Tag: thriller

The Confession Artist by Christine Carbo (Thriller)

A tense thriller with an intriguing premise — a killer posts sketches of potential victims on social media with the message “You have 6 days to confess or die.” Two people have already died; a third comes up with a full confession and survives. Enter Crosbie Mitchell — a newly minted PI trying to drum up business. The latest sketch looks remarkably like her — and it’s not like the message mystifies her. In her mind, she has plenty to atone for, though she isn’t thrilled at the idea of going public. Struggling with an internal storm of guilt, fear, denial, and confusion, she has to figure out what to do. Should she confess? Hide? Or try to somehow stop the “Confession Artist” in their tracks.

I was hooked within the first few pages — Carbo’s impassioned style mixes convoluted plot, nuanced characters, complex questions of morality, and intense introspection into a stew of shifting emotions. She does a remarkable job of depicting how a single individual can feel like a perpetrator, a victim, and a defender all at once. The description of that inner turmoil was deftly executed. The demands for confession spanned sins entangled with eco-concerns, drug abuse, rape and sexual abuse, native American abuses, and the greed of the already wealthy. I was happy that all of the “sinners” were individuals rather than implied representatives of whole groups (i.e. not all men were abusers, not all rich people were greedy, etc.) There were some interesting explorations of moral equivalencies — is there a distinction between doing something bad, actively enabling someone else to do something bad, and being aware of something bad happening and not doing anything about it? How does your answer change if the victim is an innocent vs a objectively bad actor? I came to my own conclusions which were not necessarily shared by the author or her characters, but the story definitely made me think! The final resolution was surprising, satisfying, and actually believable.

A great read at multiple levels!

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 1st, 2026.

The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman (Fiction)

Plot: 5 Characters: 4.5 Writing: 4

A taut thriller and (ultimately heart warming) family drama all in one.

Alice and 10-year old Oren are running away from an abusive man. A call to a hotline sends them to Delphi, NY where they are taken in by Mattie. Mattie is a spinster living in a decaying mansion who puts all of her time, energy, and money into The Sanctuary. Alice is highly suspicious of all do-gooders; Oren is a boy who seems to always know things he shouldn’t.

I’d forgotten how much I like Carol Goodman — she is a fantastic writer. The story is paced perfectly, with completely unpredictable twists and turns. No cliches or stereotypes (with one exception — see below)! The story of domestic abuse, the social structures and people who try to help, and the attitudes and interactions of the participants have depth and variety. I liked the balanced views — not all abusive relationships are the same, not all the male characters are scumbags, and not all the social workers are competent or effective.

Big themes are woven throughout — Justice; Vengeance; Forgiveness. Goodman has a Classics background and that figures in as well — Greek mythology keeps popping up, and I particularly liked the story of Orestes, Athena, and the Furies as the introduction of the concept of Justice replacing Vengeance in the scheme of human affairs. Lastly, the feeling of a ghostly presence lends an otherworldly quality to the story.

The only part of the book that didn’t quite work for me were the two nasty, abusive men. They are the only two characters whose behavior and dialogue felt like stereotypes rather than real people. I guess Ms. Goodman really didn’t want to be in their heads any longer than necessary. However, this was an issue in only a tiny fraction of the pages. This was one of those books that is almost impossible to put down (although due to the tense nature of the story I didn’t let myself read it too close to bedtime!)

Highly recommended!

Some quotes:
“I’m a woman on the wrong side of fifty, back where she started, with no way out but one.”

“Some people look up at the night sky and see random scatter, others read stories in the chaos. That’s what I do when I adjudicate a case. I make sense out of chaos.”

“She looks up when she reaches the shelter of the porch, and there’s so much anger and resentment in her eyes that I flinch, I’ve seen that look in abused women, that look that doesn’t just expect the next blow but says, I know I deserve it. But I’ve never gotten used to it, or liked how it made me feel, that little split-second flicker of Maybe you do.”

“But at some point I catch a satisfied smile on Oren’s face and realize that here is a child who takes on the weight of the emotions around him by playing the peacemaker.”

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen McManus (YA)

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Random House Children’s through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The book will be published on Jan. 8, 2019 — in 2 days!
Writing: 4.5/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 4.5/5

Karen McManus is the Liane Moriarity of the YA set, writing gripping thrillers with characters that draw you in immediately and hold you fast.

California twins Ellery and Ezra Corcoran find themselves in Echo Ridge, Vermont, living with a grandmother they barely know while their single mother Sadie dries out in rehab. Echo Ridge has a haunted past — it was the place Sadie’s twin Sarah disappeared 20 years ago and more recently the place that 17-year old prom queen, Lacey Kilduff, was killed in the aptly named Murderland theme park. And the haunting doesn’t seem to be restricted to the past…

Populated with well fleshed out, multi-generational, townies, the story is told in alternating voices: Ellery is a True Crime fanatic and invents crazy scenarios faster than they can be discounted; Malcolm Kelly is the younger brother of Declan Kelly, Lacey’s boyfriend at the time of her death and thought by many to be responsible for the crime.

It’s a story full of suspicion and trust, new friendships and old understandings, standard teen stuff and very non-standard teen stuff, and lots of tangled and tortuous plot twists. As with her last book — One of Us is Lying — I didn’t figure it out until the very end.