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 order of when I read them, not by favourites. I mostly like mystery novels but hopefully you can find something that appeals to you in the book reviews below.

Village of the Lost Girls, by Agustin Martinez

Agustin Martinez was born in 1975 and studied audiovisual communications in Madrid. Today, he is one of Spain’s most renowned screenwriters who has worked on some of the country’s most popular crime series. On a holiday trip with his family to the Pyrenees he overheard the locals talking about the case of a missing child. The idea for Village of the Lost Girls, his first novel, was born and has been translated into many languages since.

This book has 487 pages, but I enjoyed every word. The characters are complex. This thriller takes place in a small village called Monteperdido. Five years after two 11- year-old girls disappeared on their way home from school, one of them reappears after she is found in a car crash. The driver is dead, but Ana survives. Inspector Sara Campos and her boss Santiago Bain are called in from Madrid’s head office to investigate. Can Ana help them find Lucia and will she still be alive? Ana isn’t forthcoming with information and her statements are conflicting which makes Sara and Santiago’s job that much more difficult. This book would be a great book-club selection.

I Found You, by Lisa Jewell

Lisa Jewell is the internationally bestselling author of 16 novels, including the New York Times bestseller Then She Was Gone, as well as I Found You, The Girls in the Garden, and The House We Grew Up In. Her debut novel, Ralph’s Party, was an instant Sunday Times (London) bestseller, and more recently her books have become #1 bestsellers in Canada and the UK. In total, her novels have sold over two million copies across the English speaking world. Her work has also been translated into 16 languages. Jewell lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.

This book kept me riveted. Lisa Jewell is a great writer. Single mom Alice Lake noticed a man sitting on the beach outside her house. After a while she gets worried about him and goes to see if he is okay. He doesn’t remember anything, his name, where he lives, or how he ended up on the beach. Alice takes pity on him and invites him to her house.

Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, newlywed Lily Monrose files a missing person report after her husband failed to return from work one night. The police discover that the man she married never existed. Lily starts questioning everything she thought she knew about her new husband and decides to find out who he really is.

Many years earlier, in 1993, Gray and Kirsty Ross are on their annual summer vacation trip to Ridinghouse Bay with their parents where they meet a young man, Mark, who shows a lot of interest in Kirsty, who is only 15. Gray is suspicious of Mark and is keeping an eye on him. One night, at a party at Mark’s aunt’s house, something went horribly wrong.

Can Alice and Lily put the pieces together? Will we ever know what happened to Gray, Kirsty and Mark all those years ago?

The House on Widows Hill, by Simon R. Green

Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy author. Green was born in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire. He holds a degree in modern English and American literature from the University of Leicester.

The House on Widows Hill is book nine of the “Ishmael Jones Mystery” series. Ishmael and Penny, his partner, are asked to spend the night at Harrow House to find out if the rumours about the house being haunted are true. “Team Ghost” is created, which includes a psychic, a local historian, a ghost-hunter and a newspaper reporter who is related to the family who owns Harrow House. When one of them dies suddenly, Ishmael knows he needs to figure out how and why it happened.

The Love Scam, by Maryjanice Davidson

Maryjanice Davidson is the international bestselling author of several books, including the Betsy the Vampire Queen series. Her books have been translated into several languages and are available in 15 countries. She writes a biweekly column for USA Today and frequently speaks to book clubs and writers’ groups, teaches writing workshops, and attends conferences all over the world.

The Love Scam is the perfect book if you want to read something light, romantic and funny with a bit of intrigue.

Rake Tarbell finds himself in Venice, Italy, without any recollections of how he got there. A little distraught, he leaves his hotel and walks right into the canal. Claire Delaney comes to his rescue, but Claire has an agenda. She wants to introduce him to his seven-year-old daughter he didn’t know he had. She is also keeping something else from him. She knows a lot more about him and why Rake is in the trouble he’s in.

Murder in the Family, by Jeff Blackstock

Jeff Blackstock, a lawyer by training, has degrees in English literature from the University of Toronto and the University of Kent at Canterbury, England. His career as a Canadian foreign service officer included postings abroad in Costa Rica, Australia and Saudi Arabia. He is now retired.

This book is non-fiction. It is about Jeff Blackstock’s family and the search for his mother’s killer. He tells us about the evidence that Carol Blackstock’s father had accumulated over the years and the research that Julia and Jeff gathered that brought them to accept that their father was guilty of murdering their mother. Carol was 24 years old when she died in 1959. Jeff, Doug and Julia were too young to understand or question their father at the time. For years they searched for answers and the book details everything they have come up with. George Blackstock, a diplomat, denied killing Carol. What is your verdict?

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.