NOBODY'S FOOL.....A GHOST FROM SAMI KIERCE'S PAST TURNS UP ALL TOO REAL....(*****)

 Nobody's Fool by Harlan Coben (2025)

     What can I say about a Harlan Coben book that hasn't been said in a thousand other reviews he's received?

     Another winner. Another page turner. More 'I-surely-didn't-see-that-coming' twists. More unforgettable characters you come to care about. And a certain guaranteed read that's only going to take you days to finish.

     All of the above mentioned stuff is here in abundance, along with a familiar trope that's one of the author's favorite ways to kick a plot into motion.......the surprise reappearance of someone who's been dead and gone for years.......supposedly.

     That's what's facing former (and now disgraced) police detective Sami Kierce, (who first appeared in "Fool Me Once')......a ghost from his youthful past has now returned to flesh and blood right in front of his startled eyes. Her name was Anna when college-age Sami became smitten by her while backpacking in Spain. Some glorious days and nights followed until he woke up one morning with her bloodied corpse on his bed. He races out to report this to an equally young policeman, who finds no trace of Anna, alive or dead. Before the Spanish police can get around to suspect him of something other than nursing delusions, Sami rushes back to America, still haunted by what he thought was Anna's murder.

     Years and misfortunes later, Sami's reduced to eking out a living in support of his beautiful wife Molly and his baby boy.. He dabbles with minor league private eye drudgery and teaching criminology to an oddball, eclectic mix of students. It's at this class, he sees an unannounced visitor - a woman who appears to be the mysterious, elusive Anna. And who promptly flees with Sami in pursuit.

     Sami's relentless search for the truth of what's going on plunges him into not one but two tormenting episodes from his past......tracing the convoluted, tortuous backstory of Anna's return and dealing with the sudden, shocking release of the vicious killer who murdered Sami's fiance when he was still a police detective.

     Here's what I truly enjoyed - that even with the Job-like trials and tribulations that Sami's endured, author Coben brings in liberal amounts of sharp wit and humor to both Sami and the cast of characters surrounding him. To help him unravel the ever twisting plotlines, Sami recruits his criminology students to become his own personal Scooby gang of crime solvers and it's a hoot to watch them in action. But I should also mention that when the dust finally clears and all is revealed, the book concludes with a deeply moving meditation on the sins of the past (and all the bad choices we make and live with).

     As flawed as Sami is, he remains one of Haran Coben's most steadfast and righteous heroes and I'd look forward to whenever the author concocts another case for him.

       5 stars (*****)

SALTWATER.....A TOXIC FAMILY DYNASTY IN CAPRI....SWIMMING IN CASH, LIES AND MURDER (****).

 Saltwater by Katy Hays (2025) 

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     Nothing like a relaxing sundrenched summer on the island of Capri with the filthy rich, ultra-entitled Lingate family. This sybaritic, sociopathic clan are swimming in old money as well the sparkling waters around their yearly vacation playground. Welcome to Lifestyles Of The Rich and Famously Creepy., littered with a walk-in closet size of family skeletons and at least one dead body.

     The body in question - Sarah Lingate, the brilliant, award winning playwright and late wife of Robert Lingate, who oversees the Lingate empire with his older brother Marcus. In 1992, Sarah's career and life ended on one of those rocky beaches beneath the Capri cliffs. The so called 'accidental' death left the surviving Lingates forever tainted with suspicions and unanswered questions. And the tragedy's left Sarah's infant daughter Helen to be raised in the iron grip of her imperious, dictatorial family.

     Thirty years later, Helen's grown into a 33 year old woman who feels desperately trapped, her life forever controlled by her domineering father and uncle. (Much the same way her mother felt prior to her death.) And now the family's rocked by the deliberate reappearance of Sarah's long missing gold necklace, sent to the Lingates by a person or persons unknown.


     At that point, the book's off and running with a staggering amount of plot machinations, twist after twist and tantalizing flashbacks to 1992 that slowly begin to connect the pieces to this vast puzzle. The mysteries surrounding the Lingates and their private lives (both charmed and star-crossed) only deepen further and laid out only when you're rapidly turning those final pages.to reach the last stunning twist.

     I've always had a soft spot for stories of corrupt family dynasties riddled with sins, so I couldn't wait to dive into this one. But I'd feel less than honest if I didn't point out the flaws that keep me from giving it a full 5 stars. First, it's way, way overlong and could've used some judicious pruning, especially in those repetitious flashback teasers that dole out a little more info one nugget at a time. Second, a few of the twists are just too far-fetched to swallow, forcing the author into those 'you-gotta-be-kiddin-me' leaps of logic to explain them. (The is the second book I've reviewed this year that threw in a twist that could only generate a chorus of 'gimme-a-break-with-this, will-ya?' from readers.

     Apart from that, this one's an essential read for everyone who'd love to luxuriate in a gorgeous locale and a watch a wealthy nest of vipers swamped with a tsunami of family skeletons that tumble out like quarters from a jackpot=hitting slot machine. And I think of the money I saved on airline tickets to Italy.......

       4 stars (****)

HANGRY HEARTS......A NEW ROMEO & JULIET COOKIN' UP SPARKS (AND THEIR FOOD'S TO DIE FOR....) (***)

 Hangry Hearts by Jennifer Chen (2025)

     Oh, the food, the food. One of those books where you can hear your stomach rumbling all the through the read. By the time you finish,, you're already waiting for Door Dash or Grubhub to deliver a 10 course Taiwanese-Korean meal.

     The book? Very standardized YA Romeo & Juliet/Friends-to-enemies-to-rivals-to-kissers, all against a backdrop of feuding food truck families. The two kids are duly adorable, destined for boyfriend-girlfriend status and once that's established, proceed to smooch at every opportunity.

     The story construction, however, is another story altogether. Author Jennifer Chen throws in a lot of different elements here, with the intention, I'm supposing, of keeping all these balls in the air at the same time. (Gender transition, generational divides, sibling rivalries, culture assimilation, community outreaches). But somewhere on the way to the expected Happily Ever After for everyone, subplots fade away and disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.

     Julie Wu and Randall Hur grew up in warm friendship right along with their two families. But a traumatic event forever affecting both families split them apart into hated enemies and rivals at their separate Farmer's Market food booths. This makes tough going for Randall and Julie, who still nurse lifelong crushes on each other even as their force-of-nature grandmothers (and super chefs) hurl death glares at each other.

     A community school project throws our rival cutie-pies together and before you can say 'Wherefore art thou'?' romantic sparks fly. But our feudin' foodies need to keep their non-stop kissing hush-hush lest their unforgiving families smell what's cookin'.

     As I mentioned before, the book never keeps a firm grip on all the issues it raised. Randall's gender transition is put out there, but not really dealt with in any depth and seems irrelevant to the main story anyway. The community school project falls to the wayside less than halfway through. And the book resorts to a too perfectly timed easy way out of yet another of its conflicts.

     I could accept all of the above flaws but then the book tries something that takes a lot of nerve for an author. By that I mean assuming we've so fallen in love with all the characters that we won't mind hanging out with them even after the main story's been long resolved. I usually can't stand this, but to author Chen's credit, I didn't mind staying in the company of families We and Hur a little bit longer than necessary.

     Julie and Randall are indeed the sweetest kids imaginable (as well as their extended families. (Not to mention terrific, dedicated kissers). But YA readers will, I'm sure, make up their own minds if they're charmed enough to spend all that superfluous time with them.

     Nothing in this story you haven't read before, but oh that food. Pardon me while I order some to go.......

       3 stars (***).

WHITE LINE FEVER.....THE ROAD TO YOU-KNOW-WHERE, PAVED WITH APPREHENSION.....(***).

 White Line Fever by K.C. Jones (2025)

     Horror hits the road on a literal Highway to H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.

     This is a familiar primal story for all aficionados of horror books and movies......four girls on a vacation road trip sidetracked on to a notorious 15 mile stretch of highway.. A curving, middle-of-nowhere road littered with stories of wrecked cars and the bodies of drivers and passengers. It's a vehicular version of a roach motel......you drive in, but you don't drive out.

     But these girls will be okay, right? After all, it's only 15 miles, right? Feel free to rub your hands in anticipation of horrific events to befall Livia, Ash, Morgan and Becka as they foolishly navigate their way through this demonic short cut.

     Whatever it is that lurks and stalks County Route 951, it knows what scares you and wastes no time in piercing the girls' secret anxieties and fears;......especially our narrator Livia, a survivor of terrible abuse and cruelty she suffered at the hands of her odious father. Their 15 mile trip evolves into a perilous, almost hallucinatory funhouse ride of 'did-you-hear-that? -Did-you-see-that? sights and sounds.

     My only problem with 'White Line Fever' (as I think it will be for a lot of horror fans) is the overlong, repetitive length of the book. Pretty much the same kind of scares are repeated over and over and over again, which only served to dilute the overall impact. Toward the last third of the book, I felt it was equivalent to watching an 85 minute horror movie that's been stretched out to the running time of 'Lawrence Of Arabia'.

     I did enjoy all of the familiar fearful tropes put into play and the sense of escalating dread built up by each new fresh, nightmarish event thrown into the girls' path. But I also found myself muttering, 'Yeah, I get it, I get it.....their minds are being messed with. C'mon already, move it along'. It's up to each individual reader as to whether they'll roll with this excess or lose patience with it. But I'm sure dedicated, hardcore fans of books to give you bad dreams will want to snap this up in a racing heartbeat minute.

       3 stars (***).

THE LIBRARY GAME.....THE NEW LIBRARY'S KNOCKIN' 'EM DEAD......LITERALLY. (****)

 The Library Game by Gigi Pandian (2025)

     First let me say I would dearly love to move to the little town where this book takes place. Because it's the operations center for the Secret Stair(case Construction Company. Tempest Raj and her creative industrious crew go about their work of turning people's home into popular public libraries......not just ordinary libraries but mystery libraries that evoke the very books they stock, built with hidden passageways and yes, secret staircases. The kind of place you might bump into Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple.....or Nancy Drew.

     I had visions of this town resembling the Vegas strip, except with specialty mystery libraries on every corner instead of casinos.

     But Tempest and company run afoul of murder most foul in their newest project at the Grey House. A planned murder mystery play to kick off the grand opening gets derailed when one of the actors kicks off himself. And this murder victim's body has an unnatural habit of disappearing and reappearing.....almost like magic.

     No shortage of clues and potential suspects pile up,(including the ghost of the Grey House's owner and library benefactor) but the question is, can Tempest reach that pivotal 'whodunit reveal so the show (and the library) can go on?

     A whole bunch of page turning fun's in store for mystery fans here, particularly those who can never gobble up enough of those 'impossible locked room' puzzles. Yes, it's fourth in a series but you can still enjoy it even if you've yet to sample the previous books. My guess is those readers will immediately want to play catch up with Tempest'

        4 stars (****). 

WHEN THE BONES SING......TWO STRANGELY GIFTED TEENS FACE GHOSTS AND MONSTERS OF THE OZARK BACKWOODS......(****)

 When the Bones Sing by Ginny Myers Sain (2025)

     Take my word for it, when these bones sing, they're louder than the Crawdads and the Herald Angels combined. And these skeletal leftovers are only one of the many scary supernatural elements that haunt this chilling, yet heartfelt thriller. Rich in atmosphere, it can raise your goosebumps even as your feel terribly worried and protective about the two main characters.

     The bones belong to the bodies of dozens of brutally murdered and buried hikers who took to the woodsy trails among the Ozark mountains. In the nearby small Arkansas town, the only person who hears the plaintive insistent vibration of the bones is 17 year old Dovie. For the last few years, she's taken up the gruesome task of following the sounds to lead the sheriff to the burial spots.

     Though her community's filled to the brim with ancient superstitions and ghostly lore, Dovie doesn't think of her otherworldly talent as magic in any way, but merely an acquired trait handed down to her by her grandmother and mother. But among the suspicious townsfolk , she's an outcast they're wary of.......especially since she'll have nothing to do with the town's fire-and-brimstone preacher, Brother Turley.

     What weighs even heavier on Dovie's mind is the delicate mental state of Lowan, her lifelong friend since childhood. Also steeped in uncanny local traditions from his grandmother Lo sees the restless, vengeful spirits of the murdered hikers, demanding he find their killer.

     As Dovie and Lo's deep friendship develops into something more, they put themselves at terrible risk in hunting whatever fiend stalks the Ozark trails. Shocking twists erupt as these two young people, attuned to ghosts and monsters, face a climactic reckoning with the evil they've searched for. (And you won't be able to turn the pages fast enough. )

     Had a wonderful time immersed in this book, which reads like an alternate Halloween version of 'Where The Crawdads Sing' . Suspense, chills, surprises.......and a boy and girl whom you want to envelop with huge caring hug. What's not to like? (Unless you're easily spooked.....)

        4 stars (****)

FINLAY DONOVAN DIGS HER OWN GRAVE.....AND ONCE AGAIN IS UP TO HER NECK IN LAUGH OUT LOUD TROUBLE....(****)

 Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (2025)

     I prize and embrace any books that manage to make me laugh out loud....(I'm a tough audience for comedic authors)....and Ellie Cosimano's Finlay Donovan does it to me every time.

     As a best selling author, harried and divorced single mom and stumbling would-be sleuth, Finlay Donovan always finds a way to go out of the frying pan and into the fire. And with the somewhat less than competent help of her official nanny/sidekick/resident wisecracker Vero, she plunges deeper into all new messes......(usually involving any number of dead bodies and complications that linger on from one book to the other)

     Finlay's perpetual nosy neighbor and all around neighborhood pain in the posterior Mrs. Haggerty got herself briefly arrested when police dug up a dead body on her property. The old woman's grandson, a rising political star, somehow prevails upon Finlay to take in his annoying grandmother as a temporary guest while police scour the old lady's house for clues.

     To add to the escalating woes, a relentless detective not only holds Finlay's philandering ex husband responsible for the dug up stiff he's also sniffing around other mysteries that will lead back to Finlay and Vero's slightly-less-than-legal previous misadventures.

      While I realize all of this sounds far fetched and silly, it's never stopped keeping me in constant smiles and laughter. There's simply no end of fun here in watching Finlay plunge headlong into one situation after another that's somehow harrowing and hilarious at the same time. . (And nothing beats Vero's deadpan, withering one liners at the expense of Finlay's worthless former husband.)

      And as always, can't wait for the fresh batch of troubles to come her way. Long may Finlay Donovan collide with calamity.

        4 stars (****)

BROKEN COUNTRY.....A LOVE TRIANGLE STIRS UP PASSION, SCANDAL AND TRAGEDY....(*****)

 Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall (2025)

     Double wow to this one. It's been so long since I've picked up a book like this - an epic passionate love triangle playing out over decades and finishing in the most dramatic, most emotional and twist filled way possible. And with a heartrending wrap-up that unabashedly wrings tears out of you without mercy. Yep, it's that kind of book and guaranteed to make you take deep breaths when you finally put it down.

      The triangle I speak of unfolds in a small English farming community. Teenage farm girl Beth falls into a white hot first love with fellow teen Gabriel, the handsome scion of a fabulously wealthy family whose vast estate sits in the same rural countryside. To the delight of Gabriel's imperious mother,, the affair collapses as Gabriel moves on to study at Oxford with a new girl of his own social standing. A heartbroken Beth settles for comfort, solace and security in marriage to Frank, the young sheep farmer who's loved her since childhood.

     Years later, Gabriel's moved back to his family's rural estate, now a divorced single dad to his 9 year old son Leo, Beth can't help being drawn back to him - not just because of reignited sparks of their adolescent passion, but because Leo painfully reminds her of her and Frank's late young son Bobby, whose tragic death haunts her every waking hour.

     From this point on, 'Broken Country' takes readers on a full speed ahead emotional ride that comes crashing down on its main characters like an avalanche. And you'll hear no more details about it from me. You simply have to read it and let the book pummel you with incredible turns of events and astonishing twists..... and then mops up what's left of you with its heart hammering final pages.

      Mark this one down as a 2025 must read.  5 stars (*****)

SAY A LITTLE PRAYER.....A THEATER KID TRIES OUT SINS AT CHURCH CAMP.....(****)

 Say a Little Prayer by Jenna Voris (2025)

     I'm beginning to think that no genre takes on religious hypocrisy more effectively than YA, Nothing works better than a rebellious teen girl to burst the bubbles of pretentious, all-knowing adults who think they hold the moral high ground.

     Okay, maybe I sound a tad facetious here, but that doesn't make "Say a Little Prayer' any less enjoyable. It's a fast paced rollicking read, filled with plenty of heart, humor and no end of insights into a group of teens coping with that greatest of challenges.....impending adulthood.

     More than equal to the challenge: 17 year old Riley Ackerman, who's abandoned her local church after its high-handed, holier-than-thou Pastor Young banished her older sister Hannah for having an abortion. And Hannah's only one among others who've suffered under the Pastor's dictatorial power over his flock (and the way he wields it like a controlling crime boss).

     Riley, a dedicated theater kid, puts herself in the Holy Roller's crosshairs when at school, she slaps a girl for making a smirky insult about Hannah. Her principal offers her a deal - either take a suspension (and miss show rehearsals) or attend Pastor Young's Spring Break Church camp. Maybe it won't be all that bad......after all she'll get to hang with all-time BFF Julie, a sweet friend who also happens to be Pastor Young's daughter.

     Well, there's bad and good. Queer Riley realizes her love for Julie goes beyond friendship and that it's entirely possible that Julie might feel the same way. And while her fellow campers must absorb lessons about the Seven Virtues, Riley's secretly having fun going through a checklist of Seven Deadly Sins. As for the bad, Pastor Young never misses a chance to exert his moral authority, always with a mirthless smile pasted on his insincere face.

     Of course things go awry for Riley in all sorts of ways and you'll ache for her as she navigates her feelings about herself, Julie and the world at large. I loved the showdown-reckoning episode that borrows a trope from a classic movie.....which I'll now shut up about to not spoil anyone's fun.

     Overall a thoughtful read that remembers to entertain and throw in some sharp wit along the way.

      4 stars (****).