Fiction by Kimberly Belle
When Kat Jenkins sends her son Ethan on an overnight field trip with his class, his teacher Miss Emma promises he'll be safe. But then he vanishes from his cabin in the middle of the night! Was he kidnapped or did he just wander off? Is Kat's estranged husband to blame?
This was an exciting story with a surprise ending.
I also read recently by this author: The Marriage Lie
Fiction by Grady Hendrix
As you might guess from the title, this was a strange book.
In the early nineties, Patricia Campbell is a nice Southern lady in a book club with other nice Southern ladies. But when the children of her town are threatened, it might be time to not be so nice....
Even though I'd never read anything by this author before, I got it on audiobook because there was a narrator I love, Bahni Turpin (see Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for Ultra-Human Protection.) But it was a little to descriptive and slow-moving to be a good listen; I think I would have liked it better in print. Also, it gave me a bad case of "Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome"** in the middle. Still, it was an interesting book with some surprises.
** Oh-No-I-Can't-Look Syndrome
(See The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine)Fiction by Kimberly Belle
Iris and Will Griffith have a perfect marriage in chapter one of this book. Except the reader knows that can't be true, given the title of the novel. Right?
When Will's plane goes down in a field on its way to Seattle, Iris is left devastated. She had thought he was flying to Orlando? Then she discovers other things he may have lied about....
This was a good story with some real surprises. I didn't like the very last bit of the ending, but I can't say why without spoilers. I'm pretending the last paragraph didn't happen.
I also read recently by this author: Dear Wife
Fiction by Ellery Lloyd
Nonfiction by Louise Allen
When the local government was alerted to a case of animal neglect on a remote farm in England, an investigator was sent out. Along with all the sick and half-starved horses and dogs found at and removed from the place, the investigator also found a little boy, tiny and frail, unable to walk or speak, curled under the table in a dog bed.
Named "Dog Boy" by the press, this child was Jacob, five years old but the size of a toddler. This story is about the efforts of his social worker and foster carers to help him. It was a really interesting book.
Fiction by Caimh McDonnell
At the beginning of this novel there is a New York diner with a motley late-night crowd. In addition to the cook and waitress, there's a half-asleep homeless man, a terrified-looking Hispanic woman with a young son, an Irishman who has lost his wallet, and a young woman who keeps checking the door as if she's expecting a date. Then a pair of gunmen burst into the scene, but it's not robbery they're really after. Can the reader guess which of these people are they here to capture or kill? And what craziness will get set in motion this night?
This was a fun little caper story by an Irish author I hadn't heard of before. I will look for more of his books.
Fiction by Heather Gudenkauf
I usually love Heather Gudenkauf's books, but this one was not as enjoyable for me. Maybe it was the fact that I didn't like a lot of the characters? My favorite person was probably Eve, and she was dead on page one.
A weird nitpicky problem I had was the setting of the "present day" being stated as June 2020. The book's publishing date was 5/12/2020, so it must have been written well before then and planned so that the "present" would really be that date when it came out. I know authors do this all the time, and that's great... unless the year you plan to release is 2020.
Because in the real June of 2020 everyone was going Covid-crazy and nobody would have been able to reopen a cold case and walk around a bunch of public buildings investigating it. I couldn't have even walked into the public library and checked out this book in June of 2020; they were still making me call ahead, park in the designated space, and open my car trunk. Then someone in a mask could come out and deposit books into the back of my car without touching anything or getting near me. They were still Lysol-ing the books I returned and quarantining them for a few days to make sure the BOOKS weren't carrying germs. It was insane.
Anyways, I know that's a silly detail but it bugged me.
Fiction by Agatha Christie
This is an Agatha Christie classic that has been recently made into a movie and therefore re-recorded for audio by actor Kenneth Branagh.
I thought Mr. Branagh did a great job with the reading, and the story is a masterpiece. However, I didn't personally enjoy listening to this one as much as I usually do with Mrs. Christie's mysteries, for the simple reason that I remembered the solution too well. But that's no ones' fault but mine.
Nonfiction by Louise Allen
I also read recently by this author: Abby's Story
Amazon Prime Kindle Fiction by Freida McFadden
Erika Cass has two teenagers. Her son Liam gets good grades and is always polite and pleasant, while her daughter Hannah struggles in school and has a bad attitude; therefore it's no surprise that Liam is her favorite. But even though she loves him, Erika knows that there is something wrong with Liam. She took him to a counselor after a disturbing incident with a little girl in kindergarten, but it didn't seem to help. And now that he's in high school, and a girl he likes is missing, Erika fears the worst....
This was an exciting story with a little twist at the end. It was a little formulaic but still interesting.
I also read recently by Amazon Prime Kindle: The Second Mrs. Astor
Fiction by Celeste Ng
Nonfiction by Louise Allen
I also read recently by this author: Stella's Story
Fiction by Stephen King
The title of this book is both fitting and confusing. For one thing, if the reader is expecting fairies he will be disappointed. On audio, this novel clocks in at over twenty-four hours of narration, and the first one-third or so of it is squarely in the real, mundane world, before any "magic" happens. But the characters are so compelling!
I really liked this book, both writing and narration. I can see how it's not necessarily for the regular Stephen King reader, however. But I loved the complex hero Charlie Reade and his adventure.
I also read recently by this author: Lisey's Story