Tag Archives: mystery

Review: None of This is True by Lisa Jewell

08 Friday Nov 2024

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

This gem, Lisa Jewell’s suspense thriller None of This is True, was recommended to me by a good friend earlier this year. I had no idea it was a Booktok trending book until after I finished it, but in this case (for me, anyway) I’d say Booktok was right on the money. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Summary:
Podcaster Alix Summers is on the lookout for a new project when she meets the odd, timid Josie Fair at a pub where they are both celebrating their birthdays. After embarking on a journey to record a podcast about Josie’s life, Alix discovers that this woman has overcome so much and is determined to change her life. But there is something…unsettling about Josie. Too intrigued to stop recording the podcast, Alix will soon learn the truth about Josie’s past—because if there’s one talent Josie has, it’s for bending the truth.

***

None of This is True has the perfect blend of character building, drama and suspense. Character POVs flip back and forth between Josie and Alix, interspersed with interviews from the podcast with people who knew Josie before…The Incident. What was The Incident, you ask? Well, you have to engage with all the lead-up in this story to find out. Jewell gives nothing away for free.

The pace of this book drew me along like a pet chasing a treat, making it impossible for me to put down. It was also just the right length—long enough for the plot to simmer and play out in a satisfying manner, but not bloated with unnecessary details or side plots. I listened to the audiobook version of this, which was brilliantly acted and worked extremely well with the podcast/interview aspect of this novel.

I loved this book, and will definitely be a return customer for Lisa Jewell in the future.

Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager

22 Friday Dec 2023

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫

Riley Sager is the author of seven novels dating back to 2017, but The Only One Left, which was released this summer to lots of fanfare on the book socials, is the first of his books I’ve had the opportunity to read.

This seaside murder mystery has plenty of twists, turns and haunting secrets begging to be exposed. But does it live up to the hype?

Following suspension from her job as an in-home caregiver due to the death of a patient under her care, Kit McDeere gets a chance to redeem herself when she’s offered a posting that no one else will touch: caring for Lenora Hope, the only surviving member of the fabulously wealthy Hope family. The rest of them were murdered one bloody night in 1929. Most of the town thinks Lenora herself is the killer, but she was never convicted. Nor has she ever spoken of what really happened that night. But she’s ready to open up to Kit now. After taking up residence in the crumbling seaside Hope mansion with its skeleton crew of essential servants, Kit becomes absorbed in her quest to uncover the truth about who really murdered the Hope family, and why. Along the way, she’ll discover that Lenora isn’t the only resident of the mansion who’s keeping secrets.

I really wanted to like The Only One Left more than I did. It had a lot to like. A grossly extravagant mansion threatening to crumble into the ocean is a great setting for a murder mystery (I mean, the climax is already built right in). The main character is a disgraced nurse with a haunting secret — BAM, I already want to know more about her. Her patient is a paralyzed heiress who may or may not have murdered her family and gotten away with it — oh my GOD, I want to know everything!! And the estate’s few remaining employees each seem to have their own secrets to conceal, and motives for staying on at the mansion. How is this not going to be the best book I’ve read this year??

What’s not to love here? This concept is absolute money.

For me, though, the execution just wasn’t quite all the way there. Kit as a main character bored the crap out of me — like, her only character traits were father issues and being a nurse — and most of her actions felt plot-driven at the expense of giving her a personality.

And then there were the dramatic reveals. So. Many. Dramatic reveals.

Here’s the thing about dramatic reveals: they’re like shaved truffles. If you use just a little bit in just the right places, they can make your meal/novel into something complex and delicious that you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve finished. But something so powerful can easily overwhelm all the other flavors if you put in too much.

It feels like Riley Sager took a cheese grater to his Dramatic Reveal truffle and shredded the entire thing into his story. They happen practically every single chapter. The frequency of the reveals made this novel feel incredibly soapy, so that by the end I became unable to make myself care about them anymore.

In the end, though, I enjoyed The Only One Left more than I disliked it. The whole aesthetic is great, the mystery is gorgeously compelling, and it’s paced in a way that makes it almost impossible to put down. I think if Sager had put more energy into building great characters and letting them carry the story, rather than constructing a whiplash-inducing plot rollercoaster, this could have been an amazing murder mystery novel. As it is, though, I found it to be just decent.

What did you think of The Only One Left by Riley Sager? Are any of his other books better than this one? Chat with me about it down in the comments, or over on my Instagram!

Review: A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

15 Sunday Oct 2023

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Haunted house stories may be my favorite horror sub-genre. Some of my favorite horror books—99 Fear Street, The Haunting of Hill House, The Witching Hour—are either about or set in big, old spooky houses. So it’s no surprise that this title, A House With Good Bones by T Kingfisher, called to me.

Since finishing the book, I’ve learned that T. Kingfisher is the adult fiction pseudonym of children’s author and illustrator Ursula Vernon. Whether she’s doing picture books, webcomics, or Southern Gothic mysteries like A House With Good Bones, it’s clear that she has a gift for storytelling and imagery by any name.

When Sam Montgomery, an archaeo-entymologist, returns to her family home in North Carolina after being furloughed from her dig, she’s startled to find that it seems to have gone backward in time. The rooms her mom had once painted with bright colors are now covered in bland off-whites, and artwork long stored in the back corners of the attic is up on the walls again. In fact the house looks just like it did back when Sam’s grandmother, a rose-obsessed old lady with strong traditional (AKA racist and patriarchal) values, owned it. Well, except for the vultures that now seem to be always watching the house. And Sam’s mom is different too—she’s anxious and jumpy, almost as if the ghost of Gran Mae is looking over her shoulder…As Sam tries to pinpoint a cause for her mother’s change in personality, she befriends the neighborhood handyman Phil, as well as Gayle, the nature-loving neighbor who was Gran Mae’s rival. As they help Sam try to learn the truth about her family, none of them suspects the terrible secrets overgrown by Gran Mae’s beloved rose bushes.

Having seen mixed reviews for A House With Good Bones ahead of reading it, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be a very solid read. I really enjoyed Sam as a main character. A nerdy, plus-size protagonist who likes pineapple on pizza is all right with me. The interesting facts about bugs, birds and roses that she drops throughout the narrative added a fascinating flavor to what is altogether a familiarly-structured haunted house/garden mystery.

The story wraps up cleanly, with no obvious dangling plot threads. Kingfisher does a great job sprinkling bits of information throughout the story and bringing them back later in satisfying ways—like Edie’s notes to herself, and the mentions of the underground children as boogeymen wielded by Gran Mae. The final part of the book where Sam and her party finally expose and are forced to deal with the thing that’s really haunting the house is genuinely creepy and unsettling in a way that I didn’t see coming.

A House With Good Bones does have some minor weaknesses. I didn’t love the fourth-wall breaking Sam occasionally engages in as the narrator—where she turns aside to the reader to say things like, “Don’t judge me,” or “I was under a lot of stress, okay?” I think perhaps this was meant to come off as self-consciousness, a humanizing character trait for Sam, but it was annoying enough to take me out of the story. Additionally, the process of Sam trying to learn the cause of her mom’s off-ness felt slightly drawn-out to me, though not to a point where I wanted to put the book down.

But there is so much to love about this book. The relationship between Sam and her mom is great—warm and companionable, with enough mother-daughter banter to keep it from being sickeningly sweet. It’s clear that part of their bond comes from the shared experience of each growing up in their own way under the iron fist of Gran Mae. And I really like the little touch of Sam finding a way to understand and empathize with her grandmother by the end. This is a novel that quietly says a whole lot about dealing with generational trauma, a theme that will resonate with basically anyone who’s ever had a family.

This novel of vultures, roses and ladybugs pulls the reader in with its Southern charm and good humor, and then gets under the skin with its creeping sense of dread as the situation at the Montgomery house slowly deteriorates. An easy four stars. This is my first T. Kingfisher novel, but I do forsee myself becoming a repeat customer.

Are you a T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon fan? What did you think of A House With Good Bones by T Kingfisher? What’s your FAVORITE haunted house book? Step into my comments and we’ll talk about it!

Review: The Butcher and the Wren by Alaina Urquhart

01 Sunday Oct 2023

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Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

I have not listened to the podcast Morbid, although I am no stranger to the true crime podcast genre. When I heard that this novel, The Butcher and the Wren, had been written by Alaina Urquhart, and that she was the co-host of Morbid by night and an autopsy technician by day, that sounded like exactly the type of book I’d be into.

I wanted to like The Butcher and the Wren. It has many of my main pop culture food groups: crime scene investigation, a serial killer, and a strong connection to a true crime podcast. However, there are two major blows that, for me, have rendered this novel incapacitated and ineffective.

In the humid haze of a New Orleans summer Dr. Wren Muller, medical examiner for the NOPD, hunts a brutal serial murderer who tortures his victims before dumping them in public locations. The only clues are those the killer wants them to find: taunting scraps of cryptic information, and a grimy coating of Louisiana swamp muck. Meanwhile, sadistic psychopath Jeremy stalks his classmate Emily, learning her habits so that he can kidnap her and hunt her for sport. As Wren pursues justice for Jeremy’s victims, it begins to feel like the murderer is speaking to her directly. What connection could Wren possibly share with this vicious butcher?

The Butcher and the Wren is beautifully paced. Short chapters, alternating in viewpoint between Jeremy and Wren, keep the action moving right along. I listened to the audiobook version of this (shoutout to narrators Sophie Amoss and Joe Knezevich for a great read) and finished it in less than a day.

The scenes where Wren and the police are investigating the crime scenes are the reason to keep reading. Urquhart does a great job showing off her knowledge of the autopsy table, while still keeping things accessible to readers who may not be familiar with true crime or crime fiction. There is enough forensic detail to be fascinating, but not so much that it threatens to steal the spotlight from the plot.

Unfortunately, from an understandable desire to create a serial killer who doesn’t come off as an antihero, Urquhart makes Jeremy so unlikeable that I couldn’t wait for the book to be over. There is this (rightfully held) mantra in the true crime podcast world that Serial Killers Are Not To Be Admired. There is a line between fascination and exaltation that needs to be held. But in attempting to hold her fictional character to this standard and making him purposely unlikeable, I feel like Urquhart kneecapped her own novel. Jeremy is too whiny to be remotely charming, too arrogant to be pitiful, and too incompetent to be a genius. There’s no way to even kind of root for him, which makes this novel far less interesting as a cat-and-mouse game between fugitive and investigator.

Then, The Butcher and the Wren ends so abruptly. Immediately upon finishing, I intended to give it a two-star rating. I got to the acknowledgments and shouted out loud, “That’s IT?!?!” I felt very let down and like I had wasted my time. But after giving myself time to think about the story, I realized that it had at least hooked me enough to get me upset that there wasn’t more of it. That deserves a little consideration.

Because, at the end of the day, this book does do some things well. This book made me double-check that all my doors and windows were locked before I went to bed at night. And the detailed chapters from the point of view of our morgue-dwelling protagonist were good enough that they made spending every other chapter with Jeremy almost bearable. I think his unlikability may not have bothered me as much if there had been less Jeremy and more Wren.

The Butcher and the Wren gets three stars from me. It’s not terrible for a debut novel. However, too much time spent with an unlikable POV character, and an ending that doesn’t really resolve much of anything meant that it just didn’t hit for me. It seems like this is supposed to be the first book in a series, which is bold for a first-time author. I think Urquhart can become a good writer if she sticks with it. I don’t think, though, that I liked Wren and Jeremy enough to pick up another book about them.

Are you a fan of Morbid? What did you think of The Butcher and the Wren? Leave a comment so we can chat about it!

In The Woods by Tana French

05 Sunday Jul 2009

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In The Woods by Tana French

In The Woods by Tana French

I picked this book up from the best seller table at Borders, because I wanted to take a chance and read something I’d never heard of. The plot sounded interesting. But I’ll be honest. I thought it was going to be your run-of-the-mill murder mystery in which the male and female partner detectives get a once-in-a-lifetime case, run through a bunch of bogus leads, fall in love along the way, find that the unlikely killer was right in front of their face the whole time, and become better people for the whole experience. But In The Woods surprised me.  It wasn’t an altogether pleasant surprise, mind you, but a surprise nonetheless.

Detective Rob Ryan has a hidden past, which all comes rushing back to him when he and his partner, Cassie Maddox, are handed the case of a murdered child in the woods near the Knocknaree estate.  It was in these same woods that Ryan and his two childhood friends went missing.  Ryan was found, clinging to a tree and wearing blood-soaked sneakers, catatonic and unable to remember anything.  The two other children were never found, and the unresolved case files sit collecting dust in the basement of the same building where Ryan now works.  While searching for Katy Devlin’s killer, Ryan struggles to remember what happened to him and his friends that summer, and deals with the fact that finding out may derail his life and his career.

French’s style of writing was easy to get lost in.  Her expertise in conveying emotion and atmosphere made In The Woods a fairly enjoyable read.  An adult who has blotted a traumatic experience from his mind, only to recall it at the most opportune time, is great story fodder.  But it’s not entirely realistic.  French was clearly aware of this, and doesn’t easily give up the answers her readers are looking for.  I applaud her for that.

There were instances during my reading of this book where I thought I knew exactly where it was going.  I would peg a character and say, “Oh, that’s the killer!  How predictable!”  Then French would throw me a curve ball, and I’d be scratching my head, and turning the pages with bated breath to find out where she would go with it next.

Unfortunately, I can’t totally praise this book.  I’ll come right out and say that I hated the narrator, Detective Ryan.  He was an idiot and a hack.  I really enjoy novels where, even if I don’t like the characters, I can at least sympathize with them.  I couldn’t sympathize with Ryan at all.  He came off as fairly smart sometimes, then made completely idiotic, unprofessional decisions.  If he was a real person, I highly doubt he would have gotten any further in his career than mall security cop.

My one other problem with In The Woods was how characters sometimes seemed to act out-of-character for the sake of the plot.  This was glaringly evident to me in the scene where Detective Maddox was trying to coerce a confession out of the killer.  I said to myself, “Come on, this character isn’t that stupid.”  I felt that perhaps French was getting tired of the roundabout investigation and just wanted to speed the ending up.  Fair enough.  It was a pretty long book.

All said and done, I felt that In The Woods left a lot of loose ends that I, as a reader, would like to have seen resolved.  Though those nagging what-ifs are probably what will make the book memorable to me.  Compared to what I was expecting, I’d say that my complaints about In The Woods are pretty minor, and that if you ever have a night to yourself, you should cozy up on your couch and pick up this book.  It’s worth the read.