scknitter's reviews
1445 reviews

This time, Charlie Cates’ visions take us to Arizona and Mexico as Charlie attempts to interpret her dreams and find those responsible for the deaths of her mother and half-sister. A great second addition to a thrilling new series.

The Lying Game is not so much a thriller as it is a mystery which gives us an intense look at the lives of 4 young teens who happened to find each other when they were the most vulnerable, needy and alone. They met for the first time at a boarding school almost by accident when one of the girls lied to a headmistress to protect one of the other students she had just met. The four quickly became close friends and continued their lying as part of a so called ‘lying game’. Their innocence, if there ever was any, was totally gone by the end of their first year when they are forced to leave the school because of a scandal. In addition to what they were supposidly involved in they also end up helping in the covering up of a death never realizing how it would affect their future. The Lying Game is a beautifully written story of love, betrayal and guilt. It is also a story of hope, selflessness, and sacrifice.

Alice Vega is a seriously bad-ass bounty hunter from CA who specializes in finding missing children. When 8 year old Bailey and 10 year old Kylie disappear from their mother’s car while she runs into a store, Alice is hired by the girls’ aunt to come to the small PA town to help the overworked and understaffed police. Alice immediately convinces Max Caplan (Cap) to help her. Cap is a disgraced ex-police officer who is now a PI. Not only does Vega have extraordinary martial arts skills but she also has the resources of a super hacker to get her any information she needs. Together they form a powerful team that can do things and go places the police can’t. An easy readable writing style, a great story line with a very unexpected ending, and really likeable characters who give the book an added layer of excitement and who I hope we see again make this a book you won’t want to miss.

Blood Sisters opens with a radio announcement that a murder has occurred at a men’s prison, with details to come. Allison is leading a lonely single life barely making ends meet teaching art lessons when she sees an advertisement for a job teaching art in a men’s prison takes the job. She is guilt ridden and unhappy and we slowly discover why as the story of Allison and her younger half-sister Kitty is told in flashbacks from two points of view. Blood Sisters is a sad story of sibling rivalry, parents who don’t always do the right thing, teen violence, and a childish prank all of which probably contributed to the tragedy which occurred when Kitty was 11 and Allison was a senior in high school, and which kept Allison so filled with guilt. We think we know what happened 15 years ago, and we think we know what just happened at the prison. But, as the story is slowly revealed we find that truths and lies become totally intertwined and what really happened both at the time of the accident and in the present at the prison is a total surprise.

James Grippando has really ramped up the action in Blood Money. The book seemed to start out with a Casey Anthony copycat case but it ended up being so, so much more. Grippando still has his legal edge but has added a bit of serial killer thriller to go along with it. His best Jack Swyteck yet!

I am obviously in the minority here. While the writing is beautiful and evocative the characters were just there and the story did absolutely nothing for me.

Listened to the audio version and couldn't stop listening. A great summer read with non-stop action. Wonderful characters and a plot that kept me guessing until the end.

Freefall is a terrific character driven thriller which is told from two perspectives: that of the mother who is still grieving the loss of her husband to cancer two years earlier and of the daughter who ran away when she saw her mother do as her father wished and help him die. This thriller comes out of the gate at top speed. The mother is told her daughter and her daughter’s fiancée were killed in a plane crash and the mother decides she has to learn what her daughter’s life was like for the past two years. The daughter made some really bad choices including not contacting her mother when she needed help, but she had finally found what she thought was true love and was in a good place when the plane went down. She is now determined to survive. Both women display remarkable strength as they each attempt to save the other from the madman who is attempting to kill them both.

If you liked Crimson Lake, you will love Redemption Point even more. If you haven’t read Crimson Lake then you are really missing a terrific new crime writer. You have never met two more eccentric, damaged and likeable characters than Amanda Pharrell and Ted Conkaffey. Amanda spent 10 years in prison for killing a classmate when she was a teen. She readily accepted her sentence because while killing the person she did was an accident, she did mean to kill someone else. Ted is a disgraced ex-policeman who is still trying to get over being accused of the brutal rape and beating of a 13 year old girl. Until the real culprit is caught he will always be the most hated man in Australia but he has no energy or desire to try and find who really attacked her as he is content to just hide out in a distant remote area of Australia and try to forget about all he lost and at the same time help Amanda with her detective work.
In Redemption Point Amanda is hired by the father of one of two people killed execution style in a bar because he doesn’t trust the police. Ted is helping her when the father of his supposed rape victim (who still thinks Ted could be guilty) shows up and forces him to start reliving some of the past, in the hopes of finding the real perpetrator.
Candace Fox brings her characters to life in such a way that you even like the ones who should be unlikeable. And the setting in Cairns, complete with alligators, wetlands, and tropic heat just helps add to the intensity of the fabulous story.
Thanks to Libro.fm for an advanced listening copy.