Psychological suspense novel, “Cul-De-Sac,” is Joy Fielding’s strongest storytelling to date.
A quiet street populated with five diverse households contains a raft of dark secrets. During the middle of a hot July summer night, somebody is shot to death.
Who is responsible? What is the motive?
Craig and Maggie have moved from California to Florida with their two children, seeking a fresh start.
Problems from their past follow them to their new home, but what they don’t expect is that the fears and anxieties of their former life are waiting for them on their front doorstep.
Perhaps the killer is Nick, a respected oncologist, and his wife, Dani, a successful dentist and busybody, who meddles in the lives of her neighbors — both of them harboring ugly secrets of their own.
Possibly the victim is Julia, a 90-year-old woman living alone with arthritis, whose troubled grandson Mark visits with his problems.
When Julia’s son Norman and his wife Poppy arrive, urging Julia to sell her house and move into a retirement facility because of her advanced age, the family drama heightens, adding tension and fuel to the increasingly violent showdown between family and neighbors.
There’s also Olivia and her husband Sean, whose marriage is on the brink of collapse. When Sean loses his job at a prestigious advertising agency and tries to hide his failure from his wife, the tension ratchets and builds in their marriage. Sean decides to hide from his wife that he has been lying about being hired at a new job, which results in disaster when the truth comes to light.
What of the newlyweds Aiden and Heidi? Their marriage is on the rocks when Aiden refuses to choose between his wife and his intrusive mother Lisa when she moves in with them during renovations at her house.
Fireworks erupt when Lisa walks in on Heidi and Julia’s grandson Mark in a quiet, innocent moment.
A varied group of neighbors with secrets to hide propel this riveting domestic thriller and make this a mesmerizing reading experience. Readers will not be able to turn the pages fast enough. “Cul-De-Sac” is a character-driven masterpiece.
The art of needlepoint turns into a case of cold-blooded murder in Allie Pleiter’s entertaining new mystery series, “One Sharp Stitch.”
Thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her hometown Gwen Lake, outside of Asheville, North Carolina, to help run her mother’s Nimble Needle needlepoint shop.
It’s only temporary, her mother says.
Shelby did not expect to manage her mother’s business this late in life. While her parents take a cross-country RV trip together, Shelby can add junior investigator to her unforeseen responsibilities.
Shelby is responsible for hosting a trunk show event to help accrue business for the shop. But her plans are derailed the morning of the event when she discovers a former high school friend Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur who specializes in needlework scissors, dead inside her van. Knowing that she aspired to take over the Nimble Needle business herself, tensions build when Shelby pokes around and asks questions about Kat’s murder.
However, Chief Tallen and the county coroner’s office have evidence that the young woman’s death was an accident, caused by her knife.
The evidence does not sit well with Shelby, who sets out on her investigation, digging into Kat’s past. The evidence she uncovers will change the trajectory of Gwen Lake’s future and its residents.
Well-crafted and deftly plotted, “A Sharp Stitch” is the start of a fresh, renewed mystery series.
Kylie Lee Baker explores racism, COVID-19 and the hungry ghosts terrorizing her in a provocative horror debut, “Bat Eaters and Other Names for Cora Zeng.”
The book opens with a devastating murder that hits close to home for the novel’s protagonist, Cora Zeng.
Cora has an unusual job: she is a crime scene cleaner. While in the bowels of a New York City train station, Cora washes away the brutal remains of body parts and bodily fluids from suicides and murders.
None of that seems as terrible as the spectacle Cora witnesses when her sister, Delilah, is pushed in front of a train.
Delilah dies on impact, but the masked attacker flees from the scene as fast as he arrived.
Cora is unable to identify the killer, but the last two words he hissed at Delilah before shoving her in front of the train leave a lasting, haunting imprint in Cora’s thoughts.
“Bat eater” — an offensive, derogatory comment made to shake up the Asian community amid an already dangerous time during the pandemic lockdown.
Baker weaves together scary, timely, and historical elements, creating a spellbinding experience. A well-written debut novel that you will stay with you for weeks after reading it.