ginasbookreport

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 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...

The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson Publisher:  William Morrow Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery Read This If You Love:  Eight Perfect Murders / Riley Sager books “But instead he lifted a finger and swept it across his neck, then pointed at me.” The Christmas Guest  by Peter Swanson is a creepy and dark holiday murder novella. What else could you want for Christmas!?! Ashley is a long way from the US and gets invited to go home for the holidays by her friend Emma. The idealistic setting of an English village at Christmas sounds perfect. Adding to the scene is Emma’s handsome brother Adam. However, this village has a dark history of unsolved murder and killers don’t take a break for the holidays.  This is a dark murder mystery that is a great and suuuuuuper fast holiday read for mystery fans. (It is NOT for those looking for an uplifting cozy holiday read.) I gobbled this one up in a few hours one evening and couldn’t put it down. Swanson ...

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...

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James Publisher: New American Library, a division of Penguin Group Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Genre:  Mystery / Psychological Thriller  Read This If You Love: The Sun Down Motel / Lori Rader-Day’s Little Pretty Things “I could not scream. I tried and tried, my mouth open, as I gasped for air; tried and tried to scream, in a terrible pantomime I would relive in my nightmares for months to come. I was frozen, unable to move or run, and an icy grip took my upper arms, and lifted me from the floor.” The Haunting of Maddy Clare  is a ghost story centered around the unsettled soul of Maddy Clare. Alistair Gellis, Matthew Ryder, and Sarah Piper are brought in to help clear Maddy’s ghost from the Clare farm. In doing so, they set out to unravel the mystery of what happened to Maddy in life. Set after World War I, Gellis and Ryder are former soldiers who carry the scars of the war physically and emotionally. Sarah is alone in t...

The Only One Left by Riley Sager Publisher: Dutton an imprint of Penguin Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre:  Mystery / Thriller / Horror  Read This If You Love:  Stephen King “Lenora Hope is the one patient nobody—not even the police—will mind if I kill.” Kit really  messed up and now the only job available is caring for the town’s own Lizzie Borden…Lenora Hope. Lenora has a dark reputation, but what is the true story behind what happened to her family on a dark and stormy night in Hope’s End? That’s all you are going to get out of me in terms of a synopsis. I don’t want to spoil anything! However, …Wow. Wow. Wow. I absolutely loved this book and it easily takes top spot for Sager novels. Gripped from the first page, I walked away with the same feeling I had when I read Misery  by Stephen King for the first time. The Only One Left is set in the 1980s and it not only nails the setting of the decade, it pays homage to that era’s fiction a...

The Last Word by Taylor Adams Publisher: William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Thriller / Horror Read This If You Love: Riley Sager / Simone St. James / Stephen King “In a story, the author is God.” Emma is dealing with, or avoiding dealing with, all that life has thrown her way. She has isolated herself and set about reading free and 99 cent books off of Amazon. The book that her only neighbor recommends is  Murder Mountain  and it was just sooooooo bad. She couldn’t stop herself from writing a scathing one-star review. When the author requests she change it, a series of events kicks off that leaves Emma fighting for her life while reckoning with her past.  “She cupped her fingers to the glass, squinting out into acres of coastal prairie. Searching for her killer.”  The Last Word is not for the faint of heart. It’s a heart pounding horror novel that will keep you up at night and looking around th...

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 ...

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz Publisher: Atria Books an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Mystery / Horror / Thriller Read This If You Love: Stacy Willingham or CJ Tudor novels “Let this be a lesson to everyone. If you’re going to do stupid shit, do it well. Don’t be lazy enough to be caught so easily.”—Roza Vallo Writing a book might be the easiest part of this retreat. Publishing is a dangerous sport, but attending an immersive writing retreat with your idol could just prove to be deadly. Alex spends her days tolling away in publishing, mourning the falling out with her best friend, and battling writer’s block. When the opportunity presents itself to attend a writing retreat with her favorite author and idol, she can’t pass that up. Roza Vallo is known as a brilliant writer with strong feminist motivation. What could go wrong? Well, like they say…”Don’t meet your idols.” I have a theory about why some people hate this book while o...

The Drift by C.J. Tudor Publisher:  Ballantine Books an imprint of Random House Ginasbookreport Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi Read This If You Love: Stephen King or Blake Crouch Hope was like sand. The tighter you hold on, the more it trickled through your fingers. Society. Order. Infrastructure. All have broken down… The Drift , a semi-apocalyptic mystery, is a terrifying edge-of-your-seat horror novel. A virus has been unleashed on the world and two groups of people are trapped in separate transportation accidents. Mystery surrounds both of these groups as the story puzzles its way together. In the meantime, another group of people is awaiting the arrival of volunteers at a mysterious and secluded mountain-side retreat. Who will survive? Who are these people? And what exactly are they fighting? This book left my skin crawling! A horror story about catastrophe and survival that will leave you enthralled. It’s jam-packed full of action (if I’m being critical…maybe o...