Bloody Thrilling! - Recent Mystery and Thriller Reads

I'm not going to lie here, I love me a good thriller. That feeling of an impossible puzzle brought together, a mystery solved in a good and original way is just too satisfying and I'm on the hunt for that feeling. So you may have realized over the months that the amount of thrillers and mysteries I'm reading is slowly creeping upwards. So much so that now I decided to collect my thriller and mystery reviews in a separate column for hobby detectives like ... me? yourself? Since this isn't my primary preferred genre, I'm probably not as well-read as I am, say, in horror or science fiction, but I'm working on it and trying to catch up. That's why I probably won't be reading the newest books, unless there's a real buzz about them. I'll also and mostly read books according to my mood and whether or not they sound interesting.

So please enjoy the very first thrillers-only PD column, filled only with interesting books!

Nine Lives by Peter Swanson

Nine random people receive an anonymous envelope containing a list of the names of nine people, including theirs, with nothing else attached. The police's suspicions are justified when the first of them dies and a rush breaks loose to inform and protect the remaining eight names on the list.

This book really kept me guessing the whole time and the solution is introduced only gradually, drop by drop - so you need to be patient. And you need to be prepared too - although Peter Swanson compares it to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None many times throughout the book, it is in fact the Game of Thrones of murder mysteries – it is unputdownable and it's valar morghulis, every man must die. Even and especially the ones you have started caring about. Senseless killings...

I was engaged in each story of the nine people whose names are on the infamous death list, and in the end, although satisfactory, I was a little upset by the solution because I couldn't really understand the motives of the murderer. Which is probably a good thing on my part. Happy I read it, though.

Thirteen (Eddie Flynn #4) by Steve Cavanagh

You have to LOVE the dramatic cover description for Steve Cavanagh's Thirteen: "The serial killer isn't on trial. HE'S ON THE JURY".

This is one of the books where the identity of the murderer is secondary to all the lengths he goes in order to cover up his tracks and to manipulate the members of the jury in the murder trial of the century to his own advantage. Good thing Eddie Flynn is hard on his heels and Flynn knows every trick in the book. Still, even for him this murderer might be too inventive.

I never was one for legal thrillers but Thirteen is really excellent – the villain is really smart and insidiously creepy, defendant Eddie Flynn (a character new to me but this is obviously part of a series that follows him from his days as a con-artist to a lawyer) is truly just and very jaded, the structure of rotating points of view between villain and lawyer, answering questions the other has on his mind, was ingenious and the story generally really well-written and captivating. I might in the future read further installments of this series.

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier

It doesn't look good for Paris Peralta - she is under suspicion of killing her celebrity husband and the big buzz in the media might just attract unwanted attention to her long hidden past. She has worked hard to build her present life but now someone may recognize her true identity and spoil it all. Especially with Ruby Reyes on her heels, a convicted murderer threatening her with making public all she knows.

Gosh, this was way too long; too many repetitions, too much back story and too much sadness. I think more of a domestic thriller than a mystery because there really was no mystery. I'm not usually the fox who can guess the outcomes of books but saw this one coming from a mile and more. If  I hadn't listened to the library audiobook copy and actually read a physical copy I probably would have stopped reading, but in audio it kept me listening, so it was OK.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Daisy Darker’s estranged family is finally assembling for their grandmother's 80th birthday party in her remote and gothic house on a tidal island, where once the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. Each member of this family has secrets and although they're not insanely likable you still don't want them to die one by one but they do. Who's the killer?

I have never in my life read a book which was a two star review until about the last 20%, but then took a wild turn and became a five star read.
It is a very boring book up until a certain point and then the actual story of why people have been murdered is awesome, even though none of the characters are particularly great or interesting.
Quite the experience!

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #1) by Mia P. Manansala

Every now and then I want to read something light and fun - like this new series of a Filipino-American family running a restaurant in which people die painfully.

Well, it's not that dramatic actually, one person dies and he was a nasty food critic, who also happens to be the ex of main character Lila Macapagal and they had a fight shortly before. Doesn't look good at all... On top of everything the restaurant could go bancrupt any day now, their landlord is just waiting to kick them out, a group of matchmaking aunties lovingly bother Lila all the time and the cops don't leave much hope to be helpful. So Lila and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, do their own research.

This was just cute to listen to on the side, nothing groundbreaking but still a nice pastime if you feel like it.

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

Riley Sager blows hot or cold for me. I enjoyed reading especially his earlier work, like Home After Dark or Lock Every Door, but with reservations. They are enjoyable to a certain degree as little Scooby-Doo mysteries but arguably don't really hold potential to be your favorite books of all time. It seems like things are generally going south for Sager the last couple of years and his reviews aren't as good as they used to be. I wonder what happened?

After reading his latest novel, The House Across the Lake, I have to jump on that train of negativity, sorry. Unfortunately this was a tedious and slow underwater slog through the titular Lake Greene… Until the supernatural twist, that is. After that it's just ridiculous and foolish, to put it mildly, and this book is not my thing in general. Maybe the next Sager will finally hit the mark.