But what if it turns out to be someone from your past? Someone you assumed you left far behind. And, oh my…now they’re moving in right next door! This latest story was so intriguing. A young mother disappears and her husband doesn't attempt to help find her. He's mostly a cold faced, blank wall although it's obvious that he's a very loving and attentive father to their four year old daughter. There are a handful of suspects, besides the father, including a young sex offender, the neighbor. This young man presents a very sad part of the book, as we get to hear his life story, a heartbreaking life story. We also get to hear from the housewife, Sandy, as we make our way through the story and the search for Sandy. I figured out a lot of things but felt like there were so many choices of suspects and no one is without some fault in the events that happen, that I really couldn't be sure if my guesses were correct, until the very end. Finally, the quality of the writing overall seems low to me. It's all telling and no showing, with clunky exposition and asides on the characters and their behaviour that take the place of character development through action and dialogue. Harlow Ward, supposedly the all-important, all-powerful lynch-pin of the novel, is reminiscent "of that Mad Men show - her hair, her clothes; they were profoundly retro". Is that kind of lazy catch-all, shorthand description really the best the author can do?

Joshua D. Zimmerman. Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath. , Rutgers University Press, 2003. My next thriller, ONLY ONE SURVIVES, will publish in July 2024, followed by a second Holly Cassidy holiday rom-com later that year. This strange, awkward little mystery starts off well enough. It's a compelling puzzle, and for a long portion I'm completely invested in finding out what's going to happen and am intrigued by the unusual behavior of several of the characters. But it goes on too long without any answers and after a while I'm wondering if the writer has dug herself too big of a hole that she's not going to be able to get out of elegantly. The mystery of this story seemed quite easy to solve, at least I thought it should have been for D.D. I thought she should have been a bit more switched on. Meanwhile, a delivery man named Logan knows something is not right. However, he is an ex-con covered with violent tattoos and resists the urge to push for what he knows he should do because he is in fear of how he will be looked upon. Then there is the Gladys, who is pretty much the neighborhood watch. She notices everything going on in her neighborhood, even though she is fairly well overwhelmed caring for her invalid husband Lou. She just knows something is wrong, but she is pretty certain the police won't take her seriously. She is desperate to do something, but what can she do? All the while, Katherine and her children are terrified. The man holding the gun is literally a hair trigger away from bringing absolute devastation.My first Lisa Gardner novel, which I was excited to read due to hearing good things from friends. Whilst I enjoyed this one, I wasn't bowled over. This author seems very on top of her research, which was evident in her detail of the horrible world of childhood sexual abuse, I left the story feeling like I knew a lot about the murky area of rehabilitation and parole, and how these offenders are expected to enter programs, and the vigourous expectations of the attendees. This was interesting reading, in fact so was the psychology of these warped individuals.

In this tense, gripping novel, Nicole Trope has written a domestic psychological thriller that feels alarmingly authentic and keeps a compelling momentum from the opening scene to the deadly conclusion. Could what happened The Family Across the Street happen to any family across the street? First off I want to thank my very good friend GirlWithThePinkSkiMask for my beautiful copy of this book posted to my front door - you are a truely wonderful human and I appreciate you!!! 💛 As a young man of 23, Andrew(Drew),is already no stranger to disappointment. Between a father that deserted him and a mother who became agoraphobic as a result, Drew doesn't have much of a chance. Resentful of the fact that he is trapped in his hometown and trapped by his mother's illness, Drew finally snaps and moves out on his own. That's when the trouble starts. Similarly, while we're constantly reminded that Harlow Ward is an attractive woman, there is no real explanation for her apparent magnetism or her ability to manipulate her husband into turning a blind eye to her blatant violent lunacy. It's simply not plausible in any way. I kept suspecting that there might be some sort of supernatural element to it, as this seemed the only possible explanation, but no, it's nowhere near as interesting as that. All that being said, I knew going into this book what I was up against (and by that I mean my own bias against this genre). But I found I actually really enjoyed this book, and am glad I gave it a chance.This is the 3rd book in the series and you really could easily read this one as a standalone… I have jumped all over this series and pretty much the only ones that need to be read together are the books featuring Flora (IYKYK) 😖. D.D. is racing all around Boston on this one trying to figure out where Sandy was taken. As the days go by, things seem rather bleak that she’s still alive. This one shares quite a bit about the life of someone who is on the sex offenders list. Aiden lives just a few houses away from Sandy and Jason so he’s a suspect too. The author managed to explain it so well – therapy, parole officer, limited employment opportunities, financial burdens -- and I developed sympathy for the character in the book.