JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Holdout by Graham Moore

One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong? ‘Ten years ago we made a decision together…’

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It’s an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.

Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.

The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

The Holdout by Graham Moore is a legal thriller that moves between two storylines and two different time periods — present day, and 2009.

Eleven years ago, Maya Seale convinced the rest of the people on her jury that the man accused of killing fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver — African-American high school teacher Bobby Nock — was actually innocent. When they let him go free, what resulted was ten years of targeted hate, disbelief and shock from the public.

In the present day storyline, one of the jurors — Rick — brings all of the jurors back together for a Netflix true crime television show. He says he has new evidence that will prove the man they thought was innocent actually did kill Jessica Silver. Maya starts to doubt the decisions she made in 2009.

“Nineteen years old at the time of the trial, Lila Rosales had been the youngest member of the jury. She had been in beauty school back then, and Maya had once marvelled at how much effort it must have taken to prepare her immaculately made-up face every morning. Now, Lila looked worn.”

Wrapped in legal investigations, The Holdout is gripping and keeps hold of its reader until the very end. It explores the U.S justice system and racism in America, building tension with each passing chapter.

Structurally, the book soars above its competition. The flashbacks are placed at opportune moments to ensure the pacing or the tension never wavers, and the plotting allows for an engaged and entertained reader. The Holdout will please all readers.

The chapters move between different characters, allowing readers to get a full glimpse at the past events that defined them all, and how their ‘not guilty’ verdict changed the course of each of their futures.

“She knew that he was looking for anything in her appearance — an unexplained bruise, a tear in her blouse — that could be of use later. There wasn’t much for him to work with. Maya was disappointingly presentable.”

Media scrutiny is a huge element to this book. After Maya and her fellow jurors help release Bobby Nock, they’re subjected to the wrath of the disbelieving public and media. Some of them struggle to find work, and even one decade later, Maya’s name is recognisable to strangers.

The characterisation for each of the core cast is multi-layered and complex. Maya, who is now a criminal defence lawyer, has moments of doubt over her decisions a decade earlier, but ultimately, she still feels confident that Bobby Nock is an innocent man and somebody else is responsible for the disappearance of Jessica Silver.

Each character is flawed, so when Rick ends up dead in Maya’s hotel room, all of them could’ve done it. Quite a few of the jury had things to gain from Rick’s death.

“Lined by tall bushes and lit only by infrequent street-lamps, the hidden staircase to the next hill provided decent cover. She could see a bigger, better-lit street up ahead, at the top. She wasn’t being followed. What roaming camera crew had found her car, they could stake it out for weeks.”

With sharp, unexpected twists and unforeseen secrets revealed throughout the book, The Holdout is unique enough to entertain even the most disinterested of audiences.

Recommended for readers of crime, thriller and mystery novels. The premise is unique and the characters three-dimensional — the crimes themselves will have you guessing until the final chapter.

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

The Holdout
Graham Moore
March 2020
Hachette Book Publishers

The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman

ONE WILD PARTY. FOUR COUNTS OF MURDER.

A mansion in Beverly Hills is leased out to host an event wild enough to herald the end of days.

The next day there isn’t a living soul to be seen.

But in the driveway sits a super-stretch limo, unlocked, with four bodies inside it. Nothing links the victims together. Each has been killed in a different way.

Now it’s up to brilliant psychologist Alex Delware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to begin their grisliest and most baffling case yet.

As they struggle to make sense of the mass slaying, they will be forced to confront a level of evil that nothing can prepare them for.

The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman is complex crime fiction that investigates five victims found in a chauffeur car in the backyard of a rental mansion, with no solid connection between any of them.

Jonathan Kellerman is skilled at presenting a unique premise and crime scene, and drawing the reader in without giving too much away. I was swept up in the misery and truly couldn’t guess the killer; I found myself surprised by the twists of the novel. There are enough clues laid down that make the killer plausible, but not too many that you can guess the character. That’s really hard to accomplish in crime fiction.

There were many layers to the crime — the five victims who, in the first instance, don’t seem to have a connection with each other, and also the significance of the Beverley Hills rental property where their bodies were found. Kellerman weaves through each complexity with appropriate pacing and attention, so the reader doesn’t feel too overwhelmed with how quickly the plot is moving.

“Mary Jane Huralnik, fifty-nine years old. Much younger than I’d thought. She’d looked elderly for a decade of progressively sadder mug shots. No felony arrests but plenty of misdemeanours up and down the state over a thirty-year period.”

Whilst the premise and the crime are intriguing and will interest readers, there are too many players involved for the storyline to be succinct and easy to follow.

Firstly, there are two main detectives and five victims. After the first few chapters, I started mistaking the victims for each other and couldn’t keep track of who was who. And for each victim, there was a family member or two being interviewed, a suspect or two, and then eventually we get to a convoluted conclusion regarding the culprit.

Whilst I found the conclusion surprising and satisfying, it was also very complex and messy and hard to understand, even for a seasoned crime reader.

“Nothing remotely nasty in either woman’s background. Perfect driving record for McGann’s five-year-old Nissan Sentra, Bauer had gotten a few speeding tickets in her Porsche Panamera GTS. The 101 North. Heading home in a hurry.”

What lets this book down is its complete lack of prose or internal monologue. The book is 99% dialogue, and even in a crime book that’s too much. I got no real sense of the detectives’ personalities or their state of mind, particularly the protagonist Alex Delaware.

The book is written in first person, and yet, there was no voice. There were no emotions or thoughts, it was just dialogue and action and when there are five victims, even that gets confusing at times. Truthfully, I felt the writing was really weak. The crime is interesting, and the pacing is well down, but the writing lacks any voice or characterisation. Kellerman just moves through the motions of a crime story without any real depth or care for the characters and their development.

“Nothing on knife-attack victim Contessa Welles but the computer was more than happy to tell me who owned the house on Clearwater.”

People who read crime novels and only crime novels? They’ll love this. It’s all about the plot and procedure and plot and procedure, and, more plot. But people who dip in and out of crime like me? People who are also looking for some depth to the characters? Maybe skip this one.

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

The Museum of Desire
Jonathan Kellerman
February 2020
Penguin Random House Publishers

A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh

Welcome to Golden Cove, a remote town on the edge of the world where even the blinding brightness of the sun can’t mask the darkness that lies deep within a killer…

On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbours; the children, more than schoolmates.
That is until one fateful summer – and several vanished bodies – shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships, and a silent agreement not to look back. But they can’t run from the past forever.

Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape.

It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.

A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh is a small town crime thriller novel, following the disappearance of local teenager Miriama Hinewai Tutaia in Golden Cove New Zealand, and its potential connection to the disappearance of three backpackers eight years earlier.

The main characters are police officer Will Gallagher, in charge of trying to find Miriama, and Anahera Spencer-Ashby, a young woman who grew up in Golden Cove and has recently returned after living in London for many years as a highly successful pianist and performer.

Will and Anahera are both complex and conflicted characters — Will was exiled to Golden Cove after a previous case went in an unexpected direction, and Anahera runs home to Golden Cove after her husband dies and his pregnant mistress turns up on her doorstep.

“But there were other possibilities and he’d be a bad cop if he ignored them. No one had ever called him that, not even when his mistakes had led to two deaths. Will’s police work had been stellar; it was his understanding of human nature that had let him down.”

Will and Anahera are both incredibly interesting and thoroughly developed characters. Both of them share wounded histories and are psychologically damaged from past events in their lives. Whilst they don’t know each other prior to Anahera returning to Golden Cove, the two bond over their circumstances and find comfort in each other’s company.

There is definitely this sense of isolation that comes with being in Golden Cove, like you’re all alone and nothing you do will penetrate the outside world. Anahera was able to leave because she’s musically gifted, but most people stay (as Anahera learns when she returns home). Many juicy secrets are harboured in Golden Cove. As a result, tension and suspense are heightened and the setting itself feels like another character.

“Another fifty meters and the sand disappeared under a flow of water that turned into a whirlpool surrounded by rocks as black as obsidian and as jagged as broken glass. Everyone knew to keep their distance from the spot — there was simply no hope for anyone who fell into that water.”

The pacing is slow but consistent, successfully building suspense and intrigue. There is more than one mystery plaguing this small town and everyone is a suspect. Will can determine multiple motives for wanting young, beautiful local Miriama missing — she held many secrets, and was fancied by just as many admirers.

Setting and environment are big strengths in this novel, and Nalini has captured the small, isolated town of Golden Cove incredibly well. The ‘small town’ vibe is rich with secrets and hidden pasts, and it will draw every reader in and keep them enticed until the final pages.

There’s a small romantic storyline that develops in the book, which is both welcome and expected with this genre. However, it’s not a dominant part of the book and if it were removed, the events in the novel would mostly remain unchanged.

“Two hours later, he’d gone through every single one of the names and ID photos and come up with nothing. If Fidel Cox had returned to the area, he’d done so in a way that wouldn’t be noticed.”

Admittedly, I wasn’t a fan of the ending. There were two major revelations at the climax of the book — one made sense and the other did not. The truth behind Miriama’s disappearance was not consistent with the characterisation set up prior and it seemed like a cheap ploy to surprise the reader. To be honest I felt a bit cheated at the end.

Enthralling, inviting and entertaining. Recommended for fans of crime, thrillers, and mystery novels.

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

A Madness of Sunshine
Nalini Singh
December 2019
Hachette Publishers

Blood River by Tony Cavanaugh

Three women. A city in fear. And a killer who will alter them all.

Brisbane 1999. It’s hot. Stormy. Dangerous. The waters of the Brisbane River are rising. The rains won’t stop. People’s nerves are on edge. And then . . .
A body is found.
And then another.
And another.

A string of seemingly ritualised but gruesome murders. All the victims are men. Affluent. Guys with nice houses, wives and kids at private schools. All have had their throats cut. Tabloid headlines shout, THE VAMPIRE KILLER STRIKES AGAIN!

Detective Constable Lara Ocean knows the look. The ‘my-life-will-never-be-the-same-again look’. She’s seen it too many times on too many faces. Telling a wife her husband won’t be coming home. Ever again. Telling her the brutal way he was murdered. That’s a look you never get used to.

Telling a mother you need her daughter to come to the station for questioning. That’s another look she doesn’t want to see again.

And staring into the eyes of a murderer, yet doubting you’ve got it right. That’s the worst look of all – the one you see in the mirror. Get it right, you’re a hero and the city is a safer place. Get it wrong and you destroy a life. And a killer remains free. Twenty years down the track, Lara Ocean will know the truth.

Blood River by Tony Cavanaugh is a gripping and glorious crime novel set in Brisbane in 1999. This is one of the best crime reads I’ve come across in the last year, and I tore through those pages in one day. I was fascinated by the storyline, the characters, the murders, and the conclusion. What a compelling read.

Three men are gruesomely murdered near the Brisbane River in 1999, and the police suspect high school student Jen. But is she really capable of the heinous crimes they’re accusing her of?

“How could I forgot. Girl after girl after girl, all saying the same: she’s weird, she carries a flick-knife around school, and what’s with the Celtic thing? And Bettany knows she’s into Satan, like worships him and stuff, rituals and stuff, and Olivia saw her in the Queen Street Mall one Sunday and she was, like, so stoned and….and….and…”

The book shifts in timeline and POV a fair bit. It’s written in first person, but switches between a teenage Jen soon after being accused of murdering three men in Brisbane, to Lara Ocean the police officer working on the case, to the unidentified killer who is trying to hide their identity.

A good crime novel is when your guesses — your theories — are wild and unrealistic, and you have no idea if you’re going to pick the twist or not. Tony Cavanaugh manages to capture this incredibly well — he has nailed the balance between revealing enough information to entice readers, but not too much where the reader feels like they’ve ‘solved it’.

“It was the case. Three victims in less than a week. It was the rain, the grey sky, the hammering relentlessness of blood and water, a river rising. It was Damon, it was mum, it was Nils and my stupid decision-making teen years that were coming back to me after I thought I had buried them and started anew.”

Police officer Lara Ocean has a complex past and her teenager years seemed pretty rebellious and disturbing — there are some similarities between her childhood, and Jen’s childhood. As a result, she’s able to look at the case from an unbiased perspective.

She’s calm and more considering of the evidence and she’s more sympathetic towards Jen, but she’s also fairly new to the job and she’s easily influenced by others. Her police partner Billy is dodgy — he doesn’t always obey rules, and he thinks he knows how to get results in a case. Additionally, Lara’s ex-boyfriend resurfaces and he is terrifying. Soon, Lara is conflicted about how to move forward with the case.

“We found her wandering through Missing Persons — how on earth did she get there? Don’t ask; police headquarters is supposed to be secure — but here was our dilemma. Jen’s mother had clearly taken some medication and was on another planet, and while, yes, she could respond and speak to us and give her approval for a record of the interview with her daughter, we had to ask ourselves; would this come back to haunt us if, if, we ever took Jen to court?”

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of the book — Tony has captured the flood and the anxieties of Brisbane residents incredibly well. I could really picture the locations that were mentioned in the book, and I found it comforting to read so many references to so many Brisbane places.

If you love crime fiction, please buy this. You won’t regret it. It’s mesmerising and memorable, taunting and terrific.

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

Blood River
Tony Cavanaugh
May 2019
Hachette Publishers

The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea

As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together details others fail to see. And while cleaning out her late father’s law office, she takes a call that plunges her into a forty-year-old mystery. In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing.

The predator, nicknamed The Thief, left no bodies and no clues behind – until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, which uncovered his identity. But before police could question her, Angela disappeared.

Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder – the only killing the DA could pin on him. But a cryptic file found in her father’s office suggests to Rory there is more to the case than anyone knew.

Soon Rory is helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, she uncovers dark truths about the reclusive woman, her own father, and the man called The Thief.

But not even Rory is prepared for the terrifying secrets about to emerge…

The Woman in Darkness by Charlie Donlea is a suspense thriller about a young woman trying to manage her deceased father’s old case work, and a prisoner who was accused of murdering his wife 40 years earlier. The book is fascinating and compelling and fast-paced — a real page-turner.

The book switches between 1979 and 2019. Angela was a young wife living with her husband Thomas. She’s autistic, although that term wasn’t created back then and so people treated her horribly because they didn’t understand why she was different to everyone else. She is fascinated with the recent disappearances of young women in her area, and starts collecting evidence in an effort to discover who is behind the crimes.

“Angela didn’t need to look into Bill Blackwell’s eyes to see the disgusted look on his face. She sensed it. It was an expression that sent Angela back to her childhood. Most people looked at her this way throughout her adolescence, and today Angela felt much of the confidence she had learned in the last few years slipping away.”

In 2019, we meet forensic reconstructionist Rory. She’s trying to find out what happened to a young woman who was murdered 1 year earlier, but that case is put on hold when her attorney father dies and she goes through all his open case files. One of the prisoners he was defending is set to be released on parole. Forty years earlier, he was jailed for the murder of his wife. He was suspected of murdering dozens of other women, but they could never prove it was him.

There’s a strong connection between Rory and Angela — similarities in their personality and their compulsions, and their manner. They’re both strong protagonists, inviting the reader in and keeping them engaged until the final page. Both of them are incredibly intelligent women with brilliant minds — they’re simply misunderstood by the people around them.

The writing is tight and cohesive, the dialogue realistic and relatable. The characters draw you in, but also keep you guessing. There are so many people who will love this book.

“She’d spent the entire evening suppressing her obsessive-compulsive needs. Angela’s freshly learned self-restraint had done her well. It opened up a new world with Thomas, and had allowed her to forge a friendship with Catherine. But Angela knew she could not completely ignore the needs of her mind and the demands of her central nervous system, which screamed for her to organise and list and break down the things that made no sense.”

A small flaw with the book is that Rory is signed on to solve that case about the murdered woman
one year earlier, and there is no development in it at all in the entire book. And then there’s an
open end about it. Perhaps that’s to allow for a sequel, but it actually just felt really disappointing.
That side storyline didn’t even need to be in the book, and there could’ve been other ways that
Rory was written into the premise.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves crime and thriller novels. The premise draws you in
and the characters keep you there. Angela is a fantastic character, and her story is not only well
written, but evocative and interesting and enthralling. I loved reading about her.

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

The Woman in Darkness
Charlie Donlea
April 2019
Penguin Random House Publishers