Sylvie’s thriller & mystery review

By Sylvie Chartrand

Here is a summary of some of the books I have read so far this year, in the order in which I read them, not by favourites. I mostly like mystery novels; hopefully you can find something that appeals to you.

Her One Mistake
by Heidi Perks

Heidi Perks was born and raised in the seaside town of Bournemouth on the south coast of England where she lives with her husband and two children.

In Her One Mistake, Charlotte takes Harriet’s daughter, Alice, to the school fair with her own brood of three. She takes her eyes off the children for an instant and realizes that Alice is missing. She panics and searches the grounds for her but knows she will have to tell her friend Harriet that her only child is gone. Harriet won’t talk to Charlotte, and Charlotte is shunned by other parents and feels heartbroken. Harriet is struggling to keep her marriage afloat and as police investigates, she worries they might uncover some secrets. Harriet realizes that Charlotte may be the only one to help her reunite with Alice.

The Silent Wife
by Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is one of the most popular and acclaimed storytellers. Her books have been published in 120 countries with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe.  Slaughter is the founder of Save the Libraries, a non-profit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, Slaughter lives in Atlanta. Her standalone novel Pieces of Her is in development for Netflix,and her Grant County and Will Trent novels are in development for television.

In The Silent Wife, Will Trent is investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside the prison. Another inmate, Daryl Nesbitt, tells Will he wants to make a deal. He will tell them who killed Vasquez if they help him prove that he is innocent of murder. He says he has information about the abductions and murders of young college women that are still happening even though he is behind bars. When a young woman turns up dead in a state park in northern Georgia, Will can’t help but wonder if there is still a serial killer on the loose. He must involve his girlfriend, Sara Linton, who is a medical examiner and was married to Jeffrey Tolliver, the man who put Daryl Nesbitt in prison.

Hid From Our Eyes
by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Julia Spencer-Fleming is the New York Times bestselling author of One Was a Soldier and is also an Agatha, Anthony, Dilys, Barry, Macavity and Gumshoe Award winner. She studied acting and history at Ithaca College and received a law degree at the University of Maine School of Law. She lives in a 190-year-old farmhouse in southern Maine.

Hid From Our Eyes is the ninth and latest book in the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series. You may want to start at the beginning with In the Bleak Midwinter (2002).

In Hid From Our Eyes, Russ Van Alstyne is now the chief of police in Millers Kill. Years ago when he came back from serving in the war, he was a person of interest in the murder of a young woman who was found wearing a party dress with no apparent cause of death, similar to another death 20 years before. When a third woman turns up dead, Russ needs to find the connection between the three killings to find the killer. He also has to deal with his department being put on the chopping block, so much is riding on solving these murders.

These books and so many more are available at the Ottawa Public Library!

Sylvie Chartrand is a public service assistant at the Sunnyside Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. She is an avid mystery reader.