Into the Black Nowhere ~ Meg Gardiner review [@MegGardiner1 @DuttonBooks]

Into the Black Nowhere (UNSUB #2)
Dutton
January 30, 2018
355 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

** Contains spoilers for UNSUB (#1), the first book in this series - see my review here **

Inspired by real-life serial killer Ted Bundy, an exhilarating thriller in which FBI profiler Caitlin Hendrix faces off against a charming, merciless serial killer

In southern Texas, on Saturday nights, women are disappearing. One vanishes from a movie theater. Another is ripped from her car at a stoplight. Another vanishes from her home while checking on her baby. Rookie FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix, newly assigned to the FBI's elite Behavioral Analysis Unit, fears that a serial killer is roaming the dark roads outside Austin.

Caitlin and the FBI's serial crime unit discover the first victim's body in the woods. She's laid out in a bloodstained, white baby-doll nightgown. A second victim in a white nightie lies deeper in the forest's darkness. Both bodies are surrounded by Polaroid photos, stuck in the earth like headstones. Each photo pictures a woman in a white negligee, wrists slashed, suicide-style--posed like Snow White awaiting her prince's kiss.

To track the UNSUB, Caitlin must get inside his mind. How is he selecting these women? Working with a legendary FBI profiler, Caitlin searches for a homology--that elusive point where character and action come together. She profiles a confident, meticulous killer who convinces his victims to lower their guard until he can overpower and take them in plain sight. He then reduces them to objects in a twisted fantasy--dolls for him to possess, control, and ultimately destroy. Caitlin's profile leads the FBI to focus on one man: a charismatic, successful professional who easily gains people's trust. But with only circumstantial evidence linking him to the murders, the police allow him to escape. As Saturday night approaches, Caitlin and the FBI enter a desperate game of cat and mouse, racing to capture the cunning predator before he claims more victims.

Into the Black Nowhere was an even better read than UNSUB. We now know Caitlin and not only what happened to her in the first book, but how the Prophet impacted her life in the past, as well. With Caitlin now a part of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, it is her job to get into the minds of serial killers,  It is Caitlin's dream job, but it also required her to move across the country - from California to Quantico, Virginia - leaving Sean and making their relationship now a long distance one.

I liked that, while the story immediately throws Caitlin into a case, to working on profiling and catching a killer, she was definitely still the newbie. We saw how she had to prove herself, to feel things out. That bit of transition not only allows readers to become more familiar with the aspects of her work, but also felt more realistic.

The search for the killer - and then trying to prove whether or not a suspect is really the one to be watching - was intense, sometimes twisted and dark. Yet, it never felt rushed or like it was more dramatic than would actually be true simply for a thrilling read.

I loved that we also saw Caitlin's attempts to balance her personal life (her relationship with Sean, her friendship with Michelle) with not only her new job and the pressures and stressors it provided, but also the distance and absence of physical, face to face interactions. Knowing her better as a person away from being a profiler makes you more invested in her character - as a profiler and in her personal life.

The bits of the story that slowly crept up on you, until you realized just how much they may matter, has me very anxious to read Book 3, The Dark Corners of the Night.





Other Books You May Also Enjoy:  The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance #1) by Jeffery Deaver and the Lucy Kincaid series by Allison Brennan

Poisonous ~ Allison Brennan (earc) review [@Allison_Brennan @MinotaurBooks]

Poisonous (Max Revere Novels #3)
Minotaur Books
April 12, 2016
384 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

*some character/relationship-centric spoilers for Notorious and Compulsion - Books 1 & 2*

Teen-aged Internet bully Ivy Lake fell off a cliff and few people cared ... except her mentally-challenged eighteen-year-old step-brother, Tommy. He loved her in spite of her cruelty. He's distraught and doesn't understand why his blended family is falling apart. After a year, the police still have no answers: Ivy could have jumped, could have been pushed, or it could have been an accident. With too many suspects and not enough evidence, the investigation has grown cold.

Tommy thinks that if someone can figure out what happened to his step-sister, everything will go back to normal, so he writes to investigative reporter Maxine Revere. This isn’t the type of case Max normally takes on, but the heartbreak and simple honesty in Tommy's letter pulls her in. She travels to Corte Madera, California, with her assistant David Kane and is at first pleased that the police are cooperative. But the more Max learns about Tommy and his dysfunctional family, the more she thinks she’s taken on an impossible task: this may be the one case she can’t solve.

If Ivy was murdered, it was exceptionally well-planned and that kind of killer could be hiding in plain sight ... planning the next act of violence. Max believes the truth is always better than lies, that the truth is the only thing that matters to gain justice for victims and their families. But for the first time, she wonders if this time, the truth will kill.

Poisonous is the third Maxine Revere Novel following Notorious and Compulsion (both of which I have read - but not reviewed - and recommend). Maxine Revere is an investigative journalist and host of the crime show Maximum Exposure on NET. The recognition hosting a national television show has given her means Max can no longer do undercover work but she can still travel the country tryng to solve cold cases.

Many of the cases she investigates deal with missing persons but the one that has piqued her interest this time deals with the murder of Ivy Lake. It's not the details of Ivy's death that have Max travelling to California, rather it's the plea from her step-brother, eighteen-year-old Tommy who is mentally challenged. He wants Max to find the killer so his family can go back to how they were.


Poisonous has a lot going on. From the cyber-bullying, the blended families (of several characters), the how Tommy is treated and viewed, to Max's own past - the recent and not so recent.

Some of the parallels are more readily apparent: David and Nick's acrimonious relationships with their respective exes, how Max wants to 'fix' things for them and how they then view Tommy family so differently. Other things only come to light once truths are uncovered, secrets revealed and most of the story is known.

One of the things I really liked about Compulsion was that it clearly followed Notorious and if you had read the first book you would see how, but there were a lot fewer spoilers for it than with most series books. There were few mentions of what had happened and no specifics. (Except, of course, that Max's relationship with Nick was a carry-over from what happened in the earlier book.)

To a somewhat lesser extent, that was also true with Poisonous. There were more mentions of what had happened, more details given (still without being very specific). It is great for anyone who picks the books up out of order (though I still suggest reading in order) yet it also fits with Max's character. Moving on and trying not to think about those events makes sense for her.

I really enjoy that these books are such great mysteries. Everything unfolds, with different secrets and truths coming to light in unexpected ways, in just the right order, at just the right time. There is enough reason to suspect multiple characters, reasons you don't want to suspect some characters, and things that will lead you in the wrong direction. Once everything is revealed it's both surprising, not something you see coming, but also makes perfect sense.

I loved that Max's past - the time that we saw in the two earlier books and prior to that, as well - played into how she investigated, what she believed (or wanted to) and how she reacted, more so than in either previous book.

Max Revere, David, Emma, Ben, and Nick are characters I am really coming to love and, though some of their relationships have me worried, I really look forward to reading more with them.




Other Books You May Also Enjoy: Notorious and Compulsion by Allison Brennan and Roadside Crosses by Jeffery Deaver




digital copy received, for review from publisher, via NetGalley

Eeny Meeny ~ M.J. Arlidge review [@mjarlidge @BerkleyNAL]

Eeny Meeny (A DI Helen Grace Thriller/Helen Grace #1)
NAL
June 2, 2015
420 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

The "dark, twisted, thought-provoking" (#1 New York Times bestseller Tami Hoag) international bestseller—first in the new series featuring Detective Helen Grace.

Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.

It’s a game more twisted than any Detective Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn’t spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn’t believe them.

Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case—with its seemingly random victims—has her baffled. But as more people go missing, nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense....

If someone on your holiday list is a thriller fan and you're looking for something they may not yet have read (or you want a new series to start yourself) you need look no further than Eeny Meeny.

When I saw that this book had been praised by both Lisa Gardner and Jeffery Deaver (see them and more here),it (hopefully) boded very well for both the character and the book. I love their DD Warren and Kathryn Dance characters and series so if they both enjoyed Helen and the book . . .

Luckily, I completely agree with them.

Helen Grace is a brilliant character to lead a new thriller series. She has a mysterious, troubled past but is now dedicated to her job solving crimes. She is a character with some dark, complicated aspects to who she was and who she is. She visits a S&M 'therapist*,' and has secrets she is keeping.

This all, though, gives her a unique approach to the crimes she has to solve and to the victims. It, also, her to be a bit of an unknown to readers. We learn more about her as things continue, but the questions only add to the book's mystery (and enjoyment).

The short chapters - at times just a page or two - work especially well here. With several different narrators, it allows us to follow a character and to learn more about them personally without being away from the action for very long, at all.

The shift in narration also allows us insight into characters - including one quite unknown one - we otherwise would have overlooked or not known. This only aids in the presentation of false leads. Fals leads that don't seem so false, at first, and convince you that you have it all figured out. Until you don't.

The crime solving, the crimes themselves, the characters, Helen Grace, her past and what we learn about her from first page to last and how it all ends will have you ready for more of this series. (And with seven novels pitched, there is hopefully much more to come!)

Review of Book 2 Pop Goes the Weasel will be up tomorrow!

*semi spoiler? This does not go too far and truly fits into the character and story, do not let it deter you

Top Ten Tuesday: Imagined Co-Authorings

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Ten:

Top Ten Author Duos You'd LOVE To See Write A Book Together 

Lisa Gardner & Jeffery Deaver

Gardner's DD Warren character (and series) and Deaver's Kathryn Dance character (and series) are two of my favorites. While I would love if they created a whole new character together, I think I might most like to see these two in a book (or more) together.

Alyxandra Harvey & Kady Cross

These authors come up with great characters and fantastic fantasy/paranormal worlds. I would love reading how Harvey's great characters (I adore her her girl-friendships) and the steampunk worlds (and also, characters and relationships I love) that Cross creates would work together.

Gayle Forman & Stephanie Perkins

They are two of my favorite, favorite contemporary YA romance authors and I absolutely love the characters and romances they create. They are also not afraid of some conflict and both keep things very real - but still swoon worthy. If they wrote something together (especially with an international setting) I'd be right there, ready to read it.

JT Ellison & MJ Arlidge

This one feels a little like cheating since I've read so many more of JT Ellison's books than MJ Arlidge's (the discrepancy in how many each has published in the US helps), but I think it would work. Some of the plot lines in Ellison's Taylor Jackson titles and what her Samantha Owens has been through/deals with seem like a great fit with Arlidge's Helen Grace and those novels' content. The initial first names is just a bonus! (My reviews of Eeny Meeny and Pop Goes the Weasel should be up soon.)

Jennifer Lynn Barnes & Kiersten White

I really want to know how the authors of the Raised by Wolves series and the Paranormalcy series would write together! They have creative, original books and I love, love, love their characters, their relationships and their smart, funny writing.

AJ Pine & Jennifer Comeaux

AJ Pine's One Night books and Jennifer Comeaux's Crossing the Ice were two great new adult reads . They both have a limited amount of sexual content, but it really works for the stories. The two authors books also involved sports and characters who had something holding them back from relationships, I would definitely be interested in what they'd create.

Cat Patrick & Jennifer Lynn Barnes

If this actually happened, someone would quite possible have to sedate me or something. This could be a really fantastic almost-contemporary with a bit of science (real or fictitious - or some combination) included. Patrick's books (like Forgotten and Revived) are some of my favorite, favorites - add in Barnes' and it would all be more than perfect! Ooh, I really do like this idea! 

Marie Lu & Ryan Graudin

Between the Legend books, The Young Elites, All that Glows, All that Burns, The Walled City and Wolf by Wolf these authors have shown that they can do magic/fantasy or more contemporary (if dystopian) and I would be so excited to see what kind of world and characters they would create.

Mindy McGinnis & Mikaela Everett

Okay, this one may just be because of how much I love A Madness So Discreet and The Unquiet. But, also, McGinnis wrote Not a Drop to Drink so she can do dystopian. I think their writing styles are complimentary and they can both give you characters who are flawed and in horrible situations but who you still, very much, relate to. I would really love to see what sort of setting (past, present, real, imagined) they created.

Francesca Zappia & Anna-Marie McLemore

I loved the writing in both Made You Up and The Weight of Feathers. Though the first was more contemporary and the latter a bit fantasy, they had strong, unique characters and (though in quite different ways) that question of what was real. I think they could write a really beautiful book together, even if I don't know what genre!

Please leave a comment and let me know what authors you would love to see co-write something - and/or what you think of my picks!

Top Ten Tuesday

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Ten: Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR List

The Spring/Summer releases are only one of the many reason I have been eagerly anticipating Springtime! There really are some great ones - and I've tried to balance my list between those I have arcs of and those I don't.

 The books:

The Remedy (The Program #0.5) by Suzanne Young 

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Between the Notes by Sharon Huss Roat

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Last Year's Mistake by Gina Ciocca

Immaculate by Katelyn Detweiler

Absolutely True Lies by Rachel Stuhler

The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu

Solitude Creek (Kathryn Dance #4) by Jeffery Deaver

I'm ready for the weather to get warmer, for the flowers to bloom and for these books to be released!

What books are on your Spring TBR list? Link me to your own Top Ten Tuesday post or tell me in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday [Fave Heroines]

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's Ten: Top Ten Favorite Heroines From Books

1. Detective D.D. Warren ~ from Lisa Gardner's D.D. Warren series My review of the latest book in the series, Crash & Burn.
   
2. Taylor Jackson ~ from J.T. Ellison's series. My reviews of Books 1-4, 5 and 6 and 7.
   
3. Kathryn Dance ~ from Jeffery Deaver's series. The Sleeping Doll review and Roadside Crosses review. I didn't review XO but I absolutely enjoyed and recommend it.
   
4. Lucy and Solange ~ from Alyxandra Harvey's Drake Chronicles series. My reviews of Book 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 6
   
5. Gretchen, Emma and Penelope ~  from Alyxandra Harvey's Lovegrove Legacy series. Review of A Breath of Frost and Whisper the Dead
   
6. Sophronia, Dimity and company ~ from Gail Carriger's Finishing School series. Reviews of Books 1, 2, and 3
   
7. Bryn ~ from Jennifer Lynn Barnes's Raised by Wolves series. Trial by Fire (#2) review and Taken by Storm (#3) review
   
8. June ~ from Marie Lu's Legend series. My reviews of Legend and Champion
   
9. Cora ~ from Frankie Brown's Until We End. My review
   
10. Lola ~ from Stephanie Perkins' Lola and the Boy Next Door. My review

This post would turn into something epically long (and take me forever) if I tried to say what it is I love about each of these characters, so I've linked to my reviews of the book(s) they're in.

I did kind of cheat on 4, 5, and 6 as I didn't pick just one character but I don't think I could single out just one of heroine from those series! It's also their relationships/friendships and their interactions with each other that are a large part of why I adore those series and the characters so much. (So singling out just one of the girls would seem unfair.)

So, those are my Top Ten(ish) Favorite Heroines - what are yours?  Let me know in the comments and/or link me to your own Top Ten Tuesday post!

Roadside Crosses ~ Jeffery Deaver review

Roadside Crosses (Kathryn Dance #2)
Simon & Schuster
June 9, 2009
397 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

When roadside crosses begin to appear not in memoriam for someone, but as an announcement, a warning of an intent to kill them, it becomes Kathryn Dance's case. It's not an ordinary case, either. Details -- fear, phobias, schedules, anything -- that the victims thoughtlessly shared about themselves online are now being used against them.

The investigation leads Dance and Deputy Michael O'Neil to Travis Brigham, a teen whose involvement in a fatal car crash has made him the victim of online bullying and scorn. As they work uncover the real identities of the posters on the source of those posts, The Chilton Report blog, Travis vanishes.

Using the skills he's learned in the MMORPG, Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, where he spends most of his day, he's able to avoid Kathryn. All while his potential victims continue to be under threat, some they're able to keep safe, some not.

With the distraction of politicians, her boss, family matters and The Chilton Report's blogger, Kathryn will have to unravel everything before she possibly loses her job.


Roadside Crosses is the second novel featuring Kathryn Dance, following The Sleeping Doll [my review HERE]. It does build a bit on the relationships established in the introductory book -- who she works with, her children, her friendships, her past -- and doesn't explain as much about her being a kinesics, or body language, expert.

The secondary characters are still present but it's more assumed that we know who they are and how they play into things. The kinesics work didn't seem to be as much a part of this book as it was The Sleeping Doll. It was still definitely a part of the novel, the plot just didn't call for as much focus on it this time. Or it blended into the story better.

The blogging, posting, really everything online was a big part of the plot. It was definitely done with a point and one that worked for the plot. It was written well to keep things from being dated right away and making the book dated as well. (The book was published in 2009 and it still works.) While in 2013 Dance might know more about the internet, etc she also might not. It's still a very workable plot.

One with a 'message' that isn't message-y but fits the story and characters while still being worth thought.

I missed some of the 'A to B to X' that we had in The Sleeping Doll. There wasn't as much mystery in this second book, or, at least, not as much fun unraveling and unveiling of the mystery. I still really liked the growth that the characters experienced and seeing them work together for a second book. I know I'll be reading the third -- and looking forward to another.

It was also nice to see that, though, the main character didn't understand the MMORPG or blogging, they weren't scoffed at or made fun of as in some books. They weren't revered, either, (as in some) but were an honest part of how things came together -- or apart.


Rating: 8/10

The Sleeping Doll ~ Jeffrey Deaver (review)

Jeffrey Deaver's The Sleeping Doll, the first Kathryn Dance novel, is a bit like the Fox TV show The Following (and at the same time incredibly different). Both follow an agent -- Kevin Bacon's character on The Following and Kathryn Dance, a CBI agent in The Sleeping Doll -- as they deal with a deal with a killer, Joe Carroll for the former and Daniel Pell for the latter. Both Carroll and Pell are charismatic, leaders who present quite a challenge for law enforcement. How their stories play out is quite different, though.


The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance #1)
Simon & Schuster
June 5, 2007
428 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon

In The Sleeping Doll, Kathryn Dance's week begins normally enough with an interrogation of Daniel Pell. As a kinesics expert, she's been sent to question the, "Son of Manson," in a newly discovered crime. Pell is already serving a life sentence for killing a family. A crime reminiscent of those committed by the Manson Family. Except, Pell's Family wasn't careful. They were caught. And they left someone alive.

The Sleeping Doll.

Hidden in bed by her toys and unnoticed that night, the youngest of the Croyton family, was dubbed the Sleeping Doll. Now, years later, she's still never talked about that night.

So, as Dance questions him about the new murder charge, she finds it an opportunity to learn about the past crimes, about the Family and who Daniel Pell is, as well. After he's transferred back from the Courthouse to the Prison, she'll lose her chance.

But something goes wrong. Pell escapes and Dance is going to have to use every resource at her disposal, everything she learned in their interrogation to track him down -- and keep everyone safe.


It was great that this book started with Kathryn Dance and her interrogation of Daniel Pell. Not only was it a fantastic introduction to who the Kathryn Dance character is and what makes her so special, what she can does, but we get quite an interesting introduction to Daniel Pell, as well.

I loved seeing a great, smart, strong, independent female character in this type of story . . . who has a family. There are other novels I have read and loved (JT Ellison's Taylor Jackson series comes to mind) where the characters were single and/or dating, but I like that Dance has kids. And a house and dogs and the different dynamic that brings to the story. Her love of shoes isn't too bad, either, though I do think she should have changed them more.

The cult leader story line seemed a great way to start Kathryn Dance's series. It has that intrigue and drama -- and Deaver added some drama on top of the obvious, promised drama. The characters present, likely, just for this book were very good and a great part of the story. Those that seem to be more long term, series characters are ones that I'm looking forward to seeing developed over more novels. I want to see how their relationships play out.

 I already know I want to read the third book in the series, XO, as it was what prompted me to find this first book so I can only hope the second is great.

It's mentioned in the book that Dance's mind jumps, "A to B to X," (pg 19). That does seem to be how a lot of things happen in The Sleeping Doll . . . at least at first. Readers are given information A and information B and then, sometimes, X happens without C through W being revealed, yet. It makes the story quite fun and full of twists. Nothing absurd happens. Rather, it's fun to discover the connection of things (even after they happen) instead of knowing how it will all unfold before it does.

If you like being able to figure an entire mystery of a book out before it all unfolds, The Sleeping Doll likely won't be your favorite. If you like twists and turns that are surprising but make sense in the end, then it's a fantastic read.

Rating: 9/10

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

 • Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
 • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser:

The big man froze, staring at the knife. Pell's blue eyes studied his sweaty black face.
"Don't do it Daniel."
Pell moved in.

-pg 19 The Sleeping Doll (Kathryn Dance #1) by Jeffery Deaver [hardcover]

Yes, so it's four sentences - but, one, they're short and, two, they're much better as a teaser than just the two would be.


If you have a Teaser Tuesdays post you'd like me to see, leave the link as a comment!