Tag: murder

What’s Ashley Reading?: The Hitchcock Hotel

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

First line: The crow waits until the guilty one disappears; then he flies down the hallway.

Summary: Alfred Smettle has opened a themed hotel centered around his idol, Alfred Hitchcock and his works. On the first anniversary of the hotel’s opening he has invited his former college film club friends to enjoy his masterpiece. Having not spoken to his friends since the incident sixteen years ago, they are all surprised by his interest in them after all these years. Upon arriving they feel that something is off about the place and their host. Why are they here and what does Alfred really want from them?

My Thoughts: The cover is what drew me in at the start. It evokes some of Hitchcock’s most famous movies. I have watched several of Hitchcock’s films including Psycho, The Birds and Vertigo and enjoyed each one. They are masterpieces of the suspense genre. When reading Wrobel’s novel she includes lots of trivia about the director and his works. I have added several more titles to my watch list since reading this.

From the very beginning I could easily envision the Hitchcock Hotel. It would definitely require a certain type of clientele to stay there. As each character is introduced we learn that they are all hiding something from their past that could affect this little reunion. But unbeknownst to the guests, Alfred is planning something special for the weekend. As a reader you can feel the tensions between the friends. I could tell that the author was trying to do what Hitchcock did with his films. She layered the suspense and tensions while building the story. We know what’s coming (sort of) but the characters do not.

At the beginning it was a little slow but then as secrets are revealed and the final twist is introduced it is easy to forgive this. I did not even suspect how it was going to change at the end and really found it well done. This was a perfect read for the start of October!

What’s Ashley Reading?: What Have You Done

What Have You Done? by Shari Lapena

First line: Early Friday morning, Roy Ressler drives his big tractor down the gravel road that borders his fields, his mind on his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

Summary: Fairhill, Vermont is a quiet little town where nothing ever happens until one morning when a local teenager is found dead in a field. Diana Brewer is the girl next door, pretty and popular. So when she turns up dead the town is shocked. How can this have happened here and who did it? As the police look for the murderer the townspeople realize that even quiet towns can have their dark secrets.

My Thoughts: I started out really enjoying this. The plot was moving fast and the suspect list was growing. It seemed like there was going to be lots of twists and reveals, which there was but I felt a little let down at the end. It almost seemed to come to an abrupt halt. And the final reveal just did not feel shocking. It is not that I was expecting it but it didn’t hit me like some of Lapena’s other books. There are unreliable narrators, multiple POVs and even chapters featuring the Diana’s ghost. I just didn’t feel as excited at the end of the story as I was at the beginning.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Dear Hanna

Dear Hanna by Zoje Stage

First line : Hanna had a feeling about them as soon as she saw them in the waiting room.

Summary : Hanna has spent the last sixteen years trying to deal with her feelings toward her mother through therapy and letter writing to her younger brother. She is now living a rather normal life as a wife and stepmother. That is until her stepdaughter starts to change into something that does not fit into Hanna’s carefully crafted plan. She tries to fight it but finally she decides she has to manipulate the people around her in order to have the life she has so long planned for herself no matter the cost.

My thoughts : I really need to start reading the synopsis of books I request. I saw the author’s name and automatically requested it. I did not realize or pay attention to the fact that this is a sequel to Baby Teeth. That books was crazy and Stage hasn’t written one I’ve liked as well as that one until this.

Revisiting Hanna as an adult is kind of a scary premise. She was a terrifying child. She tried to kill her mother! But I did not realize the link between the books until she mentions an incident from the first book that made it all click. I would have read this sooner had I known. This was just as crazy and twisty as the first one. Hanna has grown up but still has her demons.

FYI : Teenage pregnancy. Abortion. Death. Language. Murder.

Monica’s Musings: Bright Young Women

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

“Right here, right now, I want you to forget two things: he was nothing special, and what happened was not random.”
― Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women

Summary: January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be
further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on
Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of
promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of
the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that
unwittingly saves her life.

Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sorority sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades.

On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years of hardship. A chance encounter brings twenty-five-year-old Ruth into her life, a young woman with painful secrets of her own, and the two form an instant connection. When Ruth goes missing from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of beach-goers on a beautiful summer day, Tina devotes herself to finding out what happened to her. When she hears about the tragedy in Tallahassee, she knows it’s the man the papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer. Determined to make him answer for what he did to Ruth, she travels to Florida on a collision course with Pamela—and one last impending tragedy.

Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and prime time specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.

My Opinion: Bright Young Women is based on the real-life murders by Ted Bundy. This book is really difficult to rate. It started out really good. I appreciate the author’s attempt to focus on the victims rather than “the defendant”. I love the title and the cover is absolutely gorgeous! The title is a play on the words of the Florida judge who called Bundy “a bright young man”, because the focus is on the young women who recognize their worth and intelligence.

Despite the potential this book had, the execution fell completely flat for me. This story is all over the place and not in a good way. I think part of my problem was that I listened to the audio version. It made it that much more difficult to keep track of where in time we were.

My biggest gripe is with the character Ruth. Her sections were off-putting and felt unnecessary to the overall story. I was completely offended when Ruth was outraged by another women grieving a miscarriage in a group grief therapy session, and referred to a late-term miscarriage as losing a “turnip”.

This book would have benefited from including a historical note at the end. I knew a little bit about these murders, but by the end I had to find out which parts of the book were factual and which were not.

For an even more detailed review with pictures from the Ted Bundy case, please see this impressive review by Goodreads user, Barbara! Click Here

What’s Ashley Reading?: Middle of the Night

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

First line: Morning sunlight seeps into the tent like a water leak, dripping onto the boy in a muted glow.

Summary: Ethan Marsh has spent the last thirty years wondering what happened to his best friend. One summer night while the boys were camping in Ethan’s backyard his best friend Billy disappeared without a trace. He has been plagued with an ongoing nightmare about that night but no memories of what happened to Billy. However, upon moving back to his childhood home it appears that someone or something is trying to get Ethan to remember that long ago night. As Ethan digs deeper into his past he finds secrets that were buried years ago by those around him who he trusted most.

My Thoughts: Well this was a surprise! The main character is a man. Never has Sager written a male main character. But even with this diversion from his norm the book did not disappoint. With every new chapter there were more twists added to the plot. No one was safe from suspicion in the disappearance of Billy.

Sporadically throughout the story we get pieces of different characters and their remembrances of the day everything changed in this idyllic neighborhood. Even when you think you have it figured out then another theory is brought forward. This may be a difficult one for any reader to deduce before the end.

Similar to Sager’s previous novel, The Only One Left, there is a big old house with mysterious characters residing there. Little is known about what happens at the institute. It is the perfect backdrop for this otherwise perfect little community.

As I finished this book I may have given myself a headache from the tension of the story. I found it very hard to put this book down. It is easy to say just one more chapter while reading any of Sager’s books but this one in particular. Each chapter will give the reader just a little bit more about what really happened thirty years before.

Monica’s Musings: End of Story

End of Story by A.J. Finn

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.”
― A.J. Finn, End of Story

Summary: So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.”

“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.”

Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenage son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”

As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.

My Opinion: This book makes you slow down and pay attention to every detail. I highly recommend reading the physical copy, as I was confused multiple times throughout the audiobook. Pacing-wise, End of Story is a slow read, with an over-complicated plot. It tries to weave in too many strands that it ends up being hard to keep track of.

The last few chapters were interesting, but the rest of the book never grabbed me enough that I found it irresistible. If you have read The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, and enjoyed it, just be warned this is an entirely different type of book. Overall, I think this book was intriguing, but I do wish it had a little more going on in the first half to make it quicker paced.

Monica’s Musings: Bad Summer People

Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum

“She was adept at handling difficult personalities, stroking people’s egos, and allowing them to think they were in charge.”
― Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

Summary: None of them would claim to be a particularly good person. But who among them is actually capable of murder?

Jen Weinstein and Lauren Parker rule the town of Salcombe, Fire Island every summer. They hold sway on the beach and the tennis court, and are adept at manipulating people to get what they want. Their husbands, Sam and Jason, have summered together on the island since childhood, despite lifelong grudges and numerous secrets. Their one single friend, Rachel Woolf, is looking to meet her match, whether he’s the tennis pro-or someone else’s husband. But even with plenty to gossip about, this season starts out as quietly as any other.

Until a body is discovered, face down off the side of the boardwalk.

Stylish, subversive and darkly comedic, this is a story of what’s lurking under the surface of picture-perfect lives in a place where everyone has something to hide.

My Opinion: This book is like a trash TV script. As someone who genuinely enjoys that kind of entertainment, this still somehow missed the mark. There’s no one to root for, and there’s not even an interesting downfall for any of the characters. Bad, rich people doing boring, bad things for a whole summer. Not even their offenses are thrilling. 

I nearly did not finish this book because, at the 70% mark, there was still no murder! It finally picked up the last few chapters of the story, but it seemed very tame and did not have a very intense plot line. I really wasn’t expecting much from this one, as I just wanted a fun story about rich people being devious. Definitely not my favorite, but it wasn’t bad for what it is.

What’s Ashley Reading?: The Gathering

The Gathering by C. J. Tudor

First line: It would be wrong to say that life had passed Beau Grainger by.

Summary: In the small Alaskan town of Deadhart, a teenage boy has been found with his throat torn out and all of his blood drained from his body. It appears to the anxious townspeople that the local vampyr community is to blame but before a cull can be initiated an investigation is ordered. Detective Barbara Atkins, a specialist in vampyr attacks, has been called in to discover who the killer is. As tensions rise between the human and vampyr communities Barbara enlists the help of former police chief, Jenson Tucker. However, when another death is discovered Barbara pushed to dig deeper into the town’s history and what she finds may lead her to answers but also more questions. Who is doing the killing? And is it really a vampyr or is a serial killer on the loose in Deadhart?

My Thoughts: When I started reading this I realized that I had not read the description of the story. I saw C.J. Tudor as the author and immediately requested it. When I realized it was a vampire story I was shocked because it was different than their other books but at the end I was not disappointed.

The atmosphere and setting is perfect for a story of vampires. Set in the remote parts of Alaska during the cold, dark winter days there is a vampire stalking the isolated town. However, in this world vampires are a known and protected community. They have some rights as long as they do not harm humans. It is different than many stories about these creatures. But they are still feared by many and hunted by those who fear them.

I found this to be a darkly fun thriller, perfect for a cold winter night. At times I was at the edge of my seat waiting to see how the next scene would unfold. For those who love an atmospheric paranormal story then this is right up your alley. I wish it was coming out in the short days of winter but maybe just turn up the AC, turn down the lights and imagine being stuck in Alaska with vampires stalking through the trees around you. Enjoy!

What’s Ashley Reading?: Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

First line: In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.

Summary: In the 1920s the Osage people were one of the richest in groups in America. Oil was discovered on their land making them instant millionaires. But then a string of mysterious deaths starts to plague the members of the community. One family particularly was targeted, that of Mollie Burkhart. As people tried to investigate the deaths they became victims as well. After years of fear the newly formed FBI was brought in to find out who is killing the Osage people.

My Thoughts: I have been meaning to read this book for years. Everyone who has read it has told me how fascinating but also heartbreaking the story is. Recently I watched the movie, which is 3.5 hours long, and was shocked by the events portrayed in the film. After watching the movie I decided it was time to start the book and learn more about the story and what the movie may have left out.

The book is divided into three parts. First is the story of what happened during the years of the murders told through the perspective of Mollie Burkhart. She witnessed her family and friends dying while fearing for her own life as well. Second is the story of the FBI agent who was brought in to try and bring to justice the persons involved in the string of murders. And lastly we find the author researching the years leading up to and during the events in Osage county. Using witness testimony and records he learns that the body count may have been much higher than previous believed.

After finishing this book I was even more shocked by these events and how long it went on before anyone did anything about it. It is a dark part of the nation’s history that was all but forgotten. I would highly recommend this book. It reads like fiction but is a completely true story. It can be hard to read due to the horrible nature of the events. However, it is important to remember history, even the bad, in order to not repeat our past mistakes.

What’s Ashley Reading?: Murder Road

Murder Road by Simone St. James

First line: That July night seemed full of possibility, with the empty highway stretching out before us.

Summary: April and Eddie have just gotten married and are headed to a resort town for a blissful honeymoon until they pass a hitchhiker along a deserted road. Like any Good Samaritan, they stop to help the young woman only to find that she has been fatally stabbed. After reaching a hospital where the hitchhiker dies, April and Eddie give a description of the mysterious truck they saw following them along the dark road.

After years of murders along Atticus Road the police finally have witnesses. But could these witnesses also be suspects? In an attempt to clear their names the young couple dig into the history of what has happened along this particular stretch of road. But with each new discovery it appears that something more paranormal is behind the deaths along Atticus Road.

My Thoughts: I think I have found my new favorite Simone St. James book. This book was creepy, twisty and completely addicting. The supernatural element was perfectly blended into the contemporary mystery of the murders along Atticus Road. This is one of St. James’ most intense books in my opinion. There are ghostly sightings, angry townspeople and a murderer on the loose. I found myself gripping my iPad as I read, constantly worrying about the characters. Even the supporting characters were well rounded giving the story more substance.

Near the end is a twist which I found rather predictable but it did not spoil my love for this book. But the last interaction between our heroes and the detective was excellent as the truth comes out. I never once considered this twist but it made me question all that had happened between our characters up until this point. Once you read it you will understand!

**Release date is March 5 ,2024.**