(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Rachel Jenner is already unsettled after the recent breakup of her marriage.  The last thing she needs in her fragile state is another traumatic event.  But that's exactly what she gets when she takes her 8-year-old son for a walk.  It's an ordinary outing on an ordinary day.  Until Ben runs ahead of his mom and vanishes in the forest.  As the minutes tick by without the boy's reappearance, Rachel grows concerned, then worried, then panicked.  Where is Ben?  What has happened to her son?

When searchers fail to find the child, an official police investigation is launched.  Clues lead in all kinds of directions, with suspicion falling on strangers as well as everyone with whom Rachel has ever been close.  Even Rachel, herself, is viewed with distrust.  All she wants is to find her son.  But who took him?  And why?  Is Ben even still alive?  Gripped with guilt for allowing Ben to disappear, Rachel will do anything to bring him back.  Detective Inspector Jim Clemo is just as obsessed.  Will their efforts pay off or come to naught?  The clock is ticking and everyone's a suspect ...

Anyone who reads this blog with any regularity knows I love me a good psychological thriller.  And, let me tell you, What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan definitely qualifies.  The story is taut, terrifying (especially for a mother), and twisty.  I fell for every one of the story's red herrings, which made the whole novel a riveting page turner for me.  It wasn't until 1 a.m. that I finally put the book down, having finished it in a day.  Engrossing is a vast understatement of an adjective!  What She Knew offers everything I love in a psychological thriller—a complex plot, relatable characters, and tight prose.  If Macmillan's debut is any indication, she's definitely a writer to watch.  I can't wait to snatch up her newest thriller, The Perfect Girl, which was released in September. Sleep is overrated, anyway. 

(Readalikes:  Reminds me a bit of The Widow by Fiona Barton)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (a dozen or so F-bombs plus milder expletives), violence, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note:  While this review will not contain spoilers for Sorrow Road, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier Bell Elkins mysteries.  As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

Like Belfa "Bell" Elkins, Darlene Strayer grew up in Appalachia, went to law school, and now works in the profession.  Unlike Bell, Darlene is well-known and makes good money as a federal prosecutor in northern Virginia.  Despite her lofty status, the high-powered lawyer has come to ask for Bell's help.  Darlene's 89-year-old father, a patient at a local care home for people with Alzheimer's, has died.  Although the care center's staff insists Harmon perished of natural causes, Darlene is not convinced.  In the weeks before his death, Darlene's father was trying to communicate something urgent to his daughter.  She believes Harmon was killed to prevent him from divulging the secrets locked away in his damaged mind.

Bell is not wholly persuaded by Darlene's pleas.  Then, the lawyer is killed in a freak accident and other patients at the care center die under suspicious circumstances.  Bell can't ignore the case any longer.  Something sinister is definitely going on.  How and why did Harmon Strayer die?  Is the care center trying to cover up its own incompetence?  Or did the old man's secrets go deeper than anyone could have imagined?  As Bell looks into the situation, she discovers a tragic story of three boyhood pals and the dark secret they've been keeping for more than 50 years.  How far will someone go to keep it buried forever? 

I've enjoyed every installment of Julia Keller's Bell Elkins series.  Sorrow Road, the fifth book, is no exception.  Like its predecessors, the novel is atmospheric, bringing the complicated glory of Applachia to vivid life.  The serial characters continue to intrigue me, as do the new ones we meet in Sorrow Road.  Plotwise, the story remains taut and compelling throughout.  The back-and-forth in time gives the tale an extra layer of depth, a device that I always find immensely appealing.  Although Sorrow Road (like Keller's other mysteries) isn't exactly a happy story, it is a hopeful one.  Not surprisingly, I enjoyed Keller's newest addition to the Bell Elkins series.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment, Fast Falls the Night, which comes out in August 2017 (not soon enough, in my humble opinion).  

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Bell Elkins series, including A Killing in the Hills; Bitter River; Summer of the Dead; Last Ragged Breath; and Fast Falls the Night)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, mild sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Sorrow Road from the generous folks at Minotaur Books (a division of St. Martin's Press/Macmillan).  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Ruth Jefferson, a labor and delivery nurse with more than two decades of experience, is on duty when 26-year-old Brittany Bauer gives birth to a baby boy.  Ruth is doing a routine check on the infant when his parents insist on having her removed from the room.  Baffled, she can't imagine what she's done wrong.  The problem?  Her race.  The Bauers belong to an aggressive white supremacist group known as the Movement.  Despite Ruth's proficiency as a nurse, they ousted her because she's black.  Ordered to stay away from tiny Davis Bauer, she hesitates before performing CPR when the newborn goes into cardiac arrest a day later.  When the newborn dies, the Bauers are quick to lay the blame at Ruth's feet.

An outraged Ruth finds herself embroiled in a lawsuit that quickly becomes a media sensation.  Trying to shield her teenage son from the negative attention, she struggles to keep their lives from unraveling completely.  When Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes Ruth's case, things get even more complicated for the troubled nurse.  With her world crumbling around her, Ruth must put her trust in a stranger whose law degree is still warm from the printer.  Can Kennedy get justice for Ruth?  When the lawyer insists that race not be brought up in the courtroom, Ruth can't contain her fury.  How can Kennedy, with her all-present white privilege, ever understand what this case is really about?  The two women have to work together in order to exonerate Ruth, but is that even possible?  As the case progresses, each will be forced to question long-held beliefs and prejudices, which will lead both to some startling revelations about each other and themselves.

I've been a Jodi Picoult fan for some time.  Although I've enjoyed some of her books more than others, there's one thing all of them have in common: they made me think.  Picoult excels at taking a hot-button issue (she's addressed school shootings, gay marriage/adoption, organ donation, child abuse, euthanasia, etc.) and examining it from every angle in an honest, forthright way that forces the reader to look at the issue in new ways.  The author's newest novel, Small Great Things, examines racial prejudice, white privilege, and the seemingly insignificant ways in which people judge each other based on appearance.  Picoult seems a little more heavy-handed with this theme than others she has explored, but the Author's Note she includes at the end of the book is very raw and intriguing.  Maybe more so than the story itself.  Which isn't to say the story isn't engrossing.  It is.  Despite its too-tidy end and some characters I found difficult to connect with. overall Small Great Things is definitely compelling.  It's not my favorite Picoult by a long shot, but the novel did what I expected it to—it made me think.  It also propelled me to look at my own attitudes afresh.  If you're looking for a book club read, this one (like all Picoult books) should prompt some lively discussion.

(Readalike:  Reminds me a little of A Time to Kill by John Grisham)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language, violence, sexual content, racial slurs, and disturbing content

To the FTC, with love:  I received an e-ARC of Small Great Things from the generous folks at Penguin Random House via those at NetGalley.  Thank you!

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When a suspicious death occurs on a remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Sime Mackenize finds himself on a bumpy flight to the Magdalen Islands.  A homicide detective for Montreal's Sûreté de Police, Sime is part of an 8-person investigation team (which includes his ex-wife) taxed with figuring out how wealthy lobsterman James Cowell died.  The answer seems pretty obvious.  Not only was Kirsty Cowell discovered with her husband's blood all over her, but her tale of an armed intruder killing James reeks of falsity.  A homicide has never occurred before on tiny Entry Island—what motivated this one?  If Kirsty Cowell murdered her husband, why did she do it?

No one on the investigative team believes Kirsty Cowell's story.  Even Sime finds it far-fetched.  So why does he want so badly for Kirsty to be innocent?  Still mourning the dissolution of his marriage, Sime is also plagued by insomnia.  Does this explain the visions he's suddenly having of himself and Kirsty living a life together in another time and place?  Or is Sime simply going mad?  

Desperate to clear the widow's name, Sime vows to get to the bottom of Entry Island's first homicide.  What he finds are big secrets on a little island.  As he struggles to solve the crime, decipher his visions, and fight his obsession with a woman he barely knows, Sime must convince his team to look closer at a puzzling, more-than-meets-the-eye mystery.  His subjectivity could cost him his job, but he has to find the truth.  Kirsty Cowell did not kill her husband.  Or did she?

I discovered Scottish mystery writer Peter May this year and have been reading through his books as fast as I can.  Like his other novels, Entry Island features a stark and desolate place populated by complex, intriguing characters.  Sime reminds me a little too much of Fin Macleod (the hero of May's Lewis Trilogy); I would have liked him to have a more distinct personality.  That's a minor complaint, though, since I found the rest of the novel so absorbing.  The back-and-forth in time gave it an extra layer of intrigue, which serves to make the plot even more compelling.  As with May's other novels, I whipped through Entry Island and enjoyed it very much.  Bottom line: I'm a fan.  If May writes it, there's an excellent chance I'll read it.  

(Readalikes: Reminds me of other books by Peter May, including his Lewis Trilogy [The Blackhouse; The Lewis Man; The Chessmen] and Coffin Road)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for strong language, violence, blood/gore, and mild sexual content

To the FTC, with love:  Another library fine find