Thief River Falls

Title: Thief River Falls
Author: Brian Freeman
Published: February 1st 2020 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle 318 pages
Genre: Suspense

First Sentence: Down, down, down came the rain.

From the Publisher: Lisa Power is a tortured ghost of her former self. The author of a bestselling thriller called Thief River Falls, named after her rural Minnesota hometown, Lisa is secluded in her remote house as she struggles with the loss of her entire family: a series of tragedies she calls the “Dark Star.”

Then a nameless runaway boy shows up at her door with a terrifying story: he’s just escaped death after witnessing a brutal murder—a crime the police want to cover up. Obsessed with the boy’s safety, Lisa resolves to expose this crime, but powerful men in Thief River Falls are desperate to get the boy back, and now they want her too.

Lisa and her young visitor have nowhere to go as the trap closes around them. Still under the strange, unforgiving threat of the Dark Star, Lisa must find a way to save them both, or they’ll become the victims of another shocking tragedy she can’t foresee. (Goodreads)

My Opinion: I have started and stopped this book a couple of times. I have always been a fan of Brian Freeman’s but there was something about the slow start and things that seemed sloppy and didn’t make sense. Yet, I knew there was usually a twist, one that I wouldn’t see coming, and would make everything work. I just needed to be patient. It would show up eventually. And when it did, wow!

You might have a few inklings since there were tells along the way, but you might not recognize them until the final chapters, and once you realized what was happening, you won’t be able to absorb this book fast enough. Brian Freeman has a way of building his characters and settings, situations that you can see coming, and those sneaky bits which hit you when you aren’t looking.

Don’t quit too soon and you will be glad that you stayed for the ride.

Unfinished Business

Title: Unfinished Business
Author: J. A. Jance
Published: June 1st 2021 by Gallery Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Ali Reynolds #16

First Sentence: Prologue: An icy wind blew in from the west, and Broomy McCluskey, age fifteen, huddled in the moon-cast shadow on the far side of the shed, shivering -- whether from the chill or anticipation -- and waiting for the light in the kitchen to come on, signaling that his mother was about to send her mutt, Rocco, out to do his business.

From the Publisher: Mateo Vega, a one-time employee of Ali Reynold’s husband, B. Simpson, has spent the last sixteen years of his life behind bars. According to the courts, he murdered his girlfriend. But Mateo knows that her real killer is still on the loose, and the first thing he’s going to do when he gets a taste of freedom is track him down.

After being granted parole, a wary Mateo approaches Stu Ramey of High Noon Enterprises for a reference letter for a job application, but to his surprise, Stu gives him one better: He asks him to come on board and work for B. once again. Just as Mateo starts his new job, though, chaos breaks out at High Noon—a deadbeat tenant who is in arrears has just fled, and tech expert Cami Lee has gone missing.

As Ali races to both find a connection between the two disappearances and help Mateo clear his name with the help of PI J.P. Beaumont, tragedy strikes in her personal life, and with lives hanging in the balance, she must thread the needle between good and evil before it’s too late. (Simon and Schuster)

My Opinion: Wow. I don’t think there is one thing that J. A. Jance forgot to put in this book. She managed to cover all the bases, from birth to death, illness to healing, then rounding it out with justice being served, and a wrong righted. Each character from her past few books had a place here and then some. When a person says, if you don’t like the current plotline hang-on, there is another one around the corner, they hadn’t met Jance, where you can say, if you don’t like this plot, hold on there are another half dozen coming your way.

I am surprised how much I enjoyed this wild ride. The last couple of books were so-so, but this one grabbed me from the first page, and though the ending was a bit abrupt, I enjoyed the ride. There is no telling where she will go from here, but for once in a long time, I am looking forward to where Ali and the employees of High Noon Enterprises are heading.

The Lost Apothecary

Title: The Lost Apothecary
Author: Sarah Penner
Published: March 2nd 2021 by Park Row
Format: Hardcover, 301 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery

First Sentence: She would come at daybreak -- the woman whose letter I held in my hands, the woman whose name I did not yet know.

From the Publisher: Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries.

Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate—and not everyone will survive. (Park Row Books)

My Opinion: After a slow start, I was concerned where this book would go and how long it would take to get there. What I hadn’t expected was the intertwined stories to completely captivate me. How Eliza, Nella, and Caroline, though separated by 200 years, could share their voices and speak of sorrows and hopes in a way where the reader could feel each nuance, and if for a time, share in their journey of self-determination and discovery.

A Rogue's Company

Title: A Rogue's Company
Author: Allison Montclair
Published: June 8th 2021 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #3

First Sentence: The tram trundled down from the Vauxhall Bridge and screeched reluctantly to a halt, pausing long enough to allow two women to jump down to the pavement.

From the Publisher: In London, 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is getting on its feet and expanding. Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are making a go of it. That is until Lord Bainbridge—the widowed Gwen's father-in-law and legal guardian—returns from a business trip to Africa and threatens to undo everything important to her, even sending her six-year-old son away to a boarding school.

But there's more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter—and now their very survival is at stake. (Macmillan)

My Opinion: Very disappointing. When billed as a historical mystery, and the body, which turned out to be inconsequential, doesn’t show up until the middle of the book tends to be a bit misleading. When a preface doesn’t make much sense until the end of the book, and where the author spends more time describing women’s clothing, hair, and interfamily turmoil, than the plight of kidnapped victims, left me wondering what I was doing continuing with this book.

The only thing that kept me turning the pages was the humor, but even that was seldom and far between. I should have listened to my inner voice and given up within the first 100 pages.