Book Review: The Only One Left by Riley Sager + Just Desserts meeting reminder

The Only One Left
by Riley Sager (Sager)

When the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group used Riley Sager’s The Only One Left as our book for discussion at the February 2024 meeting, it was my first time reading anything by thriller writer Riley Sager (a pseudonym for Todd Ritter), despite the fact that he’s had a string of hit novels in the past several years.

 

The Only One Left is definitely a psychological suspense thriller, with numerous twists and turns to its plot. After being penalized for a lapse of judgement which led to the death of her last client, home healthcare worker Kit McDeere is offered a “take it or kiss your job goodbye” position providing round-the-clock aid to reclusive and paralyzed senior Lenora Hope in her decaying old mansion on the Maine coast. The catch? Lenora Hope was the young woman who was the only survivor when her family was all killed when she was 17 — the police (and most of the populace) believe she killed the rest of her clan but could never prove it. But the case remained so notorious that a sing-song schoolyard chant permeates the local culture:

 

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead

 

Kit’s introduction to the household has her meeting a colorful cast of supporting players, but it is initial interactions with the enfeebled Lenora, mute and paralyzed except for limited use of one of her arms/hands, that sets a series of mysterious events in motion. After building up some mutual trust, Kit helps Lenora use a typewriter, and one of her first messages is “I want to tell you everything”. But can Kit believe what Lenora types out? And is there anyone else who’d rather not have Lenora sharing secrets, even after 50 years have passed?

 

I fond The Only One Left to be a suspenseful, engaging story, filled with intriguing characters. Unfortunately, both I and most of the other Just Desserts attendees at our discussion agreed that we found the ending disappointing. But the journey of getting to that ending was still worth the trip!

 

( official Riley Sager web site )

 

See the handout The Works of Riley Sager prepared for the libraries Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

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If you're a mystery fan, you're invited to join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting this Thursday, March 28th, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. Tonight, we'll be discussing the the first six entries in the Flavia de Luce series by British author Alan Bradley.

 

Even if you haven't read any of the Flavia de Luce entries for this specific discussion, you can still participate, and learn about other great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

Audiobook Review: Misery by Stephen King, narrated by Lindsay Crouse

Misery
by Stephen King (Compact Disc King)

Misery was best-selling author Stephen King’s 20th book (approximately), originally released in 1987. King, to that point, was known primarily as a horror writer who often featured supernatural elements in his stories — ‘Salem’s Lot, Carrie, The Shining, Cujo, Christine, The Stand, Firestarter, Pet Sematary — he wrote Misery in part as a reaction to being pigeonholed by his fans as a particular type of writer. His ardent fans did not gracefully appreciate his classical fantasy novel, Eyes of the Dragon, and insisted he return to what he was best known for. Also, and King has been clear about this in his own non-fiction writings, he had been dealing with drug addictions and abuse, and Misery was a chance to anthropomorphize those addictions as a destructive human character.

 

In Misery, Paul Sheldon is the author of a best-selling series of Victorian romantic suspense novels featuring plucky heroine Misery Chastain — a series he has grown to despise. Sheldon has just finished a personal writing retreat at a lodge in the Rocky Mountains, having completed what he believes to be his first “serious novel”, and after too much to drink, he drives off a mountain road, overturning his car and doing himself grave bodily harm. When he next awakens, he finds himself in the remote mountain home of ex-nurse Annie Wilkes, who identifies herself as “his #1 fan” and tells Paul she pulled him from the wreckage of his car and has been treating his two broken legs. Unfortunately, Annie has more than a few screws loose, and has a hair-trigger temper. When she discovers in the latest Misery Chastain novel that Sheldon has killed off her beloved literary hero, Annie goes off the deep end. Reliant on Annie for illicit pain meds and help surviving his injuries, and aware that no-one knows where he is, Paul Sheldon has no recourse but to agree, when Annie buys him a second-hand typewriter and demands that he write a new Misery novel, resurrecting the doomed character. What follows is a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse and psychological terror. But Paul has yet to realize just how demented Annie Wilkes truly is…and how many people may have died at her hands already.

As the tagline for the novel Misery says, “Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he’s writing to save his own life!”

 

I’ve seen the 1990 feature film adapted from King’s novel by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman. That film starred James Caan as author Paul Sheldon and Kathy Bates as “his #1 fan”, the psychotically obsessive Annie Wilkes. Bates won the Best Actress Oscar as Wilkes, and most fans of King agree that the film Misery is probably one of the best adaptations of a King novel to film or TV. Screenwriter Goldman later also adapted his own film screenplay into a stage play, which premiered in a limited theatrical engagement in 2015, starring Bruce Willis as Paul Sheldon and Laurie Metcalfe as Annie Wilkes. The news that a local community theatre production of Misery is being mounted for early 2024 excited the actor in me, and made me realize I’d never actually read the original novel…so I fixed that by listening to the audiobook, narrated very effectively by actress Lindsay Crouse.

 

(The novel Misery is much like many of King’s early works from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, though in this case there is no supernatural element, only an all-too-human psychopath. Considering that there's only two primary characters, and one of those is left by himself a lot of the time -- there's a LOT of internal monologues, frequently peppered with "adult language". It was intended to be released under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman, but King was "outed" as Bachman before that could happen, so it came out under his own name. I do recommend seeing the Misery film, directed by Rob Reiner. You’ll never look at a sledgehammer the same way again, much like you’ll never look at an axe the same way after reading or listening to the novel.)

 

( official Misery page on the official Stephen King web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (2nd review on BookGuide)

The Grownup
by Gillian Flynn (Flynn)

This is a short, suspenseful, little novella, written by the author of Gone Girl originally for inclusion in an anthology edited by George R.R. Martin, but which has now been published in a stand-alone edition. The story is narrated by a never-named young woman who has grown up with a hard life, who has figured out the ways to manipulate not only the system, but everyone around her. Working as a psychic in a house of ill-repute, she believes she has discovered an easy mark when a middle-aged women begs her to investigate her home, which may be haunted, and which may be influencing her morose young son. Only, what our narrator thought was going to be an easy con job turns out to possibly be “real” — to be so multi-layered, and to have so many twists and turns, readers may be gasping by end of the story. Definitely a fun, quick read. A nice introduction to Gillian Flynn if you’re unfamiliar with her full-length suspense novels, and a perfect read for right around Halloween.

 

( official Gillian Flynn web site )

 

Read Jeremiah J.’s review of Gillian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl, in the May 2013 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
Read Wyatt P.’s review of Gillian Flynn’s novel Sharp Objects, in the February 2014 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!
Read Tracy B.’s previous review of The Grownup, in the February 2016 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Mexican Gothic + Just Desserts meets tonight

Mexican Gothic
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Moreno-Garcia)

Gothic. Dark. Creepy. Yep. That’s the book Mexican Gothic. If you are looking for a hair-raising thriller, this book checkmarks all the boxes. Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a dark surreal method of storytelling that keeps the reader uneasy until the book’s disturbing conclusion.

 

Socialite Noemí Taboada’s father calls her home and into his office. He has received an unsettling letter from her newly-wed cousin Catalina. Catalina claims someone is trying to kill her at her new home in the remote Mexican countryside. It’s plausible considering how quickly she married the Englishman Virgil Doyle whose family is in financial decline. If nothing else, Catalina may be going insane. She needs rescuing, that’s for sure. So Noemi’s father wants her to enlist her wits and go check on her cousin’s health and state of mind.

 

Since the silver mine has closed, the Doyle’s High Place manor is in disrepair. Just to get there is a treacherous travel up the mountain through dangerous forests. Want to go for a walk to clear your head? The best destination is the family cemetery, complete with creepy statues and eerie mausoleums. The head of the household spends his days mainly in bed. The rest of the household must keep quiet, no talking at dinner. The matriarch aunt is overbearing. Virgil is handsome but also stubborn and intimidating. The only comfort is the kind, introverted nephew Francis who she befriends.

 

The Doyles claim Catalina is simply recovering from an illness, although Catalina covertly shares that she is in danger. Noemi’s dreams take a turn for the creepy. Golden ghosts haunt the halls. Mold creeps up the walls. She discovers the family has a frightening history of violence and bloodshed in this unsettling home.

 

Will Noemi and Catalina fall victim to the family’s bad luck? You will find yourself racing to the end of the book to see who makes it out of this gothic horror alive.

 

( official Silvia Moreno-Garcia web site )

 

Read Garren H.’s review of The Return of the Sorceress, a fantasy novel also by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, in the October 2021 Staff Recommendations, here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

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If you're a mystery fan, you're invited to join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting tonight, July 27th, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. Tonight, we'll be discussing the 2022 bestselling suspense novel Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn..

 

Even if you haven't read anything for this specific discussion, you can still participate, and learn about great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

Audiobook Review: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions For You

by Rebecca Makkai (Downloadable Audio)

 

Your roommate is murdered during your senior year of high school at boarding school. Now you are back to teach a class at your alma mater. Was it really the school athletic trainer who killed her in a love affair/drug deal gone bad? If you had just been more forthcoming and told the police everything you knew back then…

 

A now-famous podcaster and film professor, Bodie Kane, returns to Granby High in New Hampshire to teach a class about podcasts. It’s an emotional return, considering that Bodie’s roommate Thalia Keith was found drown in the gymnasium pool in 1995. The conviction of the athletic trainer Omar Evans never sat well with Bodie. She feels guilty that she initiated the idea that drugs were an issue; Thalia wasn’t into drugs. Bodie never forgave herself for not revealing Thalia may have been having an affair with a teacher. Could that have been a factor in her death?

 

As part of the podcast class, Bodie instructs students to pick an old unsolved crime to review. Of course one of her students picks Thalia Keith — Omar has been looking for a retrial. Bodie struggles with the choice. Will justice really be served by stirring up old secrets? Will she be perceived as a fame seeker? Is everyone better off just moving on?

 

I loved this modern whodunit by award-winning author Rebecca Makkai. I Have Some Questions for You grabs you in the first chapter and keeps you guessing if or how justice will be served. I enjoyed the inclusion of modern elements in Makkai’s novel: the true-crime podcasts, and the social media outrage and trolls. This is the world we have come to live in now. I also am a fan of how the main character envisioned how each suspect could have committed the crime. Don’t we all have a little bit of a dark side?

 

If you love a good mystery, check this one out.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try One by One by Ruth Ware or The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai.)

 

( official Rebecca Makkai web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry

My Husband’s Wife
by Jane Corry (Downloadable Audio)

A patron recently recommended the author Jane Corry to me, and I’m so glad she did. If you enjoy suspense authors such as Liane Moriarty or Gillian McAlister, you are going to love Jane Corry. I started with her first novel My Husband’s Wife. It has so many twists and turns, you will keep guessing until the end.

 

The book opens as lawyer Lily is on her way to visit a potential client in prison. She just returned from her honeymoon with Ed the artist and is excited for her new life. The new client, however, puts Lily to the test, making her solve puzzles and clues to uncover a defense for his case. As she works to prove his innocence, she finds herself oddly attracted to the peculiar man.

 

At the same time, the story follows nine-year-old Carla, who lives next door to Lily and Ed. As a young Italian girl growing up in London, she suffers from bullying in school. To survive, Carla learns that sometimes she has to lie, steal, and even blackmail, to get by.

 

The second half of the story jumps ahead several years when Carla returns to England as a young woman and walks back into Lily and Ed’s lives. Old secrets come back to haunt anyone who thought they were long past — secrets so dangerous it may cost them their lives.

 

Fortunately, My Husband’s Wife is just the beginning of Corry’s catalog. Unfortunately, Lincoln City Libraries only offers two other titles by this author: Blood Sisters and The Dead Ex.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Blood Sisters by Jane Corry or Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty.)

 

( official Jane Corry web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

Verity
by Colleen Hoover (Hoover)

You are waiting for the light to change to cross the street. A man in front of you steps off the curb and gets hit by a truck. You hear the crack of his skull. You are plastered with his blood. What a way to start a day—and a book. In the suspense novel Verity by Colleen Hoover, it only gets creepier from there.

 

Author Lowen Ashleigh is struggling. Her live-in mother just passed away from cancer and left her with bills. She is being evicted from her apartment. She is all alone and needs an income. Her literary agent contacts her with an opportunity. Bestselling author Verity Crawford was injured and is no longer able to finish her six-book series. Her husband Jeremy Crawford is looking for someone to co-write the remaining novels. If she accepts the offer, Lowen is invited to visit the Crawford home, look through Verity’s notes, read her books, and study her outlines. In exchange Lowen will be financially set and her career will get a huge boost. Sounds like a much needed deliverance.

 

As you might expect, Lowen discovers the situation is not what it seems. The Crawford house is overwhelmed with tragedy. Both of the young Crawford daughters passed away from accidents. And since her automobile accident, Verity is an unspeaking and unresponsive shell of herself, with a day-time nurse who cares for her every need.

 

As Lowen pages through Verity’s papers, she discovers an autobiography with some shocking revelations. Is everything that has happened to the Crawfords a coincidence, or is there something sinister at work? Is everyone who they seem?

 

Verity is a page-turner, sprinkled with Hoover’s racy romance, that will have you sprinting to the end of the book to discover the shocking conclusion.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, or The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.)

 

( official Colleen Hoover web site )

 

Check out our If You Like…Colleen Hoover readalikes list on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The Lost City

The Lost City
(DVD Lost)

I’ll be honest — I wasn’t expecting much from this rather lightweight action-comedy-thriller, so I was pleasantly surprised by how entertaining it turned out to be. Sandra Bullock plays steamy adventure romance author Loretta Sage, who’s gotten into a bit of a rut with her series of novels. When a crazed billionaire (Daniel Radcliffe in an over-the-top performance as Abigail Fairfax) kidnaps her, believing she has the knowledge to lead him a legendary lost city in the jungle, it is up to Loretta’s long-time hunky cover model Alan (Channing Tatum playing against his typical “action hero” role, as a bumbling, frightened yet persistent klutz) to attempt to launch a rescue of his friend and meal-ticket, even though he has no idea what he’s doing. Throw in Brad Pitt as Jack Trainer, a fatalistic mercenary, and you’ve got enough laughs, stunts, explosions and exotic scenery for you to almost overlook how silly the plot is. Bullock and Channing have surprisingly good comedic chemistry. Turn off your brain and just let yourself be entertained for two hours!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile, the two action/romance/comedy films from the 1980s featuring Kathleen Turner as a romance novelist who gets sucked into adventures.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: Bullet Train

Bullet Train
(DVD Bullet)

This 2022 action/comedy film is based on a 2010 novel by Japanese author Kotaro Isaka, previously untranslated but subsequently translated into English based on the success of the film.

 

Brad Pitt headlines an eclectic cast of oddballs and misfits. He plays an assassin, codenamed Ladybug, who just wants to be left alone because he feels like he's been beset by bad luck on all of his recent assignments. He reluctantly agrees to a quick job -- board a Japanese bullet train, steal a briefcase, and leave at the next stop. Unfortunately, his mission forces him to cross paths with a series of other assassins on the train, whose stories all criss-cross and become enmeshed.

 

Everyone in the cast does a tremendous job, particularly Pitt as Ladybug, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Tangerine and Brian Tyree Henry as Lemon (two bickering British brothers, one of whom constantly quotes lines from the TV series Thomas the Tank Engine), Joey King as "Prince", and many more. The humor is quirky, the dialog is snappy (though frequently laced with profanity) and the action is close to non-stop! The setting aboard a high-speed Japanese bullet train is unique and challenging for all the stunt work.

 

As long as you have a tolerance for foul language and extreme bloodshed, I strongly recommend this one. I didn't know anything about it before seeing it and ended up quite impressed. The DVD available from the libraries has a couple of special features, including a "making of" documentary.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the action films of Quentin Tarantino, like Kill Bill.)

 

(Also available in traditional print format.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak (2nd review of this on BookGuide)

Hidden Pictures
by Jason Rekulak (Rekulak & Compact Disc Rekulak)

If you like thrillers and ghost stories, you will love this book! Mallory, a recovering addict, becomes a nanny for Teddy, a young boy with an imaginary friend named Anya. When Teddy begins to draw sinister scary pictures of a man dragging a woman’s body through a woods; Mallory becomes suspicious, especially when Anya begins to communicate with her. It turns out that Teddy’s family has some secrets of their own.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney.)

 

( official Hidden Pictures and Jason Rekulak web site )

 

See Charlotte M.’s earlier review of Hidden Pictures in the August 2022 Staff Recommendations here on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Susan S.
Eiseley Branch Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Audiobook Review: Always the First to Die by R.J. Jacobs

Always the First to Die
by R.J. Jacobs (Downloadable Audio)

What a nice little thriller to break up the monotony of winter. Always the First to Die by R. J. Jacobs is full of secrets, storms, and suspense to the very end. I’m generally not a fan of “scary” books, but I found this thriller to have just the right amount of suspense without all the gore, and I was hooked.

 

Lexi’s husband Cam went missing and was presumed dead a year and a half ago. They met at her teenage acting debut on the set of his father’s horror movie Breathless. Lexi was the first to die when the movie took place at the rundown Pinecrest Estate manor house in the Florida Keys. When one of the main stars dies at the end of Breathless’ production, people begin to question if the dilapidated Pinecrest property is cursed.

 

It just may be.

 

It is the same place her husband Cam disappeared from 18 months ago. It is the same place her teenage daughter Quinn snuck off to in order to stay with her estranged grandfather, the horror film director, to search for answers. And it is the same place about to be hit by a category four hurricane.

 

Now Lexi has to return to a place she hoped to never see again. Hopefully this time she will be able to save her daughter and get some answers. What suspicious discovery did Quinn make before the storm? Why did Cam disappear? Is the manor cursed?

 

You will have to tune in to a digital copy on Hoopla to find out who will be the first to die in a return to the Pinecrest Estate. Or, will anyone make it out alive?

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger, One by One by Ruth Ware or The Villa by Rachel Hawkins.)

 

( official R.J. Jacobs web site )

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
starring Nicolas Cage (DVD Unbearable)

Nicholas Cage plays himself in this comedy/action-adventure. Cage is broke — to be frank — and agrees to go to a super fan’s birthday party in exchange for a large fee. The problem is this super fan — “Javi” played by Pedro Pascal — isn’t just a regular fan, he’s also being watched by the CIA. The CIA decides to recruit Cage to see if he can locate a missing person supposedly kidnapped by Javi’s organization. Javi is enamored by Cage and spends the whole time trying to get him to work with him on a screenplay. It makes for an entertaining film.

I wasn’t sure what to think based on the premise but actually it was very funny. If you’re Nicholas Cage fan it’s a must-watch because there are SO many references to his previous works and Pedro Pascal really gets a chance to show off his comedic skills.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Gone in 60 Seconds, Con Air are just a couple of the movies referenced in this one — really any Nicholas Cage action movie would be good. Being John Malkovich is one that’s an actor playing himself in a satire way.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent web site )

 

Recommended by Carrie R.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone
by Benjamin Stevenson (Stevenson)

Ernie Cunningham witnessed his brother killing someone and he told the authorities. His brother was sent to prison for three years.

 

Ernie’s family is not happy with him for cooperating with the police and testifying against his brother. Now, his brother is getting out of prison in two days and their mother has organized a Welcome Home weekend at a remote mountain ski resort. And a blizzard is on the way.

 

Every mystery reader knows this is a perfect recipe for a murder mystery – all that’s missing is the bloody knife and/or a smoking gun.

 

Our narrator is Ernie, who frequently breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the reader. He carefully provides historical background of each family member, jumping between current time and previous events. Are we getting all the facts?

 

This is a well-told story that keeps you guessing, and keeps the reader in a constant state of expectation and suspicion of everyone for everything. Every chapter has a new revelation or another piece of the puzzle. Highly recommend.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Knives Out by writer/director Rian Johnson)

 

( official Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone page on the official Benjamin Stevenson web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Killers of a Certain Age
by Deanna Raybourn (Raybourn)

Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie are four women in their 60’s who have been assassinating people together for the last 40 years. They are on a cruise to celebrate their retirement when they discover that the agency they’ve devoted their lives to has made them their latest targets. In order to get out alive, they have to work together to eliminate the threat by using their extensive experience. Not quite as overtly humorous as Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, but this is a fun, entertaining and action-packed revenge story that will appeal to more than ‘readers of a certain age’.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Thursday Murder Club, The Man Who Died Twice or The Bullet That Missed all by Richard Osman.)

 

( official Killers of a Certain Age page on the official Deanna Raybourn web site )

 

Recommended by Jen J.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Hide by Kiersten White

Hide
by Kiersten White (White)

Hide is a thriller/horror novel about a young woman in her late teens or early 20s who agrees to participate in a weeklong hide-or-seek game for a prize of $50,000. All fourteen contestants are put on a bus and their phones are confiscated while they’re sleeping. Sounds sketchy; is sketchy. When they arrive at the play area, it turns out to be an abandoned amusement park with a fence and watch towers around it.

 

If you’re getting Battle Royale or Squid Game vibes here, you aren’t far off. An extra twist is that the protagonist, Mack, survived her father killing the rest of her family by hiding in the house when she was a young girl. She has survivor’s guilt and doesn’t want to connect with anyone. Several of the other contestants, however, have great personalities that draw Mack out of her protective shell and give the reader more people to cheer for. This is a highly engaging read, first as the true nature of the contest is revealed and then as the dwindling number of contestants try to change up the game.

 

Kiersten White is a well-established young adult writer. Hide is her adult debut, or at least that’s how it’s being sold. This is one of those books that could easily pass as upper young adult or lower adult. Either way, it has a wonderful map of the amusement park in the end papers and it’s the same map in front and back so readers borrowing library copies can flip back and forth to see the whole map. Such thoughtful design!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Battle Royale by Koushun Takami or The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.)

 

( publisher’s official page for Hide ) | ( official Kiersten White web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Reviews: Camino Island and Camino Winds by John Grisham + Just Desserts reminder

Camino Island and Camino Winds
both by John Grisham (Grisham)

 

The libraries’ Just Desserts mystery fiction discussion group read and discussed two connected John Grisham novels for our August 2022 meeting — Camino Island (2017) and Camino Winds (2020). Other than his atypical “Skipping Christmas”, this was the first time I’d actually read a Grisham thriller — and I ended up really enjoying his writing.

 

Camino Island introduces us to Bruce Cable, owner of a small but thriving independent bookstore on Camino Island, in Florida. But he’s not the “hero” of the story. That’s Mercer Mann, a struggling 30-something young female writer, who is convinced by a shadowy security agent to infiltrate the Camino Island writing community to see if she can spy on Cable and find any evidence that he’s in possession of a set of F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts, stolen not long ago from a university. This first novel spends a lot of time setting up the relationships of the quirky folks living on the island, mostly in orbit around Cable and his bookstore. Mercer is a sympathetic character, if somewhat wishy-washy, but Cable is made out to be a gregarious, dominant and mischievous playboy personality, and even if he’s guilty of what he’s suspected off, I didn’t really want to see him get caught.

 

Camino Winds brings back most of the same set of characters, a couple of years later, for a more traditional mystery story. During a severe hurricane, which causes the majority of the island’s residents to evacuate, Cable and a few friends remain behind. When one of his friends turns up dead, but from injuries the storm couldn’t have inflicted on him, Cable believes that writer was killed, and continues to investigate what would have inspired such a violent act. Cable is definitely the central hero of this story, though his many friends and allies have major parts to play. And the bad guys in this second novel are truly deadly. A compelling read, and it will be interesting to see if Grisham returns to the Camino setting for a third novel again in the future!

 

I found Camino Winds to be a much more satisfying read, and it gets an “8” rating from me, while the first novel, Camino Island, gets only a “7”.

 

(In talking with Grisham fans, I’m told that the two Camino books are not typical of Grisham’s “legal thriller” style of writing. But, none-the-less, you may enjoy John Grisham‘s other books if you like either or both of these!)

 

( official John Grisham web site )

Recommended by Scott C.
Public Service — Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

 

If you're a mystery fan, join us for this month's Just Desserts meeting tonight, September 29th, at 6:30 p.m. in the 4th floor auditorium of the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown at 14th & "N" St. -- this mystery-themed discussion group meets on the last Thursday of each month, January through October. This month's book up for discussion is "The Maid" by Nita Prose.

 

Even if you haven't read this specific book, you can still participate, and learn about great new mysteries to try! For more information, check out the Just Desserts schedule at https://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/book-groups/#justdesserts

Book Review: They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

They Never Learn
by Layne Fargo (Fargo)

They Never Learn opens with a murder that works out perfectly as planned by the book’s English professor protagonist. Scarlett Clark hunts men who get away with abusing women and girls, and she’s been making these deaths look like accidents or suicides for years in multiple cities.

 

Meanwhile, a young student is starting her Freshman year on the same university campus. Carly Schiller is swept up in the drama of her classmates and friends, soon discovering dangers below the surface.

 

This violent thriller rapidly switches between both engaging narratives until the inevitable collision. I enjoyed the sharp, bold, all-too-realistic writing.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass or Getaway by Zoje Stage.)

 

( official They Never Learn page on the official Layne Fargo web site )

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Public Service — Bennett Martin Public Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

Hidden Pictures
by Jason Rekulak (Rekulak)

Mallory Quinn is a recovering addict, and her sponsor got her a job for the summer to a wealthy family, Ted and Caroline Maxwell, as a nanny to their five-year-old son Teddy until he begins kindergarten in the fall. Teddy is “gifted” (according to Caroline) and enjoys drawing. Mallory and Teddy bond well, she has her own cottage at the edge of the property that overlooks a large, forest-like park, her nanny duties end right before supper, and at the end of the day Teddy gifts her with one of his drawings.

 

Everything is fine, until Teddy’s latest drawing is of a man dragging a dead woman across the yard.

Then Mallory learns her cottage used to be the painting studio of a woman artist who went missing.

And now Teddy has an invisible friend.

 

A well-crafted horror, paranormal mystery with an ending I didn’t anticipate. Teddy’s drawings are included throughout the book which adds to the suspense. Highly recommend.

 

( official Hidden Pictures and Jason Rekulak web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!