Tag Archive for: simone st. james

Thriller Thursday Reviews: Murder Road & The Teacher

 

Happy Thriller Thursday!  Sharon here with two awesome books that I have recently read.  Murder Road by Simone St. James and The Teacher by Freida McFadden. Both of these books were so good and I know that my reviews do not do them justice. I highly recommend both of these books as well as these authors.  😀

 

Thriller Thursday Reviews: Murder Road & The TeacherMurder Road Goodreads

Author: Simone St. James

Publication Date: March 5, 2024

Publisher: Berkley

Simone St. James’ newest book, Murder Road, follows April and Eddie, a young newlywed couple who end up in the middle of a murder investigation. Throw in a creepy small town, great characters and supernatural forces and we have another winner by Simone St. James.

April and Eddie are on their way to a small resort town for their honeymoon, but they take a wrong turn off the interstate and end up on a deserted road, called Atticus Line.  While traveling down this dark road they spot what they think is a hitchhiker who appears to be drunk. When they pull over to see if they need help, they realize that this person is not a hitchhiker, but a wounded young woman, Rhonda Jean. As they rush to the hospital in ColdLake Falls with Rhonda Jean bleeding in their back seat, a pickup truck comes speeding behind them, as they take the turn to the center of town, Eddie sees what appears to be a ghostly figure in the back of the truck. Rhonda Jean dies at the hospital and the detectives that show up, rather quickly I may add, immediately suspect Eddie and April as her killer.  As Eddie and April work to clear their names, they find that Atticus Line has had many unsolved murders in the past nineteen years. There is a legend that the road is haunted by the Lost Girl. It is said that if you see her, you will be the next one dead on the side of the road.  I got goose bumps just writing that. LOL!

I loved everything about this book. From the great characters to the eeriness of Atticus Line and the mystery of the Lost Girl. Simone St. James did an exceptional job of capturing everything in the book and making the story just jump off the pages.  Every time the Lost Girl showed up I got goosebumps.

I really liked April and Eddie. When the police tell them they can leave ColdLake Falls, they find they are unable. As they are driving down Atticus Line they encounter a freak rainstorm as well as the Lost Girl and end up right back in town. April and Eddie then realize that they need to figure out who the Lost Girl is and put her to rest.  I loved watching them follow clues starting with Rhonda Jean and work their way back to the Lost Girl. They were better than the police and detectives.

In addition to April and Eddie, I loved the secondary characters as well. Rose is the owner of the B & B that April and Eddie are staying at while they are stuck in town. I loved Rose, she had a rough exterior but underneath she was a nice lady and she cared for April and Eddie.  Beatrice and Gracie Snell are two teenagers that are all about the ‘conspiracy theory’ and have been trying to solve the mystery about Atticus Line and the Lost Girl. They end up teaming with April and Eddie and brought some humor to the story.

Murder Road was an engrossing, spine tingling, supernatural thriller. Simone St. James knocked this one out of the park and I definitely recommend it.   4 ½ stars

 

Thriller Thursday Reviews: Murder Road & The TeacherThe Teacher Goodreads

Author: Freida McFadden

Publication Date: February 6, 2024

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

I love when a book starts with someone digging a grave, I just know it is going to be a good one and the whole time I am reading I am trying to figure out who is digging the grave and who is going to be buried. That is exactly how Freida McFadden’s newest book, The Teacher, starts out and I loved it.

Eve Bennett and her husband, Nate, are both high school teachers. Eve teaches Math and is a very strict and hard teacher. Nate teaches English and is more easy going and all the girls love and have a crush on him.  Their marriage on the outside looks perfect, but on the inside it is a different story. While they both love each other, they are not very loving. As Eve states, they kiss three times a day, a quick kiss when they leave in the morning, a quick kiss when they get home at night and a quick kiss when they go to bed. As for their sex life, well that only happens the first Saturday of every month. Such a loving couple. LOL!

Addie Severson is a sixteen-year-old junior at the school that Eve and Nate teach at. Last year a teacher at the school was involved in a student-teacher affair and the teacher was fired. Addie was the student in question and even though she denied she and this teacher had any kind of relationship no one believed her. So now Addie is more of a loner at school. When Nate takes her under his wing, Addie is more than thrilled. As their relationship grows, Eve starts to suspect there is more going on with them than teacher/student, and she will do whatever she has to to keep her husband and herself from living the scandal from last year. And Eve and Nate are willing to do whatever they have to to keep their relationship a secret. But Eve also has another secret, one that could destroy her. How far will she go to keep her secrets safe?

Wow! This was a fast-paced book, that had a bunch of unlikable characters that I still cared about. LOL! I started off really liking Addie. The more I learned of what happened last year as well as what her home life was like, I had a lot of sympathy for her. She was also being bullied at school, which made her all the more sympathetic to me. But as her actions progressed I flipped to not liking her very much and then flipped to having sympathy for her again.

Eve was always stand-offish for me. She came across with an “I am better than you” attitude. And she was not so innocent herself when it came to their marriage vows. I never liked Nate and kept that attitude through the whole book. I kept hoping that he was going to get what was coming to him.

If you are a fan of Freida McFadden then I think you will really enjoy The Teacher4 stars

Can’t Wait Wednesday – MURDER ROAD by Simone St. James

 

“Waiting On” Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, which encourages fellow bloggers to spotlight upcoming releases that we’re excited about.  It is a meme that I have  loved participating in since I first started blogging, but as Jill is no longer actively posting, from now on I’ll be linking to Can’t Wait Wednesday, hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, which is a spinoff of the original WoW meme.

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My selection for this week is MURDER ROAD by Simone St. James.  I’ve loved everything I’ve read from this author and I honestly wish I had this one to read right now because it sounds like the perfect read for spooky season. If you have read anything from St. James yet, I highly recommend The Sun Down Motel and The Book of Cold Cases.

MURDER ROAD by Simone St. James

by Berkley

Publication Date:  March 5, 2024

 

Goodreads:

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

 

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I’d love to hear what upcoming book releases you’re waiting on this Wednesday? Leave me your link in the comments below and I’ll stop by and check out your CWW selection for this week. 🙂

Reviews: THE GOLDEN COUPLE & THE BOOK OF COLD CASES

I know Sharon usually posts the majority of our thriller reviews on Thriller Thursday, but today I actually have two thriller reviews of my own to share.  I think I’m finally starting to come out of my pandemic funk with respect to darker reads because these two books were great and have me craving even more thrillers to read.  If you have any thriller recs to share, hit me up in the comments.

 

Reviews:  THE GOLDEN COUPLE & THE BOOK OF COLD CASESThe Golden Couple Goodreads

Author: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Publication Date: March 8, 2022

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, my favorite thriller writing duo, are back with a brand new domestic psychological thriller that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. The Golden Couple follows a married couple who turn to an unconventional therapist for help when they realize their marriage is in big trouble. They get more than they bargained for when the therapist decides to play detective and uncovers a treasure trove of secrets and lies, beneath the surface of what, to outsiders, seemed like the perfect marriage.

Avery Chambers, the therapist, is such an intriguing character.  She’s actually not even a licensed therapist, well not anymore anyway. She had her license revoked due to some ethically questionable actions on her part and now she works as a consultant, picking and choosing her clients based on her unconventional 10 step therapy program.  She’s a bit infamous, often referred to as a rogue therapist, but she gets results, which is why Marissa and Matthew Bishop turn to her for help. I really enjoyed following Avery throughout this story – she’s shrewd, resourceful, and definitely has a knack for seeing through people and getting to the truth of the matter. In addition to the work she does for the Bishops, Avery also has a personal crisis of her own that she is dealing with. She’s being stalked by a pharmaceutical corporation because she helped one of their employees blow the whistle on their unsavory business practices.  They want a name and she refuses to give them one, so they are aggressively pursuing her.  I loved the extra layer of suspense, drama, and the surprisingly creepy factor this pursuit added to the story.

Avery’s work with the Bishops is what takes center stage and I loved watching Avery peel back the layers of this couple’s relationship.  As soon as she meets with them the first time, she manages to coax the confession out of Marissa that she has cheated on Matthew.  But even as that explosive secret comes to light, it’s clear to Avery that not only are Matthew and Marissa keeping secrets from each other; they’re also not being forthright with her.  The authors do a fabulous job of creating tension and suspense in each of these therapy sessions.  I found myself eager for each appointment to see what tricks Avery would have up her sleeve as she pursued her unconventional route to saving the Bishop’s marriage.

There were also several very intriguing threads running through the story that kept me thoroughly engaged because I couldn’t wait to see how they fed into the main plot.  One, the whole time Avery is working to reconcile Matthew and Marissa, there is someone out there sending Marissa flowers and leaving her notes, as if trying to derail their therapy.  And two, there’s Marissa’s assistant, Polly, who is acting stranger and stranger by the day – dressing like Marissa, wearing the same perfume, and even mimicking some of her gestures. And why is she suddenly trying to make contact with Matthew, whom she barely knows?

The Golden Couple is a riveting psychological thriller that is about so much more than a marriage in trouble, as becomes clear when all of the pieces finally come together in an explosive and unpredictable conclusion.  If you enjoy gripping reads filled with multi-layered characters, plenty of suspenseful twists and turns to keep you guessing, and a reveal that will shock you, this is the book for you.  4 STARS

 

Reviews:  THE GOLDEN COUPLE & THE BOOK OF COLD CASESThe Book of Cold Cases Goodreads

Author: Simone St. James

Publication Date: March 15, 2022

Publisher: Berkley

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James is a creepy, atmospheric thriller that delivers not only a riveting murder mystery but also endless thrills and chills.  If you enjoyed St. James’ last novel, The Sun Down Motel, I think her latest novel will be right up your alley because it has a similar haunting vibe.

The story follows Shea Collins, a young woman who is obsessed with true-crime and who runs a successful blog called The Book of Cold Cases where she dishes about cold cases with fellow true crime fans.  By day, however, Shea works as receptionist in a medical office, and is shocked when Beth Greer casually walks into her office one day. Forty years ago, Beth Greer was the prime suspect in the brutal Lady Killer Murders, a string of brutal murders where men were shot in the face at close range, the only evidence left behind being notes written in what appears to be a woman’s handwriting.  Beth ended up being acquitted when she went to trial, but the murders have never been solved so a cloud of suspicion still hangs over her head. Shea follows Beth when she leaves and manages to secure an interview with the infamous woman. The rest of the story unfolds from both Shea’s and Beth’s perspectives as we finally learn the truth about the murders.

Both Shea and Beth are fascinating characters with many layers to them.  We learn that Shea is obsessed with true crime in part because she was the victim of a crime herself when she was a child and was nearly abducted by a man who coaxed her into his car. Shea managed to escape, but the man went on to abduct, rape and murder another little girl.  This incident haunts Shea and has colored many aspects of her life – she has an absolute phobia when it comes to getting into cars, she doesn’t trust people very easily, etc.  Even with her trust issues, however, Shea finds herself irresistibly drawn to Beth and her story, even though she has no idea if she’s meeting an innocent woman or an elusive serial killer. And I could easily understand why. There’s just something almost intoxicating about Beth and the whole “Is she or isn’t she a cold-blooded killer?” vibe she has going on.  I desperately wanted to know the truth as much as Shea did and I’m not even a true crime fan!

I loved how St. James kept me guessing the entire book.  I didn’t know which characters I could trust and which ones I couldn’t, but each interview between Shea and Beth was that much more engrossing, especially when it became clear that it would not be Beth who revealed all, but instead it was the Greer House itself that had a jaw-dropping story to tell.  I don’t want to give away any spoilers but if you enjoy a bit of supernatural creepiness in your thrillers, you’re going to love the scenes that unfold in that house.  Let’s just say it had me giving my own house the side eye the entire time I was reading, haha.

It’s hard to say more without giving away the reveal, so I’m going to stop here but if the idea of a determined blogger trying to solve two forty-year old murders, while at the same time, coming to terms with her own childhood trauma, appeals to you, you’ll definitely want to pick up a copy of The Book of Cold Cases.  It’s atmospheric, haunting, and unputdownable.  4 STARS

Mini Reviews – Must-Read February Releases: The Thriller Edition

 

It’s time for a new batch of mini reviews and this time it’s February ARCs, specifically three amazing thrillers that need to go on your must read list.  I don’t want to say much about these since with thrillers, it’s usually best to go in knowing as little as possible, but I do want to share a few highlights of what I loved about each book.

 

Mini Reviews – Must-Read February Releases: The Thriller EditionA Good Girl's Guide to Murder Goodreads

Author: Holly Jackson

Publication Date: February 4, 2020

Publisher:  Delacorte Press

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

 

Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a YA murder mystery that follows Pip, who has been thinking about a local murder investigation from a few years earlier, the outcome of which has never set well with her.  The case in question involved local high school students, Andie Bell and Sal Singh.  Andie went missing and Sal, who was her boyfriend at the time, immediately becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance.  When Sal takes his own life, everyone assumes that he killed Andie and committed suicide and thus the case was closed. Pip doesn’t buy it. Sal was one of the sweetest people she has ever known and she refuses to believe for one second that he hurt Andie.  Pip therefore decides to use her senior project as an opportunity to re-examine the case and find the real killer and she enlists Sal’s younger brother, Ravi, to help her.

This was such a fun read for me. I loved watching Pip in action.  She’s a very sharp young lady and has a real knack for being able to sift through clues and put together the pieces of a five year old murder mystery.  There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing as Pip followed the evidence and recorded her findings in her project journal. I also really loved that we were given the excerpts from Pip’s journal so that we could get inside of her head and follow her thought patterns as she sifted through what she found.  In addition to the thrill of feeling like I was right there with Pip as she investigated, there was also growing tension and suspense as Pip starts receiving anonymous threats warning her to back off or else.

While the case itself and Pip’s journey toward the truth is riveting, I also really enjoyed A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder because of the growing friendship between Pip and Ravi.  Ravi of course never believed his brother was capable of murder and has always wanted the opportunity to prove Sal’s innocence.  Instead of having that chance, however, Ravi, as the brother of an accused murderer, has pretty much been ostracized by the community. I loved that Pip reached out to him and gave him the opportunity to help clear his brother and get closure, and I especially loved that a true friendship between Pip and Ravi grew from them working on this project together.  I’m also excited that this book is the first in a series so I’m hoping we’ll get more of both Pip and Ravi in the next installment.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is one heck of a wild ride and I highly recommend it to fans of YA thrillers.   4.5 STARS

 

 

Mini Reviews – Must-Read February Releases: The Thriller EditionThe Sun Down Motel Goodreads

Author: Simone St. James

Publication Date: February 18, 2020

Publisher:  Berkley

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

 

I’m going to predict right now that Simone St. James’ latest novel The Sun Down Motel lands on my Best of 2020 list.  This book, hands down, blew me away, and there’s no way I’m going to be able to write anything here that will do it justice.  I devoured the book in less than 24 hours and it had me so hooked that I simply refused to put it down and do anything else until I knew how it ended.

The story follows two young women, Viv and Carly, 35 years apart, who both become entangled in the secrets that haunt an old run-down, roadside motel called the Sun Down Motel, located in the tiny town of Fell, New York.  In 1982, Viv Delaney was working as a night clerk at the motel when she unexpectedly went missing and was never heard from again.  In 2017, we meet Carly, who is actually Viv’s niece and who has left college and come to Fell, NY, trying to find the truth about what happened to her aunt. When Carly visits the Sun Down, while trying to retrace her aunt’s footsteps, she sees they are looking for a new night shift clerk, her aunt’s old shift. Carly can’t explain why but she feels compelled to take the job while she’s in town looking for leads on Viv.  And that’s when strange things start happening at the Sun Down Motel, like something out of The Twilight Zone.  The strange happenings at the Sun Down, as well as the mystery and secrets that surrounded them, absolutely enthralled me, as did the use of the dual timeline to show Viv investigating them in 1982 and then Carly experiencing and investigating the same things 35 years later in 2017. Would Carly find out what happened to Viv all those years ago…or would Carly disappear as well?

I don’t want to say anything else because both Carly and Viv’s journeys are best experienced with as few spoilers as possible going in. I will say though that this is absolutely one of the most suspenseful, atmospheric, mysterious, and haunting books I’ve read in a long time.  5 STARS

 

Mini Reviews – Must-Read February Releases: The Thriller EditionThe Dark Corners of the Night (UNSUB, #3) Goodreads

Author: Meg Gardiner

Publication Date: February 18, 2020

Publisher:  Blackstone Publishing

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley.  All opinions are my own.

 

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I’m a huge fan of the UNSUB series and that The Dark Corners of the Night is one of my most anticipated reads of 2020. I’m happy to report that my love for the series has only grown with this third book because author Meg Gardiner really knocked it out of the park.  While the cover of the book is super creepy, let me just say that the story itself is even creepier. My skin crawled as I read about the horrific adventures of the killer who has been dubbed “The Midnight Man.”

The Midnight Man sneaks into family homes in the Los Angeles, CA area under the cover of darkness.  He deliberately chooses families, and he murders the parents but leaves the children alive as witnesses to his unspeakable acts.  As the body count quickly starts to rise and local law enforcement officers realize they are dealing with a serial killer, they call in the FBI, which is where the protagonist of the UNSUB series, FBI behavioral analyst, Caitlyn Hendrix, enters the picture.

As with the first two novels in the series, it is absolutely riveting watching Caitlyn and her team carefully piece together a behavioral profile for this UNSUB and gradually work their way toward a list of possible suspects.  I love the sense of trust and camraderie that has developed between the members of the FBI team in these first three books, but I also liked the bit of tension that I saw here between the local law enforcement.  It was an uneasy alliance between the two groups even though they were both there trying to achieve the same goal: to catch a killer.

Caitlyn is always a big draw for me when I start a new UNSUB book, but she really drew me in even more than usual in this one, for a couple of reasons.  First, as she’s learning more and more about the profile of the Midnight Man, she starts to see something of herself in him. He reminds her of her past and it disturbs her so much that she has to fight to keep it from impacting her work.  Second, The Dark Corners of the Night also signals that we are finally starting to circle back around to an unresolved case that was left hanging at the end of the first book.  My one disappointment with the second book was that it wasn’t really touched on, so I was thrilled to see it revisited here with some teasers to advance the plot.

I think the books work fine as standalones but are absolutely outstanding as a series read in order, especially when it comes to watching for developments with that unsolved case that keeps dogging Caitlyn.  If you’re into thrillers and especially into shows like Criminal Minds that delve into the FBI world of analyzing criminal behavior, I highly recommend the UNSUB series.  5 STARS