LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Kimberly McCreight
McCreight has been honing her skills and you can tell by her latest, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER that she still has a lot to say about women and the many masks they put on, even when alone, with only a mirror as witness.
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER stars mother, Kat, and daughter, Cleo. Cleo arrives at her mother’s house to find it deserted. As if she up and vanished. This is very unlike her type-A mother and immediately Cleo is worried.
Cleo starts to look into her mother’s absence right away and as she starts to uncover truths about her mom she finds that there is a lot she doesn’t know about the woman she calls mom.
Will she solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance before it’s too late? Or will her mother forever be lost to her regardless of where she is?
I have a long-sorted past with Kimberly. She wrote a revolutionary book in 2015 called WHERE THEY FOUND HER. It was unlike anything I had read before that. A combination of biting commentary and a shocking storyline, I was immediately a fan. Since then, I haven’t had much luck with her books until LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER.
There is an immediate honesty to the writing. It’s confessional-like. Like people are spilling their insincerities and indiscretions unfiltered and without the benefit of shame or knowing better to save face. It’s not about your fake online persona or the person you play at work. It’s about who you are when you think no one is looking, no one cares, and no one is watching.
But of course, someone always is.
Thanks to Netgalley, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf for the advanced copy!
LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER…⭐⭐⭐
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY
Jamie Day
Jamie Day is back! This time with a cast of unlikeable characters with one thing in common- they’re family!
When the patriarch of the family dies, the entire family comes together to discuss the will and what is going to happen to the family’s hotel. There are many things to hash out and everyone wants their piece of the pie.
Before everything is resolved and before the ink can dry on the will someone ends up dead and someone else in the family killed them. Everyone has a motive, and everyone suspects everyone else did it.
A storm is coming, and secrets are being exposed as the sky is being covered by clouds. There’s no way out, there’s no way home, and there’s no going back to where they’ve come from. They’re all a little eccentric, keeping more than a few secrets, and they’re all ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY.
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY is about good people doing bad things and rich people doing cheap things. It feels like two books in one and reminds me of THE MAID. If you were a fan of a mystery set at a hotel with a novice detective at work, this is your 2024 play at that.
I thought Day did a great job of knowing when to change things up. As soon as the action started to lull a new tangent to the storyline was introduced and it freshened everything up. I had fun reading and I think this would be a great addition to your summer thriller line-up.
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY releases mid-July and should be on your list.
Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced copy!
ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY…⭐⭐⭐
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
Jo Callaghan
Ok, hear me out. This was good.
It stars Kat. Her supervisor has assigned Kat to train an artificial intelligence program that takes the shape of a hologram that she will wear as a bracelet. I’m not sure hologram is the right word but it’s a computer rendered approximation of what would resemble a human, although I suppose it could take the shape of anything it wanted.
This AI is called Lock. Lock is made to appear like his peers. He is tasked as a tool for removing human bias when investigating crimes, and the program hopes to remove whatever human elements are interfering with the current solve rates.
Kat is not the least excited to take on Lock or this assignment but she reluctantly agrees to try. It is apparent mere minutes into their first case working together that there is a lot to be learned. About how AI will interact with suspects, how they will carry on parts of the investigation, and how they solve the crime.
This was the most interesting thriller I’ve read in a while. The premise is new, and we need more books about artificial intelligence and the implications of using such a technology and the ramifications on society. I was thrilled to find out that this is a SERIES and there will hopefully be more books to look forward to.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Random House | Random House Trade Paperbacks for the advanced copy!
IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE…⭐⭐⭐⭐
