Take Your Breath Away

December 1, 2021

In Barclay's Take Your Breath Away, Andrew Mason is suspected of murdering wife Brie after she disappears, and further complications arise when someone resembling her shows up at the couple's old address before vanishing again (100,000-copy first printing). First seen in Brown's 2021 New York Times best seller, Arctic Storm Rising, former U.S. Air Force officer Nick Flynn now faces a Countdown to Midnight, with Midnight the code name for a secret project between Russia and Iran involving a lethal new weapon (125,000-copy first printing). In Burke's Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, novelist Aaron Holland is guided by the ghost of his recently deceased daughter when his do-gooding efforts draw him into a shady crowd that includes a former Klansman, a not-so-saintly minister, some scary fake-evangelical bikers, and a murderer (100,000-copy first printing). In Carr's In the Blood, a Mossad operative known to former Navy SEAL James Reece is killed in a plane explosion (she herself had just completed a targeted assassination), but searching for the culprit might mean walking into a trap (200,000-copy first printing). In Horowitz's third James Bond outing, as yet Untitled, 007 is starting to question his role as the Cold War wears on but agrees to act as a double agent so that he can infiltrate a newly hatched Soviet intelligence organization (50,000-copy first printing). Unfolding 15 years after events in Iles's "Natchez Burning" trilogy, Southern Man reintroduces Penn Cage, back in action as shots fired at a Bienville music festival nearly kill his daughter, a militant Black group takes responsibility for the torching of antebellum mansions, and a close friend is shot to death by a county deputy (200,000-copy first printing). Her career stumbling, lawyer Nicole Muller gladly complies when she's asked by the exclusive women's professional group Panthera Leo to Please Join Us, but as author McKenzie soon reveals, membership comes at a price (60,000-copy first printing). Demoted from the elite Hawks police unit for being too keen on uncovering state corruption, Meyer's stalwart detectives Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido await transfer from Cape Town to dull duty in Stellenbosch when an anonymous warning and a missing-student assignment reveal that The Dark Flood of corruption they knew was there is worse than they imagined. On a business trip with her new, much younger husband, Pavone's latest heroine, Ariel Price, can't enjoy her Two Nights in Lisbon; she awakens one morning to find her spouse missing and begins to realize that she hardly knows him (200,000-copy first printing). Edgar-nominated for The Impossible Fortress and also the editor behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Rekulak returns with Hidden Pictures, featuring a nanny whose five-year-old charge draws increasingly creepy and sophisticated pictures (shown in the text) hinting at a long-ago murder (250,000-copy first printing). A woman lies murdered, surrounded by Dark Objects that include the book How To Process a Murder by forensics expert Laughton Rees, who's of course immediately called to the scene; the latest from "Sanctus" author Toyne (50,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 28, 2022
The disappearance of Andy Mason’s wife, Brie, from their home in Milford, Conn., drives this well-paced standalone from Thriller Award finalist Barclay (Find You First). Andy was on a fishing trip with a friend at the time, but Milford police detective Marissa Hardy decides that Andy was involved, yet try as she might, she can find no hard evidence. Meanwhile, Andy becomes “a public spectacle, fodder for true crime shows and social media speculation.” Needing a fresh start, he changes his last name and moves to the nearby town of Stratford. Now, six years after Brie went missing, Andy is living happily with his girlfriend. Then, a woman shows up at Andy’s former address in Milford. She seems frightened and leaves before the police can be summoned. Surveillance footage shows she looks like Brie. Barclay shifts among multiple viewpoints to keep the tension high, including the original witness statements taken by Hardy. Everyone is a plausible suspect, and the disparate plot pieces eventually fit together with the precision of a Chinese puzzle box. Barclay reliably entertains. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).

April 1, 2022
Six years ago, Andrew Mason's wife, Brie, disappeared. Still considered the police's prime suspect (although there's no evidence he was involved), Andrew now lives under a new name, with a new family. Then a shocking thing happens: Brie--or at least a woman who vaguely resembles Brie--turns up where she and Andrew used to live. Could this really be Andrew's wife, come back after a six-year absence? Or is somebody trying to convince Andrew--or perhaps the police--that Brie is still very much alive? Then, confounding matters further, the would-be Brie disappears again. This new novel from the always-dependable Barclay (Elevator Pitch, 2019, A Noise Downstairs, 2018) is an especially good read. The author keeps us guessing right up until the end, wondering which of the novel's characters might have an interest in convincing people Brie is still alive and just who has it in for Andrew and why. Motives are hinted at and secrets gradually revealed, leading to an ending that will knock your socks off.

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April 15, 2022
Six years after Brie Mason mysteriously disappeared, a woman who seems to be her shows up at the since-rebuilt house in which she'd lived with her husband, Andrew, setting off a chain reaction of shock, accusations, lies, and murder. Andrew, a contractor with a failing business and a drinking problem triggered by Brie's disappearance, lives elsewhere in the town of Milford, Connecticut, with his pregnant girlfriend, Jayne, and her troubled 16-year-old brother, Tyler. Seemingly everyone in Milford who remembers the sensational story has long suspected Andrew of killing Brie, including obsessed Detective Marissa Hardy and Brie's sister, Isabel. But Andrew has miraculously prevented Jayne from learning anything about his personal history, making a point of rarely dining out with her or otherwise being seen with her in public. He's soon got some 'splainin' to do. Andrew's alibi is that he was on a fishing trip with his friend and business partner, Greg, the night Brie vanished. Hardy believes he drove back to Milford during the wee hours, killed and buried Brie, and returned to the fishing spot before dawn. After showing up at the site of her old house, the would-be Brie makes a couple more well-planned appearances, including a midnight visit to her dying mother in the hospital, but no one gets a clear enough look at her to be sure if she is who she says she is. For a book that relies on so many twists and turns, with a central premise that could easily fall apart, Barclay's latest does an impressive job of sustaining suspense and making its characters believable. The reader is kept guessing until close to the end, by which time a forced detail or two doesn't really matter. An infectious thriller--one of Barclay's best.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 27, 2022

In Barclay's (Find You First; Elevator Pitch) latest suspense novel, Andrew Mason is devastated after returning home from a weekend fishing trip to learn that his wife Brie has vanished from their Milford, CT, home while he was away. Detective Marissa Hardy investigates Brie's vanishing, and Andrew becomes the prime suspect in what police believe to be Brie's murder. But the case turns cold and Brie is never found, while Andrew's life spirals out of control into alcoholism and depression. Now, six years after Brie's disappearance, Andrew has moved away and started over with a new life and new girlfriend, Jayne, as he tries to put the past behind him. Then a woman appears in the neighborhood where his house once stood and begins screaming, "Where's my house?" A neighbor thinks this woman might be Brie and alerts Andrew, who agonizes because no one in his current life is aware of his history, not even Jayne. He resumes searching for Brie, which puts him once again in the sights of Detective Hardy, who still thinks that Andrew killed Brie. Andrew doesn't realize that he is uncovering secrets that might cost him his life. VERDICT In typical Barclay fashion, subplots and characters weave together in a tight, satisfying story. Perfect for fans of suspense novels by Harlan Coben and Lisa Gardner.--Bill Anderson

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