I Otter Be Reading

Overall:  Layla Hilding is a woman in her 30’s who has just gone through a divorce.  She was married for 10 years and gave up on the thing that gave her joy, singing in front of an audience.  She is now single, an Elementary School music
teacher, has bought herself a home, and is figuring out her life on her own terms.  Meanwhile, Josh is separated and going through a divorce after a 20 year marriage to his High School sweetheart.  He is sharing custody of their daughter with his ex-wife.  Josh’s daughter is in Layla’s music class at the school.   They see eachother everyday at the start of the school day for drop-off.   Josh and Layla both do not want to start dating anyone seriously, they feel they are not ready for that yet.  So, they decide to be “friends with potential”.  They both need to figure out life being on their own again for a while before they get into any new relationships.  They both do not want to be each other’s “rebound” person.  But, after going through divorces and heartbreaks, are they ever going to be ready to start again? Will they ever be willing to open up their hearts to find real love?  

Ovations:   I liked both main characters, Layla and Josh.  They are both fully-formed, dynamic characters just trying to figure their new lives out.  I like how this book is realistic.  It’s not about steamy hot tub scenes or romantic make-outs in the rain.  It is about two grown adults trying to find themselves after being in marriages that did not work out.  Yes, there is a romance here, but it is a slow-burn romance that is in no hurry to rush into anything.  I liked all the secondary
characters also.  There are many in this book, but they are all explained well and good supporting characters.  I also like that there were no artificial obstacles put in their way for them to overcome to be together again at the end like so many formulaic romance books have. 

Oh Well:  This book is quite slow.  It is a nice story, but not a lot happens.  There is nothing really too exciting happening here ….  no hot sex scenes, no witty, flirty banter. Also, there are a lot of flashbacks in the book to give you their histories.  So, it can get a little bit confusing.   

Opinion: This is a well written, lovely romance about second chances.  It is about adults figuring out their lives after divorce.  Deciding on their own what they want the next phase of their lives to look like.  It is not a rom-com or a gimmicky-type of romance story.  It is just an honest story about two people who are learning to love again after heartbreak.  It has a very slow pace, but is a sweet story overall.  Rating 6 out of 10    

Overall:  Lowen is a young writer just starting out.  Her books are not selling and she’s facing eviction from her apartment in NYC.  Not to mention that her mother recently died.  She is struggling.  But, then she gets an amazing offer to ghost write for a very popular, successful, author Verity Crawford, who was recently in a very bad car accident.  Lowen will be paid lots of money by the publisher to finish the remaining three books in the author’s popular series.  So, Lowen accepts the job offer and moves into Verity Crawford’s beautiful home to being her research on how to begin writing the remaining books.  Lowen already met Verity’s husband Jeremy at the publisher’s meeting in New York.  (Actually, before the meeting, but that can’t be discussed right now.)  After arriving at the large home, Lowen has to go through Verity’s office, which if filled with tons of notes, research, and books.  As Lowen goes through all of Verity’s stuff in the office, trying to find any information on ideas for the new books, she instead finds an unfinished autobiography that Verity started, writing about the night she met her husband, and going on from there.   Lowen is curious to find out more about the couple she is now working for and living with, and starts to read the diary/autobiography.  She is shocked and horrified by what she reads!  Verity admits to thinking and doing several very awful things.  She explains how she killed her own daughter!  Meanwhile, Verity is upstairs, living in the same house with them all.  She is supposedly incapacitated from the accident, and can’t speak or move and is unaware of her surroundings.  But, Lowen is noticing strange things that make her doubt whether Verity is faking her injuries.  But, she would be crazy to mention her suspicions to anyone, right?  Why would Verity be faking all that?  As Lowen lives in the house, she spends time with the Jeremy and they start to fall for eachother.  But, as Lowen reads more and more of the autobiography, and notices more strange happenings in the house, she is scared for her life.  Should she just give up on this very lucrative job and get the heck out of that house?  Should she go to the Police?  Should she show Jeremy the terrifying autobiography that Verity wrote about their lives?  Should she just try to convince Jeremy to run away with her?  Should she try to confront Verity?  Why even would Verity write down all her darkest thoughts and admit to all her horrifying crimes anyway?         

Ovations: This book was so interesting and very well-paced.  I just wanted to keep reading and reading to find out what happened next.  It kept you on the edge of your seat while slowly revealing more troubling information to you!  I was shocked when reading the very terrible and dark autobiography that Verity had written.  I liked how the book went from Lowen’s “real world”, of living and working at the Crawford home, then would bring us back to the past in the life of Verity through the autobiography pages.  There were so many layers to this story.  It was a thriller, a love story, a mystery, it was suspenseful and dark … all in one book.  You never knew where it was going next! 

Oh Well:  The only issue I had with the book was that if I had found the autobiography, and it was that juicy and revealing, I would have read the whole thing in one sitting!  I would not read a little, and then just put it away, and continue to live in the house and be scared!  That was not realistic at all.  But, I understand it had to be written that way to make the book’s storyline.  All the secrets could not be revealed at once, they had to come out slowly over time as she read the autobiography.  But, in real life, a person would have read through the whole thing all at once!   

Opinion: This was a suspenseful thriller like nothing I have ever read before!  It was dark, twisted, creepy, clever, disturbing, surprising, unsettling and unique.  You never knew where the book was going or how the story would end up.  And where it does end up, well, even the ending is full of surprises and more questions.  It stays a perplexing puzzle of mystery and questions the whole way through.  This is a story that will stay with you, and keep you thinking about it even after you are done reading.  This is a great thriller and I recommend you read it.  Rating 9 out of 10    

Overall:  This is an eerie, inheritance mystery that is full of creepy atmosphere, and twisty questions.  Harriet (Hal) Westaway is a young woman who is barely making ends meet as a Tarot card reader on the boardwalk of an English seaside town.  She does it because that is what her mother did for a living, before she
was killed by a hit-and- run driver three years ago.  Hal is lonely, grieving, broke, and scared of the loan shark that she owes money to.  Then she gets a letter in the mail saying that her Grandmother died and she needs to go to the funeral and meet with the lawyer about the inheritance that her Grandmother left her.  Hal believes that the letter is a mistake.  She knows that her grandparents are already dead.  She believes has no family left, that she is alone. But, she is desperate, and thinks her skills in reading people as a Tarot card reader might make her be able to pull off the scam that she is really this long-lost granddaughter.  She really would love a little inheritance to help her pay back the loan shark, pay her
rent, and get back on her feet again.  So, she decides to go to the funeral and play the role as the rightful heir granddaughter.  But, after the  funeral, she needs to go back to her late grandmother’s creepy, old, crumbling English estate to hear the reading of the will with all the other family members.  This is where she finds out
that the late Mrs. Westaway left everything to her.  The entire estate!  The 3 sons who were expecting to inherit the estate are not exactly thrilled.  Now, Hal realizes that she is going to have to tell them the truth, that she is not really related to them, and she was trying to scam them out of some money.  But, before she can do that, some family secrets are revealed, and things keep getting more and more complicated and confusing for everyone involved.  Then, Hal finds out that she may really be related to the family after all.         

Ovations: I love an inheritance mystery!  I love how the old family secrets get revealed and how everyone reacts to them while all staying in the house together!  The plot moves at a slow pace, revealing the secrets a little at a time.  The author keeps you guessing, with new clues and revelations being revealed all throughout the book.  I had to keep going back and re-reading parts again now that I knew different information.   Also, I loved how descriptively Ruth Ware wrote this book!  I really felt I could see everything she was writing about so clearly!  I could see the
boardwalk, see the old estate, and see all the characters so distinctly in my
mind.  I love how she writes so vividly, I could even feel the  rain and snow and
how soaked-through and cold the people were!  The book was very atmospheric and I loved how I could envision it all. 

Oh Well:  I did figure-out one of the main mysteries in the storyline quite early on.  But, that did not ruin my enjoyment of the book.  Also, you should know it is a very slow-paced mystery.  There is a lot of background information given in the book that goes back-and-forth in time.  So, I did have to go back and re-read some sections over and over because things are sort of complicated and they needed to make sense to me.  So, I would have to re-read things to figure out how to put the puzzle pieces of the story together correctly.  Having to keep doing that was annoying to me.   

Opinion: I love that this is sort of an old-fashioned inheritance murder mystery set in the English seaside.  The creepy old mansion with the scary old housekeeper and all the cold, rainy days … just a perfect setting for a classic, old family murder mystery.  The book was written with such clear details, I really felt I was there!  It was a slow-paced book, but I felt that added to the intentional, secretive, unfolding of clues and the mystery of it all.  Parts of it were not clear, and I had to re-read sections to have things make sense.  But, I enjoyed trying to figure out the mysteries in this book and I think you will too.  Rating 8 out of 10    

Overall:  Tate is working as a nurse, who is also going back to school to further her nursing degree.  Tate moves in with her brother Corbin, who is a pilot, while she finds herself an apartment.  Living there, Tate meets some of her brother’s friends, who are also pilots working for the same airline.  One of whom is Miles Archer.  Tate and Miles have a sizzling hot attraction to eachother right from the start.  But, there are several reasons why they don’t start dating eachother.  First of all, Corbin doesn’t want his any of his friends dating his little sister.  Secondly, Miles is totally emotionally unavailable from some previous pain.  He does not want to be in love or date anyone, at all, ever.  Plus, Tate is super busy with her full time nursing job and full time school program.  She does not have time for a relationship.  Because of these reasons, Tate and Miles decide that a “sex only”
agreement between them would work.  Both think that just hooking-up for sex when they have time is a win-win situation for both of them at this point in their lives.  So, they agree to start doing that, and the sex is amazing.  However, of course, this arrangement is not sustainable, and things get complicated and messy between them quickly.  Tate wants Miles to open up and be closer to her, and he is not capable of doing that.  He has completely built a wall around his heart because of a terrible tragedy from his past that he will not talk about.  She starts to have feeling for Miles, and thinks he will come around, and catch feelings for her too.  But, Miles has absolutely no intention of ever doing that.        

Ovations: I liked that this is a complex love story.   It is not your usual happy/sad/happy rom-com plot set-up at all.  There is no witty banter, there is no
meet-cute story.  This is a deep story with many layers to uncover.  I like how the book goes back and forth between Tate and Miles points of view with each chapter.  You have a much better gauge of where the characters are emotionally that way.  I like that because Tate is a nurse, you can feel how she instinctively wants to try and heal his pain.  I like them as a couple when they are happy together.  I liked the ending.   

Oh Well:  This is a tough book to read for several reasons.  First of all, Miles is not nice to Tate some of the time.  It makes you mad that she keeps putting-up with his terrible behavior.  Yes, they do have a sex only agreement that benefits them both.  They are using eachother consensually.  But still, Miles does behave very selfishly at times and Tate does not deserve that.  Secondly, as the plot unfolds, you learn Mile’s backstory and find out why he has emotionally shut-down.  It is very sad, heartbreaking, and devastatingly difficult to read about.  

Opinion:  This is a very real and raw contemporary romance.  It is not a flirty, witty, rom-com.  It is about a man living with deep emotional pain from his past, and a new woman in his life trying to help him to open his heart and love again.  I enjoyed that the point of view of each chapter changes between Tate and Miles, so we can understand each of them better.  I enjoyed the book overall, but some parts of it are distressing to read.  Rating 7 out of 10. 

Colleen Hoover is a very popular writer right now.  The first Colleen Hoover book I read was, November 9.  (Click on the link to read my review of that book.)  It is also a love story with a tragic twist.  But, it was much more enjoyable to read than this one.  I liked it more than this one because it was more romantic and not so serious the whole way through.  I rated that book a 9 out of 10.     

Overall:  This new book will be released on Tuesday, October 25th, 2022.  I received an advanced reader copy for free from the author, Briana Cole.  Briana Cole is an Atlanta, Georgia native, and mother of three.  She is an actress, filmmaker, and author.  She has written a number of popular books.  One of them, The Marriage Pass, I reviewed here on my blog previously.  Click on that link to read the review.  You can also check out more information about Briana and all of her projects on her website: www.BrianaCole.com . 

Here is what the book jacket description of her latest book, Behind Her Lives, says:  “That’s not my sister.”  Overwhelmed by shock and relief, those are the only words Deven can muster when she is called to identify the body of a suicide victim.  A body she was informed was the body of her sister, Kennedy.  But as she stares at the lifeless stranger, she is filled with questions:  Who is this woman?  Why was Deven listed as family?  And most important, where is Kennedy?  Her intuition tells her just one thing:  This can’t be a total coincidence.  Desperate to put the pieces together, Deven launches her own investigation.   Soon she finds herself tangled in a web of secrets and lies so twisted that it blurs the lines between fact and fiction.  And between the sister she thought she knew and the one who seems to have many hidden dangerous lives.  But only Kennedy would have the answers to increasingly urgent questions.  Just one possibility is clear:  Kennedy isn’t missing.  Maybe she just doesn’t want to be found.  And maybe you can never truly know another person.  Even your own sister.

Overall:  This book takes place at an elite High School in the Colorado Mountains full of rich, spoiled kids and their snobby, entitled parents.  However, the main character, Natalie is an artist and is not rich.   She just recently moved to the town to help her brother recover after an accident.  She walks his dog and keeps him company while he heals.  She works at the fancy school’s front office as an administrative assistant.  The schools Head Coach of soccer, Nick is fit, handsome, and very popular with all the school’s moms.  One mom who is very interested in Nick is Brooke, a bakery goods heiress, who is also is the mother of soccer star
daughter Sloane.   Another of the school’s female soccer stars is Mia, who’s mom Asha is worried her rich husband is probably cheating on her.  Surprisingly, Coach Nick starts dating young Natalie instead of any of the rich, pampered moms who flirt with him.  The school’s moms are all fake friends who pretend to get along socially.  The daughters are behaving badly and engaging in risky behaviors, while also trying to get into good colleges.  One day Natalie wakes up in her car parked outside of the school.  Inside of the school, a body lies in a pool of blood.  Who is dead?  Who killed them, when, and why?  Why did Natalie black out in her car?  These are the things we are trying to figure out as things are not always as they seam among the rich and privileged.        

Ovations: The story and characters are all compelling.  All the characters are interesting in their own ways.  I did figure out who was dead ahead of time, but not how or why it happened.  Plus, there is a twist to the story that I did not see coming.  The book is like a Lifetime Movie or like the tv show Big Little Lies.  If you like stories about the lives of privileged, rich people behaving badly, then this book is totally for you. 

Oh Well:  This book is listed as a thriller / mystery.  I would not call it a thriller at all.  The book is very slowly paced.  It unravels bit by bit, taking it’s time.  It is
technically a mystery, as you do not know who dies or how, until the end.  However, it is not like a mystery you are trying to actively solve…..like an Agatha Christie with clues.  This book is just more of a story where everyone has secrets and is just managing to hold their lives together, even though everything looks perfect from the outside.  But, then someone is murdered.  The book is just sort of the explanation and backstory as to why that murder happened.   

Opinion: Not enough happened in this book to really hold my interest all throughout.  It was too slowly paced.  But, the plot made sense and there were no holes in it.  I also did not guess what the ending was going to be.  This book was not a thriller and barely a murder mystery, so if you are looking for either of those, this is not the book for you.  But, if you like the setting of people with scandals and secrets at an elite high school in the exclusive, wealthy, Colorado suburbs, then you would enjoy this book.  Rating 5 out of 10    

Overall:  Gus and January are previous college rivals (who once made-out at a party in college) and are now both published authors.  Gus writes deep, dark, literary novels and January writes romance books.  They end up living in neighboring beach houses for the summer in a small town on Lake Michigan.  
January is dealing with the recent death of her father and Gus is dealing with his own person issues.   They both have a bad case of writer’s block.  To try and help, they make a deal with eachother.  January will write the next Great American Novel, and Gus with write a Happily Every After Love Story.  Who ever sells their book to a publisher first is the winner.  During the summer, they go on “field trips” together to give the other one ideas for writing in their new genre.  January takes Gus to places you could fall in love, like carnivals and farmer’s markets.  Gus takes January to tragic places, like the spooky grounds of where an old cult was that was deliberately set on fire and people died.  They spend a lot of time together on these “non-date-field-trips” each weekend.  They end up admitting to eachother that they have had feelings for eachother since college and do not really dislike eachother, even though they are total opposites.  But, they are both going through emotional stuff in their personal lives and are not even ready to date anyone, let alone fall in love.  So, they try to focus on writing their books and working on themselves.  But, as they keep spending time together, against their better judgement, they start to fall in love.        

Ovations: I liked both the main characters of Gus and January.  They are both interesting people separately, and I like their interactions together too.  They both have strong backstories that have shaped their world views and help explain who they have become as adults.   Their relationship together is nice because there are sparks between them, but also they have no idea the other feels this same way.  When they do find out the other has feelings for them as well,  I like the way they
really try to be adults about it and not jump into a relationship they are not emotionally ready for, but fate and love have other plans for them.  I of course love that they are both novel writers!  The storyline is romantic, and sexy while also being serious and emotionally complex.  Also, I loved Chapter 13! 🙂 

Oh Well:  The main criticism I would have is this book is just sort of average.  It’s not the funniest romance I have read, or the hot & steamiest, or the most heartbreaking, or the most interesting plot line …. it is just average.  Also, it does deal with very serious issues, divorce, child abuse, infidelity, death … etc. , all while being a romance book.  So, there is a lot going on in this book.  On the one hand, it makes the book have more layers and depth, but if you are thinking it is a light, frothy, “beach-read” romance, it is not that.  

Opinion:  The first Emily Henry book I read was called, The People We Meet On Vacation, and I did not like that one at all.  It was very dull and I felt like nothing interesting happened the whole book.  But, I gave this popular author another chance, and I am glad I did.  This book is much better than that other one.  I did care about Gus and January and wanted to read more about their lives.  But, I would say that the title “Beach Read” is misleading.  It is not a quick, light, fun, summer beach read.  But, it is an engaging book about 2 very different authors and how they fell in love.  Rating 7 out of 10   

Overall:  This book takes place back in 1999 and is told from multiple character’s points of view.  The main character is Samantha and she works as a dancer at the Lovely Lady Strip Club.  She lives with her boyfriend, who is not happy about her working at the club, but he lost his job.  He has a daughter from a former relationship, so Samantha feels responsible for providing for them both.  She does not mind working there, makes good money, and stays out of trouble.  But, one night, she gives Jolene, a naive new girl, a ride home.  Samantha notices that they are being followed, and then they are run off the road.  When the police get to the accident, the new girl, Jolene, is dead and Samantha is missing. 
Two main detectives start working on the case.  They are trying to determine who ran the women off the road, and who murdered Jolene.  Also, they need to quickly try to find out what happened to Samantha and where she is.  The rest of the story goes back and forth between the ladies that work at the strip club, other cops that work at the station, and all the potential suspects.  All the while the detectives are trying to figure out who committed the crimes, why did they, and where is Samantha?        

Ovations: I liked the mystery elements of the plot.  The whodunnit question of who committed the crimes was good.  I did not know who the killer was until they told me near the end of the book.  I also liked that this story was told from many different points of view.  From their story, we got to know what each character was thinking and why.  It was also very interesting to get a backstage look at happenings of a strip club. 

Oh Well:  This book is very dark and depressing.  You get to know many different characters and their backstories.  But, they are have depressing or sad stories.  Every.Single.One.  There is more than just one murder in this book.  I can’t say more than that, or I will give spoilers away.  But, I can say that there is also abuse and damage and pain and intimidation by men to women all throughout this book.  That is something I personally do not like to read about.  You really feel the oppression of women and their powerlessness throughout the entire book.  (And I don’t mean from their being strippers.  That actually gives them some power back over the men.)  Just the aspect of all the male domination and violence towards women was really sad and such a downer to feel the whole time I was reading this
book.  

Opinion:  This is a disturbing, and bleak novel.  I found the whole story sad and depressing.  Then the author threw in the last chapter for no reason I can think of but just to make the reader even more sad and depressed!  I did not care for all the violence towards women that I had to read about in this book.  It made it really difficult to finish the story.  But I did want to finish reading to find out who the killer was and if they were caught and punished.  I would not really recommend this book.  There are so many, much better thrillers out there you could be reading instead.  Rating 4 out of 10   

Overall:  Olivia Marshall just lost her job, found out her boyfriend was cheating on her, and accidentally burned down her apartment while burning his old love letters.  Bad luck seems to always find her.…or maybe she brings it with her?  Anyway, she is now crashing with her brother for a month until she gets her life back on track.  Her brother also lives with his lifelong best friend, the hot and arrogant Colin Beck.  Growing-up, Colin always just barely tolerated Olivia because she was Jack’s clumsy, annoying, little sister.  But, now the 3 of them are going to have to try and get along with eachother for a month while Olivia gets a new job and money for a place of her own.  One night, Olivia gets a sexy, “What are you wearing?” text from a random number by mistake.  She is bored, and a writer, so she can’t resist writing back a witty answer to this unknown texter, who she labels, Mr. Wrong Number.  And so begins their new fun and flirty texting-only relationship.  She becomes known to him only as Miss Misdial.  She begins to look forward to their daily humorous and sexy text exchanges as she tries to make a new life for herself and recover from her old one.  Because they share the same apartment, Colin eventually realizes that Miss Misdial is actually Olivia.  That gets him thinking about her in a new light.  She is all grown-up now and not just Jack’s little sister anymore.  Now that he knows who his anonymous sexy texting buddy really is, should he keep the text relationship going and start an actual relationship with her, or ghost her and pretend like it never happened?        

Ovations:  I like that this book makes you laugh right from the very beginning pages.  It is fun and breezy and full of sexy banter.  I like the older-brother’s-best-friend- forbidden-romance angle.  I like that Olivia and Colin are total opposites in every way…. but opposites do attract you know!  Some other things from the book that are fun, true rom-com tropes as well:  forced proximity, enemies to lovers, hot-mess heroine and hot hero with heart of gold.   I also appreciated how the, “area of conflict that always comes in rom-coms that threatens to ruin their relationship” part of this book was actually believable. ( I  hate when the issue is so ridiculous that it would never actually happen.) 

Oh Well:  I hate to say it but, Olivia’s behavior is a bit over the top, inconsiderate, and immature sometimes.  She is mostly a loveable character, but she does some things that are quite rude sometimes and acts like it’s nothing.  Also, Colin does and says a few shady thing himself, so his behavior is not above reproach either.  Both of the main characters are very likeable, but act somewhat immature for their age.       

Opinion:  I enjoyed reading this breezy, funny rom-com.  It is full of heart and witty, sexy, banter.  The two main characters have lot of sexual tension and like to give eachother a hard time. (No pun intended!)  Speaking of the sex, there is no graphic sex in this book, just the beginnings of it, and then fade-to-black sort of scenes.  (So the spice level in the book is low, if that is what you are looking for.)  This is a charming romance by Lynn Painter, who has more books coming out in the future, and I will for sure be reading those also.  Rating 8 out of 10   

Overall:  Malcolm Kershaw owns a bookstore in Boston that specializes in murder mystery / crime / thriller books.  When he first bought the bookstore, he was doing a blog to bring in more customers.  One of his blog articles was called, “Eight
Perfect Murders”, in which he talks about 8 murder mystery books in which he
believes the best, unsolvable murders were pulled-off.  Now, an FBI Agent comes into his bookstore looking for him because of several murders which she thinks may be related to the list of murders from his old blog post.  She asks to discuss the cases with Malcolm partly as an advisor, but also he’s part suspect too.  Malcolm does meet with her and they discuss all the books and all the “perfect murders”, how those may be related to some unsolved murders in the area, and how those murders may all be involved with eachother.  One thing is for sure, Malcolm seems to be involved somehow.  Throughout this process, we get to know Malcolm more, and learn that he has lots of secrets he is hiding.  Is Malcolm the killer from these unsolved murders?  Or is it just someone random who is using his article’s ideas?  Or is it someone who knows Malcolm, and is trying to frame him? Meanwhile, the list of people murdered keeps getting longer.  Are these murders “perfect” and will always remain unsolved?  Or will the FBI finally close-in on the killer(s)?       

Ovations:  I love that this murder mystery / thriller book is about lots of other great murder mystery / thriller books!  I love that the narrator of the story, Malcolm, owns a mystery / crime bookstore.  I love the idea about the blog article he wrote about 8 Perfect Murders.  It is  a fun idea for us mystery / thriller lovers!  I like that the narrator of the whole book is Malcolm himself writing what he calls a “memoir”, so you don’t know if you can trust anything he says.  I love that this book refers to so many Agatha Christie novels, as I am a HUGE Christie fan and have read every single one of her books and plays.  This book keeps you interested interested the whole way through.  I did not know for sure how this book was going to end. I was not able to guess who the killer(s) was/were.  I had suspicions, but was not sure.   

Oh Well:  OK, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!  This book takes it’s whole plot from the plots of other books.  You need to have read most of these other books first, before you read this book!  If you don’t:  First of all, you will be confused, because you might not understand the connections to the books and their plots/murders/endings.  Secondly, those perfect murders in those books are explained and talked about and the endings are all given away!  So, if you have not read those books yet, the endings are ruined for you!  So, my suggestion is to either read them all first, or read any of them that you are interested in reading, because you won’t want to read them afterward, the plots and endings will be spoiled for you!  (Note:  There are more books than the 8 from the blog post listed here because there are other books talked about in the discussions that will also give away the murders / plot / ending of these books too.)  Here is the reading list:

(PS:  I did not know about this reading list before I started this book, but I luckily have already read 6 of these books before I read this one. And I was fine following the plot.  So, you do not have to read ALL of these if you want to read this book.  But, I think reading all 3 Agatha Christies and Strangers On A Train are critical to understanding this book.  (Strangers On A Train was made into a great movie in 1951, Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Double Indemnity was also made into  a  great film noir in 1944.   You could watch those as movies instead.  They are both worth watching!)  

And Then There Were None:  Agatha Christie

The ABC Murders:  Agatha Christie

The Death Of Roger Ackroyd:  Agatha Christie  

The Red House Mystery:  A.A. Milne  

Malice Aforethought: Anthony Berkeley Cox  

Double Indemnity: James Cain  

Strangers On A Train: Patricia Highsmith

The Drowner:  John MacDonald

Deathtrap:  Ira Levin  

The Secret History:  Donna Tartt       

Opinion:  I love that this is a murder mystery about other murder mysteries!  I love Agatha Christie books, and they are referred to all throughout this book.   But, I would be very upset if I had not read the books that they discuss, because they give away the plots and endings to all those books!  This book was well paced, slowly unfolding, and keeping you guessing the whole way through.  I would say it’s a murder mystery, not a necessarily a thriller.  I would call it a multi-layered, psychological murder mystery.  This is my second book by Peter Swanson.  The first I read was, THE KIND WORTH KILLING.  That book was a masterpiece!  I gave that one a 10 out of 10.  I will be definitely reading more books by this author in the future!  Rating 8 out of 10.