Missing Sister

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Penny's twin sister Nix died tragically five years ago, and Penny has been floundering ever since. Now she's embarking on a new career as a police officer, hoping to bring some kind of justice into the world and at least partially assuage her guilt for not being able to save her sister. 

But then she gets her very first murder case, and the victim is not a stranger. In fact it's one of the very people Penny holds morally responsible for Nix's death. Penny didn't kill him, obviously, but neither is she particularly interested in bringing the guy's killer to justice. She also wants to keep her new job... or does she?

This was a really good book, as expected from this fabulous author.

I also read by this author: The Opposite of Everyone

The Opposite of Everyone

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Paula Vauss was born in Alabama while her sixteen-year-old mother was in juvie. Her mother Kai wanted to name her after a Hindu goddess, but nobody listened to that. As soon as Kai turned eighteen and was released, she retrieved Paula and set out on a weird itinerant lifestyle that eventually landed her in grown-up jail and sent Paula to foster care.

Now Paula is an adult and working as a divorce lawyer. She sends her mother money but hasn't spoken to her for fifteen years. But as the reader knows, the past will often come back to haunt you...

This was a really good story with great characters. I loved it!

I also read by this author: With My Little Eye

The Time Has Come

 Fiction by Will Leitch

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This story follows seven different people in Athens, Georgia, until they finally converge in one place: at Lindbergh's Drugstore just before closing time. The drugstore is a family-owned business and a beloved Athens institution, and Theo Lindbergh has just begun running it after the unexpected death of his father. But it turns out that maybe his father wasn't beloved by everyone in Athens...

I really liked the characters in this novel and how everything came together at the end. However, I did not like the disconnected choppiness of the book's structure. Just when I was interested in a character, the author would switch to another one. Seven different people is actually a lot to keep track of. 

Maybe a list  would have helped. Tina is a teacher; Dorothy is a judge's widow; Karson is a community activist; Daphne is a nurse; David works at a live-music venue; Jason is a construction contractor, and Jace is his son. There! If you decide to read this book, keep my list handy.

I also read by this author: How Lucky

With My Little Eye

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Mirabel is a working actress who left Georgia for Hollywood almost twenty years ago and had never planned to return. However, a recent situation with an increasingly creepy stalker and a job offer for the lead in a series filming in Atlanta has changed her mind. She moves to a nice high-rise apartment in Atlanta with her twelve-year-old daughter Honor and hopes the stalker won't follow them.

The reader can probably guess that is a vain hope; if the stalker didn't come looking for Mirabel, then how could this be a book? But this is NOT a predictable thriller. It had several surprises and great characters. I highly recommend it!

I also read by this author: gods in alabama

Broken

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the fourth book in the Will Trent series, which has recently been made into a successful TV show.

The story overlaps into the "Grant County" book series that I just finished reading, incorporating many of those characters as Will is called to investigate trouble in the police department of Grant County.

This was a good story but not great.

I also read recently by this author: Beyond Reach

Beyond Reach

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is book number six in the Grant County mystery series, in which detective Lena Adams goes to the rural town of Reese, Georgia, to check on her Uncle Hank and gets accused of murder. Soon her boss, Police Chief Jeffery Tolliver, and his wife Sara Linton show up, but can they help? Or is Lena a lost cause this time?

This was an exciting story but very dark. The ending was a surprise.

I also read recently by this author: Faithless

Between, Georgia

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Nonny is from Between, Georgia, a small town where her birth family and her adopted family both live in an uneasy truce that could erupt into a full scale war at any time. Meanwhile she is trying to make a life in nearby Athens, and wavering about finalizing her divorce from Johnno, her charming but unfaithful estranged husband.  But a crisis will call Nonny back to Between, and she will have to finally make some hard decisions. 

This was a really good story with great characters. 

I also read recently by this author: The Girl Who Stopped Swimming

Faithless

 Fiction b y Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is book number five in the Grant County series (see below). In this novel, county coroner Sara Linton and police chief Jeffery Tolliver investigate the case of a girl buried alive. Ugh.

It's a pretty dark story but it does hold surprises, along with a bit of a cliffhanger that means there's at least one more book in the series...

I also read by this author in this series: Indelible, A Faint Cold Fear, Kisscut, and Blindsighted

Indelible

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the fourth book in the Grant County series, the sequel to A Faint Cold Fear. (see below)

In this story, pediatrician and coroner Sara Linton gets embroiled in a hostage situation at the police station with her ex-husband (and maybe-current-boyfriend) Police Chief Jeffery Tolliver. As Sara tries to survive this current trouble, a series of flashbacks lets the reader learn some of her and Jeffery's history. Soon it becomes clear that the past may be as important as the present in this situation.

This was an exciting story with some surprises. I don't think it was a good as others in this series though.

I also read recently by this author: A Faint Cold Fear

A Faint Cold Fear

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the third book in the "Grant County" book series; the last book I read in that series was Kisscut.

At the beginning of this story, pediatrician and small-town coroner Sara Linton is called to the scene of a possible homicide and accidentally puts her pregnant sister in danger. The mystery ensues from there, and the ending is surprising. 

The story was exciting. It's dark and gory though.

I also read recently by this author: Undone

Triptych

 Fiction by Karin Slaughter 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is the first book in the Will Trent series, from which I have read a couple of books before I knew it was a series. (See Unseen, The Last Widow )

This story begins with an Atlanta police detective called Michael who starts working on the case of a dead prostitute in the projects. This wouldn’t normally garner much special attention from the Atlanta PD, but some similarities to other murders in the state catch the interest of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Agent Will Trent enters the scene. 

Will starts out as a peripheral character but gets to main-character status by the end of the book. This was an exciting (but gory) murder mystery with several surprises.

I also read by this author recently: Girl Forgotten

Running From Mercy

 Fiction by Terra Little

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Pamela and Paris are identical twins, raised together in the small town of Mercy, Georgia, but bound for very different destinies. 

This book was okay but I didn’t love it. I felt like it gave too much of the plot away at the beginning and I had trouble engaging with the characters. 

A Grownup Kind of Pretty

Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson. 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Ginny Slocumb says that her family has a fifteen-year curse, because she gave birth to her daughter Liza at age 15 and Liza's own daughter Mosey came fifteen years later. Needless to say, Ginny is watching fifteen-year old Mosey like a hawk the year that Ginny turns 45. But the trouble in that year comes from a different quarter.

This was a really good book! I recently rediscovered Joshilyn Jackson (I first read gods in Alabama years ago; it's a very good book with an unfortunately troublesome title published in 2006). Now I am planning to read all of her books that I can find!

I also read recently by this author: Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Amy Whey lives a quiet life in a nice neighborhood, where she hosts a book club with her best friend Char. But new neighbor Roux breezes in, gets the book-club ladies a little drunk, and starts a game of grown-up Never Have I Ever that she calls "What's the Worst Thing You've Done?" Then Amy gets the feeling that Roux knows something she shouldn't...

This was an exciting thriller with several surprises!

I also read by this author: Mother May I

Mother May I

 Fiction by Joshilyn Jackson 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Bree Cabbat wakes up one morning to see a witch peering at her through the window, but she dismisses the sight when she gets up to look and no one is there. Her husband insists she was only dreaming, and Bree thinks it must be so. She has no reason to fear, she tells herself. After all, as Mrs. Cabbat, she is a successful lawyer's wife and mother of three, secure from the struggles her own mother had to face and free of financial anxiety.

But trouble is coming when she least expects it, and Bree will discover that the witch she saw is very real...

This was super-exciting thriller from beginning to end!!

I also read by this author: Someone Else's Love Story