Dan Hendricks is a former CIA agent, now an agent-for-hire. He’ll work for anyone or any country willing to pay his fee. Being a mercenary like this, usually tracking down criminals and working for those who may not trust him, has Dan constantly looking over his shoulder and fearing he’s not long for the world of the living. Each new case could easily be his last but this one is certainly his most unusual.
Thriller
All posts tagged Thriller
Evelyn Caldwell is an award-winning genetics researcher. A strong, motivated women, she is surprised when one morning she receives a phone call from a woman named Martine asking for Evelyn’s help. Evelyn’s husband, Nathan, is bleeding out in Martine’s kitchen. Martine, Evelyn learns, is Nathan’s mistress. So why would she call Evelyn for help?
Martine is a clone. Of Evelyn. She is a direct result of Evelyn’s genetics research. But she was not created by Evelyn.
Martine is a patient, gentle, obedient version of Evelyn … characteristics Evelyn would never subscribe to … created by Nathan, using Evelyn’s research. And she wasn’t the first.
Now the Caldwell women will work as one to clean up the mess that was Nathan. But if caught, who will take the fall for Nathan’s murder?
While the book has a strong science fiction component to it, this is more of a revenge thriller than sci-fi novel.
Author Sarah Gailey does a nice job of making the cloning aspects seem realistic and credible without getting to technical. A few aspects necessary for understanding Martine’s development are comfortably explained.
The story unfolds through Evelyn’s point of view. This allows the reader to make the discoveries as Evelyn makes them, and it gives us Evelyn’s reactions and emotions, much more intimately, to what she discovers along the way. An emotional response is important in a thriller.
The book has a measured, steady pace to it which is not something I would typically attribute to a thriller. This isn’t a page-turning “what will happen next” story. Instead it’s more of a psychological analysis of betrayal and revenge, steadily revealing new aspects.
The writing is solid and it’s easy to fall into Gailey’s prose. It is a book that is easy to reach for when you sit down to read, because the writing is comfortable and the story interesting enough to hold interest.
But…
Is it a thriller? Is it suspense? Is it science fiction? It is all three (due to the elements in the fiction) and it is none. While the story doesn’t exist without each of the elements, combined they present more of a psychological character study of Evelyn than anything else. And this is just a tad disappointing. I kept waiting for something exciting, something big. We sort of get it with a certain discovery later in the book (I don’t want to give too much away here), but it’s not quite the “thrill-ride” that is hyped by the publisher.
Looking for a good book? The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey is a well written suspenseful sci-fi thriller that is easy to read and enjoy but doesn’t quite provide a deeply satisfying 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 Echo Wife
author: Sarah Gailey
publisher: Tor Books
ISBN: 125017466X
hardcover, 256 pages
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
Dan Newman’s The Clearing is billed as an eerie thriller, and the book opens with a murder, which definitely has a strong, eerie overtone and was perfect for pulling me into this story. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was quite flat.
Nate, a young man, travels back to the island of St. Lucia, where his father has recently committed suicide. But the suicide of a diplomat is not the story here. As a young teen, Nate was caught up in an incident in which he and three friends went off alone into the wilderness of the island, but one of the boys didn’t return. Now he has to not only face the shock of his father’s death, but a past that has haunted him for many years, as well as the almost animalistic nature of the island itself.
The narration of the book bounces back and forth from the era when the teen boys discovered the brutal truth of death, to the present day, with Nate trying to come to terms with his past on St. Lucia. This back and forth storytelling is not uncommon, but I didn’t find it necessary. In fact, I tended to find the story of the past much more interesting than the present. The teen Nate was wide-eyed and impressionable, and what he sees has the strength and horror the way a good horror thriller should be. The older Nate is clumsy and remarkably unsure of himself. I really wanted to skip these chapters.
There is a lot of time spent on create a mood or an atmosphere for the book. Getting the proper mood for this sort of thriller is really important, but it definitely should not be all-consuming, and the story just develops too slowly to really be engaging.
The back and forth nature of the narrative was distracting and I didn’t quite understand why we were going back and forth. Typically, about the time I wonder ‘why’ in a book, the author will reveal something that lets us know why this has been important. I didn’t get that here. I really felt I had two distinct stories going.
I was mostly bored with this book, except for the opening chapter and one chapter about three-quarters of the way in, when something finally happened.
This is not recommended.
Looking for a good book? The Clearing, by Dan Newman, is a moody, dark thriller that spends more time on creating the mood than it does on developing a story.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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The Clearing
author: Dan Newman
publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1682300501
paperback, 246 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
Chuck Wendig is not a subtle writer. But he is a very good one. Atlanta Burns is one of the most exciting YA mystery/thrillers I’ve read.
Atlanta Burns is a scrappy teen. Tough by necessity and wise beyond her teen years, Atlanta just wants to get through each day without being bothered. And most everyone around knows not to mess with her. She also doesn’t like bullies, and when she sees some school bullies picking on some new friends, she intervenes. Not soon after, one of her friends commits suicide. But Atlanta knows that there is much more to the story, and worse yet … she is partly to blame. She wants badly to set things right.
Meanwhile, she and her mother are soon to find themselves without a home and Atlanta needs to find some work to help pay some overdue bills. She takes on a job looking into the disappearance of a neighbor’s dog. What she finds is a despicable ring of dog fighting in which some leaders of her own town take part. This is not the sort of thing Atlanta can let go, but she needs some reliable assistance to take down these criminals.
Chuck Wendig does not pull his punches and if you have a weak constitution, you might need to skip over a few pages here. The truth, as Atlanta discovers it, behind dog fighting is unfolded before the reader. Most of us know it’s wrong and that it’s criminal, but the training behind raising fighting dogs is more brutal than I suspected.
I absolutely loved Atlanta. She’s strong, with a moral heart. She’s flawed, but that makes her human and real.
I borrowed this book through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program and with that loan I was also given access to the Audible book. I listened to this book on my work commute and I found it tremendously engaging. Narrator Cris Dukehart was brilliant and captured the energy and excitement of the book quite well. I found myself often sitting in the car, just wanting to listen to a little more.
Wendig is one of those rare authors who always manages to provide a new take or a new look on a character or a story and if you haven’t read a Wendig book, you really should correct that.
Looking for a good book? Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig is a powerful YA book with a wonderful, strong protagonist trying to set her own small part of the world right.
I borrowed this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.
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Atlanta Burns
author: Chuck Wendig
narrator: Cris Dukehart
series: Atlanta Burns #1
publisher: Skyscape/Brilliance Audio
ISBN: 1477827102
asin: B00UIAJ0ZS
paperback, 381 pages
9 hours, 58 minutes
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
Okay… guilty pleasure time! I grew up reveling in the worlds of pulp action heroes and the greatest of these, for me, was Doc Savage.
And apparently I’m not alone in this appreciation for classic pulps – there are some keeping the characters alive by writing new stories, with full approval from the owners of properties, and they’ve built on Doc Savage’s coterie. Doc’s sister, Pat, is embarking on her own adventure in this book, Pat Savage: Six Savage Scorpions (under the house name of Kenneth Robeson).
Pat is accompanied by Doc’s faithful friend, Colonel “Monk” Mayfair, to his Monk’s home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma where Pat is looking to invest in oil and make some good money. Quickly Pat’s help has been requested and she insists on solving the mystery herself. But things turn sour quickly (and often, of course) and both Pat and Monk find themselves wanted for murder. Now Pat has to solve the mystery and clear her name as well, and do it in secrecy.
The story is a classic Doc Savage style story, with ruffians and tough talk and plenty of guns a-blazin’. Our heroes appear to get out of one scrape only to find themselves with a bigger problem, until they can put all the pieces together in front of the honest, upright folks representing law and order.
This was definitely a fun read, taking me back to my early teen years when I was reading those early Doc Savage novels.
While the addition of Monk made the connection to Doc Savage even stronger, I would have preferred for Pat to truly strike out on her own and pull together her own team of associates. Should I read the next book in the series (and I’d like to) I hope that Pat will truly grow into her own series.
Looking for a good book? If you like the style of classic pulp heroes, then try Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions by Kenneth Robeson.
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Pat Savage: Six Scarlet Scorpions
author: Kenneth Robeson
publisher: Altus Press
ISBN: 1618272748
paperback, 358 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
I wish I could remember what it was about this book that attracted my attention in the first place. Because I am so far behind in my ARC reading I’ve been very judicious in what I ask to read, so something, somewhere along the line, this book seemed like something I would really enjoy.
But I didn’t.
The book follows Alice Hill who, as a young teen, was attacked and nearly killed by two classmates who claimed that Mister Tender had ordered them to attack Alice as a sacrifice. But Mr. Tender doesn’t exist … he was a fictional character, a pop culture icon, created by her father for a series of graphic novels.
Now, years later, Alice has learned to protect herself in a variety of ways, including martial art self-defense. But her biggest means of protection is to become reclusive. With only her unhinged brother as a friend, Alice lives and works under assumed names. But now someone has found her. Someone who is stalking her, someone who knows more about her than should be possible, someone who refers to himself as Mister Interested.
This should be a strong psychological thriller, but instead it almost becomes a comedy with our main character acting outrageously in order to represent ‘terror.’
**WARNING : POTENTIAL SPOILER AHEAD**
There was one particular moment on which this book really hinged and the story took a turn that we couldn’t ever leave….
Alice approached on the street by someone. Maybe a stalker, maybe not. She is about to defend against him when her brother shoots the man. There is blood all over the snow outside her home. They bring the man (not dead) into the house where they shoot him again. In front of a neighbor. As he begs for his life.
And I actually have no problem with this (in terms of being a part of a thriller story). It’s the complete lack of reaction about killing this man from any of the three people involved (Alice, her brother, her neighbor). It’s as if it never happened once we move on.
And from that point I lost all interest in the book. I hoped for something that never came and what did come was just a let-down. Yes, I was a little surprised by the ending … but only a little … and it definitely wasn’t worth the wait.
I was definitely underwhelmed.
Looking for a good book? Mister Tender’s Girl by Carter Wilson is a psychological thriller that requires a fair amount of willing disbelief on the part of the reader to get to an ending that is ultimately unsatisfying.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher. through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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Mister Tender’s Girl
author: Carter Wilson
publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
ISBN: 149265650X
paperback, 400 pages