I‘ve been reading some fantastic books lately (thanks Book of the Month!) and this is no exception. I will admit I had doubts halfway through the book, but by the time I was about 2/3s through, I was in love with the way Pekkanen and Hendricks made my head spin. Never missing a beat, they accounted for every detail they set up in the beginning and remind their readers that plots aren‘t always what they seem...

Krysten Ritter has delivered the thriller that I‘ve been waiting for! Ritter wraps a smart plot centering around corporate corruption with the strains of returning to Abby‘s small hometown where she was bullied for years. Ritter cleverly unwraps the novel layer by layer, leaving doubts every step of the way. She cleverly disguises the seams of her novel, only revealing them when she is prepared for the next layer of her plot.

I loved this decadent novel. Lauren Willig gave us a beautiful mystery, weaving the unease of false identities and murder with high society fading into the modern era. Plus I loved the references to the clothing, especially the dresses!

Shockingly gruesome right from the start, this dual-setting book flicks back and forth between past and present and the strange circumstances of the “Chalk Men.” The book isn‘t very long, and spirals quickly into a nightmarish finale which gave me a bit of whiplash as Tudor twisted the warped past with the lingering consequences of the present.

Egan‘s cleverly sewn prose made this home-front, gangster-riddled glimpse into the 1930s-1940s New York an addicting pick despite the emotional games she‘s plays with her audience. Who is the enemy with a war looming abroad and “shadow-world” gangsters ruling the city? I would call this novel a mystery in spite of itself.