If She Dies by Erik Therme

 

Nine months ago, Tess’s five-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident. The driver, Brady Becker, was sentenced to two years in prison. It didn't make Tess’s pain go away.

Brady also has a daughter: A twelve-year-old named Eve who walks to Chandler Middle School every day. Tess knows this because she's been watching Eve for the last three weeks. It isn’t fair that Brady’s daughter gets to live, while Tess’s daughter does not.

When Eve goes missing, all eyes turn to Tess, who doesn’t have an alibi. But Tess isn’t guilty.

Or so she believes.

 

As the story opens, Tess has already lost her daughter to a car accident and is on the brink of losing her marriage as well. The grief is all consuming and she can barely function. Her husband has insisted on moving them out of town to a house she can't stand and he believes the change of scenery and a little therapy is going to set her on the path to becoming "old Tess" again.

What he doesn't know is that she stalks and spies on the wife and child of her daughter's killer nearly every day. While she is watching them, someone is watching her! Ominous messages in festive red envelopes have been showing up addressed to Tess that taunt her over her daughter's death. Who would want to torment a grieving mother? On top of all this is some domestic drama with her brother, and the secrets her husband seems to be keeping. This harrowing psychological thriller is loaded with suspense and a roller coaster of emotions. I grieved with Tess for her loss, and all the twists made it impossible for me to know who to trust.

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author

Erik Therme has thrashed in garage bands, inadvertently harbored runaways, and met Darth Vader. When he’s not at his computer, he can be found cheering on his youngest daughter’s volleyball team, or watching horror movies with his oldest. He currently resides in Iowa City, Iowa—one of only twenty-eight places in the world that UNESCO has certified as a City of Literature. Join Erik’s mailing list to be notified of new releases and author giveaways: http://eepurl.com/cD1F8L

The Children God Forgot by Graham Masterton

Description
A rash of strange and horrifying births sweeps through London in the new horror thriller from master of the genre Graham Masterton.

A SERIES OF STRANGE BIRTHS
A young woman is rushed to the hospital with stabbing pains. The chief surgeon performs a C-section, and delivers a catastrophically malformed foetus that is somehow alive...

A DEVASTATING ATTACK
Sewage engineer Gemma is plunged into a ghostly darkness in the tunnel where she works. She escapes, but her boss goes missing in the chaos. He is later found alive... but his legs have been severed and his eyes pulled out.

A SUPERNATURAL THREAT
DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel of the supernatural squad must team up once more to solve the mystery and save the city. But, if they are to succeed, first they must delve into the dark arts of witchcraft...

There is a lot going on in this book. Mysterious pregnancies, murderous mutant fetuses, deformed children skulking through sewers clogged with body parts. I think this is the craziest story I have read in quite some time, but I don't mean that in a bad way. Oh and there's a witch, lets not forget the witch. There are characters in this book from a previous novel "Ghost Virus" which I believe I described as gruesome gore fest of a story but you don't need to have read that to get onto the wild ride of The Children God Forgot. I am pretty good with handling gore but the graphic descriptions of what went on in the sewer had me holding my breath and trying not to suffocate.

I received an advance copy for review.

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In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce

 

An audacious novel of feminine rage about one of the most prolific female serial killers in American history--and the men who drove her to it.

They whisper about her in Chicago. Men come to her with their hopes, their dreams--their fortunes. But no one sees them leave. No one sees them at all after they come to call on the Widow of La Porte. The good people of Indiana may have their suspicions, but if those fools knew what she'd given up, what was taken from her, how she'd suffered, surely they'd understand. Belle Gunness learned a long time ago that a woman has to make her own way in this world. That's all it is. A bloody means to an end. A glorious enterprise meant to raise her from the bleak, colorless drudgery of her childhood to the life she deserves. After all, vermin always survive.

I'm not sure what to call this book so I will settle on fact based historical fiction with a heavy leaning towards true crime. Although events have been changed and some characters invented it is based on the life of a Norwegian-American serial killer who was active in Illinois and Indiana between 1884 and 1908. 

Belle Gunness is thought to have killed at least 14 people and possibly many more. Most of them were men she conned into marriage or the promise of marriage, and others who just got in her way. As the story opens. Belle (who is known as Brynhilde at that time) is an unhappy girl from a poor family who is abused at home and working as a maid. She is in love with a farmer's son and too naïve to understand that his family is considered above her station in life and that he will never marry her. I felt a lot of sympathy for her at first as she is left pregnant and in fear of the shame that will bring if the father of her child refuses to stand by her. When she threatens him it leads to horrific violence and it at this time she changes from naïve child to broken and vengeful woman. I think I still felt for her at this time even while she plotted and manipulated her way to America. Upon her arrival, her true nature starts to take over and it becomes clear that she has very little emotion other than rage. Belle views people only as something to be used to get what she wants. The author creates a very detailed, gripping and chilling account of the inner workings of a murderers mind. 

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review

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About the author
Camilla Bruce was born in central Norway and grew up in an old forest, next to an Iron Age burial mound. She has a master's degree in comparative literature, and has co-run a small press that published dark fairy tales. Camilla currently lives in Trondheim with her son and cat.

The Christmas Bell: A Horror Novel by L.A. Detwiler

 

When Candace Mills, 26, heads home for the holidays to visit her mother and ailing grandmother, she's expecting a peaceful, dull Christmas. She has no idea, though, that a single Christmas ornament is about to send her into a whirling chasm of evil.

It starts with the Christmas bell, scratched and worn in one of Grandma Anne's boxes in the attic. Once they put it on the tree, Grandma Anne starts to say terrifying things and act strangely. Candace and her mother assume it's her dementia talking—until they start to have dangerous encounters with a fiendish being.

As the secrets of Anne's past involving her twin sister rise to the surface, the women face sinister horrors from a dark force looking for revenge.

This was a quick read, more novella length than novel.

Candace has not been home to see her mother in quite some time, and will come to regret this visit. All seems well at first, what could be nicer than catching up with old friends and seeing Grandma Anne for the holidays? Grandma has recently had to move in with her daughter (Candace's mom Marian) since she can no longer care for herself and keep up with her own home. Many of her belongings are banished to Marian's attic since there just isn't room. When Candace discovers the strange looking Christmas bell in one of her boxes she thinks it would be a nice thing to do for Grandma to put it on the tree. Turns out it wasn't nice, for anyone! Grandma has some very disturbing secrets and the bell is the catalyst that uncovers them, putting the whole family and Candace's friends in danger. I found the mother /daughter dynamic to be fascinating. Generations of women, going all the way back to Anne's mother did some pretty disturbing things that they convinced themselves was for the good of the family.

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About the author
L.A. Detwiler is a USA TODAY bestselling author and high school English teacher from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. During her final year at Mount Aloysius College, she started writing her first fiction novel, which was published in 2015. She has also written articles that have appeared in several women’s publications and websites. L.A. Detwiler lives in her hometown with her husband, Chad. They have five cats and a mastiff named Henry.

Her debut thriller with Avon Books/HarperCollins, The Widow Next Door, was a USA TODAY Bestseller. The One Who Got Away releases February 19th with One More Chapter/HarperCollins, and The Diary of a Serial Killer's Daughter releases March 12, 2020