Christine's Book Corner

Summary from Goodreads Is there a past too awful for even God to forgive? The Dinah Harris mystery series continues.... Angus Whitehall's past never really died....it just stubbornly waited for vengeance. A killer has settled into his small rural community, and no one suspects that the local pastor knows much more than he can say. Crippled by the devastating choices of his youth, Angus watches as those he led astray are methodically punished by someone from their violent, racist past. Unable to forgive himself, now the secrets he has kept are slowly poisoning the family whom he dearly loves. As the devastating consequences of his silence are revealed, former FBI agent Dinah Harris must step outside of the lonely isolation that cocoons her, before she can trap a killer and find peace with herself in the depths of God's mercy.   My Review: This was the first time I read a Dinah Harris mystery novel and I didn't know what to expect when picking it up.  The opening que...

Summary:  Summary from Goodreads For readers of Deborah Harkness's  A Discovery of Witches ,  New York Times  bestselling author of  The Lace Reader  Brunonia Barry returns to Salem with this spellbinding new thriller, a complex brew of suspense, seduction and murder. When a teenage boy dies suspiciously on Halloween night, Salem's chief of police, John Rafferty, wonders if there is a connection between his death and Salem's most notorious cold case, a triple homicide dubbed "The Goddess Murders," in which three young women, all descended from accused Salem witches, were slashed on Halloween night in 1989. He finds unexpected help in Callie Cahill, the daughter of one of the victims newly returned to town. Neither believes that the main suspect, Rose Whelan, respected local historian, is guilty of murder or witchcraft. But exonerating Rose might mean crossing paths with a dangerous force. Were the women victims of an all-too-human vengeance, or was t...

The spiders won't let you get away in Dead Spider , a mystery novel written by Victoria Houston where we return to Loon Lake and the mysteries that surround the residents. Summary: It's a happy day in June during the Youth Fishing Tournament on Loon Lake and everyone in the town is here for the annual event.  Everyone is enjoying themselves that none hear a gunshot go off on the grounds.  As the night goes on and people begin to leave, it is discovered that the richest man in the state has been shot by a single bullet to the head and is now dead.  Among this news, Doc's oldest granddaughter is caught in the middle of a drug ring and the seniors at a local center are robbed.  Are all of these  events connected to bring sadness to Loon Lake? Review: This was the first book I read in the series and I wasn't familiar with the tone or of Houston's writing.  I had high expectations from when I started the book and Houston didn't disappoint. As soon ...

You don't want to be stuck as the 18th woman in Woman No. 17,  a contemporary fiction novel written by Edan Lepucki about a single mother living in the Hollywood Hills. Summary: Lady Daniels lives in the Hollywood Hills with her teenage son and young toddler son and has decided to take a break from her husband for no other reason than a disagreement they had a few years back. At the same time she is too be writing her memoir about her mute son Seth and she realizes she cannot get that done if she doesn't have help with her toddler.  That is when she finds S, a recent college graduate looking for a job as a nanny.  When she meets S, an artist, she thinks she is the perfect person to be a nanny and take care of her child while she tries desperately to get her book finished.  As the months go by, Lady and S become closer to the point where they're almost best friends.  But deep down, S is hiding her own secrets.  What is going on in S's mind as she snea...

Pack your bags and get as far away as you can from The Travelers,  a suspense novel by Chris Pavone where Will Rhodes is made a spy overnight.   Will Rhodes is constantly questioning himself if he's made the right decisions in life, whether it be about his job, which is writing for the magazine, The Travelers, or his marriage, wondering if he married the right woman or if she even loves him.  One night, he is in France working when he is approached by Elle, who isn't at all what she seems.  Before he knows it, he is asked to be a spy by Elle.  Though Will goes back and forth if he should take on this job, he agrees and becomes a spy.  One by one every choice Will makes is worse than the one before and he is sent all over the world by this new spy ring he is apart of.  Will soon find out that everything in his life wasn't what he always thought it was. Looking at the cover, you can sense the suspense that the two main characters are spies, ...

No need to add to your book collection with The Collector, a suspense novel by Nora Roberts.  This book was anything but suspenseful and brought no mystery to the reader.  Rated: 2 out of 5 stars. Lila Emerson's job is being a professional house-sitter.  One night, while looking out the window, she witnesses what police first believe to be a murder/suicide. From that moment on, her life is never the same.  Through this mess, she meets Ashton Archer, the brother of the man murdered.  Ashton believes his brother never killed his girlfriend or himself and ropes Lila into working with him to find out the truth of what is now being called a double homicide.  As an artist, Ashton is longing to paint Lila in the time they have between discovering the truth.  The more the discover the truth, the more they find out exactly what Ashton's brother was involved in and what lead to his untimely death. At first, the book began very well.  Roberts gr...

It's nothing but pure boredom when you go inside the Sanctum, the fantasy novel and second book in the series by Madeleine Roux. We are reunited with Dan, Abby, and Jordan after the horrible summer they spent at Brookline.  The three of them haven't been the same since they returned to their homes, having nightmares of the asylum they dormed in during the summer.  When Dan takes a trip to visit Felix, he realizes he and his friends have been given weird old-time carnival pictures.  Against their wishes, the three must travel back to Brookline, realizing the mystery is not over as the carnival returns to the campus for the first time since the 1920's.  Pretending to be students are considering going to the college, the travel back to the campus on a hunt that takes them all across abandoned houses in the neighborhood and even finding a secret group that has been around since the time of the carnival.  Is Dan's connection to the warden of Brookline worse t...

Summary:  Taken from Goodreads The first installment of an adventure featuring stolen books, secret agents and forbidden societies - think Doctor Who with librarian spies! Irene must be at the top of her game or she'll be off the case - permanently... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she's posted to an alternative London. Their mission - to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book. Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested - the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene's new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own. Soon, she's up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option - the nature of reality itself is at st...

Title:  Flowers in the Attic Author: V.C. Andrews Photo from goodreads.com Synopsis: The Dollanganger family seem like an ordinary family to their friends in Gladstone, PA.  Four children who many consider being perfect, with a loving mother and father.  Nothing could ever go wrong.  Or could it?   Everything changes the day the father dies suddenly in a car crash.  The mother, desperate for money when she finds out her late husband left her with nothing at the time of his death, writes to her parents.  Waiting and hoping that her mother will help her out in her time of need.  The children never heard of these grandparents, but when the mother explains how her parents are rich, the kids can't wait to live a life of luxury.  However, they will soon learn there are many secrets within their family and that their grandparents aren't whom they seem.  When they arrive at their grandparents' house, the children h...

Title: The Burning Author: Jane Casey Photo from Goodreads.com Synopsis: The Burning Man.  He's the serial killer that has the people of London terrified.  Finding young woman, killing them, and then burning their bodies beyond recognition.  With four bodies already found through the course of five months, a fifth body is found.  Is it The Burning Man's work, or that of a copycat killer? Maeve Kerrigan is on the murder task force and has been following the cases of these women.  She wants The Burning man caught before he can kill again.  She wants to show the others on the force that she is more than just a pretty face and that she deserves to be on the force just as much as they do.  With the fifth murder, she hopes that she can break the case and finally be respected.  Rebecca Haworth is the latest victim and Maeve is determined to find the murderer.  She believes it wasn't The Burning Man who killed her....

Title: Wink Poppy Midnight Author: April Genevieve Tucholke Photo from Goodreads.com Synopsis: Wink is the girl no one wants to know from school.  The one that's at the end of constant bullying and from a family that others consider weird.  She isn't described as beautiful and is known as Feral Bell to those who tease her.  Added to her weirdness, she has a mother who does tarot cards and reads tea leaves.  She and her siblings live with their mother after their father had run out on them.  Poppy is the most popular girl at school, every guy fawns over her.  But it's Midnight who's the first guy she sleeps with, only because the guy she really loves, Leaf Bell (Wink's brother) doesn't like her and says she's an ugly person on the inside.  She is one of the characters who is always bullying Wink.  Midnight gets himself involved in a love triangle between these two women when he decides he's had enough of Poppy and how she...