Suspense – Page 2 – One Chapter

The Resort by Sara Ochs

4.5 stars Mystery

There are two things that drew me to this book, the beautiful cover and the author’s name. My maiden name is Ochs which isn’t a very popular last name, so I knew I had to read this. Thailand, the home to one of the most renowned diving islands is made of permanents and tourists. Neil landed there three years ago and never went home. He’s now a scuba instructor to those on the island. Cass arrived the next year and like Neil, she now calls the island home. Cass is living her life as a diving instructor but she’s also running from her past and the island creates a great barrier.

Using the last of her money, Brooke arrives on the island with other tourists to enjoy what the island has to offer. It’s possible Brooke might become one of the permanents as she fits right in, enjoying herself and the island. When Cass receives an anonymous note, it creates an eerie element to the book as what Cass has tried to conceal all these years has now been discovered.

Deaths start to tally up but who is the killer. If this continues, this will hurt the island as they need the tourists to survive. Why now has this started happening and what does Cass’s secret have to do with the killings? With likeable characters and a story that moves quickly, this was a great read. 4.5 stars

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

5 stars Thriller

Ha! What a fun way to end that book. Millie is trying to keep her past a secret when she applies for the position of Housemaid, but her secret is nothing compared to what awaits her. When Mrs. Winchester, Nina, interviews Millie, she knows she is underqualified, and she tries her best to dodge the questions that will reveal her past. Millie just needs some money to get back on her feet and a place to rest her head, beside her car which has now become her home. When Nina telephones Millie asking her if she would like the position, there is some doubt how Nina could have chosen her, but Millie accepts because total freedom is on the horizon.

As a housemaid, Millie tries her best to run the household and help with Cece, their 9-year-old daughter. Millie is provided with a very small attic bedroom which the furnishings were shocking to me considering how elaborate the rest of the house was. Millie notices confusing and strange activities and issues around the house. Are these because of the lifestyle that they lead, something that Millie is not familiar with. Millie begins to wonder what it would be like to walk in Nina’s shoes, to live a life with no worries. Yet Millie does not know what Nina is keeping from those outside their home.

It’s a fantastic book, one where the layers are slowly peeled away. I enjoyed all the little secrets where the players were trying to outsmart one another and throughout the book, I was wondering who was going to win. Andrew thought he was such a player, a gem of a husband who could work Nina like a puppet. Nina acted like an obedient mother and wife, and she was such a great actress. Millie was the innocent player who just wanted to sneak into their lives, undetected, do her job and walk away with a good job reference and some money. Such a great read and the ending…….fantastic! 5 stars

You Better Watch Out by James S. Murray

5 stars Thriller

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“You gotta see this.””

I couldn’t see fast enough nor read fast enough as Eddie and Jess tried to make sense of the world that had become their new world. As my husband was driving the car, I was trying to read him some of this book, but my mouth and my eyes were not in sync. I was talking gibberish and as my husband suggested, I just read silently, as silent as I could with all my gasps and shoutouts. Dang, I wasn’t expecting the last half of this book to be this exciting!

For only 225 pages, this book packs a punch! At first, the book reminded me of one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes and I was intrigued to find out how this one was going to end. What would they find at the end of this so-called, “town”, if they ever do find the end and were they going to make it out alive? One-by-one, we meet the characters in this book and I’m trying to find their common dominator. They’re all stuck inside this little make-believe town but what is the purpose and what type of game is this that they are the “players” when they don’t know the rules. Dang, this book is one that I will definitely have to reread again, if I can ever get it out of my head! 5 stars++

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

4.5 stars Fiction

It’s the BIG one! Located in Hawaii, there are 2 volcanoes who have the scientists’ nervous. Mauna Loa is one of the largest active volcanoes in the world and Mauna Kea, a volcano which hasn’t erupted in over 4,000 years. The tremors have begun and now, they’re starting to intensify. Fear begins to take root, but horror takes ahold of those who really know the truth. The truth of what an eruption could mean to those in Hawaii and those around the world when the earth unleashes its blazing inferno.

I liked the little twists on this volcano disaster, and I liked how no one wanted to or took responsibility for how these problems came about. How did the canisters get placed at the base of Mauna Kea and how did so many of them got there, these are questions no one wants to answer, or so they claim. Add to this, the integrity of the containers and their content, I felt on edge reading this book. The containers themselves were a huge concern but when you add in a volcanic eruption on top of that literally on top of that, you have…… craziness!! I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and I swear I could have been watching a movie as the story fell out of the pages of the book.

Talk about intense, I couldn’t put this book down as I needed to know how they were going to stop a volcano and safely do something, anything with those containers at the base of Mauna Kea. They had to do something as they couldn’t kill millions of people, could they??

An action-packed book with loads of drama and tension. There were quite a few characters and there was quite a lot of dialogue between them. The book was predictable at times and that was okay with me. I thought the authors did a good job with researching the details in the book and making the book feel realistic. I feel this would make a fantastic movie. 4.5 stars as sometimes I felt the points repeated over and over again.

Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena

5 stars Thriller

I really didn’t like any of the characters in this book, except for Michael. Michael didn’t have much of a role in this book though. He was the one who I felt got left out when his emotions were high for no one gave him a second glance. It was Avery who was dancing in the limelight. Avery was Michael’s younger sister. They knew she was a “difficult child.” Yep, they had that right! She was a player, the one that had got my goat.

William had just gotten dumped by his lover, and he had come home to sulk. Finding his daughter at home was a surprise and not a good one. He wanted time alone, time to think and his nine-year-old daughter was not giving him the space that he wanted. But, it was Avery and she was being herself and right now, William was not in the mood. One thing led to another, and William tried to apologize for what had transpired between the two of them, but it was too late, the damage had been done.

Hours pass and Avery does not return home. Her whereabouts are unknown, and the police are called. A timeline is constructed and piecing the puzzle together brings out the truth that others have been trying to cover-up.

I enjoyed listening to this book and when another story was introduced, I had to know how this story was going to play out. William was having a terrible day when his lover left him but that was just the beginning. He hasn’t been paying attention to the world around him and now, it’s all coming at him. Avery is only nine, yet the way she thinks, she’s much older. Her parents know she’s a handful, but they don’t know the extent of it. She feels that she’s in control and I had to wonder if she really was at times. An entertaining read. 5 stars

After reading notes: Who is running this house, nine-year-old Avery or her parents? William, her father is a smart man to some extent but when it comes to his wife, his loyalty falls short. Avery likes the attention, the limelight – perhaps she gets that from her father but in the end, the stage is too much for this nine-year-old.”

Midnight is the Darkest Hour by Ashley Winstead

4.5 stars Thriller

That was definitely a ride! A twisted-up mess of murder, lies, secrets but it was oh, so good. Ruth, the pastor’s daughter, has been caught up in the middle of all of it, and who would have known. Everett has a history and together with Ruth, they are Dangerous with a capital D.

Everett came to the aid of shy, lonely Ruth and there was no turning back. They thought that they had hid the body well enough but when a skull surfaces and the police are called to investigate, they start to get nervous. More questions pop up when this skull is traced to a business owner whose family is now missing. Symbols located close to the tragic site have librarian staff wondering about their symbolism. Is there some type of spiritual evil amongst them? Or something else?

I liked how this story had some layers to it and the characters were on shaky ground themselves. Everett has fallen for Ruth, and I felt like Ruth was playing Everett along, because they had after all, killed, and hid a body together. Ruth was also dating Barry, who wanted to marry her. Barry knew nothing of this other side of Ruth. What a catch Ruth was turning out to be.

Everett’s behavior stemmed from his childhood but as time went on, having someone like Ruth with him, just encouraged it. I felt the energy and power that Ruth felt when she was with Everett. No longer the shy and timid person, Ruth was on fire. The two of them acted together not just for their benefit but to help others too. They were seekers of the truth, for they wanted answers, and nothing would stop them. The ending of this book, I thought was great. 4.5 stars

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

5 stars Thriller

Guilty! Or was he? Written in dual time periods, this book tells the story of Hannah and her friend April. Traveling back-and-forth in time, the story begins when Hannah was in college and fast-forwards to today, when Hannah is an adult. With characters that I was immediately drawn to, this story sucked me in. As Hannah walks onto the campus, the newness, the excitement, the apprehension, and the frailness for which she feels, you can’t help but hope for the best for her. She’s on unfamiliar territory but she was trying. She’s not outgoing but she’s determined to be successful. When she lands into the dorm room of April, I was worried. Here was April, a rich, spoiled, girl who liked to party rooming with studious Hannah. It was like mixing dirt and water.

Their relationship surprised me as the girls did more than tolerate one another, they helped each other. April pushed Hannah to go outside her boundaries and have fun while Hannah helped April see that not every day was a party. April still loved to party, and her unlimited cash flow made her popular among many. I feel that Hannah was envious of April’s lifestyle to a point, but she also saw how people treated April because of it. One night, Hannah finds April in their room dead. With a history of strange behavior, Hannah believes she knows who the killer is. With the police investigation and Hannah’s testimony, the killer is imprisoned.

Years later, the man has died in prison. The thoughts of her college years are once again, running through her head. Being hounded by interviews over the years, a new twist during an interview gets Hannah thinking. Did they convict the wrong man? Her husband tells Hannah to drop the issue, he was a college friend during this tragic event, but Hannah can’t get the thought out of her head. April was her closest friend, and she owes it to April to find the truth.

I liked the characters of April and Hannah. April was a spoiled child, yet she was generous, and she wasn’t cocky. The sky was the limit, and she really didn’t know the word, “no” so she acted accordingly. She could have had a self-centered, pouty attitude but instead it was all about fun and living in the moment. This was what made her fun and was also her weakness. Hannah was the serious one who was worried about success. She could let her hair down and have fun but to a point and then, it was back to business. As Ruth takes us through this journey, we’re drawn to these girls as we see a bit about ourselves in them or we wish we were a bit more like them. As the story unwinds, we find ourselves in the shoes of the characters wondering what we’d be doing had we been there or directing the characters to what they should be doing. There was a lot of switching back and forth in this book between the two timelines, but it was well worth it.

The Replacement Wife by Darby Kane

4.5 stars Mystery

Who was the crazy one? I was torn between trying to figure out if Elisa might just be going off the deep-end or if her brother-in-law was as demented as Elisa thought he was. How many women does Josh have to go through before someone besides Elisa notices something just isn’t right? Elisa didn’t seem to be the most stable character to believe yet I wanted to think that she was a caring individual and carried that trait onto being a terrific friend, spouse, and mother yet when her family starts to find holes in her stories, I started to wonder just how stable Elisa really was.

Elisa has been staying home lately due to an incident, but it seemed that her husband encouraged this decision. Elisa liked spending more time with their son Nathan but even Nathan can be too much sometimes. Elisa is concerned about her friend Abby who was dating Josh, her brother-in-law. She’s been missing for a while, and no one seems concerned except for Elisa. Josh seems to have moved on, providing an excuse about Abby disappearance. Elisa is not buying the story and when Josh arrives on the scene with a new girl, Elisa is all over it. Elisa doesn’t understand Josh’s attitude and where did this new girl come from? The story becomes entangled as the stories don’t match up and I begin to wonder who is playing who? Did the incident with Elisa change her? IS Josh the killer that Elisa believes he is? What part does her husband play in all this, as he’s dancing between the two stages, he’s the nice guy to the both of them? Just when I think I had the characters all figured out, Darby throws a wrench into the mix, and I’m left deciding if this tool really matters and who it belongs to. The book really got interesting towards the middle and by the end, I had to know how it all ended. I liked how this book made me question the information that was presented, and it made me analyze the characters. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, Scene of the Crime, and William Morrow in exchange for an honest opinion. 4.5 stars

The Manor by Gilly Macmillan

4.5 stars Thriller

Ahh! Oh, this was wicked. Wicked on some many different levels. I really enjoyed how this book was executed as it dragged me along, examining each character, as they each wore the badge as murderer.

Childhood sweethearts, Nicole and Tom won the lottery and were now finally enjoying their dream home. The state-of-the-art smart house was almost too smart for this couple as they settled into their new, quiet lifestyle. Arriving home from shopping, Nicole finds the stereo shattering the silence and her husband Tom, floating face-down in their pool. What? Already? Nicole finds help from neighbors Olly and Sasha, and Olly drags Tom’s body out of the water. It’s Olly comment about his wife that has me wondering what secret this couple is keeping from the rest of the world and what their link is, to their new neighbors.

Reading from a journal of Anna’s and the present day, this dual timeline mystery begins immediately as you start to put each character under the magnifying glass. As the investigation gets underway, Nicole stays with her neighbors at the Manor, as the Barn seems too terrifying to stay there alone. Nicole becomes friends with Kitty, the Manor’s housekeeper. I liked Kitty as she was a character that was very down-to-earth, and I felt she was straightforward. When an old friend comes to stay with Nicole at the Barn, he brings with him more twists than a branch has.

There are lots of twists and turns with this story, games of cat and mouse, and discoveries that when you uncover, you didn’t know that they were buried. Great story but I didn’t care for the ending. 4.5 stars

“Afraid of them and afraid of being without them, she was happy to agree to anything.”

The Guest by B. A. Paris

4 stars Mystery

What’s eating Gabriel? Since finding Charlie in the quarry, Gabriel just hasn’t been the same. While Gabriel was out running, he found the 18-year-old dying inside the quarry and now, he won’t discuss what happened. Experiencing burnout from work, Gabriel suggested a vacation but now, Iris and Gabriel have arrived home a day early, to Laure setting up house inside their home. Sure, she’s a good friend but wearing Iris’ clothes and rearranging their house is pushing it a bit too far. Such a great start to this book, so many unanswered questions to pull me in.

Laure’s marriage is falling apart, so she took refuge in Iris and Gabriel’s home. Part of her story makes sense, but I felt she was really putting on a good show for parts of it. Pierre, Laure’s husband, was a man who preferred to remain childless yet now he claims that he’s a father. He’s got a long story behind this one so I guess you can believe what he’s saying or not, but I had my doubts. Laure feels betrayed and she plays her role as a victim very well. Since they are such close friends, why hasn’t Pierre reached out to Gabriel? Deciding that Laure can continue to stay with Iris and Gabriel, the mystery begins to deepen.

Lauren started to annoy me as she was pushing herself onto everyone around her. She thought she was being clever and sneaky but dang, she irritated me. As we got inside Gabriel head, the author helps us figure out what’s bothering him which leads to more mystery. Then, there are the deaths. Deaths everywhere. Deaths and secrets are always an interesting and intriguing combination. With well-planned out and executed performances, for which some of them I never saw coming, it was a book that spiked my emotions. There were quite a few characters to keep track of during this story, but I liked that the author pulls the whole story together in the end and fully explains everything in the final pages. I’m a huge B.A. Paris fan as I enjoy the way she brings me into her stories and the way she twists her characters up. I don’t feel that this book was as intense as previous B.A. Paris books have been, but I enjoyed it for the characters and the mystery elements pulled me along. 4 stars