Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Review: Suspicion by Alexandra Monir

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Suspicion by Alexandra MonirSuspicion
Alexandra Monir
Random House Childrens’ Books
Published December 9, 2014

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After her parents die in a suspicious fire at their family estate, Imogen wants nothing more to do with her family or her heritage at Rockford manor. When her cousin, once her closest friend and ally, also perishes, Imogen stands as the last relative capable of inheriting the property. She returns home alone to the site of countless childhood memories, of which she is now the last survivor. When police uncover evidence that her cousin’s death may not have been accidental, Imogen realizes the murderer must be among the faithful few left nearest to her. The truth will shock her.

This is one of those stories which begins at the climax and leaps back to its beginning to retell events as they happened. It’s not my favorite plot device, but it’s difficult not to invest in this story for its own sake. The pace is quick and the stakes only get higher, sort of like one part Princess Diaries, one part fairytale and one part suspense. It has this sort of otherworldly yet historical flavor to it. Seems odd, but in this case it turns out to be a great mix.

The storytelling is solid and the characters thoughtful and sometimes surprising. The plot is peppered with these really strange moments that at the time seem too bizarre to work into the plot, but the author does a great job of pulling all those odd moments together to make the whole story make sense.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
One instance of very mild profanity.

Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
Imogen has the power to cause plants to grow and flourish rapidly. There are rumors of a curse on the Rockford family from generations past and rumors of a secret hidden within the garden.

Violence
Police investigate the violent death of a teenaged girl. Few details given, but the cause of death was head trauma.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan and John Park Davis

Clean Fiction, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

The Map to Everywhere
Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis
Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
Published November 4, 2014

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Master Thief Fin is used to being forgettable. Moments after meeting him, no one remembers who he is. Until he meets Marrill, that is. Danger lurks around every turn when the two are swept up in a daring quest to find the missing pieces to assemble the Map to Everywhere. Fin hopes the key will lead him to his mother. Marrill simply wants to escape the fickle Pirate Stream and get back to her blessedly normal Arizona home. In order to find the map, they’ll have to outsmart a treacherous villain who sees the future and keep him from using it to end the world.

As a fan of an earlier series by Carrie Ryan, I looked forward to reading this book. Since her other book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was more of a dystopian zombie story – super well-done, by the way – I wasn’t sure what to expect from this very different tale.

This novel is light and playful, full of mischief and warmth. The use of the Pirate Stream was particularly clever, I thought, and added a sense of unpredictability to the story but also made it feel connected to our own world. The unlikely friendship that develops between Fin and Marrill is really charming.

The wordplay is fun and quirky. Fans of Andrew Peterson’s Wingfeather Saga will enjoy this book. Because of the light content, it’s a great read for older elementary school-aged readers.

Profanity and Crude Language Content
None.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Brief battle scenes. Nothing graphic or gross.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold by Iain Reading

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , ,

Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold
Iain Reading
Published November 30, 2012

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Teen adventurer Kitty Hawk’s dreams come true when she receives funding which allows her a chance to study the behavior and habits of humpback whales in waters off the coast of Alaska. Aboard her trusty De Havilland Beaver, Kitty observes and documents information about the whales from the air. The altitude gives her more than a bird’s eye view of the whales, though. When she spots a suspicious boat she fears may be carrying stolen Yukon gold, she stops to investigate – and gets swept away in a conspiracy stretching all the way back to the gold rush itself.

The story begins a bit slowly – Kitty’s whale-watching venture, while fascinating, doesn’t translate to text with a lot of power and excitement. The early chapters are peppered with flashbacks, which also slowed the story and muddled the timeline. Once Kitty becomes involved in the gold theft scheme, the author’s ability to lace history and fact in with the story becomes a lot more engrossing. As Kitty traverses the territory so long ago walked by hopeful miners, she learns a bit of the area’s history from an unlikely source.

The timing during which I read this book couldn’t have been more perfect. I read the last page aboard a cruise ship sailing the inner passage on my way to Juneau. Like Kitty, I saw humpback whales (from a boat rather than plane, though) and later had the pleasure of taking a train up through White Pass. I enjoyed having some background and a little bit of fantasy about the area on my visit. Young readers interested in Alaska and the history of the gold rush would enjoy the balance of history and fiction in the story.

Profanity and Crude Language Content
Mild profanity throughout, moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
A man threatens others at gun point. No shots are fired.

Drug Content
Men drink beer around a campfire.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Jova by Chris Ferguson

Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Jova
Chris Ferguson
Bravestar Studios
Published December 2, 2013

Amazon | Goodreads

On the night of her senior prom, Jova’s whole world shifts into nightmare. Zombies lunge onto the dance floor, attacking all within their reach. Jova and several other girls escape the mayhem and hole up in the school, struggling to survive each new day. Hunted by cannibalistic men and plague-ridden zombies, the girls defend themselves with hand-made weapons and fierce determination. When the school is compromised, Jova and her friends are forced to flee into the wilds of a destroyed world where even the water is poisonous. Survival depends on choosing the right allies. The future depends on destroying their enemies.

Reading this novel is sort of like walking through a mine field. Random characters and unexpected plot twists burst into the story. Sometimes they connect with the larger plot and other times they pop in and fade out, leaving the reader to do a little head scratching. Some plot elements lack support either from the story world or want of explained logic. The girls barricade themselves inside their old school, but there doesn’t seem to be any food or water sources available in the area. At one point they decide that the way to secure the future is to have babies. It’s difficult to see this as a reasonable idea while they are without shelter and provisions, not to mention that men are extremely dangerous enemies.

What Ferguson does well is focus not only on the threat from the zombies, but explore the other groups who might rise to power in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. Cannibals (though considering the zombie situation this seems dangerous) and drug lords seek food sources and slaves, adding to Jova’s list of bad guys to be destroyed. Girl-power juices run high. These girls are armed and ready to kill.

Language Content
Heavy profanity, moderate frequency.

Sexual Content
Though many of the girls wear purity rings and vow to preserve their virginity until marriage, the loneliness wears on them. Several of the girls begin relationships with one another. Details are limited, but some crude comments and sexual descriptions are included.

As the girls fear more and more for survival, they decide that the best way to secure a future is to find men with whom they can become pregnant (sperm donors, not fathers to help raise their children), by force if necessary. Again, details are limited, but some brief descriptions are included.

Spiritual Content
The girls spend time in prayer and chapel services during their time in the school. They discover a cave with Satanist worship symbols and indications of human sacrifice. One girl crosses out the bad symbols and draws symbols for good spells over them. Later, Jova cries out to God to answer for why terrible things have happened to her and her friends. The sky crackles with thunder in an intense moment in which Jova confronts God with her faith and disappointments. While she receives a response, it is less a Moses-on-the-mountain moment and more a miracle moved on and not mentioned again.

Violence
The girls tackle zombies and vile men called hunters, who feast on human flesh and repeatedly try to kill them. There’s a fair amount of gore and some icky zombie descriptions. A naked man allies himself with the girls and convinces them to eat human flesh.

Drug Content
A man turns his friends over to an enemy in exchange for a large amount of heroin.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Review: Who Could It Be at This Hour by Lemony Snicket

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Paranormal, , ,

Who Could It Be At This Hour?
Lemony Snicket
Little, Brown and Company
Published October 24, 2012

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Thirteen year-old Lemony Snicket is ready to begin a thrilling adventure as an apprentice to a detective. His first assignment leads him and his confident companion to the small town of Stan’d-by-the-Sea. Snicket soon discovers the object he’s been hired to recover is part of a complex plot which will risk more than his apprenticeship to solve.

As Snicket works to uncover clues with the aid of his bungling mentor, he often finds himself asking the wrong questions, and later regrets the consequences. His partner, though more experienced, often overlooks evidence or logic, and though Snicket disagrees with her decisions, he remains positive and respectful toward her. The story maintains the 1950s feel of a classic spy novel.

Fans of Snicket’s earlier infamous series will find a slightly more sophisticated tone draped over the same tongue-in-cheek humor and playfulness in the first volume of the series All the Wrong Questions. Recommended for ages eight to twelve.

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Language Content
No profanity or crude language.

Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
Snicket discovers a woman tied up in a basement which is filling with water. He frees her.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: I am the Weapon by Allen Zadoff

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

I Am the Weapon
Allen Zadoff
Little, Brown and Company
Published May 13, 2014

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

You will think he’s your best friend. Then, when tragedy strikes someone close to you, he’ll disappear, fade into memory.

Since he was 12, he’s been in the Program. He moves from place to place, from one assignment to another, befriending someone close to his target and then quietly completing his mission: assassination.

But the latest mission is different. Memories swell to the surface of his mind and the daughter of his target sees him too clearly. Instead of honing in for the kill, he hangs back, hovering too close to the raw emotions of this family so recently touched by another loss.

If word of his hesitation reaches his superiors, he is as good as terminated. Despite that risk, he can’t help falling for the beautiful, tragic girl whose father he is supposed to kill. If he could understand why he was sent to destroy this man, perhaps he could still convince himself to follow orders. That’s the thing about information, though: once he starts asking questions, he can’t ignore the answers and what they mean may throw himself and the girl he loves directly in the line of fire.

Readers who like their plots fast and furious will fall face-first into the wild ride of this suspenseful story. Zadoff spools out clues about the protagonist’s traumatic past, his shockingly intense training and his history with the Program who trained him, expertly pacing the first novel of The Unknown Assassin series. Fans of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave may also enjoy this book.

Language Content
Extreme but infrequent.

Sexual Content
The boy who calls himself Benjamin finds himself caught between two aggressive girls, one of whom is not shy about offering sexual favors, including oral sex. Ben refuses her, but does briefly reference a previous sexual experience and engages in sex with another girl during the timeline of the story. Few details are given about either occurrence.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
The protagonist is a trained and deadly assassin. Though his usual method involves subtly injecting his victim with a powerful serum that causes near immediate death, occasionally he is forced to take on opponents in a much more active manner. The descriptions of these encounters are clinical and brief. Memories of his father’s capture and evident torture haunt him as well. He does not witness any ill treatment of his father, but is traumatized by the memory nonetheless.

Drug Content
A drug stored in a special pen incapacitates and kills quickly. Teens at a party enjoy alcoholic drinks.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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