It’s the last week of the month and I’m having to do some mini reviews to stay caught up (and so I don’t start spamming everyone with tons of posts)
Thanks to the publishers or authors for the free copies in exchange for my honest reviews
NO ONE WILL MISS HER – Kat Rosenfield (Released October 1st, 2021 – Thanks to William Morrow for the copy!)
Book Description:
A smart, witty, crackling novel of psychological suspense in which a girl from a hardscrabble small town meets a gorgeous Instagram influencer from the big city, with a murderous twist that will shock even the most savvy reader.
On a beautiful October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator from the state police pulls into the hard-luck town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, and the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead—with her husband, Dwayne, nowhere to be found. As scandal ripples through the community, Detective Ian Bird’s inquiries unexpectedly lead him away from small-town Maine to a swank city townhouse several hours south. Adrienne Richards, blonde and fabulous social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire, had been renting Lizzie’s tiny lake house as a country getaway…even though Copper Falls is anything but a resort town.
As Adrienne’s connection to the case becomes clear, so too does her connection to Lizzie, who narrates their story from beyond the grave. Each woman is desperately lonely in her own way, and they navigate a relationship that cuts across class boundaries: transactional, complicated, and, finally, deadly. A Gone Girl for the gig economy, this is a story of privilege, identity, and cunning, as two devious women from opposite worlds discover the dangers of coveting someone else’s life.
My Thoughts: 3/5 stars
I think that this one fell victim to being compared to GONE GIRL. This keeps happening and I wish that the people marketing the books would stop doing that to thrillers – it sets such a high expectation for a crazy twist and when it doesn’t come OR it’s predictable then I think that ruins the reading experience. I think that’s what happened for me with NO ONE WILL MISS HER. This was my introduction to Kat Rosenfield and I did enjoy her writing style, so this won’t be my last time picking up her books! I feel like this became really predictable and I was able to figure it out early on, however, I was entertained and invested enough to keep going. Overall, I wouldn’t classify this as a thriller but it was still a good domestic suspense read. I’m in the minority on this one, so don’t let this deter you from picking it up!
FAN CLUB – Erin Mayer (Releasing October 26th, 2021 – Thanks to MIRA Books for the free copy!)
Book Description:
In this raucous psychological thriller, a millennial office worker finds relief from her crippling ennui in the embrace of a cliquey fan club, until she discovers the group of women is bound together by something darker than devotion.
Day after day our narrator, a gloomy millennial, searches for meaning beyond her vacuous job at a women’s lifestyle website—entering text into a computer system while she watches their beauty editor unwrap box after box of perfectly packaged bits of happiness. Then, one night at a dive bar, she hears a message in the newest single by child-actor-turned-international-pop-star Adriana Argento, and she is struck. Soon she loses herself to the online fandom, a community whose members feverishly track Adriana’s every move.
When a colleague notices the extent of her obsession, she’s invited to join an enigmatic group of adult Adriana superfans who call themselves the Ivies and worship her music in witchy, candlelit listening parties. As the narrator becomes more entrenched in the group, she gets closer to uncovering the sinister secrets that bind them together—while simultaneously losing her grip on reality.
With caustic wit and hypnotic writing, this unsparingly critical thrill ride through millennial life examines all that is wrong in our celebrity-obsessed internet age, and how easy it is to lose yourself in it.
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars
This book was over-the-top, ridiculous, far-fetched, and dramatic and I absolutely loved it. FAN CLUB follows our millennial narrator who is stuck in her boring office job. Wanting some kind of excitement in her life she joins a group that are super fans of a singer Adriana Argento. I get it, celebrities are in the public eye and everyone seems to have their favorites that they follow online and keep up with, but this is a whole other level. Listening parties that border on rituals? Cult-like obsession is the best way to describe how the Ivies and how they admire Adriana. This was a fun and dramatic read and I enjoyed it. I can see this being too over-the-top for some readers but I was incredibly entertained by this addictive little thriller.
CORPSE FLOWER – Anne Mette Hancock (Released October 12th, 2021 – Thanks to Crooked Lane Books for the copy!)
Book Description:
A Danish journalist digs deep to uncover a web of lies that stretches back to a grisly murder, but knowing the truth might put an end to her story.
It’s early September in Copenhagen, the rain has been coming down for weeks, and 36-year-old journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. And then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and ominous letters from an alleged killer.
Wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young lawyer three years earlier, Anna Kiel hasn’t been seen by anyone since she left the crime scene covered in blood. The police think she’s fled the country and have zero clues as to her motive. But homicide detective Erik Scháfer comes up with the first lead when the reporter who first wrote about the case is found murdered in his apartment. Has Anna Kiel struck again, or is there more than one killer at large? And why does every clue point directly to Heloise Kaldan?
Meanwhile, the letters keep coming, and they hint at a connection between Anna and Heloise. As Heloise starts digging deeper, she realizes that, to tell Anna’s story, she will have to revisit the darkest parts of her own past–confronting someone she swore she’d never see again.
My Thoughts: 4/5 stars
For those looking for a dark Nordic Noir read, then this is the book you need to keep in mind. CORPSE FLOWER is book one in a new series and after a few so-so thrillers this slower paced police procedural/mystery is exactly what I needed. Journalist Heloise Kaldan is having some bad luck. Not only is she on the verge of losing her job but she begins to receive letters from an alleged killer, and as they continue to come she quickly realizes that she might need to revisit parts of her past that she promised herself she never would. Meanwhile, homicide detective Erik Shafer is on the lookout for Anna Kiel in the connection of a fatal stabbing years earlier. When another body turns up dead that was connected to Anna, Shafer thinks he’ll be able to track her down since she fled. I liked seeing Heloise’s character being developed and introduced and I do want to continue the series to see where things go for her! Plenty of suspense and an overall sense of foreboding, this had all the elements you come to want and expect in a Nordic Noir! As a warning for readers, this book does deal in some dark topics including child abuse and pedophilia.
Jessicamap Reviews 