Tropical Girl Reads

Gazing out the cabin window at the raging blizzard, fear suddenly floods through her as she feels a stranger’s hand clamp across her mouth. No one can hear her stifled screams as she is dragged from the couch by the fire out into the snow.

When seventeen-year-old Savannah Devenish vanishes from her family’s remote vacation cabin in Minnesota, FBI Agent Tori Hunter races along treacherous icy roads to be first on the scene. Savannah’s parents are frantic with worry for their beautiful, carefree girl. Haunted by memories of her own missing sister, Tori vows to do whatever it takes to reunite this family.

When the police uncover that Savannah’s father Jacob was having an affair, they suspect his involvement, but Tori is convinced his despair is genuine. Her close relationship with the chief detective means the team won’t listen, so Tori strikes off alone, persuading Savannah’s distraught best friends to share their secrets. It seems this ‘good girl’ was sneaking out to parties to meet up with a mysterious man…

Then another teenager is snatched from the street, snowy footprints and a discarded hot chocolate cup the last trace of her. The girls are the same age, strikingly pale and blonde. Is a twisted collector stealing them away? And what chance is there that they are being kept alive?

With a deadly snowstorm closing in, Tori battles the elements—and her own team—as she follows the trail to an abandoned cabin by a frozen lake. In the basement are bedrooms filled with clothes for teenage girls. Tori was too late to save her own missing sister twenty years ago, but can she find these girls before they disappear forever?

An utterly addictive and twisty crime thriller that will have your eyes glued to the pages and your heart in your mouth. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Robert Dugoni and Tess Gerritsen won’t be able to put this down.

No. of pages:- 388 pages

Publisher:- Bookouture

Date published:- will be published on 4th March 2021

Genre:- Thriller

After reading the first book of the Agent Tori Hunter series and was impressed by the book that I couldn’t wait to read the second book of the series. And finally I did!!!

The story begins with seventeen-year old Savannah Devenish being kidnapped from the cabin and witnessing her own mother being shot to death. Agent Tori Hunter, who no longer works in the FBI but is a professor at the University and is working with Braddock who is also her lover. Together, they discover a sex trafficking that is happening around Minnesota.

I must say, just like the first book, this book was so intense!!!! It was as if I was going on a roller coaster ride with both Hunter and Braddock and felt like in a part of the game. The writing was good, lots of unexpected twists and turns and quiet a fast paced thriller! I felt like I was in a cat and mouse chase game with Hunter and Braddock as they try to track down Savannah’s abductor. Not only, I felt as if I am in some kind of action packed thriller, waiting to know what is going to happen next!!!

Truly enjoyed reading the second book and this book is unputdownable, that will make you go on a roller coaster ride, fast paced thriller with twists and turns. Worth five stars!!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for providing me ARC. The review is based on my most honest opinion.

The sudden appearance of a man’s booted feet had Addis snapping her mouth shut. Screaming, she kicked out at the tall, muscular guy as he dragged her from beneath the desk…

It was a scene from a horror movie; Gabriel Kensington and his wife Lydia found, brutally slain in their luxurious home in New Mexico. The frantic, whispered phone call from their teenage daughter Addis, spending the evening with best friend Emerson, quickly alerts the authorities to the killings – and worse, that the killer is still inside the house.

But when detective Alyssa Wyatt and the squad appear at the house, the unthinkable has happened – the girls are nowhere to be found.

Waking up in a dilapidated cabin, nestled high in the woods north of Albuquerque, the girls find themselves at the mercy of a brutal stranger who could take their life at any moment. While they fight for survival, it’s up to Alyssa Wyatt and her partner Cord to discover just why the Kensingtons have been targeted – and fast.

Because for Addis and Emerson, solving this mystery might just mean the difference between survival – or an unthinkable death…

No. of pages:- 295 pages

Date published:- will be published on 17th February 2021

Genre:- Thriller

This is the third book of the Detective Alyssa Wyatt series.

After reading Toy Box, I badly want to read more books from this author and so I was so happy when Hera publishers granted me this ARC! Detective Alyssa is back in her game when a privileged couple, Gabriel and Lydia Kensington was found brutally murdered in their homes and their daughter Addis along with her best friend Emerson are missing. Alyssa finds that Gabriel is an PI and believed that one of the cold cases would have led ultimately to his death and along with her partner Cord, they would set to find the murderer…

This book was AMAZING!! Again an action packed filled book with twists and unexpected turns you would generally expect in a thriller. And also quite fast paced too!!!! I really like how Addis and Emerson stick together after they being kidnapped and the ordeal they both faced together seemed realistic to me. It was also unputdownable that I couldn’t wait to get to the ending!! And the ending–there is just one word–UNEXPECTED. Totally unexpected twisted ending!

Overall, I give this book five stars!!! Can’t wait for Book 4 to come!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hera publishers. This review is strictly based on my opinion.

Born in the South, raised in the Midwest, Charly now resides in the Southwest in the Land of Enchantment, Green Chile capital of the world, which is good because she enjoys eating copious amounts of the spicy food. When she’s not reading, writing, or plotting sinister evils with her antagonists, she enjoys doing jigsaw and crossword puzzles, hanging out with her husband and her spoiled Siberian Husky, visiting her son in Arizona, and traveling, preferably to places surrounded by sun, sand, and warm uncrowded beaches.

Shivering in the early morning chill, the caretaker flips the switch on the Ferris wheel and stumbles back in shock. The teenage girl’s body is slumped in a halo of pretty colored lights, long red hair spilling over her tear-stained cheeks, her eyes fixed forever on her dangling feet.

When teenager Nikki Jackson’s body is found at an amusement park, just hours after Fourth of July fireworks lit up the night sky, the Lost Creek police rule her death as suicide—a devastating final act from a girl who had lost all hope. But the absence of the knife used to make the wounds on her delicate wrists makes Detective Madison Harper think otherwise. And the partial fingerprint found on the girl’s face proves her right. Someone else was with Nikki in her final moments…

Back home in Colorado for the first time in seven years to investigate the murder of a woman with ties to the son she lost to the care system, the pressure is on for Madison to work both cases at once. Fearing the team has missed a vital clue, Madison searches the crime scene alone and finds the last thing she ever expected: a note proving the victims knew each other, and that the cases are linked. Is this a coincidence, proof a dangerous murderer is on the loose, or a trap set to lead Madison off the trail?

It’s only when Madison finally finds the knife used to harm Nikki, tucked in an almost impossible to find hiding place, that she knows she is closing-in on a twisted killer. But the last person she expects to see dragged into the department in handcuffs is her own missing son…

An absolutely unputdownable crime thriller that will have you sleeping with the lights on. Addictive reading for anyone who loves Lisa Regan, Robert Dugoni and Melinda Leigh.

No. of pages:- 341 pages

Date published:- will be published on February 25th 2021

Genre:- Thriller

This is the second book of the Detective Madison Harper series and I have to say, I was not disappointed at all!

So we follow Madison, Nate and Brody on the road trip back to Madison’s hometown, Lost Creek. Past memories keep flooding her with her ex-girlfriend Stephanie being brutally murdered. While trying to clear her name and to find the real person who killed Officer Levy, a body of a teenage girl, Nikki Jackson was found in the amusement park. The police ruled it as suicide but gradually it became apparent that it was murder. Then Madison’s estranged son Owen known as Mason McCoy is suspected for the girl’s death…

This was simply a wow! Quite unputdownable, with twists and turns. I felt like I was watching some action packed filled drama while reading this book and the author actually did a good job bringing the reader into the story! Truly intense as well and you would actually feel sorry for Madison as she tries to clear her name for a murder she didn’t commit. I just read this book in one go and I simply couldn’t put the book down!!!!

Overall, this book gave me such as roller coaster drive filled with drama, action, thrills and twists. I simply cannot wait for Book 3 to come! Worth five stars!

Wendy is a former coroner’s assistant turned crime writer who lives in the UK with her husband and 3 cats.

As well as her two crime series and the YA crime novel – The Girl Who Died – Wendy has several short stories published in UK and US anthologies. She has also been shortlisted and longlisted for various competitions, including the Mslexia Novel Competition.

Please forgive me for what I’m about to do…

Standing at the school gates, he waits until the last child leaves the safety of the playground. And then he follows at a distance, keeping to the shadows. Only he knows what’s going to happen next.

In a quiet church, on a busy London street, 12-year-old Donovan Blair is found dead. His hands are clasped together as if in prayer. Just hours ago, he was happily playing with his friends at school, but now his body is lifeless, and his killer is long gone.

Detective Dan Lockhart is working alone on his wife’s missing person’s case when he receives a call telling him to get to the crime scene at St Mary’s Church immediately.

Bringing in psychologist Dr Lexi Green to help profile the murderer, Dan is convinced that the killer has provided a clue by leaving the body in a prayer position, and Lexi agrees. As they try to get into the mind of the person responsible, another victim is found. A 13-year-old girl, left in a different church, posed in exactly the same way.

Fearing the murderer may already have another child in his sights, Dan and Lexi work together to establish links between the two deaths, and soon discover that not only were both children in care – they had attended the same school. And when it emerges that Lexi’s new boyfriend works there, things become difficult between her and Dan. How much can he tell Lexi about the case? And could she be at risk?

As Dan makes a breakthrough in the investigation, he receives devastating news about his wife, Jess. But with children’s lives at stake and Lexi in danger, Dan must put his personal emotions aside and chase the killer. Can he and Lexi work out who is behind the murders before another vulnerable child is taken?

This nail-biting crime book is perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan and Robert Dugoni. Once you pick up Lost Souls, you won’t be able to put it down!

No. of pages:- 442 pages

Date published:- 9th February 2021

Genre:- Thriller

He did AGAIN!

This is the second book I have read from the author and the third book of the Detective Lockhart and Green series. The story begins with a murder of a eleven-year-old, Donovan who is in the foster care system and who was found murdered inside a church with a Bible verse next to him. While finding out what happened to his wife, Detective Lockhart along with his MET team and Dr. Green sets out to find this deranged killer who is targeting children in the foster care system.

The story was well written, and again, I loved reading the parts, going into the minds of the killer (I know it’s creepy but wouldn’t it make the story juicier?) and the story was fast paced with thrills going on and twists and turns. Too many suspects with questionable backgrounds in the books that you don’t really know which one of those suspects can be the killer and that makes it more and more interesting! Not predictable which I like about the thrillers. Overall, it was a great thriller, unputdownable and fast paced. Worth five stars in my opinion!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is solely based on my honest opinion.

Hello! I’m a British author whose crime thrillers combine psychology, suspense, and characters you care about.

All my novels are set in London, where I live. My first trilogy starred Zac Boateng and Kat Jones, two detectives motivated by family, who tackle organised crime and police corruption. LAST WITNESS, the second Boateng and Jones book, reached #13 in the UK Kindle chart in 2019.

My second series features detective Dan Lockhart – an ex-soldier with a missing wife – and psychologist Dr Lexi Green, an American living in London. These novels are darker, more psychological serial-killer cases, with romantic relationships as a central theme.

I began writing fiction in 2014, after previous careers as a diplomat, based in Iraq and Jerusalem, and later as a psychologist working with victims and perpetrators of crime. I specialised in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which sparked my interest in telling stories about how people cope when faced with extreme adversity.

Now, I spend most of my time writing novels and drinking coffee while *thinking* about writing novels. When I’m not writing, I love climbing and playing basketball.

You can find out more about my work at http://www.cjmerritt.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @DrCJMerritt