Bitter Flowers by Gunnar Staalesen

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Gunnar Staalesen's latest, Bitter Flowers. 

Varg Veum is fresh out of rehab and his physical therapist has a job for him. Should be simple: an architect couple who are out of town need someone to stop by their house occasionally and take care of things. Basically, make it look like someone's home. 

Oh, and they have a pool. Unfortunately, there's a dead body in it. And Varg's physical therapist has gone missing. 

It's not long before the PI finds himself involved in a third case as well. A missing person's case that's eight years old. 

It quickly becomes clear that there is some connection between the three cases. But solving them all might be more difficult than Varg anticipated. 

Wow! Ok, where to start? First, I had no idea that this was a very long running series! Fortunately, starting with Bitter Flowers wasn't actually a problem. The book reads pretty much like a stand alone, with just a few character points that are clearly carried over from previous books. So it proved to be a pretty good entry into the series and the character as a whole (and it also means I have a bunch more books to add to my TBR!). 

I thought this was fantastic! It starts off very quickly with Varg arriving at the house with his PT, Lisbeth. They've known each other for a few months and have become close, but are just friends. 

Varg is a PI who's been out of commission for a few months. This particular job doesn't even require his investigating skills at all. He's basically a glorified house sitter (except he's not required to be in residence). 

Of course a body in the pool complicates things. And it's not made any better when Lisbeth runs off, leaving Varg to wait for the police himself. Fortunately, or not, he has a history with the investigating officer and isn't immediately considered a suspect of any sort. But they are a little concerned, to say the least, that Lisbeth has vanished. 

And so Varg decides to get involved. Even though the cops have clearly asked him not to. 

He can't help it. 

It's no secret that I love a great PI novel. I still haven't found anything that quite fits the gap left behind by Sue Grafton, but I have to say that Gunnar Staalesen seems like a pretty good contender! Helped in part by the fact that this book is set around the same time period as the Kinsey novels. Except they're based in Norway rather than California :)

Which is pretty cool in and of itself. I've never been to Norway and I know very little about it, especially Norway of the '80s!

And Varg is definitely the kind of character I enjoy! He's got a great sense of humor, flaunts the law (just a little), and digs his heels in whenever he's got a case!

It looks like Orenda has been publishing Staalesen's backlist in English for a bit now. I actually have the prior release Fallen Angels (which looks to be book 3 in the series) in my TBR already. I can't wait to read it and am dying to get my hands on the rest of the books in the series!

Shout out to Don Bartlett—because I really feel, as I read more and more translated books, that translators are kind of magical unicorns in the publishing business who do not get the attention they deserve! This is an excellent translation! His work, alongside Staalesen's clear talent for great plotting and character development, has made this such an easy and fun read for English-speaking audiences!

Huge thanks to Random Things Tours for including me on the tour! And equally huge thanks to Orenda for providing a copy for review! (They're one of my favorite publishers and I really do look forward to each new release with great anticipating!)

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Happy book birthday to Stacy Willingham! Her debut, A Flicker in the Dark, is out today and you should all scurry out and buy a copy! Fair warning, you will be up late with this one :)

Chloe Davis is the daughter of a serial killer. And it's hung over her like a shadow her entire life. 

To everyone on the outside, Chloe would appear to have it all together these days. A successful psychiatrist, engaged to be married, a gorgeous home...but underneath that facade, she's barely holding it together. And when a teen patient goes missing, everything starts to fall apart. 

This was an absolutely page-turning thriller. I know that gets thrown around a lot, but I don't say it lightly here. 

First, there's the premise. It's not unusual to wonder what happens to the people who fall into the orbit of criminals—whether by coincidence or blood. 

Chloe was just a child when her father was arrested for murder. She lived in a small town where everyone knew her family. It's not the kind of thing you can easily get away from. 

But she built a life beyond that anyway. She moved to Baton Rouge and she focuses on helping troubled teens. She's done everything right. 

But yet, her father's crimes haunt her. 

And that becomes more and more clear when her patient disappears. Everyone around her is afraid that Chloe is headed down a dark path, especially when she starts to draw connections between what's happening today and the murders of her childhood. 

Is she imagining it?

Second, the setting! I'm from Louisiana and while I'm always drawn to books set there, a lot of them don't necessarily ring true. That was not an issue with Willingham's debut! Not at all!

Finally, there's the plot. I love trying to figure out how a thriller or mystery will end and A Flicker in the Dark left me guessing the whole way through. Every time I thought I had it figured out, Willingham threw another twist at me!

A Flicker in the Dark is a fabulous debut perfect for fans of Jennifer Hillier and Catherine Ryan Howard. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and I cannot wait to see what Stacy Willingham will do next!

Just a little bonus, but it was recently announced that Emma Stone's production company will be adapting the book for HBO Max! 

Order a copy from your favorite india via Bookshop!

Shiver by Allie Reynolds

In 1998, Milla dreamed of being an olympic snowboarder. But all of that ended in an unspeakable tragedy!

Present day: Milla and four others have been invited to a bit of a reunion at La Rocher, the resort where they all first met. The invite comes just days after one of their own has been declared officially dead after the accident that happened so many years ago. 

What should be a fun weekend snowboarding and enjoying an otherwise empty resort starts to go wrong almost immediately. There's no staff. No one at all. Which means there's no way off the mountain unless they can call for help. Which they can't because someone has stolen their phones. It quickly becomes clear that someone is messing with them. Someone who wants to truth about what happened back in '98. Someone who's willing to go to extremes to get the answers they're looking for. 

There's something so utterly appealing about snowed-in reads! I should know—I've been binging them almost non stop lately!

When we meet Milla she's in her mid thirties and is pretty aimless. It seems after her hopes of becoming a big snowboarding star burned out, she never really decided what to do. 

And though she has reservations about seeing all of her old friends again, she's looking forward to getting back on her board and spending time with them. 

Or at least some of them. 

We start to find out what's behind those reservations as the story progresses. Chapters alternate between 1998—rivalries, love interests, and more—and present day as the group tries to figure out who has it in for them, why, and how they're going to survive. 

There's a great air of authenticity to this thanks in no small part to the fact that Allie Reynolds was a freestyle snowboarder herself. One would imagine that she never endured quite the level of competitiveness that takes part in Shiver, but I'd imagine she has some pretty outrageous true stories to tell!

I thought this was such a fun read! Trying to untangle the mystery wasn't hard, but it was super entertaining, especially as the snow finally started falling here in Colorado. Even with hot chocolate and cozy blankets to keep myself warm, Reynolds succeeded in transporting me to that off-season resort and the intense unsettling feeling of danger lurking outside!

Shiver is out now in paperback! Her next book, The Swell, is due out this summer in the States!

Order a copy from your favorite indie via Bookshop!

Her Secret War by Pam Lecky

Happy Friday! Today I'm a stop on the TLC blog tour for Pam Lecky's latest, Her Secret War.

In May of 1941, Dublin is hit by German bombs, killing Sarah Gillespie's family and destroying her home.  

They were supposed to be safe. Dublin was neutral, after all. But it wasn't enough to protect Sarah's family. And with her boyfriend joining the RAF, there's nothing left for her in Ireland except sadness. So when a letter arrives from England with an offer of a home and a job—contributing to the war effort, no less—Sarah is ready to take it. 

But soon after arriving, Sarah is picked out for her father's politics. With that held over her, she's convinced to befriend and report back on a certain individual who is believed to be a German spy. It's the beginning of something Sarah could never have imagined and it places her in potentially grave danger!

With the wealth of WWII novels out there these days, I'm always surprised when an author can put together a story I haven't yet seen! And that's exactly what Pam Lecky has done with Her Secret War. 

Sarah is an outsider in England because of her Irish heritage. In fact, the politics in Dublin at the time are exactly what is held against her (because they supported Irish independence, her father also supported Irish men joining Axis powers in the war, essentially so that they could fight England—don't worry, this is outlined in the first chapter and not a spoiler). 

But you can imagine that having lost everything, being reminded of that on a regular basis would be worse than starting over in a new country. And at least she has family there, even if she doesn't know them. 

Plus, revenge is at the top of her to-do list!

Lecky's prose is easy to read and the book is definitely well-researched without being heavy handed (always appreciated, as it helps the plot more forward rather than being bogged down by a history info dump!). Plus, Sarah is truly easy to like! She's smart and spunky, both qualities I love in a heroine. 

But I have to say, all things considered, the end was probably my favorite part! To reveal why WOULD be a spoiler, so I will avoid that. But I do hope this isn't the last we see of Sarah!

For more on Pam Lecky and her work you can visit her website here. You can also follow her on Instagram.

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Cry Wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt—Excerpt

Happy Book Birthday to Hans Rosenfeld! The creator of The Bridge and Marcella has started a brand new series that debuts today with Cry Wolf!

I have a little taste of the book to share with you today, but first a bit about the book from Goodreads:

Hannah Wester, a policewoman in the remote northern town of Haparanda, Sweden, finds herself on the precipice of chaos.

When human remains are found in the stomach of a dead wolf, Hannah knows that this summer won’t be like any other. The remains are linked to a bloody drug deal across the border in Finland. But how did the victim end up in the woods outside of Haparanda? And where have the drugs and money gone?

Hannah and her colleagues leave no stone unturned. But time is scarce and they aren’t the only ones looking. When the secretive and deadly Katja arrives, unexpected and brutal events start to pile up. In just a few days, life in Haparanda is turned upside down. Not least for Hannah, who is finally forced to confront her own past.

I can tell you that this book has a truly explosive beginning—I've been listening to it on audio (narrated by Sofia Engstrand) and it is hard to tear myself away from it!

Thanks to the publisher, I get to share those opening pages here for you:

Everything had gone according to plan.

First their arrival.

Be the first in place, park the jeep and black Mercedes be-side each other on a rutted clearing in the middle of the forest, used by lumber trucks and harvesters for loading and U-turns, then position the coolers to face the narrow forest road they’d just come down. The ruts beneath them, the nocturnal birdsong around them, the only thing besides absolute silence until the sound of engines announced the arrival of the Finns.

A Volvo XC90, also black, drove up. Vadim watched as Artjom and Michail took their weapons and left the Mercedes, while he and Ljuba climbed out of their jeep. He liked Ljuba, thought she liked him, too. They’d gone out for a beer together a few times, and when they asked her who she wanted to drive with, she’d chosen him. For a moment he considered telling her to wait in the car, take cover, say he had a premonition this might go wrong. But if he did that, what would they do afterwards?

Run away together? Live happily ever after?

That would be impossible once she knew what had happened. She’d never betray Valerij; she didn’t like him that much, he was sure of it. So he said nothing.

The Volvo stopped a few meters in front of them, the engine switched off, the doors opened and four men stepped out. All of them armed. Looked around suspiciously as they fanned out.

Everything was still.

The calm before the storm.

The Finnish leader, a large man with a buzz cut and a tribal tattoo wrapped around one eye, nodded to the smallest of the four Finns, who holstered his gun, walked behind the Volvo and opened the trunk. Vadim also backed up a few steps to un-lock his jeep’s trunk.

So far everything was going according to their plan.

Time for his plan.

A bullet from a rifle with a silencer on it entered just beneath the eye of the large Finn closest to the car. The sudden explosion of bone, blood, and brain matter as the projectile made its way through the back of his head made the others react instinctively.

Everyone started shooting at the same time.

Everyone except Vadim, who threw himself behind the shelter of the jeep.

The man with the tattoo on his face roared loudly, hugged his trigger, and immediately took down Michail with four or five shots to the chest. Artyom answered with gunfire. The tattooed man was hit by two bullets, staggered back, but re-gained his balance and turned his weapon on Artyom, who threw himself behind the cover of the Mercedes, but it was too late. Several bullets hit his legs from the hip down. Shrieking in pain, he landed on dry gravel. The tattooed man continued bleeding, roaring, and shooting as he moved toward the Volvo, determined to make it out of here alive. But a second later he fell to his knees gurgling, let go of his weapon and pressed his hands to what was left of his neck.

Somewhere more shots were fired, more screams could be heard.

Artjom slid up into a sitting position, while trying to stop the blood that gushed from his thigh in the same rhythm as his racing heartbeat. Then another series of shots, and he went still, his gaze turning from desperation to emptiness, his lips forming some soundless word before his head slumped onto his chest.

The third Finn had thrown himself into the cover of a shallow ditch with a good view beneath the parked cars. A round of concentrated fire from his semi-automatic had hit Artjom in the back. Vadim realized that he, too, must be visible and flung himself around the jeep to hide behind one of its large wheels. When he got to the side of the car, he saw the smallest of the four Finns lying dead on the ground.

Ljuba wasn’t visible.

Another round of shots sounded from the ditch at the forest edge and bullets hit the metal on the back of the wheel, puncturing the tire. One went through the rubber and hit him in the side, just above his butt. The pain was a white-hot flash through his body. He closed his eyes, swallowed a scream, leaned his forehead against his knees and made himself as small as he could. As he slowly let the air in his lungs out again, he realized the gunfire had ceased.

It was silent. Completely silent.

No movement, no voices, no roar of pain or betrayal, no bird-song, nothing. As if the very place itself were holding its breath.

He peeked out carefully from behind the jeep.

Still silent. And still.

Slowly, slowly he raised his head for a better view. The sun hung below the trees, but still above the horizon; the scene in front of him was bathed in that particular soft, warm light of the midnight sun.

He rose cautiously to his feet. A bullet was still lodged in his muscle and tissue, but it didn’t seem to have damaged any vital organs. He pressed his hand to the wound. Blood, but no more than he could stop with a compress.

“Ljuba?”

Ljuba was leaning against the rear bumper of the Finn’s car, breathing shallowly, the front of her gray T-shirt beneath her jacket soaked in blood, the gun still in her right hand. Vadim assessed the damage. The blood was running out at a steady rate, so it hadn’t nicked an artery. No air bubbles, so her lungs were probably intact. She might very well survive.

“Who shot us?” she asked, out of breath, grabbing Vadim’s jacket with a bloody hand. “Who the fuck started shooting?”

“He’s with us.”

“What? What do you mean with us? Who is he?”

“Come on.”

He gently took the gun away from her, pushed it into his pocket before standing up, leaned forward and helped her to her feet. She grimaced from the pain of exertion but managed to stand. With his arm around her waist and her arm around his shoulders, they walked out into the open area between the cars. When they reached the rise where the tattooed Finn had fallen, Vadim stopped, gently removed Ljuba’s arm, released his supportive grip from around her waist, and backed away with two large steps.

“I’m sorry…”

Ljuba’s gaze was uncomprehending at first, but she soon realized what was happening, why he’d brought her here. Seconds later a bullet pierced her temple and she was thrown to the ground.

Vadim pressed his hand to the wound on his lower back and stretched, let out a deep sigh.

In the end, everything had gone according to plan.

Excerpted from Cry Wolf by Hans Rosenfeldt, Copyright © 2022 by Hans Rosenfeldt. Published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

See what I mean!? Cry Wolf is officially out now, so you can run out and snag a copy at your favorite bookstore or via the links below! Happy Reading!

Purchase Links: Bookshop - Harlequin - Barnes & Noble - Books-A-Million

Whitesands by Johan Thorsson

Hello, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the Compulsive Readers tour for Johan Thorsson's debut, Whitesands!

It's been two years since John Dark's daughter went missing. And everyday he wonders what kind of detective he is if he can't find her. 

His actions in those two years have resulted in the otherwise gifted detective riding a desk and working minor calls. Until he's called to what at first appears to be a domestic disturbance. 

The first officers on the scene quickly realize they're dealing with a homicide. But it seems to be an open and shut case as far as the evidence is concerned—weird as said evidence may be. Except that John isn't convinced. Especially after interviewing the suspect. 

And then another murder occurs and everything is thrown into question. 

Whitesands is a great blending of horror and police procedural! It's also the start of a promising new series from Thorsson!

John Dark is, as the all the best series leads are, damaged. He's been carrying the weight and guilt of his daughter's disappearance for two years now. But he's just as determined as ever to find out what happened to her. 

Understandably. 

But, as mentioned, it's affected his work. And it's affected his relationship with his wife and his son. 

And yet, John is known for having something of a sixth sense when it comes to a suspect's guilt. And everything about his suspect screams innocence. And that's before the weird stuff really starts happening. 

I absolutely love genre-bending stories like this! Horror/supernatural elements work so well in a suspense/thriller setting, making it kind of the perfect marriage in my opinion. And Thorsson has a cinematic element to his writing. The whole time I was reading, I could picture everything so clearly. Which makes for some deliciously disturbing reading, let me tell you!

There's also a great set up here as the start of a series. 

Whitesands is out now from Headshot Books. It's a must for anyone who likes a good atmospheric and dark (sorry, pun intended) read that will keep them up at night!

Daughters of War by Dinah Jefferies

Good morning, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Dinah Jefferies's latest, Daughters of War. 

It's 1944 and for the past seven years, sisters Hélène, Elise, and Florence have been living on their own in the family house in France. And while things have been relatively fine, there is a war on and each sister is doing their part. 

Hélène sees first hand the damage caused by war in her job with the local doctor. And though the law only recently allowed for her to train in this capacity, she's already made great strides. 

Elise owns a cafe in town but her own passion is the resistance. And the cafe serves as a letter box and more as the war becomes more drawn out. 

Florence is the sister they call their "little witch." And with rations and little resources, she plays to that completely. Florence is their gardener and cook (even cooking for the cafe). And she's managed to hide produce and more from the occupying Germans, keeping her sisters well fed and comfortable enough. 

But it's when two very different men land on their doorstep in need of help that things really take a turn. 

Florence finds a young German deserter and offers him shelter in their home on the same day a Special Operations man from England is brought to them to recover from a parachute accident. Both men are grave dangers for the sisters—if the Germans were to search and find either one, they'd all be done for. 

Three sisters trying to survive in occupied France. And they're hiding a secret they aren't even aware of. Beyond the two men they're sheltering, that is. 

I loved the sisters and their relationships. Hélène in particular, the pragmatic one, was my favorite. She's the one who does all of the worrying, something I can relate to. 

Elise is driven and determined, paying no mind to the danger she herself might be in as long as she's doing something to help their cause and fight against the Germans. 

And Florence has her heads completely in the clouds. Of course she did spend much of her teenage years with just her sisters for support. And she is quite capable in spite of it all. 

This is quite a chunky read and there were definitely times when I felt like there was a bit too much going on in the book. In the beginning, for example, Florence meets a German in the garden. And then the next chapter begins with her sisters discovering she's hidden a deserter in their home. And it took me a few beats to realize they were not in fact the same German man. 

In spite of a few stumbles along those lines but not quite the same, I did find that I enjoyed this story quite a bit. It's hefty but moves steadily along. 

This is apparently the first in a planned trilogy and I'm interested to see exactly where the story will go now that this one is done. 

This is a must-read for fans of WWII-based historical fiction and family dramas!

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official tour page here. 

For more on Dinah Jefferies and her work you can check out her website here. You can also follow her on Facebook and Twitter. 

Purchase Links: HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble