Gina Royal, young and naive, thought she was living the ‘typical’ and expected life as a woman, married with two children.  But then her life was completely upset when a drunk driver drove his car into the wall of her attached garage … to reveal a horror she never imagined. Her quiet, often absent husband was a serial killer and his locked room, now revealed to the neighborhood and the police investigating the drunk driver, the filleted body of a young woman hanging from chains in the room.  And this wasn’t the first.

It’s hard to believe that she knew nothing about the horrors going on in her own home, and Gina was tried but acquitted. But plenty of people made up their own minds as to Gina’s role, and now she and her children are constantly on the run, changing their names and up-rooting their lives in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the vile internet trolls attempting to lynch Gina and her kids.

This is a thriller, and author Rachel Caine builds this story quite masterfully.  Enough so that there were numerous times that I thought about quitting the book because it was making me quite uncomfortable. I suppose that’s what you want in a thriller, though.

Despite Gina’s overwhelming drive to look after her children and not trust anyone, I thought that she gave in much too easily to finally trust someone.

Caine provides us with three men who appear in Gina’s life all about the same time.  The savvy reader will understand that one of these men is not to by trusted.  But which one?  We get a few red herrings and a 180° turn-about, but this all falls into the pretty typical material for a thriller of this sort.

I had guessed the outcome of each of the men perfectly, and even the reveal of an accomplice.  I had not anticipated the very ending, but I was not expecting this to ‘be continued’ either.  I was a bit disappointed in that aspect.  99% of the book stood alone as a single book, but with one sentence we get clear evidence that the story isn’t really over.

While I liked this, I’m not going to go on and read the rest of the series.  But I might look for other books by Rachel Caine.

Looking for a good book?  If you enjoy a thriller that will make you feel quite uncomfortable as you read it, then Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine is just the right book for you. You’ll likely squirm a bit.

I borrowed this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.

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Stillhouse Lake

author: Rachel Caine

series: Stillhouse Lake #1

publisher: Thomas & Mercer

ISBN: 1477848665

paperback, 286 pages

It is summer in northern Iceland, but the 24 hour sunlight is blotted out of the sky by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption.  The darkness is a constant reminder of the darkness of the human heart.

A man is found in a peaceful fjord, brutally beaten to death. Who is the dead man? Why was he beaten and killed? Such a murder stretches the limited capacity of the local police. A young reporter from Reykajvik leaves the comfort of the big city to investigate in Siglufjordur on her own.

The Siglufjordur police struggle with personal problems while trying to understand and solve this horrific crime. They also suspect that time is of the essence. They don’t want more bodies in their little town, but the foreboding blackout from the volcanic ash suggests there will be more.

This is, apparently the third book in a series.  I’m not sure which characters are consistent through the books. It doesn’t seem like it should matter … the story feels mostly self-contained in this one volume. But at the same time, it feels as though there is something else happening that we’re not being let in on.

I’ve been fascinated by the dark literature of Scandinavia in general and Iceland in particular, and I really thought that this book would fit right into this very specific type of thriller. But it didn’t.

Except for the beginning, which did a wonderful job of setting up the crime and getting me interested in reading more, I found the book to be quite dull. I never really understood who the different characters were and their personal stories seemed to conflict with the plot rather than merge with it.  The pacing all felt very even (again, with the exception of the opening) and I never gained the excitement, the thrill, I expect when reading a thriller of this sort.

This one really didn’t work for me, and I will attribute it to the fact that I haven’t read the first books in the series.

Looking for a good book? Blackout by Ragnar Jónasson is the third book in a series and one probably needs to read the previous books. As a stand-alone this doesn’t thrill.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Blackout: A Thriller

author: Ragnar Jónasson

series: Dark Iceland #3

publisher: Minotaur

ISBN: 1250171059

hardcover, 248 pages

This is my first foray into the Jack Stratton detective/thriller series.  This is the seventh book in the series and the ratings on Goodreads are quite stellar, so I was really looking forward to this.

Jack Stratton is an ex-military, ex-police, private detective. Along with his fiancee Alice Campbell, they run a detective agency which takes them all over the globe.  Currently, they are being contracted by a television program called Planet Survival – a Survivor-like ‘reality’ show. Jack will go undercover as a local hire on wintery Mount Minuit as a crew member.  Already a sound man has been killed, and the show has been receiving threats – likely from natives and/or environmentalists who aren’t happy that Hollywood has invaded their pristine territory.  But of course the show is so successful that postponing production or going elsewhere is completely out of the question. The weather on Mount Minuit is as unpredictable as the killer, and if the killer doesn’t get Jack and crew, the weather might.

Despite being the seventh book in a series, this book stands alone nicely.  Author Christopher Greyson does a fine job of filling in the necessary background information without slowing down the initial story too much.

The characters were interesting – Jack is, of course the most finely fleshed out, but given their history (ex-military, ex-cop, in-demand PI) it’s a bit ridiculous to think that they are really only in their 20’s. Still, it’s an action/thriller and there’s some willing disbelief necessary to buy in to the action.

Early on, Jack has to try to fit in with the crew and prove his value and that he’s local.  He does this with a snow-mobile race, choosing the most dangerous path, and managing to save his opponent from being beheaded by a recklessly placed wire.  Or was it an intentionally placed wire?

I was hooked and interested at this point, and then the book lost me.

As with many thrillers, each step of the way was paved with dangers and each danger had to be more threatening and dangerous than the last.  When a building blew up and Jack and another man were on the run through the snow, and the explosion caused an avalanche that nearly buried the pair, we were barely a third of the way into the book.  How do you top an explosion and an avalanche?  With red herrings, apparently.  But these red herrings weren’t just hints and suggestions, they were outright statements (“I think so-and-so must be guilty”), an attempt to find the connection of guilt to the named party, only to realize it wasn’t that person after all and on to the next.

You could, of course, figure out who was going to be the criminal based on who wasn’t being named.

Despite the attempts of action on top of action sequences, I grew bored with the book and ultimately didn’t really care. Jack was more action hero than detective, and I’ve not really been impressed with action hero characters. Alice seemed to have the most interesting story (on-going), but she played a more background character here.

I definitely wanted to like this more than I did.  It turned out to be a pretty stereotyped action hero and it reads more like a wannabe movie series than a detective or even thriller book series.

Looking for a good book? Jack Frost by Christopher Greyson is a detective/thriller book that relies on a stereotyped action-hero character and a lot more luck than skill at detecting.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Jack Frost

author: Christopher Greyson

series: Jack Stratton #7

publisher: Greyson Media Associates

ISBN: 1683990838

paperback, 254 pages

I first discovered Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason about three years ago and I was immediately captivated by the tone of his novels and I’ve now got our small town library filled with his books. When I saw his name and this book available for request for reviewers, I was excited to make the request.  What I didn’t know was that this is part of a new series (the second book) known as the Reykjavik Wartime Mystery series.  This definitely threw me off as I read the first few chapters … Why are we in 1941?  Where is Inspector Erlendur? … Of course I caught on that this was not part of the Inspector Erlendur series and I just sat back to enjoy my mystery.

A man is found dead, shot in the head execution style, in a small apartment in Reykjavik. The bullet belonged to a Colt .45 pistol – standard issue for American GIs! Icelandic Detective Flóvent must work with U.S. Military Police Officer Thorson (a Canadian with Icelandic parents) since there is a strong possibility that the killer is a U.S. serviceman.

But the first surprise comes when the landlady informs them that the dead man is not the man who rents the apartment, as they first suspected.  Now they must identify who was murdered while also looking for the killer.  The deeper Flóvent and Thorson get into the case, the more disturbing the connections to the world war become.

I found this book to be very straightforward and without the entanglements of multiple subplots. My reaction, as I neared the end, that this was a very straight-forward detective mystery. We arrive on the scene with the detective(s) and follow them as they look into the case.

This makes it a slow-moving book.  Slow is not always a bad thing.  I enjoyed following along and making these discoveries. And the history of Iceland’s involvement as a strategic location in WWII was very interesting.

I missed, though, the moodiness that is typically concomitant with Icelandic mysteries.

I’ve seen this book identified as a ‘thriller’ and as a ‘police procedural.’  ‘Police procedural’ – Definitely!  ‘Thriller’ – not so much.

Looking for a good book? If you enjoy detective novels, police procedural stories, and WWII history, Arnaldur Indriðason’s The Shadow Killer is just the right read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Shadow Killer

author: Arnaldur Indriðason

translator: Victoria Cribb

publisher: Minotaur Books

Ellie Matthews is a criminologist now working as a professor at a local college. She recently assisted on a high-profile murder case, garnering some unwanted attention and now he’s happy to just get back to teaching. Despite her desire to hide in obscurity she agrees to an interview with a charming young student who says he wants to make an impression on the school newspaper editor by landing the one interview that no one else can get.

Not long afterward, a family friend is found dead, murdered, in the bushes on campus and Ellie’s younger sister, Rachel, is missing. The only clue is a cryptic note that references an older criminal case – a case that has been closed due to a conviction.

Despite her close connection to victims of the crimes, Ellie is the bast at what she does and she is brought in to help solve the case.  Time is of the essence when the kidnapper gives Ellie and the police a deadline before he does to Rachel what he did to the family friend.

Under a great deal of pressure, Ellie falls into alcohol bottles and pushes away Detective Nick Baxter who is looking out for her as well as trying to solve the case.

I’m familiar with Caroline Fardig’s writing only from the more lighthearted Java Jive mysteries (which I’ve greatly enjoyed) and the darker nature of this book took me a little bit bu surprise. But a good surprise.

Fardig is a solid, quality writer and this dark thriller is nicely plotted. Ellie works swiftly, uncovering clues from the past with relative ease. She does occasionally make some assumptions (that prove correct) in order to keep the story moving along, but this is mostly forgivable.

There are a couple of moments when the suggestion of romance is brought forth, in particular, when Ellie takes note of a strong, handsome man, but of course she dismisses it because she’s busy trying to find her sister. Just the idea of her noticing it strikes me as a little bit off, but I recognize that this likely speaks to her larger reading audience.

Every once in awhile, when reading a book, a line or phrase really strikes me. In this case it was the simple phrase “…while knowing my only sister is waiting for us…”. I’m not sure why the adjective ‘only’ is used here.  If Ellie had more than one sister, would that have lessened the severity of the need to rescue her?

This is the second book in the Ellie Matthews series, but I never felt as though I missing something important to understand what was happening.  Anything that was needed to know from the previous book appeared to be

Overall this was a solid, quick, thriller read.  It ends a bit abruptly, but the journey is engrossing.

Looking for a good book? An Eye for an Eye by Caroline Fardig is the second book in the Ellie Matthews thriller series. It is a dark, tense thriller with just enough touch of gentleness, that this should appeal to many mystery/thriller readers.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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An Eye for an Eye

author: Caroline Fardig

series: Ellie Matthews Mystery #2

publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

ASIN: B078KC116Q

Kindle Edition, 334 pages

Are you about to read this Robert Bailey book?  You’d best put yourself on a strong exercise routine … find a good cardio workout … because this book will have your heart racing, your adrenaline pumping at high levels and you will want to be strong enough to finish.

JimBone Wheeler is about as bad a human being as a man can get.  He’s a killer without remorse and he’ll delight in defiling a body – preferably before the victim is even dead. And JimBone has a grudge against Tom McMurtrie since it was Tom who put Wheeler behind bars.

The absolute worst kind of killer is one with charisma and is able to convince others to do his bidding.  Wheeler has that charisma and elicits help from the prison nurse and manages his escape from the highly fortified prison, not long before his scheduled execution.  And with JimBone Wheeler on the loose no one with even the most remote ties to McMurtie are safe. JimBone Wheeler doesn’t want revenge … he wants his ‘reckoning.’

I am absolutely exhausted!  This book is one breath-catching moment after another (though author Robert Bailey does manage to give us just enough pauses between high-anxiety moments to let us catch a breath before the next assault).

This might be the perfect legal thriller.  Tom McMurtrie is about as clever and good as Wheeler is charismatic and bad.  They are perfect foils for one another and this is their ultimate showdown.  I think it is safe to say that neither will come through unscathed.

Bailey’s characters are a unique combination of being a bit stereotypical and having a great sense of uniqueness (they stand out from one another quite well) and depth.  It helps, I suspect, that I’ve read a few of Bailey’s books now and I can follow the characters better.

The story is quite singularly focused.  There’s a brief little sub-plot but we don’t spend much time with it.  The JimBone Wheeler story is our only real focus here (Wheeler wouldn’t have it any other way), but there’s all we need, and more, with this single story.  Wheeler’s reckoning is all we know at the start – how he will achieve that is the question that keeps us going, and how McMurtrie will survive. If he survives. McMurtrie is likely on death’s door (we experience a few doctor’s visits with him) and it looks as though he’ll take that knowledge and make of himself a sacrifice to save others.

This book is a phenomenal reading experience. It is a thrill ride that is made more exciting because the characters are created so solidly that we connect with them as if they really are our neighbors and friends.

Looking for a good book? The Final Reckoning by Robert Bailey is a tremendously exciting legal thriller that you really must read.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Final Reckoning

author: Robert Bailey

series: McMurtrie and Drake Legal Thrillers #4

publisher: Thomas & Mercer

ISBN: 1503902269

hardcover, 416 pages

“Nordic Noir” has become an actual category of mystery/thriller.  Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the sub-genre. Although Nordbo is not yet listed among the authors mentioned, with this book it is clear (to me at least) that he is bound to be a very strong voice in the bleak landscape of horrific crimes.

Danish journalist, Matthew Cave, is sent to Greenland to research the story of a recently discovered mummified body. The expectation (and hope) is that this is a body from the Viking age of explorers. But shortly after Cave arrives a policeman who was guarding the find is brutally murdered and the mummified body is missing.

As an investigative journalist, Cave is accomplished at doing research and he soon discovers some horrifying similarities between the gutting and skinning of the policeman and a series of murders that occurred in a remote town nearby in the early 1970’s.

Although Cave manages to get the notebook of a policeman who investigated the 1973 murders, but of the locals seem to be pretty unmoved despite the gruesome nature of the killings and the local police help is tepid at best.  And so reporter Matthew Cave suspects a cover-up and takes on the investigation alone. But the closer he get to discover the truth to the mummified body and the decades-old murders, the more danger he finds himself in.

I’ve read a few books in this “Nordic Noir” sub-genre of thriller/mystery and there is something remarkable and  … I’ll say it … beautiful in the juxtaposition of horrible crime and stark, harsh landscape with the human drive to seek truth and retribution or closure.  This book fits so nicely into this category.  The crimes couldn’t be much more terrible.  The title alone brings to mind such a dark visual that you have to know going in that this will be pretty gruesome.

But the story here unfolds so nicely and we’re caught, like spectators driving past an accident, that the combination keeps us turning pages. It’s a great reading experience (if you can handle the cruelty).

This is a top-notch mystery and a thrilling read.  It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? The Girl Without Skin by Mads Peder Nordbo is a wonderful read in the Nordic Noir sub-genre and well worth reading if you don’t mind a little gruesomeness in your mystery/thriller.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Girl Without Skin

author: Mads Peder Nordbo

translator: Charlotte Barslund

publisher: Text Publishing

ISBN: 1925603830

paperback, 356 pages