Abduct Them. . .

Regan Pescoli is unlike any woman Nate Santana has met before. But now she’s missing, and Nate knows something is dangerously wrong. The only person who can help him find her is Detective Selena Alvarez, Regan’s partner. As Nate and Selena dig deeper into the Star-Crossed Killer case and the body count rises, the truth about Regan’s disappearance becomes chillingly clear.

And Kill Them. . .

In the desolate Montana woods, evil is lurking. And with time running out, the only way to save Regan will be to get inside a killer’s twisted mind and unravel a shocking message that is being revealed, one body at a time. 

My Review:  I found this book to be a real page turner, just as other Lisa Jackson books have been.  In fact this book continues the series with Detective Regan Pescoli.  It also continues the story.  Pescoli has the kind of bravery I wish I had, but know I never would.  She wants to get the killer and goes to sometimes extreme lengths to do so.  Throughout the book I had my guesses as to who the killer was, but not until near the end of the book did I figure it out.  This book contains some language and sex scenes, but overall a great read!

1.  Postmortem  -  Synopsis:

Natalie and her roommate, Jamie Evans, were both struggling young actresses, Jamie had been involved with a mysterious married man to whom she referred only by nickname.  Natalie comes face to face with him years later and inadvertently addresses him by the nickname Jamie had used.  A few days later, Natalie is found in her home in Closter, New Jersey, dying from a gunshot wound.

Immediately the police suspect Natalie’s theatrical agent and soon-to-be-ex-husband, Gregg Aldrich.  He had long been a “person of interest” and was known to hav stalked Natalie to find out if she was seeing another man.  But no charges are brought against him until two years later, when Jimmy Easton, a career criminal, suddenly comes forward to claim that Aldrich had tried to hire him to kill his wife.  Easton knows details about the Aldrich home that only someone who had been there-to plan a murder, for instance,-could possibly know.

The case is a plum assignment for Emily Wallace, an attractive thirty-two-year-old assistant prosecutor.  As she spends increasingly long hours preparing for the trial, a seemingly well-meaning neighbor offers to take care of her dog in her absence.  Unaware of his bioletn past, she gives him a key to her home…

As Aldrich’s trial is making headlines, her boss warns Emily that this high-profile case will reveal personal matters about her, such as the fact that she had a heart transplant.  And, during the trial Emily experiences sentiments that defy all reason and continue after Gregg Aldrich’s fate is decided by the jury.

In the meantime, she does not realize that her own life is now at risk.

My review: I enjoyed this book.  The story seems a little different from the typical Mary Higgins Clark story, but none-the-less compelling and a page-turner.  Actually there are two main stories that really never connect, but they deal with one character, Emily Wallace, I guess that is where they connect.  I read this book in two days.  I always enjoy books authored by Mary Higgins Clark because they have a great story line, but they are clean.  I don’t have to worry about language and graphic sex.  In a book of this nature, you would expect violence, but even that is not offensive to me.  This is Clark’s 28th suspense novel and I’m sure we will see more in the future.  This is a great summer read!

When a copy of Jennifer’s death certificate arrives in the mail, emblazoned with a red question mark, Bentz follows the postmark trail to Los Angeles, returning to the painful memories he’s tried so hard to forget, and straight into a killer s web.

Someone s been waiting patiently, silently. Someone who knows exactly what happened that night twelve years ago and has been anticipating Bentz’s every move. Soon it will be Bentz s turn to suffer for his sins. But he won t be the only one made to pay the ultimate price. For a diabolical killer has now made Olivia the prime target…

A vengeful ex-wife appears to have returned from the dead to stalk her ex-husband in this gripping thriller from bestseller Jackson (Absolute Fear).Former LAPD detective Rick Bentz has rebuilt his life with a happy marriage and new career with the New Orleans police 12 years after divorcing his unfaithful first wife, Jennifer, who subsequently died in a car crash. After “a freak accident in a lightning storm” that left his temporarily paralyzed, Rick starts seeing Jennifer’s ghost. When Rick receives an anonymous package mailed from Culver City, Calif., containing recent photos of a woman resembling Jennifer, he goes to California to investigate. In L.A., the Twenty-one killer, who strangles identical twins on their 21st birthday, resurfaces. Rick’s last unsolved L.A. case involved victims of this serial killer. Jackson heightens the creep factor by including the viewpoint of a character whose hatred for Rick for past wrongs inspires another extreme killing spree.

My Review:  This book is 424 pages and I read it in about three days.  Thankfully, I was on Spring Break and could read for long periods of time without interruption.  This, as other books I’ve read by this author is super engaging.  I need to add a note to say that this book IS beyond my comfort level in sexual content and language, but if you can look past that, the story hooks you in from the beginning, I think because it deals with the supernatural and paranormal.  The setting bounces back and forth between New Orleans and Los Angeles, and it spans a period of 12 years.  A dead wife “comes back” to haunt the spouse who is living, Rick Bentz.    The story kept me guessing and making predictions about what will happen next or how what happened could possibly happen.  This is a story about a cop who supposedly goes bad and leaves one jurisdiction and begin again in another.  Death and evil  follow him when he leaves New Orleans and goes to LA to gain more information about his former dead wife.  Meanwhile, his current wife is keeping a huge secret from Bentz and is in a great deal of danger herself. Bentz’s fellow police officers find what he has to say unbelievable, until they begin to see it for themselves.  This story includes romance, infidelity, suspense, mystery, and the supernatural – all the ingredients for a great story!

For struggling singer/songwriter Parker James, the music business has just turned deadly. Her desk in the reception area of a busy recording studio has become a crime scene, and Parker finds herself drawn into a mystery where nothing is as it seems. 

Unraveling the truth puts her own life at risk when she uncovers high-level industry corruption and is terrorized by a menacing stalker. As the danger escalates, Parker begins to question her dreams, her future, and even her faith. 

Double Minds is a double treat—combining a compelling suspense novel with an inside look at the world of the Christian music industry in Nashville. Terri Blackstock grabs readers at page one and keeps them riveted until the final plot twist is untangled.

My Review:  I hope this book does not portray the complete Christian music scene, although I’m sure there is some of this going on. Double Minds is an engaging story.  I cared about the characters and found myself wanting the best for them.  The ending has an interesting and unexpected twist.  Terri Blackstock is an excellent writer.  I personally just don’t care for books about Christian celebrities – whether true or untrue.  With all that said, I still recommend this book as an interesting and engaging read.  I like how the main character’s family, although broken, displays some healing aspects and tough love is lived out with possible encouraging results.  This book offers hope for difficult situations.  It also shows what happens when people don’t live as God intended and desires for us to live.  Real consequences happen for the characters in this story.   There is little to no sugar coating, which is popular in Christian fiction.  I find this refreshing.

Isolation is a story about a missionary family home from New Guinea feeling exhausted and full of questions and doubts about their time overseas.  James, the husband/father of the family, decides a move to rural North Carolina will be just the thing to refresh their spirits.  It will give them time to bond together as a family once again and it will give him time to do some writing he has been wanting to do.  So the family of four moves to a massive abandoned home built by a wealthy man and now used for missionaries in need of a break.  The home is beautiful, but secrets lie within. . .

This is a great story to read if you are in the mood to get spooked.  It really is scary, almost too much so if you believe in a spiritual world.  Thrasher does a great job building up suspense and dropping just the right amount of clues to keep you guessing.  I also liked how he dealt with some tough questions that we as Christians like to avoid, but have to answer.

I think this book was well-written.  However, I’m not really sure what I think about the genre – Christian horror would you call it?  I guess I feel a bit strange about it, because had it been a movie I probably would not have watched it as I tend to avoid movies with demonic themes.  He did portray the supremacy of God, so no problem there.  Anyone out there read a book similar to this?  Any thoughts?

Bree Nichols and her search and rescue dog Samson discover a crying infant in the densely forested woods outside of Rock Harbor, Michigan. Against objections from her husband, Kade, who knows she’ll become attached, Bree takes the baby in. Quickly she begins a search for the mother-presumably the woman reported missing just days earlier.

While teams scour the forests, Bree ferrets out clues about the missing woman. But she soon discovers something more shocking: Bree’s former husband-long presumed dead in a plane crash-resurfaces. Is he really who he says he is? And should she trust him again after all these years?

An engaging, romantic suspense novel from critically-acclaimed author Colleen Coble.

My Review:  All I can say is that I am glad this is a three-day weekend because I devoured this book in a day and a half.  I love books about dogs and families.  Throw in a little suspense and romance and I’m hooked.  I have read all of the books in this series.  This book has been added to the Rock Harbor series after quite a break in time, but it picks up where the others left off.  The setting of fictional small town Rock Harbor in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan just adds to the suspense – cold, snowy, icy weather.  This setting brings back great memories of living in northern Iowa and COLD winter weather.  Samson the rescue dog is just plain lovable and a real hero!  The main character Bree Matthews is very easy to relate to and has a lot of impossibly difficult decisions to make.  A few surprises are thrown in as well.  If you enjoy mystery, suspense, romance, small town living, and main characters oozing of integrity, you will enjoy this book.

But Polchak, known as the “Bug Man” because of his knowledge of insects and their interaction with the dead senses darker secrets buried beneath the soil.  Secrets that could derail the senator’s presidential bid.  Secrets buried in the history of a quaint Virginia town.  Secrets someone is willing to kill to protect.  With the help of a mysterious local woman named Alena and her uncanny cadaver dogs.  Polchak sets out to dig up the truth.  But with a desperate killer hot on his trail, he’ll be lucky to wind up anything less than dead.

My review:  Again Downs has a winner.  Nick Polchak is such an endearing character – brilliant, yet sarcastic and funny.  This book was a real page-turner.  I could hardly put it down.  I think because we are in the midst of a presidential campaign and one of the characters in the story was a presidential candidate, the story was timely and brought to mind how what you perceive to be true may not be true at all.  Alena, her amazing dogs and her unconventional lifestyle truly endeared herself to me.  Downs does a great job developing characters – many times they are people you “know” or would like to know.  The mystery keeps you guessing right up until the end.  Nick’s life is constantly in danger and he is willing to take risk after risk in pursuit of truth.  There are some twists and unexpected surprises along the way and right up until the end, which of course, make me anxious for the next installment of The Bug Man.  This book is clean yet contains all the elements of suspense and mystery that I love.  Keep the books coming, Mr. Downs!

My Review:  From the moment I picked up this book, I was hooked.  We revisited some of the characters in Burtons’ book “I’m Watching You,” but this story concentrated on other characters – mainly Kendall Shaw.  Burton seems to give you several people who could be the killer.  It’s hard to tell exactly what direction she’s headed, but you have some ideas, so it’s hard to put the book down until you find out if you are correct.  With “I’m Watching You,” the issue was battered women, in “Dead Ringer” the issue is adoption.  The characters are flawed and very human.  I don’t think there is a healthy family in the group – which make them knowable and believable.  There is some minor language and sexual content in the book, but you can easily skim over it, as I did.  The writing is interesting and fast-paced. I recommend this book to mystery and suspense book lovers who also love a little romance thrown in.  ”Dead Ringer” is published by Zebra Books.