Audio Review For THE WIFE BETWEEN US By Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen- 5*

Title: The Wife Between Us

Author: 

Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen

Genre: Thriller Suspense

Rating: * * * * *

Publishers: St Martin's Press

(Jan 9, 2018)

Hardback: 352  pages

ISBN: 978-1250130921

FTC Disclosure: Borrowed copy from Library

"A fiendishly smart cat-and-mouse thriller" 

―New York Times Book Review

"Buckle up, because you won't be able to put this one down." ―Glamour 

"Jaw dropping. Unforgettable. Shocking." 

―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The best domestic suspense novel since Gone Girl." 

―In Touch Weekly

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing.

Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen's The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage - and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love.

Read between the lies.

"The best domestic suspense novel since Gone Girl." 

First off, when I see this comparison, it's usually the kiss of death to a book for me. But, "they" got it right this time. This was an absolutely mind blowing tale. I can't say enough how much I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

And I must say, all the assumptions I made (even after reading the blurb) wrong oh so wrong! This twisty tale will knock you on your butt so many times. Just as soon as you think you have something figured out-nope! you will be wrong. 

I actually listened to this as an audio book. I only listen for about three hours a week while driving to visit the grand babies and have found that only suspense thrillers are acceptable (for me) when driving. This book kept me sitting in the car long after I had arrived and once home had to finish it before going to bed. Not only will I be one of the first in line to buy tickets when this is released as a movie but I intend to "reread" it in print and see if I pick up on any of the twists before the reveal. A very satisfying read!

Review For NAKED IN DEATH (In Death Series)(audio) ... J. D. Robb-5*

Title: Naked In Death

Series: In Death #1

Author: J D Robb

Genre: Murder/Suspense

Rating: * * * * *

Publishers: Berkley

(July 1, 1995)

Paperback: 320 pages

ISBN: 978-0425148297

ASIN: B0019ZWMBQ

FTC Disclosure: my copy

In a world of danger and deception, she walks the line--between seductive passion and scandalous murder... Eve Dallas is a New York police lieutenant hunting for a ruthless killer. In over ten years on the force, she's seen it all--and knows her survival depends on her instincts. And she's going against every warning telling her not to get involved with Roarke, an Irish billionaire--and a suspect in Eve's murder investigation. But passion and seduction have rules of their own, and it's up to Eve to take a chance in the arms of a man she knows nothing about--except the addictive hunger of needing his touch. 

I've read the full set of IN DEATH books/novellas and read the newest within days of release. As I have started traveling once a week to visit grandkids that are out of town, I decided to start listening to audio books. Murder mysteries are at the top of my list to listen too as they engage the mind while mindless driving alone for hours. I decided to listen to this series as it has been a top fav of mine and it has been twenty+ years since I started reading it. First mistake, I picked up the abridged edition of the first three novels in this series. Definitely stick with the unabridged as all the emotion, the subtleties, what makes it special, is not in the abridged edition. If I had listened to the abridged addition before I read the books, I'd have never picked them up and the loss of this awesome series would be forever lost to me. It was a fun trip, rediscovering how Roarke and Eve met and remeeting Mavis, Feeney and others who are so important to Eve and this series. This was a great start to the series and I can't wait to listen to the rest of it.

If you've been hesitate to start this series because of the length and depth of it and you like a good romantic murder mystery, don't deprive yourself. I started out slow myself reading two or three of the books back to back and was amazed at how addictive it became. Now my name is first on the list at the library to read each new release (we get two books a year). There have been so many of these sold that you can pick them up at used book stories for pennies if you can't find them at the library.

In Death Series
1. Naked in Death (1995)
2. Glory in Death (1995)
3. Immortal in Death (1996)
4. Rapture in Death (1996)
5. Ceremony In Death (1997)
6. Vengeance in Death (1997)
7. Holiday in Death (1998)
8. Conspiracy in Death (1999)
9. Loyalty in Death (1999)
10. Witness in Death (2000)
11. Judgment in Death (2000)
12. Betrayal in Death (2001)
13. Seduction in Death (2001)
14. Reunion In Death (2002)
15. Purity in Death (2002)
16. Portrait in Death (2003)
17. Imitation in Death (2003)
18. Divided in Death (2004)
19. Visions in Death (2004)
20. Survivor in Death (2005)
21. Origin in Death (2005)
22. Memory in Death (2006)
23. Born in Death (2006)
24. Innocent in Death (2007)
25. Creation in Death (2007)
26. Strangers in Death (2008)
27. Salvation In Death (2008)
28. Promises in Death (2009)
29. Kindred in Death (2009)
30. Fantasy in Death (2010)
31. Indulgence in Death (2010)
32. Treachery in Death (2011)
33. New York to Dallas (2011)
34. Celebrity in Death (2012)
35. Delusion in Death (2012)
36. Calculated in Death (2013)
37. Thankless in Death (2013)
38. Concealed in Death (2014)
39. Festive in Death (2014)
40. Obsession in Death (2015)
41. Devoted in Death (2015)
42. Brotherhood in Death (2016)
43. Apprentice in Death (2016)
44. Echoes in Death (2017)
45. Secrets in Death (2017)
46. Dark in Death (2018)


In Death (Novellas)
Midnight in Death [short story] (1998) (in Silent Night)
Midnight in Death (1998)
Interlude in Death [short story] (2001)
Remember When (2003) (with Nora Roberts)
Haunted in Death [short story] (2006) (in Bump in the Night)
Haunted in Death (2006)
Interlude in Death (2006)
Eternity in Death [short story] (2007) (in Dead of Night)
Eternity in Death (2007)
Ritual in Death [short story] (2008) (in Suite 606)
Ritual in Death (2008)
Missing in Death [short story] (2009) (in The Lost)
Missing In Death (2009)
Big Jack (2010)
Chaos in Death [short story] (2011) (in The Unquiet)
Possession in Death (2012)
Chaos in Death (2013)
Ritual in Death / Missing in Death (2013)
Taken in Death (2013)
Wonderment in Death (2016)

Audiobook Release of Mudman by James A Hunter

• MudMan: The Golem Chronicles,

  James A. Hunter (Author), Armen Taylor (Narrator)

•  Volume 1 Audible – Unabridged

• Listening Length: 13 hours and 57 minutes
• Program Type: Audiobook
• Version: Unabridged
• Publisher: Shadow Alley Press Inc.
• Audible.com Release Date: August 2, 2016
• ASIN: B01JH34EZC

Levi Adams is a soft spoken, middle-aged Mennonite man—at least he tries to be when he’s not murdering people.

Levi’s a golem, a Mudman, crafted from the muck, mire, and corpses of a World War II concentration camp—killing is just a part of his DNA. He doesn’t like it, but unfortunately he’s been saddled with a divine commission to dole out judgment on those who shed innocent blood. After seventy years as a cold-blooded murder machine, however, Levi’s trying to change his grisly nature. And the AA meetings and church services are helping. A little. But when he runs across a wounded girl, Sally Ryder, during one of his “hunting expeditions,” he realizes self-help may have to go on the back burner.

Someone is attempting to revive a pre-Babylonian murder god, and the road to rebirth is paved with dead bodies. Lots and lots of them.

Now, Levi must protect Ryder—the key to an unspeakable resurrection—and defeat a Nazi mage from Levi’s murky past. But the shadowy mage holds a terrible secret about the Mudman’s unorthodox birth, one offering insight into Levi’s morbid compulsion for bloodshed. It’s a secret Levi would pay anything to uncover: maybe even Ryder’s life. If Levi isn’t careful, he may end up turning into the monster he always imagined himself to be.

• Awakening

  June, 1943

  He blinked his eyes open for the first time: a newborn stealing his first look at the world,

  which, in a way, is exactly what he was. Except no squealing, rosy-cheeked infant had ever been

  so big, so ugly, or so filled with blood-boiling rage. Never had a child been so appalling. He

  squinted at first, letting in only the merest trickle of light because even the wan illumination from

  the moon, which loitered over the world like a fat thumbnail, was harsh to his virgin eyes.

  Smells came next: the scent of musky earth, the harsh tang of powdery slaked lime—used

  to mask the reek of decay—and buried beneath that, the sour stink of rotten flesh and burnt hair.

  The sky spit down a misty drizzle, fine droplets of cool water that turned his gray skin

  slick. After a few moments more his eyes adjusted fully, allowing him, at last, to survey his

  surroundings. Mud and muck, deep brown and goopy, lined everything. It squished beneath his

  shoulder blades, clung to his arms and legs, and liberally coated the corpses crudely piled to his

  right. Despite the mud, the bodies appeared almost white, like angry specters waiting for him,

  welcoming him to this new hell with silent screams and vacant eyes.

  How he knew anything was beyond him, since this was the first day of his life, the day—

  or rather night—of his unnatural birth. Surely, no baby pushed and fought its way into the world

  with dark and grisly thoughts of murder and death lingering in its mind, with knowledge of mass

  graves, heinous experimentation, and hasty executions. But he knew such things. Fragments of

  memories floated and swirled inside his skull, dancing a slow funeral dirge, parading incoherent

  snatches of imagery through his head.

  The Wehrmacht march through the streets in their black spit-shined boots and high-

  collared, gray wool uniforms. Smart and dashing, those uniforms, dressing up the face of murder

  in civility and pageantry …

  The Luftwaffe soars overhead. The buzz of the single-prop Focke-Wulf and the

  thunderous roar of the colossal Messerschmitt transport planes fill the air with their racket …

  He clutches a small boy to his chest, his body trembling as he hides, holding his breath

  for fear of being heard. Terror and panic wriggle in his guts as the black-garbed Schutzstaffel—

  the SS—make their way from door to door, fists rapping on wood, rifle buttstocks smashing out

  windows, booted feet kicking their way inside …

  Then, train cars, loaded to capacity, roll through his thoughts. Bodies press up against one

  another so tightly he can’t breathe—except he isn’t a he, but a she. And she is searching for her

  sister. They’d been separated in all the chaos …

  So many images, circling around, each screaming more loudly than the last, each

  demanding he lend them an ear or an eye or a hand. He clutched at either side of his head. Broad,

  fleshy palms pressed in as though he could simply pulverize the images and send them back to

  whatever nightmare they’d come from. But they kept coming, and as they came—faster and

  faster, like a hail of automatic machine gunfire—his chest began to itch and burn. It felt like

  someone had taken a cherry-red fire iron and jabbed it into the meat covering his breastbone.

  A huge hand flew to the pain, his fingers finding crude markings etched directly into the

  skin, cut deep into the muscle below. As he touched the mark, the jagged wound, the voices and

  visions coalesced into a single demand. A demand for retribution. The anger came next, flowing

  from the brand like gasoline pumping through his veins, scorching his insides and propelling him

  to action. He lumbered to his feet, the muck squishing around his thick toes, and made for the

  muddy wall of his earthen womb. In reality, an open grave. He dug his digits in and used his

  flabby, though powerfully built, arms to pull himself upward and free.
• He lay on the edge of the pit for a long beat, charting the lay of the land, eyes scanning

  the dark, which covered everything like a velvety blanket. In the distance, not so far off, he saw a

  squat building. Some sort of bunker, outlined by the faint glow of light bulbs. He wasn’t

  surewhat he was. Where he was. Or how he’d gotten there. But, as the brand burned in his chest,

  he was certain of one thing: someone—or, perhaps, lots of someones—had quite the butcher’s

  bill to account for, and he was ready to collect.

Hey all, my name is James Hunter and I’m a writer, among other things. So just a little about me: I’m a former Marine Corps Sergeant, combat veteran, and pirate hunter (seriously). I’m also a member of The Royal Order of the Shellback—’cause that’s a real thing. I’ve also been a missionary and international aid worker in Bangkok, Thiland. And, a space-ship captain, can’t forget that.

Okay … the last one is only in my imagination.

Currently, I’m a stay at home Dad—taking care of my two kids—while also writing full time, making up absurd stories that I hope people will continue to buy. When I’m not working, writing, or spending time with family, I occasionally eat and sleep.