JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

2 Sisters Detective Agency by James Patterson and Candice Fox

Two sisters go into the family business they didn’t know they had – catching killers. Attorney Rhonda Bird returns home to LA to bury her estranged father, and discovers that he left her two final surprises.

The first is a private detective agency. The second is a teenage half-sister named Baby.
When Rhonda goes into her father’s old office to close down the business, she gets drawn into a case involving a young man who claims he was abducted.

The investigation takes Rhonda and Baby to dark and dangerous places. Soon they are caught in the crosshairs of an angry criminal cartel and an ex-assassin seeking revenge . . .

Renowned suspense writers James Patterson and Candice Fox unite once again for the 2 Sisters Detective Agency, which follows a revenge-driven father as he hunts down his daughter’s attackers, and a young public defender whose father’s death unearths dangerous family secrets. Over time, the two timelines begin to intersect.

The novel features quite a large cast of eccentric characters – the tall, pink-haired and striking public defender, her savvy half-sister, and a psychotic, budding murderer lacking any remorse. Don’t expect every character to survive.

“Vera arrived late. She always did. She liked to keep them waiting, give them an opportunity to talk about her. The more people talked about you while you weren’t around, the more mythical you became. The more powerful.”

Whilst the story is complex and it does take a bit of time to wrap your head around the two unfolding storylines, this does allow for a complex but satisfying thriller. Each chapter is quite short, allowing for a quick and punchy read.

The strongest character probably should’ve been Rhonda, but personally, I loved Vera the most. Young, dangerous but very intelligent, she’s found her passion in being a criminal. She’s experimenting more and more, hurting people she feels deserve it but feeling no remorse for her actions. When she and her ‘crew’ break into the home of ex-assassin Jacob Kanular, it sets off a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse that puts her entire group at jeopardy.

Rhonda’s storyline is not as fast-paced; it’s a mixture of plot-driven and character-driven. When her father, who she hasn’t seen or communicated with in twenty-five years, dies, she’s forced to take on his business and custody of his teenage daughter – Rhonda’s half-sister, who she didn’t know existed. So whilst she becomes entangled in a deranged murder plot, she’s also trying to navigate the sudden existence of a teenage sibling whose safety is her responsibility.

“Another thunk behind him. Another into the boulders of granite either side of him. He followed the narrow natural trail, stumbling over cactus and rocks, falling and getting up and pulling himself onward as the shots followed him into the night.”

Admittedly, where the story falters is the POV shift between chapters. The novel largely follows Rhonda and her chapters are written in first person. But occasionally there are other chapters following Jacob or Vera, or someone else from Vera’s crew, and they’re written in third person. This stylistic decision felt really disjointed and often I started a chapter with absolutely no idea whose story I was following – it would’ve been really helpful if each new chapter had the characters’ name alongside the chapter number, so we knew whose story we were now jumping to.

Other than this, I felt like Baby’s characterisation was a bit caricature and unnatural – she gets better throughout the novel, but when we meet her she seems like a stereotypical depiction of a teenager, and not very three-dimensional.

The only other element that I felt was a bit liming was the romance in the novel. It was small and almost inconsequential. It bubbled so late in the novel it didn’t seem realistic, and I feel like if you took it out of the book it’d make no difference.

“Jacob felt his lip twitch. It was the only outward sign of the boiling, searing rise of fury inside him, the stirring of old reserves of killer rage. He rolled the video back.”

Fast-paced and high stakes, 2 Sisters Detective Agency is recommended for readers of crime and thriller. Readership skews 30+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

2 Sisters Detective Agency
James Patterson & Candice Fox
October 2021
Penguin Random House Publishers

Such A Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

There was no warning that she would come back.

Welcome to Hollow’s Edge – a picture-perfect neighbourhood where everyone has each other’s backs. At least, that’s how it used to be, until the night Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead…

Two years ago, branded a grifter, thief and sociopath by her friends and neighbours, Ruby Fletcher was convicted of murdering the Truetts. Now, freed by mistrial, Ruby has returned to Hollow’s Edge. But why would she come back? No one wants her there, least of all her old housemate, Harper Nash.

As Ruby’s return sends shockwaves through the community, terrified residents turn on each other, and it soon becomes clear that not everyone was honest about the night the Truetts died. When Harper begins to receive threatening, anonymous notes, she realizes she has to uncover the truth before someone else gets hurt… Someone like her.

Megan Miranda’s Such A Quiet Place is a suspense novel centred around a mysterious double murder in an idyllic and close-knit neighbourhood, and the young woman they all believe to have committed the crime.

When accused murderer, Ruby Fletcher, is released without charge and returns home to Hollow’s Edge after two years, everyone in town appears unsettled. What happens when another murder is committed, and it’s clear that not everyone has been truthful about their past?

“During the investigation, we had established an official neighbourhood watch. A self-imposed curfew. The remnants of our fear carried over long after. We locked our doors and the patio gates, we pulled the curtains tight, we slept with a can of Mace beside our beds – and more.”

Written in first person from the perspective of Ruby’s former roommate and friend Harper, Ruby’s characterisation and voice is probably one of the strengths of this novel. She’s somewhat blank in her delivery and evokes this all-knowing personality – like she’s spent the last two years working out what to do when she got home to Hollow’s Edge. She’s calculated but controlled, her impulsivity mostly erased. She’s not actually a great person, and certainly not someone you’d want to be friends with, but as a character she is interesting to read about.

Harper’s paranoia grows over the course of the novel, as events start to cloud her judgement and make her doubt what she remembers and what she believes. The neighbourhood and its inhabitants provide this closed-in, suffocating setting. Everyone still believes Ruby to be a murderer, and they see nothing wrong with twisting memories or events to suit their perspective.

“There was no sign of Ruby when I woke. When I stepped out of my bedroom, groggy and light-headed, the house was eerily quiet…Last night, after the news program with her lawyer, Ruby had taken a phone call and disappeared upstairs, never to re-emerge.”

There is a strong sense of voyeurism in the novel, and it forms the backbone of the story. Who are we behind closed doors, compared with how the public view us? Would we kill to keep our secrets? There are enough characters in the novel that the truth is hard to guess and the ending didn’t feel predictable. Whilst some reviews of this book haven’t been favourable, I devoured this in one day and loved it.

Admittedly, the pacing lacks a bit in the first half of the novel. Harper is quite timid to start, and understandingly quite wary of Ruby’s sudden arrival. It isn’t until halfway through the novel, at a neighbourhood barbecue, where a new twist means the pace and tension pick up and we’re addicted until the final page.

“We knew who didn’t make it in to work (and whether they lied about the cause); we noticed whose cars didn’t make it home at night; we saw whose recycling bins were overflowing at the edge of the driveways (though we were rarely surprised); we listened to the arguments carrying from open windows and backyards, feeling more like confidants than voyeurs.”

Fast-paced and gripping, Such A Quiet Place is recommended for readers of crime, thriller and mystery. An enticing suspense novel for even the most reluctant of readers.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Such A Quiet Place
Megan Miranda
August 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones

They went away as friends
They came back as suspects . . .

Jack and Rachel. Noah and Paige. Will and Ali. Five friends who’ve known each other for years. And Ali, Will’s new fiancée.

To celebrate the forthcoming wedding, all three couples are having a weekend get-away together in Portugal. It’s a chance to relax and get to know Ali a little better perhaps. A newcomer to their group, she seems perfectly nice and Will seems happy after years of bad choices. But Ali is hiding more than one secret . . .

By the end of the weekend there’ll be one dead body and five people with guilty consciences wondering if they really know each other so well after all. Because one of them has to be the killer…

Sandie Jones’ The Guilt Trip is a domestic thriller set during a weekend get-away in a Portuguese villa for a friend’s glamorous wedding. There are three sets of couples and a long list of secrets between them. By the end of the weekend, someone will be dead and someone will be responsible.

This has to be my favourite Sandie Jones novel so far. The plotting is neater, the mystery more hidden, and the events unfold in a much more realistic manner. The premise is simple yet effective, and the tension between the characters will entice any fan of thrillers.

“The bed is unmade, the sheets tangled, and their pillows still show the indentations of their heads. She lets out a relieved sigh. What the hell was she thinking? How had she allowed a fleeting image, one that she can’t even be sure she saw, to infiltrate her mind and bring about insecurities she never even knew she had?”

Written in third person, the novel centres around protagonist Rachel. No one knows about her short fling with best friend Noah two decades earlier, and it’s important the secret stays a secret. But her husband is acting shady, and no one really likes Will’s fiancé. She’s fleeting and secretive, and far too young for him. But over time, the group will come to learn first impressions aren’t always accurate and it can be the people you least expect who hold the greatest secrets.

Hints are dropped sporadically and carefully, so you’re never really sure what’s going to happen until the drama has unfolded. Chapters end on cliffhangers, encouraging you to keep going. The Guilt Trip is a great holiday or aeroplane read – something to devour in a short amount of time.

“Twenty years have passed, and Noah has no doubt developed a whole heap of idiosyncrasies that she knows nothing about, and enjoyed experiences with Paige that she’ll never have a window onto, yet, for some reason, she stills feels she knows him better than anyone else.”

Despite loving this book, there were a couple of gripes I had. Firstly, it was really hard to keep track of all the characters, even when I was well into the book. I kept getting Noah and Jack mixed up. And when we find out that Jack and Rachel have a son called Josh, I started getting Jack and Josh mixed up. I got backstories confused, and relationships confused. I had to pause a lot to remember who was who before continuing. I’d say it was about the halfway mark before I felt more confident with the character names.

Secondly, people looking for a murder mystery should be warned that the death mentioned in the blurb actually doesn’t happen until the final chapters, so most of the book is about the relationships between these five adults. It is a bit ‘soap opera’ and so won’t be suitable for all readers, but I really enjoyed it.

Thirdly, I found the characterisation of Paige to be a little inconsistent. No spoilers, but once you get to the end and look back, I found her actions and dialogue to be a bit hard to swallow. Was she meant to be a red herring? I found her a little confusing.

“She shakes herself down as the unfamiliar, and wholly unwelcome, thoughts wrap themselves around her psyche. She tells herself that this is merely a knee-jerk reaction to seeing Noah unconscious on the beach today.”

Addictive and entertaining, The Guilt Trip is recommended for readers of domestic thrillers. Readership skews female, 25+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Guilt Trip
Sandie Jones
July 2021
Pan Macmillan Publishers