RED RIVER ROAD.....WHO'S STALKING GIRLS ON A FEAR-STRICKEN AUSSIE ROAD TRIP? (*****)

 Red River Road by Anna Downes (2024)

       A welcome return to one of my favorite genres in books and movies. peril and terror in the Outback. And by that I don't mean having to wait too long for your Bloomin' Onion at the steakhouse.

       This time it's Katy and Beth who encounter much fear, loathing and mystery as they travel together along Western Australia's picture postcard Coral Coast, filled with beautiful beaches, lagoons, shark whale sightings....... and abductors of women vacationers who are never heard from again.

        Katy's travelling solo at first in her camper-van, in a desperate search for her missing sister Phoebe, whose similar lone tour of the coastal wonders ended with her disappearance off the face of the earth. Exhausted and haunted by what might have befallen Phoebe, Katy ends up with an unlikely young companion. in Beth. This girl. with signs of physical abuse and fleeing something terrible in her past, begs Katy to take her along on the road trip quest for Phoebe's whereabouts.

         There's way more to Beth than meets the eye, but Katy agrees.......and off they go, hitting the road on a trip fraught with ominous, dread filled moments.

         The women find themselves tormented by disturbing clues, mysterious notes found in their vehicle, and odd collections of stones left outside the van. And what about that pushy stranger in the sunglasses who insists he'd help out Katy if she let him follow her on the search?

        The suspense builds steadily until "Red River Road" finally detonates all of its twists and reveals, the biggest of which is one staggering jaw dropper of a surprise. That brings me to my only minor quibble here with the final chapters, which take up a huge amount of time explaining that twist in maybe a little more detail than you'd normally expect in a wrap-up.
 
        But I wouldn't let that stop any reader who'd love to sign up for a wild dangerous tour through some of Australia's most spectacular locations. Thriller fans will want to say 'G'day, Mate' to this one, then start to Google some of those beach stops.   5 stars (*****)

ONE HOUSE LEFT......A BOY AND HIS FAMILY HUNTED BY A VENGEFUL ENTITY.....(***)

 One House Left by Vincent Ralph (2024)

       Loads of mixed feelings about this one, a YA horror in the bloody, scary teen-angst tradition of R.L. Stine.

       To begin with, you need to swallow the involved mythology of Cherry Tree Lane (a.k.a. "Murder Road.) A grisly mass killing in one of the houses resulted in a curse put on the entire street......leading to similar, unexplainable atrocities up and down the block. So this little chunk of the neighborhood becomes worse than the Bates Motel - residents check in but they don't check out, except in the parade of body bags that the police haul out of the homes on a regular basis. And that also applies to rubbernecking gawkers who make the mistake of stopping in for a visit. Presumably that block's realtor must be on anti-depressants.

        16 year old Nate and the rest of his family lived close enough to Murder Road to flee for their lives. But no matter how many new towns they move in and out of, they're inevitably followed and bedeviled by the supernatural "HIding Boy" who first put the curse in action. Knowing each new home is temporary, Nate avoids making any friends at his new high school, but that pretty quirky girl Max sends him into an instant crush. Even worse for him - Max and her two friends Seb and Tyler invite him into their little group of Urban Legend chasers, daring to provoke monsters and ghouls into coming out and play.

        In the immortal words of Scooby Doo.......Ruh-roh.

        I'm making this sound like good creepy fun, but uh.....not really. There's certainly no shortage of oncoming dread, frightful moments and an extended third act finale filled with nightmarish sights and a truly nihilistic twist. But the main characters are sketched with little or no attempt at reader empathy, which I thought undercut effectiveness of the horror. While I realize that the final paragraph is meant to pack a punch, it only served to increase the sour feeling it left me with. (Plus, if I moved into a town where the big yearly event is called 'Bloodbath', I'd already rent a U-Haul to move right out again.....)

        The generous 3 stars )***) are for horror completists who don't want to miss a thing........all the stuff you like is here, but I'm not sure how much of it will entertain you as you think it will.  (And don't expect to experience a wave of sympathy for some of these characters......just sayin'.....)

THE DIVIDE.....A FAKE PSYCHIC, A HOLLYWOOD MURDER AND A DISAPPEARED DOPPELGANGER....(****)

 The Divide by Morgan Richter (2024)

      I couldn't wait to get into this one for its genre alone......an L.A. contemporary Neo-Noir set amid the semi B-Listers who skim along side the cream of Hollywood strivers, all chasing their dreams of fame fortune, million dollar deals and Instagram clicks.

       Definitely not in their league is Jenny St. John, a fake psychic barely scraping out enough of a living to pay the rent on the office she also illegally lives in. Back in her early 20's as a fresh-off-the-bus starlet, she caught lightning in a bottle as a star of the independent film "The Divide". But the ill-fated film never saw the light of day, dashing her dreams and leading to her current miserable life. Pouring salt in her wounds - her director Serge Grumet went on to a fabulously successful career and his ex wife Gena, an uncanny look-alike for Jenny claimed she was the actual star of "The Divide"

       Then Jenny's stunned to hear of their reversals of fortune - Serge was shot dead in his home and Gena's disappeared. presumed, either dead or on the run as a suspect, depending on who you ask. Through her extraordinary resemblance to Gena and her so called psychic ability, Jenny's accepted into Serge and Gena's coterie of artistic-showbiz friends, enemies and hangers-on. She's hoping to pin down both Serge's murderer and the everlasting hurtful mystery of her would-be doppelganger and career usurper, Gena.

       Author Morgan Richter lines up a terrific colorful cast of unusual Hollywood suspects for Jenny to interrogate. But I parted company with the book's fuzzy flirtation with paranormal elements and the all too overused multi-verse stuff, the very thought of which sends me into upward eye rolling. There's no real concrete payoff to those tropes anyway and guaranteed to leave readers fascinated by that part of it unsatisfied.

        But I did fully soak up and appreciate the Tinseltown whodunit part of "The Divide" which does deliver a fair, logical reveal and a suspenseful climactic showdown for Jenny.. Much to enjoy here and I wouldn't mind seeing Jenny take on more mysteries among the upper and lower classes of L.A.s entertainment industry.....4 stars (****).

TIL DEATH DO US PART......WRATHFUL GRAPES AMID THE NAPA VINEYARD OWNERS....(***)

 Til Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (2024)

        In this domestic thriller, there's mystery and murder alright, but the heavy emphasis here is weighted toward domestic drama. Troubled marriages, family secrets deeply buried, infidelities and toxic sibling rivalries of children coming back to unsettle their parents.

        And all of this unfolds amidst Napa Valley wineries, where the grapes ferment to fruition right along with those familial grapes of wrath of the growers.

        Back East, the tragically widowed June, the owner of a Brooklyn wine bar is now, ten years later, happily planning a wedding to her fiance Kyle. But she lives with haunted memories of her brief marriage to the impetuous force-of-nature Josh who mysteriously drowned on their honeymoon, his body never recovered.

         And here's where the book starts to hook you, so you'll know you won't stop til you finish it. June catches glimpses of Josh, or someone who looks exactly like him. A double? Or a resurrected Josh for real? Her ceaseless, obsessive google searches lead her to a Napa winery, whose owner looks exactly like the man she spotted on the streets.

          On her own secretive mission to Napa, June stays at the winery's small hotel, hoping to meet Andrew and Sadie the married couple who own the vineyard.....especially 'Andrew', who's conveniently out of town on business.

         End of me talking plot, because of course, here's where the revelations and twists begin to make themselves known. To deepen the story and characters there's parallel flashback chapters dealing with Josh's mother Bev (also a vineyard owner with husband David). These occur around the time of Josh's tumultuous adolescence, riddled with.......well, that's for readers to find out.

        "Til Death Do Us Part' kept me intrigued and reading but I found some of the twists problematic and at least one major twist that's simply too far-fetched and pushes a reader's ability to swallow it. And leaving one of the mysteries unsolved and forgotten didn't help my impression either.

      A great set-up that makes you determined to find out all the answers. But I'm not sure how many people will go along with those reveals when they're finally laid bare. 3 passable stars, (***)....but only if you revel more in the domestic angst rather than the actual plot twists.....some of which might prompt, "You have got to be ****in' kidding me!"

UNDER THE SURFACE......LOST IN THE PARIS CATACOMBS, HUNTED AS PREY.......(*****)

 Under The Surface by Diana Urban (2024)

      First thing I want to do is compliment the publishers and the artist-designer responsible for that terrific cover art.. Clever, precise rendering of what's in store for a reader, a breathless thrill ride that combines YA horror and romantic teen angst all in one package. A genuine rollercoaster ride that makes a reader want to make sure their safety bar is locked in position before they zoom off into danger.

         Ruby, Selena Val and Olivia are on their high school trip to Paris when an unwise adventurous impulse leads them into no end of peril. Julien, a charming French boy, promises to lead them into one of the wild secret parties held deep in the city's legendary, but notoriously creepy catacombs.

        Not exactly big surprise, as you might have guessed........the girls and Julen find themselves seriously lost within the endless dark tunnels stacked with bones and skulls from centuries of corpses. Stumbling from one literal dead end to another, they also discover they don't just face a fate of dying from thirst or starvation. They're not alone. They've become hunted prey of something or someone sharing the catacombs with them. And some of those ancient corpses appear a little fresher than ancient.....more like newly murdered.

        Since nobody knows where the girls went, the suspense generated here is relentless. Main character Ruby and her three companions struggle to survive as they carry the weight of connected backstories filled with friendships ripped apart by betrayals and romantic misunderstanding. As their situation grows more harrowing and dire, up above them Sean, Ruby's longtime crush (and vice versa), makes a desperate attempt to out-think the slow moving police in finding out how and where the girls disappeared into.

       A fast fun read, this one, sometimes scary, sometimes heartfelt and all of it designed to keep you glued to it to the very end. 5 stars (*****)    (and beware looking for all night parties in catacombs, a definite health hazard....)

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AGONY HILL......A SMALL TOWN'S BIG MYSTERY AMID THE START OF THE 60'S MOST TURBULENT TIMES....(***)

 Agony Hill by Sarah Stewart Taylor (2024)

     On the plus side, - a beautifully rendered portrait of a unique time and place in history - a bucolic, picturesque little Vermont town and farming community of Bethany in 1965. But even such a seemingly peaceful place is beginning to feel the effects of the escalation of the Vietnam War. and all the subsequent societal, political and cultural upheavals in store for America. Another plus - the finely created cast of characters including newly appointed State Police.. detective Franklin Warren, A former Boston cop, he arrives a damaged, haunted man, tormented by the memories of finding his young wife brutally murdered.

      Still settling in to a small town where everybody takes an interest of everybody's else's business, Franklin's confounded by the apparent bizarre suicide of Hugh Weber, Bethany's most disliked farmer.. A man of hot temper and raging opinions, what could have led him to lock himself inside his barn and set fire to it? Warren finds no rational answers from Weber's weary, but beautiful wife Sylvie, now struggling to maintain the farm with the help of her large brood of children, nor any help from Weber's equally cantankerous, volcanic=tempered brother Victor.

      And who's the elusive mystery man who may have started another fire and committed various thefts around town?

      While it's fascinating to follow Franklin and the young green cop assisting him as they methodically track down clues and question potential suspects and people of interest, the book slows to a crawl in when it delves into the small down lives of the Bethany residents and their official busybody amateur detective Alice Bellows. The story than begins to resemble the most antiquated, snail-paced Cozy mystery that takes forever to get wherever it's going...

      The only thing remotely interesting about the slow, slow townsfolk stuff is that Bethany has an unusual amount of neighbors with histories in the U.S. Intelligence community...........as if the place is Florida for elderly spies. A captivating idea, but nothing's really done with it.....at least in this first book in the series.

       As I mentioned, the world building is truly admirable, but the book depends on this to wander about if it had all the time in the world to fully lay out its story. Which is why I felt myself exhaling long sighs when it left detective Warren to go leisurely poking among the Bethany folk. A solid cast of characters and a surprisingly heart-rending resolution to the primary mystery.......but you'll need a measure of patience to arrive at it.   3 stars (***)....I'd definitely check out the next Warren case if it involves the town's geriatric secret agent brigade.....

HOUSE OF GLASS.....A STRANGE LITTLE GIRL'S LAWYER PROBES THE MYSTERIES OF HER FAMILY...(*****)

 House Of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen (2024)

        Now here's the kind of thriller I live for. Fast moving, loaded with no end of psychological dread but never ever, as so may similar books do, bogs down into a morass of internal monologue blah-blah-blah.

       Sarah Pekkanen's plot keeps a reader whipping through the pages, even while her lead character is already heavily weighed down with a horrendous backstory of her own.
Lawyer Stella Hudson, survivor of a childhood filled with tragedy and abuse, now serves as a court appointed advocate for children caught in the middle of their parents' ugly divorce and custody battles. Based on her assessment of the family and child, it's her recommendations that will inform a judge's ruling as to which parent's awarded either full or partial custody. Her own traumatic childhood normally keeps her away from cases involving small children but as a favor to a beloved mentor, she agrees to represent the best interests for 9 year old Rose Barclay.

         Rose, an unnaturally wise-beyond-her-years gifted child, stands in the middle of a wealthy family currently embroiled with scandal and sudden violent death. Now afflicted by muteness, the little girl may have witnessed her live-in nanny's fatal plunge out of a window, a suspicious death with no shortage of family suspects......her mother Beth, her grandmother Harriet, and her father Ian, whose affair with the nanny left the girl pregnant, touching off the divorce and custody war between the Barclays.

        Armed with a court order to conduct an overview of Rose and her family, Stella must plunge into the maelstrom of the Barclays' darkest secrets and the nanny's death, a mystery that's even left the police stymied. And all of her attempts to bond with the strangely silent, enigmatic (and just possibly, murderous) Rose, have brought back all the nightmarish memories of Stella's own childhood, including mysteries surrounding the death of her mother.

        While I can't claim the twists and reveals are all that shocking, the suspense, ominous clues and red herring pile up nicely and the pacing never lags for a single moment. The story does an exemplary job in making a reader constantly worry about Stella's safety and sanity, which for me, more than compensated for the absence of the usual head-shaking, 'say what, now?' twists. I'm always all in for a book that hooks you from the start until you race to the finish and this one even includes a heart touching moment that might leave you misty eyed. A full 5 star 'grab it' for sure.  Your final-weeks-at-the-beach-read has arrived.   5 stars (*****)