In the Vines

In Shannon Kirk's In the Vines, this standalone thriller will have you tangled in a patch of thorny vines from start to finish. For Mary Olivia Pentecost, aka MOP, she was born in a wealthy and guarded family in the New England region. She just graduated in college and madly in love with her boyfriend, Manny Acista, who's also wealthy and well-known too. But since her mother's mysterious death two years ago, she had always wondered what happened to her, since she was an only child and really close to her mother.  Besides her aunt, a former nun named Mary Patience, and another aunt, Lynnette Viola (Liv for short), they knew the secrets of what happened then and what had happened now. For Liv, she was in love with a married man and had plotted to frame his wife for a murder. She had kept the secret clutched to her chest until MOP discovers a big secret. She would do anything to keep it from her when the truth had unraveled before her eyes. Not only that her mother was alive for two years, awakened and weak from a coma, but her aunt's rival pulled a surprise of her own. In the end, both Liv and MOP fight for their lives to keep it unwrapped with a shocking ending.

This was a gripping and a bit darkly disturbing psychological thriller. I did care for MOP, when she had thought she had a perfect life until her mother's disappearance. And that had lead to a trail of secrets. I also had found Liv pretty disturbing as she had talked to herself numerous times, though she had led a difficult live with 3 miscarriages and her lover murdered. No wonder it had sent her over the edge. I did like the scenic descriptions of the scenery in Boston and the locations around the born, then and now. This would make you want to stay up late with the light on, bit your lip, and gasp a dozen times with nail-biting non-stop action, suspense, drama and dark intrigue.

Will you be tangled In the Vines tonight?