Casket Case by Fran Rizer

Casket Case by Fran Rizer is the third book in the “Callie Parrish” mystery series. Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin), October 2008

When the town’s beloved pharmacist is found floating face-down in his hot tub, Callie suspects foul play. But while she feels like her investigation is leading her nowhere, someone else seems to think she knows too much. All signs point to a con game gone dangerously wrong. Now it’s up to Callie to catch a killer—before she winds up being fitted for her own casket.

Someone is trying to harm Calamine Lotion Parrish, a mortuary cosmetician, by shooting at her, ramming her car and tossing her house. Can this be connected to her friend who met a guy online and is liquidating her finances to donate to charity and moving to Florida with her fiancé? Is it connected to the taxidermist? Jane, her brothers and her father will try to keep her safe. As Jane said to Callie, “you attract murder”. I just love this series and can’t wait for the next adventures with Callie, Jane and her brothers.

Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen

Silent Thunder by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen.  Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, July 2008

It was the assignment of a lifetime. . . .

Brilliant marine architect Hannah Bryson has been given the job of a lifetime. A U.S. maritime museum has just acquired the decommissioned Soviet submarine Silent Thunder for public exhibition. It’s Hannah’s job to make sure that every single inch of the legendary nuclear attack sub is safe for the thousands of visitors anticipated. Enlisting the aid of her brother, Connor, they examine the enormous vessel and delve into its long—and lethal—history.

But is it really a trap?

In the course of their investigation, Connor discovers a mysterious message behind one of the ship’s panels. But before he can figure out what it means, there’s a deadly assault on Silent Thunder. . . .
Though the U.S. government tries to warn Hannah away, she’ll stop at nothing to find the ruthless mastermind behind her brother’s death. Even if it means joining forces with a mysterious man who may be even more dangerous than the enemy she has sworn to bring down. As Hannah finds herself in the crossfire of an epic standoff, her only hope for survival is to unravel the sub’s explosive secret. But someone’s willing to kill to make sure Silent Thunder stays silent. . . .

Brisk, exhilarating, and filled with authentic details, Silent Thunder is what you get when you team the biggest name in suspense with the stunning plot twists of an Edgar Award–winning author. Get ready for a page-turning thrill ride!

Hannah Bryson has the opportunity of a lifetime, to make sure a Soviet nuclear submarine is safe for the public enjoyment as a museum. Once aboard the ship with her brother, they discover some symbols on a metal plate that is not in the sub’s design. All havoc breaks loose and Hannah’s brother is killed and Hannah is on the run for her life. She encounters a Soviet sailor who is as mysterious as the man being accused of murdering her brother. This was an okay thriller.

Don’t Ever Tell by Brandon Massey

Don’t Ever Tell by Brandon Massey. Publisher: Pinnacle, July 2008

DARK SECRETS…
With a new identity, a new city to live in, and a wonderful new husband, Rachel Moore believes she’s finally free of the demons in her past. But nothing could be farther from the truth. For the deadly secrets she thought were long buried are now on the brink of being exposed…

HAVE A WAY…

Someone has a vendetta against Rachel. Someone whom she betrayed a long time ago. Someone who is determined to make her pay–no matter what the cost…

OF COMING BACK WITH A VENGEANCE…

Now Rachel knows it’s just a matter of time before her dangerous past meets up with her present–and destroys everything she’s worked so hard for. Because if there’s one thing that can be counted on–her enemy never forgets or forgives and will do whatever it takes to see her suffer…

A woman who has escaped her past only to have it come back to haunt her.  Living with a second chance at happiness and newly married, Rachel Moore finds out too late that her abusive ex-husband has escaped from prison and is killing people she loves in his search to find her.  Her new husband doesn’t know about her past, but he will when Rachel sees no other choice but to run away from this new life to save him from her ex-husband.  This page-turning thriller wraps you into the world of abuse and torture.

*new-to-me author

Angel’s Tip by Alafair Burke

Angel’s Tip by Alafair Burke is the second book in the “Ellie Hatcher” thriller series.  Publisher: HarperCollins, August 2008

In a city full of victims . . . it’s hard to choose just one.

Fresh-faced Indiana college student Chelsea Hart is so excited to spend the final hours of her spring break in the VIP room of an elite New York City club that she remains behind when her girlfriends call it a night. The next morning, as her concerned friends anxiously pace their hotel lobby, joggers find Chelsea’s body in East River Park, her wavy blond hair brutally hacked off.

NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher catches the case and homes in on the group of privileged men who were last seen plying Chelsea with free-flowing alcohol. But before she can even gather the preliminary evidence, the gruesome murder is grabbing headlines and drawing unwanted media attention to the department. So when Ellie builds a tight case against Jake Myers, a young hedge fund manager, the department brass and the district attorney’s office are elated: the case will soon be cleared, the media will tout the department’s quick work, and Ellie will be a dream witness at the trial against Myers.

But Ellie has her doubts. Chelsea’s murder is eerily similar to three other deaths that occurred nearly a decade ago: the victims were young, female, and in each case, the killer had taken her hair as a souvenir.

Ellie’s investigation pulls her into a late-night world of exclusive clubs, conspicuous wealth, and hedonistic consumption. And her search for the truth not only pits her against her fellow cops but also places her under the watchful eye of a psychopath eager to add the prideful young female detective to his list.

Homicide Detective Ellie and her partner are after the person who is killing young women who are enjoying the nightlife.  Ellie makes a connection with a case that happened 10 years ago and now it is a race against time to catch this serial killer before Ellie becomes the next and final victim.  This thriller will keep you turning pages.

Forgotten by Mariah Stewart

Forgotten by Mariah Stewart is the latest book in her ongoing FBI series.  Publisher: Ballantine Books, August 2008

WHO SPEAKS FOR THE DEAD WHEN THEY SCREAM BLOODY MURDER?

Sheldon Woods kidnapped and killed an untold number of boys, then escaped the death penalty by making a plea bargain for multiple life sentences in exchange for revealing the whereabouts of some of his victims. More than a decade later, the full extent of his crimes is still unknown, and many of the dead have never been accounted for. But Lisa Walsh is certain her brother Christopher was one of them, and to honor her mother’s dying wish, she’s on a mission to learn the truth and recover the little boy’s remains. FBI agent Portia Cahill, tasked with confronting the caged killer, is obliged to play his mind games to get what she’s after, but she ends up with more than she bargained for when the remains of another boy’s body are discovered.

Determined to ID the mystery child, Portia reluctantly teams with James Cannon, the attorney who once defended Woods. But chasing a killer’s grisly legacy, and the bones of the forgotten dead, will lead them into the lethal orbit of a monster who’s seeding the graves of the past with a fresh wave of innocent victims.

Our heroine, Portia Cahill is now based stateside due to media exposure that prevents her from going undercover.  Her first case is to find the lost boy who was murdered several years ago so his mother who is deathly ill will have the closure she needs.  Someone is mimicking the jailed murderer by placing dead bodies in the same graves.  Portia, Jim who is a new potential love and her fellow FBI agent sift through the clues to close this case.  This was a good story that I couldn’t put down.

The Darker Side by Cody Mcfadyen

The Darker Side by Cody Mcfadyen is the third book in the “Smoky Barrett” thriller series.  Publisher: Bantam, September 2008

Everyone has a secret they don’t dare tell anyone.
He’ll kill you for yours.

Cody McFadyen has shocked even the most jaded suspense fans with Shadow Man and The Face of Death. Now comes a thriller that outdoes them all, featuring a psychopath on a perverse crusade of murder. And the one woman who can stop him has a secret that will change her from the hunter to the hunted.…

A lie, a long-ago affair, a dark desire—everyone has secrets they take to the grave. No one knew that better than FBI special agent Smoky Barrett. But what secret was a very private young woman keeping that led to her very public murder? And what kind of killer was so driven and so brazenly daring that he’d take her life on a commercial airliner thirty thousand feet in midair, a killer so accomplished that he’d leave only a small souvenir behind?

These are the questions that bring Smoky and her hand-picked team of experienced manhunters from L.A. to the autumn chill of Washington, D.C., by order of the FBI director himself—and at the special request of a high-powered grieving D.C. mother.

As a mother, Smoky knows the pain of losing a child—it nearly killed her once before. As a cop with her own twisted past, she takes every murder personally, which is both her greatest strength and her only weakness. Brilliant, merciless, righteous, the killer Smoky is hunting this time is on his own personal mission, whose cost in innocent human lives he’s only begun to collect. For in his eyes no one is innocent; everyone harbors a secret sin, including Smoky Barrett.

Soon Smoky will have to face what she’s so carefully hidden even from her own team—and confront a flawless killer who knows her flaws with murderous intimacy.

In this case, FBI special agent Smoky Barrett is after a serial killer who has killed over 140 women and captures them on tape confessing their sins before he gruesomely kills them.  This book is full of non-stop actions with plenty of twists and turns.  Excellent story with an equally satisfying finish.

A Fiery Secret by Diane Craver

A Fiery Secret by Diane Craver. Publisher: Samhain Publishing, February 2007

While investigative reporter Catherine Steel looks for Mr. Right, she tries to learn if someone murdered the janitor from her old high school.

Catherine Steel is an investigative reporter for a newspaper in Ohio. To supplement her income so that she can buy clothes and gifts for her small godchild, she writes fluff pieces for women’s magazines. Two recent articles are: “What To Wear to Get Noticed” and “Catherine’s Ten Simple Dating Rules.”

When Jake Michaels fills a sports editor’s spot on the paper, Catherine wonders if he is man enough to fulfill her fantasy. And does she want him to be the one? After all, he broke her heart ten years ago in high school when he failed to show up for their prom date. And now that he’s back in town, he wants to date her. Catherine refuses to go out with him but he keeps asking. Should she give Jake another chance?

When it appears the high school janitor, Max, was murdered, Catherine is determined to learn the truth about his death. Catherine’s list of suspects for Max’s death include: the school secretary with her intense dislike of Max, the charismatic mayor, the mayor’s unbalanced girlfriend, the angry school principal, and a strange math teacher.

Catherine Steele, an investigative reporter is asked to look into the five-year old death of a beloved janitor. Little did she know she would set up a chain reaction of a lost love, a parentage discovered, a jilted lover, an elected official and the beginning of a romance.  This was an enjoyable mystery to read with a touch of romance.

Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods

Hot Mahogany by Stuart Woods is the 15th book in the “Stone Barrington” series. Publisher: Putnam Adult, September 2008

One night at Elaine’s, Stone Barrington—back in Manhattan after chasing down the bad guys in the Caribbean—meets Barton Cabot, older brother of his sometime ally, CIA boss Lance Cabot. Barton’s career in army intelligence is even more top secret than his brother’s, but he’s suffering from amnesia following a random act of violence. Amnesia is a dangerous thing in a man whose memory is chockfull of state secrets, so Lance hires Stone to watch Barton’s back. As Stone discovers, Barton is a spy with a rather unusual hobby: building and restoring antique furniture. The genteel world of antiques and coin dealers at first seems a far cry from Stone’s usual underworld of mobsters, murderers, and spies. But Barton also is a man with a past, and one event in particular— in the jungles of Vietnam more than thirty years earlier— is coming back to haunt his present in ways he’d never expected. Stone soon finds out that Barton, and some shady characters of his acquaintance, may be hiding a lot more than just a few forged antiques.

Stone finds himself involved with Barton Cabot who builds and restores antiques furnitue.  Barton suffers from amnesia after a vicious mugging.  Stone’s been asked to look after Barton who discovers that one of his antiques was stolen and thus begins the cat and mouse game of finding the missing secretary (desk).  Stone was his usual self bedding several women and getting accosted by their dejected suitors.  I enjoyed it.

The Chocolate Snowman Murders by JoAnna Carl

The Chocolate Snowman Murders by JoAnna Carl is the eighth in the “Chocoholic” mystery series. Publisher: NAL, September 2008

he scrumptious—and deadly— hardcover debut of the national bestselling Chocoholic Mysteries.

Lee McKinney Woodyard knows that being in the luxury chocolate business isn’t all sweetness and light, and neither is the holiday season. But she tries to draw the line at cold-blooded murder.

As treasurer of WinterFest, Lee is up to her elbows in the arguments, egos, and last-minute mix-ups that happen behind the scenes. But she’s coping, even when the guest juror of the art show shows up drunk. Lee leaves him to sleep it off, and is stunned the next day when her husband, Joe, discovers someone has put the visiting dignitary into a permanent state of repose…

Lee Woodyard and her husband being accused of murdering an art judge.  Another body is found dead and Lee is chased through the snow by the murderer.  This is all because of a long ago secret.  I really enjoyed this murder mystery.  I did figure out who the culprit was as soon as they made a slip of the tongue.

Handbags and Homicide by Dorothy Howell

Handbags and Homicide by Dorothy Howell is the first in the new “Haley Randolph” cozy mystery series.  Publisher: Kensington, July 2008

Witty, smart, and always chic-to-die despite a less than glam checking account balance, Haley Randolph has it all–Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Coach, Burberry–and she’d kill for the newest Louis Vuitton handbag. It seems she’s not the only one. When someone’s passion for designer purses leads to murder, Haley goes shopping for a killer to clear her name…

According to Haley Randolph, you can never have enough handbags. She has one for every occasion, but that doesn’t mean she won’t go to any lengths to get the latest Louis Vuitton. Unfortunately for Haley, her life goes from glam to grim when her passion for fashion outlasts her credit cards, and she’s forced to work during the holiday season at Holt’s–a mid-market department store that doesn’t even stock designer labels much to her horror.

Looking for a bit of shopping inspiration, Haley abandons the sales floor and sneaks into the stock room to get a first glimpse of Holt’s ultra-fab holiday promotion–a one-of-a-kind selection of handbag styles. But instead of the newest Vuitton, Haley discovers her boss is the ultimate fashion victim. He’s face-down in lingerie–stone-cold dead.

According to the security tapes, Haley was the only person in the stockroom before, during, and after the murder. With everyone in the store eyeing her like last season’s Marc Jacobs, Haley turns to the hunky Ty Cameron, who heads up the store’s loss prevention unit, to help her investigate the murder.

In a race to clear her rep, Haley’s knowledge of hot trends will take her from the sales floor to the boardroom to the gritty streets of L.A.’s Garment District. Now, Haley must find a killer with impeccable fashion taste…and get her hands on that perfectly checkered Louis Vuitton bag before time runs out…

Haley Randolph is a twenty-something young woman living in California. Her one vice is her love of designer handbags and she will do anything to have it.  She takes a second job to pay for this vice and stumbles upon a murder and becomes a suspect.  In the meantime, she is put on administrative leave at her full-time job accused of embezzling.  We first see Hayley as a self-centered young lady who grows up and take stock of her life and in the end I’m happy to see that maturity.  I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

*new-to-me author