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The young nanny for a prominent political family gets drawn into a web of deadly lies—including her own—in this stunning debut thriller with the menacing twists of Megan Abbott and the exquisite suspense of Laura Lippman.
“An exciting, intoxicating debut, it will hold you until its startling final pages.”
—Megan Abbott, bestselling author of Dare Me and Give Me Your Hand
They are Phoenix’s First Family: handsome Philip Martin, son of the sitting Senator, an ex-football player who carries himself with an easy grace and appears destined to step into his father’s seat when the time is right; his wife Marina, the stylish and elegant director of Phoenix’s fine arts museum; and their four-year-old daughter Amabel, beautiful and precocious and beloved.
Finn Hunt is working a dull office job to pay off her college debt when she meets Philip and charms Amabel. She eagerly agrees to nanny, thinking she’s lucked into the job of a lifetime. Though the glamour of the Martins’ lifestyle undeniably dazzles Finn, her real pleasure comes from being part of the family: sharing quick jokes with Philip in the kitchen before he leaves for work; staying late when Marina needs a last-minute sitter; and spending long days with Amabel, who is often treated more like a photo op than a child.
But behind every façade lurks a less attractive truth. When a young woman approaches Finn, claiming a connection with Philip and asking Finn to pass on a message, Finn becomes caught up in a web of deceit with the senate seat at its center. And Finn isn’t exactly innocent herself: she too has a background she has kept hidden, and under the hot Phoenix sun, everything is about to be laid bare. . . .
This debut novel had me turning pages as fast as I could read!! A thrilling three hundred and eighty-four pages of entertainment!
After graduating from college Finn, as she likes to be called, leaves Illinois and her secrets behind and doesn’t look back in her rearview mirror as she drives on to Arizona. She is the new Finn, mature, reserved and artistic.
As fate has it, she meets Philip Martin, son of Senator James Martin. As their relationship grows, Philip hires her to be a nanny to his and his wife’s, Marina, daughter Amabel. She falls in love with the little girl.
Then one day her perfect life is interrupted when a stranger, Iris, tells her that she is pregnant with Philip’s child and needs Finn’s help.
Then the absolute tragedy happens. Finn feels responsible and will not let up trying to find out the answers.
Every character has dark and disturbing secrets that lie beneath the superficial facades.
The author supplies the reader with tiny tidbits of the characters, like bread crumbs, that keeps the suspense at a fast paced speed. And those bread crumbs will have you reading long into the night to find the answers.
It all comes together in the last few pages. Even though I was surprised at the ending, I felt that I needed more, which is why I gave it 4 stars.
If you are a psychological thriller junkie like me, then pick this book up. I am putting Ms. Dimberg on my “authors to read” list and hope her next book is in the works.
Purchase Links: Amazon 🔗 | Barnes & Noble 🔗 | Goodreads 🔗
Mailbox Monday
Tuesday:
A FIRE SPARKLING by Julianne MacLean ~ eBook from Prime
WHAT YOU DID by Claire McGowan ~ eBook from Prime
THE WIVES by Tarryn Fisher ~ eBook from Harlequin via NetGalley
A MOTHER’S LOSS by Jo Crow ~ eBook purchase
Saturday:
A MONSTER OF ALL TIME by JT Hunter ~ eBook from Author
Ambitious, attractive, and full of potential, five young college students prepared for the new semester. They dreamed of beginning careers and starting families. They had a lifetime of experiences in front of them. But death came without warning in the dark of the night.
Brutally ending five promising lives, leaving behind three gruesome crime scenes, the Gainesville Ripper terrorized the University of Florida, casting an ominous shadow across a frightened college town.
Book Details:
Genre: True Crime
Published by: RJ Parker Publishing
Publication Date: September 4th 2018
Number of Pages: 304
ISBN: 1987902521 (ISBN13: 9781987902525)
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
J.T. Hunter is an attorney with over fourteen years of experience practicing law, including criminal law and appeals, and he has significant training in criminal investigation techniques. He is also a college professor in Florida where his teaching interests focus on the intersection of criminal psychology, law, and literature.
JT’s bestselling true crime books include:
Welcome and thank you for stopping by CMash Reads
What inspired you to write this book?
I remember hearing about the Gainesville student murders committed by Danny Rolling back when they happened, and I was struck by their similar impact on the college-town community as occurred with Ted Bundy’s crimes at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Then the more I researched Rolling the more interesting the story became.
What was the biggest challenge in writing this book?
The most difficult parts to write about were the murders. The crime scenes were very bloody because of the way Rolling killed his victims, and in some cases, because of what he did to their bodies afterward.
Give us a glimpse of the research that went into this book.
While researching the case, I gained access to the Alachua County State Attorney’s voluminous case files in Gainesville just before they were to be disposed of (and by voluminous I mean rows and rows of six foot high metal storage shelves). These materials included banker’s boxes of letters written by Rolling and interviews in which he detailed how he went about his crimes.
How did you come up with the title?
During an interview, one of Danny Rolling’s fellow inmates called him “a monster of all time”.
Your routine in writing? Any idiosyncrasies?
Once I decide on a subject to write about, I spend a lot of time researching newspaper archives. Then I get court documents, depositions, interview transcripts, and the like, before reaching out to witnesses. The process is substantially the same every time. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Tell us why we should read your book?
The book gives you a glimpse into the mind of serial killer Danny Rolling and sheds some light on why he committed such terrible acts. It also illuminates the power of the media through the story of the falsely accused Edward Humphrey.
Are you working on your next novel? If so, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Yes, I’m currently working on a story about a 12-year-old girl who was abducted while walking home from her bus stop. Her body was found a week later. She had been sexually assaulted. The case went unsolved for decades until an amazing break came thanks to familial DNA.
Fun Questions:
Your novel will be a movie. You would you cast?
Robert Downey Jr. or Joaquin Phoenix as Danny Rolling.
Favorite leisure activities/hobbies?
Movies, baseball, and reading.
Favorite foods?
Thai, sushi, Indian.
The prisoner raged in his lonely cell.
“When they let me out of here,” the prisoner swore to himself, “I’ll make them all pay.”
Years of condemnation and contempt had taken its toll, breaking him down, eroding his spirit, destroying all sense of hope. Now only the anger remained.
~~~~~
Cast into the bowels of Parchman Prison, the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, the prisoner had suffered daily torments during his confinement, each day falling deeper and deeper into despair. Raw sewage regularly seeped into his cell through the floor and flowed from a broken drain down the hall, flooding the cramped 8 x 10 feet concrete space with a revolting grey-brown liquid and an unrelenting stench.
Kept in this torturous isolation, his besieged brain had betrayed him, replaying the grievous moments of his life, all of the humiliations and feelings of helplessness, every piercing word, and every raw, painful memory. It was a constant reminder that the world had always been a hurtful place of violence, animosity, and aversion, never one of empathy or understanding.
Desperate to escape the unrelenting torment, he retreated ever deeper into the labyrinth of his own mind, creeping ever closer to madness. It was in that maze of insanity that he found himself. Or rather, something found him.
In the bleak, all-encompassing darkness, something whispered his name.
Faceless and formless, the voice seemed to emanate both from the impenetrable blackness surrounding him and from the shadowy depths of his own consciousness. The voice soothed and seduced him, its language both alien and familiar. It promised the strength to survive whatever nightmares awaited the remainder of his confinement. It offered the tools of revenge for his present condition, for all of the wrongs committed against him in the past, and for the scorn and mistreatment yet to come. Most of all, it promised the power to make others feel the suffering he had so long endured.
Then a name imprinted itself into his brain, uttered from an unseen shape in the darkness, or muttered from the murky depths of memory.
“Gemini,” an eerie voice proclaimed. “I am Gemini.”
At that moment, an infernal compact was crafted, a devil’s contract offering redemption for the damned, a demonic covenant accepted regardless of the terms. Caring nothing for the consequences, the prisoner embraced the assurance of vengeance, pledging revenge for the countless injuries inflicted upon him. Just as a cold, uncaring world had robbed him of his humanity and stolen years of his life, he would take the lives of others in an equal and equitable proportion. A new sense of purpose washed over him, bringing with it a rebirth, a recognition of what he needed to do.
And now he waited, marking the days with hidden malice, the bitter darkness of his cell matched only by the malevolence of his twisted, tainted soul.
***
Excerpt from A Monster Of All Time by J.T. Hunter. Copyright 2018 by J.T. Hunter. Reproduced with permission from J.T. Hunter. All rights reserved.
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I like my coffee with with milk only.
When I was young and as long as I can remember, I had to have books..
I spend the most time thinking about my sons and granddaughters.
To love unconditionally is a risk worth taking.
Mailbox Monday
Wednesday:
THE MURDER LIST by Hank Phillippi Ryan ~ eBook from MacMillan/Tor Forge via NetGalley
TOO CLOSE by Natalie Daniels ~ TPB from Harper Paperbacks
Thursday:
TELL ME WHO WE WERE by Kate McQuade ~ ARC TPB from Harper Collins
Friday:
SHE WAS THE QUIET ONE by Michele Campbell ~ TPB from St. Martin’s Press
