About Book:

“Often exciting and absorbing, with a tough, hard-boiled style…,[Game Theory] combines the…atmosphere of pulp detective fiction with future-tech gizmos and accompanying paranoia… engaging and well-written.” Kirkus Reviews

“GAME THEORY is both a thoroughly enjoyable mystery and a thought-provoking look at what our world might look like in fifty – or maybe twenty – years.” 4.5/5 stars – IndieReader

It’s the future. Technology is changing the world. But change often comes with a high price. Nobody knows that better than detective Jack Waldron—technology killed his five-year-old daughter and caused his bitter divorce. Wracked with guilt, he drowns himself in whiskey and spends his off-duty hours in a virtual world he created to mirror the life he used to live. But when his ex-wife is brutally raped and murdered, everything changes.

Forcing his way into the case, Jack realizes her murder wasn’t the sex crime everyone believes it was. There’s more—much more. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a trail of clues that point to a conspiracy at the top of the world’s most powerful corporation. While the body count rises, the dangers mount. Before it’s over, Jack is forced to confront his dark past and fight to stay alive against a sinister plot that threatens all of humanity.

About Author:

William “Will” Lange is an award-winning screenwriter and writer. He is a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in Film, Television and New Media. He has worked worked for The Walt Disney Company, Oscar-Winning Mandeville films and others. A full-time writer for magazines and on-line publications. Game Theory is his first novel.

Co-author, William “Bill” Lange, spent more than 30 years in marketing and advertising in senior creative positions in public and private companies. He is a life-long fan of Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe, Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee and now, of course, Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch.

• Paperback:314 pages
• Publisher:Pacific Arts Publishing;
• Published: 1 edition (March 19, 2018)

My Review:

Thank you The Fiction Café-Review and William Lange for this arc.

I hope there’s more to come and this becomes a series!

The story is well written, suspenseful, and filled with believable characters. I could not put this book I had to see what was coming next.  The author references a website in the novel and has actually created that site in real life. It was a very nice touch to draw you into the story and consider the possibility that the author’s version of the future could actually happen.  The main character in this book was Jack, and I was trying to figure what would happen next, and when I thought I had it I was way off.  This book was full of suspense and thrills.  I have to admit that I am not into sci-f- thrillers but this was a great book.  If you haven’t read this you’re missing out on a great book.

About Book:

On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer’s night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person’s life hangs in the balance. Ari Thór Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjörður struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it’s a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies …

Dark, terrifying and complex, Blackout is an exceptional, atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland’s finest crime writers.

About Author:

Ragnar Jonasson is author of the award winning and international bestselling Dark Iceland series.

His debut Snowblind, first in the Dark Iceland series, went to number one in the Amazon Kindle charts shortly after publication. The book was also a no. 1 Amazon Kindle bestseller in Australia. Snowblind has been a paperback bestseller in France.

Nightblind won the Dead Good Reader Award 2016 for Most Captivating Crime in Translation.

Snowblind was called a “classically crafted whodunit” by THE NEW YORK TIMES, and it was selected by The Independent as one of the best crime novels of 2015 in the UK.

Rights to the Dark Iceland series have been sold to UK, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Morocco, Portugal, Croatia, Armenia and Iceland.

Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works as a writer and a lawyer. He also teaches copyright law at Reykjavik University and has previously worked on radio and television, including as a TV-news reporter for the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service.

He is also the co-founder of the Reykjavik international crime writing festival Iceland Noir.

From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic.

Ragnar has also had short stories published internationally, including in the distinguished Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the US, the first stories by an Icelandic author in that magazine.

• Paperback:  276 pages
• Publisher:  Orenda Books; UK ed. edition (July 15, 2016)
• Genre: Crime, Thriller

My Review:

I am grateful to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.
An interesting read.

This was my first novel by Ragnar Jonasson. This was a brilliantly paced thriller set in Iceland and it deserves all the praise already heaped on it.  A man is found beaten to death on the shore in Iceland. The plot has Ari Thor, a policeman, and a young reporter working on solving the murder. They are not aware of each other. The book was as much about the young reporter as Ari Thor who is the young policeman in the Iceland series.

I enjoyed it; after reading it I noticed that this was the third book in the series.  I wished that I had read the others before this one.  I will definitely look for his other books.   Website  Twitter

About Book:

When her mother died, Isla Royle believed she was alone in the world – the only child of an only child. These certainties are turned upside down at the Funeral Home when Isla meets Arthur Edmunds who claims to be her grandfather. Edmunds offers her respite from her grief by inviting her to his manorial home in Suffolk where her ancestry is apparently linked to local legend. Here she is offered a life of affluence and comfort – a life which her mother abandoned. But overwhelmed by grief and new experiences, Isla’s mind begins to play tricks on her putting herself and her new family in terrible danger.

About Author:

Jon Mackley is Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Northampton and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Fantasy Literature at Richmond University, the American International University in London. He studied a degree in English Studies at the University of Stirling and a Master’s Degree and PhD in Medieval Studies at the University of York. His novels include Crossing the Threshold (2011), Twisting Fate’s Arm (2012), Heaven’s Devils (2013) and The Gawain Legacy (2014). He has also published an academic study of the Latin and Anglo-Norman versions of the Legend of St Brendan (2008) and a Bilingual edition of the Anglo-Norman version (2012), and a bilingual edition of the foundation legend The Origin of the Giants (2014). He has edited a gothic novel which was published in 1802 and which was influenced by the work of Ann Radcliffe entitled Who’s the Murderer? by Eleanor Sleath. He has also contributed essays to London Gothic (edited by Phillips and Witchard) and New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft (edited by David Simmons)

• Paperback:  290 pages
• Publisher:  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication Date: September 1, 2018
• Genre: Mild supernatural and Mild Horror

My Review:  

Thank you The Fiction Café-Review and John Mackley for this arc.

This the first book that I read by this author, and I have to say WOW loved this book, it had me guessing and still trying to figure out all the secrets, mysteries and family secrets of the Edmunds.

I like how the author gradually builds up what we know of Islas life before the present time and how her troubled life plays trick with her imagination.  There were times that I could not put this book down as I wanted to see how it was going to play out.  I loved it and I can’t wait to share and recommend this book.  I will be on the lookout for more from this author.       What an awesome read.

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About Book:

She’s chasing a killer. He’s watching her every move.

He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.

Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career—and she knows that it will make or break her. But she can’t catch the culprit alone. Together with facial recognition expert Joe Russell, she strives to get a lead on the elusive murderer, who is always one step ahead of them.

Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

About Author:

John Marrs is the author of The One, The Good Samaritan, When You Disappeared, and Welcome to Wherever You Are.

A freelance journalist based in London, England, he has spent the past twenty years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines.

He has written for publications including the Guardian’s Guide and Guardian Online, Total Film, Huffington Post, Empire, Q, GT, the Independent, S Magazine and Company.

• Publisher:Thomas & Mercer
• Expected to be Published:(8 Nov. 2018)
• Genre: Thriller

My Review:

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this arc.

After seeing some reviews of this book on The Fiction Café Review Club and The Fiction Café Book Club, I set out to find this book, Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer Publisher; I received an ARC copy of this book.  Wow what a great book.  Becca is the main character and has landed her first big case of her career. But she knows that she can’t do it alone so she teams up with facial recognition expert Joe Russell.  I found that this book was always leading you up to the next event and had be on the edge of my seat.  Her Last Move is another suspenseful page turner from this author. Right from the first page the action starts and never lets up.

Wow what a great book, I will follow up with a full review after November 2018; once the book has been published.

I will be looking for more from this author.

   Website  Twitter

About Book:

From the instant New York Times bestselling author of blockbuster thrillers In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 comes Ruth Ware’s chilling new novel, The Lying Game.

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister…

The next morning, three women in and around London—Fatima, Thea, and Isabel—receive the text they had always hoped would NEVER come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.”

The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty, with varying states of serious and flippant nature that were disturbing enough to ensure that everyone steered clear of them. The myriad and complicated rules of the game are strict: no lying to each other—ever. Bail on the lie when it becomes clear it is about to be found out. But their little game had consequences, and the girls were all expelled in their final year of school under mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the school’s eccentric art teacher, Ambrose (who also happens to be Kate’s father).

Atmospheric, twisty, and with just the right amount of chill that will keep you wrong-footed—which has now become Ruth Ware’s signature style—The Lying Game is sure to be her next big bestseller. Another unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

About Author:

Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer, and is The New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, The Lying Game, and The Death of Mrs. Westaway. She is married with two small children. Visit her at RuthWare.com or follow her on Twitter @RuthWareWriter.

• Publisher:  Gallery/Scout Press; First American Edition edition
• Published:  (July 25, 2017)
• Genre:  Thriller, Mystery Thriller
• Pages:  384

Quote from the book:

“A lie can outlast any truth.”

“You’re never an ex-addict, you’re just an addict who hasn’t had a fix in a while.”

My Review:

This book had me from start to finish, I’m glad to see Ruth Ware delivering again. My favorite thing about Ruth Ware’s books is her ability to create tension and hold me on the edge of my seat

The book tells the story of four friends who met in a boarding school when they were teenagers. They played “the lying game” until something happened and they were withdrawn from the school. Seventeen years later the last lie they told has come to haunt them.

The novel takes place in London and also in an English coastal town. The story is narrated by Isa Wilde, one of the four friends and alternates between the present and the past.

This book kept me up at night, just to find out what was going to happen.  I really enjoy all of Ruth Ware’s book and I can’t wait to get her new book The Death of Mrs. Westaway.

If you read The Woman in Cabin 10 or In a Dark, Dark Wood than you’ll probably like this one.

♥ Chao Chao! xoxo. 

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About Book:

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

The #1 New York Times Bestseller
A National Book Award Finalist
A 2017 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

“Beautifully crafted.”–People Magazine

“A book that is very much about the many factors that affect falling in love, as much as it is about the very act itself . . . fans of Yoon’s first novel, Everything Everything, will find much to love—if not, more—in what is easily an even stronger follow up.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Transcends the limits of YA as a human story about falling in love and seeking out our futures.” —POPSUGAR.com

Nominations: National Book Award for Young People’s Literature,

Goodreads Choice Awards Best Young Adult Fiction

About Author:

Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason.

• 384 pages
• Publisher:Delacorte Press
• November 1, 2016
• Genres: Fiction, Romance Novel

My Review:

This was a nice little book with a sweet story. A great book for a simple escape.

Lots of chapters. Lots of SHORT chapters. I LOVE SHORT CHAPTERS! I needed a book with short chapters since I am currently reading (or have recently read) some books with loooooooog chapters.

I enjoyed this as much as Everything Everything. Looks like I can continue to count on Yoon for a simple getaway.

This book deals with two main characters Natasha and her family are undocumented immigrants; they’re being deported from the US in twelve hours, so she’s headed to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building hoping to find a way to stay in America.

Daniel is on the precipice of the prestigious future his parents have lined up for him whether he likes it or not, and he’s on his way to a college admission interview with a Yale alum. When Natasha and Daniel meet for the first time in New York City, their paths align and their futures – once certain – spiral into infinite possible outcomes.

This book is for everyone. For dreamers and disbelievers. For lovers and those who have given up hope. It is a book that shows us the challenges that some face that we might never know and most of all, sometimes being able to follow our dreams or needing to accept our reality.

I enjoyed this book and will look forward to the movie that they are working on and will continue to look for more books from this author.

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About Book:

‘I did something terrible, Grace. I hope you can forgive me…’

Grace hasn’t been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie’s last words, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie’s. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn’t know about her best friend.

About Author:

Louise Jensen is a million copy author of Global No. 1 psychological thrillers The Sister, The Gift, The Surrogate and The Date. Her novels have also been sold for translation to nineteen territories, as well as being featured on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller’s List.

Louise was nominated for the Goodreads Debut Author of 2016 Award.

Louise lives with her husband, children, madcap dog and a rather naughty cat in Northamptonshire.

• Publisher:  Bookouture
• Publisher Date: July 16, 2016
• Pages: 307
• Genre:   Psychological, Mystery

My Review:

*Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review*

The Sister is another wonderful psychological thriller from Louise Jensen.

This is an excellent debut novel – a pyschological thriller that builds slowly, gradually filling out the details and adding layers to produce a sizzling finale when it all comes together with some major reveals.

A story about secrets, lies, and a friendship bond that lasts through tough times, but then is broken by death, The Sister: A psychological thriller with a brilliant twist you won’t see coming was a page turner that kept me guessing. The main characters were; Grace and Charlie they met when they were very young, and after Charlie has stood up for Grace when a boy (Dan) pokes fun at her. Later, Grace, Charlie, and Dan will all become friends, and the group includes a few others. Some who stay friends, while others do not.  From the turning of the first few pages, we find out that Charlie has died and Grace is inconsolable.  Grace returns to the exact spot where the two had buried a memory box when they were fifteen years old. She digs it up but waits to deal with the contents at later time.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but it unravels quite cleverly, and thought I had certain suspicions from the start, which were essentially confirmed by the end, there were lots of twists and turns I definitely did not expect.

If you like 1 psychological thrillers then pick this book for your next read.  I have one more book to read from this Author and I can’t wait to start reading it.

Have a great summer! Happy Reading!

About Book:

You turn your back for a minute. And now your son is in terrible danger …

Louise is struggling to cope.  As a busy working mum, she often has to leave her eight-year-old son Archie at her sister Alice’s flat.

Alice and Louise used to be close.  But there’s a lot they don’t know about each other now – like the bottle of vodka Louise hides in her handbag, Alice’s handsome new friend and the odd behaviour of her next-door neighbour.

Archie is a curious little boy. He likes to play on his own at his auntie’s flat until one day when he sees something he shouldn’t. Now he has a secret of his own.  One he can’t tell his mum. One that could put him and his family in terrible danger.

The most gripping psychological thriller you’ll read this year from the top five bestselling author K.L.Slater.  Perfect for fans of The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl.

About Author:

After years of trying to get published and never getting further than the slush pile, I went back to university at the age of 40 where I studied for an English & Creative Writing degree followed by an MA in Creative Writing.

Although I also worked full-time during the five years I studied at university, the courses gave me the time and space to try different writing and increased my confidence and belief in my writing. Before I graduated from my MA, I had secured representation with my agent, Clare Wallace, at the Darley Anderson Literacy, TV and Film Agency and had my first book deal.

My first adult psychological thriller for Bookouture is called ‘Safe with Me’ and it actually started life as my dissertation on my English & Creative Writing degree.

The creepy voice of Anna came to me strong and insistent . . . she wanted to be written, she wouldn’t go away.

I live in Nottingham with my husband, Mac. Between us we have three grown-up kids; my daughter, Francesca and Mac’s sons Nathan and Jake.

I also write multi-award winning YA fiction under the name Kim S

• Genre:  Suspense, Thriller
• Expected publication: July 27th 2018
• Publisher: Bookouture
• Pages:  331

My Review:

I would like to thank Netgalley, Bookouture and The Fiction Café Review for an advance copy of The Secret.

This is the first of KL Slater books I have read and it won’t be the last, it’ s written very well and comprehensively. Well, there’s more than one secret here – and not one of them was anything I expected.

This was a good psychological thriller with many twists and turns and secrets.  The story revolves around two sisters Louise and Alice.  They both have secrets and are determined not to let the other learn them.  Louise is picture perfect while Alice is a nervous wreck due to a previous incident which has changed her life (both physical and mental) for the worse.    Until one day her sister dropped of her son Archie for her to watch.  Alice formed a bond with Archie which and which she was starting to venture out into the public.  I love the bond between these two.

I couldn’t wait to see if I could guess the secret, but every time I thought I had, nope it would give me another twist.

Heart-stirring from start to finish!  

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About Book:

The rules are simple.

At eleven years old, Morgan Sheppard solved the murder of a teacher when everyone else believed it to be a suicide. The publicity surrounding the case laid the foundation for his reputation as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes. He parlayed that fame into a gig as TV’s “resident detective,” solving the more typical tawdry daytime talk show mysteries like “Who is the father?” and “Is he cheating?”

Until, that is, Sheppard wakes up handcuffed to a bed in an unfamiliar hotel room. Around him, five strangers are slowly waking up, as well. Soon they discover a corpse in the bathtub and Sheppard is challenged to put his deductive skills to the test. One of the people in the room is the killer. He has three hours to solve the murder. If he doesn’t find the killer, they all will die.

An ingenious, page-turning debut, Chris McGeorge’s Guess Whomatches the high-wire plotting of classic “locked room” mysteries into the unstoppable pacing of the modern-day thriller.

About Author:

Chris McGeorge has an MA in Creative Writing (Crime / Thriller) from City University London where he wrote his first crime novel Dead Room for this thesis. He constantly told stories from a young age, whether they took the form of comics, short stories or scripts.

He is a lover of Golden Age crime, like Christie and Conan Doyle, leading his crime stories to be a mix of the old and the contemporary. He likes weird and wonderful plots, with plenty of intrigue and twists.

His often coherent ramblings about everything pop culture can be found on his blog Festival of Blood and occasionally he produces the Sarcasmicast podcast with a group of friends.

• Paperback:  416 pages
• Publisher:  Orion (3 May 2018)
• Genre:  Thrillers, Mystery, Crime

My Review:

I would like to thank Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy of Guess Who.

Guess Who tells the tale of a former child detective, Morgan Sheppard, who wakes up in a locked hotel room with five strangers and the dead body of his former psychiatrist.

I was so intrigued by the premise, but the delivery fell a little flat for me. I was bored at times and could not connect with any of the characters. At times it was slow and seemed to drag on and on.

I am giving this 4 stars, I will continue to look for more from this author.

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About Book:

The Dream Virgin A young comic book entrepreneur wins a Startup contest to work on her dream venture at a innovative business incubator in the Oregon Alps, but when a homicidal maniac escapes from the state prison mental ward, the teen’s sponsored summer gets ambushed by a madman she must confront and destroy. Elfri Fleming travels to public libraries in the southwest with her ex-cop grandfather to teach kids the power of lucid dreaming. A converted school bus called the Dreamland Express, fifty-nine issues of her Dream Zoo comics, pure talent and calculated ambition helped the professional dreamer create a mobile enterprise with a loyal following who question why there have been no new comics for way too long. Why did Elfri stop drawing Dream Zoo and start a new comic book series that she keeps hidden? How in one whirlwind summer did the Texas tomboy adapt to a tourist town with a futuristic boardwalk of trend-setting shops and lakeside intrigue? What made her move into a guarded estate to help a mute boy, then fight to the death to save him from the killer who abused him eight years before? Ventures Nest is a fun and freaky high-risk thriller where the payoff of good and evil will blow the minds and capture the hearts of popular fiction fans!

About Author:

Donald “Don” Robert Charles Quine (born September 11, 1938) is an American author, actor, and sports promoter. He is known for his television roles playing Joe Chernak and Stacey Grainger in Peyton Place and The Virginian. Quine also was the president of the Professional Karate Association (PKA) whose Kick of the 80’s weekly fight series on ESPN ran for close to a decade. He wrote American Karate, a book on self-defense, and The Dream Virgin, his first novel in the thriller series called Ventures Nest.

• Paperback:  314 pages
• Publisher:  Gecko Group Books (May 18, 2018)
• Genre:  Thriller

My Review:

I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

Disclaimer straight up: this isn’t something I’d typically pick up and read, and I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was wild from start to finish.

Personally, I had trouble getting into the story and the first half wasn’t very interesting to me. But somewhere around the halfway mark it picked up and I was sucked in.  I am giving this book four stars.

The Dream Virgin reads a lot like a movie or TV show (sorta like Stephen King’s Rose Red mini-series), and that’s basically how I read it (in three parts, rather than all at once).

Author’s Goodreads