Sunday, February 12, 2017

Faithful by Alice Hoffman FIC Hof


I loved this book.  It begins two years after the event that changed the life of Shelby, a normal high school girl.  There was an accident.  It was truly an accident.  But that is not what it felt like to Shelby.  Helene, her best friend, lived but would never have a life.  Shelby has been overwhelmed with guilt. She has basically been living in her parents' basement and has not been having a life either.

She finally leaves her Long Island home and moves into the city with Ben.  They went to school together and later he was the one who could get drugs for her.  He treats her well.  He loves her.  But in her mind she is not worthy of love.  It takes a long time for her to believe that maybe she is worthy.  Along the way she touches the lives of others.   A well-told story of what guilt can do to a person.

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Hush, Hush by Laura Lippman MYS Lip

This is one of Lippman's Tess Monaghan mysteries.  Tess is helping to provide security for Melisandre Dawes who is involved with filming a documentary about her attempt to reconnect with her two daughters after twelve years.  Melisandre was a lawyer and she also comes from money.  She is not the easiest person to work for.  Why does she need security?  Well she is rather infamous.  Twelve years ago she left her infant daughter to die in a hot car.  She was arrested and tried in court where she was found not guilty by reason of insanity.  She left the country and left her other two daughters with their father.  Now she is back and wants to connect with the girls who are now teenagers.  Melisandre is also receiving threatening notes.

Melisandre is back in the spotlight when she becomes a prime suspect in a murder.  Tess works to figure out what really happened - both in the past and in the present.

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Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline FIC Sco

From the very beginning the reader knows that there is a sociopath at work.  The question of course is the identity of this sick person. There are a couple of good suspects in the story.  Who better to spot a sociopath than a psychiatrist?  Enter Dr. Eric Parrish a very successful one who is the head of the Psychiatric unit at a hospital  Things are going very well at the hospital.  He also has private patients whom he treats at his home.  But not everything is going well for Parrish.  He is separated from his wife, Alice, and she does not make things easy for Eric who wants to spend as much time as possible with his daughter, Hannah, who is 7. But for the most part things are going well.  And then it all starts to fall apart.

At work, where he is well-liked and respected, he is suddenly accused of sexual misconduct by a young intern.  One night at the hospital he is asked to meet with Max who is at the hospital with his grandmother who is terminal.  He is having a very hard time.  Besides dealing with the expected outcome for his grandmother, Max also suffers from OCD, has rituals that he must perform every 15 minutes and is having violent thoughts about a girl that he is working with at a tutoring center.  Eric takes him on as a private patient.  He is afraid that Max might hurt himself.  Instead the object of Max's obsession is murdered.  And Eric becomes a 'person of interest' in the investigation.

This book kept my interest from beginning to end!

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Winter at the Door by Sarah Graves MYS Gra

Lizzie Snow is a smart and likable homicide cop.  She worked in Boston but has now moved to a place called Bearkill, Maine.  She hasn't moved there in search of murderers.  Instead she has gone because of a lead she received.  Lizzie's sister was killed and her niece has been missing since then and she is determined to follow every lead. Lizzie's boss, Sheriff Chevrier, wants her there for his own reasons.  There have been several ex-local cops who have died.  It was determined that they died either by accident or by suicide - but the Sheriff doesn't believe it.  So she is one busy cop!  But of course there are some love interests.  The lead she received about her niece came from the good-looking lawman who broke her heart back in Boston.  He is trying to get her to give him a second chance.  There is also a very nice veterinarian who is quite appealing.

So there are likable characters, a bit of romance, the mystery of the multiple deaths and the dangerous attempt to rescue a young girl. What's not to love?!
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