Suspense – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: These Deadly Games

Let’s play a game.

You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies.

Are you ready?

When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a picture of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: Steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call.

But then Crystal realizes that each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wanting them to pay for what they did….

Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, is a must-listen, propulsive YA thriller with deadly stakes, stunning twists, and a shocking ending you’ll never forget—perfect for fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer and One of Us Is Lying.

Review: Agent 355

From Marie Benedict, New York Times bestselling author of The Only Woman in the Room, The Mystery of Mrs. Christie, and co-author of The Personal Librarian, comes a captivating work of historical fiction about a young female spy who may have changed the course of American history.

The tide is turning against the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and 18-year-old Elizabeth Morris cannot sit by idly. Quietly disdainful of her Tory parents, who drag her along to society events and welcome a British soldier into their home during their occupation of New York City, Elizabeth decides to take matters into her own hands. She realizes that, as a young woman, no one around her believes that she can comprehend the profound implications of being a nation at war – she is, effectively, invisible. And she can use this invisibility to her advantage. Her unique access to British society leads her to a role with General George Washington’s own network of spies: the Culper Ring.

Based on true events, Agent 355 combines adventure, romance, and espionage to bring to life this little-known story of a hero who risked her life to fight for freedom against all odds.

Review: The Crazy One

From devoted fan to celebrity stalker: The Crazy One is the most unique stalker novel you’ll listen to this year.

Joel Ruskin is a B-list celebrity barely famous enough to warrant extra security. Which is why Lucy has no trouble tracking him down on social media and following him to a secluded mountain town. Nothing will stop her from turning her fantasies of Joel into reality. Not even Joel’s pesky new girlfriend can get in her way. The power of Lucy’s mind is unstoppable as she resolves to finally be part of Joel’s life and exterminate the other woman.

Rebecca Markus’ sophomore stalker-suspense novel allows listeners to witness a unique unraveling of the human psyche that will leave you questioning your own reality.

Review: Comfort Zone

There’s a killer lurking in all of us. Sometimes you just don’t know it. Take Phil Mercer, for example. What dark secret from his past changes a decent man and respected professional into a man with murder on his mind?

Down-to-earth Northerner Phil Mercer begins to question why so-called university friends failed to help him establish a practice at London’s Criminal Bar. Despite that and colleagues’ professional jealousy, he goes on to achieve success as a fearless defender of society’s less fortunate, until his career is threatened by events triggered by something completely out of his control. Figuring his life and career are about to change forever, Mercer strives to find a way to right wrongs by inventing a new parlour game called “Comfort Zone.”

At a dinner party surrounded by colleagues, he insists they all play the game. He introduces it after dinner as a “storytelling game”. He adds – “the easy choice is not an option at all. What terrifies you? What scares you shitless? Be brave. Be reckless. You are among friends. What can possibly go wrong? It’s just a parlour game, right?”

Review: Dragons in the Clouds

‘’Dragons in the Clouds’’ is a epic adventure that takes place during a time period when Dragons were alive and freely roamed the land. The people during this time were getting eaten by a vicious species of Dragon. The ruling King finally orders the total annilation of all living dragons. A powerful wizard, named Merlinus, who is a friend to the king, does not agree with the Kings order, for Merlinus knows all Dragons are not what they seem. So he does what he must to protect a family of Dragons that he had befriended. And to protect his Dragon friends, Melinus performs the spell of weightlessness and tells the Dragons to fly up and to hide in the cover of the Clouds. An unforeseen ability of the Dragons weightlessness spell is that a Dragons fire now looks like that of lightning and their roar is like that of thunder. Melinus tells the Dragons to live within the clouds and to only come down at night to eat. An apprentice to the wizard who has grandeur of his own has a plan for Dragons that he has hidden deep within a mountain cavern. Now enters a widowed mother, her young boy, who had also befriended a dragon, though a very young one. They suddenly find themselves caught between the Kings order and a battle that has begun between two species of Dragons. A battle that would determine control of the skies above the Kingdom of Albian. This Apprentice’s plan has consequences that may bring the Kingdom and perhaps the very world we live in today to an devastating end.

Review: The Dolocher

A string of grisly murders… A scared and superstitious populace… An investigator desperate for redemption…

When murders in the poverty-stricken Liberties begin to be credited to a savage dark beast with the soul of a recently deceased serial killer, Alderman James knows he must take on the case. He sees an all too human hand at work and is determined to win over the people he once let down so badly.

With only the duplicitous and deceitful Hellfire Club member, Mr. Edwards, for assistance, James ventures out in the cold, snowy streets in search of the true killer. Can he solve the case and redeem himself once and for all? Or will the fear and anger in the streets finally boil over into chaos?

If you like serial killer and detective stories in a historical setting, you’ll love this book.

Review: The Stop

What would you do to protect what’s yours?

Donnie’s whole world changed the day he met Nate at The Stop, a cruising spot outside a small Texas town. Nate saw him, knew him, cared for him, and then one day, in an incomprehensible act of violence, Nate was taken from him.

Broken but not beaten, Donnie steps into Nate’s role at The Stop with one goal in mind: Find the man who murdered his lover and see justice served no matter the cost.

Content warning: Violence, sexual situations, sex work, rough trade.

Review: One Hundred Bullets

Captain Lou Rush of the New Orleans police department is the leader of the Tribunal, a band of 10 cops dedicated to eliminating the criminals that fall through the cracks of the justice system. Their success has made them powerful and untouchable in the Crescent City, but that is about to change.

After two decades, the time has come for Lou Rush’s son Nick to join the Tribunal, as aging members are due to retire. However, a fellow officer is killed by the Tribunal, and Nick discovers that his father may have also murdered an innocent man.

For years, Nick’s fiancé Cali Maddox quietly blends into the background. With an agenda of her own, her secrets will force father and son to decide where their true loyalties lie – with the Tribunal or with the love of Nick’s life, because one of them will not survive the aftermath.

Review: What Ianthe Knew

Five years ago, Arielle’s dream life with Caleb was derailed when he left for Boston in search of work. Only, he never made it and turned up dead. Now, Arielle struggles to piece together what happened, while raising their daughter Ianthe alone.

A mysterious stranger shows up and suggests that Ianthe might know what happened to Caleb. Only, Ianthe has never met her father. Caleb’s secrets begin to come to light, and it’s all Arielle can do to keep her and her daughter safe.

But how can she, when Ianthe holds the key to the truth but is too frightened to talk about what she knows? What really happened to Caleb? All Arielle knows is that she’d better figure it out – and fast.