Book review and giveaway: People Like Them

Posted on July 9, 2021 by WordsAndPeace

People Like Them
by Samira Sedira
Translated by Lara Vergnaud
Penguin Books
Published on 7/6/2021
Des gens comme eux
was first published in French in 2020
192 pages
Suspense/Thriller/Literary fiction
Goodreads

As Covid related restrictions loosen up, many tourists are going to head for France, and for good reasons, as it’s a wonderful place to visit for a few days or a few weeks, with great landscape, delicious food, and tasty wine. However, daily life for a lot of French people is far from the rosy glimpses caught by the average tourist. Several recent novels, like Summer of Reckoning, by Marion Brunet, have even shown how dark it can get.

This is definitely the case with People Like Them, as Samira Sedira bases her story on a tragedy that happened in 2003, with a quintuple murder.

VERDICT: With a solid social background, this French thriller offers a study on human nature. When normal people we know commit terrible crimes, are we totally innocent ourselves?

Please go to Criminal Element to read my full review.

GIVEAWAY

My ARC (in perfect condition) is one of the 6 books you can win this month. Come this way

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
Any other good thriller with solid social content?
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Book review: Don’t Look For Me

Posted on September 14, 2020 by WordsAndPeace

Don’t Look For Me
by Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan
9/15/2020
Psychological Thriller
Mystery/Suspense
352 pages
Goodreads

***

These last six years or so have seen a renewed interest in psychological thrillers and a publication of many popular titles, which unfortunately eclipsed some less commercially visible authors. With Don’t Look For Me, Wendy Walker is now publishing her fourth book in this genre. If you weren’t paying attention already, now is certainly the time to invest.

I have already reviewed All Is Not Forgotten (2016), Emma in the Night (2017), and The Night Before (2019).

VERDICT: With this sharp and riveting new thriller by Wendy Walker, take your psychological novel reading to a higher and deeper level.

Please go to Criminal Element to read my full review.

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?
What’s your favorite psychological thriller?
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Book review: No Woods So Dark as These

Posted on August 5, 2020 by WordsAndPeace

No Woods So Dark as These,
by Randall Silvis
Poisoned Pen Press
8/4/2020
POLICE PROCEDURAL
SUSPENSE/THRILLERS
448 pages
Goodreads

***

As I reread the review I wrote for book three in this series, I was struck by the commonalities it shared with book four. No Woods So Dark as These has indeed all the signs and qualities of another masterpiece by Randall Silvis. And yet no two of his books are alike.

VERDICT: Not your usual page-turner: Randall Silvis is great at mixing crime and metaphysics.

Please go to Criminal Element to read my full review.

But there’s an extra quotation I’d like to share:

It was after ten when DeMarco finally stepped out into the yard and saw that the sky was high and clear and cobalt blue, with only two slender streaks of white cirrus clouds above, as if a painter had used the blue canvas to clean his brush. (chapter 15)