A few mini reviews, part four

[Part one here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/131rtdb/a_few_mini_reviews/)

[Part two here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1491bm6/a_few_mini_reviews_part_two/)

[Part three here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/15efyyk/a_few_mini_reviews_part_three/)
TLDR, I decided to read 100 books within the thriller/mystery/crime genres that are not overly recommended on Reddit and various blogs across the internet. My intention is to write a review for each of them here, in the hopes that others might be inspired to do the same or discover hidden gems among the works that have received little to no promotion or have fallen into obscurity.

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[**19. Antti Tuomainen – Palm Beach Finland.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41219725-palm-beach-finland) A nice change. Different from the others on this list in terms of setting (obviously, Finland) and style. Some other readers pointed out that it has a Tarantino or Fargo vibe, and I agree. Definitely recommending.

[**20. Kate Moretti – Blackbird Season.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32895536-the-blackbird-season) An average disappearance mystery set in a small town, told from multiple POV-s. A teacher gets involved with his student, she disappears, his wife wants to divorce him, and so on. Nice writing, but nothing original.

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[**21. Rob Rufus – Paradise, WV.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56637738-paradise-wv) This one was suggested by a fellow Redditor, and it was really good. I later read that the author was a screenwriter, and it really shows. A nice and short read with a great story; I read it in one sitting.

[**22. Ellie Monago – Confidential.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38348887-confidential) You know that trope when there is this charismatic, handsome, powerful man who ends up dead, then three of his wives/mistresses/girlfriends show up, and any of them could be guilty of his murder? This is, obviously, the main theme of the book. This book is really great in terms of style, overall writing, and characters, but nothing special. Fans of the genre will love it.

[**23. Catherine Cooper – Chateau.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57354790-the-chateau) This was a really excellent book in terms of characters, writing and pacing. I saw a lot of angry people in the reviews of the book, complaining about insufferable characters, but they’re meant to be like that. So, I’d say that the author did a great job. Also, there were several shocking twists throughout the whole book, I found them interesting and plausible. Not the usual tempo in the crime/mystery book, but good nonetheless, especially considering the terrible fad of cramming ten stupid twists in the five pages at the end of the book. Thank God I finally picked up a book that doesn’t do that. If you are a fan of characters that aren’t like cardboard cutouts, but totally flawed and, like, your average human being with their imperfections and various flaws and terrible personality traits, you should pick this up.

[**24. Paula Treick DeBoard – Here We Lie.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34051963-here-we-lie) This was also a solid book, and I figured out its quality only when I finished it. There is no big mystery here – two women were best friends once upon a time in college, one of them was an average small-town girl from Kansas, the other was from a filthy rich and affluent family, something happened, and they stopped being best friends. The readers are given enough clues to figure out what happened, and still, you will read it till the end, because it’s really skillfully written. Some people might find it a bit slow, but I enjoyed it.

[**25. Carrie Doyle – It Takes Two to Mango.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55186055-it-takes-two-to-mango) Cozy mystery. The MC is an obnoxious person in a high position in a fashion magazine or something. She is laid off, she travels to a tropical island for work, there is a murder, and a hot dude on the island she works with to solve the murder. This might be a great book, but it’s a bit naïve and simple, with very cliche characters and story. I’m generally not a fan of cozy mystery series, so I can’t really judge here, but if this is a typical cozy mystery book, now I’m sure that I don’t like this genre.

[**26. Diana Wilkinson – The Six Guests.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58912901-the-six-guests) Whodunit mystery. It has a nice main premise: several friends have a Zoom meeting every Friday night and have a trivia quiz. This Friday is different, one of them – a journalist and a womanizer – asks all the others to find out answers to some very personal questions about each other. No one really likes this situation, and the journalist ends up dead. So, who killed them? Other than the seemingly original premise with the Zoom meetings, this is your typical whodunit, when everyone had a motive. Solid book, would recommend.

[**27. Peter R. Stoned – Girl Kidnapped.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56223410-girl-kidnapped) Mystery. The girl has woken up without memory. It turns out that she is the daughter of a local businessman, who has been missing for several months. Everyone has secrets, it’s a small town, she has to remember, yada yada. This was probably a self-published and self-edited book, I have no other explanation. The idea can be worked with, I guess, but the story is unnecessarily long, there are dozens of tropes all over the place, the execution and overall style are very poor and almost childish, and it is quite amateurish. I really struggled to finish this one.

[**28. Thomas Enger – Inborn.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43124887-inborn) Mystery/thriller/Nordic thriller. Another whodunit, this time way better written. Two teenagers are found murdered in the local high school, we follow their classmate/boyfriend, who is accused of murder, as he unravels the truth. A bit cliché, but well-written, interesting, without boring and dragging parts, twists, and ending are plausible. Recommended.

[**29. Olivia Isaac Henry – The Verdict.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45360454-the-verdict) Mystery/whodunnit. Another solid, well-written book you can read in two or three sittings. The body of a man is found, a woman gets a creepy message, and is later arrested with two of her former housemates for a murder. The story is told through flashbacks, which usually isn’t my cup of tea, but here it was nicely done, so I didn’t mind and found the book very interesting. My recommendation.

[**30. Jason M. Hough – Instinct.**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58438456-instinct) Mystery/sci-fi or whatever. This book’s blurb says “Twin Peaks meets Blake Crouch”, which is ridiculous, since Blake Crouch took inspiration from Twin Peaks. There is a small town in a foresty mountain setting, then there are people acting off, and there is a policewoman who arrived in the town several months ago and is still considered a bit of an outsider. Then people in the town start acting weirdly. A teen who spends his days and nights in front of a computer decides to go hiking at night and dies in the woods. A tourist who has a phobia of various animals stands with a grin on his face while a bear mauls him. And so on. People seem to act totally opposite of their natural instincts, and Policewoman Mary is determined to find out what is wrong. She does at the end, of course. The first half of the book is masterfully written, I loved the slow building of tension and great pacing. However, at the half of the book things start to drag, there are a lot of fillers with detailed descriptions, I felt that everything is crammed with descriptions of every minute detail and I struggled not to fall asleep several times. I knew that there would be some kind of sci-fi element, so I didn’t expect a realistic twist; however, it really didn’t deliver. I thought it was a bit lazy, but that’s just my opinion.

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To be continued…

by MediterraneanSeal