Beautiful Ugly is a 2025 psychological thriller novel by Alice Feeney.
The book follows Grady Green, a once-successful author who retreats to a remote Scottish island after his wife Abby’s disappearance, only to encounter unsettling events and a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Not normally a fan of anything horror,— or even creepy — this book was interesting enough to keep me going.
The twists and turns are not believable — but it’s still worth reading.
The 33rd book in the Lucas Davenport series is excellent. One of the best.
In Judgment Prey (2023) Davenport and Flowers are brought in to help with the investigation of the murder of a federal judge and his two young sons.
As they track down various suspects, they aren’t getting very far.
With each potential lead flawed, Davenport and Flowers are determined to chase every theory until they figure out who killed the Sands. But when they find themselves being stonewalled by the most unlikely of forces, the two wonder if perhaps each misdirection could lead them closer to the truth.
I’ve resumed reading Clifton Chronicles.
Archer is a terrific story teller.
The book picks up after the events in The Sins of the Father, with the House of Lords having to decide who will be the heir to the fortune of Hugo Barrington.
The vote ends with a tie, which prompts the Lord Chancellor to vote in favor of Giles Barrington.
This leaves Clifton free to marry Emma Barrington …
It goes on from there.
Personally, I most liked the story thread of Sebastian Clifton and his sister.
Sebastian returns to school and is focused on gaining admission to Cambridge University. However, he is rusticated because of certain misdemeanours …
Running off to London, Sebastian is robbed by a pickpocket. Without money, he visits his friend Bruno Martinez.
Bruno’s father (a crook) offers the 17-year-old 100 pounds if he carries a sculpture to London from Argentina. It contains eight million pounds in fake £5 notes originally produced by the NAZIs.
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Wow. An original book.
Nothing to See Here (2019) by Kevin Wilson
I loved the unusual and believable dialogue. A convincing, if odd, friendship.
Lillian is 28 and in a dead-end job.
Years ago, she was a scholarship student at an elite boarding school but was wrongly expelled when her privileged best friend Madison was caught with drugs.
Now Madison is married to a US senator and has two problem stepchildren who spontaneously combust whenever they get angry or upset.
Madison employs Lillian as the children’s guardian for the summer and the trio of outsiders discover they have much in common.
Funny, surreal and tender, Nothing to See Here portrays an unconventional, dysfunctional family in need of repair.
Guardian review
Roberta Stalzer:
I’m giving it a 5 star rating for its originality and the author’s ability to make me believe the idea of kids starting on fire when stressed, didn’t seem particularly odd. A fun read.
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
“I can’t believe how good this book is…. It’s wholly original. It’s also perfect….
Wilson writes with such a light touch….
The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming.
You’re laughing so hard you don’t even realize that you’ve suddenly caught fire.”
A.I. summary:
Shell Game is the 19th novel in Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski series, published in 2018, where the Chicago P.I. investigates a murder case involving her friend Lotty Herschel’s nephew, Felix, who is framed for the crime.
The plot intertwines with the disappearance of V.I.’s niece and involves a complex web of stolen antiquities, Russian mobsters, and a shadowy network of international criminals, forcing V.I. to confront powerful figures and navigate dangerous situations.
Key aspects of the novel:
This was my 3rd Paretsky novel. They are weirdly rambling. She seems to suffer a lot of physical damage every novel.
Interesting. But I wouldn’t these books brilliant.
Nightlife is his 2006 book.
Well written, as always. But there’s no real resolution in the battle of the ladies.
A detective’s murder investigation takes a perilous turn when she becomes the elusive serial killer’s next target …
When the cousin of Los Angeles underworld figure Hugo Poole is found shot to death in his home in Portland, Oregon, homicide detective Catherine Hobbes is determined to solve the case.
But her feelings, and the investigation, are complicated when Hugo simultaneously hires private detective Joe Pitt.
As Joe and Catherine form an uneasy alliance, the murder count rises. Following the evidence, Catherine finds herself in a deadly contest with a cunning female adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.
A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer (2008) is another of his great stories. In fact, the author considers this his best book.
A contemporary retelling of Dumas’s 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Archer spent 2 years in Belmarsh Prison, featured in this book, for perjury and perverting the course of justice. He writes what he knows.
A pub fight results in a stabbing death.
Danny is wrongly blamed for the murder in a well-orchestrated plot by Spencer (a barrister) and his friends: a popular actor, a drug-addicted aristocrat, and a young estate agent.
Sentenced to 22 years in Belmarsh prison, Danny befriends 2 cellmates, Albert Crann, known as “Big Al,” and Sir Nicholas Moncrieff.
How can Danny get out of prison? Clear his name? And bring justice to Spencer?
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For me, it’s the ending of the story that makes this a fantastic read.
The courtroom drama is a brilliant conclusion.
Sin City Treachery: An AJ Docker and Banshee Thriller is a light read — but engaging and entertaining.
“Doc” Docker is a medical professional. But the star of the show is his retired police dog, Banshee.
His sidekick Rick is another hilarious character.
Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world, hosts an F1 race, the largest sporting event in the city’s history and a prime target for terrorism.
With over a half million people descending on the strip for the event, a bomb detonates in a parking garage days before the race.
In the emergency room, Doc fights to save the lives of a pregnant doctor and her premature baby injured in the blast, spurring him to risk his own life to find justice for the victims.
He is joined by his girlfriend, Lana, a smart, ambitious reporter, his friend and colleague, Rick, and his trained ex police dog Banshee.
Their investigation takes them from a seedy bar to iconic landmarks around Las Vegas and crescendo on the night of the race when chaos reigns in the city.
Excellent.
The Informant surprisingly finds Elizabeth Waring, now now high up in the Organized Crime Division of the Justice Department, visited by the professional killer (alias Michael Schaeffer) she’d been hunting for years.
A Mafia hit team finally catches up with Schaeffer who had been in hiding. He knows they won’t stop coming and decides to take the fight to their door.
He offers Waring information on the mafia, in order to get them off his back. So begins a new assault on organized crime and an uneasy alliance between opposite sides of the law.
| The Butcher’s Boy | (1982) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Sleeping Dogs | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Informant | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Eddie’s Boy | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Good premise. But ultimately too complicated & confusing.
The 30th book in the excellent series is not one of the best. Some are calling it the worst.
Exit Strategy (2025) finds Reacher sitting in a Baltimore coffee shop. Spotting a conman taking advantage of two elderly customers, he quickly teaches a lesson. Returning the money.
THIS is the kind of story I want in these novels.
… Unfortunately it got worse.
On the way out of the coffee shop, a young man drops a note into Reacher’s pocket. That leads to a lengthy & often confusing, slow, and eventual confrontation with an interesting villain. But the plot is too complex.
I assume the new books are mostly written by Andrew. And they are not as good.
Rick McCharles 