thriller

Book Review: Very Dangerous Things

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Very Dangerous Things
by Lauren Muñoz

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: YA mystery thriller

When a murder game at a private school specializing in criminology is preempted by the real murder of a high school student, the victim’s ex-girlfriend is the prime suspect. But Sierra insists she didn’t do it and tries to enlist her ex-best friend Dulce in clearing her name. Dulce may be intrigued, but it’ll take more than the pleas of the girl she now considers her nemesis to get her involved.

The idea of a real crime being committed during a murder mystery game at a school for people studying criminology (though I really can’t say how realistic a school like this is) greatly intrigued me. And in some aspects, the mystery was good. There are a lot of clues, many of which are unrelated to the case, and the author throws in a lot of herrings to keep the reader guessing. (Other reviewers say the culprit was obvious from the beginning, but I did not guess it until close to the reveal.)

However, in many other aspects, the plot, mystery, and characters fell flat for me. The book had very strong Veronica Mars vibes to me, even before the show was outright mentioned, and I don’t know how intentional that was. From the horrible, corrupt sheriff, to the whole town turning against Dulce and her dad, to Dulce and Co. breaking into all sorts of places they shouldn’t be, it brought the show to my mind a lot. Everyone in this story is lying to everyone all the time. And the absolute worst of it comes from Dulce’s (current) best friend Emi who does whatever she wants, no matter who she might upset, lies to her best friend constantly, and then has the gall to accuse Dulce of being a bad friend because she resisted helping with the case for a long time. And that’s just one example of the terrible people in this book making stupid decisions.

There are background flashbacks peppered throughout the story, which aren’t really a bad way to introduce extra information, except that the bulk of the story is written in 1st-person, present tense from Dulce’s POV, and most of the flashbacks are 3rd-person, past tense (unless the person the flashback is about is Dulce, then they’re 1st-person, past tense). It’s a little jarring. What really threw me off, though, was when, in one of these flashbacks, Dulce is stated to be 13 and is making out with a high school guy and drinking alcohol. At 13! But it’s for a case for a detective agency that she and her then-best friend ran together (at 13!), so it’s okay. Then I realized that the flashback was said to be 2 years previous to the rest of the book, which meant that Dulce is still only 15 when the rest of the book happens, as would be most of the other major characters (maybe early 16), which still just feels so young to me, considering what these kids are already into. But to be fair, I’m pretty old-fashioned, so pretty much any age in high school feels too young for what these kids are into, something that is probably worth noting for anyone reading this review.

That brings me to the rest of what bothers me, which I know won’t bother everyone, but I also know that some people who read my reviews will probably be happy to know about this kind of content: multiple on- or off-screen characters are LGBT, and there is mention of religious people who are against this kind of behavior in a negative way (how dare they pray for them!). It made me consider DNFing the book. But since I don’t give a star rating when I don’t finish a book, feeling like it’s not really fair to the book or the author, and I had an ARC of this book and can’t really not give it a rating, I kept going. And in the end, it’s actually overall fairly tame compared to other anti-Christian/religious views in this area (though it’s interesting to note that the religious people actually came around to be okay with the LGBT behavior, so there’s that).

I think this story had huge potential, and the author writes well (minus the jarring POV and tense changes). But it’s pretty clear to me that I was never going to be the right audience for this book or probably for this author. I don’t personally recommend this book to anyone, but please do consider looking into it more if you’re interested.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Nightfall

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Nightfall
by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: YA fantasy thriller

When the sun sets on the island of Bliss, it won’t return for 14 years. At the same time, the tide also rolls out for miles, making it impossible to leave the island, which will turn into a cold, icy, inhospitable place. So the people living on the island have a small window of time to leave, sailing south, where they’ll live in the Desert Lands during the 14 years of night and return at dawn. During that small window, Marin and her twin brother Kana try to track down their friend who has gone missing and make it back before the ships leave the island.

The synopsis of this book intrigued me so much that I bought it despite the fairly low rating it has online. And for at least 2/3 of the book, my intrigue level remained high. The set-up and foreshadowing kept me hooked, even on the edge of my seat at times. The authors did a great job with the setting—the darkness building as the sun makes its final descent into the horizon, foreign noises in the forest, bizarre rituals that the islanders must attend to before they leave the island. I admit it—I was a little creeped out. I had some predictions about what was going on, and therein lies the downturn for me.

Not only were my predictions true, there was very little variation from it in the last third or so of the book. Once it’s revealed to us what is going on, there’s not really anymore suspense or intrigue. I wish the authors had held a little bit back somehow, saved a little bit of suspense for those last chapters. There were a couple of minor things that happened that may have been meant as twists or at least that I didn’t predict, but none of them were terribly exciting. And while I don’t fault the authors for ending the book where they did, I think there were definitely some things about the situation on the island that should have been explained, because otherwise, they just leave one scratching their head (not saying more due to spoilers).

Overall, I’m really glad I read this book. It’s a great example of an atmospheric read; it just falls short in the climax and conclusion. But I enjoyed it enough to be excited to see the the authors wrote a 2nd novel in the same world, which I have now added to my TBR. My 14-year-old daughter also enjoyed this book, which I think is just as important, since she’s actually the target audience for the book (and I am definitely not). I do recommend it to anyone of any age who enjoys darker fantasies written for teens.

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Book Review: Monster

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Monster
by Frank Peretti

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian thriller

When Reed Shelton’s wife Beck disappears at the start of a survival weekend, many people from the nearby area band together to try to track her in the wilderness. But strange things are happening in the woods, and soon Beck isn’t the only victim. Finding her alive becomes more and more uncertain, and the monster in the woods may not be what anyone thinks.

This book took multiple turns from what I expected, starting with actually following Beck during much of her disappearance. As Reed and Beck’s friends try to get to the truth of what is going on in the woods, there are various twists and suspenseful moments. Just what I expect from a Peretti novel, right down to the search for truth. My only real issue is how Reed treats his wife. She has some fairly severe anxieties, and he wants to get her out of the house and into the woods, thinking it will help her, and he may be right, but he’s pretty pushy and not always very nice.

I put off reading this novel for a long time, even though Peretti has been my favorite author for years. Maybe it was because I didn’t think anything could live up to The Oath, my favorite Peretti novel, or maybe it was because my husband’s super-brief summary of the book made it sound uninteresting. It didn’t unseat my favorites, but I should have trusted my favorite author and read this book a long time ago. Though the main characters in the book are Christian and Peretti definitely questions evolution in this novel, it’s not preachy at all. If you enjoy thriller novels with a little bit of science involved, you might consider giving this one a try.

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Book Review: A Dream within a Dream

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A Dream within a Dream
Coffey & Hill #3
by Mike Nappa

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Thriller/suspense, Christian

Private investigator Trudi Coffey and her ex-husband, ex-CIA agent, ex-private investigator, now Atlanta cop, Samuel Hill are separately pointed to a man known as Dream, who has knowledge highly prized by multiple different agencies. His well-being is in danger, possibly his life, and he is suffering from PTSD that has left him with holes in his memory.

This book delivers excitement, suspense, and intrigue like the other two in the series. The trend of involving writings of Edgar Allen Poe also continues, including another character in need who is named after a Poe work, this time the troubled and much sought-after Dream. He provides the first-person, present-tense perspective throughout this story as he relates to us various different events from his past that led to him being in his current predicament. The issue, though, is that these different events are jumbled together in the telling. This is indicative of the way he is processing his past and current events that bring up difficult memories, but I kept waiting for things to clear up and make more sense, and they never completely did.

Trudi and Samuel provide the other perspectives (3rd person, past tense), and while Trudi’s is familiar and provides the clearest narrative, Samuel’s is the other main reason I didn’t like this as much as I did the previous 2 books in the series. There’s just too much going on. The storyline about Dream and some stolen artwork was complex enough, to my mind, that adding a family from the Middle East coming after Samuel because he was involved in the death of one of their own was unnecessary. In the end, it seemed to only be in there to give us a particular ending, which wasn’t really my favorite kind of ending anyway. It doesn’t really leave it open for more books in this series, though some feel that it does and I’d certainly love to see more Coffey & Hill someday.

This book may not have quite held up to the high standard set by the previous 2 books in the series, but I still enjoyed it overall. And I am so glad I found this series in general, as it’s a new favorite for me. I definitely recommend it to fans of suspense and thriller novels, especially with a Christian leaning, and you don’t necessarily need to read them in order.

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Book Review: The Raven

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The Raven
Coffey & Hill #2
by Mike Nappa

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Thriller/suspense, Christian

When a street magician (deception specialist), who calls himself The Raven and tends to pay his rent with what he can steal out of the pockets in his audience, gets in over his head with a local politician and his enforcers, he finds himself in the middle of a mysterious plot code-named “Nevermore.” Private investigator Trudi Coffey and her ex-husband, ex-CIA agent, ex-private investigator, now Atlanta cop, Samuel Hill race to uncover the details of the plot and stop it before it, whatever it even is, can happen.

For as much as I liked the previous book in this series, I liked this one even more. It kept me in suspense all throughout, with high stakes, real danger, and well-developed characters. Nappa made me care about people on both sides—good guys and bad guys alike. Though Coffey and Hill are the overall focus of the series, The Raven was really the protagonist in this story, with his attempts to turn his life around and some backstory that culminated in a couple of very emotional moments. I didn’t care for Raven’s insta-crush on Trudi, but overall, it was downplayed enough to not be a problem. 

Like the previous book, this one also has three perspectives: Trudi Coffey, a woman named Bliss that is connected to Nevermore in some way, and The Raven (whose POV is in 1st-person, present tense, while the other two are 3rd-person, past tense). There is also a lot of jumping around in time, which seems to be one of the biggest issues for other people. Even when a chapter starts in “present time,” it will sometimes jump back and tell something that happened minutes, hours, or days earlier, before getting back to “now.” I didn’t have a problem with that flow; in fact, I think it really added to the suspense.

This book had a little more Christian content in it than the previous, which only took the form of Trudi recently becoming a Christian and trying to filter her life through that newish lens. The Raven brings more of that into the story, struggling with an upbringing as a pastor’s son and his guilt over some particularly bad things he’s done in his life. That and the lessened violence and gore (compared to the previous) are probably the biggest contributors to my higher rating of this book. Needless to say, I loved this book and recommend it to fans of suspense and thriller novels, especially with a Christian leaning.

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Audiobook Review: Nightmare Academy

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Nightmare Academy
Veritas Project #2
by Frank Peretti
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My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA Christian thriller

I’ve read this book many times in the past (see review here), but this was my first time listening to the audiobook. I knew in advance that it was abridged, but while that wasn’t a huge issue for the previous book, I felt like too much information was missing from this one. In particular, a few things that happen in the story are referred to later, but they were missing from the audiobook telling. Though I wholeheartedly recommend this book in general, and I enjoy Peretti narrating his books, I don’t really recommend listening to this abridged version.

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Book Review: The Visitation

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The Visitation
by Frank Peretti

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian thriller

When supernatural religious sightings occur in a small town, former pastor Travis Jordan isn’t interested in getting involved. But then a man claiming to be Jesus Christ, though without necessarily saying those words, takes a special interest in Travis. While the national media and many pilgrims flock to the town looking for a certain brand of spiritual awakening, Travis is headed toward a confrontation that might test everything he’s ever believed.

I read this book many years ago, when I was a teenager or young adult, and I remember not caring for it all that much. While reading it again now, I came to realize that, most likely, I didn’t fully get it back then. I’m not saying that this book can only be appreciated by someone who grew up in the church, is old enough to have seen many years of “church stuff,” and has become disillusioned by it, but I think it helps a lot. Travis’s church background reminds me quite a bit of the types of churches I grew up in and the movement my family traveled to take part in, and for all of the promises and flash promised, it’s really easy to lose God in all of that. That is what Travis is dealing with as his small town becomes a mecca for those who are looking for healing and inspiration, but not necessarily salvation.

The vehicle for this plot, though, is the man with scars on his wrists who mostly provides what people are looking for. Local clergy debate whether or not his deeds are from God, and though this is a small town, there are a lot of different churches, though it doesn’t appear that many of them are biblically sound. This might be normal, but it makes me really sad. In fact, the whole book made me sad, and what makes the story all the more realistic is that there isn’t exactly a “happy ending” for the bulk of the people. I’d say the main takeaway from this is a reminder to not let tradition and religious trappings get in the way of what Christianity should be—a relationship with Jesus. Peretti’s signature writing style brings suspense to the story, and while I think the subject matter isn’t going to be for everyone, if it sounds like something you’re interested in, I definitely recommend it.

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Book Review: Annabel Lee

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Annabel Lee
Coffey & Hill #1
by Mike Nappa

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Thriller/suspense, Christian

When an eleven-year-old girl is hidden in an underground bunker by her uncle and told to not open the door for even him, unless he gives her the secret passcode, she doesn’t know why she’s there or how long she might be alone in the room with only a guard dog as company. Private investigators Trudi Coffey and Samuel Hill are turned onto the hunt for something secret and hidden, never expecting it to be a human being.

This book hooked me from the beginning and didn’t let up. It was fast-paced, suspenseful, and intriguing with some well-developed characters. I particularly like the bond that forms between two of those characters, though I think it’d be a spoiler to say who they are. It’s not Coffey and Hill, though, not because they aren’t good characters and good partners, but they were once married and are now divorced. And though the book seems to be leading toward a possible future reconciliation, at least as partners (they were also partners in a private investigation business when they were married), I could take or leave a reconciliation of romance, because one particular thing that Samuel did while they were married is something I know I could never get over. If Trudi can in a future book, good for her.

The book is told from three perspectives: Trudi Coffey’s and a mysterious ex-Special Forces man called The Mute’s are in 3rd person, past tense, and then there’s Annabel Lee (the 11-year-old girl), whose perspective is in 1st person, present tense. Normally this kind of changing between tenses and POV types bothers me, but I found that I didn’t mind it in this book. I suppose an author’s style can really affect how well it works. There was something about the writing that reminded me a lot of Frank Peretti or (early) Ted Dekker books I’ve enjoyed. I would not call this a Christian-genre book, exactly, but more like a book written with a Christian worldview, as Trudi had become a Christian in the years before the story and tries to filter her life through that newish lens. On the other hand, there are some really brutal and gory fight scenes in and around the climax. It got to be just a bit too much for me, which is the reason for the half-star detraction. Outside of that, I loved this book and recommend it to fans of suspense and thriller novels, especially with a Christian leaning.

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Book Review: Signs of Life

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Signs of Life
by Creston Mapes

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian thriller

Investigator Wayne Deetz has the distinction of interrogating the perpetrator of a mass shooting, trying to get the answers about why, how, and possibly with what help. Months after the shooting, Tyson Cooper, whose wife was killed during the event, struggles to move on with his life and begins to question what right the shooter has to live. Deetz’s and Cooper’s stories are told in alternating chapters, with Deetz diving into the interrogation mere hours after the event and Cooper’s starting 10 months later.

I wasn’t entirely sure what the core of this story would be—a psychological dive into the mind of a mass killer, a look at the aftermath of his victims? I didn’t really see how it could be an action-packed race to stop a terrible event from happening, considering that the synopsis makes it clear the mass shooting has already happened. In the end, though, there was some of that as well as the look at the aftermath of the victims, in the form of more than one person who lost someone that day. I can’t really say there was much psychology on the killer’s side shown, which is not a problem, partly because it would have made the book much darker than I would prefer and also because it’s not really said to be about that. The story starts out pretty slowly and continues that way for more than half of the book. Then suddenly, it’s super tense and hurtling toward a major climax. The pacing could have been better, but I’ll admit that I was pretty caught up in the book in the last third.

A lot of my problems came in small bits and pieces here and there. I didn’t have any issues with the writing style (other than the aforementioned pacing), though there were several places that I’m certain a proofreader should have caught an extra comma here or there, or one spot where a couple of sentences at the beginning of a chapter were literally repeated at the beginning of another, 2 chapters later (this book was self-published, fyi). But for example, why, in a book set in pretty modern times especially, did the author choose to have one of the characters make the distinction that his son’s girlfriend was black (but he and his wife have decided they’re are okay with it) and that he worried what family and friends might think? Why was there such a large focus on violent video games as the catalyst for the shooter’s rampage, when literally a quick search online shows that there really isn’t any correlation (maybe unless the perpetrator is already mentally unstable). I have a few other examples that I marked in my notes, but I don’t want to unbalance the review.

The Christian angle in this book is overall pretty good. Cooper and his late wife were Christians, but he has decided that God is not what He claims to be in the Bible, if he could let such a wonderful woman as his wife die (actually, I think he’s in danger of putting her on a pedestal, unless she really is as perfect as his reminiscences would have us believe). Deetz is an unbeliever but is introduced to Christianity by his son, who attends what sounds like a mega-church. Two different starting points lead to some interesting conversations about God. In the end, I wish I had liked this book more, but I didn’t dislike it either. It’s clear that plenty of fans of the genre liked it more than I did, so if you’re interested, definitely check it out. I have another Creston Mapes book on my shelf, given to me by a friend, so I’ll be interested to read another book by this author.

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Book Review: A Fire to Kindle

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A Fire to Kindle
by Daniel Dydek

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy thriller

Rae-Anna’s left-handedness has made her something of an outcast in a time when it’s seen as a curse. Finding refuge, such as it is, amongst the Sisters of a local convent seems to be her only recourse. But even they aren’t entirely comfortable with her, and that’s before a mysterious, supernatural blue flame that she encounters at a crypt filled with evil men enters her and begins to appear on her cursed hand. Whether the fire is friend or foe, she can’t say for sure…at least, not until the battle comes.

I knew going into this that there was going to be some kind of fantasy or supernatural element to it, given the premise of the fire with the mysterious force behind it—though that mysterious force wasn’t nearly as much of a mystery to me as it seems to be to everyone else in the story. With some time and context eventually given, it became apparent that Rae-Anna wasn’t terribly well-versed in the Bible. In the end, though, what I realized is that this book is quite a bit more fantasy/supernatural than I was expecting, and quite a bit different in those elements than I prefer.

The story moves fairly slowly for maybe half the book, as Rae-Anna tries to understand what the fire wants from her and the Sisters treat her terribly because of it. Then it takes a sudden sharp turn into more of a horror story. I don’t want to give too much away, but I think it’s fair to warn any potential readers that there’s some zombie/skeleton action in this book, especially since it is not billed as that kind of story whatsoever. It’s really not my preference in fiction, and especially not something I look for in Christian fiction. In the end, (I think) I understood the underlying message the author wanted to get across with this book, but it felt a lot like two completely different stories were mashed together here—the fire that roots out the evil hearts of seemingly pious people and the undead battle that doesn’t really have a message at all, that I could see. And then after the climax of the battle is over, we have a longer wrap-up than felt necessary and an ending to the story that, again, felt like it worked with the fire plot but was completely unrelated to the minor zombie apocalypse we went through.

The author does a good job with the writing, making the story and characters sound and feel like they’re set in some vague historical time before cars, though I could not tell you where the story was meant to have taken place, even in the broadest terms. I don’t know if that mattered much, though. There are a few moments where the dialog sounds a bit more modern, but overall, I could easily imagine Rae-Anna living in this convent with nuns. This is also not something that is familiar to me, though, so it’s another reason that I felt like I wasn’t quite the right audience for the book. I mostly found myself wondering why it seemed like the characters had never heard of the Holy Spirit and the tongues of fire in Acts. But in the end, I believe there is an audience for this book and any that follow it; I just don’t think I’m that audience. If it sounds interesting to you, though, please do check it out.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

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