The Dead Yard

   In this blog post, I reviewed Adrian McKinty’s The Dead Yard, the second installment in the Michael Forsythe crime thriller series. This novel will leave you speechless and have you hooked right from the first page. It all started for Michael Forsythe who vacationed in Mexico and hid out from the authorities during the Clinton Administration in the 1990s. Though he had a bounty on his head, he had been recruited by both the MI6 and the FBI to go undercover in a top-secret danger assignment. If he didn’t do this, he would face persecution and spend eternity in a Spanish jail cell. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse. So he signed on and headed to Boston to infiltrate a dangerous Irish cult by saving the crime boss’s daughter from imminent danger. Mission: accomplished. But later, when things turned dicey as he discovered his handler had been killed, he needed to throw suspicion off himself and take revenge on them in a life-and-death master plan to escape for freedom.

This gripping crime thriller is twisted and will give you goosebumps. I cared for Michael, since he’s a diverse character with a prosthetic foot. You don’t see that everyday in any fiction, then and now. I could see he had feelings for Kit, and also for Samantha, his handler, and left him a bit torn. He had to deal with a complicated situation under the circumstances that were thrown at him. The trio locations from Boston to Plum Island and then near Belfast Maine were thrilling and had mesmerizing scenic settings to transplant you on every page. The theme of the story is to keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

This dark espionage thriller will keep you guessing for more. I rated this book, four out of five stars, because it was a tad gory. If you love fast-paced crime thrillers with non-stop dramatic action, plenty of intrigue, and heart-stopping suspense, The Dead Yard is the book for you. This is recommended for fans who love crime and espionage thrillers and dramas like Vince Flynn, the Jason Bourne series, and John Le Carre.

The Serial Killer's Wife

 In this blog post, I'm reviewing Alice Hunter's The Serial Killer's Wife. This twisted psychological thriller will keep you in suspense and asks you how well do you know somebody? It all started for Beth Hardcastle when the Lower Tew police knock on their door. They wanted to bring her husband Tom in for questioning, regarding his former girlfriend's disappearance from eight years ago. That started the investigation into Tom's past and how her once-perfect marriage had crumbled by unraveling secrets and dirty lies. It made her doubt and second-guess her husband and how she could protect her daughter Poppy from him. While Beth works at her own pottery cafe, she wondered about her friends and fellow co-workers and if she could trust them and they should trust her, since the former runner of the book club Camilla Knight had an accidental allergic death the year before. During this time, while the police hones in to Tom's dark past to Katie, Beth befriends Adam Knight, the young widower in her cafe, and develops a friendship with him which turned into something more. While Tom was arrested not for one murder,  Beth became a target in her neighborhood from journalists and informed the police about those incidents and a possible connection to another murder by handing over crucial evidence--another nail in his coffin. Meanwhile, she unearthed another disturbing truth about Tom--he's been having an affair with someone else who could also be another victim in his crime spree. To save herself and her daughter, she  would do all she could to separate herself from him and telling him goodbye right after the trial. But the ending is so shocking that I didn't see it coming.... I can't give it away.

 This psychological thriller is so twisted and dark that it would take you breath away. It was also so riveting that it kept me wondering what would happen next to Tom and Beth Hardcastle. I cared for Beth who wanted to do the right thing, right up until the end. As for Tom, he had what coming to him and was cold nonetheless. Actions have dire consequences, accidentally or not. I loved the Lower Tew location for the novel and for the gripping scenic settings surrounding this dark thriller. The theme of the story is that buried secrets and little white lies have a way of coming out into the open.

If you love dark crime thrillers that would keep you at the edge of your seat and awake at night with non-stop action, heart-pounding suspense, lots of twisted and turns, and plenty of compelling drama, The Serial Killer's Wife is right up your alley. Check it out today!