4.6.2025 - Remote The Six

 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the first in a new series by Eric Rickstad, with the audio perfectly narrated by Ari Fliakos.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own – 4.5 stars rounded up!

A serial killer is rampaging across the country, tying families to chairs-arranged in puzzling tableaus-then murdering them, without leaving a trace of evidence.  FBI Special Agent Lukas Stark has been hunting the Tableau Killer but is always two steps behind.  He has no idea how or why he chooses families and why they are staged.  Stark is forced to take on a new partner, Gilles Garnier, who claims to be a remote viewer who sees things remotely as if they were right in front of him.  Stark thinks he’s a con and doesn’t trust him, until he’s able to see things that Stark can’t explain.  But will they be able to catch this killer before he strikes again?

This was a chilling book, as you would expect since it’s about a serial killer who targets families.  But it’s also fascinating to watch Stark and Garnier try to stop the killer.  Just how did he get such abilities and at what cost?  I mostly listened to the audiobook of this one and the narration made it even more creepy – I was glued.  It ended with a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait for the next in this series!  If you like dark crime books, you’ll love this one.

4.6.2025 - Murder at Gull's Nest

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Atria Books for gifting me a physical and digital ARC of the latest book by Jess Kidd.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Set in the 1950s, Nora Breen is a nun who has left her monastery behind.  She's trying to find her friend, Frieda, a former novice, whose letters to Nora suddenly stopped.  Nora heads to Gull's Nest, a hotel in Kent, where Frieda was staying, and tries to quietly investigate what happened to her friend.  But then there is a series of murders at the inn, and her investigations take a deeper turn.

This is the first in a coming series entitled Nora Breen Investigates, and sign me up for the rest!  In Jess Kidd's very capable hands, a cozy mystery delves into a very multi-layered story.  Nora's backstory slowly plays out, as we learn what led her to the monastery, as well as what prompted her to leave.  We see her explore a new world and become a different person away from her past life.  Everyone in the small inn has a secret, and the characters are a story onto themselves.  Nora slowly gathers respect from the local police chief, Rideout, as they try and solve the mysterious deaths.  Wonderful!

4.5.2025 - A Serial Killer's Daughter

Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Books for gifting me a digital ARC of this true crime memoir by Kerri Rawson, daughter of self-proclaimed BTK serial killer.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3.5 stars!

In 2005, Kerri Rawson was informed by an FBI agent that her father had been arrested for murdering ten people, including two children. It was then that she learned her father was the notorious serial killer known as BTK, a name he’d given himself that described the horrific way he committed his crimes: bind, torture, kill. As news of his capture spread, Wichita celebrated the end of a thirty-one-year nightmare.  For Kerri and her family, another nightmare was beginning.

I feel for Kerri and her family.  I believe that they didn't know that their father was a serial killer.  I believe that they are victims of him as well.  And that's what this book is about - the victimization of Kerri and her family and how they dealt with their trauma.  I found it interesting to have Kerri look back and correlate what was happening in her family when her father was committing these brutal murders.  Trust the title of this book and know that it is about her and her family and their trauma, rather than a true crime story of how he committed and got away with these murders for so long.  We all know that story.  There is a lot of religious conversation in this book, and that's how Kerri was able to cope.  More power to her.  This book may bring hope to those suffering from PTSD.

4.5.2025 - Pretty Wreck

 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Books Go Social Audio for gifting me an audio ARC of this memoir by Tracy Viola, narrated by the author.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

This was a brutally honest account of the author’s addiction story.  It’s told with clarity and humor, allowing the reader to really feel the impact of drugs and alcohol on a person’s life.  I loved the quotes she used throughout the book, and she remarked on one truth that most people only learn with age – that everyone is too self-absorbed to really pay attention to other people, so live your life under your terms and stop worrying so much about what other people think.  Congrats to the author for her sobriety and kudos to her for sharing her important story!

4.5.2025 - The Last Session

 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the sophomore book by Julia Bartz, sister of the also-talented Andrea Bartz!  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3 stars!

Thea works as a social worker at a psychiatric unit in NYC.  When a catatonic woman shows up, Thea knows she is familiar to her and comes to realize that there is a link between this woman and Thea's own traumatic past.  When the woman regains lucidity, she says she has no clue how she got there or what happened.  Then just as suddenly, she's gone.  Thea is determined to find her and ends up in a remote center in New Mexico, where a couple holds retreats to uncover attendees' issues.  Forced to participate, Thea finds herself not knowing who she can trust and what is real.

I was a fan of Bartz' debut, The Writing Retreat, and this one seemed to be made for me - cults, secrets, remote locked room mystery.  But I found it slow going and the second half seemed to veer off into way too much of everything.  I liked the tension in parts and was anxious to find out the truth, but it seemed to get bogged down with just a lot.  Give it a try if you like locked room mysteries - lots of people are loving this one!  I'll be anxious to read her next as well.

4.3.2025 - When She Was Gone

 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Sara Foster.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars rounded up!

Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote beach in Western Australian-and the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children in her care-Rose is asked to help bring Lou home.  Detective Senior Sargent Mal Blackwood is getting ready to retire when he is called in to head this last case.  The missing children are heirs to the Fisher property empire, and their multimillionaire grandfather is breathing hard down Blackwood's neck.   What has happened to Lou and the children? And can Rose and Blackwood find them in time?

This was a fast-moving thriller, made even better with short chapters from many different POV, giving us insight into the characters.  There was a lot of emotion in this book and all well-played - not too much, but enough that I was invested into the characters.  I loved Mal, trying to do the best job possible while simultaneously trying to save his marriage; Ruth was driven to save domestic abuse victims and was trying so hard to do the right thing for her daughter.  I couldn't put this one down and loved it!

4.2.2025 - The Dream Hotel

 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Pantheon for gifting me a digital ARC of the March Read with Jenna Pick by Laila Lalami.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4 stars!

Sara is returning home from a business trip abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.  Yet when she is transferred to the retention center, where she is kept with other dreamers trying to prove their innocence, she learns that the strict and ever-changing rules keep extending their stay.  A new resident arrives and leads Sara onto a scary new path.

This book is chilling, because it doesn't take too much of an imagination to think about how easily we give our personal information out and how it could be used against us, especially if you add racial profiling into the mix.  Imagine if you were judged by your dreams too.  Lalami's writing pulls the reader into this new reality and you feel the fear and desperation of Sara and her fellow captives, pulled away from their families and lives with no foreseeable end to their nightmare. But you also see the women’s resilience and strength.  Fascinating read.