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Book Review: Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliott

Cover art for Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot

Her First Mistake by Kendra Elliot

Montlake, 2025

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662525773

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

Buy:  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

Thirteen years after the unsolved murder of a member of the California state legislature, the case is reopened byf the FBI, and Detective Noelle Marshall finds herself in the middle of it. However, this job is going to be challenging for Noelle, because she is the wife of the victim and was attacked and left for dead during the crime.

 

This thriller shifts back and forth between the past, the recent past, and the present right from the start. There is a large cast of characters, including those who worked on the original case, family members, and friends of Noelle’s and her husband’s. The characters are developed enough to make them distinctive, but they are not complex enough to excite much speculation about their possible role in the murder.

 

Because Noelle was at the scene on the fateful day and cannot remember what happened, there had been speculation as to whether she might have faked her own attack and killed her husband. However, because so much of the emphasis is put on Noelle’s perspective as part of law enforcement, that intriguing idea seems to go out the window quite quickly.

 

Kendra Elliot carefully builds the plot and effectively creates a world that suggests these are real people living real lives after a terrible event. Ironically, for that reason, there is less urgency, drama, and excitement than this reader looks for in a thriller. It is disappointing that even the more intriguing parts of the book, like those focusing on Noelle’s relationship with her husband before their marriage, disappear, as the plot loses momentum midway through.

 

Elliot plans to develop a series based on this book and has found successful readership to this point in earlier books. It will be interesting to see how she grows the story after this  first installment.

 

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on November 23, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: Passing Through Veils by John Harrison

cover art for Passing Through Veils by John Harrison

 

Passing Through Veils by John Harrison

Wordfire Press, 2023

ISBN-13 : ‎ 978-1680574234

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

Sometimes, the best stories have the worst narrators, at least in reliability. Spending time with the character who we travel through the book with, wondering how much is accurate versus that person’s perception, makes for an intriguing read-– if written well. Passing Through Veils has been compared to Gone Girl and The Haunting of Hill House, but John Harrison has penned a novel that forges its own path in Passing Through Veils, constructed with skill and insight, into a mentally unstable mind. Harrison has plenty of experience in entertainment, from writing episodes of Creepshow, to directing Tales From the Darkside, and the horror miniseries Residue, on Netflix.

 

The novel opens with a vicious murder, witnessed only by a young boy, and is seemingly unconnected to the rest of the novel.

 

The reader is then introduced to Kathryn, once a promising star in the legal field until a complete breakdown sends her to a psychiatric ward for six months. When released, she secures a job with a friend’s firm, and purchases a townhouse with her mother. She hears music and other noises through the walls, but just as she is about to relapse, she punches through the wall – and discovers a secret room with a vanity, o ther items, and the source of the music.

 

As Kathryn investigates who used to live there, possibly the murdered woman from the scene at the beginning of the book, reality begins to unravel in front of her. Visions of a strange woman plague her, and she is having bouts of dissociation when in the house or with items left behind. She meets an intriguing man with a connection to the house and his odd brother, both who have integral roles in the story. How the story is resolved is worth the read. Recommended to fans of ghost stories and unreliable narrators-– or simply well told tales.

 

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on March 13, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Jawbone by Monica Ojeda translated by Sarah Booker

cover art for Jawbone by Monica Ojeda

Jawbone by Monica Ojeda., translated by Sarah Booker

Coffee House Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1566896214

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

Fernanda wakes up, disoriented, to discover she has been kidnapped by Miss Clara, her literature teacher. Figuring out how she got there is the first step in navigating a twisty narrative.

 

Fernanda, her close friend Anne, and their friends had found an abandoned, isolated house where they told horror stories, participated in violent dares, and worshipped the White God (as friend groups of teenage girls do). Fernanda and Anne pushed their limits further than the other girls, but Fernanda finally reaches hers.

 

Anne is forced to take extra lessons from Miss Clara after the teachers discover an irreligious drawing of an insect god in drag. Miss Clara has closely modeled herself on her mother and has anxiety and frequent panic attacks that result in repetitive and neurotic behaviors and self-harm, making her a perfect target for Anne, who is angry with Fernanda for drawing boundaries. Anne uses her conversations and assignments with Miss Clara to manipulate Miss Clara’s anxieties and turn her focus on Fernanda as a villain victimizing Anne…

 

The writing varies in style. Parts of the book record Fernanda’s therapy sessions; conversations between Anne and Clara;  and a long essay on “white horror” by Anne for Clara. Others get into the mental state of Clara or Fernanda which are quite disorienting, vivid, and sometimes gut-punching, with insect and body horror. The descriptions of physical responses to anxiety and panic attacks are hard to read. It gets harder and harder to trust any perception of events.

 

There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease. The violence keeps escalating but a lot of it happens off the page. This is generally effective but left me confused with the ending. There is so much left to the imagination that it creates a real sense of unease.

 

This is far from being a straighforward narrative, Readers who enjoy experimental narratives and unreliable narrators will find much to recommend it, though. ,.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Editor’s note: Jawbone was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award in Translated Literature. 

Posted on November 9, 2022 by , Reply
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