Mystery and Thriller Releases for Q2 of 2019!

I can hardly believe it’s already April! I feel like I say that a lot around here, but it’s true. Maybe it’s aging. Time just seems to fly by at a rate I am incredibly uncomfortable with.

It’s like one day your fine and the next day you can’t fit into any of your clothes and you have no idea what happened, but there wasn’t any time in between, even though there was totally, like, four years.

So, while I deal with making my expanding ass smaller, I’m also realizing I definitely don’t read as many books as I should be able to in all this time that’s passing by. I am much better at finding new books that I want to read, instead of actually reading them. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

In fact, if I’ve come to realize anything, it’s that reading books and buying books are two completely separate hobbies.

This post is going to be another example of me endlessly adding books to my TBR when I still have so many unfinished ones. And despite making a New Year’s resolution to increase my Netgalley score, I’ve made very little progress on that.

It might actually be worse that it was at the beginning of the year, if I’m honest.

Speaking of honest, what I’ve been able to get posted for this little blog seems to have really dropped off recently and I’m sorry and I’ll tell you why and I think you’ll understand.

My manager moved into a desk that allows her a view of my computer.

That’s it. For real.

I write most of my posts at work because it’s when I have the most free time. That sounds hilarious, but it’s the truth. And since my manager moved desks, there is just not enough security for me to successfully fuck around on things that are definitely not work related.

I’ll have to figure out a better schedule for my reviews and posts. I promise I will. Take right now for instance – I’m catching up on Scientology and the Aftermath (cults woot woot!) and eating dinner and slowly working away at building my list of what I’m most excited about coming out in the next three months.

Get your book budgets ready!

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🔪Girl Most Likely (Krista Larson, #1) by Max Allan Collins

HTFT Tagline: My high school revenge fantasies come to life.

Release Date: April 1 | Thomas & Mercer

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍷🍷🍷🍷

Back of the Book: In a small Midwest town, twenty-eight-year-old Krista Larson has made her mark as the youngest female police chief in the country. She’s learned from the best: her father, Keith, a decorated former detective. But as accustomed as they are to the relative quiet of their idyllic tourist town, things quickly turn with Krista’s ten-year high school reunion.

With the out-of-towners holed up in a lakefront lodge, it doesn’t take long to stir up old grudges and resentments. Now a successful TV host, Astrid Lund, voted the “Girl Most Likely to Succeed”—and then some—is back in town. Her reputation as a dogged reporter has made the stunning blonde famous. Her reputation among her former classmates and rivals has made her infamous. Astrid’s list of enemies is a long one. And as the reunion begins, so does a triple murder investigation.

Krista and her father are following leads and opening long-locked doors from their hometown to the Florida suburbs to Chicago’s underworld. They just never imagined what would be revealed: the secrets and scandals of Krista’s own past.

My Fucking Thoughts: This is basically one of my fantasies. Pulling up to a high school reunion with all those fucking people I hated and being a badass, successful bitch who’s going to solve some goddamn crimes and maybe arrest one of them. That would be so fun, don’t even get me started.

🔪 The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea

HTFT Tagline: She’ll reconstruct your lies, bitch!

Release Date: April 2 | Bantam Australia

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍸🍸🍸

Back of the Book: As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together details others fail to see. And while cleaning out her late father’s law office, she takes a call that plunges her into a forty-year-old mystery.

In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing. The predator, nicknamed The Thief, left no bodies and no clues behind – until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, which uncovered his identity. But before police could question her, Angela disappeared.

Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder – the only killing the DA could pin on him. But a cryptic file found in her father’s office suggests to Rory there is more to the case than anyone knew.

Soon Rory is helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, she uncovers dark truths about the reclusive woman, her own father, and the man called The Thief.

But not even Rory is prepared for the terrifying secrets about to emerge…

My Fucking Thoughts: I don’t know how much I buy a man being paroled for literal first-degree murder (is that an Australian thing?) but other than that, I’m all in on this one. I love forensic reconstructions, and if I had more ambition, that’s probably a job I could have gotten into. Instead, I just live vicariously through fictional characters.

🔪 I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney

HTFT Tagline: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

Release Date: April 23 | Flatiron Books

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍹🍹🍹🍹🍹

Back of the Book: I Know Who You Are is the brilliant tale of two stories. One is about Aimee Sinclair—well-known actress on the verge of being full-on famous. If you saw her, you’d think you knew her. One day towards the near-end of her shoot on her latest film, Aimee comes home from filming to find her husband’s cell phone and wallet on the dining room table. He never goes anywhere without them. But he’s nowhere to be found. She’s not too concerned—they had a huge fight the night before. They both said things they didn’t mean. He might have done things he didn’t mean, things she can’t forget. Even though she has a history of supposedly forgetting. After all, she’s a very good actress.

The next morning she goes for her morning run and then goes to her favorite coffee shop. But her card is denied. When she calls the bank they say her account has been emptied of $10,000. She immediately suspects her husband. But they say no, it was Aimee herself who closed out the account. And thus begins a bizarre rabbit hole into which Aimee finds herself falling where nothing is at it seems.

Alternating with Aimee’s story is that of a little girl who wandered away from home. We always tell our kids not to talk to strangers or bad things will happen. Well, bad things happen.

In I Know Who You Are, Alice Feeney proves that she is a master at brilliantly complicated plots and twists after twists.

My Fucking Thoughts: If you take a look-see, you’ll find that I totally loved Alice Feeney’s first book, Sometimes I Lie. That book was a fucking roller coaster of awesome ridiculous thrills that is 100% propelling me towards her next book. I don’t even care what it’s about! But if you read the blurb, it’s got one of my most favourite plot devices. The good ole “I’m me and I didn’t do that even though you seem to have proof I did!” conundrum. This should be frustrating and good, at the same time.

🔪 Crushed by Kate Hamer

HTFT Tagline: Carrie meets something witchy, I’m sure of it.

Release Date: April 30 | Faber Faber

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍺🍺🍺🍺

Back of the Book: Phoebe stands on Pulteney Bridge, tights gashed from toe to thigh. The shock of mangled metal and blood-stained walls flashes through her mind as she tries to cover her face so she won’t be recognised. It wouldn’t do to be spotted looking like this. She’s missing a shoe. She feels sick.

Phoebe thought murder and murder happened. Thoughts are just thoughts, they said. Now she knows they were wrong.

At home, Phoebe arranges the scissors and knives so they point toward her mother’s room. She is exhausted, making sure there’s no trace of herself – not a single hair, not even her scent – left anywhere in the house. She must not let her thoughts unravel, because if they do, there’s no telling who might be caught in the crossfire, and Phoebe will have to live with the consequences. 

My Fucking Thoughts: I’m honestly not sure what this synopsis is trying to tell me??? I guess it’s the story of three teenage girls that all have some dark shit going on. And typically I’d avoid novels about teenage girls because I can’t stand most of them in real life, but I think this has some dark wiccan/Carrie vibes and that’s the kind of teenagers I can chill with.

🔪 Cold Waters (Normal, Alabama, #1) by Debbie Herbert

HTFT Tagline: I’m sick, but I’m not well.

Release Date: May 1 | Thomas & Mercer

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍷🍷

Back of the Book: Everyone thinks fourteen-year-old Violet is a murderer. After a summer-night swim with her best friend, Ainsley, Violet is found confused, wandering in the forest—and Ainsley’s never seen again. But without a body, murder charges won’t stick, so Violet is sent away.

After more than a decade in a psychiatric ward, Violet returns to her broken-down hometown of Normal, Alabama, to claim her dead mother’s inheritance and help her overworked sister care for their unstable, alcoholic father. Violet, still haunted by that night eleven years ago, endures horrific flashbacks and twisted hallucinations while townsfolk spit accusations—and for all she knows, they’re right.

As the summer heats up, details of Ainsley’s fate appear like a beast’s wild eyes, watching in the darkness, and grim revelations about Violet’s family threaten to devour her. Already on the edge of madness, Violet must fight to keep her sanity long enough for the terrible truth to burst from the cold, dark waters.

My Fucking Thoughts: Me and these Southern noir novels don’t usually mix very well, but I’m going to read this one anyway because I love psych wards and all the uncertainty they build into the characters who come out of them. Any time someone is convicted of something they didn’t do and the circumstances are clouded in mystery and sanity issues, I just can’t resist!

🔪The Last House Guest by Miranda

HTFT Tagline: A wrong-side of the tracks tale as old as time… but with murder.

Release Date: May 2 | Corvus

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍸🍸🍸

Back of the Book: Littleport, Maine is like two separate towns: a vacation paradise for wealthy holidaymakers and a simple harbour community for the residents who serve them. Friendships between locals and visitors are unheard of – but that’s just what happened with Avery Greer and Sadie Loman.

Each summer for a decade the girls are inseparable – until Sadie is found dead. When the police rule the death a suicide, Avery can’t help but feel there are those in the community, including a local detective and Sadie’s brother Parker, who blame her. Someone knows more than they’re saying, and Avery is intent on clearing her name before the facts get twisted against her.

My Fucking Thoughts: Okay, the summer hot spot, rich people vs the year-round peasant residents, is totally done to death… and I totally don’t care at all. I love the vibe, and atmosphere, that kind of setting and theme provides. And anytime there’s murder it’s even harder for me to stay away. It’s messed up, but true and I don’t fucking lie to you.

🔪 Cari Mora by Thomas Harris

HTFT Tagline: Are the ICE agents still screaming, Clarice?

Release Date: May 21 | Grand Central Publishing

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍹🍹🍹

Back of the Book: Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men.

Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before.

My Fucking Thoughts: I’m just as disappointed as the next person that Thomas Harris’ first novel in for-fucking-ever isn’t a Hannibal Lecter novel, but we have to let these authors/treasures write what they need to write. And we all know that Harris knows how to write a tough, badass female lead, so really, let’s go in with open minds and maybe we’ll love it.

🔪 Thin Air by Lisa Gray

HTFT Tagline: If you have a cleft chin but your parents don’t, they’re not your bio parents. FACT.

Release Date: June 1 | Thomas & Mercer

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

Back of the Book: Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.

Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she was abducted, Jessica’s determined to solve a case the police have forgotten. Meanwhile, veteran LAPD detective Jason Pryce is in the midst of a gruesome investigation into a murdered college student moonlighting as a prostitute. A chance encounter leads to them crossing paths, but Jessica soon realizes that Pryce is hiding something about her father’s checkered history and her mother’s death.

To solve her mother’s murder and her own disappearance, Jessica must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But the air gets thinner as she crawls closer to the truth, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.

My Fucking Thoughts: I cannot get enough of this synopsis. I love the premise of being a missing child and not knowing it. What a mind fuck!
GIVE ME THIS IMMEDIATELY!!!

🔪 Now You See Me by Chris McGeorge

HTFT Tagline: 🎵 The Love Death Boattttt!

Release Date: June 13 | Orion

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍷🍷🍷

Back of the Book: Six people went in. Only one came out…

Introducing Standedge Tunnel: the longest canal tunnel in England.

Last year six students went in, and two and a half hours later, the boat reappeared on the other side with only one of the students, unconscious, and the dog.

The case of the Standedge Six was largely kept from the national media. The police investigation concluded that the only remaining student, Matthew, killed his friends, hid the bodies on the boat and returned later to move them to an undisclosed location.

Matthew is in prison . . . but maintains he is innocent.

Robert Ferringham is grieving for his missing wife, Sam. So when Matthew contacts him for help with his case, promising information on Sam, Robert has no choice but to help. But can he trust Matthew?

And how will he solve the unsolvable case? 

My Fucking Thoughts: I had high hopes for Chris McGeorge’s debut novel Guess Who and was a little let down by it, as you can read in my review. But I do love a locked-room mystery and anything to do with wrongful conviction. And truthfully, I think McGeorge can only get better, so nipples crossed for this one.

🔪 Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland

HTFT Tagline: Artists are so fucking dramatic.

Release Date: June 18 | Grand Central Publishing

I’m Buzzed Score: 🍷🍷🍷

Back of the Book: What really happened to Carey Logan?

After a fire decimates her studio, including the seven billboard-size paintings for her next show, a young, no-name painter is left with an impossible task: recreate her art in three months-or ruin her fledgling career. 

Homeless and desperate, she flees to an exclusive retreat in upstate New York famous for its outrageous revelries and glamorous artists. And notorious as the place where brilliant young artist Carey Logan-one of her idols-drowned in the lake. 

But when she arrives, the retreat is a ghost of its former self. No one shares their work. No parties light up the deck. No one speaks of Carey, though her death haunts the cabins and the black lake, lurking beneath the surface like a shipwreck. As the young painter works obsessively in Carey’s former studio, uncovers strange secrets and starts to fall–hard and fast–for Carey’s mysterious boyfriend, it’s as if she’s taking her place. 

But one thought shadows her every move: What really happened to Carey Logan?

My Fucking Thoughts: This has serious The Last Time I Lied vibes – a young painter, a victim drowning in a lake and a long-unsolved mystery. But I’m maintaining my optimism that this isn’t some half-as-good copy of a book I fucking loved. Don’t do it to me, Barbara Bourland!

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As always, this is not a comprehensive list of crime fiction/thrillers releasing over the next 12 weeks because I’m not an industry newsletter or some shit, it’s simply what I’ve got my eye on the most.

Actually, I have my eye on a lot of things that didn’t even make this list.

I’m starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed by time and books and how much reading I have to get done for Netgalley. But we soldier on! Right?

Right, guys? Hello???

Oh Thor, someone get me a paper bag!

Stay safe. Be Kind. But, take no shit.

Later, Booknerds ✌️🔪