Death on a Winter's Day ):ady Eleanor Swift #8) by Verity Bright

 In this 8th book of a delightful cozy mystery series, Lady Swift and her household staff travel to Scotland for Christmas. Hoping for a fairy tale yuletide with Baron and Baroness Ashley and their guests, things take a dark turn almost immediately. During Christmas Eve dinner, Eugene Randall, a wealthy businessman from America, is murdered. Since Castle Ranburgh is isolated and reachable only by crossing the loch, Eleanor is faced with the fact that someone on the island is responsible.

I've followed Eleanor Swift since the beginning and it is best if you read the books in order to fully appreciate all the relationships, but I enjoy the period details of the 1920s era. Sometimes I laugh out loud at the interaction between Lady Swift and her butler and right hand man, Clifford. Although I had already pegged the killer in this locked-room type mystery, the setting and the narrative kept me interested. The bit of supernatural or mythological selkie stuff didn't appeal and was a bit unusual for this series, but the book did seem quite right for the season. Eleanor certainly has some mad skills in many areas, but she is a fun character.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.  

This is the 8th book in a series best read in order.

Genre - cozy mystery, 1920s, Scotland

The Collective by Alison Gaylin

A social thriller with a contemporary focus on maternal anguish and rage.

Camille Gardner has lost just about everything. When her daughter died because of a wealthy frat boy, she spiraled into grief and depression. Camille and her husband divorced so now she lives alone in the house that once held her happy family. She's obsessed with the boy and his family and seeks some sort of retribution and punishment for him. That's when she's introduced to an online group on the dark web  -- they call themselves "the collective."  In this secret chat thread, the women share stories of the loved ones they lost at the hands of those perpetrators who were never held accountable, subjected to a penalty, or brought to justice. This group, however, does more than talk about their pain. The collective has a means to plan and enact revenge as each woman does her part. Camille soon finds that this group is definitely crossing the line as she becomes an active member.

This was a great premise but somehow it just fell a little short from being the exciting, fast-paced thriller I was hoping to read. I found it difficult to relate to Camille despite my empathy for her situation and had to suspend a lot of disbelief over some of the coincidences and activities. In the end, it was a story that focused on the question of morality and the concept of "an eye for an eye" with the women serving as judge, jury, and executioner. I anticipated the ending so I was a bit surprised at the twist.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for this e-book ARC to read and review. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - social commentary, contemporary, mystery, soft thriller

The Second Life of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

 How quickly a life can change -- in only a moment, Mirielle West's pampered world becomes a distant and painful memory. It happens when she learns she has leprosy and is quickly shuttled off, under a fake name, to Louisiana's Carville leper colony. Far from her silent film star husband, Charlie, and her two young daughters, Mirielle is quarantined and locked away from her family never knowing when or if she will see them again. As Pauline Martin, Mirielle is completely out of her element, burning with the shame and embarrassment this diagnosis brings. She has no desire to become part of this community of fellow lepers nor does she have any hope that a cure will release her back to California and all those she holds dear. It's the 1920s and the ignorance about the disease itself, its mode of transmission, and the stigma of being diagnosed all threaten to overwhelm her as she struggles to not only survive, but somehow thrive.

Reminiscent of the novel, "Moloka'i" by Alan Brennert, this poignant, fictional account of a real part of American History won't leave my mind. I had no idea about Carville and what happened there. The story is very sad, but I often find that books like this somehow reach my soul and make me want to be a better person. I can't imagine what it would be like to be remanded to a place such as that and, even more so, it scares me to think of how I would react. It's easy to say from this point in 2021 that the treatment of those with leprosy was horrible, but we have the advantage of years of medical knowledge and technology so we can't judge the ones charged with the care of these patients. Modern medicine brought an effective medicine and a cure to those with Hansen's Disease and for that I am incredibly thankful. It does still occur even these days, but the isolation and horror no longer has to happen to those who contract it.

The author, a nurse, writes with authority and the medical details about the historical efforts to combat the disease are authentic. I enjoyed this glimpse into a past American health care crisis and definitely appreciate that it was not the last time that humans were confronted with a very troubling medical issue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - historical fiction 1920s, leper colony America

The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke

 An interesting blend of folk tale, gothic horror, supernatural elements, witchcraft, magic, time travel and a menacing setting.

Olivia (Liv) Stay arrives on the Scottish island of Lon Haven with her 3 young daughters in 1998. She's meant to paint a mural on the walls of an old lighthouse. The inhabitants live in a sort of time capsule with the entire place steeped in folklore and a dark history. Liv learns about the prison beneath the lighthouse, once used to house women accused of witchcraft and about the wildlings that were part of their curse on the islanders. Then two of her daughters vanish.

Fast forward to 2021: one of the Stay daughters, Luna, has been searching all these years for her missing family. She gets a call that her youngest sister, Clover, has been found. Luna rushes to the hospital eager to be reunited, except when she sees Clover she is shocked to find that Clover is still 7 years old -- the same age she was when she went missing. In an effort to make sense of everything and come to terms with her past, Luna and Clover travel to Lon Haven. No spoilers.

This is a great story for anyone in the mood for something a bit spooky. Although I don't tend to read a lot of gothic horror, I found this enjoyable. The narrative shifts in point of view and in time as the story evolves. The characters were well drawn and each voice gave another dimension to what happen on Lon Haven. It is a bit "out there" as far as believably, but an entertaining tale.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for this e-book ARC to read and review. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Dead Mercy (DC Maggie Jamieson #5) by Noelle Holten

Fast-paced crime thriller featuring DC Maggie Jamieson of the Stafford Police.

A serial killer who seems bent on some sort of twisted revenge is targeting seemingly random local people. The MO for all is the same and the signature a bit freaky as the villain not only burns them while still alive, they also pull some teeth. After some digging, Maggie and her team feel that this case might be connected to historical child abuse of boys in care homes that was never addressed and the perpetrators never brought to justice. No spoilers.

This is the 5th in a series that keeps getting better. I've read 3 of the other books (missed #4), and didn't feel lost so it could work as a standalone but better to know the backstory as usual. I enjoy the characters and the team interaction as they work night and day to investigate. This is standard police procedural with red herrings and running down clues with an interesting premise. Maggie has compassion and usually acts sensibly though, like all fiction detectives, has incredible gut instincts (spidey sense) and often goes off book to get the job done.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter for this e-book ARC to read and review. 

This is the 5th in a series that should be read in order.

Genre - crime thriller, police procedural, UK

The Power Couple by Alex Berenson

 This was a fun, twisty, and fast-paced mystery thriller with lots of domestic drama.

Rebecca and Brian Unsworth have been married for 20 years when they decide to splurge a bit and take the family on a trip to Europe to celebrate their anniversary. Rebecca has been a workaholic and given little attention to the kids or her husband because she is an FBI Agent. Intense and passionate about her job in counterterrorism, she has drifted from the strong connection she had with Brian when they first got together. Brian has drifted into one job after another, mostly functioning as house husband, but finally lands a plumb position as a coder for the NSA. Things are finally looking up and their money worries have eased.

Things are going well on the trip until the night that their 17-year-old daughter, Kira, goes out to a club in Barcelona and doesn't return. As soon as Rebecca and Brian find out that she has been kidnapped, everything kicks into high gear as Rebecca uses her connections to try and locate their daughter. No spoilers.

The narrative takes off quickly and shifts in point of view and time as the reader gets an indepth look at the characters and their history. Although Rebecca and Brian are very hard to like, it becomes increasingly clear that some serious shenanigans have disrupted the course of their lives and a huge shift in power dynamics is coming. I enjoyed the twists and turns throughout this discovery, and could not put the book down as I had to know what was going to happen. I liked the writing style and the espionage detail about the different agencies involved. I'm sure that I will be one of the few readers that liked the parts about Kira and her situation the least. Overall, however, I definitely would recommend -- this would make a great movie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - mystery thriller, domestic drama, espionage

Stolen Ones (Kim Stone #15) by Angela Marsons

The fifteenth book in a crime thriller series featuring Detective Kim Stone from Halesowen police continues in the same vein as she and her team tackle an unusual case. A man walks into the police station and states that he has information about a girl who has been missing for 25 years. Things take a turn when another girl disappears from a childcare center and everything kicks into high gear. No spoilers.

I've been with Kim Stone and her cohort since the beginning, and I think the time has come to say goodbye. Throughout our relationship, Kim has not changed a bit and I keep trying to like her but I can't keep up the work to continue our association. I am tired of Alex Thorne and her machinations and of Kim's backstory with her twin brother and all that family dysfunction. I would be eager to see Angela Marsons develop a new character as I like her writing style. I know fans won't agree and I'm sorry to say that I'm done with this series. I read this over a couple of hours and, although it is a sound police procedural with characters I have known for years, I didn't find this as satisfying as I used to. It's not you, it's me...and all that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. 

This is the 15th book in a series that should be read in order.

Genre - crime thriller, police procedural

The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

 This medical drama is both funny and poignant with memorable characters and a laser focus on a current hot button in health care.

Dr. Georgia Brown, a urologist, and Dr. Jonah Tsukada, a specialist in family medicine, are best friends who promised to be family to each other. Currently single, Georgia stays busy and hangs out with Jonah, a gay man who appreciates the stereotype of having a woman as his best bud. They work together at a private hospital and clinic on the outskirts of Charleston, South Carolina.

Everything is going well for both when Georgia heads off to Amsterdam for a medical conference. While there, she gets a call from Jonah who is in terrible distress. It seems that their place of employment has "fired" all of Jonah's gay and transgender patients and his job is also on the line. The hospital says they have the right to refuse care to any patient who doesn't conform to their religious and moral beliefs and Jonah's lifestyle is also under scrutiny for violation of the morals clause in his contract. Georgia rushes to support her friend but they have underestimated the tide of popular opinion and soon find themselves in the battle of their lives. No spoilers.

I met these characters in the two other books I recently read by this author, but since I read the books out of publication order, I was happy to get more of the backstory. I just love the way this author writes. She's witty, obviously very intelligent, and she knows how to distill the complex medical jargon into understandable detail. I've loved everything about the 3 books I read back to back in the past 3 days, and am sure that any fans of women's fiction will appreciate the way Martin does friendship stories with memorable characters, interesting careers, and a bit of romance. I can't wait until I can get my hands on whatever book she writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this e-book ARC to read and review. I highly recommend the series, but do start at the beginning!

The Queen of Hearts
The Antidote For Everything
Doctors and Friends

Genre - women's fiction, medical drama, LGBTQ discrimination

The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin

A debut women's fiction novel that features two friends who are practicing physicians. Trying to juggle their careers, motherhood, marriage, and other relationships in Charlotte, North Carolina, Zadie Anson and Emma Colley are living their dreams.

Through difficult days with patients, the friends stay in close contact and support each other with humor, empathy, and love. Then, a blast from the past -- Dr. Nick Xenokostas, their former chief resident back in their medical school days -- comes to work with Emma's group. The memories and pain at his reappearance force them both to face each other to finally talk about everything that happened during that particularly terrible third year. No spoilers.

Although rich with the medical details I so love, the focus of this novel was more on women's relationships and romantic alliances. Since I had just finished DOCTORS AND FRIENDS, I was intrigued by Zadie and Emma's backstory, and was happy to get to know them better since they were mainly peripheral in that book. I'm so pleased to have found this author and will continue to read her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Company for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

This is part of a set of books featuring the same group of women physicians, in fact, the debut. I read the third book first and it was nice to get more backstory.  It is probably best to read them in order of publication, however.

Genre - women's fiction, contemporary, medical drama

Doctors and Friends by Kimmery Martin

 This medical drama was intense and compelling -- love, loss, hope, and resilience when a viral pandemic wreaks havoc on the work and personal lives of a group of women physicians who have been best friends since medical school.

I absolutely could not put this book down and read it over a couple of hours yesterday. When I finished, I was completely wrung out and totally satisfied. I am sorry to report that everyone I know will be inundated with my continual recommendation to get this book and to read it.

The characters were so well-drawn and I loved them all. Their personalities leapt off the pages and their different voices gave such depth to their experiences during the pandemic described. All of the women are physicians with varying medical specialties and each has her own story to tell so the point of view shifts. I really liked that the author lists their names, where they live, and each woman's type of practice at the beginning of the book so you can refer to it if it is hard to keep them straight.

Yes, this novel contains a lot of medical jargon and detail. I'm an RN and come from a family with many who work in the health care field, but I think Kimmery Martin, herself a physician, did an excellent job of making everything understandable so that all the science was easy to comprehend. The virus causing the pandemic in this book is not Covid-19, and the author wrote this before the real one struck our world, but there are some eerie similarities that parallel what has happened to us all over the last year and a half. Perhaps you are not quite ready to go back to the beginning or to re-experience the uncertainty, pain, and panic of Covid, however the artiovirus in this story is just a bit worse.

This author was new to me, but I note that she has written 2 other books that feature some of the same characters in this one so I plan to get those shortly. I think this would make an excellent choice for a book club, especially to help us all understand everything that we have been through and also to remind us that there have been many heroes during our own trials, particularly the health care workers and scientists who did so much with so little.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Company for this e-book ARC to read, review, and highly recommend. I rarely give fiction 5 stars, but this might just be my favorite book this year.

This is a standalone, however it has characters that were featured in two other books by this author.

Genre - medical drama, pandemic

I Know You by Claire McGowan

Is anyone ever free from their past? In this mystery thriller, Casey/Rachel finds out that she can run but cannot escape.

Casey was in prison in the USA on death row for a family destruction -- there was one survivor, a baby boy -- but she was later exonerated and so she returned to the UK and hid in the Lake District. She changed her name to Rachel to avoid being discovered, but everything comes back to haunt her when the estranged wife of a man she was seeing is found dead in the woods close to Rachel's home. When her history is exposed, she is the main suspect and Rachel fears she will end up behind bars again, this time permanently. No spoilers.

Although this started out well and I had high hopes, it was very predictable and didn't hold my interest for the duration though I finished it quickly. The narrative is told in two time periods -- when Casey was in LA working as a nanny for the Safran family and flash forward 20 years to her time as Rachel in Cumbria. The author attempts some twists, but my suspension of disbelief was not enough. This was the first book I've read by this author and not sure I will try another. A lot of repetition and I never got to the point where I liked Casey/Rachel or felt much for her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this e-book ARC to read and review. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - mystery thriller

1414° by Paul Bradley Carr

Complex plot makes this an exciting mystery thriller relevant to current events.

Lou McCarthy is a reporter for the Bay Area Herald and has spent many thankless  years covering Silicon Valley -- mostly to expose the sleazy executives at the top. Those "brociopaths", however, keep on doing their nasty things and nobody ever pays. Until two of those hideous men commit very public suicides on the night of a big announcement for the huge new conglomerate, Raum -- one of the hottest technology companies on the verge of a massive IPO. When she is accused of driving the men to their deaths and is doxed by a vengeful group of #MLM trolls intent on tracking her down, she finds that someone else is intervening and might be responsible for taking those rich and powerful men and their companies down. When Lou meets "Fate", she is drawn into a very complicated game involving the sick predators and their entitled methods. No spoilers.  

Fast pace, interesting characters, and a timely plot combine to make an interesting cautionary tale about the dark side of technology and the damage inflicted by those at the top in Silicon Valley. He's definitely aware of the misogyny and exclusionary practices in the industry. In a season when many books have been published about the #metoo scandals and the headlines continue to reveal a lot of bad boy behavior at the top levels of society, this book will definitely leave readers with a lot to think about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Snafublishing LLC for this e-book ARC to read and review.

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre - tech mystery thriller