Yeah, I am from NY. So, yeah, I recognize the places in the stories in this anthology. I recognize the types of people, too. There are a bunch of different styles of mystery here, everything from cozy to hard boiled, with even some paranormal thrown in. I have to say, if you like short mystery stories, this is a great value. 22 stories for $5. Doesn't get much better than that.

Johansen is back! I've really been off her lately because I thought she phoned in her last three or four books, but this one is excellent. The writing is smooth and engaging, the characters well fleshed out. The tension is much tauter than the last several books, and it keeps you engaged as the story proceeds.
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From the publisher:
A CIA agent’s two-year-old child was stolen in the night as a brutal act of vengeance. Now, eight years later, this torment is something Catherine Ling awakens to every day. Her friends, family, and colleagues tell her to let go, move on, accept that her son is never coming back. But she can’t. Catherine needs to find someone as driven and obsessed as she is to help her— and that person is Eve Duncan. She knows that Eve shares her nightmare, since closure is also something that eludes Eve after the disappearance of her daughter Bonnie. Now, Eve must take her talents as a forensic sculptor to another level, using age progression as a way to unite Catherine with her child. As Eve gets drawn deeper into Catherine’s horror, she must face looming demons of her own.

Bonnie’s killer is still out there. And a new killer is taunting Eve and Catherine at every turn. Is Catherine’s son alive, or not? These two women endure the worst fear any mother can imagine in Iris Johansen’s latest thrill ride, a gut-wrenching journey into the darkest places of the soul.
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Yes, it does show more require a fair amount of suspension of disbelief, especially in some of the psychological aspects. However, that's true of any thriller.

And finally, finally, after years of waiting, we do get a hint about Bonnie and Eve's life before the beginning of the series. show less

This is different from Gerritsen's usual fare, almost as much ghost story as forensic crime novel. The creepy town in which Maura finds herself stranded and snowed in with the food sitting on the tables and strange bloodstains on the floor, the surrounding woods, even the massive storm itself all add to a book that is more about atmosphere than action.

Because of that, the story does drag a little, but that's my only quibble. I felt as if the book could have been shorter and I wanted to say a couple of times "yeah, ok, I got it." And then things at the very end got wrapped a little neatly, which I can't say more about without giving away major spoilers, but those were my only gripes.

Overall, a solid B+.

Overall, as you can see from the four stars, this was a great read. A couple minor points:

1) if you haven't read the rest of the series, the profusion of names may confuse you. Although this story *can* stand on its own, you'll be better served reading the others first

2) if you're looking for an adventurous or exciting read, this isn't it. It's very sweet and tender, but it's a story of the slow growth of two people and their relationship, so there are no fireworks.

Now, that said, slow growth is actually one of my preferred tropes and styles, so I don't find the second point a negative, but I know a lot of people do.

The dialog is well-written and the conversations between Hannah and Constantine are by turns funny and touching. The portrayal of "Prinny" is a bit stereotypical, but then, that's the function he serves in historicals.

Hannah has, at some level, come to believe her own publicity as "The [Heartless] Duchess of Dunbarton." Constantine believes this of her, too, but the more important source of conflict here is her own belief. As the novel progresses, she comes to realize what's inside herself, and that her inner self was as attracted to Con's inner self as her body was to his. She has a lot to overcome in her feelings of separation from society and her fear of getting involved with anyone.

This is a lovely story, and I highly recommend it.

This book is hard to characterize. It is far more romance than suspense even though the hero is a former FBI agent with a dark past and the heroine has her own scars (literal and figurative) that put her in danger. She's menaced in a couple of different ways, but the danger is never of the heart-pumping, nail-biting variety. And yet, even though there's the requisite happily ever after, this is not so much a romance, either, because the other relationships in the book (family, friendships) are just as important as the romance. If the romance weren't so prominent, you could almost classify this as women's fiction, but that doesn't work, either, because the happily ever after *is* so important to the book.

OK, all that muddling stuff aside, the story here is quite sweet and definitely worth reading if you're a romance fan. Two damaged people who are slowly emerging from the messes of their pasts come together and begin to see a future. The setting is well-described, almost a character in itself, and all the secondary characters are fully developed.

The only weaknesses of this book are that 1) it tends to get a bit repetitive and 2) it can be a bit on the sugary side. But it verges into those territories only rarely and they're easy enough to ignore.

I'd begun to despair of Mariah Stewart after the last couple of Mercy Street novels, but she's definitely found her feet again here.

C

I couldn't finish this book. It just bored me and the heroine was TSTL.

This is a fabulous thriller that's very different from the normal, run of the mill, serial killer fare. Why? Because unlike most authors, Hoag doesn't feel the need to raise the suspense by subjecting her readers to what's often called "torture porn," the graphic scenes where a victim--usually female--goes through horrendous torture at the hands of the killer before being killed. These things occur "off stage" in Hoag's book.

There are a lot of grim situations in this book, and more varieties of dysfunctional family than you usually run across in a single novel. (As Tolstoy put it: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.") If you're looking for a book that has sweet pictures of happy children, this isn't it. The children in this book aren't happy. But they're well-drawn and interesting, as are the adults.

There's a romantic element to this book that adds to its complexity, but it's not one that makes this a "romance" or even "romantic suspense." Nope, this is a straight thriller that just has a strong relationship in it. Enough to satisfy someone who likes a bit of happy with their grim, a bit of romance with their serial killer, but not enough to turn off someone who prefers to read straight thrillers.

All in all, a gripping, fast-paced read.

Boring, boring, boring. How things could go so wrong after the first book, which I quite liked, I have no idea. I couldn't even finish this one.

I absolutely adored Crash Into Me, gave it five stars, and would recommend it to anyone looking for romantic suspense. Unfortunately, Set the Dark on Fire in no way shape or form measures up. Romantic Suspense requires two elements, obviously--a strong, developing relationship and good tension and thrills. This book had neither.

There's a mystery, but it's not particularly suspenseful. There's no creepiness, no chills, nothing that draws the reader on feeling more and more threatened. Instead, the reader feels set apart, watching from a distance, not involved with the mystery. In fact, the characters themselves seem to think the mystery is more of a general pain in the neck than something they should focus on.

The relationship doesn't develop. He sees her, dismisses her as a loose woman, lusts after her, and eventually gains some small measure of respect for her. She sees him, thinks he's hot but a pain in the butt, and eventually gains some small measure of respect for him. But none of it seems deep or particularly strong.

The writing is fine, and there's nothing glaringly wrong with it, it's just not very good.

The first half of this book is really excellent. Rather than the usual focus on the investigators, the primary focus of this book is the criminals--the "perfect couple" of the title. It makes a fun change of pace, and the first half of the book is engrossing. But then Novak seems to run out of things to say about the relationship of the couple and their plans and it becomes very repetitive. The relationship between the protagonists doesn't develop much, which is perfectly realistic (do you expect a woman to fall head over heels while she's panic-stricken over her missing daughter?), but doesn't leave a lot to keep readers involved.

Still, Novak is a good writer, and despite its flaws, this is worth reading. It's just not as good as her best books.

This is really suspense with romantic elements, but a good read nonetheless!

There's slightly more suspense and quite a bit more violence in this book than in Reece's first book, but it's still just romance, not really romantic suspense. Standard tortured hero fare, with huge info dumps and massive backstory asides that are repeated plenty of times in case you missed them the first time around.

This book is sold as romantic suspense, but I've found more suspense in many Regency historicals than in this contemporary romance. Because that's really what this is--a contemporary romance featuring a woman whose job *should* be dangerous, but you never feel the danger. Part of the problem is that nothing remotely scary happens for half the book, and even when it does, everyone's always stopping to analyze their feelings, which takes away from any momentum.

If you're looking for a sexy romance, this might be for you, but it's not for anyone looking for suspense.

Restak has definitely done the research on this book. He presents not only the brain diet ("if it's good for your heart, it's good for your brain"), but also various exercises to keep the memory and adaptability your brain has and even to improve it. Unfortunately, none of the exercises are particularly exciting and I can't see myself doing most of them with any regularity. He does talk a bit about video games, but in sort of conflicting ways--"here are all the great things you can get from them" vs. "don't spend more than an hour three times a week on them or you could suffer negative effects."

Still, the book is definitely worth reading, especially inasmuch he talks about the correlation between dementia and various activities/lack of activities. The various studies are also really interesting, if that's your bag (and it is definitely mine). Unlike many things you'll run across that are based on "junk science," this book is very specific about which things are factual and which are still speculative.

Although the story is interesting and well written, I had a hard time getting emotionally involved with these characters. It may be because each segment (scene/chapter) was very short and switched focus, so before I could get deeply immersed in any life, I got dragged over to look at someone else's situation.

I love Lisa Jackson, but nothing could make me finish this book. There was so much pointless conversation--talking heads sitting around tables rambling on and on and on--that it completely drowned out the action and the plot.

This is a one-note book and that one note is violence.

Part of the problem I had with it is that the book in no way matches the cover. I love the black humor of the cover -- "Ever want to kill your boss? Well guess what, the feeling is mutual." -- but that sense of humor doesn't ever show up in the book. There were occasional flashes, but they were between characters peripheral to the main plot and even so they weren't enough to deliver on the cover's promise. I was expecting something much more clever than what I got.

Make no mistake, Swierczynski's writing is tight. I've got no issue with his ability to put together sentences and paragraphs. My problem is with his ability to put together characters. None of these characters are appealing. None of them make you feel any great emotion. By page 50 or so, I would have been perfectly happy if the whole building had exploded. By page 100, I wanted to go in and set the bombs myself.

Unbelievably awful. I wish I could say something else about this book, because I've liked Hooper in the past, but there's nothing redeeming about this book. The plot never takes off, the romance isn't compelling, the characters are flat and we're subjected to the same scene over and over and over again.

Contemporary romance with the thinnest of mystery plots. The characters and situations are funny, which makes the book light and fizzy, but there's not a great deal of substance to it. There's a lot of lust here, but the love is not particularly well-developed and the climax is flat. The suspense element is tossed in offhandedly and there's no drama to it. Still, the writing is entertaining and it's an easy read.

I keep trying Allison Brennan's books because I loved her first series (The Hunt, The Prey, The Kill), but nothing since then has even come close to that level, and Playing Dead is no exception.

There's simultaneously too much in this book and not enough. There's too much backstory--both on the side of the good guys and on the side of the bad guys--and the conspiracy is far too big. One reviewer noted that the story is hard to follow and I think this is what was meant. There are so many criminals in the conspiracy it's just unwieldy. The tie between the "assassin" and the protagonist is thinly explained and not believable. It stretches credulity to the breaking point.

On the other hand, there's not enough of the relationship between the two main characters. We are told how they feel, but Brennan spends no time convincing us of the depth or breadth of the feelings, so the book is emotionally unconvincing and unsatisfying.

Brennan is a competent writer, and it's irritating to read something so empty from her. Skip this one. If you like strong romantic suspense, stick to her first trilogy.

This book is awful. I got to page 62, couldn't take it any more and sat down to write this review. I wanted so badly to like it--because the plot seemed unusual--that I probably gave it twice as much reading time as it deserved.

Here's the problem: First, the author constantly tells you things rather than showing them. Second, she tells you the same thing over and over and over.

For example, on page 3, the protagonist's mother, who conveniently speaks aloud to her dead husband in order to impart all the vital information in the book to the readers, says "Somehow they become more receptive near large natural bodies of water, as if it is a portal for them, opening them to other extrasensories. I've tested them...they are very vulnerable by water, connecting with it somehow, and that leaves them unprotected."

Then, on page 57, she says, "If there's one place any of my daughters shouldn't be, it's near a major lake."

Then, on page 62, the protagonist herself notes, "Lake Michigan was exactly where she shouldn't be, near big water, a potential psychic portal; she could be very vulnerable."

If this were the only example, it wouldn't be so bad. You could just skip the prologue (the content of which is repeated, in its entirety, within the 62 pages I read, some parts more than once) and you'd be okay. But unfortunately this repetition and lack of subtlety seem to be stylistic choices and they make the book annoying beyond belief.

I just couldn't get into this book. It wasn't badly written, but the constraints of having a dog as a narrator create awkwardness that makes reading the book difficult. (The owner doesn't take Randolph everywhere, so Randolph has to give a ton of backstory when his owner--who conveniently talks to himself--returns.)

It's not badly written, and I do love dogs, but this just didn't pull me in the way it evidently did other people!

STORY (no spoilers): The plot could be interesting. Multiple points of view allow us to watch from inside and out as a man's life goes drastically off the rails. Martin starts out as an accountant at a toilet supply company who still lives with his mother...and then things go awry. Or maybe not so much, from his perspective. There are parts that are funny--the products at the toilet supply company, for example, are a riot--but the plot moves painfully slowly as we are given multiple asides into the heads of various characters.

And there's not much in those heads to attract a reader. I couldn't "root for" anyone. Martin is completely self-obsessed, as is An, the lead detective investigating the murder of Martin's co-worker. They're both pathetic and whiny, though I will say they both have very rich fantasy lives.

READING: I think part of the problem with this book may have been the audiobook factor. So much takes place inside the heads of the various characters that it might be easier to do the necessary skipping around in time if you had visual cues. Wayne Knight is not a bad reader--his voice is smooth, not at all grating--but there's little demarcation when one switches into interior monologue or flashback which makes following the story somewhat confusing at times.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend this, which I am sorry to say since I was hoping Slaughter would have done something different from the norm that I could follow as I once followed her thrillers.

Skip the prologue. It's badly written, badly edited, and completely unnecessary. If I hadn't read so much Thompson I liked, I would have chucked the book based on the numerous temporal shifts on the first couple of pages. Luckily, I didn't as rest of the book is up to her usual standards.

Love it, love it, love it. This is as good as it gets. I was a little worried about this series going off the rails, but Nancy Martin keeps all the balls in the air with grace and style.

It's extremely difficult to write a book in which the heroine is unsure of her own identity. Karen Robards shouldn't have tried it. This is a frustrating mess for the reader, who gets as much of a headache as the character has.

Not only answers those normal, "what to do with a drunken father" questions, but also the touchier "how do I say congratulations when I hate my friend's partner". Chock full of info for brides to be in modern America.