Thanks NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of The Minotaur Sampler #2. I enjoyed finding out about some exciting upcoming books.

Thank you so much for the sampler! Have a few that I can’t wait to add to my TBR!

The first one will be “The Photographer”! OMG! Hooked.

The Girl Who Died
Ragnar Jónasson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Translated from Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Publication date: 4 May 2021
(First published: 5 November 2018)

“Teacher Wanted At the Edge of the World ...”

“As she was approaching Skálar, fog rolled in without warning, blotting out the landscape and merging sea with sky. It felt like driving into an Impressionist painting, in which her destination kept receding as fast as she approached it; like entering a void in which time had ceased to have any meaning. Maybe, in a sense, this was true: maybe time was less important there; it mattered less what day it was, what hour it was, out here where people lived at one with nature.”

30-year-old Una is a teacher from Reykjavik. She is devastated by her father’s sudden, tragic suicide so when she sees an offer of employment to teach two girls, aged seven and nine, in the tiny fishing village of Skálar — population of ten — on the storm battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape her humdrum existence and restart her life.

Once she arrives, Una quickly realizes nothing in city life has prepared her for this. The villagers are unfriendly and she is met with suspicion, rejection and hostility. The weather is bleak. The old attic she is renting makes odd sounds and she quickly becomes plagued by a nightmare of a little girl in a white dress singing a lullaby. She worries that she is losing her mind. Then, just before Christmas, a tragedy, similar to one from long ago, happens again.

Jónasson’s novel is divided into two storylines which meet at the end. The past threatens to disrupt the peace that the village inhabitants guard. What secrets are the residents of Skálar keeping from Una? Is Una’s home really haunted, and if so, who is the little girl who is haunting it, and how does her story connect to the town’s dark history?

I highly recommend the masterfully conceived ‘The Girl Who Died’ to fans of Ragnar Jónasson’s previous work, lovers of the Scandinavian crime tradition, as well as readers who love a little supernatural suspense in their novels.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @Minotaur_books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Overall I’d give this sampler a 3.5 out of 5. I really enjoyed The Photographer, The Girl Who Died, and Gone for Good. The other two were just okay for me and probably not books I would continue with.

Minotaur Sampler Volume 2. Out Now

More and more thoughts on some of this summers hottest new releases in thriller fiction.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER
BY: Mary Dixie Carter
Out: May 25, 2021
Pub: @minotaur

Side note:
I'm sure I've spelled the name MINOTAUR wrong about 5 or 6 times tonight. Please forgive me. It's a bitch to spell and autocorrect is persistent.

Let's talk about the book.

The main character is the winner. And the story plays kind of a side character to the whole thing.

Her name is DELTA, DELTA DAWN, named after #tanyatucker. A wild and lascivious country music artist only true fans remember.

Delta is a stunner. Smartly crafted and is reminiscent of Amy from #gonegirl and the MC from LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE.

I am a fan of these characters to say the least. They are unapologetic and are more interested in their own spectacle, their own magnificence, than getting caught up in everyday trivialities.

I beg for characters like DELTA.

And so what's the point of reading these thrillers with characters we’re familiar with?

The decline

My 7-word pitch:

Read it just to watch the spectacle.

Recommended for:
💪🏽 Those who can appreciate a strong female mc
💪🏽 Unabashed readers who are willing to roll their eyes a bit, but enjoy it none-the-less
💪🏽 Everyone who has ever been curious about the differences the edited and the unedited.

#fiction #newrelease #alwaysreading #chaptersamplers #ihaveacouple #letsdothis #coming2021 #summer2021 #comingsoon #addtoyourtbr #thriller #thrillerbooks #theillersaremypassion #recommendations #yesiaddedtotbr #requested #comingthissummer
#minotaur #minotaurbooks #bookhighlightweekend #letstalkaboutbooksbaby
#ineedsimefuckingdietcoke

✨

THE GIRL WHO DIED
BY: Ragnar Jonasson
Out now
Pub: @minotaurbooks

The covers feels like falling to a place of better understanding...and everything else I thought

Currently listening:
🎶 THE CARNIVAL OF ANIMALS

The writing has an Alice in Wonderland quality to it. It feels like you're reading on an iPad. A but behind glass. Like ice.

Part of the story takes place in REKJAVIK.
I've heard the name aloud before possibly on the news. The letters feel tortured, like they're fighting to create space for themselves.

A bit like our MC.

UNA, the main character is stoic. Unapologetic in a naive way. Independent but completely dependent.

Something about the plot reminds me of THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by @ruthwarewriter.

There's a phrase in the book
“Light nights”

Those two words put together creates a chill in the air. It's knowing the thermostats low without checking the dial. It's reading the room.

I have a lot of thoughts and I'm running out of room.

You probably don't need me to tell you to add this to your very long list of hopeful reads. If you're a fan of #nordicnoir then you know who #ragnarjonasson is.

But if it helps I'm ordering it 😬

For fans of:
🖤 Black hearts, blacker coffee, and the darkest of minds.
🖤 Fans of slow-trickle world building
🖤 Nordic Noir. 😁

✨

GONE FOR GOOD
BY: Joanna Schaffhausen
Out: August 10, 2021
Pub: Minotaur

First question...
What is a Christmas chicken? First name capitalized. And how do I avoid being one.

7 victims, all women, bound for pleasure or for premeditated means? That's the second question.

And it's on Dectective Vega's mind as well.

I've met a Detective Vega before in a series by Louisa Luna. The first book TWO GIRLS DOWN is similar in a few ways.

One of those ways is their dynamic characters being in partnership with men. In this case it happens to be the ex-husband of Detective Vega who answers the call early in the cold Chicago morning.

This whole concept is intriguing to me. Let me bullet point what makes this book so attractive to me as a reader:

👉🏽 Killer murder club
👉🏽 Killer returns, copycat killer or something else entirely
👉🏽 A cop duo with sparks like the 4th of July
👉🏽 A killer with feminine-like adornment fit their victims.

Very intriguing indeed!

Add to your TBR!
Thanks to @minotaurbooks for this gifted copy. Looking forward to this release! See you in August.

✨

Welcome to my 24 hour #readathon.
I started Saturday at 3:37 pm

Phone down: 1:09 am Sunday my birth time
Phone up: 5:57 am Sunday

I woke up with @lab lyrics playing in my head and an overwhelming desire to write something about the importance of the characters trajectory in @euphoria. @a24 are you listening? I care a lot about these characters. I'm invested. Cannot wait for next season.

Pardon the squirrel in my mind. We're both a lititle nuts.

For anyone reading who's thinking what are these reviews?

They are:
✨ Quick off the mind reviews
✨ Little to no editing. Just me and autocorrect
✨ No research
✨ free-flow, very contracted thoughts immediately upon finishing these short samplers.

So pardon all of these misspellings and wild book associations.

✨


Have I ever told you, every once in awhile I create a rave in my living room. Complete with music so loud it hurts and a wild hazy mosh-pit in the center where I dance with myself and my ancestors, both the living and no longer.

Sometimes I scream the words in my head out loud into the echo of these loud songs. Casting them into apparitions and manifestations. Wild and free.

The energy exchange is real. It's a vibe.
A real #dopaminincreaser 10/10 recommend trying it. And screaming into the wind is free by the way. Add any #paramore song and you'll be feeling good in to time!

But, lets talk about the book I fell asleep in the middle of, late last night, or this morning.

A PECULIAR COMBINATION
By: Ashley Weaver
Out: May 25, 2021

When I read this book, the reader in me feels disallowed certain freedoms. I feel encapsulated and not in a good way. I feel bound.

The writing is simple. The plot I'm still not sure about. Part of me is crossing my fingers there's a punchline coming, a twist that will make everything more....noteworthy.

Unfortunately, that twist never happened for me. And not only am I not requesting this title but I most likely will refrain from looking into any of the authors #backlist or future releases.

This was a one-hitter quitter.

✨ Writing is inarticulate and the novel lacks structure, the characters are personality fluid, see through. And even things like a characters age are a hazy shade of confusion. One sentence the main character is a girl, seconds later when confronted with a diabolical situation she is a woman. Without accompanying behavior this rapid character development feels hoisted upon me as a reader at best. Easily unbelievable.
✨ I'm going into detail cause I feel like it. I've never read a passage that went like this:
Character #1:
“Are you a spy?”
Character #2:
“Why, yes I am.”
-no, this is not appropriate dialogue during an interrogation. Maybe I've read too many thrillers and I'm jaded. I want to know what the sound of the of interrogators teeth sound like grinding as he asks his questions. I need tension.
✨Reading it feels like a YA novel but not a good one. I did not check the genre prior to reading and possibly should have. I believe the reading experience will feel amateur to most readers.

I do not recommend!

It's getting an early 4.29 rating on @goodreads. I'm taking that number with a grain of salt. And here is my not for me, but might be for you, You might like this if you like. Let's have fun with this one.

YOU MIGHT LIKE
A PECULIAR COMBINATION
by: Ashley Weaver
If....

✨ You know what a stroopwafel is.
✨ You take yours with tea
✨ You would never assume anything beyond what you're told and what you see
✨ Have trouble listening to your intuition
✨ You Wear socks around the house
✨ You haven't shaved since February 2020 and don't intend to ever again.
✨ You believe in morals with or without religion or should I say in spite of
✨ You believe in honor, and a code even amongst enemies
✨ You’re patriotic and think it's your duty to vote.
✨ You believe in doing what's right even when it's wrong

Does is sound like something you'd be interested in?

Synopsis on swipe right 👉🏽

✨

THIEF OF SOULS
BY: Brian Klingborg


Imagine you're writing a book for aliens to read. The book is set on Earth. The aliens understand English surprisingly but you still have to explain common things about Earth to them. Gently and slowly, so as not to overwhelm them, you point out and explain details that you wouldn't normally have to, had they truly been where you the writer is from. It's takes a craft. A deft skill.

A lot of Westerners suffer from having a #ethnocentrist point of view. The opposite of ethnocentrism is called #culturalrelativism.

It's looking at the world perhaps from a cultural understanding. Thinking...My world is an isolated experience and I honor and value your experience however different from mine it may be. #namaste

It's the woman who does not consider abortion a choice for herself, but voting to allow other women the right to. A higher, more progressive way of thinking if you will.

It's With an ear for listening and understanding that Brian Klingborg is wowing me. He understands that I may not be able to easily differentiate between the characters, so he's giving me a lot of points of refrence for building each character in my mind's eye, my reader's eye.

The thing about ethnocentrism is it is a luxury. A luxury a large majority of the world does not bask in. I'm open to reading more stories about lives I haven't lived. And this book is a great segway into that.

Pairs well with:
✨THE WAILING, a 2016 horror film I can't stop telling people to watch. Even though it's spring outside.
✨ A dry Chianti not chilled. Room temperature so it sticks to your lips and your teeth and makes wide, long, thick legs on your wine glass.
✨ A open mind.

I have to get my hands on this release!

Published: May 4, 2021

NOTE: Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist but the author photo is missing on @goodreads for Brian Klingborg. This material could be called out for playing a diversity card as Brian Klingborg is not Chinese but is writing about Chinese characters and culture.

I believe it can be done. Absolutely. I believe an author can write from any perspective and is not limited to any box I might want them to write within. However a HUGE part of my #poc soul is screaming:
“ THERE ARE SO MANY TALENTED CHINESE AUTHORS, WHY ARE THEY NOT GIVEN A VOICE TO WRITE ABOUT THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE!?”

Give voice to that which is quiet.

It doesn't take away from this book to ask for that. It doesn't make this work any less of a masterpiece.

What it does though is denigrate the entire publishing system as a whole. And we as consumers, as readers of this material suffer because of it. We are kept in a box and told the lid is open. If we’d just take a look. But the confinement if that box is real. And feels akin to an @amazon prime order.

Quick and efficient, deteriorating all the same.

#fiction #newrelease #alwaysreading #chaptersamplers #ihaveacouple #letsdothis #coming2021 #summer2021 #comingsoon #addtoyourtbr #thriller #thrillerbooks #theillersaremypassion #recommendations #yesiaddedtotbr #requested #comingthissummer
#minotaur #minotaurbooks #bookhighlightweekend #letstalkaboutbooksbaby

What a tease but such a very good tease on five different stories to read and it gives you a idea on what these five not published stories will be about. I enjoyed all five. This is the first time I have ever read something like this,samplers of these stories where you get a taste of what the idea and the story line is about and some of the characters in the story. I like reading this and I think this is so much better than when you go to see what a certain book is about all they give you is like what a few lines of who,what,where and why about the story and it's done. By the time you read all of that you are to decide on whether you want to read the book and yes, you can choose the sample of the book on about the same thing but with this, I like the five stories together by different authors.. Take a chance read these stories and see if you like this setup or not!! Received this from Net Gallery..

I love these samplers and this was an especially good one! So many books that I can’t wait to read more of added to my TBR list!

Top Notch..
Top notch Minotaur Sampler showcasing a selection of mystery, thriller and suspense novels from authors at the top of their game. Each sampler will prompt a further read.

I always love these. Gives you a chance to read samples of upcoming books. I enjoyed all the selections

What a great sampler! All of them sound so good. I’ve added quite a few to my tbr.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for these sneak peaks!

I love being able to sample some of minotaurs newest releases. This is a great way to see what’s coming soon

Ahhhh so many good books coming up!!!
I noted down my favorites and I will be on the lookout for when they pop up here!

I love Minotaur samplers. They are a great way to explore new titles and authors. I particularly liked The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter that is told so descriptively I was immediately intrigued and Gone for Good by Joanna Scaffhausen that is darkly immersive. I can’t wait to delve into the novels to see if my first impressions stick. Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to peruse upcoming novels.

Great collection of thrillers and mysteries! Thank you Minotaur for the opportunity to read the excerpts from the five new books. I am especially excited about the Girl Who Died, Gone for Good and the Photographer.

Great collection of stories that got me interested in reading all of the included authors work. Great little intro.

This volume contains teasers for five mystery and suspense novels being released by Minotaur this spring or summer. Although they are all in the same genre, these novels differ in settings--contemporary and historical, Chicago to New York to Iceland to London to China. There are several chapters from each of these novels.

The sampler worked for me--I've already added a few of the books to my to-be-read list. Everyone's tastes are different, but I most eagerly anticipate THE PHOTOGRAPHER by Mary Dixie Carter and A PECULIAR COMBINATION by Ashley Weaver. #MinotaurSamplerVol2 #NetGalley

This sampler holds several intriguing first chapters. I especially look forward to reading the full book versions of Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen which is the first book in the Detective Annalisa Vega series set in Chicago and A Peculiar Combination, an historical spy novel by Ashley Weaver set during World War II in England.. Mary Dixie Carter's The Photographer starts out with a chilling obsession brewing in the homes of New York elite families and Brian Klingborg's Thief of Souls is set in China, promising details of a police investigation under authoritarian rule. Thanks to MacMillan USA for the opportunity to sample these five books.

I absolutely love when Minotaur does this!! The short stories provided as snipit into 5 amazing books coming up. I’m looking forward to reading more of them in full

I love when Minotaur does this! Another set of 4 small samples of fantastic thrillers/mysteries that I can’t wait to be published because I’m already curious/interested in these titles.

This is an amazing compilation of books. Each with its own suspense and thriller levels sure to lead you into buying the books. Beginning with Gone for Good by Mary Dixie Carter, a first in a new mystery series. I’m a new fan of Joanna Schaffhausen and her epic detective writing skills. Gone for Good was the first in this series and it is an engaging dynamic read. The drama unfolds with believable characters, such as Detective Annalisa who is a by product of her detective father. She pulls apart evidence of a serial killer from a cold case 20 years ago. She was only 17 years old but remembers well how parents watched their children closer and going out alone was unthinkable if you were a female incase the Lovelorn Killer strikes again. One of the women killed was her boyfriend Colin’s mom leaving that family so distraught over the unsolved case, Colin decided to leave it all behind, as well as Anna.
An online amateur sleuth group pegged “Gravediggers” challenges the serial to come out of hiding. Their taunting brings more than they bargained when he strikes down one of the group members, Grace, leaving her in the same horrendous pose as the 7 women he killed. She was close to solving the case and had gathered a wealth of information of his pathetic scheme which was stolen at the scene.
The Lovelorn Killer stalks and baits his prey then leaves love letters to boast of his claims. The frustration, fear and exhausted attempts of the locals to pinpoint leaves you wondering throughout if it is someone hiding in plain sight maybe a bar monger during happy hour, the next door neighbor or even a family member.

The Photographer by Mary Dixie Carter A GREAT psychological thriller that I can't do it enough justice. I was caught up in this book from start to finish. It was unbelievably good with a dark undertone and some scenes that are not as they seem, but the author did an incredible job of bringing it together. My only drawback was at the end not being sure what was real or not. Sometimes this is a great extension of the story to create in your own mind.

Delta Dawn, her 70's name derived from Tanya Tucker's song, created her own version of living when her life did not status quo the way she intended.... not as a child or even as an adult. Her creation is through her photography job capturing the elite's lifestyles and celebrations. When she captures little Natalie Straub's party, she becomes obsessed with her parents Ian & Amelia, as well as their affluently established professions and home.

Her obsession leads her to insert herself into their lives by manipulating their emotions in her favor. She becomes skillfully preoccupied with the intrusion and able to control or influence their minds. She even created some crafty photos to evade her own mind.

It's one of two things... this family has their head in the sand and could not see the manipulation or too desperate in building their career that it became too convenient for their daughter to have a sitter or potential house guest that it was not in the discourse of topic. ......they just left the light on for her and gave her a key.
Overall, I think it is worth your read, if you are looking for a psychology thriller that delivers while you ponder her thoughts and ways on the edge of your seat.
The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson I only read the sampler, but have it in my queue to read next is also a thriller with the setting in a secluded village with a lot of secrets.
A Peculiar Combination by Ashley Weaver is right up my genre because I love the WWII era books and this one is sure to please with romance, spies and murderous schemes.
Thank you ,NetGalley, for this selection of samplers in exchange for my review.