in finding a conventional career or a nice boy
Nobody from Somewhere
she overhears two men going on about a casino robbery they just committed
Desolation Canyon
It initially appears to be death by misadventure
The Key to Deceit
A woman’s body floating in the Thames, with a bracelet locked onto her wrist
A Harmless Lie
Small towns always hide secrets and the past always comes back to haunt
Every Cloak Rolled in Blood
He tries to honor her memory by saving two young men from a life of crime
What We Harvest
Now, the only one she can turn to is the last person she wants to call
No Place To Run
A woman sees a girl running for her life across a forest clearing
Madwoman
She fakes insanity to have herself committed to the asylum
Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride
A recently engaged woman is afraid her fiance might not be who he seems
The Dark Hours
Ballard and Bosch team up to find out where old and new cases intersect
Point Last Seen
Buried in her mind lurks a secret so dark it could get her killed
Daughter
She is shocked to learn that her father is an infamous serial killer
The Harbor
When a fifteen-year-old disappears, the police assume he’s simply a runaway
Movieland
Seven victims over 14 months and officials still refuse to see a connection
Don't Know Tough
The fate of the high school football team rests on his shoulders
The Night Shift
Four teenage employees working late at an ice cream store are attacked
Abandoned in Death
Other young women have recently vanished
More Than You'll Ever Know
The dance becomes an affair, becomes a marriage, becomes a murder
The House Across the Lake
A story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving
Dream Town
His investigation will take him from mob-ridden Las Vegas to Hollywood
Girl on the Run
Two women fatally wounded, and one fighting for her life
The Sixteen Trees of the Somme
The death of his parents when he was three has always been a mystery
The Vanishing Type
Someone has mutilated all her store’s copies of The Scarlet Letter
These Deadly Games
If she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister
The Lightning Rod
His charmed life, so perfect on the surface, held criminal secrets
The Violence
A plague that causes random bouts of violence is sweeping the nation
Breathless
The higher they get, the more dangerous the climb becomes
The Darkest Place
This one case will wreak complete devastation on her life and plans
China
The rise and fall of empires as the colonial West meets the opulent East
The Fool Dies Last
A solitary Tarot card — the Fool — has been placed on the body
The Ravenous Dead
Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace
This is the Night They Come for You
These secrets could bring down the governments of Algeria and France
Shifty's Boys
He keeps on looking, and suddenly he’s getting shot at himself
Devil House
A chance to move into the house where pair of murders occurred
The Goodbye Coast
Against his better judgement, he accepts two missing person case
Do I Know You?
She is ready to risk everything to publicly expose the heiress’s crimes
The Broken Room
When his own country betrayed him, he dropped off the grid
Real Easy
A dancer is drawn into the murder and missing person investigation
The Christie Affair
She lured him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie
A Fatal Booking
One of the guests is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party
Wish You Were Gone
The mysterious details of his last day of life begin to come to light
Witness for the Persecution
A Hollywood movie director is accused of murdering a stuntman on set
What Moves the Dead
A nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife
The Paradox Hotel
She finds herself confronting not just the hotel’s dark secrets but her own
Friend of the Devil
Something far stranger than missing books is afoot
The Lost
Everyone is on high alert to find the missing five-year-old
The Favor
What’s inside a home can be more dangerous than what’s outside
Don't Get Close
A decades-old cold case centered on a cult of suicide bombers
Under Lock & Skeleton Key
Has the curse that’s plagued her family for generations come for her?
Insomnia
Is the madness in her blood, just as her mother predicted?
The Woman in the Library
The library’s tranquility is shattered by a woman’s terrified scream
Violeta
The Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known
The Red Palace
Evidence points to the Crown Prince as the murderer
Fear Thy Neighbors
She’s wondering if coming to the island is the last mistake she’ll ever make
The Torqued Man
The documents give conflicting versions of the life of an Irish spy
Rising Danger
Someone’s planting explosives on dams in the Twin Cities
The Accomplice
She has to dig up the one secret she’s spent her whole life burying
Scarlet in Blue
She is determined to finally escape the shadow of her traumatic past
The Fervor
A supernatural threat beyond what anyone saw coming
The Sinister
An FBI Deputy Director seeks his brand of justice
It Dies with You
His father has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad
Carolina Moonset
His father’s hallucinations begin to hint at deadly secrets and scandals
When a Killer Calls
The abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt
I’ll Be You
Two identical twin sisters have grown apart, until one disappears
Red Widow
The CIA is convinced there’s a Russian mole in the department
Manhunt
They outrun packs of feral men, and their own demons
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Her spirit and ambition galvanizes the village group into action
Horror Hotel
They find something unexpected in the former room of a serial killer
The Selfless Act of Breathing
He’s determined to end his life once his savings run out
The Murder of Mr. Wickham
Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect
Blind Owl
The author gradually drifts into frenzy and madness
Waif
She finds herself enamored with a fetish film performer
The Silent Sisters
An altercation ends in the death of a Russian organized crime leader’s son
One for Sorrow
Finding the truth could mean paying the ultimate price
Cherish Farrah
When her family home is foreclosed on, she is determined to reassert control
Unmasked
From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, a memoir
Shadows Reel
He’s on the hunt for a younger and more ruthless version of himself
Murder at the CDC
It begins with a mass shooting on the steps of the Capitol
One Step Too Far
When more people vanish, she realizes she’s up against something very dark
Breakneck Point
She’s hunting a killer; he’s watching her every move
The Hacienda
Something is wrong with the hacienda, and no one there will help her
The Overnight Guest
She discovers a small child in the snow just outside
Tripping Arcadia
By night, she discovers the more sinister side of the family
The Cape Doctor
Accused of a homosexual affair that nearly cost them their lives
Base Notes
The gender-fluid Vic grows increasingly desperate to complete a commission
Sundial
Her daughter collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends
An Impossible Impostor
They go to Hathaway Hall to covertly investigate the mysterious amnesiac
Murder in the Park
An antique shop owner is murdered in 1920s Illinois
The Investigator
Who is selling the oil, and what are they doing with the profits?
Dark Horse
One of the most vicious cartels kidnaps his eighteen-year-old daughter
True Wolf
They come under fire from supernatural terrorists seeking to start a war
The Village
The doors were locked from the inside
The Darkness Knows
A frozen body is discovered in the icy depths of Langjökull glacier
The Paris Apartment
When she shows up to his apartment, he’s not there
The Way it is Now
The skeletal remains of a child and an adult are found
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead
She’s got an ex-husband to keep alive, with her next book’s deadline looming
The Secret in the Wall
The locksmith who made the house’s unbreakable locks is brutally slain
Killing Time
What happens when the stories we’re chasing finally catch up with us?
Last Exit
The muscle car, the open road, and the white-hatted cowboy
The Apollo Murders
The White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide
Blue Fire
Weapons destroyed more than a century’s worth of technology
The Long Weekend
The women find a note claiming one of their husbands will be murdered
Elements of a Haunting
The history of six haunted locations
Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives
The locals don’t see a need for such an exacting investigator
The Lady in the Silver Cloud
Building residents are shocked when she is murdered after a Halloween party
Beach Wedding
He soon learns that digging up sand can be a dangerous activity
Black Orchid Girls
Hikers find the body of a young girl on the banks of the Potomac River
Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves
A team of scientists offer to pay her way off her frozen planet
Silver Creek Bodyguard
Her dark past follows her into the heart of big sky country
Greenwich Park
She threatens to expose a past crime that could destroy all of their lives
A Thousand Steps
He’s sixteen, broke, and never sure where his next meal is coming from
Long Gone
Her fellow officers no longer trust her
A Spoonful of Murder
Tragedy strikes very close to home, and this time she isn’t just the detective
Ready or Not
She starts investigating a serial killer operating in her hometown
Reader, I Buried Them
A collection of mystery stories, many with a touch of macabre humor
A Rip Through Time
A modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland
What Happened to the Bennetts
A pickup truck begins tailgating them, on a dark stretch of road
The Twyford Code
He’s desperate to find out what happened to his former teacher
The Ghost Sequences
Ghostly tales set to deliver a frisson of terror and glee
Unmissing
Missing for ten years, presumed dead, and very much alive
Dagger Hill
Their plans are dashed when a plane crashes on top of their favorite hangout
The Matchmaker
They believe he can establish the truth about a high-ranking Soviet defector
The Replacement Wife
She doesn’t like what she finds: a laptop filled with other women