Product Description
The scent is unmistakable gardenias, sweet and delicate, the same perfume that his beautiful first wife, Jennifer, always wore. Opening his eyes in the hospital room where he’s recovering from an accident, New Orleans detective Rick Bentz sees her standing in the doorway. Then Jennifer blows him a kiss and disappears. But it couldn’t have been Jennifer. She died twelve years ago…Once out of the hospital, Bentz begins to see Jennifer everywhere. Could she still be alive? But it was Bentz who identified Jennifer’s body after her horrible car wreck, and there had been no question in his mind that it was her crumpled form behind the wheel, her clothes, her wedding ring. He’s never doubted it until now. He can’t tell his new wife, Olivia, about the sightings or his secret fear that he’s losing his mind. But Olivia is also hiding a secret…

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!

From the Back Cover
The young girl with the Bohemian style was on the floor where she’d fallen, between Parker’s computer case and her file cabinet. She wore a long, flowing skirt—lavender, the color of calm—and camel-colored Uggs. She lay on her back, her long, wavy blonde hair matted with blood.

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.

A word of advice:  Don’t read this book if you are at home alone.  I tried it, and it scared me silly.  My husband could not come home fast enough!

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?

Product Description
Bree Nichols gets the shock of her life when her husband-presumed dead-reappears.

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.

From the back cover:  Some secrets just won’t stay buried.  When strange bones surface on a U.S. senator’s property, the FBI enlists forensic entomologist Nick Polchak to investigate the forgotten graveyard.  Polchak’s orders are simple:  figure out the mess. 

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!

About the Book: Beside each body, he leaves a simple charm bearing a woman’s name. Ruth, Martha, Judith. The victims were strangers to each other, but they have been chosen with the utmost care. Each bears a striking resemblance to Kendall Shaw, a local anchorwoman…each brutally strangled by a madman whose obsession will never end…In front of the cameras, Kendall is the picture of stylish confidence. But at night she’s haunted by nightmares in which she is young, alone, and filled with fear. Are these memories – or omens? Despite warnings from Richard Detective Jacob Warwick, Kendall can’t stop investigating the recent string of murders. She knows she holds the key to catching an obsessed psychopath – if he doesn’t get to her first…The deeper Kendall and Jacob dig into the victims’ backgrounds, the more terrifying the discoveries. For from the shadows of the past, a legacy of evil has resurfaced. Every murder, every moment has been leading to Kendall. And this time, nothing will stop the killer making her his final victim…

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.

From the back cover: When Hurricane Katrina strikes New Orleans, forensic entomologist Nick Polchak signs up to help with the recovery effort. He is known as the Bug Man for his knowledge of insects and what they can reveal about the dead. The government’s mandate is clear – rescue the living first, recover the dead later. But something is very wrong in the toxic soup-bowl of post-Katrina New Orleans. Something beyond the headline-making misery of a drowning city. Something that began before the winds blew and the levees started to crumble. Someone is using the cover of disaster to kill…hiding the victims of murder in the same watery grave as the victims of Katrina. It’s a tale only the dead can tell. but no one besides the Bug Man is listening.

My Review: This book was wonderful! I love all the characters in this book, but the main character, Nick Polchak, is by far my favorite. Nick is SO different and funny. He is a brainiac and because he is a forensic entomologist and knows and appreciates insects through and through, he considers himself part of the insect species rather than human. He is driven to solve murders and right the wrongs of life. He goes against direct orders and goes with his gut instincts, many times getting himself in trouble. This story also includes a slight love interest, which the other books in this series hadn’t, also adding much to the story. Dr. Elizabeth Woodbridge, psychiatrist for the DMORT (Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team) is on this trip to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This book has all of the elements of a mystery that I love – suspense, drama, great characters, and on top of all that – IT’S CLEAN! Yahoo! I didn’t have to filter out offensive language and sexual content. Thank YOU, Mr. Downs for writing such a riveting book! I give this book 5 stars.

From the Back Cover
The whole thing couldnt have taken more than sixty seconds.

Bailey hung on to the counter, dazed. If she let go, shed collapseand the twitching fingers of one of the gunmen would pull a trigger. The rest of her group huddled in frozen shock.

Dear God, tell me this is a dream 

The shooters teeth clenched. Anybody who moves is dead.

On a beautiful Saturday morning the nationally read Scenes and Beans bloggers gather at Java Joint for a special celebration. Chaos erupts when three gunmen burst in and take them all hostage. One person is shot and dumped outside.

Police Chief Vince Edwards must negotiate with the desperate trio. The gunmen insist on communicating through the comments section of the blogso all the world can hear their story. What they demand, Vince cant possibly provide. But if he doesnt, over a dozen beloved Kanner Lake citizens will die 

I read this book out of order. I read Book 1, 2 and then this. Now I have ordered Book 3, Crimson Eve. The first time I tried to read this book I put it aside. I don’t know why I couldn’t get into it – not in the mood or something. The second time I picked up this book, I couldn’t put it down. As with any hostage situation, it is hard to put down until you know what is going to happen. The concept that the gunmen wanted to communicate through a blog is another interesting take. This book shows that terrible things can happen in a small town as well as in the “city.” I love that God is brought into the equation and that people were praying nonstop for the hostages. The author is able to get her points across without offensive language. I appreciate that aspect! If you are in the mood for a page-turner, I recommend this series. The three books I’ve read are good, and I look forward to reading the third one.

About the Book: The widow of a rich, older man, Paige Sorensen is younger than—and hated by—her stepchildren. And they’re dead set on proving that she forged their father’s signature on his will, which left his entire estate, including the Sorensen Academy for Girls, to her. Claudia admits she’s intrigued by this real-life soap opera, and breaks her first rule: never get personally involved. But she’s grown attached to a troubled Sorensen student—and when disaster strikes, she’ll realize that reading between the lines can mean the difference between life and death…

My Review: I love a good mystery or thriller, so I was excited for the chance to review a book with a unique take on crime by examining handwriting. I do feel as though I learned a lot about what a forensic handwriting expert might do…I had no idea our handwriting could reveal so much about us!

I also really enjoyed the storyline of Claudia taking such a special interest in one of the girls and the faith she had in her.

I found the prose in this book to be a bit simple and the pace to drag a little bit at times, but overall this was an enjoyable read with a unique take on the crime genre.

There is some language and sexual content in this book.

About the Book: For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,” the mummy—to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact—seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse—horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.

To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large—and is now taunting them.

Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering—or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.

The twisted killer’s familiarity with post-mortem rituals suggests to Maura and Jane that he may have scientific expertise in common with Josephine. Only Josephine knows that her stalker shares a knowledge even more personally terrifying: details of a dark secret she had thought forever buried.

Now Maura must summon her own dusty knowledge of ancient death traditions to unravel a murderer’s twisted endgame. And when Josephine vanishes, Maura and Jane have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.

My Review: There are few times in the book calendar year so happy for me as the release of a new Tess Gerritsen novel. Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles are some of my favorite fictional characters and I always look forward to what comes their way next. (having said that, I loved the Bone Garden beyond all measure)

On top of that, Gerritsen always manages to find an interesting albeit super creepy topic to explore. The Keepsake is certainly no exception.

I grew up in St. Louis and the St. Louis Art Museum has a mummy. I can still remember the first time we took a field trip to the museum in school…how fascinated I was by both the mummy and the jars that apparently contained the mummy’s inner organs. I stood at the glass case staring in at those urns and trying to understand it all…staring at the mummy and trying to understand the life that it represented.

That fascination found a place in this book. For starters, there’s a museum with loads of artifacts that are not fully catalogued in the basement. That’s creepy. One of those items is a mummy, but it is soon discovered that the mummy is not ancient but from modern times. Very creepy. At this point, I couldn’t help but think what a perfect fall read this book was!

As usual, we delve a little bit into Jane and Maura’s personal lives, but the case really is the main focus. There’s a lot of suspense, some gory facts you feel you probably could have lived without but that make everything that much more interesting, a character whose past is shrouded in mystery, and so many twists and turns that just when you think you have it figured out–you realize you don’t.

The pacing is spot-on, the prose is easy as usual, and the ending leaves you eager for next book.
Once again, I have to say this is the perfect fall read, so enjoy!

Tess Gerritsen is also one of my favorite bloggers. You can read her blog here. You can also visit her website and watch the spooky trailer for The Keepsake!