Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg
Lost Hills (Thomas & Mercer) by Lee Goldberg
Lee Goldberg enters territory mined by the likes of Michael Connelly to splendid success with Lost Hills, a terrific slice of crime noir.
Our hero is Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Eve Ronin, who’s a little wet behind the ears to say the least. But she’s going to have to dry off, and grow up, fast once she takes on the case of a mother who’s gone missing along with her two kids from a blood-soaked crime scene. The ensuing investigation will test not only her detective skills but also her mettle, as she plunges into the seedy underside of humanity that evil calls home.
This sterling thriller is carved straight out of the world of Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner. Goldberg’s is right at home writing about his native Los Angeles suburb Calabasas, as well in exploring the darkest reaches of the human soul. Lost Hills is a book to be found and savored.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison
Good Girls Lie (MIRA) by J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison plows new ground on familiar land with Good Girls Lie, a bracingly original thriller set inside the ironically named Goode School that reads like a female-centric A Separate Peace spiced with murder.
“The girl’s body dangles from the tall, iron gates guarding the school’s entrance,” the book opens and we’re off and running from there in a dead sprint to probe the secrets kept inside the school’s hallowed halls. Our narrator, reliable and otherwise, is one Ash Carlisle whose name suggests the grayness of her soul but not the size of her heart and determination. Her staccato narrative offers a wondrous teenage perspective à la Holden Caulfield, only dealing with murder as well as angst.
High school murders are normally fodder for fare best caught on the CW TV network in the form of shows like Pretty Little Liars and Riverdale. But Ellison goes them one better in crafting the best book of its kind since Lucien K. Trescott’s Dress Gray or Pat Conroy’s The Lords of Discipline. Good Girls Lie makes for terrific reading entertainment and that’s the truth. (Read BookTrib’s review of Good Girls Lie here.)
Reputation by Sara Shepherd
Reputation (Dutton) by Sara Shepherd
Speaking of Pretty Little Liars, the author of that series, Sara Shepherd, is back with a more adult-themed, but no less murderous, effort in Reputation.
Instead of a posh prep school, the nefarious doings are set mostly on the campus of the elite Aldrich University, a stand-in for pretty much any one of the Ivies, thanks in large part to the fundraising efforts of the school’s chief advancement/development officer Kit Manning. Kit’s job becomes significantly more challenging when a hacker dumps emails belonging to students, faculty and alumni alike. Things continue to spiral out of control when her husband is murdered for what can only be connected reasons.
The resulting dual investigations rips the cover off the entire fabric of Kit’s life in mesmerizing fashion. Shepherd’s trademark of laying waste to contemporary suburbia is on brilliant display here and the result is a solid effort in all respects. (Read BookTrib’s review here.)
Naked Came the Florida Man by Tim Dorsey
Naked Came the Florida Man (William Morrow) by Tim Dorsey
What more can I say about Tim Dorsey, whose capacity to churn out rollicking, ribald, comic crime thrillers shows no sign of waning in his latest Serge A. Storms effort, Naked Came the Florida Man.
This time the rascally, homicidal, hyper-vigilante Serge A. Storms hits the road along with stoner buddy Coleman in a classic Plymouth Satellite in search of equally classic Florida lore. That journey takes them into the teeth of a looming hurricane, even as bodies unearthed from a past storm form a mystery only someone with Serge’s twisted perspective can solve.
But let’s face it. Dorsey’s books aren’t about plot, they’re about the kind of witty and scathing social commentary that has defined this series for twenty or so books, yet remains packed with verve and vibrancy. Along, of course, with laugh-out-loud, side-splitting fun.
Deep State by Chris Hauty
Deep State (Atria) by Chris Hauty
Screenwriter Chris Hauty’s talents are on full display in his terrific debut, Deep State, a crackling and perfectly timed political thriller.
Twenty-five-year-old Haley Chill is not your typical White House intern. Being an army combat veteran leaves her respecting authority but also serving a keen observer of skullduggery, which she finds plenty of inside the current administration. Throw in murder and a conspiracy that would make current events proud and you have all the ingredients of a Brad Meltzer or David Baldacci-like sizzler of a story.
The difference maker here is the pitch-perfect development and depiction of Haley Chill who is anything but what her last name represents. She’s a stellar series hero in the making and here’s hoping Deep State is only the first time we see her.
The Wrong Kind by Austin Camacho
The Wrong Kind (Intrigue) by Austin Camacho
Austin Camacho is in terrific form in The Wrong Kind, bringing back his equally terrific hero Hannibal Jones.
The streetwise detective takes on the case of a missing teenager who’s had enough of life living with her mother in a homeless shelter. But finding her proves only the beginning of Jones’s involvement, embroiling him in a gang war and a pair of murder investigations that suggest something nefarious indeed. All this as he takes on the greatest villain of his storied career.
The Wrong Kind reminded me of Robert Parker’s Spenser novels as their level best. That said, this is much more than an ordinary thriller, laden with blistering social commentary on the state of urban America and the price we pay for leaving people behind. But the real crime here is continuing to underrate Camacho, who rightfully stakes his claim to the mantel of America’s finest urban crime writer with a savvy sense of the world his characters inhabit.
