Melody's Reading Corner: August 2019

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen

Melody

St. Martin's Press | January 2019 | 304 pgs

Source: Library

Fourteen years ago, Ellery Hathaway was kidnapped by a serial killer, Francis Coben. She was the only survivor among his other victims; and the credit went to Reed Markham, an FBI agent who managed to save her from the killer's closet all those years ago. Once a shocking news and a face recognised by all, in present day Ellery has grown up and ditched her old self, name and all, to become a police officer in sleepy Woodbury, Massachusetts. Woodbury is a small, quiet neighbourhood with a low crime rate until three people disappeared in three years - all around Ellery's birthday when she was kidnapped those years ago.

When Ellery mentioned this information (aside from her true identity) to her superior and colleagues, no one thinks the cases are connected. Ellery and her superior somewhat has a complicated secret relationship and without his support, she has no choice but to contact agent Reed Markham. Now Reed may have made his name and fame from the Coben case, but a wrong judgement of an assignment put him on a temporary leave. With his career stalled and his marriage in shambles, Reed agrees to help with Ellery's investigation of the missing persons. When Ellery receives a severed hand around her birthday, she couldn't help wondering if someone knew her true identity. Is this someone connected to the missing persons cases? Once again, Ellery and Reed find themselves get sucked into a case which reminds them of Coben and a killer who can't seem to let go of the past.

This first novel by Joanna Schaffhausen was a riveting read with a cast of intriguing characters. Ellery was a strong character and I admired her determination in finding the truth of the cases, although sometimes I find her judgement are clouded by her emotions. The dynamics between she and Reed was an interesting read and from Ellery's perspective I think it was nice to have someone on your side, especially one who is your savior and understand the things you've been through. Overall this was a good read and although it wasn't hard to guess the perpetrator, it didn't lessen my reading experience and I'll definitely check out the next book of this series.

© 2019 Melody's Reading Corner (https://mel-reading-corner.blogspot.sg/), All Rights Reserved. If you are reading this post from other site(s), please take note that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Police procedural 8 comments |

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Melody

Albert Whitman & Company | April 2019 | 416 pgs

Source: Library

In the kingdom of Yan, soothsayers are treated like criminals. Magic was outlawed centuries ago and if they are found or if anyone has contact with them they'll be punishable by death. Princess Hesina knew of the consequences should she be seen contacting one, but she has no choice. She believed her father, King Wen, was murdered and in order to find some clues she has to engage the aid of a soothsayer named Silver Iris.

Through the information provided by Silver Iris, Hesina is to find a convict who'll represent her in court. Skeptical at first, Hesina knew she has nothing to lose but to seek help from Akira. Akira proves to be an intelligent investigator aside from his stealing habits; and soon Hesina trust him the same like her advisor-cum-brother, Caiyan. Despite they've no blood relation, Hesina treat him and his twin sister, Lilian, like family.

Aside from the challenges of finding the truth and risk getting caught, Hesina soon discover that there are secrecy and conspiracies hidden in their own court. With so many things at stake, will she be able to find the truth and to seek justice for her father?

This debut YA fantasy by Joan He surprised me on many levels and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I was enamoured by the world-building and even the characterers were an intriguing cast. Hesina may be the main character but I was more intrigued with Akira given his past and his mysterious demeanour. The story also added some interesting aspect of the palace politics of an ancient Chinese dynasty and all these elements made this an intriguing read to this reader. The only little complaint I've is the ending left me wanting for more and I hope the sequel wouldn't be a long wait.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Fantasy, Young Adult 8 comments |

The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

Melody

William Morrow | August 2019 | 464 pgs

Source: Publisher via Edelweiss

Karin Slaughter is one of the best authors I've come across for writing dark and compelling suspense thrillers. Some of her books aren't always easy to read but she captures the realism and sensitivity behind her stories which will make you think and feel for the characters.

The story begins with a bang with a kidnapping scene. Michelle Spivey, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control, was kidnapped when she and her teenage daughter were out at a shopping center parking lot. The police are still trying to locate her but to no avail.

One month later, two explosions were heard at Emory University. Situated in the busiest city in Atlanta, there are also hospitals and the CDC within the neighbourhood. The explosions led medical examiner, Sara Linton, and her partner, Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rushed out from their place to investigate the scene. Unfortunately, the explosion incident was simply a conspiracy act to lure Sara out; and in no time Sara was abducted by a team of assailants who has a secret agenda which the reader wouldn't know until later. Devastated, Will approaches his boss and colleague, Amanda Wagner and Faith Mitchell, to devise a plan and hoping to persuade them into allowing him to go undercover in order to save Sara.

As the story progresses, the reader would find out why Michelle and Sara are being targeted by the assailants and the truth will hit anyone's gut because this group of people used to be in paramilitary units and they fight for a cause which they think is rightful and having the power to control. In other words, it's a white supremacist domestic terrorism and the author has painted a frightening world which is not far from realism. As you may have guessed, this is a fast-paced and action-packed story and you'll feel for the characters as you read further. Despite this is the ninth installment of the Will Trent series, it works as a stand-alone. I may not have read all of Karin Slaughter's books but so far I've enjoyed those I read.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Police procedural, Suspense Thriller 8 comments |

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Melody

HarperCollins Publishers | October 2017 | 560 pgs (Large Print)

Source: Library

Amber Patterson always feels she's a nobody and she's tired of her life. But, she's had her eyes set on the rich and beautiful Daphne Parrish and she intends to use her as her path towards power and money. Knowing Daphne had a sister who died from cystic fibrosis and has set up a fund foundation in her memory, Amber feigned the same fate with an nonexistent sister with the same illness. It didn't take long for her to blend into Daphne's life, and in no time they become best friends.

But Amber has set her goal far; being associated with the Parrishes isn't enough for her. She wants more and she intends to steal Jackson, Daphne's husband, and be the next Mrs. Parrish. But Jackson is a devoted husband and only has his eyes on Daphne; and then there's also their two young daughters who Amber has to please. Amber has worked out a plan but her past may bring her down if she's not careful.

At its core, this domestic suspense is about obsession and revenge. Divided into three parts, Amber's voice took the first part and Daphne's the second. The last part is written in third voice and wrapped up the overall story. Amber's voice, I think, will irritate many readers because she was passive, manipulative and most of all she didn't seem remorseful. Daphne, on the other hand, appeared more sincere and compliant in the beginning but perspectives started to shift once we get to know more about Daphne as well and unfortunately, this is also when the story started to go downhill.

Having read many suspense thrillers with unlikeable and/or unreliable characters, I think some of their actions or motives could be justified depending on circumstances but in this case I just couldn't fathom the logic and the truth behind the outcome. Suspense-wise, it was not a bad one but the ending left me feeling more than unsettled. I don't agree with the resolution (if one has to call it that) at all and thought that the bigger, underlying issue (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers) should be rectified instead of being deemed as an "accomplishment".

Labels: 3 stars, Book Review, Psychological Suspense 8 comments |

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Melody

HarperCollins | January 2019 | 400 pgs

Source: Purchased

"Some people, given just the right amount of pressure, taken out of their usual, comfortable environments, don't need much encouragement at all to become monsters." ~ Pg 64

There's something about the remote wilderness and the snowbound situation that are so widely featured and we find irresistible in books, especially thrillers. I'm a sucker for such books, and they remind me so much about Agatha Christie's mysteries novels, which I loved. Anyway, this was a buddy read with my blogging friend, Lark, and I hope you'll enjoy reading our thoughts on it (click here to Lark's blog.)

So in this story we have a group of nine old college friends meeting up at a remote hunting lodge in the wintry landscapes of the Scottish highlands. It's kind of a tradition for them to gather and to celebrate the arrival of the new year but no one expects that they'd be snowbound. Heather and Doug, the lodge manager and the gamekeeper, have ensured the guests meet the needs until a guest goes missing. They never found the guest but Doug did find a body. By the look of the body it seemed it was no accident and this speculation sent Heather in a frenzy state. You see, Heather had experienced something which made her chose to work far away from the city. Doug is the same, but what he'd gone through was far more complicated and traumatic.

Onto the nine friends, we've the beautiful and perfect couple, Julien and Miranda. Married couple Giles and Samira are happily devoted to their 6-month-old baby. Mark and Emma, another couple with the latter more as a new addition than old college-mates. And then there's gay couple, Nick and Bo. Finally, there's Katie who's single and a successful lawyer. But that's not all, there's an Icelandic couple who had booked the lodge earlier as well, much to the group's chagrin. So what's the dynamic amid this group of people and what really happened?

This book was unputdownable right from the beginning. Though I found the multiple POVs a bit confusing initially, I got over it pretty quickly once I had familiarised with the characters and that the story was well under way. Aside from all the drama and suspense, one interesting aspect of this story is the identity of the victim isn't revealed until the last few chapters. While I'd had a good guess over this, I was still surprised by a few circumstances as the story progresses. Overall it was an engrossing suspense; and all the more better I read it with Lark as we'd fun discussing our thoughts thereafter.

As like our previous buddy reads, we'll ask each other some questions on the book and here's my answers to her questions:

1) In your opinion, did telling the story from multiple viewpoints add to the plot, or subtract from it? Which character's POV was your favorite? And who was your least favorite character?

This is a good question. I love reading different POVs as you can find out a lot about the characters and what they're thinking. However, they can be tricky as having too many might lead to confusion. I suppose it's fine as long as the viewpoints contribute to the story; and what's more it's fun to analyze the characters and see if we're right about them towards the end.

I think my favourite POV in this book will be Miranda. She was the most interesting person among all and she was the kind many women would envy and hate for her beauty, confidence and arrogance. She wasn't my favourite character, though, but her story was ever so "colourful" and dramatic. And my least favourite character would be Julien.

2) Did you have a favorite line/quote ... or moment from the book?

Yes; it's right up at the beginning of this post. The quote says everything about the characters here and I couldn't agree more.

Labels: 3.5 stars, Book Review, Psychological Thriller 8 comments |

Urban Legend II bk. 4: Food Delivery [都市传说第二部4: 外送]

Melody

奇幻基地 | February 2018 | 304 pgs

Source: Library

This is book 4 of the second urban legend series by Ling Jing (笭菁). All her books read as stand-alones and her stories are based on various urban legends with some imaginations and other elements of her own.

Note: The main characters in this series are different from the first series as the author felt a change for new blood is necessary to offer a new and different perspective.

Urban Legend origin: Hong Kong, 1989. An eatery received a food order call and had one of their staff to deliver the food. However, the boss discovered some hell bank notes among the stack of money he'd collected the next day. The same incident happened the following day and thinking the staff was playing a prank on him, he decided to make the delivery himself and had ensured it's genuine money he collected. He kept the money aside from the others but the next day what he found was, as you guessed, hell bank notes. He reported this incident to the police and this led to the discovery of four corpses in the apartment. But what most shocking was although the forensic concluded these bodies had been dead for a week, the food found inside their stomach were recent. And the hell bank notes had the fingerprints of the same deceased. The report later revealed they died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Summary: When one of the characters encountered the same incident as the urban legend origin, the members of the Urban Legend Society decided that they'd visit the delivery address again for further investigation. However, the place couldn't be found. Before this, there are news of some delivery staff who had gone missing and they wondered if the two are related. When they did find the place again, they discovered there's more than meets the eye surrounding the death of the deceased and their guess is murder. But they didn't realise that they'd stepped into another dimension until later and they've to find their way back or they'd be trapped within forever.

My thoughts: This story was scary from the origin's perspective. Imagine the eatery's boss suspected nothing and have the staff continued to deliver the food, does that mean the case will never surface? Onto the fiction, I think the feature of the other dimension connects well with the urban legend origin. What appeared to be a supernatural event became a horrific murder case and I liked how they're all interlinked and solved in the end. My verdict is, you can never know what humans are capable of doing and in some ways they're more terrifying than ghosts.

Labels: 4 stars, Book Review, Chinese Fiction, Horror, Suspense Thriller 6 comments |

Into the Jungle by Erica Ferencik

Melody

Scout Press| May 2019| 336 pgs

Source: Library

Erica Ferencik's first novel (The River at Night) takes readers to the remote Allagash wilderness whereby hiking and rafting were part of the activities the characters had to play. In this second book, she transports us to the Bolivian jungle in which contact with the outside world is minimal and that threats come in all forms of shapes and sizes.

Our protagonist, Lily Bushwold, thought she'd escape the miserable life of living in foster homes and is looking forward to her teaching job in Cochabamba until she realises the gig falls through and she is stuck with a cleaning job. Together with a few girls they stay in a local hostel and occasionally Lily will resume her stealing habits. Her life begins to take a turn after meeting a man named Omar. Omar grew up in a remote jungle village in Ayachero but decided to make a living in the city of Cochabamba. Lily and Omar fell in love; but that bliss is short-lived as Omar has to return to Ayachero after hearing the death of his young nephew. Killed by a jaguar, the Ayachero residents decided that a hunt is inevitable and they want Omar to join in with their mission. Omar leave the choice to Lily as to whether or not to follow him; and ultimately Lily chose to go with him as she thought it'd also be an eye-opening experience for her.

Lily would never imagine what'd be in store for her in the following months. Aside from the wild and deadly creatures, she also faces the threat of lawless poachers as well as various infectious diseases which may take away one's life easily if they aren't careful. Lily's excursion into the wilderness suddenly becomes a fight for survival and would she be able to walk out of Ayachero alive given all the unforeseeable challenges?

This was a totally different take from the author's first novel. While both books' have the wilderness theme as their setting, this book didn't have the unreliable and complicated characters like her first book. This was a straightforward thriller with Mother Nature and nasty creatures as threats; and of course there are villians as well in the form of poachers and the likes. After reading several thrillers with unlikeable and unreliable characters lately, this was a refreshing read in which I didn't have to guess the whodunit but to live vicariously through Lily's experiences in the Bolivian jungle (after all I doubt I'd have that kind of courage or skills to step into this wilderness no matter how tranquil and beautiful the place might be). Character-wise, Omar was easy to like from the start. He taught Lily many things; and he was so protective of her that it'd melt any girl's heart. Lily, on the other hand, took me a while to warm up to her but she won me over gradually and I found myself rooting for her for the obstacles and challenges she's to face later. Overall I enjoyed reading this book and I'm really curious where the author would take us in her next book.

Labels: 4 stars, Adventure Thriller, Book Review 8 comments |

Our Little Secret by Roz Nay

Melody

St. Martin's Press | April 2018 | 272 pgs

Source: Library

Our Little Secret, at its core, is a love story and the case of a missing woman.

The book opens with our protagonist, Angela Petitjean, being interviewed by Detective Novak after Saskia was found missing. Angela claims she has no knowledge or involvement of Saskia's disappearance, as she kept saying to the police before Novak. But she can tell Novak is different from the rest, and she is willing to tell her story on the condition that Novak listen if he wants answers from her.

And so Angela begins her story. It all started with knowing a boy called HP during her teenage years. Angela didn't have many friends and HP was the one who befriended and acted like her protector. Their friendship blossomed; and it didn't take long for them to fall in love. When Angela left to pursue her studies, Saskia walked into HP's life. Saskia was warm and cheerful; and her charms was hard to resist. By the time Angela realised something has changed between her and HP, it was a little too late. Her story goes on to reveal her life after HP and Saskia, but is she responsible for Saskia's disappearance? Or is there something more than meets the eye? This is the question which Novak and the reader will keep asking until the last chapter.

This is not your typical psychological suspense with many red herrings and twists; in fact there wasn't much actions involved but just the exchanges between Angela and Detective Novak as well as her account of the past. Despite the lack of "real life" events, the suspense element is still coming on strong as Angela's voice is distinctive and she was capable in pulling you along with her for a trip down to memory lane. The book may be a slow-burn but there wasn't a bored moment throughout my reading journey. And then not to mention the author's writing sucked me in and I'll be looking forward to seeing what she'll be writing next.