Alicia Berenson, a talented and famous painter, is in a mental institution for killing her fashion photographer husband, Gabriel. They seemed to have everything they could want with a beautiful home in London, success in their careers and a seemingly close relationship. But one night when Gabriel returned home from a fashion shoot, Alicia shot him multiple times. What would cause her to do this? No one knows because Alicia won’t talk to anyone and has remained silent for over six years.

heo Faber, a young psychoanalyst has been fascinated with Alicia’s case for years. He thinks that he can help Alicia so he leaves a good job to apply for a job at The Grove, the psychiatric hospital where Alicia is being kept. Theo has his own problems and his obsession with Alicia may just be his undoing.This psychological thriller will keep you reading. It has many layers, twists and turns with an unexpected ending. It is told through Alicia’s diary entries, flashbacks and Theo’s POV so the reader must pay attention to keep up with the story. The setting in a psychiatric center was interesting and the author said in an interview that at one time he worked in an institution like this and he also has a family member who is a psychiatrist.

 When Cormac Reilly was a rookie Irish Garda he was called to what he thought was a domestic violence case. Instead he found two young children, Maude and Jack Blake, in a crumbling house with their alcoholic mother, Hilaria, dead in an upstairs bedroom with a needle in her arm.

Twenty years later and now a detective, Cormac moves with his partner, Emma, from Dublin to Galway and is dismayed to find that he has been assigned to cold cases. However, one cold case from twenty years ago, the death of Hilaria Blake, does interest him. The death had been labeled an accidental overdose, but new evidence suggests that it might have been murder.

What happened to Maude and Jack Blake after their mother’s death and why is this case being re-opened after twenty years? When another suspicious death occurs that is related to this old case, Cormac runs into a web of lies, family secrets and possible police corruption. The Ruin is part police procedural and part mystery thriller. It is dark, compelling, and totally engrossing. 

Agatha Raisin is a favorite with many readers and this 30^th entry in the series is another enjoyable mystery.

In Beating About the Bush, Agatha and Toni are hired to investigate a case of possible industrial espionage. It doesn’t take long for Agatha to figure out that there is a lot more going on with this case and their employer is hiding something. The Agatha Raisin Mysteries have always had a lot of fun characters and Agatha encounters new ones in this book including a bad-tempered donkey named Wizz-Wazz that takes the spotlight away from her.  Agatha’s love life is always in turmoil and in this book, she is also fighting her growing feelings for Sir Charles, but Charles needs money to keep his estate going. He is engaged to an awful woman who has lots of money and she shows her true colors to Agatha. What is Agatha to do?

M.C. Beaton passed away after finishing Beating About the Bush, so this might be the final Agatha Raisin book. She left notes for another Agatha Raisin book so we can hope that Agatha will continue, even if someone else is writing the books. I hope so!

The Turn of the Key begins with Rowan Caine writing a letter to a solicitor she hopes will take her case. She is in jail for the death of a child and she is pleading for him to help her. The story continues with her letters telling the solicitor what happened and how she ended up in jail.

Rowan is a childcare worker in London looking for something else when she sees an ad for a job that catches her eye. It is for a live-in nanny to four children in the Scottish Highlands. The amount of money being offered is unbelievable, so Rowan sends in an application. She goes to Scotland for the interview and can’t believe the luxurious, remodeled, Victorian house. The children seem to be a little bit undisciplined and she finds out that the parents are desperate to find another nanny because the last four have quit. Both parents are successful architects who travel for their jobs and they need a nanny right away. Rowan accepts the job and arrives when the parents are away working. The home is a “smart” home controlled by the Happy App and Rowan is on her own without any help except for the binder that the mother has left for her full of instructions about what the children can eat and other things.

The children are bratty and seem to resent her. She then hears that the people in the village think the house is haunted because a child died there many years ago. Weird things start happening, the Happy App malfunctions and Rowan begins to lose control of things. She does have a friend in the caretaker on the premises, but she isn’t sure if he believes her when she tells him about all of the strange things that have been happening in the house.

Rowan isn’t perfect and we find out that she has lied about some things to get the job, but did she murder a child? This twisty mystery has Gothic overtones and the ending was unexpected. Listen to it and see what you think.