Prince William Public Libraries’s Comments (group member since Mar 19, 2020)

Prince William Public Libraries’s comments from the Once Upon a Crime - Montclair Library group.

"The Lost Woman" by Sara Blaedel was read in September 2022 for the Once Upon a Crime book club that meets monthly at Montclair Library (5049 Waterway Dr, Montclair, VA 22025). We meet the third Monday of every month at 2 p.m. Please join us! We'll be discussing "One by One" by Ruth Ware on October 17. Read more: https://pwcgov.libnet.info/event/6808974.

"The Lost Woman" starts with a shocking killing of a housewife in England, and this is where the twists and turns begin. The murder victim is not who her family thought she was. She has been a missing person from Denmark for the last 18 years.

Louise Rick, who works in the Search Department for the Danish police, is called in to assist with the case. The more she unravels into finding out exactly who the murder victim was and why she disappeared, the more potential suspects she finds along the way. There is a controversial subject that this story revolves around, which is assisted suicide.

This book is number 6 in a series but stands alone. The characters are well-developed and described with both their physical and emotional sides as well as their motivations. The ones featured in previous novels have their stories summed up so that the reader is not left guessing as to how they pertain to the current story.

Overall, our group gave this book a 3.5, leaning towards a 4.

No official meeting this month, but feel free to include your thoughts on this book anyway!

"At a Bath auction house, a large slab of carved stone is up for sale. At the height of very competitive bidding, there is a holdup attempt by three masked robbers. They shoot and kill the highest bidder, a professor who has recognized the female figure carved in the stone as Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. The masked would-be thieves flee, leaving the stone behind."

"Harrison Foster is summoned to Newmarket after a fire in the Chadwick Stables kills six very valuable horses. There is far more to the 'simple' fire than initially meets the eye. For one, human remains are found among the equestrian ones. Who is the mystery victim? Harry is thrust unwillingly into the world of thoroughbred racing where the standard of care of the equine stars is far higher than that of the humans who attend to them. Can Harry solve the riddle before he is bumped off by the fallout?"

"The revered New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman. "

A series of elevator "accidents" have people all around New York fearing for their lives as the city is terrorized. Two seasoned New York detectives and a journalist race against the clock to figure who's behind it, what's their motive, and why.

"When his father dies, Carl Martin inherits a house in an increasingly rich and trendy London neighborhood. Cash poor, Carl rents the upstairs room and kitchen to the first person he interviews, Dermot McKinnon. That is mistake number one. Mistake number two is keeping the bizarre collection of homeopathic and alternative “cures” that his father left in the medicine cabinet, including a stash of controversial diet pills. Mistake number three is selling fifty of those diet pills to a friend, who is then found dead.

Dermot seizes a nefarious opportunity and begins to blackmail Carl, refusing to pay rent, and creepily invading Carl’s space. Ingeniously weaving together two storylines that finally merge in a shocking turn, Ruth Rendell describes one man’s spiral into darkness—and murder—as he falls victim to a diabolical foe he cannot escape."

"In a tantalizing set-up reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith’s classic Strangers on a Train… On a night flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning and mysterious Lily Kintner. Sharing one too many martinis, the strangers begin to play a game of truth, revealing very intimate details about themselves. But their game turns a little darker when Ted jokes that he could kill Miranda for cheating. Lily, without missing a beat, says calmly, “I’d like to help.” After all, some people are the kind worth killing, like a lying, stinking, cheating spouse. Suddenly these co-conspirators are embroiled in a chilling game of cat-and-mouse, one they both cannot survive . . . with a shrewd and very determined detective on their tail."

"When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely, it is a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere. A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on-it keeps us alive."

New York 1907. Gifted physician Genevieve Summerford must help Eliza Miner clear her name as the murderer of another doctor. The case proves to be much more complicated than Genevieve thought and soon finds herself looking just as guilty.

Deep in the Appalachian wilderness, Rice Moore is on the run. Hoping to escape Arizona's Mexican drug cartel, Moore is working in a small West Virginian town on protected land. Despite his best efforts, his past catches up with him.

The Dry by Jane Harper

"The Dry follows Federal Agent Aaron Falk as he returns to his hometown, which has been devastated by a drought and violent homicides. Falk is recruited by new chief of police Greg Raco to unofficially investigate the death and murder of his friend Luke Hadler who was accused of killing his wife and son before turning the shotgun on himself. The more Falk investigates the darker the secrets he finds."