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Book Reviews – The Silent Patient, by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Silent Patient is a 5-star psychological thriller. It’s the story of a British psychotherapist who becomes fascinated with a woman, Alicia Berenson, who ostensibly murdered her husband by shooting him in the face five times, and then refused to speak a word in her own defense. Naturally, she was convicted and incarcerated in a mental institution, where she continued to maintain her silence. Theo Faber, the protagonist, gets a job at the institution where she’s locked up, and becomes her therapist, obsessed with getting her speaking agin.
The book is written in a first person POV from Theo’s perspective, interspersed with entries from Alicia’s diary. The interplay between Theo and Alicia is well-done, and this is no mean feat, seeing that she remains silent for most of the book. The other characters are all well-drawn, even the minor ones. The plot is cohesive, and while I did figure out the final twist before it was revealed, it was artfully concealed, yet logical. The chapters are short, which makes for a quick read.



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Stripper gets another 4* review on Amazon!

Stripping for Clues

Stripper! was a great murder mystery involving the heroine Nattie McMasters. Nattie seems to be like all young wannabe detectives and is good at getting her nose in places she shouldn’t. Nattie meets a girl at the college, Becca, and before she knows it, she’s wrapped up so tightly in a whirlwind of murder, spying and stripping. Nattie really is an interesting character and Burns does a great job of introducing each character. Each character introduced to the plot was very aptly described and you could get a feel for what the character was going to provide. Sometimes it turned out to be a complete surprise! I enjoyed the book and am interested in Nattie’s future adventures.

Thanks to Helen Mathey-Horn

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Book Review – The Wedding Guest, by Jonathan Kellerman

The Wedding Guest (Alex Delaware, #34)

The Wedding Guest by Jonathan Kellerman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’ve been reading Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series since 1985, when I discovered When the Bough Breaks. It’s been a great ride, and the venerable Kellerman shows no signs of losing it with this latest installment.
Unlike some of the other books in the series, this one is a bit understated-it’s just a straightforward investigation into the murder of an unknown woman at a Hollywood wedding. Not that that’s a bad thing. The story really highlights the relationship between Det. Milo Sturgis and Delaware, who’ve been friends for quite a long time. Also unlike some of the other Delaware books, there are no really shocking moments in this story. The chain of events emerges piecemeal from persistence and good, solid investigative technique. The villain is satisfyingly evil, and his motivations believable.
If I have a complaint, it’s the treatment of Delaware’s longtime companion, Robin. She’s been with Alex even longer than Milo, and they’ve had their ups and downs-she even left him for a while at one point in the series. But after she returned, she became pure cardboard. All of the nuances so evident in Alex’s and Milo’s relationship are absent in Alex’s and Robin’s. She comes on stage to provide Alex with food or sex, then vanishes. This was annoying enough for me to dock The Wedding Guest one star.




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A New Amazon Review for Trafficked!

**** Intense Frank Thriller

Natalie McMasters is a private investigator trainee and the narrator of this emotional, terror-steeped and frank novel of love, loss, desperation, enslavement and retribution. She’s good at surveillance, patient, calm and alert. She hasn’t had much training or experience in developing projects that consider all possible events and outcomes, so she travels on grit and instinct.
She’s married, to a young Latino lady who is in the states illegally and thus has no standing with ICE. When ICE comes looking, Lupe runs, leaving a distraught Natalie to wonder about the future. Natalie’s decision, after very little consideration is to go looking for Lupe. The trail leads to New York where Natalie becomes tangled with city law enforcement, a gaggle of street people, a detective from her hometown, and finally, an evil band of Albanian sex traffickers.
This explicitly written novel starts slowly and ramps up to a frenetic pace almost immediately as Natalie and her detective friend wander through some of the seamier sections of New York and encounter interesting characters on both sides of the law. Scenes are well developed and often gripping in substance. The author captures a good sense of the scenes and characters in the city and on the Albanian’s ship, in a very adult and explicit fashion.

Carl Brookins VINE VOICE

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Book Review – The Disappearing, by Lori Roy

The Disappearing

The Disappearing by Lori Roy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Disappearing is a mystery set in a town in northern Florida. Young women are vanishing, no one knows why. Is it nefarious, or just girls being girls?

The Disappearing struck me as more of a character study than a story. Told from multiple POVs, it moved at a glacial pace. Rather than building suspense, this writing style served to mask the true chain of events with the irrelevancies inherent in the stream-of-consciousness of unreliable narrators, which for me, resulted in a loss of interest in the overall plot. However, the characters were truly deep and artfully drawn. I just didn’t like them well enough to remain interested in their deepest thoughts.



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Book Review – Trunk Music, by Michael Connelly

Trunk Music (Harry Bosch, #5; Harry Bosch Universe, #6)

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Michael Connelly has done it again! Trunk Music, the 5th Harry Bosch novel, has everything that Connelly is famous for. Complex characters. An intricate plot. Setting as character. Twists and turns. Harry Bosch continues to grow as a hero, with all of his foibles and flaws. One of Connelly’s great strengths is his ability to provide half a dozen perfectly reasonable explanations for the same chain of events, getting the reader to buy into one of them before tearing it down and selling the reader on another. And another. And another! Don’t miss this book.



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