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Books of Note – September, 2025
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“The Trapped Girl” by Robert Dugoni
“The Trapped Girl” is the fourth book in Robert Dugoni’s engrossing Tracy Crosswhite series. A teenager, out before dawn for an illegal crab pot pickup in Puget Sound, almost tips the boat because of the pot’s weight. He sees a hand sticking up, freaks out, and returns to shore with the very dead, trapped girl. Investigation reveals that the dead girl has had plastic surgery, but why?
Dugoni writes each of the characters with nuances and just enough good/suspicious behavior that I was certain that the deed(s) had been done by more than one person. I kept changing my mind as Dugoni disproved my theory each time. And then tossed another ‘so-sure-this-time’ clue at us. Psychological thriller that keeps you thinking long after the book ends.
“Phantom Instinct” by Meg Gardiner
Bartender Harper Flynn’s boyfriend has just returned her back door access card when the gunfire starts in Meg Gardiner’s “Phantom Instinct.” He is killed in the crossfire, a firebomb is tossed against the wall of liquor behind the bar, and the explosion and spreading flames cause a wall to collapse through the floor, taking a cop with it. And that’s in the first eleven pages.
Harper’s job disappears with the bar and the injured Aiden Garrison, the deputy Sheriff on a case at the time of the fire, has been placed on medical leave from his. Each of them remembers three shooters that night and a year later, Harper thinks one of them is after her. Two of the shooters are dead, and nobody believes Harper and Aiden that the third ever existed. The case is closed. Or is it?
The “Phantom Instinct” plot is edgy and complex, the players ruthless and fully developed. This is stay-awake reading!
“Kiss the Bricks” by Tammy Kaehler
“Kiss the Bricks” is the 5th in the Kate Reilly Racing Mystery series, each set at a different major race track. This title refers to the tradition of the winner of the Indianapolis 500 kneeling down to kiss the yard of bricks at the finish line.
Except for actually being there, I have never felt so close to the track as when reading Tammy Kaehler’s mystery series. I was in the car with Kate as she strategically shifted through the turns, assessed the responsiveness of the car, and tested her limits as a driver.
Kaehler gives us an intimate look inside the world of competitive racing, as well as the rivalries on and off the oval. If you love fast cars and have ever wondered what it would be like to do a few laps on the big tracks, read all five books and enjoy the mysteries as the pages fly by.
“Pictures of You” by Caroline Leavitt
In “Pictures of You,” two women’s lives intersect in a tragic auto accident. April dies when Isabelle swerves into her on an unfamiliar road in the fog. Isabelle, a photographer, is haunted by what she has done, even though cleared of any wrongdoing. She can’t forgive herself, even welcomes being left alone.
A little boy, Sam, has survived the accident and lost his mother. A grieving husband, Charlie, doesn’t understand why his wife, April, would have been on that road with their son at that time of day. Secrets are revealed and Charlie is helpless to comfort his son.
Sam is so well written, with always age appropriate vocabulary. He mistakes Isabelle for an angel and with his nine-year-old logic, mixes reality with his desperate wish to see his mother again. Leavitt creates a world in which the reader wants to hold this little boy, take away his heartache.
Beautifully written, exquisitely shared.
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“The Trapped Girl” by Robert Dugoni
“The Trapped Girl” is the fourth book in Robert Dugoni’s engrossing Tracy Crosswhite series. A teenager, out before dawn for an illegal crab pot pickup in Puget Sound, almost tips the boat because of the pot’s weight. He sees a hand sticking up, freaks out, and returns to shore with the very dead, trapped girl. Investigation reveals that the dead girl has had plastic surgery, but why?
Dugoni writes each of the characters with nuances and just enough good/suspicious behavior that I was certain that the deed(s) had been done by more than one person. I kept changing my mind as Dugoni disproved my theory each time. And then tossed another ‘so-sure-this-time’ clue at us. Psychological thriller that keeps you thinking long after the book ends.
“Phantom Instinct” by Meg Gardiner
Bartender Harper Flynn’s boyfriend has just returned her back door access card when the gunfire starts in Meg Gardiner’s “Phantom Instinct.” He is killed in the crossfire, a firebomb is tossed against the wall of liquor behind the bar, and the explosion and spreading flames cause a wall to collapse through the floor, taking a cop with it. And that’s in the first eleven pages.
Harper’s job disappears with the bar and the injured Aiden Garrison, the deputy Sheriff on a case at the time of the fire, has been placed on medical leave from his. Each of them remembers three shooters that night and a year later, Harper thinks one of them is after her. Two of the shooters are dead, and nobody believes Harper and Aiden that the third ever existed. The case is closed. Or is it?
The “Phantom Instinct” plot is edgy and complex, the players ruthless and fully developed. This is stay-awake reading!
“Kiss the Bricks” by Tammy Kaehler
“Kiss the Bricks” is the 5th in the Kate Reilly Racing Mystery series, each set at a different major race track. This title refers to the tradition of the winner of the Indianapolis 500 kneeling down to kiss the yard of bricks at the finish line.
Except for actually being there, I have never felt so close to the track as when reading Tammy Kaehler’s mystery series. I was in the car with Kate as she strategically shifted through the turns, assessed the responsiveness of the car, and tested her limits as a driver.
Kaehler gives us an intimate look inside the world of competitive racing, as well as the rivalries on and off the oval. If you love fast cars and have ever wondered what it would be like to do a few laps on the big tracks, read all five books and enjoy the mysteries as the pages fly by.
“Pictures of You” by Caroline Leavitt
In “Pictures of You,” two women’s lives intersect in a tragic auto accident. April dies when Isabelle swerves into her on an unfamiliar road in the fog. Isabelle, a photographer, is haunted by what she has done, even though cleared of any wrongdoing. She can’t forgive herself, even welcomes being left alone.
A little boy, Sam, has survived the accident and lost his mother. A grieving husband, Charlie, doesn’t understand why his wife, April, would have been on that road with their son at that time of day. Secrets are revealed and Charlie is helpless to comfort his son.
Sam is so well written, with always age appropriate vocabulary. He mistakes Isabelle for an angel and with his nine-year-old logic, mixes reality with his desperate wish to see his mother again. Leavitt creates a world in which the reader wants to hold this little boy, take away his heartache.
Beautifully written, exquisitely shared.
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