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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | MYSTERY DON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | MYSTERY DON | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | MYSTERY DON | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From the acclaimed author of Twenty Years Later comes a twisting, impossible-to-put-down novel of suspense in which a filmmaker helps clear a woman convicted of murder--only to find she may be a puppet in a sinister game. Fans of Freida McFadden and Alice Feeney will be left breathless by this unforgettable thriller that builds to a shocking conclusion...
The Girl of Sugar Beach is the most watched documentary in television history--a riveting, true-life mystery that unfolds over twelve weeks and centers on a fascinating question: Did Grace Sebold murder her boyfriend, Julian, while on a Spring Break vacation, or is she a victim of circumstance and poor police work? Grace has spent the last ten years in a St. Lucian prison, and reaches out to filmmaker Sidney Ryan in a last, desperate attempt to prove her innocence.
As Sidney begins researching, she uncovers startling evidence overlooked during the original investigation. Before the series even finishes filming, public outcry leads officials to reopen the case.
Delving into Grace's past, Sidney peels away layer after layer of deception. But as she edges closer to the real heart of the story, Sidney must decide if finding the truth is worth risking her newfound fame, her career ... even her life.
"You can't blame Charlie Donlea if the ending of his novel makes your jaw drop. The title alone is fair warning that his characters are no more to be trusted than our initial impressions of them."
--The New York Times Book Review
Author Notes
USA Today bestselling author Charlie Donlea was born and raised in Chicago. He now lives in the suburbs with his wife and two young children. Readers can find him online at charliedonlea.com.
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
With three successful documentaries under her belt and three innocent prisoners set free as a result, Sydney Ryan is allowed some latitude with her new project, a real-time documentary. Each week's show will present the results of that week's investigative work. The hopeful convict this time is Grace Sebold, an American who's been locked up for 10 years for the murder of her boyfriend on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia. Sydney's work quickly becomes watercooler fodder as the did-she-or-didn't-she conversation starts to involve more and more exonerating details. Is Grace innocent? If so, the question of who did it has the ratings skyrocketing and will keep readers engrossed as well. Donlea's framing of the story as documentary research proves an effective device, and his work reads like the best nonfiction: clear, crisp, and fast moving. Viewers of Making a Murderer and The Jinx, documentary series that are frequently name-dropped by Donlea (The Girl Who Was Taken, 2017), are a natural audience for this title.--Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2018 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THERE'S NO mistaking a John Connolly novel, with its singular characters, eerie subject matter and socko style. All these flags are flying in the woman in the WOODS (Emily Bestler/Atria, $26.99), which finds Charlie Parker, the oddball private detective in this quirky series, thwarted by the broken link in a chain of safe havens for battered women. Normally, "they go in one end of the tunnel and come out the other, far away." Except when one of them is caught - someone like Karis Lamb, whose body is found in a shallow grave in the woods shortly after giving birth. There's no sign of her newborn child. A man named Quayle, who may very well be "the devil himself," and his "creature," creepy Pallida Mors, commit some vividly depicted atrocities in their fevered hunt for a powerful ancient book, which they believe to be in Karis's possession. Parker himself is no saint ("If there's trouble, he'll find it. If there isn't trouble, he'll make some"), and it's best to stay away from him whenever he's visited by the "black dog" of depression. But he's a savior in a world that can be merciless to those without a champion. All the kinky people in this novel, killers included, are readers. Parker's pal, Louis, who has eclectic tastes, is currently juggling Montaigne and Hemingway, and "when he wasn't reading, he was contemplating what he'd just read." Dobey, of Dobey's Diner in Cadillac, Ind., is also a rare-book dealer who subscribes to The New York Times, The New Republic, National Review and The New Yorker. What makes this dedicated reader a mensch, however, is his covert work as a principal in the underground railroad for "frightened and abused women." Connolly creates a world, somewhat real but emphatically unnatural, in which the dead commune with the living in mysterious ways. Five-year-old Daniel, for one, is no longer answering his toy telephone; after receiving frequent calls from Karis's uneasy ghost, "Daniel didn't want to talk to dead people" anymore. Well, he can always talk to us. We're right here by the phone, waiting. "GET me out of here!" Haven't we all, at one time or another, wanted to escape into a brand-new, unencumbered existence? Better keep that cri de coeur to yourself, Charlton Pettus warns in EXIT STRATEGY (Hanover Square, $26.99), or somebody could whisk you off to a new life that might not be entirely to your liking. That's what happens to Jordan Parrish, founder of a medical technology company, when his business and his marriage hit the rocks. As Jordan sees it, he can either swallow a stash of pills or call a service that will scrub away his old existence and relocate him to some not-too-hard-to-take destination like Tokyo or Paris. While Pettus captures the excitement of waking up in a strange country with a lot of money in your pocket, the thrills are largely lost on Jordan, who could use a more unequivocal love of adventure, not to mention a keener sense of humor. you CAN'T blame Charlie Donlea if the ending of his novel makes your jaw drop. The title alone - DON'T BELIEVE IT (Kensington, $26) - is fair warning that his characters are no more to be trusted than are our initial impressions of them. This much we do know: In 2007, a vacationing medical student named Julian Crist was pushed to his death from the top of Gros Piton on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. Julian's girlfriend, Grace Sebold, has spent 10 years in prison for the murder when Sidney Ryan gets the green light to make a TV series about her called "The Girl of Sugar Beach." Now here comes the twist: Sidney's documentary will follow in real time her personal investigation of the murder and will end, she hopes, in Grace's exoneration. But by the eighth installment of the show, which has been wildly successful, Sidney is beginning to suspect she's been deceived, and that her great coup was actually a con job. On the one hand, her career could be mud; on the other hand, you can't argue with those ratings. uh-??. Baseball players with the Boston Red Sox are coming to no good in Pamela Wechsler's new Abby Endicott mystery, THE FENS (Minotaur, $27.99), and while a missing ballplayer isn't as serious a matter as losing the pennant to the Yankees, it still means war. Endicott, Boston's chief homicide prosecutor and the novel's narrator, is out and about in Back Bay with her boyfriend, ??, when they're accosted by a stranger toting a Glock and demanding drugs. Turns out, he's an overzealous cop, which has Abby mentally writing an outraged newspaper headline: "African-American Male Attacked by Rogue Brookline Police Officer While Walking With Assistant District Attorney." That's the sort of thing Abby has to contend with in the "enlightened" metropolis she so diligently serves. But it's nothing compared with the old-fashioned fury that sweeps through the city when Rudy Maddox, the starting catcher for the Red Sox, fails to show up at Fenway Park for opening day. Abby has tackled other touchy cases in this lively series, but the Red Sox? Come on! Marilyn STASIO has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.
