This collection includes stories by writers who will be familiar to readers of mysteries and thrillers. Here are stories by very popular authors including Freida McFadden, Sally Hepworth, David Lagercrantz, Chris Bohjalian, Chadd Zunker, and Wanda M Morris.
Along with the stories, readers can also find out a bit more about each of the authors.
Read a story by a writer that you already enjoy or easily take a chance on someone new. Either way, there are some good tales here.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for this title. All opinions are my own.
Note: I think that this title is free in both print and audio for those who subscribe to Amazon Prime or Kindle Unlimited.
I have read many WWII historical novels so was not certain that I wanted to read another one. However, as Natasha Lester is one of my favorite authors, I decided to go ahead and am so very, very glad that I did. I recommend this book most highly.
In this novel readers meet Marie-Madeleine Meric who was a true historic personage. Readers follow her in the 1920s in Morocco and later during WWII when, with bravery, she faced unimaginable risks.
Marie-Madeleine married her husband somewhat impulsively thinking that they would have a life of great adventure. He went to Morocco to gather intelligence and relied on MM to translate for him. However, it also turned out that he was quite controlling and MM eventually left him to go to France.
Readers should know that even when Edouard tried to control her, MM had a mind of her own and for example twice took part in a famous road race, had her own friends and helped in a women’s clinic. Also,unlike her husband, MM was compassionate and deeply loved her son and daughter.
When WWII was brewing and came, MM became involved in the intelligence gathering process, eventually becoming the head of the Mademoiselle Alliance. Through this work, readers meet a wide cast of characters with whom she worked. Two of the most important were Leon and Navarre. They and many others faced unimaginable danger and heartache in these pages.
Natasha Lester is a writer who animates history. She vividly describes setting sand imbues her characters with life. This author made me care so much for MM and those she cared for.
Note that some readers may find resonance with present day life in the rising of Hitler as a dictator who used the military to achieve his ends and who persecuted untold millions. This adds extra resonance to this story.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House-Ballantine for this title. All opinions are my own.
Fresh Water for Flowers is the first book by Valerie Perrin to be published in English. The writer’s native language is French. Fresh Water is a beautiful book that is told in a unique voice. Protagonist, Violette, was abandoned by her mother and grew up in care. She was a loner until she becomes involved with Phillipe Toussaint. Together they have a child but Phillipe eventually disappears.
Phillipe and Violette worked at a railroad crossing although Violette did most of the work; they later go on to become cemetery keepers. Violette remains there after Phillipe leaves.
The story is told from Violette’s point of view. She tells it all, her hard times, her hopes, the things that she learned and taught herself, the people she sees and cares for and those with whom she works. All this within the background of the cemetery and many sayings from gravestones.
This novel is filled with humanity. I recommend it.
I am reviewing the audio version. It was a beautiful listen and I was sorry when the story ended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Jacqueline Kennedy was one of the world’s most well-known and iconic women. Her life has been well documented for sure. However, in this title, Ms. Mah, recalls and imagines an earlier time in Jacqueline’s life, long before she was a Kennedy. Here, she is a young girl, a Vassar student, on a junior year abroad in Paris.
In the author’s imagination, Jacqueline had to fight to get to Paris. Her mother and stepfather needed to be persuaded to let her go. Jacqueline’s mother’s goal for her daughter was a good marriage. When she finally agreed, it was with caveats regarding some young men that her daughter should meet. J’s mother also makes special arrangements for J to live with an aristocratic family, not in a dorm.
The book opens as J is arriving in France and follows her experiences and growth. In an early chapter, J is brought up against the reality of the Bouviers and how the family was not so well established as she had been led to believe. This exemplifies the ways in which time away from home leads to new understandings and perspectives.
Readers follow Jackie in a post war France that is still recovering. They make their way around the city with J and, such is the author’s talent, they feel that they could be there. In addition, readers follow the stories of those with whom Jackie comes in contact, including the family with whom she lives, the aristocratic Paul and some purported Communists, to round things out.
Fans of historical fiction are pretty certain to enjoy this novel.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!
Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place!
She decodes the invitation’s hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.
Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it.
Start reading:
CHAPTER 1
Destiny
Sunday, 9:57 a.m.
Destiny Whip warily eyes her bedside table, thinking how it could easily be mistaken for a miniature graveyard, what with all the little pills neatly lined in staggered rows, positioned upright like tiny headstones. It certainly feels as though she’s regarding the burial ground of her hopes and dreams, haunted by the specter of the enormous potential she’s so dismally failed to live up to.
When you’re declared a child prodigy, everyone expects you to go far in life, but all Destiny has managed today is a slow shuffle to and from the bathroom. Even that required Herculean reserves of energy.
Balancing her laptop on her knees, she reaches to the farthest side of the bed for her emotional-support urn, pulling it close and tucking it into her armpit as though cuddling a teddy bear. She kisses the top of the teardrop shape, the metal cold against her chapped lips.
Bex appears in Destiny’s doorway, leaning her head against the frame. “Good morning.”
Her best friend is still too scrawny, but not nearly as emaciated as she was a year ago when all she feasted on was beauty magazines and models’ Instagram pages rather than anything resembling food. Bex looks mostly healthy again, her long chestnut hair gleaming, the hollows of her cheeks no longer reminiscent of sinkholes.
“You okay?” Bex asks, the corners of her mouth turned down.
It’s the anniversary of the accident today, one year somehow crawling by on scraped knees.
Some people act like severe depression is a tarnish, one that can be polished off with the application of enough elbow grease. Luckily, Bex isn’t one of them.
Destiny tries to speak, but a knot of regret is so tangled up in her throat that the words don’t stand a chance.
Her laptop suddenly squawks with an incoming video call. In the months that Destiny has been seeing Dr. Shepherd, they’ve never once had a virtual consultation over a weekend. But today is going to be a tough one, which is why the psychiatrist insisted on the appointment.
As the ringing continues, Destiny gently places the urn beside her and instinctively reaches for her notebook before paging to the list of tasks the doctor assigned last month.
Bex sidles up next to her, reading over her shoulder.
1. Leave the apartment once a day to go for a walk or grab a coffee.
2. Reach out to an old friend or colleague to suggest a meetup.
3. Replace all the dead plants.
4. Keep a dream journal about the white-haired ghost woman.
5. Email the council expressing your wish to return.
6. Accept one of the consultancies that you’ve been offered (one that doesn’t require travel).
7. Work on forgiving Nate.
8. Limit your interactions with Bex.
Bex side-eyes the last item on the list. “Rude,” she huffs. “You’d think I was a bad inf luence or something.”
Rather than answering Bex or the incoming call, Destiny thinks of how she’s never f lunked an assignment in her entire life. Always top of her class, and despite being admitted to university as a twelve-year-old, Destiny cannot fathom this degree of failure.
She’s ticked nothing off the list, not even throwing away the plants whose shriveled corpses goad her, their untimely deaths undoubtedly due to the curtains constantly being drawn tight. That, and Destiny forgetting to water them.
The laptop’s ringing grates on Destiny’s nerves, but she can’t force herself to answer and face Dr. Shepherd’s disappointment. It will be carefully concealed, of course, with the psychiatrist gently pointing out there’s always next week, or the week after that, to achieve these seemingly simple goals. But it doesn’t matter how much of an extension Destiny is given.
It’s no use.
For how can she possibly cut ties with Bex, who’s her dearest, not to mention only, friend?
Plus, there’s no way the Council of Enigmatologists will take her back after she’s been AWOL for so long. Each time an envelope drops through the mail slot, Destiny fully expects it to be a letter informing her that they’ve completely revoked her membership. It hurts to remember how thrilled she was to be appointed president of the prestigious group just thirteen months ago, and how she, Bex, and Nate all splurged on a fancy dinner to celebrate.
When the call finally drops, Bex exhales, a long whoosh of defeat. “I know I shouldn’t enable you with all the talking, but it’s not like I can call anyone on your behalf.”
They both look down at the wallpaper on the home screen of Destiny’s laptop.
It’s a photo that was taken thirteen years ago when Destiny was eight. In it, her mother’s arm is f lung across Annie’s shoulders, happiness radiating from the two best friends in waves. Destiny’s eyes fill with tears as she studies her mother’s straight black hair and pale skin, and those enormous glasses obscuring most of her face.
Jutting her chin at Destiny’s mother, Bex murmurs, “I wish I’d known Liz.”
Destiny nods before turning her attention to Annie, with her striking Afro and beaded shoulder-duster earrings, and her smile as bright as the sun.
The image was captured two weeks before Liz died. A year later, the paperwork went through to officially make Annie Destiny’s second adoptive mother. Their deaths were a wrenching loss, a tearing in the fabric of Destiny’s being that she never quite stitched back together.
There were times in the before when Destiny experienced the sting of loneliness, that awful yearning of the one forever stuck outside, nose and palms pressed against the cold glass, gazing in at what belonging looked like: foreheads bent together, raucous laughter elicited by inside jokes, sentences finished by those who knew you best.
But this is not loneliness, in the same way that a drop of water is not a deluge, the way a sigh is not a hurricane.
“I’m so sorry that you’re having such a rough time of it,” Bex says, reaching out to tuck a f laming red curl behind Destiny’s ear. She freezes upon seeing Destiny’s expression, her hand hovering like a ghost between them. “A year is a long time, though, and Dr. Shepherd is right despite the fact that she clearly has it in for me. You need to move on.”
God, that Bex is apologizing to her, of all people, when everything that happened was Destiny’s fault.
“No, I’m sorry,” Destiny says, her voice pulled so taut that it snaps. Seeing the pills all standing to attention—no longer a cemetery full of headstones, but rather an army ready to fight the last battle—Destiny reaches for the urn again, stroking it like a security blanket. “If you stop talking to me, Bex, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Not gonna happen,” Bex replies breezily. And then more firmly she says, “Okay, it’s tough love time. You seriously need to shower because you’re stinking up the place. Plus, the kitchen needs cleaning. Those take-out containers have grown thumbs. I swear I caught them trying to hitch a ride to the nearest primordial swamp.”
Destiny laughs at how incredibly bossy Bex is.
Especially for a dead person.
Still, it’s reassuring that no matter how much has changed, some things stay exactly the same.
BIANCA MARAIS cohosts the popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers get published. She teaches creative writing through the podcast and was named a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto, where she loves playing escape-room games and writing about strong female protagonists.
This book drew me right in, beginning with the first chapter. It offers a unique read with some “Choose Your Own Adventure” elements and puzzles for the reader to solve. These make it a perfect read for those who enjoy both doing logic puzzles and reading mysteries. I imagine that the author had fun with this title. Add it to a summer beach read list…or read it wherever you are.
Many thanks to the team at HTP for the invitation to this blog tour.
Second in the series, Island Calling, will be published in June 2025 in England. No American date yet.
#WelcometoGloriousTuga #NetGalley
It is not easy to get to glorious Tuga. This fictional island is far from anywhere, takes a long sea (sick) journey to get to, and is often not accessible. It is a very distant (fictional) British outpost.
The islanders are descended from several families. Many have distinctive dimples. Some want to stay there, a few want to leave (and come back) and once in a while an incomer arrives.
In this story readers meet Charlotte Walker, a vet, who has traveled to Tuga where she plans to live for a year while studying a particular tortoise. She is escaping her London life and her demanding mother while hoping that, in Tuga, she may discover her father, advance her career and enjoy a new experience.
On the trip to Tuga, Charlotte meets Dan. He is a physician who has studied abroad and is returning to Tuga to take over his uncle’s practice. He and Charlotte spend a lot of time together on the trip out. Will they have a future?
These are only two of the many, many characters who populate this warm hearted story. It takes a bit to sort them all out but there is a helpful character list at the start of the novel. Get to know them, their stories, their interconnections, challenges and loves in these pages.
Many have already declared this to be a special book. I agree.
It seems to me that one of the joys of being an author is that the writer can create an entire world, populate it how they want and decide the fates of their characters. Segal has done all of this in creating Tuga. I recommend enjoying a (virtual) visit there.
First in a trilogy.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for this title. All opinions are my own.
Readers will so enjoy meeting Nora Breen, the former nun, who serves as the amateur investigator in this 1950s set novel. Formerly Sister Agnes, she has left the convent after many years to take up residence at Gulls Nest. Nora has chosen this location because someone close to her, who had been living there, is missing. Did Frieda meet with foul play? Nora fears so as Frieda had promised to write weekly and her letters have stopped.
At Gulls Nest Nora meets quite an assortment of characters. There is the woman who owns the boarding house and her daughter, Dinah, who does not speak. The reader never knows where she will be found. There are also the housekeeper (an awful cook) and Rose, who both work there, and then, of course, the boarders. These include a couple Teddy and Stella, a puppeteer and performer called Professor Poppy, the mysterious Karel, and others. On the side of the law is Rideout who engages in much verbal play with Nora.
The story becomes more intricate when someone is found murdered. This is not Frieda but, no spoiler, so I won’t say who. What else will happen? Will order be restored?
Nora is outspoken and sometimes brash (she throws a shoe at an unresponsive officer in the police station). She is also determined, bright and a keen observer with whom I loved spending time.
This is a terrific mystery and one that it is easy to recommend. I eagerly await Nora and Rideout’s next appearance.
Kirkus Reviews notes: “A delightful series kickoff in a cozy community primed for more murder.”
Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
Here is the first entry in a promising new cozy series. The protagonist, is Rick who goes by the nickname Chase; he is a retired detective whose partner died not long ago. Chase continues to miss him.
Chase has made plans to go on a walking tour in England. Also on the tour is his very good friend Billie, a retired librarian. They are two in a group of travelers. The most obnoxious of these has been threatened and indeed is murdered.
This is not a locked room but there is the concept of a contained group of people who come together. Who had the strongest motive? Will Chase be drawn in the solve the murder? Of course! The fun is in watching how things go.
I enjoyed getting to know Chase and Billie. I did indeed find the victim to be obnoxious and I enjoyed my virtual trip to England. Recommended for cozy fans who like their mysteries with some armchair travel.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this title. All opinions are my own.
This is the first book that I have read by Ellery Adams and I truly enjoyed it. The protagonist, Nora, is a bookseller who believes that there is a book that is just right for each customer’s particular emotional state; the notion that one could get meaningful suggestions from a bookseller was lovely in this day of internet sales. I enjoyed the many literary references and the back stories of the protagonists. There are also hints of romance. If you like cozies, I would recommend this book highly.
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Joyce's mystery and fiction book reviews with some non-fiction too! 