22. Dead of Night by Lisa Gray

listened on Audible

264 pgs.

2025
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/5/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.24
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Back & forth time periods, mid-80s, mid-90s, present time on the southern California coastline

My comments:    Pulled me in fast, at first reminded me of another book, especially the setting, but couldn't place it.  Good story, but that the protagonist stayed in this big old "Cliff House" even when she knew someone was sneaking in at night to terrorize her didn't seem very prudent...actually felt stupid.  It just didn't seem like something a real person would do.  Wrapped up very neatly at the end.  Would happily read another by this author.

Goodreads synopsis: A crime writer. A cold case. Will she survive to tell the story?

Since the sudden and tragic death of her partner, bestselling crime author Serena Winters hasn’t written a word. With deadlines looming, she packs up her grief and escapes from New York City to a secluded clifftop house in small-town California, hoping the change of scenery will cure her writer’s block.

But as news of her arrival spreads, Serena finds herself facing strange accusations that she’s here to cash in on the house’s history. When she uncovers the chilling story of a young family who mysteriously vanished from the very same house thirty years earlier, she can’t help asking more questions…

Someone in the local community doesn’t want the past dug up, though. Someone willing to push Serena to the limits of her sanity to keep the truth buried. Caught in a spiraling campaign of intimidation, and harboring a dark secret of her own, Serena soon finds herself in the kind of danger she usually only writes about…

17. First Sign of Danger by Kelley Armstrong

#4 Haven's Rock

listened on Libby - Borrowed from TTPL

337 pgs.

2026
Adult murder mystery
Finished 4/27/2026
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Yukon middle-of-nowhere wilderness

My comments: I was afraid that some of the plotting was getting too similar to others in this and the Rockton series, but this one proved me wrong.  So much "adventure in the wild" in this one, especially listening to it on audio, raising the excitement of crazy things happening in the wild outdoors-in-the-middle-of-nowhere quite a bit!  A good one.  (This one was about lost hikers and the too close-by miner's camp.)

Goodreads synopsis: Author Kelley Armstrong continues the Haven's Rock series as Casey Duncan investigates a threat to their off-the-grid Yukon town.

Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed.

When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down. Otherwise, the lives of everyone in Haven's Rock--and their safe, secure new existence--are at risk.

6. Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston

listened on Audible

340 pgs.  (9:39)

2026
Adult Mystery
Finished /25/2026
Goodreads rating: 3.98
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Baton Rouge, LA

My comments: 4.5  Very interesting story told in three voices (mostly) that although seems quite unbelievable in places, was an all-encompassing read that did just what a good story does on a blizzardy day in January.  Set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, two very different women cross paths in an unusual way and their story keeps intersecting until the book's satisfying ending.

Goodreads synopsis:  Two women. One dead husband. And only one alibi.

Everyone at Chantilly’s Bar noticed out-of-towner Camille Bayliss. Red lips, designer heels, sipping a Negroni. But that woman wasn’t Camille Bayliss. It was Aubrey Price.

Camille Bayliss appears to have the picture-perfect life; she’s married to hotshot lawyer Ben and is the daughter of a wealthy Louisiana family. Only nothing is as it seems: Camille believes Ben has been hiding dirty secrets for years, but she can’t find proof because he tracks her every move.

Aubrey Price has been haunted by the terrible night that changed her life a decade ago, and she’s convinced Benjamin Bayliss knows something about it. Living in a house full of criminals, Aubrey understands there’s more than one way to get to the truth—and she may have found the best way in.

Aubrey and Camille hatch a plan. It sounds simple: For twelve hours, Aubrey will take Camille’s place. Camille will spy on Ben, and the two women will get the answers they desperately seek.

Except the next morning, Ben is found murdered. Both women need an airtight alibi, but only one of them has it. And one false step is all it takes for everything to come undone.

1. Nash Falls by David Baldacci

#1 of 2, follow-up to come out 4/9/2026

listened on Libby

448 pgs. (12:54)

2025
Adult Mystery/Thriller
Finished 1/3/2026  First book of the New Year!
Goodreads rating: 4.33
My rating:  4/5 (down 1/2 because of the to-be-continued ending!)
Setting: Contemporary unknown east coast city, not NYC or DC

My comments: We are left on a MAJOR cliff-hanger, which was cruelly disappointing (not knowing ahead of time), but other than that I couldn't put this book down.  I love Walter Nash....brilliant, level-headed, personable (and wealthy) family man.  But then his estranged father dies, and from the funeral on the shit hits the fan for him.  Narrators were wonderful, especially the one who read Walter Nash.  Loved, loved, loved the story and can't wait to see how it ends...in April!

Goodreads synopsis:  Walter Nash is a sensitive, intelligent and kindhearted man. He has a wife and a daughter and a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. Despite never going on grand adventures, and always working too many hours, he has a happy and upscale life with his family.

However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father’s funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years.

Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI’s demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated. And that forces Nash to take the ultimate step both to survive and to take his revenge: He must become the exact opposite of who he has always been.

And even that may not be enough.

35. The Love Haters by Katherine Center

listened on Libby (TPPL)

320 pgs.

2025
Adult CRF/Romance - Chick Lit
Finished 7/22/25
Goodreads rating: 3.85
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Key West, Florida

My comments: 4.5  This is a just-plain-feel-good book.  You KNOW that all the bad stuff that happens will end up okay, and there's so much humor, even in the serious places, that you're chuckling the whole way through.  You have to let go of some of the feelings of disbelief (would this really ever happen?) as well as a little of the protagonist's SEL ramblings (which are explained really nicely by the author in the afterword of the book).  I loved Frank Bailey, 170-pound Great Dane extraordinaire, which is saying a lot because I'd never be considered a "dog person."

Goodreads synopsis:  It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

33. Nightshade by Michael Connelly

#1 Det. Stilwel, Catalina Island, CA

listened on Libby

345 pgs.

2025
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 7/14/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.16
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Catalina Island, California

My comments: A new character and a new setting for Michael Connelly!  "Stil" is a detective on Catalina Island, which looks like its main offices are in Long Beach (not LA).  He's been sent there for unwarranted reasons, all the cops they want to "get rid of" are sent there.  He's got a girlfriend and has come to very much like living and working on the island.  Then all sorts of you-know-what hits the fan.  Robberies, beheadings of protected wildlife, murder....and more.  A HUGE variety of partially related problems that keep him on his toes.  He's smart and he's good at what he does, although he's pretty abrasive.  I'm not sure if I 100% like him, so I'm looking forward (already!) to the next in the series so I can form a better opinion.

Goodreads synopsis:  #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces a new cop relentlessly following his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina island.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island, after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor—a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig.

Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as “Nightshade.” Soon, his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.

29. Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliott

#1 Noelle Marshall, Bend, OR police detective

listened on Audible 

343pgs.

2025
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 6/30/25 (Happy Birthday, Mom!)
Goodreads rating: 3.42
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Bend, OR

My comments: 4.5  An excellent first-in-a-series about a police detective in Bend, Oregon, which mainly centers around her own personal mystery, the murder of her politician-husband.  Told back and forth during three time periods, it's an attention-grabbing story to be sure!  Just what I needed

Goodreads synopsis:  When a very personal cold case murder is reopened, a detective’s secrets come to light in a novel of shocking twists and suspense by a Wall Street Journal bestselling author.

Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten.

Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.

As past and present and leads and misleads collide, one thing is frighteningly clear. Derrick’s murder wasn’t just unsolved. It’s unfinished. And only the truth—no matter the risk—can save the next victim.

16. A Steep Price by Robert Dugoni

#6 Tracy Crosswhite

listened on Audible

410 pgs.

2018
Adult Police Procedural
Finished 4/10/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.38
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Seattle

My comments: Although depressing, this mystery was super interesting and kept me on my toes, looking forward to returning each time I had to stop reading.  There are two (interesting) cases going on at once, Tracy is pregnant, and we get much more acquainted with Fazio and his wife Vera, who has just discovered she has breast cancer. 

Goodreads synopsis:  Called in to consult after a young woman disappears, Tracy Crosswhite has the uneasy feeling that this is no ordinary missing-persons case. When the body turns up in an abandoned well, Tracy’s suspicions are confirmed. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short.

Solving the mystery behind the murder isn’t Tracy’s only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her she’s pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy’s colleague Vic Fazzio is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead.

Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk.

15. The Boxcar Librarian by Brianna Lusbuskes

listened on Audible (purchased)

464 pgs. (13:20)

2025
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 3/31/25
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Early 20th century Montana

My comments: Three points of view:  1930s Millie, 1920s Alice, 1910s Colette, all coming together in the end.  The story is set in Montana in various small towns and cities.  It is Alice's vision to have a library in a boxcar that travels from lumber camps to mining sites throughout Montana.  Conditions are super hard for the working men, and "the company" is the royal ruler of all.  Colette's father is a miner and a union man. Alices's father is an extremely rich mayor and supporter of "the company."  Millie is an orphan from Texas who now works in Washington DC and comes to observe the group of people that are writing a travel summary for the government.  Once I began to easily tell the three women's voices apart the story became quite fascinating.

Goodreads synopsis:  Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes. 

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers’ lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.

72. Storm Child by Michael Robotham

listened on Libby

336 pgs.

2024
Adult Contemporary Mystery/Thriller
Finished 9/21/24
Goodreads rating: 4.26
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Nottingham, England, and the coast of Scotland

My comments: Back and forth between two points of view: Cyrus and Evie, detailing how Evie slowly gets her memories back and discovers what had happened to her, her sister, and her mother.  The first half of the book takes place in their hometown of Nottingham, the second half in Scotland, where the fishing families that continue to be involved in the movement of illegal aliens into Great Britain are still hiding their participation from ten years before....as well as currently.  Good story.  Very well narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past. But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price?

67. The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

listened on Libby

355 pgs.

2021
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 7/27/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.95
My rating: 4.5
Setting: 1888 Dakota Territory

My comments: Entrancing historical fiction based on true events where on January 12, 1888 an unforgiving blizzard belted the Dakota territory and killed many people, mainly kids that were walking home from school on the prairie.  We follow a number of main characters for many years, finding the outcomes of all their lives.  Good , but sad story.

Goodreads synopsis:  The New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator's Wife reveals a little-known story of courage on the prairie: the freak blizzard that struck the Great Plains, threatening the lives of hundreds of immigrant homesteaders--especially their children.

The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a long cold spell, warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota territory to venture out again, and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats--leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At just the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard struck without warning. Schoolteachers as young as sixteen were suddenly faced with life and death decisions: keep the children inside, to risk freezing to death when fuel ran out, or send them home, praying they wouldn't get lost in the storm?

Based on actual oral histories of survivors, the novel follows the stories of Raina and Gerda Olsen, two sisters, both schoolteachers--one who becomes a hero of the storm, and one who finds herself ostracized in the aftermath. It's also the story of Anette Pedersen, a servant girl whose miraculous survival serves as a turning point in her life and touches the heart of Gavin Woodson, a newspaperman seeking redemption. It is Woodson and others like him who wrote the embellished news stories that lured immigrants across the sea to settle a pitiless land. Boosters needed immigrants to settle territories into states, and they didn't care what lies they told them to get them there--or whose land it originally was.

At its heart, this is a story of courage, of children forced to grow up too soon, tied to the land because of their parents' choices. It is a story of love taking root in the hard prairie ground, and of families being torn asunder by a ferocious storm that is little remembered today--because so many of its victims were immigrants to this country.

53. One Little Mistake by Lucinda Berry

listened on Audible
100? pgs.(2:23) only in audio format

2021
Adult mystery novella
Finished 6/7/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.48
My rating: 4.5

My comments: A really good mystery that keeps you frustrated and guessing.  A young mother gets arrested for OUI and endangering her two babies.  She's never been much of a drinker and had only had two glasses of wine.  But she'd blacked out, couldn't remember any of the particulars about anything, including her arrest.  When she goes to AA on the advice of her lawyer she is taken under the wings of a fascinating woman who becomes her mentor.  The story very quickly progresses from there...a very good story, indeed.

Goodreads synopsis:  When overwhelmed stay-at-home mom Alexis finds herself at odds with her husband after she’s charged with a DUI, she is given one chance to get her family back: complete AA and admit her faults. The problem is, she’s never had a drinking problem and has no idea what caused the blackout that led to her arrest. Still, she’s committed to working through the program, if that’s what it takes to be reunited with her two young children. But when she connects with a new friend, Farrah - a confident, successful powerhouse of a woman Alexis can’t help but idolize - she’s empowered to take a closer look at her husband’s role in her downfall. What she finds shocks her to her core, quickly spiraling into something more sinister than she ever imagined.

12. The Taken Ones by Jess Lourey

#1 Steinbeck & Reed

listened on Audible
339 pgs.
2023
Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 2/7/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.27
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary Minnesota

My comments: Van Reed is a cold case agent for the MBsomething-or-other - I think the same agency that Virgil Flowers works for.  Her horrible upbringing in a cult has left her bruised with psychic nightmares about really bad people.  The characters in this book certainly dip into every possible type.... including a LOT of stupid, mean cops!  Well written. Liked it a lot.

Goodreads synopsis:  Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes—decades of secrets yet to be unearthed.

Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.

Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.

As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.

8. The GIlded Cage by Luisa A. Jones

listened on Audible

2023
332 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 1/26/24
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Very beginning of the 20th century, England

My comments: The Goodreads synopsis gives a taste for the story, which was actually quite mesmerizing, so I won't mention here.  I used to, years ago, love the "gothic" novels of Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt, which this reminded me of -- EXCEPT there was a little bit more description of the sexy parts.  There was a lot of physical abuse, mainly referred to but not described much (a good thing?), and plenty of psychological abuse, which was not glossed over.  Other than feeling depressed and frantic for the things that were happening to the protagonist at the hands of a husband she did not speak up against, I looked forward to returning to this narration as frequently as I could.  

Goodreads synopsis:  1897. Rosamund bows her head and steps slowly down the aisle. The satin of her gown whispers against the stone floor and a single tear falls into the bunch of yellow roses twisted in her trembling hands. Despite rumours of his cruelty, Rosamund has no choice but to become this man’s second wife. After her wedding, Rosamund finds herself trapped in Sir Lucien Fitznorton’s lonely country estate. As she wanders the chilly halls, made shadowy by drapes of heavy velvet, she longs for the lost comforts of her childhood home, where she was the beloved only daughter to a doting father, now buried miles away. As a young woman with no fortune of her own, only death can release her from this misery. Until she meets Joseph , her husband’s gruffly handsome new chauffeur. With his mop of salt-and-pepper hair and lilting accent, Joseph is from another world. One of clambering children and tea at scrubbed kitchen tables, the hollow scratch of hunger and long hours of hard work. Despite their differences, they find themselves increasingly drawn to one other. But Sir Lucien is not only cruel, he’s devious too, and soon Rosamund finds herself caught in a dangerous web of secrets and lies. Is Rosamund’s fragile marriage nothing but a golden cage, trapping her between two men who desire her… and to what end? One holds her captive and the other offers a hope of escape… but who really holds the key to Rosamund’s gilded prison? A gripping and emotional historical novel, fans of Lucinda Riley and Tracy Rees won’t be able to put this book down.

30. The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

listened on Libby

352 pgs.

2023
Adult CRF
Finished 5/2/23
Goodreads rating: 3.89
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary small-town America

My comments: A beautifully character-driven novel.  An incredibly mean old man.  A librarian who only wants to please everyone.  A super-smart gay young man who has dabbled in many professions, still not finding his passion. A huge, scowling young man with a heart of gold.  A lonely mom who loes to cook, has no self-confidence and feels she has lost her only child. Add a few book discussions and lots of "feels" and you have this marvelous story about a book club of misfits.  I really liked it a lot.

17. Found Object by Anne Frasier

listened on Audible

2022
201 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 2/17/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.14
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Savannah

My comments: I really like everything I've read by this author.  An investigative reporter, after going undercover to catch an art forger (who she falls in love with) feels that his death is her fault.  She heads to Savannah , where she grew up, and keeps seeing and reliving her famous mother's horrendous murder.  The entire plot keeps you guessing and thinking and totally entertained me on my almost-5 hour flight to Vegas.

Goodreads synopsis:  A journalist begins to question everything she knows about her mother’s murder in a startling novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Body Reader.

Culpable in an exposé gone tragically wrong, investigative journalist Jupiter Bellarose takes her boss’s advice: head back to her hometown for a fluff piece and get her world in balance. But in Savannah, the past is waiting.

Twenty years ago Jupiter’s mother, actress and celebrated beauty Marie Nova, was murdered, leaving many in her wake: Jupiter’s father, who has erased memories of his wife’s murder with alcohol. The matriarch of the cosmetics company who helped make Marie a star—and who takes every opportunity to reopen old wounds. Then there’s the fragile cop with blood on his hands, and the killer whose confession no longer seems convincing.

With so many lingering questions, Jupiter must revisit the grisly event that has influenced every decision in her life. Maybe her homecoming will bring closure.

Or maybe the worst is yet to come.

15. The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

listened on Libby

2022
320 pgs.
Adult CRF/Hist Fict
Finished 2/14/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.21
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary & early 20th century NYC

My comments: I very much enjoyed the metamorphosis that modern-day Abby went through, from learning the divorce-lawyer ropes from an unscrupulous mentor to trying to help divorcing partners come to the true reality of their situations.  The grandmother's story was also fascinating.  A truly memorable story.  Cool cover, too

Goodreads synopsis:  Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

14. Lonely Hearts by Lisa Gray

#4 Jessica Shaw

listened on Audible/Kindle Unlimited

2021
303 pgs.
Adult Mystery - Series
Finished 2/12/2023
Goodreads rating: 4.31
My rating: 4.5

My comments: Fun to have a little bit of a different perspective than usual for this one, though it flips between characters a lot.  It's about women who first correspond, and then marry, prison inmates.  There's one particularly movie star-handsome serial killer that is the star and center of this murder mystery/fiasco.  It went fast and was really interesting.  I like Jessica.  She's flawed, a fairly hard drinker, bleached and tattooed ... and pretty smart!

Goodreads synopsis:  She found love on Death Row with her prison pen pal. She’s been missing ever since. Can Jessica Shaw track her down?

A missing persons case should be pretty straightforward for private investigator Jessica Shaw. After all, it’s what she does best. But this latest case proves to be anything but straightforward.

Christine Ryan is desperate to find her childhood friend Veronica Lowe. Veronica disappeared more than fifteen years ago, not long after having a child with a Death Row inmate, notorious serial killer Travis Dean Ford. When Ford’s widow, Jordana, is murdered in the same way as his victims, Christine fears Veronica and her daughter will be next. If they’re even still alive…

Discovering that both Veronica and Jordana were members of the Lonely Hearts Club, a pen pal service for women who want to write to men in prison, Jessica realizes she needs to find Veronica before the killer does. But as Jessica follows the leads it begins to feel like someone is following her. Travis has been dead for years, so who is hunting the Lonely Hearts?

7. Dark Highway by Lisa Gray

#3 Jessica Gray

listened on Audible

2020
318 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/19/23
Goodreads rating: 4.40
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary 29 Palms Highway, California

My comments: Third in the Jessica Shaw, Private Detective, series. A great protagonist - smart, lots of emotional baggage but devoid of physical baggage… she practically lives out of her car. Set in 29 Palms, California, it‘s about the disappearance/abduction of several women and goes back and forth between time periods and voices. I liked it a lot and could clearly picture it because I‘ve visited this area several times. Good one!

Goodreads synopsis:  LA-based artist Laurie Simmonds disappeared two months ago, her campervan abandoned on the isolated Twentynine Palms Highway, miles from anything—or anyone. With the police investigation stalled, her parents put all their faith in private investigator Jessica Shaw to find out the truth of what happened.

Jessica and her partner Matt Connor discover that two other women are missing, their disappearances connected to the same highway. When a link emerges between these women and a group of former college friends, Jessica feels certain they’re closing in on their target.

But no sooner do they follow this up than Laurie’s parents get spooked and drop the case. Jessica is blindsided but determined not to give up: three women are missing, and many more may be at risk. She can’t turn her back on them. But the more she pulls at the threads of the truth, the closer she comes to danger. Can she find out who’s behind these crimes before they come for her?

2. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

listened on Libby

2022
377 pgs.
Adult romance, 2 or 3 steamy bits, but NOT the entire book
Finished 1/7/2023 
Goodreads rating: 4.23
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary, small community outside Asheville, NC

My comments: Pros:  Great banter between the two protagonists, clever writing.  Interesting premise, a tiny bit different than most of the romance tropes out there.  Admitting you love living in the city and really don't want to attempt living anywhere else.

Cons:  Too long.  A sister relationship that's just too over-the-top - for me, at least.

Epilogue:  I always groan when I hear them add this when I don't think it's needed at all.  And usually they aren't.  But this one had a couple of treasures that made it a perfect touch.

Goodreads synopsis:  One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.