• Storm Warning, James Byrne
• Beach Thriller, Jamie Day
• Ours is a Tale of Murder, Nora Murphy
• How to Slay at Work, Sarah Bonner
• Kiss the Villain, Rina Kent
• Wherever She Goes, Kelley Armstrong
• The Forgotten Man, Robert Crais
• Wildflower, Kylie Scott
• Community Board, Tara Conklin
• The End Writes Itself, Evelyn Clark

James Byrnes’ Storm Warning is the fourth book about an engaging protagonist, Desmond Limerick, whose specialty is opening and guarding doors for whoever hires him. Dez is my favorite among so many interesting thriller heros. He’s competent, intelligent, and learns new things all the time; and he’s unfailingly cheerful. If you haven’t tried these books, start with The Gatekeeper.

Beach Thriller arrived in my mail. At first I was confused, until I found that Sookie Stackhouse has a mention, which was delightful. Jamie Day’s heroine, Holly, returns home to a dilapidated house on the beach when her book sales slump. Her agent is badgering her, a realtor is badgering her to sell, and the local psychic wants to do a reading for her. Soon Holly acquires a handyman, a runaway teen, and the manuscript she first wrote as a true story. And that raises the question: what really happened to Holly’s sister?

Nora Murphy’s Ours is a Tale of Murder is a true page-turner. The interlocking stories of a solitary mother, an unhappy couple, and a less-than-ideal neighbor come to a gripping ending, with many twists and turns along the way. Klara, the main character, finds out her boyfriend has depths she’d never imagined. And none of them are good.

How to Slay at Work (Sarah Bonner) is another female killer story. They are thick on the ground now, but they’re sure fun. Millie’s psycho boss, Freya, may actually be psycho. Millie’s noticed that every conference in another city Freya attend . . . afterwards, a man is found dead. Hmmm . . . couldn’t this be quite useful?

Rina Kent’s Kiss the Villain is a dark m/m romance. And I do mean dark. Perfect law student Gareth Carson has a dark side that he keeps absolutely hidden . . . until it’s unlocked in an unsettling encounter with Kayden Lockwood. Unfortunately for Gareth’s composure and smooth appearance, Kayden Lockwood turns out to be Gareth’s new professor in one of his law classes. I admire Kent’s ability to make flawed characters relatable and individual, engaging enough to make the reader stick to their somewhat twisted adventures.

Kelley Armstrong’s one of my must-read authors. I was surprised to find I’d missed a book of hers, and I hurried to remedy the omission. Wherever She Goes features a trope that normally makes me shake; the heroine no one believes. Aubrey Finch is a divorcee who doesn’t have custody of her child, which automatically marks her as unreliable. When she tells police she has seen the abduction of little boy . . . they simply don’t believe her. Aubrey is terribly worried about the child, and determined to track him down. Her quest is very suspenseful.

Robert Crais is one of the best living private eye writers. I can state that without fear of contradiction. He’s won everything, and he deserves it. The Forgotten Man is outstanding. Elvis Cole, the World’s Greatest Detective, is drawn into a case when the corpse found in an alley has articles about Cole stuffed in his pocket, and the first policeman on the scene says the unknown man said he was Cole’s father. Since Elvis Cole has never known his father’s identity, the pain of this strikes deep, and Elvis (with the help of his friend Joe Pike) must keep delving into the death of this anonymous man until he knows the man’s true identity. Sides of Cole and Pike that we have never seen are on full display in this novel.

Kylie Scott’s Wildflowers is a charming romance that doesn’t start off well. The end of the world is coming, and Dean knows it. But can he convince his sunny neighbor, Astrid, whom he’s admired from afar? Dean can only think of one way. Astrid ends up in a cage in Dean’s house, much to her indignation. But as the days pass, Astrid comes to realize that Dean was absolutely right. A plague sweeps the world, and only those who’ve stayed sequestered are uninfected. But the lawlessness creeps closer, and they have to leave Dean’s home. Can Astrid get over the imprisonment to appreciate Dean’s devotion? Or is he just a creep?

Community Board has charm aplenty. A young woman whose life has imploded retreats to her little home town. Even her parents have left for greener pastures, but Darcy is determined to live the life of a hermit, subsisting on canned goods and talking to no one. But can she really get along without a community? Despite her best attempts, Darcy begins to connect to the world around her. I really, really enjoyed this book.

Evelyn Clark’s The End Writes Itself is a hot book. Stephen King calls it “a trove of tropes.” Anyone who’s read Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians will recognize the classic scenario: strangers are summoned to a mysterious island by a mysterious host who does not appear. As writers who have varying genres and experience, they are presented with a chance to finish the final book of a famous private detective author who has died. But is that the only reason they’ve been selected? Of course not. This is well worth reading.

Blog:

I mentioned James Byrne’s new book in my review column. How I got that book is another story. I read the first book (Gatekeeper) quite by accident. I’d become interested in gatekeepers (as you will see in my 2027 release, Hold My Spellbook). I enjoyed the book so much that when I found myself signing next to James Byrne and noticed he had an ARC (advance reader’s copy) of his next novel, I made shameless eyes at him until he gave it to me. Yay! Then I read the third one. When I found out he was going to be at ThrillerFest, I had high hopes I’d run into him. Since I acted on that, I did, and to my delight he had brought an ARC of Storm Warning just for me. Double yay!

Normally, I only receive ARCs from writers who have reached out through their agent to mine to inquire if I have time to read this early copy of their forthcoming book. And I like that little remove, because I may not have the time to give the novel a fair reading, or I may dislike the description of the book or simply realize it’s not the book for me. Often, friends will be kind enough to send me an ARC of their work, knowing I’ll be glad to get it. I didn’t remember Jamie Day, and may not have met her, but I knew there must be some kind of connection or I wouldn’t have gotten the book. So I read it, and I was so pleased to see the namecheck.

This is one of the great things about being a writer . . . getting to know other writers. It’s a never-ending source of pleasure to me to talk to people whose work I admire, or writers whose work I haven’t read but will in the future. I hadn’t anticipated that the first time I was published, back in 1981 (Sweet and Deadly). I had no idea what it would be like to be a “real” writer, and it’s been mostly wonderful. After forty-five years, it’s still the best thing in the world.

Charlaine Harris