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Book Review: You Better Watch Out: A Thriller by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

cover art for You Better Watch Out by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

You Better Watch Out: A Thriller by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth

St. Martin’s Press, 2024

ISBN 9781250286260

Available: Hardcover, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com

 

 

You Better Watch Out by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth is a fast-moving thriller reminiscent of the TV series Survivor and the book trilogy Hunger Games. It’s Christmastime, and five strangers are mysteriously kidnapped, awakening in a snowbound village in upstate New York. The three men and two women have checkered pasts, including thievery, hit-and-run homicide, drug dealing, scamming and addiction. The village is a killing field strewn with deadly, macabre booby traps. One-by-one they meet gruesome deaths trying to escape while facing starvation and hypothermia. Why were they brought here? Who is killing them? Will any of them escape?

 

Murray and Wearmouth are veteran authors who have an accessible writing style. The third-person narration is direct and easily understood. The plot flows well and has enough twists and turns to draw readers in and keep them guessing until the surprising end. Or, is it an end?

Recommended for older teenagers and adults.

Contains: Profanity, violence, gore, mild sexuality

 

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

 

 

Book Review: Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomas

Cover art for Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomaso

Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomas

Thomas and Mercer, 2024

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662509568

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

 

First as a journalist, and then as an investigator, Natalee Ellerin hunts monsters. When writing about the unsolved murder of a young woman leads to the end of her career, she blames herself for mistakes. However, years later, when another young woman is on life support after being attacked in circumstances that are linked to that earlier murder, Natalee knows she must follow through and find out what is going on in an elite enclave on Long Island.

 

The monsters in Lost to Dune Road by Kara Thomas are predators, crooked policemen, and wealthy men who think they are above the law.  This gripping story is part crime novel, detective mystery, psychological thriller, and even a love story. In the end, the point will be to find the guilty, but it will take more than just a nose for a good story and the right questions for Natalee to expose the pattern of sordid crimes against women that are occurring with regularity. Natalee is savvy, sharp, and vulnerable, and her deep sense of loyalty and need to see justice realized compel her risk her safety and the relationships that are precious to her.

 

Kara Thomas has created a long cast of characters who are believable and complex. The action in this novel is fast-paced with new characters and subplots popping up with satisfying frequency without illogical twists thrown in merely for effect.  Readers will also find that the novel brings to mind the real-life horrors from current news, like Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. These are the crimes, victims, and perpetrators that are hidden in plain sight and so, in some ways, the most terrifying to discover.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

 

Book Review: The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

cover art for The Other Black Girl

 

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Atria Books, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982160135

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Nella is an editorial assistant at Wagner Books, and the only Black woman on the editorial staff.  Editorial assistants are poorly paid, and most of the editors have been there for years and aren’t going anywhere, so there isn’t a lot of likelihood of moving up. Most editorial assistants are young white women with a financial cushion that allows them to afford the job, and there is a lot of turnover.  Nella faces frequent microaggressions from the lily-white staff. There has been a token effort at diversity and inclusion, but most staff have tuned it out.

 

Nella is struggling with her supervising editor over the latest book of a well-known author, which includes a racist stereotype, while hoping to bring in a manuscript by a controversial Black activist. As she attempts to balance keeping her job with staying true to herself, she is pleased to discover that Wagner has hired another Black woman as editorial assistant, Hazel. At first Nella is relieved and excited to have someone to vent with, but Hazel comes across as more “genuine” and is an expert code-switcher. Soon Nella finds that Hazel is undermining her and going behind her back to take on what had previously been Nella’s assignments and roles. It’s almost like Nella is becoming invisible. Something ominous is going on. There are occasionally interruptions from other narrators, which is a little confusing, but eventually helps to create an understanding of the larger picture in which Nella’s story exists.

 

The Other Black Girl is slow to begin, but it is worth it to see the development of the office environment in which Nella and Hazel find themselves competing. Readers who don’t follow publishing news will need this background. As the story progresses, it draws the reader in, and the suspense and growing dread make it impossible to put down. It critiques the whiteness of publishing, the performativity of diversity initiatives, the necessity for code-switching, and stereotypes like the “strong black woman” in the midst of a conspiracy that couldn’t exist in another context. It is a compelling story that pulls back the curtains on the publishing world, showing that there is much more that needs to occur for real diversity and change.  Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski