In Ann Aguirre’s The Third Mrs. Durst, an ambitious woman trapped in an abusive marriage attempts to flip the script and get away with murder. “I got on a bus when I was sixteen.” The beautiful Marlena Altizer left her addict mother, her younger half-siblings, and grinding poverty in rural Kentucky for a different life.…
Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone is a chilling revenge tale about a woman leading a double life in order to take down a man with a dark past. Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve probably noticed women are angry—like really angry. Pundits and talking heads will point to November 8, 2016,…
The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen is an audacious, lightning-paced thriller, where a smart-mouthed, white-collar drug dealer—a hilariously irreverent antihero—seeks revenge when an unknown enemy takes out a contract on him. All is good in the life of Jack Price. His drug operation is the Amazon of cocaine trafficking, and no one can breach his…
Revenge is a drink best served cold. So is this week's Pick Your Poison—where we create a cocktail inspired by a recently published mystery, thriller, or crime novel—the “Gamblin' Jack” cocktail, inspired by Scott Adlerberg's historical revenge thriller, Jack Waters! I bet you can't have just one…
A Taste for Nightshade by Martine Bailey is a thrilling historical novel that involves recipes, revenge, mystery, and marriage (Available January 12, 2016). Manchester 1787. When budding young criminal Mary Jebb swindles Michael Croxon's brother with a blank pound note, he chases her into the night and sets in motion a train of sinister events.…
Desperate Measures by Jo Bannister is the 3rd police procedural in the series following Deadly Virtues and Perfect Sins, where Gabriel Ash discovers his kidnapped wife and kids are still alive some four years later and goes to extraordinary lengths to seek justice and save his family (Available December 8, 2015). When Gabriel Ash's wife…
It's well-known that Leonard DiCaprio's mantelpiece is lacking an Academy Award. Ever since Jack Dawson perished in the icy Atlantic ocean, Leo’s put out quality movie after quality movie, only to continually fall just short when it came to winning an Oscar. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there’s a chance that…
In “Apertivo,” a cadre of fractious, murderous conspirators maneuvers to converge upon Caesar (okay, Hannibal). In Republican Rome, a lamb was sacrificed to Jupiter on the ides of each month, and it was by this date in March in 44 B.C.E. that a seer is reported to have told a scoffing Julius Caesar that harm…
In “Secondo,” Hannibal and Bedelia lounge in matching rompwear, while Jack mourns Will, who torments the tormented in the Lecter family vineyards. In the novels as here, the well-heeled Hannibal lives at Florence's beautiful Palazzo Capponi. At home in their gorgeous apartments, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) is glum in a black satin something, and…
Mary Shaye was in the wrong place at the wrong time—crossing the road in front of Ethan Langer and his band of renegades, who were escaping on horseback after having just robbed the Epitaph town bank. She’s trampled underfoot, sadly, leaving behind a family that includes her three sons named Thomas, Matthew, and James. Her…
