So how are you holding up?
I have started editing, beta reading and reviewing Independent writers again, and have been busy with that. But I still managed to read some other books. These are the ones I enjoyed the most.
These are the best thrillers I have read during quarantine so far:
Behind every Lie:
Behind Every Lie by Christina McDonald is a subtle family drama, set on two continents with multiple storylines. It all starts with Eva Hanson waking up in the hospital after being hit by lightning. But the real blow comes when she discovers her mother Kat died that night. Kat was murdered, and Eva was at the crime scene and is now the main suspect. Eva has no recollection of ever being in Kat’s house that night. Her relationship with her mother was a bit shaky. But does that mean she is a killer? Instead of doubting herself, Eva takes the reins and heads off to England to uncover the truth about her British mother’s life. The parts set in London where a pleasure to read, I loved to watch the many recognizable spots pass by, but Christina McDonald keeps stressing how lost Eva feels. Literally. Now London is a straightforward city to navigate, but Eva has trouble finding her way around the metro/tube. That’s hard to do, but I’d take as more of a reflection on Eva’s state of mind. Lost, without roots and uncovering the truth of her mother’s life. Behind Every Lie is an original, well written, intricate mystery. Some parts are expected, others well concealed. For a thriller starting with a lightning strike, it lacked a bit of a spark. Although I felt for the women in this book, they are entirely joyless and gloomy. But that was the only con for me.Dead to Her:
Somewhere in the book, someone refers to the joy of reading a trashy novel at the beach, and that was quite meta because Dead to Her would be the perfect fit. This romp is all about greed, jealousy, revenge, voodoo, and lust, the perfect ingredients for that escapist book. Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough has an abundance of effervescent characters. Marcie and Keishia, the two women at the center of this mystery set in Savannah, are intriguing, a bit sleazy but quite lively.Marnie has married into the Savannah high class, but lately, her husband Jason seems sneaky, distracted, and cold. What is he hiding? His boss, an elderly gentleman, returned from his European trip with a new young trophy wife, Keisha. A girl from London, who worked in a strip club, lived with her skeevy auntie, that convinced Keisha she is cursed. When Marnie starts to suspect Jason is falling hard for the gorgeous Keisha, her life begins to implode. Obsessing over Keisha, Marnie risks losing the glam life she scammed her way in to.
Dead to Her is all fun and wicked games until someone dies. The storyline is like the characters, a bit messy, it could undoubtedly be trimmed down here and there, but the plot is propelled along by the two strong female characters that managed to capture my attention right through the end. Now in line with the messiness of the plot, the ending soured it a bit for me.
No Bad Deed
In No Bad Deed, by Heather Chavez Cassie Larkin, a veterinarian, is on a non-stop quest to find her husband, Sam. She thinks he got kidnapped, and can only hope he is still alive. And Cassie is convinced it’s all her fault. One night getting back from work, Cassie witnesses a man assaulting a woman, almost killing her. Cassie perhaps foolishly intervenes, and now this man, Carver Sweet, is out to ruin her. No Bad Deed is a great ride; it has a bit of everything, a sympathetic protagonist, a possibly cheating spouse, a homey family dynamic, and lots of shocks—even an adorable chocolate-eating dog ( and yes, Cassie saves him). The story is fast-paced and smooth. But the sudden intrusion of the backstory of the perpetrator was like a gothic interlude into a lean and meant race to the rescue. But all in all, this was impossible to put away.The Other Mrs
The Other Mrs by Mary Kubica has all the elements that I like; a moody island setting, a wonky family structure, an unreliable husband, a woman who is uprooted, and finds it hard to integrate herself in her new community. When Sadie and her husband Will hit the rocky patch in their relationship, they decide to move their family from Chicago to an island in Maine. Will's sister died, she committed suicide, and she left them her house, and a menacing 16-year old.Now the family has a hard time getting their bearings when a woman down the street is murdered. Because Will had an affair in Chicago and was close to this woman, Morgan Baines, Sadie can let this one go. And to think of it, her niece and son act sketchy too. So, of course, despite her husband's misgivings, Sadie starts to investigate.
The story is told through three POV; a girl called Mouse, a woman having an affair with a married man named Camille, and Sadie herself.
They only thing the book hasn't got going for it is that it employs a structure that's popping up in various suspense thriller these days. Like David Lynch says, ideas hang in the air, and recently, it seems, without going into much detail for fear of giving it away, a lot of writers have caught this same idea and plot devise. So I detected it quickly. However, I still enjoyed The other Mrs, it's atmospheric, well written, with some satisfying twists, that I am sure, I you haven't read the same books as me, the final twist will come as a total surprise.
Marlon read The Mountain by Steven Konkoly. As he explained it to me, It deals with two paramilitary organizations that get into a domestic war over the 2 Billion worth of weed coming from this Murder Mountain. He said it was a tense, very detailed, that was very easy to get through. More when I pick it up myself, then I will have more. Getting these three lines was like pulling teeth!