35. Burning Bright by Nick Petrie

#2 Peter Ash

listened on Audible (purchased)

421 pgs.

2017
Adult Mystery-Thriller
Finished 7/23/26
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating:  4.25
Setting: Contemporary Washington/Seattle area

My comments: Ya, right.  So much of this was pretty far-fetched, but also totally enjoyable and can't-put-down-able, thus a higher rating than it probably deserved from me.  Peter Ash is so much fun to get to know, and in this one he meets a woman who is (seemingly) perfect for him and he falls hard and fast.  Lots of killing-without-caring from both the good and bad guys, which is tough to take.  But if you might enjoy swinging through the canopy of redwoods ziplining through a forest with bad guys shooting at you, you might just enjoy this book!

Goodreads synopsis: In the new novel featuring war veteran Peter Ash, an action hero of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne (Lincoln Journal-Star), Ash has a woman's life in his hands and her mystery is stranger than he could ever imagine.

War veteran Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn't quite the balm he'd hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn't favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling.

There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots.

Just days ago, investigative journalist June Cassidy escaped a kidnapping by the men who are still on her trail. She suspects they re after something belonging to her mother, a prominent software designer who recently died in an accident. June needs time to figure out what is going on and help from someone with Peter's particular set of skills.

Only one step ahead of their pursuers, Peter and June must race to unravel this peculiar mystery. What they find leads them to an eccentric recluse, a shadowy pseudo-military organization, and an extraordinary tool that may change the modern world forever.

33. Ironwood by Michael Connelly

#2 Catalina

listened on Libby

327 pgs.

2026
Adult Mystery
Finished 7/18/26
Goodreads rating: 4.41
My rating: 4
Setting: comtemporary Catalina Island, southern California

My comments: Another good one, Mr. Connelly!  I love how he included quite a bit of Renee Ballard and a couple of good mysteries that needed solving at the same time, very interesting, went very fast, "Still" is a great character with great morals and a pretty darned sharp mind.  Enjoyable.

Goodreads synopsis: Sworn to protect a scenic island meant to be far from the evils of the mainland, Detective Sergeant Stilwell can feel danger closing in.

Detective Sergeant Stilwell knows that his posting on Catalina Island is no paradise, but to most residents, it seems blissfully separated—by twenty-two miles of ocean—from the troubles of Los Angeles County. But now a threat is coming to his safe haven.
 
Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night at the Airport in the Sky, a remote airstrip in the mountains. A duffel bag of drugs is dropped and the deputies move in, but things quickly go sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pickup man into the mountainside brush, shots are fired on the runway and the plane flies off.
 
An internal inquiry follows, putting Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility for the disastrous operation. But he is determined to find out who brought deadly violence to his island, and begins his own secret investigation into the drug deal gone wrong.
 
While under orders to remain in the sheriff’s substation, he finds in the lost and found a valuable backpack that was never claimed. He traces it to a woman who disappeared while hiking on the island four years ago. But then why was the pack only turned in two months back? Now thoroughly intrigued, he follows the mystery all the way to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard.
 
Stilwell and Ballard work the case from both sides of the channel, and soon realize they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities. Meanwhile, frustrated at being shut out of an investigation on his own island, Stilwell risks his already shaky standing in the department to pursue a case whose reach is wider than he ever imagined.
 
Page-turning, packed with intrigue, and bringing together an unstoppable investigative team, Ironwood continues the Catalina series with all of Michael Connelly’s signature “relentless narrative drive…evocative atmosphere, realistic dialogue, and well-developed characters” (Washington Review of Books).

12. Girl Gone Missing by Marcie R. Rendon

#2 Cash Blackbear

listened on Audible

208 pgs.

2019
Adult Historical Fiction Mystery
Finished 3/5/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.97
My rating: 4
Setting: North Dakota/Minnesota Line - both sides of the Red River

My comments: darn, no notes.

Goodreads synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Cash Blackbear helps law enforcement solve the mysterious disappearance of a local girl from Minnesota's Red River Valley.

1970s, Fargo-Moorhead: it’s the tail end of the age of peace and love, but Cash Blackbear isn’t feeling it. Bored by her freshman classes at Moorhead State College, Cash just wants to play pool, learn judo, chain-smoke, and be left alone. But when one of Cash’s classmates vanishes without a trace, Cash, whose dreams have revealed dangerous realities in the past, can’t stop envisioning terrified girls begging for help. Things become even more intense when an unexpected houseguest starts crashing in her living room: a brother she didn’t even know was alive, from whom she was separated when they were taken from the Ojibwe White Earth Reservation as children and forced into foster care.

When Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian and friend, asks for Cash’s help with the case of the missing girl, she must override her apprehension about leaving her hometown—and her rule to never get in somebody else’s car—in order to discover the truth about the girl’s whereabouts. Can she get to her before it’s too late?

54. Beyond Reach by Molly Black

#2 Reese Link, Maine cop

listened on Chirp
198 pgs.

2023
Genre/Level
Finished 6/11/24
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Maine coast

My comments: This was supposed to be set inn Maine, but it could have been set anywhere.  It kept my attention but wasn't overwhelming "good."  

Goodreads synopsis:  Small town police officer Reese Link, teaming up with her new Maine State Police partner, is assigned another explosive the second warden in the state has turned up murdered. These seem like vengeance killings, but Reese suspects something much darker, more maniacal, and she knows it will take all she has to enter this killer’s mind and outwit him before he strikes again.

Reese Link is determined to do right by her deceased older brother, to fill his shoes in the local police department, and to avenge his murder. She also wants to make her father, a local lobsterman, proud. But the local force is male, and close-knight, and Reese soon learns that being accepted won’t be so easy.

Small town life on a harbor in Maine can be rough. Winters can be cruel and stretch forever, while the working class who inhabit the harbor suffer no fools. Reese knows this town like the back of her hand—but when she teams up with a State police officer, she quickly realizes she’ll have to branch out to other areas, way out of her comfort zone. She will have to learn quickly about all regions of Maine, as she hunts deadly killers wherever they may take her.

All along, she must fight her own demons, shake off the heaviness of her childhood, the depression of this town, and ask is she good enough?

49. Lethal Beauty by Scott William Carter

#2 Karen Pantelli

listened on Audible
298 pgs.

2021
Adult Mystery series
Finished 5/28/24
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 3.5
Setting: contemporary 

My comments: There were little things that bothered me about this book, sometimes explanations went on and on and ON and other times were quickly blasted over.  And some or the characters were really hard to believe.  But it kept me entertained on the road from Chincoteague home at the end of a very fun Memorial Day weekend.

Goodreads synopsis:  Never mess with a woman with nothing left to lose.

Another state. Another city. Another dead-end job. A stellar FBI agent until tragedy set her adrift, Karen Pantelli finds herself working at a pizza joint in Billings, Montana, trying to ignore the increasing global unrest dominating the news, when three armed men walk through the door. Soon a shocking turn of events launches her on a cross-country quest for a former college classmate, an alluring but manipulative woman with just one goal in life: to marry rich. Very rich.

But what happens when this stunning beauty ensnares the richest, most powerful man of them all? He may have a singular ambition of his own … with lethal consequences for a world already in turmoil.

33. The Boy Who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong

#2 Haven's Rock/Casey Duncan

listened on Libby - borrowed from the library
339 pgs.

copyright 2024
Adult Mystery series
Finished 4/11/24
Goodreads rating: 4.21
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Yukon, Canada

My comments:  Casey is pregnant, but of course there are possible complications.  Only a small number of new residents have arrived at Haven's Rock, but this is the first time ever that children have been included - two brothers, 10 and 13.  The whole story is about the kidnapping of the 10-year old (who seems to be as smart and savvy as Casey.  Sometimes I think that Casey's more of a mind-reader than smart and savvy?  Perhaps I need to think of Casey as a savant, since her doctor/sister, April, certainly is.  At least in the investigative way, thinking through all possible scenarios, because how else could she come up with exactly what happened each time something very weird happens?)  It was a pretty decent story, although the woods are described as not really being very big and I'm having a tough time picturing it, erasing the previous book's setting out of my mind.  There's something really weird going on in the mining village that butts their property (seems REALLY strange that it's so close, since Casey & Dalton worked so hard to be in the middle of nowhere, in proximity with no one,.  I'm pretty sure the focus of the next book with be what's going on in that mining village, but I'll have to wait for the next book....which is a whole year away!

Goodreads synopsis:  Haven’s Rock is a well-hidden town surrounded by forest. And it’s supposed to be, being that it’s a refuge for those who need to disappear. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton already feel at home in their new town, which reminds them of where they first met in Rockton. And while they know how to navigate the woods and its various dangers, other residents don’t. Which is why people aren't allowed to wander off alone.

When Max, the town’s youngest resident—taught to track animals by Eric—fears a bear is stalking a hiking party, alarms are raised. Even stranger, the ten-year-old swears the bear had human eyes. Casey and Eric know the dangers a bear can present, so they’re taking it seriously. But odd occurrences are happening all around them, and when a dead body turns up, they’re not sure what they’re up against.

15. The Shadows of Pike Place by D. D. Black

listened and read both on Audio and Kindle
272 pgs.
2022
Adult murder mystery

Finished 2/24/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.35
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary Seattle

My comments: Pretty decent mystery, but I don't like the way it keeps dragging in a problem from the protagonist's past that's going to hang over book after book.  This episode was about an extremely rich Seattle family whose matriarch was murdered using yellow oleander.  Austin and his sidekick reporter friend jumped in with both feet to figure it out.  So much that would never really happen, but it's fiction, right?

Goodreads synopsis:  Sometimes the past is better left buried.

When the matriarch of a rich Seattle family dies under suspicious circumstances, private investigator Thomas Austin is on the case. This time, the suspect list is easy.

Seven people were in the lakefront mansion with the millionaire when she died: a spoiled son, a jealous brother-in-law, a beloved chef, a rebellious grandson, an arrogant memoirist, and a pair of successful daughters. All had motive. All had opportunity. But which one is the killer?

To solve the case, Austin must look into the past of one of Seattle's most powerful families. With the help of a fiery reporter and a long-lost diary, he uncovers a series of dark secrets that betray the criminal underbelly of old-money Seattle.

But the closer Austin gets to the truth, the more dangerous the investigation becomes. Sometimes, when you dig into a secret past, the past comes out to bury you.

24. FInlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano

(#2 Finlay Donovan)

listened on Libby - borrowed from library

2022
357 pgs.
Adult Humorous Mystery
Finished 4/6/23
Goodreads rating: 4.02
My rating: 3.5

My comments:  A continuation of book #1, Finlay and Vero attempt to track down whoever it is that is trying to murder her ex-husband Steven.  Another comedy of errors with two love interests, and quite ridiculous escapades by the two women.  Once again it reminds me so incredibly of Stephanie Plum and her antics, which I tired of rather easily.  It looks like there's going to be a number three where they have to track down the still unknown assassin because the bad BAD guy has a lot to hold over Finlay's head.

Goodreads synopsis:  Finlay Donovan is―once again―struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she's dealt with lately is that of her daughter's pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he's a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she'd like.

Meanwhile, Vero's keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay's first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes... and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book's deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn't a noose at the end of it...

4. Unpunished by Lisa Black

#2 Renner & Gardiner

listened on Audible

2017
320 pgs.
Adult Police Procedural
Finished 1/9/23
Goodreads rating: 3.60
My rating: 2.5
Setting: Contemporary 

My comments:  If you're interested in the newspaper publishing business and how it's dying and want to be lectured ad nauseam about it, this is the book for you.  It wasn't particularly the book for me.  The other half of the book, the actual mystery, was okay.... 

Goodreads synopsis:  Maggie Gardiner, a forensic expert who studies the dead, and Jack Renner, a homicide cop who stalks the living, form an uneasy partnership to solve a series of murders in this powerful new thriller by the bestselling author of That Darkness.

It begins with the kind of bizarre death that makes headlines--literally. A copy editor at the Cleveland Herald is found hanging above the grinding wheels of the newspaper assembly line, a wide strap wrapped around his throat. Forensic investigator Maggie Gardiner has her suspicions about this apparent suicide inside the tsunami of tensions that is the news industry today--and when the evidence suggests murder, Maggie has no choice but to place her trust in the one person she doesn't trust at all . . .

Jack Renner is a killer with a conscience, a vigilante with his own code of honor. In the past, Jack has used his skills and connections as a homicide detective to take the law into his own hands, all in the name of justice. He has only one problem: Maggie knows his secret. She insists he enforce the law, not subvert it. But when more newspaper employees are slain, Jack may be the only person who can help Maggie unmask the killer-- even if Jack is still checking names off his own private murder list.

74. Her Final Breath by Robert Dugoni

#2 Tracy Crosswhite

listened on Audible

unabridged audio (11:28)

narrated by Emily Sutton-Smith

2015
426 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished  7/7/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.29 - 4129 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Seattle, Washington

First line/s: "Tracy Crosswhite watched the minivan pull into the parking lot, noting a car seat strapped into the back seat and a yellow "Child on Board" placard dangling in the window."

My comments: This was definitely an excellent mystery, kept you wondering and questioning and worrying throughout the story.  There were lots of characters and lots of suspects, but for some reason I didn't get them mixed up or forget who was who when their names were mentioned, like I frequently do.  It was read really well, and it's so nice to know that the asshole gets it in the end.  Picchu!  (A five rating, because I didn't want it to end and I can't wait to read the next one in the series)

Goodreads synopsis:   Homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite has returned to the police force after the sensational retrial of her sister’s killer. Still scarred from that ordeal, Tracy is pulled into an investigation that threatens to end her career, if not her life.

        A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle. Even after a stalker leaves a menacing message for Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, she is charged with bringing the murderer to justice. With clues scarce and more victims dying, Tracy realizes the key to solving the murders may lie in a decade-old homicide investigation that others, including her captain, Johnny Nolasco, would prefer to keep buried. With the Cowboy on the hunt, can Tracy find the evidence to stop him, or will she become his next victim?

65. The Planters by Victor Zugg

#2 A Ripple in Time

read on Kindle

2020
371 pgs.
Adult Time Travel
Finished 6/21/21
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 624 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1720 South Carolina coastline

First line/s: "Nathan Sims eyed the sword's sharp point, hovering inches from his throat."

My comments: Most of this episode taes place on the open sea as Mason, Charlie, Jeremy, and Nathan travel back-and-forth between the plantation and the Spanish fort in Saint Augustine where they sell the rice so that they can pay the first installment that they owe Mrs. Stevens in New York for the purchase of the plantation.  At the end, the rotten Nthan has died and Karen is nearing the end of her pregnancy.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A continuing struggle for survival in a time long past.

        Former Federal Air Marshall Stephen Mason has again done the impossible. He has passed back through an unexplainable time portal and reunited with the three people he cares about most.
        It’s 1720, Charles Town, Carolina Colony, a time and place fraught with hardships and hazards. Carving out a life here will be challenging, especially for these modern-day transplants. There are few people they can trust, none in whom they can confide. But they have each other. And they have a rice plantation.
        With no apparent way home, the plan is simple: grow, harvest, sell, and make life as comfortable as possible, without getting too far ahead of history. But with a million ways things can go wrong, the execution may prove considerably more complicated.
        New to a new world, can Mason, Karen, Jeremy, and Lisa navigate the hard realities they are only beginning to understand?

60. Poisonfeather by Matthew FitzSimmons

#2 Gibson Vaughn

listened on Audible (KindleUnlAudio)

narrated by James Patrick Cronin

Unabridged audio (12:19)
2016
384 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished 6/6/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.05 - 9074 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary rural WV

First line/s: "The lights thudded to life in cavernous sweeps of fluorescence.) 

My comments: Well created characters and a plot that is almost always able to follow, though complicated.  Definitely ended on a cliffhanger, will any of the characters other than Gibson Vaughan return for book number three?

Goodreads synopsis:  Gibson Vaughn, hero of the bestselling novel The Short Drop, returns in a smoldering thriller.

            When jailed billionaire Charles Merrick hints publicly that he has stashed a fortune in an offshore cache, a school of sharks converges upon his release from federal prison.

            Among his swindled victims is Judge Hammond Birk, the man who saved Gibson Vaughn’s life when he was a troubled teenager. Now Gibson intends to repay that debt by recovering Merrick’s victims’ money.

            But Gibson isn’t the only one on the trail of the hidden fortune.

            The promise of billions has drawn a horde of ruthless treasure hunters, including an edgy ex-con, a female bartender with a mysterious history, a Chinese spy with a passion for fly-fishing, and a veritable army of hardened mercenaries. To stay ahead of the sharks and win justice for his mentor, Gibson will need all his formidable skills. But at the end of the road, he’ll still have to face “Poisonfeather”—a geopolitical secret that just might get Gibson killed…or worse.

54. A Diamond in My Heart by Lorena Angell

#2 Unaltered

2012

277pgs.
YA Paranormal Fantasy
Finished 5/23/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.08 - 553 ratings
My rating: 3.5

First line/s: "I used to scoff at magical powers and abilities, used to have this amazing focused direction in life and didn't allow my time to be wasted on silly conspiracy theories or gossip."

My comments: This one did not end in the happy, upbeat way that number one ended.  It ends on a cliffhanger.  Calli and Chris are reunited, but it's sort of a bland reuniting.  The vain quarterback, Brand, has become a major character, a very likable one, and a great addition to the cast of characters.  Definitely bad guys versus good guys.  Not as good as book one in the series, but good enough to go for number three.

Goodreads synopsis:  A fantasy, paranormal, mystery thrill-ride. At age sixteen, Calli Courtnae learned that superhuman abilities and powers existed in her ordinary world, yet had remained hidden for thousands of years. She became one of them through the course of events controlled by Maetha the Immortal and is now faced with trying to live in her ordinary world while secretly possessing extraordinary powers. Her task is complicated by the emergence of an unknown power in one of Calli’s classmates which requires her to befriend the boy in an effort to help him use his powers for good and not just for his own self-gratification.

          Calli is able to read minds, view the future, heal, and locate other Diamond Bearers she didn't know existed and in doing so she'll learn of traitors who've sided with the US government and who threaten her new world and the lives of those she loves. She'll question her own loyalties and friendships, and ultimately be faced with the inevitable—the reuniting of the diamond shards.

41. Shadow Sands by Robert Bryndza

#2 Kate Marshall

listened on Audible

narrated by Kristin Atherton

Unabridged audio (9:46)
2020
384 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Series
Finished 4/17/21
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 4521 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Dartmoor, southern coast of England

First line/s: "Simon gasped and choked on the brackish, freezing water as he swam for his life."

My comments: Kate Marshall and her research assistant, Tristan Harper, set out to find out what happened to an Italian lecturer, Magdalena, who disappeared on Sunday near Shadow Sands Reservoir, where Kater and her son, Jake, had discovered the body of a drowned young man while scuba diving a few months before.  A good followup to the Nine Elms start of the series.  NOTE:  Jake decides to meet his father, the Nine Elms Cannibal, much to his mother's distress.

Goodreads synopsis:  The internationally bestselling author of Nine Elms and The Girl in the Ice is back with a nail-biting new Kate Marshall case, a woman with a dark secret and a powerful sense of justice.
          When Kate Marshall finds the bloated body of a young man floating in the Shadow Sands reservoir, the authorities label it a tragic accident.
          But the details don't add up: why was the victim there, in the middle of the night? If he was such a strong swimmer, how did he drown?
          Kate is certain there is more to this case than meets the eye. As she and her research assistant Tristan Harper dig deeper, they discover a bloody trail that points towards an active serial killer hiding in plain sight. People have been silently disappearing for years, and when another woman is taken, Kate and Tristan have a matter of days to save her from meeting the same fate.

34. Silent Vows by Catherine Bybee

#2 MacCoinnich Time Travels

listened on Kindle Unlimited Audio/Audible

narrated by David Monteath with GREAT accents and voice tones

Unabridged audio (9:35)
2010
302 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Hist. Fiction
Finished 4/8/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.18 - 1924 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary LA/1570's Scotland

First line/s:  "My life is over.  Myra MacCoinnich sat astride her horse, marching toward death, death of her life, as she knew it.  Why?"

My comments: The second installment focuses mainly on Myra, the 21-year-old Scottish sister of Duncan and Todd Blakely, the young, fit cop that she meets when she is sent back to the 21st century.  Tara and Duncan are still on the scene, but background characters.  Lizzie and Finn come to a little more proinence, as do Simon and Kieran and Amber, sibling of Myra, Duncan, and Finn.  Gwen, the bad "witch," ges stronger and stronger and viler and meaner.  HEA.  Book 3 to come will be good.  This romance was steamier than the first, could've done with a little less. I don't know how the narrator keeps all the different accents and tones of voice he uses separate, but he does a great job!

Goodreads synopsis:  Myra, a medieval virgin druidess, flees five hundred years into the future to escape death at the hands of a cursed witch and lands in the arms of a handsome but cynical twenty-first century cop. Officer Todd Blakely knows Myra is hiding something, but can't resist her innocent charms. Destiny throws them both into a world of intrigue and mysticism. Can Todd be the true white knight she needs? Or will magic and the winds of time tear them apart?

135. When She Was Good by Michael Robotham

#2 Cyrus Haven
borrowed from Library and listened on Libby
narrated by Joe Jameson
Unabridged audio (11:25)
2020
352 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 10/28/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.33 - 4181 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Nottingham/Manchester, England

First line/s: "Late spring.  Morning cold.  A small wooden boat emerges from the mist, sliding forward with each pull of the oars."

What I posted on Goodreads:  Part two in a 2-part mystery, finished quite satisfactorily.  Great narration, wonderful mystery.

My comments: Part two, finishing a story begun in a prior book (Good Girl, Bad Girl) quite satisfactorily.  I enjoyed the way it flip-flops between the two man characters, a forensic psychiatrist and an 18-year-old girl who has been abused and/or on the run for most of her remembered life.  The setting of Nottingham/Manchester, England and the perfectly accented and accentuated male reader enhanced my reading experience.  Plot, setting, characterization, and narration worked perfectly together in this excellent mystery.

Goodreads synopsis:  Criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac return in this new thriller from author Michael Robotham. Who is Evie, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in Good Girl, Bad Girl. Now, the closer Cyrus gets to uncovering answers about Evie’s dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named...

114. The Fifth to Die by J. K. Barker

#2 MLK Murders
listened on Audible
narrated by Eduardo Ballerini and Graham Winton
Unabridged audio (15:07)
2018
416 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 8/6/2020
Goodreads rating:  432 - 5744 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Contemporary Chicago, with forays to New Orleans and Sourth Carolina

First line/s:  "Darkness.  It swirled around him deep and thick, eating the light and leaving nothing behind but an inky void."

What I posted on GoodReads:  Flipping back and forth between many pov's, the interesting, though gritty, mystery continues.

My comments:  Talk about ending on a cliffhanger!  I'm so glad I have the next book, the final book, in the trilogy ready and waiting.   Flipping back and forth between three Chicago cops, different girls who have been abducted, an FBI agent, and the diary of Bishop, the story comes at you from all angles.  Anson Bishop, an incredibly smart serial murderer - and a particularly gruesome one at that - is still at it, this time having an accomplice.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the thrilling sequel to The Fourth Monkey, a new serial killer stalks the streets of Chicago, while Detective Porter delves deeper into the dark past of the Four Monkey Killer.
          Detective Porter and the team have been pulled from the hunt for Anson Bishop, the Four Monkey Killer, by the feds. When the body of a young girl is found beneath the frozen waters of Jackson Park Lagoon, she is quickly identified as Ella Reynolds, missing three weeks. But how did she get there? The lagoon froze months earlier. More baffling? She’s found wearing the clothes of another girl, missing less than two days. While the detectives of Chicago Metro try to make sense of the quickly developing case, Porter secretly continues his pursuit of 4MK, knowing the best way to find Bishop is to track down his mother. When the captain finds out about Porter’s activities, he’s suspended, leaving his partners Clair and Nash to continue the search for the new killer alone.
          Obsessed with catching Bishop, Porter follows a single grainy photograph from Chicago to the streets of New Orleans and stumbles into a world darker than he could have possibly imagined, where he quickly realizes that the only place more frightening than the mind of a serial killer is the mind of the mother from which he came.

1. Name of the Devil by Andrew Mayne

#2 Jessica Blackwood
listened via Audible, purchased and owned
narrated  by Jennifer O'Donnell
Unabridged audio (12:53)
2015 Bourbon Street Books
432 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 1/2//2020
Goodreads rating:  4.18 - 2170 ratings
My rating: 4

First line/s:  " 'You know what you have to do,' said the distant voice at the other end of the phone."

My comments: First finished book of 2020!  The way that Jessica Blackwood connects the dots is sometimes quite mysterious.  I guess that just goes to prove that she's a brilliant FBI agent, on of the best the agency has.  It's like she's the center of a star with many, many branches, and she's the main connection for all of them.  This story includes Latin American cartels, the Catholic Church, backwoods West Virginian hicks, bombs and explosions, psychosomatic pathogens from weird fish, dangling from helicopters, forays into Mexico, and even eorcism.  It's all over the place!  But my favorite parts only come once in awhile, and the's Jessica's relationship withthe mysterious Damien.  uell une interesting book!  Never a dull moment, although most of it is totally un-believable.

Goodreads synopsis: In this electrifying sequel to the crowd-pleasing thriller Angel Killer, magician-turned-FBI agent Jessica Blackwood must once again draw on her past to go up against a brutal murderer desperate for revenge at any price
          After playing a pivotal role in the capture of the Warlock, a seemingly supernatural serial killer—and saving the FBI’s reputation in the process—agent Jessica Blackwood can no longer ignore the world she left behind. Formerly a prodigy in a family dynasty of illusionists, her talent and experience endow her with a unique understanding of the power and potential of deception, as well as a knack for knowing when things are not always as they appear to be.
          When a church congregation vanishes under mysterious circumstances in rural Appalachia, the bizarre trail of carnage indicates the Devil’s hand at work. But Satan can’t be the suspect, so FBI consultant Dr. Ailes and Jessica’s boss on the Warlock case, Agent Knoll, turn to the ace up their sleeve: Jessica. She’s convinced that an old cassette tape holds the key to the mystery, and unraveling the recorded events reveals a troubling act with far-reaching implications. The evil at work is human, and Jessica must follow the trail from West Virginia to Mexico, Miami, and even the hallowed halls of the Vatican.
          Can she stop a cold-blooded killer obsessed by a mortal sin—or will she become the next target in a twisted, diabolical game of hunter and prey…? 

124. Enders by Lissa Price

#2 Starters duet
Listened to audio book on my Audible
narrated by Rebecca Lowman
Unabridged audio (7:58)
2013 Delacorte
288 pgs.
YA Dystopia
Finished 12/13/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.72 - 10,988 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting: Southern California in the future

First line/s:  "My hand went to the back of my head and I swore I could feel the chip underneath my skin."

My comments:  I'm so glad I was immediately able to get a copy of this book to listen to, directly after reading the first of the two-art series.  I had no questions about what had happened, forgot nothing about what I'd just read.  So reading the two books flowed seamlessly.  The second part of the story wasn't as good as the first, and the ending was very disappointing for some reason.  but the ideaof slipping minds into bodies and minds overlapping minds in the same body ws thought-provoking,scary, and maddening all at the same time.  a Very good dystopian fantasy science-fiction when the two books are combined.

Goodreads synopsis:  Someone is after Starters like Callie and Michael—teens with chips in their brains. They want to experiment on anyone left over from Prime Destinations—Starters who can be controlled and manipulated. With the body bank destroyed, Callie no longer has to rent herself out to creepy Enders. But Enders can still get inside her mind and make her do things she doesn't want to do. Like hurt someone she loves. Having the chip removed could save her life—but it could also silence the voice in her head that might belong to her father. Callie has flashes of her ex-renter Helena's memories, too . . . and the Old Man is back, filling her with fear. Who is real and who is masquerading in a teen body?
          No one is ever who they appear to be, not even the Old Man. Determined to find out who he really is and grasping at the hope of a normal life for herself and her younger brother, Callie is ready to fight for the truth. Even if it kills her. 

107. Force of Nature by Jane Harper

#2 Aaron Falk/ Australia
listened on Audible, which I own
narrated  by Stephen Shanahan
Unabridged audio (9:03)
2018 Flatiron Books
326 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 10/31/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.83 - 54,666 ratings
My rating:  3.5
Setting: Wilderness, Australia

First line/s:  "Later, the four remaining women could only agree on two things.  One:  No one saw the bushland swallow up Alice Russell.  And two:  Alice had a mean streak so mean it could cut you."

My comments:  In this second of the Aaron Falk series, we find him hunting information on a missing woman in the tangled mysterious almost unknown forests of Australia, a woman who was separated from her group at a corporate retreat.  The story flip-flops back-and-forth between the rescue attempt and a detailed account of what happened to the five women, until both stories join together at the end of the book  Interesting, but a little overly long.  The setting was its own character, I always like that in a story.

Goodreads synopsis:  Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along a muddy track.
          Only four come out on the other side.
          The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and encourage teamwork and resilience. At least, that's what the corporate retreat website advertises.
          Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker, Alice Russell. Because Alice knew secrets, about the company she worked for and the people she worked with.
          The four returning women tell Falk a tale of fear, violence and fractured trust during their days in the remote Australian bushland. And as Falk delves into the disappearance of Alice, he begins to suspect some dangers ran far deeper than anyone knew.