{I've Been Reading}The Village by Caroline Mitchell

 

The Village by Caroline Mitchell 

Naomi encourages her husband to buy Ivy Cottage, a dilapidated home in a sleepy little village without telling him, or her stepdaughter, why she wants to live there. Ten years earlier, the Harper Family  vanished. The kitchen sink was still running, the television was still playing cartoons, and no trace of the three family members was ever found. Naomi is journalist with a passion for true crime and hopes that with unlimited access to the house she'll be able to solve the mystery. It quickly becomes obvious that Naomi is not welcome in the village. The villagers are actually holding meetings to discuss the new residents and how to deal with them. Her own stepdaughter is determined to sabotage her whenever possible and isn't the slightest bit subtle about it. 

Chapters set before the family's disappearance gave me an idea what was going on, although I didn't guess all of the twists. I'm not sure what Naomi expected to  find in a house that had been occupied by various sets of renters over the previous decades, in a town that was so hostile to outsiders. But it was an entertaining read and not a bad way to spend a couple of evenings.  

Up to No Gouda by Linda Reilly 

The first in the new Grilled Cheese Mystery series will definitely have you  craving a hot, melty sandwich with crisply grilled bread and adding some different cheeses to your grocery list. It got off to a slightly clunky start with huge chunks of text describing things I didn't care about because I didn't even know the protagonist yet, but it picks up quickly. The mystery was intriguing and there are some characters I look forward to learning more about.

The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf

A true crime writer works on her latest book in an isolated farmhouse while a storm rages outside. She's all alone until she discovers a young child alone in the snow.  There are three stories unfolding here and, because Wylie never once says or thinks anything about the book she's writing you just have to guess that at least one of the other two must be connected to her work. 

I didn't care for this one. One of the big plot twists was only a twist because the author deliberately misled the reader. Wylie never felt like a capable protagonist and I was constantly questioning her decisions. Once or twice, I almost found myself holding my breath and wondering what was going to happen....but it was never enough to get me fully caught up in the plot. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links. 

{I've Been Reading} The Tally Stick

 

The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon

The Chamberlain family vanished without a trace one night in 1978 when their car plunged off of an isolated road. By the time another car passed, all evidence of the accident had been washed away by the heavy rain. By the time anyone would have realized that the family of six was missing, there was no hope of finding out what had happened. In 2010, the bones of their oldest son are found, along with a piece of scored wood. Forensics show that he didn't die until four years after the family's disappearance. 

The Tally Stick is a black, fascinating story of survival in remote New Zealand. The plot moves between the time of the accident, what happens after the bones are discovered, and the years in between. You don't know what's going to happen, but you know what didn't happen and that's where the suspense comes in. The author also has an amazing way of capturing things like the impact of the car crash. I physically tensed up when I read that passage. 

Chloe Cates is Missing by Mandy McHugh 

I really loved this fast paced domestic thriller. Chloe, online star of CC and Me, is missing. In reality she's 13-year-old Abigail and she's been getting less and less enthusiastic about keeping up the online persona her mother created when she was four. Of courss  Jennifer Scarborough is worried about her missing daughter -- but she's also determined to exploit the situation and generate as much publicity as possible. She's an absolutely awful person and the detective in charge of the case, who happened to be her best friend when the two of  them were Chloe's age, knows exactly the sort of thing she's capable of. 

The plot is a roller coaster with some truly heart stopping plunges and it kept me guessing until the end, which I wish hadn't been quite to abrupt. 

 

The Other  Family by Wendy Corsi Staub

Life in a New York brownstone will be a huge change for the Howell family, one they're not all entirely confident about. But it's only for a year, a temporary relocation for Keith's job. They'll get used to sharing a bathroom and having less space to spread out in.  The neighbors are welcoming, the girls have been accepted into a great school, and things  are looking good. Until the neighbor's son let it slip that there was a triple homicide in their new home. Until the neighbor herself pointed out the post-motem photograph hanging in the stairwell. There've been multiple tragedies in the house over the past century. And strange things are happening now. 

I enjoyed this one. The characters were three dimensional and interesting. Some things that really didn't make sense were explained by the end. The plot went in directions I wasn't expecting and kept me entertained. 

  Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links.

{I've Been Reading} The Last House on the Street

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain 

In 2010, Kayla Carter and her young daughter move into the house where her husband died. The two of them designed their dream house together, at the edge of a new development. The large is huge, filled with trees that now seem oppressive and foreboding. She's heard that the woods are haunted and something about the lake behind the house frightens her. Even before the vandalism starts, Kayla is nervous.

In 1965, Ellie Hockley defies her parents' wishes to spend the summer volunteering as a civil rights worker, helping to register black voters. She's been thrust into an unfamiliar setting and is starting to discover just how sheltered her life has always been. 

Chapters alternate between the two women and I definitely found Ellie's story more interesting. 

This book is nothing like the other domestic thrillers I've been reading. It packs a heartbreaking emotional punch and I stayed up hours later than I should have because I couldn't bear to put it down and not know (even for a few hours) how it was going to end.

 

All I Want by Darcey Bell 

A married couple fall in love with a Victorian mansion in upstate New York and decide to buy the dilapidated old place. It needs a lot of work, but it's structurally pretty sound. It has its own theater right there in the house, built back when it was a dry out clinic where Broadway stars could retreat to sober up. They joke about the old movies they used to watch together, about houses with walls that drip blood, but they're not scared. Ben will come up from the city on weekends and Emma will live alone in the house for most of the week, overseeing the renovations and looking forward to the birth of their baby. Everything is almost perfect...at first. 

I absolutely loved the first three quarters of the book. After that, I was still hooked even though I didn't care for the direction the book was going in...and then there was the last chapter. I don't even know what to think about that ending, except that I didn't like it at all. 

Disclosure -- This post contains affiliate links. The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

{I've Been Reading} Reckless Girls

 

Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins 

On the surface, it's a perfect excursion. When Amma and Brittany hire Nico and his girlfriend, Lux, to get them to Muroe Island, they jump at the chance. They don't think about the island's history of shipwrecks and cannibalism. They don't think about spending two weeks alone with strangers. It isn't until they arrive at the island and find another boat already anchored there that Lux feels her first twinge of unease. On the surface, they're all getting along and having fun, but beneath that things aren't what they seem. I enjoyed this one. The plot alternates between "before" and "now" and gradually fills in what's really going on in these relationships. 

The Birthday Party by Wendy Dranfield 

Little Charlotte should have been perfectly safe at the birthday party. Neither of her parents was there, but the yard and house were full of watchful adults. Her aunt and uncle had both promised to keep an eye on her...but no one has any idea when she disappeared or how it might have happened. Hours pass before she's even missed. 

As the hunt for Charlie continues, the plot of this one twists and turns and gets less and less plausible. I might've been more accepting of some of it if the author hadn't waited so long to let the reader know things that everyone else in the book would have already known. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links.