The It Girl (2022) would seem to be yet another psychological thriller.

But it’s better than most.

A respectable murder mystery that will keep you guessing.

It is too long. Too slow.

And the protagonist is constantly annoying. I regret spending so many hours with that woman.

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term.

By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison.

Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent.

As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

A great 2024 book. Murder mystery / psychological thriller.

Set during Covid, it’s very up-to-date in terms of social media.

In this twisty thriller and “compulsive page-turner” (Harlan Coben) … a woman thinks she’s waking up to a romantic vacation—only to find a body in her rental home and her boyfriend gone.

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway weekend in New York City. Breanna’s new boyfriend, Ty, took care of everything—the train tickets, the dinner reservations, the rented four-story luxury rowhouse in Jersey City with a beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline.

But when Bree comes downstairs their final morning, Ty is nowhere to be found and there’s a stranger dead in the foyer—the missing woman the entire Internet has become obsessed with: Janelle Beckett.

Soon, both the police and an army of Internet sleuths are asking questions Bree doesn’t know how to answer.

Desperate to find Ty and to keep her own secrets buried, Bree realizes there’s only one person she can turn to: her ex-best friend, a lawyer with whom she shares a very complicated past.

Fierce, smart, and thrilling to the end, Missing White Woman not only explores “Missing White Woman” syndrome and traveling while Black, but deftly inverts the hallmarks of the domestic suspense genre to ask: How well can we truly know the people we love? And what happens to these stories when seen through the eyes of a Black woman?

Surprisingly, I haven’t read many of the Alex Cross series.

He has a Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University and has worked for both the Washington DC Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. …

… trying to solve difficult cases while attempting to maintain a relationship with his family. 

Target: Alex Cross (2018) is 26th in the series.

Kinda dumb and absurd — yet I quite enjoyed the thriller.

Someone is killing the nation’s political leaders.

Alex Cross is now on assignment to the FBI and his wife, Bree Stone, is now the chief of detectives for the DC Police.

Alex and a team of FBI agents, as well as Bree and the Secret Service must find who is behind the killings and why.

Before all the mayhem is done, the new president and many in line to succession to the Presidency have been felled.

The plot is discovered and when it is, those who solved this case are truly shocked at who was behind this and why.

T Canyon (2005) is brainless but entertaining.

A typical “thriller“.

Too much action. Too many gun shots.

Characters are cliché.

However, the setting and basic plot appeal.

The murder of a dinosaur “treasure hunter” in New Mexico.

It’s a bit confusing with too many threads:

• A moon rock missing for thirty years.
• A scientist with ambition enough to kill.
• A monk who will redeem the world.
• A dark agency with a deadly mission.
• The greatest scientific discovery of all time.

On the upside, Douglas Preston is an expert in palaeontology, working as a writer at the American Museum of Natural History for many years. A lot of his books are grounded in actual science.

Hmm. Not nearly as good as the previous novel.

In the 12th book of the Ruth Galloway series, everyone is surprised.

Ruth has a new job, home, and partner, and she is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist.

That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal.

Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this and offers to show Nelson where the other bodies are buried—but only if Ruth will do the digging.

Curious, but wary, Ruth agrees.

March tells Ruth that he killed four more women and that their bodies are buried near a village bordering the fens, said to be haunted by the Lantern Men, mysterious figures holding lights that lure travelers to their deaths.

Is Ivor March himself a lantern man, luring Ruth back to Norfolk?

What is his plan, and why is she so crucial to it?

And are the killings really over?

Silly and entertaining. I’d call this a Young Adult novel.

Jesse Q. Sutanto is a Chinese-Indonesian author.

She grew up in Singapore, Indonesia, and Oxford.

In 2021, Sutanto published her hit novel, Dial A for Aunties. 

The Good, the Bad and the Aunties (2024) is one of the sequels. A comedy.

On Meddy Chan’s honeymoon travels, the happy couple flies to Jakarta for a Chinese New Years family reunion.

… theft, hostage taking, and abduction. But it’s nothing the aunties can’t handle.

Terry Hayes is the English-born Australian screenwriter, producer and author.

His first book was the acclaimed novel I Am Pilgrim (2013).

Hayes and co-author Tammy Cohen were revealed as the writers of the tie-in novel to the film Argylle, under the pseudonym “Elly Conway”.

The Year of the Locust (2023) is his 2nd solo novel — and WHAT A NOVEL.

Any other writer would have broken it up into 3 books.

It’s LONG.

BEST consider it 3 books.

… an epic espionage thriller filled with wrath and retribution, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice, love and loss, all in the name of an almighty being.

It’s a mind-bending story of one man’s evolution from spy to savior when the world descends into “utter darkness.”

Hayes has constructed the plot as a quest narrative, taking Kane to the ends of the earth and back to save humanity from a person who has earned his place in the “pantheon of terrorism.” …

In the novel, Hayes takes us on a deep dive into the workings of the CIA and the National Security Agency when Kane prepares for each stage of his journey. The settings are immersive and the historical details remarkable.

From Afghanistan to Pakistan, from D.C. to Russia’s deep state and so many places in between, each landscape where Kane journeys is described in rich geographic detail with compelling backstories that contextualize each region’s cultures and values. …

At close to 800 pages, this is a really big book with really big themes and chapter after chapter of blockbuster action (and graphic violence), often ending in foreshadowing that cranks up the suspense.

The first three-fourths of “Year” definitely is the book many readers of Hayes’ first novel, “I Am Pilgrim” (another allusion to sacred texts), have waited 10 years to read. When the final part of the novel shifts into sci-fi territory, the sudden syncopation in the plot lines may throw some readers off. It’s bonkers and breathtaking.

Review: ‘Year of the Locust’ is a bonkers gem from the writer of blockbuster ‘I Am Pilgrim’

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m enthusiastically following Archer’s William Warwick series.

Traitors Gate is the 6th instalment.

Good story telling. Kinda dumb plots.

THE TOWER OF LONDON…

Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. But once a year, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armoury when they transport the Crown Jewels across London.

SCOTLAND YARD…

For four years, Chief Superindendent William Warwick – together with his second-in-command Inspector Ross Hogan – has been in charge of the operation. And for four years it’s run like clockwork.

THE HEIST…

But this year, everything is about to change. Because master criminal Miles Faulkner has set his heart on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history – and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favour.