Tag Archives: suspense

May 20, 2014 · 6:28 am

The Shadow Year

18453242Title: The Shadow Year
Author: Hannah Richell
Source: from publisher for SheReads book club
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: Although the big reveals in this book didn’t surprise me much, they kept the suspense high as I read about characters and a location which the author vividly brought to life

In 1980, five friends about to graduate from college decide to get away together one last time. However, when it comes time to return from the idyllic college they visit, none of them are ready to go. They eventually come up with a plan to try roughing it off the grid at the cottage for the next year. Initially, the cottage feels like paradise, but as the weather gets worse, their situation deteriorates and personal tensions build.  Thirty years later, when Lila mysteriously inherits the same cottage, she finds peace at the cottage during a difficult time in her marriage. However, she slowly begins to realize that something terrible happened to the previous inhabitants. Continue reading →

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November 6, 2013 · 6:15 pm

Five Days At Memorial

17704902Title: Five Days At Memorial
Author: Sheri Fink
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: The author did a great job sharing enough information about each person to convey that these are real people, a talent that increased the tension of this harrowing story.

Five Days At Memorial is a reconstruction of the time following Hurricane Katrina that survivors spent at the hospital, largely without electricity and with decreasing supplies of food and water. Horrific mismanagement led to a situation so desperate and chaotic that later some doctors and nurses were accused of having euthanized some of their patients. The second half of the book deals with the investigation and trials following that accusation. Continue reading →

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May 4, 2013 · 7:00 am

Bookends About Fear in the Sunlight

Title: Fear in the Sunlight
Author: Nicola Upson
Source: from publisher for review
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Review Summary: I almost really loved this well-written, atmospheric mystery, but the end was just too unsatisfying.

Mystery writer Josephine Tey is in Portmeirion to meet with Alfred Hitchcock and his wife about a film deal. Hitchcock is also in Portmeirion to scout the location and set up tricks to reveal his crews response to guilt and fear. In this tense atmosphere, no one is prepared to deal with the murder of two women on the island. The island police don’t seem particularly interested in finding the killer and it’s only years later that another murder connected to a Hitchcock film begins to lead to the truth. Continue reading →

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