Tag: thrillers

An unsolved murder. Disturbing dreams. A missing child.

Caitlin Walker hasn’t had a dream in nine years. But now nightmares torture her son Adam and awaken in Caitlin buried memories and a dark secret. Her husband Lance has a secret of his own, one that his son’s nightmares threaten to reveal.

In Culver Creek newly hired detective Sage Dorian works to unravel the small town’s notorious cold case, the grisly murder of a young girl.

How are Caitlin and Lance connected to the horrific crime? And how far will they go to make sure their secrets stay hidden? Find out in this riveting thriller.

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Excerpt from Up the Creek by Alissa Grosso

Caitlin emerged from a black, dreamless sleep to screams. Adam’s tortured cries sounded almost otherworldly. They turned her blood to ice and made her heart race. She sat straight up, then bolted from bed, blinking sleep from her eyes as she raced toward the door, banging her shin on the dresser as she went. She yanked on the doorknob and almost toppled over when it didn’t yield as she expected. Goddammit. Lance had locked the door again.

She spared a glance toward the bed, but her husband wasn’t there. Instead he was standing, looking out the window. For a moment she thought she was mistaken. Were the screams coming from outside?

“Lance?” she asked.

He turned to her, but his eyes looked past her at some point on the wall.

“What’s going on?” he mumbled, barely awake.

“Adam’s having a nightmare,” she said.

“Again?” he asked. “Maybe we should just let him sleep it off.”

The screams had subsided now, but she could still hear her son’s whimpers from down the hall. Sleep it off? Could Lance really be that clueless? She unlocked the door and flung it open. It bounced almost silently off the rubber doorstopper, which didn’t really give her the dramatic exit she was hoping for.

She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around her husband just standing there looking out the window while Adam cried for them. Usually Lance was the one who woke up first. Maybe he had already gone to comfort Adam and came back to their bedroom by the time she awoke. He seemed so out of it, though. Well, that’s what a lack of sleep could do to a person.

Adam sat on his bed in a nest of tangled sheets. His face was damp with tears and sweat, his dark hair plastered to his forehead. The hippo nightlight cast large, ominous shadows when she stepped into his room. He looked up with a start, then relaxed when he saw it was her.

She sat down beside him and pulled his small body to her, wrapping her arms around him and rocking him gently back and forth. The tears subsided, but he still felt tense.

“Mommy, I’m scared of the bad boy,” he said. “The bad boy’s going to hurt me.”

“Nobody’s going to hurt you,” she assured him. “You’re safe. It was just a dream. Look, you’re safe in your bedroom.”

At this, Adam pulled away from her a little to study the dimly lit bedroom. Maybe they should get a different nightlight. She had never realized how spooky that hippo light made everything look.

“There were trees,” Adam said, “and a river. She was playing in the river.”

Caitlin stiffened. Adam noticed it and looked up at her. She smiled at him.

“It was just a dream,” she said, as much to reassure herself as him. “It wasn’t real.”

There were lots of rivers out there, and wasn’t Adam just watching a cartoon show with cute animals that had to get across a river? That was probably where that detail came from. Plus, she reminded herself, it hadn’t been a river. It had been a creek. She wasn’t sure Adam knew the difference between a river and a creek, though. But a little girl playing in a river? No, wait, was that what he had said? He said only “she.” For all Caitlin knew, this she could have been a girl river otter. Maybe he had been having a cute dream about river creatures.

And a “bad boy,” she reminded herself. She remembered his bloodcurdling screams. There was nothing cute about the dream he had. Still, she clung to the “bad boy” detail. Was he talking about a child? If so, then the river was just a coincidence. She wanted to ask him more about the bad boy, but this was the worst thing she could do. He was already starting to calm down, starting to forget the details of his nightmare. She couldn’t go dredging things back up again.

“Mommy, can I sleep in your room?” Adam asked.

* * *

Lance was fully awake and in bed when Caitlin returned with Adam in her arms.

“Hey there, champ,” Lance said. “Have a bad dream?”

“Daddy, he hurt her,” Adam said. “He hurt her head. She was bleeding.”

Her son’s tiny body stiffened again in Caitlin’s arms, and she gave Lance an exasperated look as she set Adam down in the middle of the bed.

“We’d already gotten past that,” she said in a whispered hiss.

“Obviously,” Lance said with a roll of his eyes, “which is why he’s sleeping in our bed. Again.”

She slid into the bed beside Adam and adjusted the covers, ignoring her husband. She petted Adam’s head and made soft, soothing noises.

“Remember, that wasn’t real, just make believe, like a movie.” She didn’t want him to get himself worked up again talking about the dream, but it wasn’t just that. She didn’t want to hear any more details from the nightmare because the bit about the bad boy hurting the girl’s head and the blood felt a touch too familiar.

She stroked his face, and his eyelids slowly drooped closed. He looked so calm and peaceful when he slept.

“I thought we said we weren’t going to do this anymore,” Lance said. Even whispering, his voice was too loud. She held her finger to her lips. He continued more quietly, “I’m just saying, I think it would be better for him if he sleeps in his own bed.”

“It’s already after three,” she said. “It’s only for a few hours.”

“That’s not the point,” Lance said. “He’s nearly five years old. We can’t keep babying him.”

It was like the school argument all over again, and Caitlin didn’t want to get into it. Not now. She was still tired and groggy and needed more sleep.

“I want to get him a new nightlight,” she said to change the subject. “The one he has makes these creepy shadows.”

“A new nightlight,” Lance repeated in a skeptical voice. “Sure, that will solve everything.”

“The important thing,” she said, “is that we have to remind him that his dreams are not real. That they’re make believe. We have to be united on this.”

Lance made a dismissive noise and lay back down on his pillow, turning his body away from her and Adam. He muttered something, but his voice was muffled by the pillow.

“Lance, this is important,” she said. “We have to make it clear that his dreams are not real. He has to know they aren’t true.”

He sighed. “What kind of moron do you think I am? Do you really think I’m going to start telling him his dreams about boogeymen are real?” He squirmed around and pulled the covers up in an attempt to get comfortable. She thought he was done, but he stopped shifting around long enough to add, “It’s not exactly like you’re the foremost expert in dreams.”

Alissa Grosso is the author of several books for adults and teens. Originally from New Jersey, she now resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about her and her books at AlissaGrosso.com.

Alissa Grosso

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Giveaway $50 Amazon Gift Card (Open to Everyone) Ends January 16th

My thoughts:

This was an interesting take on the crime novel, with a focus on dreams and sleep. Detective Sage Dorian is haunted by his missing sister and sees parallels with the death of twenty year old case of Lily Esposito, who drowned in Culver Creek in front of her sister who couldn’t identify the killer.

Caitlin used to have strange dreams, and her mother was convinced she was psychic. Her husband Lance keeps waking up in places he can’t remember going to and now their young son Adam is having nightmares.

It took me a little while to get into the story but once I did, I was hooked. As the pace picked up and another child was at risk, it was gripping and I could not guess what had happened and who was involved. A very clever and enjoyable read.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

A thriller with a conscience, The Jagged Edge does for climate change what John Grisham has done for the law, cutting to the heart of humanity’s greatest threat.

The harrowing loss of a woman and child in a Californian wildfire. A madman hellbent on revenge. A former British war correspondent, desperate to find his old edge. A clandestine meeting somewhere in the Austrian Alps. A devastating missile attack on an Italian steel mill. A nail-biting standoff in the Australian Outback. Merciless government agents willing to do anything to stop a weapon that has already been set in motion. And the countdown to the end of the world as we know it begins.

Action, technology and the might of Mother Nature come together in a heart-stopping thrill ride that you won’t be able to put down.

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Born and raised on New Zealand’s South Island, AJ experienced raw nature at its most sublime. Later, as a volunteer bush firefighter in Sydney, he saw firsthand nature at its most destructive. Something that too many people in Australia and California have had to endure.

His writing intent is simple: to bring thriller (non)sensibilities to the serious, though often dry, science of climate change.
He now lives on the Sapphire Coast of Australia with his wife and their two children. He admits to being a lazy activist who avoids confrontation. Writing is his form of environmental activism.

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My thoughts:

This was a heck of a ride, from Mont Blanc to genteel Surrey, the Austrian Alps to the wild Australian Outback, to the middle of the ocean.

Contacted by a notorious eco-terrorist, media titan, ex-Marine and former journalist Dominic is wildly out of his depth as an electronic weapon, Biblical, is unleashed and takes down society, without caring about the human cost.

Earth Ghost claim this is needed, a hard reset to remind humanity that the planet is at risk, that global warming, pollution levels, melting ice caps and growing numbers of pandemics are all signs of Earth in crisis. They’ve moved on from blowing up refineries and factories, if needed, they’ll destroy all infrastructure and force us back to pre-industrial times.

Dominic’s media company, Jagged Edge, is the only one apparently unaffected by Biblical, the sole voice in the wilderness of a world dependant on the Internet. But he’s seen the dark side of Sagen, Earth Ghost’s founder and prophet, as well as the lengths some government agencies are willing to go.

He appreciates the need for change but doesn’t agree that the rampant chaos of Biblical is the way to go.

A thriller that touches on recent events such as our current pandemic and of course the terrible climate emergency we’re not reacting to fast enough. While things need to change, a massive terrorist attack like this is not the way to go.

Instead maybe we need to use the technology at our fingertips to effect change, to hold our leaders accountable and to do communicate globally ways to support and aid those most affected by climate change.

This is certainly a timely reminder wrapped in a smart and gripping book.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Meet the first Mrs. Ford
Beautiful. Accomplished.
Wealthy beyond imagination.
Married to a much younger man.
And now, she’s dead.

Meet the second Mrs. Ford.
Waitress. Small-town girl.
Married to a man she never forgot,
From a summer romance ten years before. And now, she’s wealthy beyond imagination.

Who is Connor Ford?
Two women loved him. And knew him as only wives can know.
Set amongst the glittering mansions of the Hamptons, The Wife Who Knew Too Much is a decadent summer thriller about the lives of those who will do anything for love and money. Who is the victim? Who is the villain? And who will be next to die?

My thoughts:

I wasn’t entirely sure which wife knew too much – both Nina and then Tabitha don’t know enough really. And that’s what gets both women into trouble. There’s a revenge plot boiling away that hardly anyone seems to be aware of. But everyone has secrets and those secrets are dangerous.

I felt bad for Tabitha, her whirlwind romance with her teen love now all grown up, has ended up putting her and her unborn baby in danger and the fact that her husband is either absent or yelling at her, keeping things from her, makes him suspicious.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Read my review of The Failsafe Query here.

‘They were preparing for decades – now it’s time to take them down……’

Hiding overseas with a price on his head, Sean Richardson is tasked to lead a deniable operation to hunt down and recruit an international model and spy. Moving across Asia Minor and Europe, Sean embarks on a dangerous journey tracking an Iranian spy ring who hold the keys to a set of consequences the British Intelligence Services would rather not entertain.

As Sean investigates deeper, he uncovers dark secrets from his past and a complex web of espionage spun from the hand of a global master spy. As he inches closer to the truth, the rules of the game change – and the nerve-wracking fate of many lives sits in his hands.

The second in a set of spy thrillers that have been expertly crafted with stunning plot lines, magnificent locations, and twists that leave you gasping for air. Perfect for fans of Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, and Scott Mariani.

*Each book is a standalone adventure

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This is a crucial scene that sets the backstory to the novel, and the mission that Sean, the main character, will ultimately be tasked by Jack to undertake. Jack, the head of counter terrorist operations for MI5, begins to explain to the Director of MI5, what he had unravelled at a murder scene that took place in Chelsea the night before. The scene shows the emotion of D and the real concerns that Iranian state sponsored terrorists had mobilised, and were now committing their first assassinations on the UK mainland. The scene leads to Jack setting a plot to flush out an international model and spy….. An Iranian by the name of Nadege.

The Court was D’s very own cabal of hand-picked officers who ran the office and its much larger intelligence fusion centre located out of the city, together with a set of core staff who ran what D called his own active-measures campaigns around the globe. It employed a mixture of freelance ex-intelligence officers in the UK, as well as veteran special forces operators and a mix of former MI6 and MI5 specialists, all highly vetted and sworn to keep The Court’s operations fully secret.

‘Jack, good to see you. Sit down my boy. Did you put the Old Bill straight on all this?’ D asked, standing behind a 1970s vintage President desk that was empty except for a large ink blotter and two pens standing to attention in a wooden stand. His half-moon glasses sat at the edge of the curved desk, with a light blue swivel chair contributing nicely to the vibrant colours of the room.

Jack sat on a pale green seat opposite the desk, a battered and beaten high-back chair, its arms now decaying from D’s guests gripping them and fiddling with its material.

‘What have we got then?’

‘A vicious attack. Definitely Iranian and a professional hit.’

‘Jesus Christ,’ D remarked, slumping into his seat and giving the underside of his desk a fierce kick. ‘The Home Secretary’s going to be chuffed to bollocks with all this happening on our patch. It’s bad enough with the Russians running riot. Now this.’

Jack sat forward to show D a photograph on his phone, which he placed on the desk. ‘I think its Department 15 that’s been activated. What I saw today had all the hallmarks of an MOIS assassination with a bit of Nizari ideology thrown in.’

D grabbed his glasses and took a look. ‘By fuck Jack. This is brutal. Nizaris you say?’

Jack took a few moments to explain that Department 15 of the Iranian MOIS were a team of brutal regime enforcers who, like the ancient Nizaris, carry out assassinations abroad. He explained that victims of MOIS assassins tend to be Iranian dissidents who pose a threat to the regime or key opponents of the regime. The murders carried out are brutal, designed to instil fear into the hearts of any dissenter brave enough to speak out against the regime, and some of the victims of these hit squads had died in the most barbaric way.

D tutted and ran a hand across his chin. ‘Iranian assassins. Sleepers waking. Russian chemical attacks and cyber-attacks. All on my bloody turf Jack. Now a missing diplomat to boot as well.’ There was a pause while D pinched his nose before bloating his suited posture like a kangaroo puffing out its chest. ‘Bloody hell Jack. We’re in the shit here you know.’

I started climbing at 13, survived being lost in Snowdonia at 14, nearly drowned at 15, and then joined the Army at 16. Risk and adventure was built into my DNA and I feel very fortunate to have served the majority of my working career as an intelligence officer within Defence Intelligence, and as an explosive ordnance disposal officer and military surveyor within the Corps of Royal Engineers.

I feel privileged to have served for twenty-eight years in the British Army as a soldier and officer, working in Defence Intelligence and Counter-Terrorist Bomb Disposal operations, rising through the ranks to complete my service as a major. I served across the globe on numerous military operations as well as extensive travel and adventure on many major mountaineering and exploration expeditions that I led or was involved in.

I was awarded the Geographic Medal by the Royal Geographical Society for mountain exploration and served on the screening committee of the Mount Everest Foundation charity for many years. It was humbling after so many years of service when I was awarded the MBE for services to counter-terrorism in 2007.

Michael Jenkins

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My thoughts:

Another cracking spy thriller from Michael Jenkins, this time Sean and his team are hot on the heels of a deadly Iranian agent, one Sean has personal history with.

A British diplomat has been kidnapped, a prominent Jewish couple assassinated and someone’s planning a terror attack. How this all ties together and what connection Sean’s late mother has to it is very cleverly revealed as the book unfolds.

Racing against time and trying to get close enough to stop the bomb being built, Sean is often on his own in hostile territory in the Middle East and Asia, with the UK side of things in the hands of Jack and MI6.

Thoroughly enjoyable, gripping, clever and compelling, this was an excellent read.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Don’t close your eyes. Don’t fall asleep. Don’t let them in.

Thea is an insomniac; she hasn’t slept more than three hours a night for years.

So when an ad for a sleep trial that promises to change her life pops up on her phone, Thea knows this is her last chance at finding any kind of normal life.

Soon Thea’s sleeping for longer than she has in a decade, and awakes feeling transformed. So much so that at first she’s willing to overlook the oddities of the trial – the lack of any phone signal; the way she can’t leave her bedroom without permission; the fact that all her personal possessions are locked away, even her shoes.

But it soon becomes clear that the trial doesn’t just want to help Thea sleep. It wants to control her sleep…

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Louise was born and lives in South Wales. From a young age she loved books and dancing, but hated
having to go to sleep, convinced that she might miss out on something interesting happening in the
world whilst she dozed – much to her mother’s frustration! Insomnia has been a part of her life ever since.

She studied English Literature at university and graduated with first class honours. As a teacher she
tried to pass on her love of reading to her students (and discovered that the secret to successful teaching is… stickers! She is aware that that is, essentially, bribery.)

In the summer of 2019 Louise experienced a once-in-a-lifetime moment: she was discovered as a
new writer by her publisher at the Primadonna Festival. Everything has been a bit of a whirlwind since then.

Louise lives in Cardiff with her husband and spends her time trying to get down on paper all the
marvellous and frightening things that happen in her head.

Her debut thriller, SLEEPLESS, will be published by HQ on 11th Dec 2020.

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My thoughts:

Note to self: never accept an invitation to anything that takes place on an abandoned island. See also And Then There Were None, Last Resort.

This however is not a revenge fantasy enacted over dinner but a “sleep study” gone insane.

As someone who suffers from insomnia, I was intrigued by the premise of this novel, an elite study into sleep, taking place in a purpose built facility on an island that once housed a monastery. An enigmatic founder, a brilliant scientist, high tech used to understand a very basic need – the vital necessity of sleep.

Thea finds herself trapped, they don’t want to help her sleep, they want to manipulate her brain into never needing sleep – so she tries to escape. But on a small island, there’s nowhere to hide.

This was brilliant, at times absolutely brutal, and I loved the image of Thea’s eccentric mother, vagina scarf flapping, sailing to the rescue with the grumpy pub landlord.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.