Death at the White Hart

 

Author: Chris Chibnall

Narrator: Jessica Gunning

Publisher: Penguin Audio 

Year: 2025

Happy Tuesday bookish friends! There’s just something about a police procedural set in a small English village. In Chris Chibnall’s Death at the White Hart, a picturesque coastal village is rocked when one of their own is found dead, tied to a chair in the middle of the road, with deer antlers attached to his head. A bizarre and disturbing scene.

Det. Nicola Bridge, still reeling from her husband’s infidelity, and novice DC Harry Ward are on the case. I really liked this pairing. Nicola is a skilled officer with big city experience. She and her family returned to her small hometown in an attempt to start fresh. Harry is younger and inexperienced, but eager to learn. The duo have a wide list of suspects- basically the whole village. The pace of the investigation is steady with plenty of red herrings and twists and turns. I listened to the audiobook and I was a bit overwhelmed keeping track of the characters at first, but I quickly figured out who was who. Jessica Gunning’s narration was great and very enjoyable. I highly recommend this one. It’s a quick read with a cast of interesting characters and a beguiling mystery. 

What’s more dangerous: an unsolved mystery or a village that refuses to talk about it? Why? 

About the Author: 

Chris Chibnall is a BAFTA-, Peabody-, and Royal Television Society-Award winning screenwriter, producer, and playwright. He is the creator of the internationally acclaimed Broadchurch. Chibnall was also the showrunner of the BBC’s Doctor Who. He has honorary doctorates from Edge Hill University and Sheffield Hallam University. Chibnall lives in West Dorset, England.

Never Flinch

 

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2025

I think it’s time for the good people of Buckeye City and Mr. Stephen King to burn Mingo Auditorium to the ground. Clearly the place is haunted or cursed and it’s a magnet for killers. It’s time to turn the page and start anew. I like Holly Gibney and have  enjoyed watching her character grow over time, but this new adventure is just kind of boring with a side of messy.

A serial killer is stalking the greater Buckeye City area. It’s not Holly’s case, but she’s interested in it and has thoughts about it. Her actual case is being bodyguard for an outspoken women’s rights activist who’s on a multi-state speaking tour. Someone’s targeting her and things are starting to escalate. So Holly goes on a boring road trip with the unlikable speaker and her overworked personal assistant. Meanwhile Buckeye City is all a flutter because the police department and the fire department are holding a charity softball game and it involves a lot of trash talking. At the same time, the notorious Mingo will kickoff the tour of a famous gospel singer. The gospel singer takes Holly’s pal Barbara the poet under her wing, invites her to join the tour as a backup singer, turns one of Barbara’s poems into a song, and insists Barbara sing it with her as a duet. She also wants Barbara to join her tour. That seemed like a lot. 

Anyway, all the story lines come crashing together at an abandoned hockey rink close to the Mingo. But it’s still all the Mingo’s fault. It should be demolished and Mr. King needs take a break from Holly and the gang for a while because Holly deserves better than this. 

I can’t think of a QOTD. So tell me something interesting or a weird fact you know. 

About the Author

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Never Flinch, the short story collection You Like It Darker (a New York Times Book Review top ten horror book of 2024), Holly (a New York TimesNotable Book of 2023), Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties(cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

American Sky

 

Author: James Grady

Publisher: Pegasus Books

Year: 2025

Thank you Booksparks, author James Grady, and Pegasus Books for the #src2025 #gifted book!

American Sky follows Luc, a small town Montana teen, through his high school and college years. In that brief time, Luc and the country witness sweeping changes across America. From the JFK assassination, to the moon landing, the Viet Nam War, to Kent State, to the Summer of Love. 

Luc is a great main character. He’s kind of nerdy. He’s not an athlete, but rides the bench for the football team just to prove to himself and others that he’s tough enough. He’s smart, polite, and friendly. His life revolves around school, after school and summer jobs, his friends, and girls. He’s a kid trying to make sense of a quickly changing world and his place in it. 

Grady’s storytelling is powerful and his writing really conveys the frantic feeling of teenage years. The chapters are short. The sentences are even shorter often jumping from an inner thought to spoken dialogue. It gives off big teen energy of trying to think of the right thing to say or do before just blurting something out or making the wrong move. The setting is small town America all the way. Everybody knows everyone’s business, things happen, and certain things never get talked about. And Luc is just trying to figure it all out. 

Pick this one up for:

☮️ a sweeping coming of age story

☮️ a very well written and likable main character 

☮️ the turbulent time period of the 1960s

☮️ a book that perfectly captures a unique moment in time in a country that’s facing uncertain ltimes, the horrors or war, changing social norms, and yet somehow still clings to optimism

☮️ a story about growing up and getting out

Do you read historical fiction? Do you have a particular time period that interests you? 

#americansky #jamesgrady #hisoricalfiction #comingofagestory 

#montana #literaryfiction 

About the Author

James Grady’s first novel Six Days Of The Condor became the classic Robert Redford movie Three Days Of The Condor and the current Max Irons TV series Condor. Grady has received Italy’s Raymond Chandler Award, France’s Grand Prix Du Roman Noir,Japan’s Baka-Misu literature award, two Regardie's magazine short story awards, and been a Mystery Writers of America Edgar finalist. He's published more than a dozen novels and three times that many short stories, been a muckraker journalist, and a scriptwriter for film and television. In 2008, London’s Daily Telegraph named Grady as one of the “50 crime writers to read before you die.” In 2015, The Washington Post compared his prose to George Orwell and Bob Dylan.

Into the Magic Shop

 

Author: Dr. James Doty

Publisher: Avery

Year: 2016

How is this the last day of June already? My book club read Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart by Dr. James Doty this month. We met last night to discuss the book. Here’s the full summary: 

“Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead he met Ruth, a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart.

Doty would go on to put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary results—power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old, riding his orange Sting-Ray bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most important lesson, to keep his heart open, with disastrous results—until he has the opportunity to make a spectacular charitable contribution that will virtually ruin him. 

Part memoir, part science, part inspiration, and part practical instruction, Into the Magic Shop shows us how we can fundamentally change our lives by first changing our brains and our hearts.”

Overall, everyone liked the book. I was the only outlier who thought his story about spending a summer learning meditation at age 12 seemed a little exaggerated. But I tend to be skeptical at times. While Doty does touch on some science, I thought there’d be more of it. It’s mostly about how he learned to control his emotions, meditation, mindfulness, intention and visualization. He learned the techniques from a woman named Ruth. Her lessons helped him achieve his goals of becoming a doctor and becoming very wealthy. It wasn’t until he lost his money when the dot com bubble burst in 2008 that he finally learned Ruth’s final lesson of opening your heart. He finally learns true compassion. He then delves into the science of how the brain and heart work together to make us happier, healthier, kinder, and more loving.

The book is a mix of autobiography, science, and self help. I found is writing could be repetitive at times and some parts sounded like he was humble bragging. But it’s definitely an inspirational story of a poor and directionless boy who becomes a respected and wildly successful physician. Doty provides instructional tips for calming the mind, meditation, visualization, and opening the heart to be more compassionate. It’s a good reminder to unplug, slow down, breathe, and try to open our hearts even if it’s only for a few minutes a day. 

Do you practice meditation or what do you do to for self care? 

About the Author

Jim Doty is a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, compassion researcher, inventor, entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author and philanthropist.

Ruth Run

 

Author: Ruth Run

Narrators: Rebecca Lowman and Dan Bittner

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Year: 2025

Finally Friday! I love a good heist novel and Elizabeth Kaufman’s Ruth Run delivers. 

Ruth is a microchip designer who discovers a flaw in a chip and exploits it to steal millions from large banks. Ruth goes on the run when her scheme is discovered. She’s being chased by government agents who think she’s either a national security threat or a potential intelligence asset. When she stumbles into a possible terrorism plot, the stakes get even higher. Here’s the full summary: 

Twenty-six-year-old Ruth excels at microchip design but decides to get rich the old-fashioned way: robbing banks. She becomes a cybercriminal and devotes five years to siphoning more than $250 million out of the banking system using a hacked firewall chip that she created and only she knows how to access. Then one night an alarm goes off and she realizes she’s been discovered.

Five hours later she’s on the run, chased across California and the West by a slew of government agents who see her as both a high-level national security threat and a potential intelligence asset. They’ll catch her dead or alive—whatever it takes to make sure no one else discovers what she knows. Each of these men is obsessed with the woman he’s hunting, certain he knows what makes her tick. But Ruth, always a step ahead, armed with her ironic wit and a reluctant dog, eludes their understanding; can she elude their capture, too?

I really enjoyed this thriller. Ruth is a smart and savvy morally gray main character. I was rooting for her all the way. Just when the government agents think they have her all figured out, she outmaneuvers them. The pace of the plot was like a roller coaster ride. Breakneck one minute and then a slight slow down allowing Ruth and the reader to catch a breath before ramping up again. The story is told from dual POV- Ruth and Mike, the main government agent tracking her. Mike has his own creepy agenda for Ruth beyond apprehending a criminal. 

This is a really well done debut novel that delivers a contemporary take on a bank heist. It had plenty of twists to keep me on the edge of my seat. Elizabeth Kaufman has found a new fan in me and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next. 

If you were planning the perfect bank heist, what would be your number one rule? 

About the Author

Elizabeth Kaufman had a career in data networking, specializing in network security products and architectures. She now lives in rural northern Colorado.

So Happy Together

 

Author: Olivia Worley

Narrator: Michelle H. Lee

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Year: 2025

It’s another #thrillerthurday and this one is about a romance that goes bad. Author Olivia Worley offers up a  fabulous thriller with So Happy Together. Looking at the cover, I really thought this was going to be some kind of humorous romcom thriller akin to Finley Donovan. But this turned out to be something darker and more twisted. 

Jane thinks she’s found the love of her life in Colin. They hit it off after a few dates and Jane falls hard. Then Colin ghosts her and Jane sets out to get her man back. Some light stalking and trespassing leads Jane to a deadly discovery. But Jane’s going to stick by her man to the brutal end. Here’s the full summary: 

Jane and Colin are soulmates. He just doesn’t know it yet.

For twenty-four-year-old Jane, finding love in New York City is even harder than making it as a playwright. So when Jane meets Colin, she can’t believe her luck: they’re perfect for each other. Even when Colin breaks off their relationship after six dates, Jane knows this is just a stumbling block. She’ll get him back. She knows she will.

That is, until Colin starts dating Zoe―perfect, luminous Zoe. Even worse, she’s actually kind of nice. But Zoe doesn’t have what it takes to love Colin. All Jane has to do is prove it, and they’ll be so happy together.

But when Jane sneaks into Colin’s apartment, she makes a shocking discovery―one that will ensnare them all in a dark web of lies, secrets, and murder.

Unrelentingly twisty and utterly compelling, So Happy Together is an unputdownable, shattering read―a riveting blend of You, Riley Sager, and Promising Young Woman.

Some hearts get broken, some get even.

The twists in this book surprised me to no end and kept me listening until way past my bedtime. I flew through this audiobook because I was so hooked. Michelle H. Lee’s narration is excellent and really brings the characters and story to life. Pick this one up asap for a twisted good time! What book has kept you riveted and turning pages lately? 

About the Author

Olivia Worley is an author born and raised in New Orleans. A graduate of Northwestern University, she now lives in New York City, where she spends her time writing thrillers, overanalyzing episodes of The Bachelor, and hoping someone will romanticize her for reading on the subway.

King of Ashes

 

Author: S.A. Cosby

Narrator: Adam Lazard’s-White

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Year: 2025

What do you get when you mix Shakespeare with The Godfather, fold in some family secrets and lies, and add a heaping dash of Southern noir? You get S.A. Cosby’s The King of Ashes. 

Cosby knows how to write brutal characters willing to do anything to save their families. Roman Carruthers is a savvy businessman who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and sacrifice others to keep his younger siblings safe. Cosby keeps the tension high and the body count raising as Roman desperately tries to get his family out from under the thumb of the psychopathic brothers who run the local crime syndicate. 

This was my most anticipated book of the year and it didn’t disappoint. It had everything I’ve come to expect from one of his books- a complex and layered main character, pedal to the metal action, a rural setting hiding dark and dangerous things, and lots of twists and turns. Adam Lazarre-White’s narration is fantastic. He really brings the characters to life from Dante’s petulant attitude, to Roman’s fear and determination, to the quiet and deadly menace of brothers Roman goes up against. Cosby once again proves he’s the reigning king of crime fiction. 

#kingofashes #sacosby #macmillianaudio 

What are you reading, listening to, or watching this week? 

I finished up American Sky by James Grady and I just downloaded the audio of Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall. 

About the Author

S. A. Cosby is a New York Times bestselling writer from southeastern Virginia. He is the author of All the Sinners Bleed, which was on more than forty Best of the Year lists, including Barack Obama’s, as well as Edgar Award finalist Razorblade Tears and Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Blacktop Wasteland. He has also won the Anthony Award, ITW Thriller Award, Barry Award, Macavity Award, BCALA Award, and Audie Award and has been longlisted for the ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence.