Book Review: An Anonymous Girl by G. Hendricks and S. Pekkanen

An Anonymous Girl Book Review, a thriller by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

January 8, 2018, St. Martin's Press.
Source: library book

I was lucky to get this book from the library so soon, the month of publication, as I bet it's now on a long waiting list! I finished it in about two days, reading through easily.

Jessica decides to answer a psychological questionnaire on morality, organized by a psych prof in New York City. She does it for the money they offer, but she becomes more entangled in the research study when she learns how much she will be paid.  Answering the questions in the university lab leads to real life situations she is asked to participate in. Soon, she is dependent monetarily and psychologically on the study organizer, Dr. Shields, who controls Jessica during her sessions, in and outside the lab.

This is a thriller that leans heavily on psychology, with the puppet master Dr. Shields who may or may not have ulterior motives for getting into Jessica's psyche so completely. Then there is Dr. Shield's husband, who may or may not be in cahoots with his wife in whatever scheme she is planning.

Suspenseful and engrossing, this novel has an unusual plot and characters. It's well written and planned, with Jessica and Dr. Shields both narrating their stories, carrying the novel to its unexpected conclusion.

I gave the book five stars.  

It's Monday: Three Winter Thrillers

Books set in snowy winter, which fit the stormy weather we are having right now.

Title: No Exit by Taylor Adams
Publication: January 15, 2019, William Morrow

College student Darby Thorne, driving in the wintry, snowy mountains of Colorado, pulls in at a truck stop, unable to drive further because of the tons of snow that have shut down the state highway and back roads. She meets four other people in the truck stop, also stranded for the next day or so before the snow plows can arrive to clear the roads. In the meantime, the snow keeps coming down.

Darby goes outside to her parked car and on the way back spots a small hand of a child through a parked van that belongs to one of the travelers in the stop. She sees a child padlocked in a dog crate in the back of the van, and is too terrified of the situation to say anything to any of the people inside. Instead, she plots a way to free the child and drive her off to safety.

Easier said than done. The next several hours brings surprises that put Darby and the child in danger from not one, but maybe more of the people trapped inside the stop with her. She is not sure who to confide in and her decisions may be the wrong ones. 

This turned out to be a hair-raising thriller, with more twists and turns in the plot than I could have imagined. It kept me going on a snowy day when I was myself kept indoors by snow. What a perfect book for the day! 

Though the dialogue was a bit stilted, the book carried the day with the plot and action scenes, plus the personality of the tenacious Darby. 

Five stars.


The wintry thriller I'm reading next is set in the Scottish Highlands, at an exclusive but remote resort with cabins and a lodge set around a loch surrounded by thick pine trees and forests. The Hunting Party has a setting we are familiar with from Agatha Christie and other mystery writers - a group of people isolated and alone in a hotel or house, unable to leave, and with an unknown killer in their midst.

I can't wait to see who the culprit is, and the motive for murder.

The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury is next on my list of winter reads.

This one is set in the Alaskan wilderness with a young girl Tracy, trained to be a trapper and hunter. She is accustomed to being outdoors running with her dogs, but is one day attacked by a stranger, whom she fights off successfully.  

When an injured man later shows up, Tracy wonders if he was the one who attacked her.

The Wild Inside is described as a coming of age book as well as a psychological thriller.


It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date. What's on your reading list this week? 

Book Review: In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick

Review of romance novel featuring show dogs!

In Dog We Trust

In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick
Publication: January 8, 2019, Berkley
Genre; fiction
Setting: Black Dog Bay, Delaware
About: "When Jocelyn Hillier is named legal guardian for the late Mr. Allardyce's pack of pedigreed Labrador retrievers, her world is flipped upside down."

How does a dog walker come to live in a mansion and be co-trustee of three show dogs who have inherited their owner's fortune? Jocelyn finds herself in this enviable position, but there are challenges to her good fortune by the dogs' trainer and by the owner's son. 

What will come of this and how will or can solutions and compromises be made? And is romance also in Jocelyn's future?

A romance of the doggy kind that is easy to read and enjoyable. It's also not a totally predictable plot, which I appreciated.

Four stars.  

Thanks to Berkley which provided a copy for review.  

No Exit by Taylor Adams: Book Beginning

No Exit 

Title: No Exit by Taylor Adams

Publication: January 15, 2019, William Morrow
Setting: College student Darby Thorne driving in the wintry, snowy mountains of Colorado

Book beginning:

5:19 p.m.
December 23 

"Screw you, Bing Crosby."
Darby Thorne was six miles up Backbone Pass when her windshield wiper broke, and that bass-baritone voice was just kicking into the second chorus. It was official: he'd be getting his white Christmas. He could shut up about it now. 

Page 56:

"Do you know the man who drives this van?"
"No."
"Did he take you?"
"Yeah."
"From your house?...."

About the book:
... four strangers, a blizzard, a kidnapped child, and a determined young woman desperate to outwit a vicious psychopath.

I thought this was a perfect setting for a thriller, especially since we are in the midst of winter!
Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Sunday Salon: My First Three Books of the New Year

Becoming,

I recently started reading this, my second book of the year, and am enjoying it tremendously, especially since I am familiar with the place in which Michele Obama grew up - the south side of Chicago, including Hyde Park where I lived for over 10 years.

The memoir is not just of a woman who became the First Lady of the United States, but is also the story of a middle class Black family in Chicago and children who grew up to succeed. It is also a romance, between Michelle and Barack Obama, before their lives became entrenched in the political. I can't wait to get to that part.

My first book of the year, completed, was

Killing Commendatore

Murakami's book is another of his fantasies. It drew me in, in the same way a pit in the back of the narrator's house drew him in and led him on to voyages reminiscent of  Dante's Underworld and the crossing of the river Styx.

The above two books, memoir and fantasy/magical realism, couldn't be more different, but I like them both and find them a great way to start off my reading in 2019.

My third book of the year, which I've already begun, is

In Dog We Trust

This is turning out to be a more traditional kind of romance. It's about dogs and their owner, a young woman thrust into the limelight of becoming caretaker and co-trustee of  three famous and valuable show dogs. Her job comes with a seaside mansion that only she has access to. Along the way, she seems likely to meet the man of her dreams. This is delightful light reading. My review.

What are your first books this year?

The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.

  

Mailbox Monday: The Last of the Year

Two books arrived in the mail, one for a book tour by the publisher.

The Feed

The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
Published March 13, 2018, William Morrow
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy
About: what could happen if technology should suddenly disappear or not be available.

In Dog We Trust

In Dog We Trust by Beth Kendrick
Publication: January 8, 2019, Berkley
Genre; fiction
Setting: Black Dog Bay, Delaware
About: "When Jocelyn Hillier is named legal guardian for the late Mr. Allardyce's pack of pedigreed Labrador retrievers, her world is flipped upside down."

Visit Mailbox Monday to see what books others have on their reading list. 
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date

Sunday Salon: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year coming in a few days! Wishing everyone the best in 2019 and hoping it will be full of good surprises in books and reading and gardening, and, and......

I haven't been reading much over the holidays, what with decorating, visiting, sending cards and packages, and so on. I hope it was an equally festive time for you.

The library is my greatest source of  books these days, though I still welcome the galleys from publishers who wish for reviews. My TBR pile is waiting.

I bought Michele Obama's book, Becoming, and am reading it slowly but enjoying reading about her growing up in the city I lived in for so many years, south side Chicago.

Becoming,

I started the ebook of Murakami's Killing Commendatore, which I am enjoying even though it has magical elements. I don't always like these in books, but Murakami makes it work,

Killing Commendatore

Then there is Harry Potter in French from the library, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, to improve my reading in that language.

A l'ecole des sorciers

I finished The Museum of Modern Love, based on fictional characters surrounding a real life art event at MoMa, when for 75 days Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present was presented.  It confused me a bit as it was both surreal and true to life. 

The Museum of Modern Love

I am also in the middle of  American By Day, a book whose title and author caught my attention. The novel is about a Norwegian woman who sets out to find her long lost brother in the U.S.A. and who confronts differences in culture and habits when she arrives here.

American By Day

I have more than enough reading for the rest of the year and beyond. How about you?

Memes:  
The Sunday Post  hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer,
It's Monday, What Are You Reading? by Book Date.