Chanticleer Book Reviews

Tag: Police Procedural

The 2022 CLUE Book Awards for Suspense/Thrillers – CIBAs Long List
The Clue Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in Suspense and Thriller Mysteries. The Clue Book Awards is a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

Chanticleer International Book Awards is seeking the best books featuring suspense, thrilling adventure, detective work, private eye, police procedural, and crime-solving, we will put them to the test to discover the best! (For lighter-hearted Mystery and Classic Cozy Mysteries please check out our Mystery & Mayhem Awards, and for High Stakes Suspense Novels please check out our Global Thriller Awards).

These titles have moved forward in the judging rounds from all 2022 Clue Suspense/Thriller Fiction entries to the 2022 Clue Book Awards LONG LIST. Entries below are now in competition for 2022 Clue Short List. The Short Listers will compete for the Semi-Finalist positions. Finalists will be selected from the Semi-Finalists. All FINALISTS will be announced and recognized at the Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC23).

The First Place Category Winners, along with the CIBA Division Grand Prize winners, will be selected from the 25 CIBA divisions’ Finalists.

We will announce the 1st Place Category winners and Grand Prize Division Winners at the CIBAs Banquet and Ceremony on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash. sponsored by the 2023 Chanticleer Authors Conference.

These titles are in the running for the SHORT LIST of the 2022 Clue Book Awards novel competition for Thriller/Suspense Fiction!

Join us in cheering on the following authors and their works in the 2022 CIBAs.
- Marie Sutro – Dark Obsessions
- Leah Angstman – Falcon in the Dive
- Kenneth Arbogast – Coast Guard Blues
- D.V. Chernov – Severed Echoes
- Craig H. Bowlsby – Requiem for a Lotus
- Chris Norbury – Dangerous Straits
- Steve Mullaney – Twisted
- Steve Mullaney – Randomization
- J.J. Clarke – Dared to Dream
- Theresa Griffin Kennedy – Talionic Night in Portland
- Jon Kaledin – Dissonance
- Martin Roy Hill – Upriver
- Kevin Kuhens – Terror’s Sword – A Kyle McEwan Novel
- Elizabeth Crowens – Hollywood Holmes, a Babs Norman Mystery
- J. Luke Bennecke – Waterborne
- Lo Monaco – Suddenly Deadly
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Spree, A Buck Taylor Novel
- Gerard Shirar – The China Paradox
- Jim Gish – Hell Game
- Kevin G. Chapman – Dead Winner
- Jule Selbo – 9 Days, A Dee Rommel Mystery
- Michael Stockham – Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer
- Matt Andrus – T’HUG
- Robert Buschel – God$ Ponzi
- McKinley Aspen – Praesidium
- Merit Clark – Killing Innocence
- Michael Pronko – Azabu Getaway
- Saralyn Richard – Bad Blood Sisters
- Bryan Cassiday – Knot of Fear
- Craig W. Fisher – Baker Street Irregular
- Danielle M. Wong – Last Liar Standing
- Kim Hays – Pesticide
- Miriam Verbeek – The Website
- Michelle Cox – A Spying Eye
- Arthur Herbert – The Bones of Amoret
- Brooke Maddaleni – Next Door
- Britt Lind – Malevolence – A Hollywood Mystery
- Ralph R. “Rick” Steinke – Major Jake Fortina and the Tier One Threat
- D.V. Chernov – Severed Echoes
- AG Flitcher – Boone and Jacque: Cytrus Moonlight
- Kenneth Arbogast – Coast Guard Blues
- Paul Attaway – Eli’s Redemption
- Paul Attaway – Blood in the Low Country
- Justin M. Kiska – Vice & Virtue
- Paul Alexander Sangillo – The Golden Prison
- Susan Wingate – When You Leave Me
- Jodé Millman – Hooker Avenue
- Charlie Robinson – Hybrid Hysteria – A Novel of Corporate Intrigue Both Holy and Diabolical
- R.U. Randy – Astraphobia
- Carolyn M. Bowen – The Death of Me
- Cathi Stoler – Straight Up A Murder On The Rocks Mystery
- Brian Cuban – The Ambulance Chaser
- Lisa Towles – Ninety-Five
- Alexandrea Weis – Have You Seen Me?
- John J. Valentino, Chief John J. Mandeville – Old Dark and Dangerous
- Carl and Jane Bock – Day of the Jaguar
- Chuck Morgan – Crime Exploded, A Buck Taylor Novel
Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

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Good luck to all as your works move on to the next rounds of judging.

The Grand Prize Winner for the CIBA 2021 CLUE Awards was:

The Vines

by Shelley Nolden

The 2022 CLUE Book Awards winners will be announced at CAC23 on April 29, 2023. Save the date for CAC23, scheduled April 27-30, 2023, our 11-year Conference Anniversary!

Submissions for the 2023 CLUE Book Awards are open until the end of July. Enter here!

Don’t delay! Enter today!

IN-Person – April 27-30, 2023! Register Today!

Seating is Limited. The esteemed WRITER Magazine (founded in 1887) has repeatedly recognized the Chanticleer Authors Conference as one of the best conferences to attend and participate in for North America.

Join us for our 11th annual conference and discover why!
November 29, 2022
Got a Mystery? Get a Clue! Suspense/Thriller Awards open until the end of September!
Fall into a good book with us this September as we walk down the Chanticleer Clue Book Awards Hall of Fame.

It doesn’t take a sleuth to realize the best way to have your work to be discovered is by submitting it to the Clue Book Awards Program!

Just take a look at some of these incredible authors who have won the past Clue Awards!

The 2021 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Shelley Nolden for The Vines

Born and raised in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area, Shelley Nolden headed east after matriculating from the University of Minnesota. After living in New York City for five years while working in finance, she and her husband decided they weren’t meant for city life and moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Shelley’s debut novel, The Vines, was released on March 23, 2021. Her obsession with forbidden North Brother Island in New York City’s East River, as well as her personal health history and passion for equality, heavily influenced the creation of this historical fiction thriller.

You can read more about North Brother Island here.

See the full list of 2021 Clue Winners here.

The 2020 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Chris Karlsen for A Venomous Love.

Detective Rudyard Bloodstone is facing the most bizarre crime spree of his career as a copper on the Victorian streets of London. Someone is using a poisonous Cape cobra as a weapon.

What begins as a simple robbery scheme turns deadly when a wealthy businessman is killed via cobra attack, the crimes go from strange to deadly. Rudyard (Ruddy) and his partner, Archie Holcomb, have few clues and no idea what would cause such a change in the criminal’s behavior.

Chris Karlsen was born and raised in Chicago. A retired police detective, Karlsen spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two different agencies. Her desire to write came in my early teens. After retiring, she pursued that dream. She writes three different series: Knights in Time (Paranormal Romance), (Romantic Thriller), and the newest is The Bloodstone Series. Each series has a different setting and some cross time periods.

She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and five wild and crazy rescue dogs.

See the full list of 2020 Clue Winners here.

The 2019 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Joanne Jaytanie for Salvaging Truth.

Famed marine biologist and researcher Claudia Rawlings is presumed dead. When Claudia’s research vessel goes down, her daughter Riley goes on a desperate search to discover what happened, eventually turning to Dagger Eastin, co-owner of Hunters and Seekers a marine salvage business. Dagger soon realize this isn’t a simple search and reclaim mission when someone takes a shot at him during an exploratory dive with Riley.

Former Navy SEALs, Dagger, and his partners Kaleb LaSalle and Stone Garrison are the definitions of relentless, and they quickly become embroiled in the investigation that has caught the attention of some very influential people, all seeking Claudia’s important research. And while Riley learns that her mother has left behind clues to her missing research, the Hunters and Seekers pull out all the stops to help and protect her. The wild scavenger hunt sends Dagger and Riley on a trip to discover the truth, but Russian spies, big oil cronies, and psychopathic hitmen lurk around every corner.

Joanne was born and raised in Sherburne, New York, a quaint village surrounded by dairy farms and rolling hills. From the moment she could read she wanted to explore the world. During her college years, she slowly crept across the country, stopping along the way in Oklahoma, California, and finally Washington State, which she now proudly calls home. She lives with her husband and Dobermans, in their home located on the Olympic Peninsula with a panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains.

Joanne writes romantic suspense, paranormal, mystery-thriller, supernatural suspense, and contemporary romance. She loves to submerge herself in the world of her characters, to live and breathe their lives and marvel at their decisions and predicaments. She enjoys a wide variety of books including paranormal, suspense, thriller, and of course romance.

See the full list of 2019 Clue Winners here.

The 2018 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Timothy Burgess for California Son

California Son, the second installment in the Liam Sol Mystery series by Timothy Burgess, presents another action-packed mystery for protagonist Liam Sol to solve. Honorably discharged after his tour of duty in Vietnam, Liam returns to his primarily Hispanic neighborhood of Baja La Bolsa, a coastal town near LA, California, where trouble finds him.

In his role as a journalist, Liam takes interest in the daily pleas of a Hispanic mother to find her son’s murderer, pleas that the mostly white La Bolsa Police seem to ignore. After an article he writes in hopes of renewing interest in the case appears in La Bolsa Tribune, the mother is found dead in her apartment. No stranger to death or violence, Liam soon finds himself on the personal side of a hunt for the killer of not only the son but also the mother.

Growing up in Southern California, Tim Burgess was always fascinated by the 1960s surf culture. Though he was only a child, he could tell this was not a Beach Blanket Bingo world. Beneath the innocent surface of the sun and the sand lurked a dark and dangerous undercurrent. The setting, he realized, would be perfect for a mystery series. The Never-Ending Swell and California Son are the first two books in the Liam Sol Mystery Series.

Tim grew up in West Covina, CA. and graduated from Cal Poly, Pomona–Go Broncos!

See the full list of 2018 Clue Winners here

And the 2017 Grand Prize Winner of the Clue Awards was Kaylin McFarren for Twisted Threads

Interested in a holiday cruise? Surround yourself with luxury, romance, secrets and multiple murders while traveling through the Caribbean with author Kaylin McFarren in her new sexy, action-packed book, Twisted Threads. There is only one assignment for a Japanese crime lord’s favorite assassin: take out a dastardly couple in less than ten days. But can Akira Hamada complete her mission without losing her head and heart during her most steamy and complicated hit thus far?

It isn’t part of the assignment to fall in love with someone close to murder suspects, Sara and Paul Lyons, but then Akira has never been bound by rules. Devon returns Akira’s feelings with all his being. However, there are notorious secrets between them, and now this surging romance is putting his life at risk as well. With no avenue for escape, multiple disappearances and murders increase the onboard tension. And that’s not all. Descriptions of the steamy scenes behind closed doors are beyond intense, with exhilarating adult situations and language.

Kaylin McFarren has received more than 60 national literary awards, in addition to a prestigious Golden Heart Award nomination for Flaherty’s Crossing – a book she and her oldest daughter, New York Times/USA Today best-selling author Kristina McMorris, co-wrote in 2008. Prior to embarking on her writing journey and developing the popular Threads psychological thriller series, she poured her passion for creativity into her work as the director of a fine art gallery in the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; she also served as a governor-appointed member of the Oregon Arts Commission.

See the full list of 2017 Clue Winners here

Again, a huge congratulations to Shelley Nolden, the most recent Clue Grand Prize Winner. We are honored to continue to promote and celebrate the winning books of the CIBAs.

Have an excellent Suspense/Thriller? The Clue Awards closes at the end of September! Submit today!

Chanticleerians in the News? We love celebrating our Chanticleer Authors! Anytime you have something to crow about, email us at info@ChantiReviews.com to let us know!
September 16, 2022
UNTIL DEAD: A Cold Case Suspense by Donnell Ann Bell – Murder Mystery, Suspense, Police Procedural

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does anyone care? If the tree has connections to the rich and powerful, they just might. In Until Dead, Donnell Ann Bell suggests the many ways “elites” – those with seemingly limitless wealth and power – can manipulate the world to their wishes.

Events that might otherwise go unnoticed take on great importance when they affect the powerful elites. With subtlety and skill, Bell reveals this as she takes the reader from an odd encounter in 2017 to an assassination attempt in Colorado two years later.

Until Dead begins when Mark Rafferty, an up-and-comer in a general practice Denver law firm, well on his way to full equity, dies in a one-car accident at the beginning of rush hour in the fall of 2017. He leaves behind several open cases and his widow, Theresa O’Neil, an Assistant United States Attorney. Theresa has a lot of support behind her, including her boss, the Colorado U.S. Attorney, and an aunt who is a U.S. Senator.

After Theresa survives an assassination attempt clearly set up by a knowledgeable killer, law enforcement realizes that she has a target on her back. Someone wants her dead, but who, and why?

The Senator’s powerful connections push the issue until a multi-agency task force forms to investigate—the same multi-agency that brought the Black Pearl Killer to justice. Everett Pope, a Denver police investigator, works with agents from the FBI and ATF to bring the would-be-killer to justice and learn who hired him for the hit.

Pride, greed, envy, and perhaps even a smattering of lust make for a tantalizing set of motives. The story is told from multiple points of view, even getting into the hit man’s head. The reader can develop rapport with these relatable, multi-dimensional characters.

Bell’s familiarity with the city of Denver and the mountainous regions of Colorado shines in her imagery. Her knowledge of the structures and workings of U.S. government agencies is impressive, suggesting a lot of research went into this story. Until Dead is a deep dive into a complex web of government hierarchies, power brokers, cybercriminals, and cyber security combined with drones and C-4. It will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The specificity of government structures works for and against the narrative, as the numerous acronyms attached to those government entities. But such is the nature of bureaucracies. Aside from this, the complex plot maintains its suspense, with an ending that hits like a destructive Colorado derecho.

The second book in the Cold Case Suspense Series has launched Donnell Ann Bell into a spot as one of our favorite authors. Highly Recommended!

August 29, 2022
The MIDNIGHT CALL by Jode Millman – Female Sleuth, Police Procedural, Suspense/Thriller

In this fast-paced legal thriller, young attorney Jessie Martin faces multiple crises in both her personal and professional lives when her former high school teacher and beloved mentor calls in the middle of the night to confess a crime. He has just committed murder.

Jessie feels compelled to help Terrance Butterfield, after all the many times he has come to her aid, so she rushes to his side over the protests of her fiancé, and in spite of her third-trimester pregnancy.

When she arrives, she finds herself plunged into the depths of a nightmare that has only just begun. The ending will either make or break Jessie and everything she holds dear. As well as the lives and careers of everyone caught up in the bloody mess.

Although this story begins with Jessie receiving the titular midnight call, the pace of the story is driven by the investigation into the crime, the defendant, and eventually into Jessie herself.

The maneuvering of both legal teams sets a frenetic pace, as the District Attorney is driven to prosecute what turns out to be a high-profile case in the press as well as the courtroom. While the defense attorney sees the case as a way to solve his financial problems, feed his adrenaline addiction, and put himself back on top as the maverick defender with a nose for finding the weak spots in any case.

The punch and counterpunch between the rival legal teams push the story forward at a high-speed, as they maneuver both in and out of the courtroom. The revelation of new information, about both the crime and the people involved in it, is nothing short of fascinating.

As the case builds, Jessie’s life falls apart, and all her long-held secrets are laid bare. During these instances, the pacing slows a bit, in juxtaposition to the back-and-forth battles between the legal teams. The legal strategy and the courtroom battles create an intense page-turner of a book.

The ending of the case does an excellent job of making the reader – and the defense team – question every single thing that came before.

The Midnight Call won First Place in the 2014 CIBAs in the CLUE Awards.

May 21, 2019
The MOVING BLADE by Michael Pronko – Police Procedural, Thriller/Suspense, Japanese Mystery

The Moving Blade by Michael Pronko won GRAND PRIZE in the CIBA 2018 Global Thriller Awards for Lab Lit and High Stakes Thrillers!

What exactly was Bernard Mattson up to when he committed seppuku* at his Tokyo home – or, was it murder? This is just one of many questions Michael Pronko incites in readers in his latest novel, The Moving Blade.

Another set of questions: What was so important about Mattson’s collection of rare Japanese shunga—centuries-old erotic art—that someone ransacked the house for it while his family attended his funeral? Or was it all about the significant role that the elderly Mattson had in formulating, then turning against, the SOFA** agreements, and the book he intended to publish about the unfairness of the agreements to Japan today?

This is a rich serving of a thriller, a well-cooked and tasty sukiyaki of a novel, written by an American who knows Japan well. He does the magic trick of giving us his Japan with little compromise—the Tokyo settings, subtle cultural difference, and, most exquisitely, the food—always ensuring his U.S. readers understand and accept shunga, ikizukuri, oyasumi-nasai, and meishi as easily as we understand hot dogs and Mom’s apple pie.

The Moving Blade does more than most procedural crime novels; this one is enriched by carefully drawn portraits of both political and cultural differences between Western and Eastern culture. It outlines without proselytizing the concerns of a range of Japanese citizens with the SOFA agreements. But if you think this book is more political than action, think again. The ongoing appearance of Japanese swords are given proper attention to their historical, social and monetary value, as well as their appearance in a killing that is best explained as ritualistic slice ‘n dice.

Hiroshi Shimizu, the Tokyo police detective with an American education is the lead character among a rich cast of Japanese and American men and women. His interior monologues about his career, a few women in his life, and the investigation aren’t quite as dark as thrillers from Scandinavia, but this is Japan, and he dishes out enough angst to make us care about who he is and what he does.

Most novels about contemporary Japan seem to be written by Japanese writers and translated into English. One of the accomplishments of this book is its distinctly American style that communicates Japanese life with equal clarity. And while some characters play the part of stock players, understand this, The Moving Blade delivers a solid punch to the gut (make that a well-placed thrust of a wakizashi sword) that readers look for in other-worldly thrillers.

This is the second book in Pronko’s series with Detective Hiroshi Shimizu, in a planned series of five books: the first, The Last Train, was published in 2017.

*Seppuku (hari-kiri): 1: ritual suicide by disembowelment practiced by the Japanese samurai or formerly decreed by a court in lieu of the death penalty; 2: SUICIDE: Merriman-Webster online dictionary.

**SOFA refers to the binding arbitration between Japan and the U.S. following World War II allowing the U.S. to establish permanent military bases governed by American laws

“A rich serving of a thriller, The Moving Blade is a well-cooked and tasty sukiyaki of a novel, written by an American who knows Japan well.” – Chanticleer Reviews

October 9, 2018
ELEVEN – A BRANDON FISHER FBI Series #1 by Carolyn Arnold – Thriller/Suspense, Hard-Boiled Police Procedural

Carolyn Arnold’s absorbing crime thriller, Eleven, is taut with suspense from the very first page. Brandon Fisher, just starting his two-year probationary period with the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, is doing his utmost to impress his supervisor, the legendary Special Agent Jack Harper, as they survey a shocking crime scene.

They’re standing in an underground dirt bunker with tunnels that lead to small, circular rooms with chicken wire pressed against the dirt walls. There are ten corpses in all, their bodies marked with identical incisions that tell a tale of ritualistic torture and murder. Only one victim has not been disemboweled. Brandon, growing more claustrophobic in the bunker by the second, struggles to show no emotion in front of unflappable Jack, but that’s difficult when he realizes the bunker contains a room for an eleventh victim. Before long, Brandon will learn that he very well could be the serial murderer’s next target. Could his first case be any more difficult?

The forensic team ascertains that the killer is highly intelligent and disciplined. While they have an immediate suspect, the team is also certain that the killer had a helper. Most of the book focuses on discerning who, amongst a large group of possibilities, serves as the accomplice. This second perpetrator is thought of as a “follower” or an “apprentice.” This mentor-apprentice relationship unnervingly echoes the relationship between Jack and Brandon.

Readers who are drawn to crime thrillers will not be disappointed with the details Brandon, Jack and the rest of the team sort through as they gather evidence. As the title of the book indicates, the number eleven is a key clue.

The dialogue involving the latest method s for extracting DNA from objects and lifting fingerprints indicates the author has done her homework; she integrates scientific details nicely into the plot. In fact, each member of the team is distinct and well realized.

This book is a fast read as the writing is straight-forward and engaging. Arnold leads the reader through some winding plot twists and each one is more riveting than the last. Suspense builds and builds and the ending is every bit as shocking as the opening pages of the novel. Although Jack tells Brandon, “This isn’t like TV,” there’s no doubt that fans of shows like CSI (in its various locations) and Criminal Minds (which has a small cameo) will want to read Eleven. Readers will find the book difficult to put down – and, if they do, they may very well sleep with the lights on.

A lead FBI agent hunts his prey and grooms his apprentice while a ritualistic killer does the very same thing. Riveting and disturbing, Eleven, is guaranteed to thrill and terrorize readers.

October 23, 2017
JEHOVAH: A NOVEL by James Patrick Weber – Thriller/Suspense, Police Procedural

Highly suspenseful and intricately woven, James Weber’s Jehovah: A Novel, will have you guessing until the very last page.

Austin, Texas is not just the setting of Jim Weber’s novel with vivid descriptions of the overall landscape and the individual neighborhoods, the people, the city’s crime history, the music, even the allergies people suffer from “cedar fever”; the city is more of a character. Weber does a superb job of immersing the reader in this urban environment in the early 1980s, that it’s easy to forget you’re not there.

The protagonist, Detective Sam Cain, knows the city as well as he knows his co-workers and the family he doesn’t see often enough when heading up a murder investigation. What he doesn’t know is who is killing mobsters, drug dealers, rapists, arsonists, drunk drivers and other unsavory types who have cheated the justice system. The victims are found in prayer position, on their knees, shot in the back of the head, the name of an Old Testament figure pinned to the fronts of their shirts.

The Old Testament figures prominently in this novel. The killer, referring to himself as Jehovah, sends typed letters filled with biblical references about unleashing his wrath on the wicked to the local newspaper. Of course, our protagonist’s surname clearly alludes to Cain, the Biblical figure who slew his brother, Abel, and readers are right to expect a mighty showdown between the killer and the detective.

The victim count rises as Cain races to piece clues together with the help from some and problematic interference from others. A most impressive feature of the book is the convincing details regarding police procedures and the internal politics of an investigation. The sections on forensics and criminal profiling are fascinating, while Cain’s meeting with a psychic is understated but nevertheless chilling.

There’s a large cast of minor but memorable characters, from the undercover cop who turned in his gun and chose to become a homeless person to “The Angel,” a shadowy figure of the night whose objectivity has motivated people to confide in him.

Given the religious zealotry evidenced in Jehovah’s letters, it’s appropriate that there’s also a priest, a member of the Holy Cross order of priests, who has his own political past having spent time in South America preaching liberation theology. As in all excellent mysteries, the concluding revelations make you reconsider everything you thought you knew. Weber leaves no loose ends, a feat considering the scope and complexity of the novel, making Jehovah a most satisfying mystery.

September 21, 2017
GUILTY DEEDS by Scott D. Smith – Police Procedural, Mystery, Thriller

What would you give if you could add to your memories – say, load your brain with pleasant, peaceful memories on top of the violent ones you live with every day? What would you do if the memories you were promised actually turn out to be those of a sadistic serial killer?

Memories are at the heart of this fascinating detective thriller, Guilty Deeds, by Scott D. Smith. The plot involves the transplanting of memories from one person to another and the result is an intriguing set of concentric mysteries and a very good read.

Stephanie Monroe, a young, smart and sarcastic detective working in Houston has a seemingly open and shut case when one Robert Grayson, a veteran who saw a good deal of violence in the Middle East, arrives at the police station with blood-stained hands and confesses to the murders of several women. He’s terrified he’ll kill again and begs to be incarcerated before he can do so. Investigations don’t get much easier for a homicide detective, but Stephanie has been on the job long enough to know that life is never that simple.

Enter Happy Memories, a company that buys and sells memories for your pleasure – and their profit. When Stephanie uncovers the fact her self-proclaimed killer is one of Happy Memories’ clients, she turns her investigation to the very affluent Dr. Lawrence Mead the owner of the company whose practices range from the unethical to the sinister. With the help of the police psychiatrist and Robert, Stephanie works to unravel this ever-deepening mystery before Robert’s sanity becomes the next victim.

Tension is ripe throughout the well-written scenes and the dialogue is unexpectedly fun and engaging. The affectionate and quick-witted banter between Stephanie and Robert, whose attraction to one another grows as they become more deeply mired in the investigation, is solidified when they share their own sets of memories. This establishes a trust that will connect them in ways they could never have anticipated – and hooks the reader from the start.

The conclusion leaves the reader hoping for a sequel. How fortunate, then, that there’s an epilogue that manages a perfect and surprising finish for a novel that probes the essence of the human condition. Thought provoking and entertaining, this thriller will have you second guessing yourself.

July 12, 2017