Posts tagged with suspense
The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
We were huge fans of Jennifer Lynn Barnes's series The Naturals (with the exception of the last book, which was a bit of a letdown), so we had high hopes for her most recent suspense/mystery effort: The Inheritance Games, the first book in a trilogy of the same name. And while we can't say we found it as immediately engaging as The Naturals, this new series is off to a promising start...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
This week's Book Giveaway is Jennifer Lynn Barnes's 2020 novel The Inheritance Games, the first installment in her best-selling "trilogy" (consisting of four books) of the same name. Take comfort, impatient readers: I'm pretty sure the main storyline is concluded in the three books that are already out, and the fourth, which is due out in a few weeks, is a spin-off. A full review will follow shortly...
The Wind Off The Small Isles, by Mary Stewart
If you, like me, consider yourself to be a Mary Stewart fan, you might be concerned that you have never heard of her book The Wind Off The Small Isles, which her publisher describes as a “beloved modern classic”. But take heart, dear readers, because it turns out this description is utter garbage—Stewart produced several beloved modern classics, but this isn't one of them...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman
This week's Book Giveaway is Dorothy Gilman's 1966 novel The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, arguably the platonic ideal of an airplane book (clever, amusing, and enjoyably far-fetched). A full review will follow shortly, and this giveaway will run through 5/15/19...
I think not.
Just what the world needs: more grim Scandinavian horror! The trailer is out for the Icelandic film I Remember You. The movie is based on a best-selling ghost story of the same name by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, described as "The Queen of Icelandic Crime"...
Stiletto, by Daniel O'Malley
As I mentioned in my review of The Rook, the first installment in Daniel O'Malley's Rook Files, these books have been optioned for TV by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer. Now that I've read the second book in the series, Stiletto, I am even more impressed by Ms. Meyer's foresight, because if they get this series even halfway right she is about to make piles of money...
Julia Vanishes, by Catherine Egan
Catherine Egan's YA novel Julia Vanishes is better than V. E. Schwab's thematically-similar A Darker Shade of Magic series—creepier, more complicated, and inhabited by less glamorous but more interesting characters. Unfortunately, the cover art for Julia Vanishes is merely adequate, while Schwab's books look spectacular. I sincerely wish Egan's publisher had shelled out for something more impressive, because...
The Masked Truth, by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong's standalone novel The Masked Truth is the YA version of the movie Speed: instantly absorbing, action-packed, and blessed with Grade-A chemistry between its two leads...
Weekly Book Giveaway: The Masked Truth, by Kelley Armstrong
This week's Book Giveaway is Kelley Armstrong's The Masked Truth, which, if my eyes do not deceive me, is actually a standalone. This earns the book several points before I've even read it, because I don't have the patience to sit through another Armstrong series. Our review will follow later today...
Devoted in Death, by J.D. Robb
Devoted in Death is the 41st installment of J.D. Robb's futuristic mystery/suspense “In Death” series, and—unsurprisingly—things are getting pretty damn stale. There are a couple of nice moments in this book, but 99% of it is the literary equivalent of a filler episode...
Devoted in Death, by J.D. Robb
Devoted in Death is the 41st installment of J.D. Robb's futuristic mystery/suspense “In Death” series, and—unsurprisingly—things are getting pretty damn stale. There are a couple of nice moments in this book, but 99% of it is the literary equivalent of a filler episode...
Dead Ice, by Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell K. Hamilton has a gift. You wouldn't think a novel featuring vampires, werewolves, necromancers, polyamory, and—no joke—zombie porn could be dead boring, but somehow, inexplicably, Ms. Hamilton is capable of proving you wrong...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Dead Ice, by Laurell K. Hamilton
There's a 98% chance I'm going to regret this, but it's time for me to woman up: this week's Book Giveaway is Laurell K. Hamilton's Dead Ice. A full review will follow shortly, which means I'm going to have to actually read it...
Dangerous Deceptions, by Sarah Zettel
Dangerous Deceptions is the second book in Sarah Zettel's 'Palace of Spies' series. It continues the adventures of Peggy Fitzroy, lady-in-waiting (and part-time spy) at the Hanoverian court of King George I. Peggy has been tasked with nosing out the Jacobite rebels at court, but her work as a spy is increasingly hindered by events in her “normal” life...
All Fall Down, by Ally Carter
It pains me to say this, but All Fall Down is one of Ally Carter's weaker efforts. I have no doubt things will improve as the series progresses, but so far things are only fair-to-middling on... well, almost every front.
Weekly Book Giveaway: All Fall Down, by Ally Carter
This week we're giving away a copy of All Fall Down, the first book in Ally Carter's Embassy Row series. Carter has yet to write anything that full-on knocks my socks off, but she's one of the most consistently entertaining YA authors we follow, so I'm sincerely looking forward to reading this sucker...
Weekly Book Giveaway: Gated, by Amy Christine Parker
This week's Book Giveaway is the YA suspense novel Gated, by Amy Christine Parker, which appears to be a novel about a girl growing up in a doomsday cult. (Picking random novels off our to-be-read shelf always leaves me reading the world's cheeriest stuff.) Our review should be up later today...
Killer Instinct, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Before I launch into the body of my review, I'd like to commend my local chain bookstore for not displaying Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Killer Instinct in the children's section. That's where they originally stocked the first book in the series—last year's The Naturals—and it was a staggeringly inappropriate choice...
At least they don't all die in this one.
And speaking of film news, Variety reports that model Cara Delevingne is in talks to star in an adaptation of John Green’s Paper Towns. I haven't read the book, but if the Wikipedia plot summary is to be believed it sounds like it actually has a surprising amount in common with I Know What You Did Last Summer...
If 90s fashion trends continue, maybe they can recycle costumes?
According to Deadline, Sony Pictures is planning a new film adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Lois Duncan's 1973 horror/suspense novel of the same name. The book already inspired a very successful slasher film (and sequel) in the late 90s, so I guess the world's crying out for a reboot...
Revenant, by Kat Richardson
After nine books, Kat Richardson has finally brought her Greywalker series to a close, and she's ending the way she began: Revenant is carefully researched, densely plotted, and—it must be said—works much better on an intellectual level than an emotional one...
Premeditated, by Josin McQuein
Josin L. McQuein's Premeditated is the kind of novel that helps teenage mystery fans grow up into adult ones. In addition to featuring a lot of very teen-friendly romantic and familial drama, McQuein sprinkles her text with a series of tantalizing clues that are just tricky enough to make a young reader feel like Sherlock Holmes...
Dead End Deal, by Allen Wyler
Allen Wyler embraces that dictum about writing what you know: he's a Seattle-based neurosurgeon who writes suspense novels about Seattle-based neurosurgeons. His latest effort, Dead End Deal, is the story of Professor Jon Ritter, a neurosurgeon hovering on the brink of a major advancement in the fight against Alzheimer's...
A would-be Jane Bond?
According to the Times, former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson has signed a book deal with Penguin to co-write (with mystery author Sarah Lovett) a series of "international suspense" novels. T...
Gallager Girls (Books 1-3), by Ally Carter
I charged through Ally Carter's YA caper novel Heist Society like a rhinoceros on a mission, so I was hoping her Gallagher Girls series would prove equally absorbing. Unfortunately, I'd Tell You ...
Three Black Swans, by Caroline B. Cooney
First cousins Missy and Claire, the heroines of Caroline B. Cooney's latest novel Three Black Swans, are so close they can finish each other's sentences. They also look uncannily similar, so when Missy is assigned a school project on scientific hoaxes, she and Claire successfully trick her classmates into thinking they are long-lost identical twins...
Out at Night, by Susan Arnout Smith
Susan Arnout Smith's Out at Night, the second novel to feature San Diego crime-scene tech Grace Descanso, opens with a bit of stomach-churning violence: a middle-aged college professor crawls thro...
If money is no object...
...or you're just a really, really, really big Robert Crais fan*, you can buy a special limited edition copy of his upcoming novel The First Rule from The Mysterious Bookshop in New York. You can ...
Killer Summer, by Ridley Pearson
Ridley Pearson's Killer Summer is his third book featuring Walt Fleming, the sheriff of Sun Valley, a small Idaho resort town. I'm always hesitant about starting a ser...
Illegal, by Paul Levine
In the first three pages of Paul Levine’s Illegal, disgraced trial lawyer Jimmy Payne bribes a judge, (literally) loses his shirt, and ends up with a gun in his face... and the pace of the book ju...