Review: Where All the Girls Have Gone

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz

Series: Cutler, Sutton & Salinas

Released: September 26 2017

Publisher: Piatkus

Length: 448 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: The Book Depository

Five women out for justice

One ruthless killer

A secret that's sure to get out

In this elite investment club, the stakes are literally life or death . . .

Founder of an exclusive society with a hidden agenda, Madison Benson has carefully handpicked her members, choosing the four most fearless and skilled/intelligent women she knows. But when one member is found dead and another goes missing, it seems like the club may finally have taken one risk too many. Now it won't be long before the rest of them are hunted down and silenced...

Into this secretive world steps Charlotte Sawyer, who is desperate to find her step-sister, the beautiful, brilliant - and reckless - Jocelyn, and deliver the terrible news that one of her closest friends has been murdered. Yet Jocelyn is nowhere to be found and slowly Charlotte begins to realise that her step-sister is involved in something terrible. Running out of time and unable to trust the police, Charlotte joins forces with Max Cutler, a struggling PI whose previous career as a criminal profiler went down in flames. Burned out, divorced and almost broke, Max needs the job.

When her uneasy alliance with Max turns into a full-blown affair, Charlotte has no choice but to trust him with her life. For the shadows of Jocelyn's past are threatening to consume her - and anyone else who gets in the way . . .

The New York Times bestselling author of Secret Sisters, Jayne Ann Krentz delivers a thrilling novel of the deceptions we hide behind, the passions we surrender to, and the lengths we'll go to for the truth. 

When I think of romantic suspense, I usually think of Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz. A new book by one of these two authors is always a reason to celebrate, and yet somehow, I’ve waited until now to read When all the Girls Have Gone… just in time for the UK paperback release.

When all the Girls Have Gone explores what happens to strong women when the system turns against them. It tells the story of Charlotte’s step-sister Jocelyn, raped in college by an unknown assailant, and denied justice and protection by the police. Politically, it was much easier to hide Jocelyn’s rape than publicly stand by her and protect her. Years later, Jocelyn is missing, her best friend is dead, and the other three women from her investment club are behaving very strangely.

Profilers and serial killers in Such a Pretty Girl by Tess Diamonds

Author: Tess Diamond
Series: Unknown
Released: September 26th 2017
Publisher: Avon
Length: 384 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Amazon

In Grace Sinclair’s bestselling crime novels, the good guys win and the bad guys always get caught. As the FBI’s top profiler, she knows that real life is rarely so straightforward. But her new case isn’t just brutal—it’s also personal. The victims look like Grace. And the FBI recruit assigned to her team is trouble of another kind.

This isn’t how Special Agent Gavin Walker imagined running into Grace again. Two years ago they shared one earth-shattering night, then she vanished from his life. She’s brilliant, fiercely independent, and in mortal danger from a killer masterminding a twisted game …

The body count is rising. Entangled in the case and in each other, Gavin and Grace are running out of time and chances. And as Grace puts the pieces together, she knows she’ll have to confront her own deepest secrets before the final, fatal move is played. 

I grew up reading books about strong women in law enforcement, forensic experts, profilers, hostage negotiators and such. Through most of my teen years, I had Patricia Cornwell’s books for breakfast, Tess Gerritsen’s for lunch, and Kathy Reichs’ for dinner and company through sleepless nights. I learned invaluable lessons about being a career woman from these authors and their heroines, and I even found my life-long literary love in Kay Scarpetta’s Benton Wesley. Needless to say, I’m very attached to the genre and I always slip comfortably into its rhythm.

LGBT Monday: Red Fish, Dead Fish by Amy Lane

Author: Amy Lane
Series: Fish Out of Water, #2
Released: August 4th 2017
Length: 330 pages
Source: Bought
Buy: Dreamspinner Press
         Amazon

They must work together to stop a psychopath—and save each other. 

Two months ago Jackson Rivers got shot while trying to save Ellery Cramer’s life. Not only is Jackson still suffering from his wounds, the triggerman remains at large—and the body count is mounting.

Jackson and Ellery have been trying to track down Tim Owens since Jackson got out of the hospital, but Owens’s time as a member of the department makes the DA reluctant to turn over any stones. When Owens starts going after people Jackson knows, Ellery’s instincts hit red alert. Hurt in a scuffle with drug-dealing squatters and trying damned hard not to grieve for a childhood spent in hell, Jackson is weak and vulnerable when Owens strikes.

Jackson gets away, but the fallout from the encounter might kill him. It’s not doing Ellery any favors either. When a police detective is abducted—and Jackson and Ellery hold the key to finding her—Ellery finds out exactly what he’s made of. He’s not the corporate shark who believes in winning at all costs; he’s the frightened lover trying to keep the man he cares for from self-destructing in his own valor.

Inspired by JD Robb and other legends of romantic suspense, the very versatile Amy Lane decided to pen her very own series of romance and action, with a pair of competent, resourceful and deeply damaged protagonists at its center. The deeply damaged, in this case, applies to one half of the couple – Jackson Rivers – the former policeman who was, years ago, betrayed and abandoned by his department, his colleagues, and everyone else that was supposed to protect him.

The Very Best of Romantic Suspense: The Witness by Nora Roberts

Author: Nora Roberts

Series: Standalone

Released: May 22nd 2012

Publisher: Piatkus

Length: 488 pages

Source: Bought

Buy: The Book Depository

Daughter of a controlling mother, Elizabeth finally let loose one night, drinking at a nightclub and allowing a strange man's seductive Russian accent lure her to a house on Lake Shore Drive. The events that followed changed her life forever. 

Twelve years later, the woman known as Abigail Lowery lives on the outskirts of a small town in the Ozarks. A freelance programmer, she designs sophisticated security systems--and supplements her own security with a fierce dog and an assortment of firearms. She keeps to herself, saying little, revealing nothing. But Abigail's reserve only intrigues police chief Brooks Gleason. Her logical mind, her secretive nature, and her unromantic viewpoints leave him fascinated but frustrated. He suspects that Abigail needs protection from something--and that her elaborate defenses hide a story that must be revealed. 

With a quirky, unforgettable heroine and a pulse-pounding plotline, Nora Roberts presents a riveting new read that cements her place as today's most reliably entertaining thriller

author--and will leave people hungering for more.

The Witness is perhaps Nora Roberts’ best and most successful romantic suspense novel, which is saying something considering the dozens we have to choose from. It’s a long novel, as her romances usually are, but every word is thought-through and every sentence exactly in its place. Nora has a steady, experienced hand fully capable of leading us through decades of backstories and keeping us fully engaged the whole time.

Review: Blue Smoke

Author: Nora Roberts

Series: Standalone

Released: July 7th 2015

Publisher: Berkley

Length: 464 pages

Source: Publisher for review

Buy: Amazon

Reena Hale’s destiny was shaped in the destructive—yet fascinatingly beautiful—fire that leveled her family’s pizzeria when she was young. Now an arson investigator, she finds her strength and wits constantly tested, although sometimes the job seems like a snap compared to her love life. But she can’t always blame the men. After all, a soot-caked woman barking orders and smelling of smoke isn’t the biggest turn-on in the world. Then she meets Bo Goodnight, who seems different. He’s been trying to find Reena for years, and now that she’s close enough to touch, he has no intention of letting go.

Nor does the man who has begun to haunt Reena’s life—with taunting phone calls and a string of horrifying crimes. And as Reena tries desperately to trace the origins—of the calls, the fires, the hatred aimed in her direction—she will step into the worst inferno she has ever faced… 

Nora’s books are one of my most reliable cures at times when my brain begs for a much needed rest. All of us readers have this amazing capacity to shut down and unplug, and for me, the best way to achieve this state of complete detachment from my everyday troubles is through one of Nora’s books. While I don’t much care for her paranormal work (PNR is just not my genre), no one writes romantic suspense better than she.