Summary from Goodreads: "Every night, while the street lamps shed the only light on Wisconsin's most crime-ridden city, police transcriber Hazel Greenlee listens as detectives divulge Black Harbor's gruesome secrets. As an aspiring writer, Hazel believes that writing a novel could be her only ticket out of this frozen hellscape. And then her neighbor confesses to hiding the body of an overdose victim in a dumpster. The suspicious death is linked to Candy Man, a notorious drug dealer. Now Hazel has a first row seat to the investigation and becomes captivated by the lead detective, Nikol ..read more

  Summary from Goodreads: "The Winslow family lives by five principles: 1. No one can know your real name. 2. Don’t stay in one place too long. 3. If you sense anything is wrong, go immediately to the meeting spot. 4. Keeping our family together is everything. 5. We wish we could tell you who we are, but we can’t. Please—do not ask. Poppy doesn’t know why her family has been running her whole life, but she does know that there are dire consequences if they’re ever caught. Still, her curiosity grows each year, as does her desire for real friends and the chance to build on something, ins ..read more

  Summary from Goodreads: "Within days of wishing she could change her life, Fran Cooper is acting assistant to a celebrity, on a yacht in the Mediterranean, and en route to a tiny Italian island and the glittering Crystal Ball, along with the world’s rich and famous. When she – quite literally – bumps into a handsome American called Evan, a man able to keep his cool in the face of chaos, the magic really begins. Evan makes her a promise: no last names, no life stories, just one unforgettable night. Yet Evan belongs at the Crystal Ball and Fran is a gatecrasher. They may be soulmates, b ..read more

  Summary from Goodreads: "Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him. Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sis ..read more

 It's bittersweet to read my top reads post of last year and then to see how little has changed since 2020.  We are still here - still dealing with the pandemic - but when I wrote that post I still had hope that the end was in sight and that things would be getting back to "normal" soon (not sure really what normal is anymore).  Alas, we are still dealing with the pandemic and numbers are skyrocketing again.  Boo!  Happily,  books were still there for me as they always are.  My number of books read has continued to drop - I finished 55 books in total in 2021 ..read more

  The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson Summary from Goodreads: "June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way." My Thoughts: I picked this book up because I needed a change of pace from my normal selection of mysteries and thrillers.  I was in the mood for a "lighter" sort of read and the idea of reading a book set in the library was just too much for me to resist.  I'm sure that long time readers of this bl ..read more

  The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jónasson Summary from Goodreads: "Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World" My Thoughts: One of the things that I've learned about myself as a reader this year is how much I enjoy a slow burning, suspenseful read like this one.  I mean I knew that mostly but books like this has really reinforced that fact for me.  I love to lose myself in atmospheric reads and enjoy the ride that the author is taking me on.  I knew that this was a book that I wanted to read as soon as I read that one line from the above synopsis.  What did the author ..read more

  Broken Places by Tracy Clark Summary from Goodreads: "Former cop Cass Raines has found the world of private investigation a less stressful way to eke out a living in the Windy City. But when she stumbles across the dead body of a respected member of the community, it’s up to her to prove a murderer is on the loose . . ." My Thoughts: Broken Places was one of the best starts to a new to me mystery series that I've read in a long time.  I say one because I've read a couple of firsts in series this year that were real winners as well.  This book though really stood out for me ..read more

Beneath Devil's Bridge by Loretta Anne White  Summary from Goodreads: "A true crime podcast yields new revelations about a shocking murder." My Thoughts: Loreth Anne White is fast becoming one of my favorite authors!  Last year I read and loved In the Dark by her (if you haven't picked this one up yet you simply must!). I jumped at the chance to read this book and wasn't disappointed in the slightest.  It just goes to show me how much I NEED to work on catching up on her backlist because wow!  She is an author that definitely deserves more hype than I see her getting. &nbs ..read more

  A Fatal Lie by Charles Todd Summary from Goodreads: "In one of his most puzzling cases, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man’s life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried." My Thoughts: This is the first book that I've read in this long running series but not my first book by this author.  I've read and enjoyed a couple books in the Bess Crawford series so I jumped at the chance to read this one even though it's book #23.  It honestly didn't affect my enjoyment in the slightest as I really enjoyed my time with this ..read more