ginasbookreport

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Thriller / Psychological Mystery Read This If You Love:  Megan Miranda / Alex Michaelides "I can't talk about Wild Meadows. Not yet." The Darling Girls  by Sally Hepworth is another psychological thriller from one of the masters of the genre. When a body is found on the site of the former foster home Wild Meadows, all the past trauma of the women who spent time there is unraveled. Who do the bones belong to and who put them there?  The majority of the plot is peeled back through the memories of three sisters who shared horrific years in foster care. While at the heart of the novel is the mystery about the deceased, what happened to Jessica, Norah, and Alicia and how that mapped out their current life and personalities is really the main focus of the novel. Hepworth does a great job exploring how our psyches adjust and evolve. It's fas...

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole Publisher: William Morrow  Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Mystery / Psychological Thriller Read This If You Love: The Other Black Girl “Come to find out the voice was already compromised by a whole damn castle full of other people and after everything I’d dumped on them, they disliked me as much as I disliked myself.” One of Us Knows  is an amazing book that I already have in the running for my 2024 book of the year. It is a mystery/thriller novel, but the way it is told and the dissociative identity disorder framing of it also sets it apart. It takes on some aspects of a horror novel or even a science fiction slant. It cleverly uses the storm trapped island trope and turns that on its head because our pool of potential killers isn’t limited. It’s a unique and fresh take on the mystery and thriller genre and I couldn’t get enough of it! ***Note: I’m not going to give any sort of synopsis on purpose. I wa...

The Guest by B. A. Paris Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Thriller / Psychological Mystery Read This If You Love: Ruth Ware / Liane Moriarty “I saw Laure standing at the top of the stairs.” In The Guest by B. A. Paris, Iris and Gabriel come home from a vacation to find their friend Laure helping herself to their house. Laure and Pierre are their best friends and Laure is despondent over a revelation and is unsure if her marriage will survive. As the secrets begin to unravel, everyone is feeling the pressure and the past is set to blow up the present. Paris is an auto-buy author for me. Her books are always fast-paced thrillers with short chapters that I consume in a day or two. She is a master at drawing in the reader with her psychological mystery vibe. 

She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica Publisher: Park Row Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Psychological Thriller / Domestic Suspense Read This If You Love: B. A. Paris novels “I did something bad.” Meghan is an ICU nurse and single mother to Sienna. When she gets overly invested in caring for her patient, she puts her life in peril. Meanwhile, a man is attacking women throughout the Chicago neighborhoods. This pulse-pounding novel will keep you on the edge of your seat. Oh. My. Goodness! If you love a good thriller, She’s Not Sorry  is the book for you. It’s a psychological whirlwind of twisty revelations. Need a “turn the page as fast as you can to see what happens” novel? This book fills that spot. On top of the palpable knife’s-edge intensity, the book is set against the atmospheric backdrop of Chicago. The city takes on a character of it’s own that adds to the story.  

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander Publisher: Minotaur Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Thriller / Psychological Mystery / Crime Read This If You Love: Ashley Winstead books “The articles said: Charlotte Colbert escaped unscathed. Which is true. While the others were in surgery or stretched out in a morgue, I was in the shower, scrubbing their blood from my neck and shoulders.” Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead  is a gripping and unpredictable thriller. An elite graduate school suffers a horrific tragedy, Charlie Colbert has been running from that day ever since. Nine years later, the past can no longer be bottled away. A film is being made about the Scarlet Christmas tragedy, and Charlie must face the black holes in her memories. What did she do or not do during the missing time?  Told via narratives in past and present, interviews, therapy sessions, and news articles, the book kept me captivated from sta...

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Suspense / Thriller / Mystery Read This If You Love: The Other Black Girl “And so, she was caught by surprise when it all changed.” Theo decides to pursue her dream of being a writer and uproots her life to move to Lawrence, Kansas where her brother has relocated. When she decides to use the local bar, Benders, as her home base to write her novel, she befriends Dan Murdoch. Dan is a mysterious man who has his own successfully published mystery books who reveals he is reading conspiracy sites for inspiration. Soon, the stuff of fiction starts to happen to Theo and those around her. Why are dead bodies piling up? Why are there so many conspiracy theories running rampant? What is happening and who is responsible? It’s a twisty layered story that is fast paced and action packed from the first page to the last. I was thoroughly immersed into the world of The Mystery Writer...

Bye, Baby by Carola Lovering Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Domestic Suspense Read This If You Love: Samantha Downing / Tarryn Fisher Cassie and Billie are the best of childhood friends, but sometimes even best friends grow apart. What they do and for each other is a complicated web of love, jealousy, and deceit. Not so much a mystery…more of a mystery mixed with drama. I constantly flipped my allegiance…. While Cassie lives an influencer life and is defined by the adoration of strangers, Billie has this amazing job where she gets insane trips. However, Billie doesn’t share and boast on her private accounts about this aspect of her life. A stark contrast that had me screaming at Billie to see that she had an amazing existence and didn’t need to cling to the old familiar. Have you ever had a friendship run its course and turn toxic? Did you find it hard to extricate from the situation? This book is the extreme, but oddly relatable. 

The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell Publisher: Anchor Books, Penguin Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Thriller / Mystery / Satire Read This If You Love: The Block Party  by Jamie Day “She deserved better than to die there. To die because of him.” The Other Half  by Jenny Jackson is a quick-paced mystery wrapped in a satire about an ultra-wealthy British friend group. Full of toxic characters and attributes, everyone is a suspect when a dead body is found in the polished garden. DS Caius Beauchamp and his co-workers Matt and Amy are a delight to have as the guides through this story. Thank goodness, because I really didn’t like any of the other characters. Yikes! I almost  stopped reading after the first two chapters, but I’m glad I didn’t. It was an entertaining read and the car scene toward the end was one of my favorite scenes in any book I’ve read in the last year. This book was part of the Crime by the Box subscripti...

My Murder by Katie Williams Publisher: Riverhead Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Domestic Suspense / Mystery / Fantasy Read This If You Love: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch “What did it feel like to meet my murderer? It’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask. Somehow, it felt like nothing at all.” My Murder  by Katie Williams is an unusual mix of murder mystery and science fiction. Louise was murdered by a serial killer, but she is alive now. Isn’t she? Is she really herself? How did she become a victim of Edward Early and a line in the poem about his killings? She sets off to find out the truth behind her murder and who she is. This book brought to mind Dark Matter , for me. That is a book that I loooove.  My Murder didn’t hit as successfully for me. While I was very intrigued at the beginning of the book, by the end I was conflicted and found the ending to be unsettling and somewhat predictable. I do appreciate the efforts to tell a unique story and ...

The Collective by Alison Gaylin Publisher:  William Morrow Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Thriller / Suspense Read This If You Love:  Samantha Downing / Tarryn Fisher "I want him dead...for real." The Collective  by Alison Gaylin is a dark tale of revenge and deep grief. What happens when justice isn't upheld or it just isn't enough to dent the pain of loss? What if that grief is left to fester until it eats up the humanity of a collective group? Things can turn gruesome, deadly, and dark very fast.  When Camille's daughter died, the circumstances surrounding the death were gut-wrenching. Try as she might to move on, the grief she feels consumes her, and when she is approached by a mysterious woman with means of support, she jumps on the bandwagon. But, it's not for real, right? This is just venting and being able to say all the dark thoughts you can't in society. Right? What unravels is a twisted plot that will leave you questioning what is rig...

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall Publisher: Gillian Flynn Books, an imprint of Zando Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Suspense Read This If You Love: Dark Objects “Because people have always wanted horror stories. The power of fear is so potent.” One of the Good Guys  is a compelling novel. Cole has recently uprooted his life to live in a vacant sea-side landscape when he meets Lenora, who has also recently rented a nearby cottage. As they are getting to know one another, two women who are participating in a charity walk to raise awareness of violence against women go missing. What follows next is an exploration of the depths of the way women feel, live with, and process fear on a daily basis and the fragility of men who don’t (or can’t) comprehend it. Or worse, they cause it in the first place.  This is not your typical mystery novel and, for me, that was a good thing. It made me think about the genre and the real-life implications...

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins Publisher: St. Martin’s Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Suspense / Horror / Gothic Read This If You Love: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil “There should be some kind of warning when your life is about to change forever.” The McTavish family is a wealthy bunch who own and run the town of Tavistock from their palatial Ashby House. When Ruby is kidnapped and returned as a child, it’s just the beginning of the tragedies that befall the family. The bodies and secrets start to pile as high as their beloved North Carolina mountains.  Rachel Hawkins strikes again and IMHO,  The Heiress  is her best book yet. The McTavish family is packed full of characters who are deplorable and you just love to hate them. You simply won’t be able to put this book down until you have devoured the entire thing. It’s so perfect for fans of gothic novels.  I was a bit on the fence about The Wife Upstairs  and a...

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter Publisher:  William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Suspense / Murder Mystery Read This If You Love:  Janice Hallett books / Netflix documentaries “One body. Six Experts. Can you solve the case before they do?” Murder in the Family  is mystery novel like no other. Guy Howard’s stepfather was murdered when he was a child and the case remains unsolved. Now that Guy is a film maker, he decides to enlist the help of six experts and a documentary staff to pull back the years and solve the case. What results is Infamous: Who Killed Luke Ryder… a Netflix documentary that just might unravel Guy’s entire world. Can you solve the case before the experts do?  I’m a huge fan of mystery-based documentaries and was instantly drawn to this book when my SIL sent me a link. It didn’t disappoint! Told through news clippings, documentary scripts/interviews, and m...

The Engagement Party by Darby Kane Publisher: William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Suspense / Thriller Read This If You Love: The House Murder series by Yukito Ayatsuji / Horror Movies / Lucy Foley novels “Time to tell the truth.” When a group of friends gathers on a remote island for an engagement party, they are faced with their past. Who will come out alive? As the cover says: “The guest list is a real killer.” The Engagement Party  is a juicy chaos of a mystery. I was blown away with how Kane wove together all the most salacious early 90s crimes and wrapped them in a classic locked room mystery. It was like being trapped in an 80s horror movie with an Agatha Christie twist…I simply couldn’t read it fast enough. Kane hits this one out of the park. Packed full of her trademark twists and turns, but this time wrapped in a classic horror mystery vibe. Her best novel yet.

The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin Publisher: Bantam Books, an imprint of Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Suspense / Gothic Read This If You Love: Fans of Darby Kane books “Most people sweep monsters under the bed. I pull the covers back and let them crawl in.” The Stranger Upstairs hits the ground running and doesn’t let up. Sarah is a therapist and a bit of a self-help guru with an Instagram addiction. She decides to invest all her efforts into renovating Black Wood House, the notorious home where murders were committed. Along the way, she might want to restore her marriage as that has completely crumbled, as well. Everything is turning into a nightmare and nothing is what it seems. This novel is the pinnacle of a haunted house story for those looking for a spooky read. The narrative is woven together via traditional writing, website entries, news articles, and voice/text messages. It all feels very much like a modern day horror sto...

None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell Publisher:  Atria Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Psychological Thriller /  Suspense Read This If You Love:  Samantha Downing / Tarryn Fisher / Gillian Flynn “The people who seem boring can sometimes have the most interesting stories to tell. You just have to get it out of them somehow.” When Alix goes out to celebrate her 45th birthday, she meets her “birthday twin” Josie. Soon enough, Alix decides to produce a podcast about their shared birthday and the way two people born on the same day in the same hospital can lead very different lives. The problem? Alix has no idea that she has stepped into her own true crime podcast. Everyone’s lives are tossed upside down and the story is told between narrative, podcast interviews, and documentary scenes.  None of This Is True a fascinating fictional take on our obsession with true crime properties. Let’s leave the plot description at jus...

Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney Publisher: Flatiron Books Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love: Shari Lapena “People say there’s nothing like a mother’s love. Take that away, you’ll find there’s nothing like a daughter’s hate.” Three suspects, two murders, and one victim. Twenty years ago a baby was kidnapped from her stroller. Now a woman is murdered in a care home. What unfolds next is a thrilling mystery full of surprises and twists. Who is good? Who is bad? Who is the victim? Mother and daughter relationships are complicated even when they are good. When they are bad, they can be deadly.  Told in short chapters with alternating narrators, Good Bad Girl  continues Feeney’s signature style of fast-paced and edge-of-your-seat storytelling. I LOVED Sometimes I Lie  and Rock Paper Scissors , and this book is right up there regarding the level of engrossing entertainment. “The future can seem too uncertain when your past...

The Death of Us by Lori Rader-Day Publisher:  William and Morrow a imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Domestic Suspense Read This If You Love:  Broadchurch “Here’s the thing not everyone understands about crime in a small town: When it goes down big for the first time in a generation—when some farmer gets out his buck-hunting rifle, say, and turns it on his wife—everybody’s asking the same questions: How could it happen? Here, in this quiet town?” When a car is found submerged in water at the old quarry, Liss Kehoe’s entire life is turned upside down. They might already know who is in the car, but how they ended up there is a bombshell that unleashes a trail of revelations and reckonings.  First off, if you haven’t been reading books by Lori Rader-Day, you need to get that fixed right away. She is a master writer in the crime fiction genre. Plus, fans of Agatha Christie and historical fiction shoul...

Zero Days by Ruth Ware Publisher: Gallery / Scout Press Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery Read This If You Love: The Italian Job “I stopped dead.” Jack is a pen tester who comes home to find her husband murdered. Who did it and why? We spend the entire novel with Jack on the run. Ugh. Often billed as the modern Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware is one of my favorite modern mystery authors. However, Zero Days  wasn’t in that same vein and instead was more of an action thriller. While many people enjoy this genre of a constant physical chase, it is not for me. I want more of a plot with characters I can invest in and cheer on. I found Jack to be a daft character who drove me nuts. How was she so slow on the uptake about what was going on and who was responsible? From the first page, we are on the go with Jack and it doesn’t stop until the last page. For me, that was far too strung out and overall the book could have been 100 pages shorter.  Will I still happily read a...

Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon Publisher: Bantam an imprint of Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Thriller Read This If You Love: Fans of Pretty Little Liars “Vanessa has been gone for fifteen years. I should know. I was one of the last people to see her alive.”  Emily is a screenwriter who sets out to uncover the truth about what happened when her best friend disappeared on a college friend trip. Fifteen years after Vanessa went missing, Emily gathers the same group of women to see if there is a story she can weave into a script. Maybe, she can also find out if she killed Vanessa…she was the last to see her, after all. The story is told through real time/past time and a film script. It adds to an intensity that builds to a crescendo.  This fast-paced mystery has a dark edge that will keep you guessing about what REALLY occurred. The setting has an atmospheric quality to it that set up a sort of locked-room mystery trope. Add this one to ...