British spy Emma Makepeace goes undercover on a Russian oligarch’s superyacht, where she’s one wrong move away from a watery grave, in this electrifying thriller from the author of Alias Emma .
An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one Someone is sending a message.
As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man—whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?
To pick up where he left off without ending up in a suitcase of her own, Emma goes undercover on one of the oligarch’s million-dollar yachts, scheduled to set sail from the Côte d’Azur to Monaco. Under other circumstances, this would be a dream vacation. But if Emma’s real identity gets discovered, it’s a death sentence.
As Emma’s work reveals secrets she’d be safer not knowing, the danger ratchets up. The killer may be closer to home than any of them imagined, and Emma won’t be safe until he—or she—is caught.
THE TRAITOR
Ava Glass
Do you have an affinity for James Bond movies?
Do you have a likeness for the Mission Impossible franchise but oftentimes find yourself wondering what it would be like if Tom was a woman?
I have a series for you.
We meet up with Emma Makepeace on her next case. In THE TRAITOR Emma is put undercover to find out as much information about the last days of Steven Garrick, an MI6 elite agent who was recently found dead in his home.
I was able to listen to THE TRAITOR in audiobook format. Emma has a delightful British accent and I love listening my way through her exploits. The narrator for this audiobook is Sophie Colquhoun and is now inextricably linked to my enjoyment of the series.
THE TRAITOR was a great second installment in the Alias Emma series. I really got into the story of THE TRAITOR and became an even bigger fan.
Have you read a book by Ava Glass before? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Audio, and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam for the advanced copies!
THE TRAITOR…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
With Regrets , from author Lee Kelly, is equal parts Big Little Lies and Bird Box , a suburban drama wrapped in a 24-hour survival story at the end of the world, perfect for fans of David Koepp’s Aurora.
Seven courses, seven guests, twenty-four hours that will obliterate everything.
When recent NYC-transplant Liz Brinkley and her husband are invited to an exclusive soiree by their neighbor, “lifestyle guru” Britta Harris-Che, Liz’s immediate thought is hell no. Britta is insufferable, and Liz is wary to leave her young children with a barely-teenage babysitter. And yet she RSVPs anyway, trying to extend an olive branch to her withdrawing husband, who seems desperate to get in with the cliquey elite.
They’ve barely made it through their first round of champagne when a “red alert” comes through their phones, and every channel on the television tells the same strange atmospheric masses, reported to look like “glimmering clouds,” have been spreading through major U.S. cities and killing anyone they touch. Authorities have just one clear Find shelter. Immediately.
A collective panic seizes the dinner party; all the guests have children at home. In the mad dash to their cars, they see a shimmering net floating over the town. The street is littered with wrecked cars and dead bodies. Leaving now is not an option. Instead, the group launches into survival mode, grabbing supplies to take shelter in the hosts’ wine cellar. But everyone has very different opinions about the best plan from there.
Liz becomes increasingly willing to do anything it takes to get back to her children. As the glimmering clouds continue to kill anyone who steps outside, the tensions and suspicions among the party guests near a boiling point. But she begins to realize that there may be others in that cellar even more desperate than she is.
WITH REGRETS
Lee Kelly
Liz Brinkley has regrets. She’s been invited to an elaborate seven-course dinner with neighbor and social media influencer, Britta Harris-Che. She’s just left her kids with an undesirably inexperienced babysitter; her sister is due to arrive any hour and Liz really wishes she would not have RSVP’d for this dinner. She wishes she could be at home with her children, waiting for her sister to arrive.
Merely a sip or two into the first course of the dinner party the guests receive an emergency alert that something is happening in the sky and seek shelter immediately. All the dinner guests retreat to the wine cellar. Liz is now trapped in the cellar with six “friends” as an apocalyptic event happens just outside their door. As deadly as it is outside it’s even more dangerous inside.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As the story unravels, we watch as each guest deals with the perilous situation in their own way and in conspiring ways together. Who will be left to tell the story? Who will not survive the night?
The set-up is the perfect playground for my imagination to run wild. However, the plot was more than disappointing. There just wasn’t much that happened. The stakes didn’t feel high enough, and I didn’t feel pulled towards the characters and the situation they were in.
I struggled to stay invested. I struggled to be horrified. I struggled to care.
The writing itself was a big part of the downfall for me in WITH REGRETS. It felt undecided and disjointed. Often splitting hairs within one sentence, saying two things ineffectively instead of expressing one with clarity. It had no rhythm, and the sentences were rambling, kinky and jarring. It was neither flowery nor succinct, lazily laying somewhere confusingly in between.
I gave WITH REGRETS three stars and that feels generous. WITH REGRETS is out today everywhere books are sold. If you pick this one up, let me know what you think in the comments.
Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy and the opportunity to provide feedback!
WITH REGRETS…⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sometimes bad things happen to good people, so good people have to do bad things.
Twenty years after a baby is stolen from her push-chair, a woman is murdered in a care home. The two crimes are somehow linked, and a good bad girl may be the key to discovering the truth.
Edith may have been tricked into a nursing home, but at eighty-years-young, she’s planning her escape. Patience works there, cleaning up mess and bonding with Edith, a kindred spirit. But Patience is lying to Edith about almost everything.
Edith’s own daughter, Clio, won’t speak to her. And someone new is about to knock on Clio’s door . . . and their intentions aren’t good.
With every reason to distrust each other, the women must solve a mystery with three suspects, two murders, and one victim. If they do, they might just find out what happened to the baby who disappeared, the mother who lost her, and the connections that bind them.
The Queen of Twists, bestselling author of Daisy Darker and Rock Paper Scissors Alice Feeney, returns with another gripping mystery filled with drama and her trademark surprises in Good Bad Girl.
GOOD BAD GIRL
Alice Feeney
Two separate Mother’s Days:
A baby is taken from their stroller.
A woman is murdered.
Mother’s Day is hard for everyone!
I had so much fun unraveling the mystery that is GOOD BAD GIRL and I think you’ll enjoy it too.
GOOD BAD GIRL is Alice Feeney’s 6th novel, and it seems she only gets better with time. Her most recent works have been some of my favorites and this one is up there amongst the best.
In GOOD BAD GIRL, we are following Edith and Clio, mostly.
Clio recently put her mother, Edith, into a care home. Edith feels she doesn’t belong there amongst the elderly and frail at the end of their lives. That is not her situation. She has much more life to live, and she intends to do just that.
As soon as she can get out of the care home.
Clio is a therapist with issues of her own. She isn’t exactly speaking to her mother Edith and that is just where the story begins, kind of.
From the beginning of the book, you can tell you’re in for a wild ride. The characters are mercurial, and the story is multifaceted. The second you think you’ve got a handle on what is going on a path opens and what is revealed is better than you could’ve imagined.
I enjoyed this page-turner in one sitting, and I can’t wait for you to read it.
GOOD BAD GIRL comes out next Tuesday, August 29, 2023.
GOOD BAD GIRL…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for a review!
