One Perfect Lie By Lisa Scottoline

Description
On paper, Chris Brennan looks perfect. He's applying for a job as a high school government teacher, he's ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach, and his references are impeccable.

But everything about Chris Brennan is a lie.

Susan Sematov is proud of her son Raz, a high school pitcher so athletically talented that he's being recruited for a full-ride scholarship to a Division I college, with a future in major-league baseball. But Raz’s father died only a few months ago, leaving her son in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or evil.

Heather Larkin is a struggling single mother who lives for her son Justin's baseball games. But Justin is shy, and Heather fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates, a young man from an affluent family whose fun-loving manner might possibly conceal his violent plans.

Mindy Kostis succumbs to the pressure of being a surgeon's wife by filling her days with social events and too many gin and tonics. But she doesn’t know that her husband and her son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her – secrets that might destroy all of them.

At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it?

Enthralling and suspenseful, One Perfect Lie is an emotional thriller and a suburban crime story that will have readers riveted up to the shocking end, with killer twists and characters you won’t soon forget.

This was a slow burner for me. It took a while to get going and for the suspense to start building but once it did I was into it.  There is a lot going on besides the arrival of Chris Brennan who is not at all who he claims to be. There are multiple back-stories happening at once including  Heather struggling as a single mom, Mindy who is suspicious of her cheating husband for all the wrong reasons, and who had my suspicions aroused as well!  

I received an advance copy for review

Crawl by Edward Lorn

Description
You’re out in the middle of nowhere.

You’ve been crippled and left for dead.

There’s something in the woods.

It’s coming.

There’s only one thing you can do…

CRAWL


It's hard for me to write a detailed review of a short story without giving too much away. I will just say Edward Lorn has done it again.
An unhappy couple are about to separate. Perhaps that separation would have been temporary, or perhaps this trip would have led to eventual divorce, had it not been interrupted by the horror they encounter during their travels. A quick and creepy read. 4 out of 5 stars from me.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn

Description
By the New York Times bestselling author of Manson, the comprehensive, authoritative, and tragic story of preacher Jim Jones, who was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre—the largest murder-suicide in American history.

In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially integrated, and he was a much-lauded leader in the contemporary civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California. He became involved in electoral politics, and soon was a prominent Bay Area leader.

In this riveting narrative, Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life, from his extramarital affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing to the fraught decision to move almost a thousand of his followers to a settlement in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Guinn provides stunning new details of the events leading to the fatal day in November, 1978 when more than nine hundred people died—including almost three hundred infants and children—after being ordered to swallow a cyanide-laced drink.

Guinn examined thousands of pages of FBI files on the case, including material released during the course of his research. He traveled to Jones’s Indiana hometown, where he spoke to people never previously interviewed, and uncovered fresh information from Jonestown survivors. He even visited the Jonestown site with the same pilot who flew there the day that Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered on Jones’s orders. The Road to Jonestown is the definitive book about Jim Jones and the events that led to the tragedy at Jonestown.

You probably know the expression... "don't drink the Kool-Aid." You may not know it was actually a cheap knock off  called "flavor-aid" laced with cyanide that hundreds of people were forced to drink under threat of armed guards that fateful day in a South American jungle.  Years ago I saw a short documentary on Jim Jones, but until reading this book I never knew the road to Jonestown was paved with good intentions. The Peoples Temple began with like minded people who wanted only to help the downtrodden, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Elderly people were housed in nursing homes by followers of Jim Jones where even if they could not afford to pay, were given care that met or exceeded state standards. Young people were given college educations that they never could have paid for on their own. They were made to feel that Jim Jones truly cared about them, and at first maybe he did. Then it all began to go horribly wrong.  This detailed and factual account  begins before Jim Jones was even born to a negligent mother who wouldn't allow him to be in the house when she wasn't home, and a sickly father who was too weak to stand up to her. It ends with the aftermath of murder and suicide that took 918 lives. If you ever wondered why or how so many people could allow themselves to be led astray this is the book for you. 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review.

And Then There Was Me by Sadeqa Johnson

Description

On Memorial Day weekend in posh Spring Lake, NJ, Bea is vacationing with her husband Lonnie and their two children. A surrogate, she is hot, bothered, and very pregnant with Lonnie’s cousin Mena’s baby. But Bea is also secretly bulimic. No one knows her secret, especially not Lonnie.
Controlling husband Lonnie has recently plopped them into the middle to upper class suburb of Evergreen, New Jersey, which lacks the diversity that Bea, half African-American and half Dominican, craves. The demands of motherhood and fitting in to this new environment, while pretending not to know that her husband is cheating on her, again, is more than she can handle.
And Then There Was Me is the story of a woman who is stripped down to her lowest point and then has to turn inward to save herself from her own destructive behavior and find the will to press on.


Poor Bea! She learned early in life how to comfort herself with food as a substitute for love, and then to throw it all up instead of dealing with her feelings. Secretly bulimic for years, she does have long periods of time when she is able to control herself. However, this "dark horse" does rear it's head when she is going through times of extreme stress, such as finding out her husband is cheating on her again (and again and again)
On the outside Bea seems to have a great life, a handsome and attentive husband, great kids, and wonderful home. On the inside she is losing it, and losing herself. She beats herself up for staying with her husband through all of his cheating, but his latest affair takes the biggest toll of all.
4 out of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review.