#Review - Forget What You Know by Christina Dodd Thrillers / Suspense

Series: Standalone
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Publisher: HQN
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense

From New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd comes a brand new, standalone suspense about a startling family mystery that comes back to light when a new piece of evidence is uncovered, forcing a woman to question everything from her identity to her past to her relationship with her now ex-husband.

“Extraordinarily entertaining….with a cinematic flair that Hitchcock would envy.” – Booklist, starred review

Perfect for fans of Karen Slaughter, Lisa Jewell, and Sandra Brown comes a brand-new heartstoppingly suspenseful thriller from New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd...

A submerged car is pulled from the bottom of the lake.  The driver has been shot in the back of the head and no other bodies are found.  Only the legendary Dragon's Heart remains inside.  When it rises to the surface, greedy collectors from around the world gather. They'll stop at nothing to gain possession of the priceless artifact. Only one person stands in their way…

Zoey Phoenix remembers nothing about her early childhood; her mother’s desire to leave those years behind never worried her…until she’s almost killed in a hit and run and, days later, her mother disappears. Now Zoey fears her family secrets won’t stay buried long.  She has no idea who tried to murder her or why, but she’s determined to unravel the dangerous truths of her past—before they claim her future.  
 
Forget what you know...yet the past remembers.

Forget What You Know, by author Christina Dodd, is the second installment in the authors Last Seen in Gothic series. The story is a standalone novel whose packaging strategy is aimed at the heart of the competitive thriller and suspense market featuring a strong female protagonist, a chilling villain, and twisty family secrets that will keep readers turning the page. 25 years ago, Bonnie Torbinson's granddaughter (Honor) was kidnapped, her son Jake's wife (Cynthia) took her other daughter (Gracie) and fled.

When a car is dredged from a lake with a dead man inside along with the infamous Dragon’s Heart, it is the beginning of trouble for Zoey Phoenix. Greed propels collectors and thieves. They will do whatever it takes to obtain the Dragon’s Heart. Zoey is a flower breeder in Gothic. She is unaware of drama that is headed her direction when she is almost killed in a hit and run accident and it is clear that more is going on when Zoey finds her flower farm has been vandalized. 

Adding to the stress is the upcoming Gothic Garden and Flower Show which is the perfect chance to reveal her Secret Garden. To make matters even more curious and mysterious, her mother Morgayne Phoenix disappears after making sure Zoey is recovering but contacts Zoey's ex-husband, Luca Damezas, to look after her. Luca, a former professional wrestle, is aware that more threats may be coming. Also, he is still in love with Zoey and hopes for a reconciliation. The only real reason that the couple separated was because Zoey wasn't a fan of seeing Luca hurt. 

For years, Zoey has thought that she had a mysterious girl named Honor as her best friend. Through a variety of flashbacks, we learn that the two were inseparable and went through a horrible childhood thanks to their alleged father, Jake before Honor disappeared with a man called Vadim Somova. The plot includes humor, magic realism, romance, and sub-plots. The main plot of the novel is the rekindling of the romance between Zoey and Luca, which even overshadows the Dragon's Heart as well as the heart warming ending.  

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#Review - Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd #Thriller #Suspense

Series: Murder in Alaska # 1
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: December 29, 2020
Publisher: HQN
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense

From New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd comes a brand new, standalone thriller featuring a bold and brash female protagonist, a brutal and twisty murder that will have readers turning the pages and a villain that will have them keeping the lights on at night. WRONG ALIBI is perfect for the thriller/suspense category and fans of Lisa Jewell, Karin Slaughter, and Sandra Brown.

Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd delivers an all-new thriller, featuring a bold and brash female protagonist.

WRONG JOB
Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Jones lands a job in small-town Alaska, working for a man in his isolated mountain home. But her bright hopes for the future are shattered when Donald White disappears, leaving her to face charges of theft, embezzlement—and a brutal double murder. Her protestations of innocence count for nothing. Convicted, she faces life in prison…until fate sends her on the run.

WRONG NAME
Evie's escape leaves her scarred and in hiding, isolated from her family, working under an alias at a wilderness camp. Bent on justice, intent on recovering her life, she searches for the killer who slaughters without remorse.

WRONG ALIBI
At last, the day comes. Donald White has returned. Evie emerges from hiding; the fugitive becomes the hunter. But in her mind, she hears the whisper of other forces at work. Now Evelyn must untangle the threads of evidence before she’s once again found with blood on her hands: the blood of her own family…

Christina Dodd's Wrong Alibi claims to be part of a series called Murder in Alaska, but I dare say it can be read as a standalone. 18-year-old Evelyn Jones has had an very rough life. She was sent to Juvenile Detention in San Jose, California for something she didn't do just because she had been part of a gang. Her own mother, Ioana, told her to stay away until she cleaned up her act. Upon release, Evie found work in Rockin, Alaska thanks to a mysterious man named Donald White who was looking for a bookkeeper, and someone to do odd jobs. 

Without spoiling anything, little things that Donald did or said just didn't add up for Evelyn. Little did she know that within days of her arrival, she would be charged, convicted, and sentenced to 99 years in prison for the brutal double homicide of a mother and her son. Nobody listened to her when she told them she was innocent. While in transit to jail, there's a bizarre accident. Thanks to a whole new identity, Evie literally disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness where she would eventually find the Midnight Sun Fishing Camp Katchabiggie Lodge owned by Hawley Fogg. 

Within 8 years, Petie, had become camp director. For a 8 months of the year, Petie lives alone in the wilderness. However, Donald White, con man, and the real murderer, is not far from her desire for revenge. Petie who lost everything, has chosen to be an investigator and investor. Thanks to her, a woman named Jeen Lee was able to find her missing son who she thought was killed by his nursemaid. Jeen Lee knows who Petie really is. But thanks to Jeen Lee, Petie learns that Donald White is alive and living under a new name. The worst part, he's returned to Rockin and has grown close to a woman Petie knows well.

Part of the story is told from the narrative of Zone Jameson, an antiquities expert as well as the husband and father of the murdered woman and child in Rockin. Zone was a prisoner of a rebel group for weeks while his family was being murdered. He fully blames Evelyn Jones for the murder of his family and has made it his mission to make her pay. He will soon realize that things just don't add up and it looks as though Evie was made a scapegoat. Zone and Petie will need to work together in order to prevent Donald from once again escaping and taking yet another life of someone Petie knows.

The plot was straight forward with a few good twists that kept me hooked until the very end. I actually found myself forgiving Ioana for her dismissal of her daughter which led her to move to Rockin with Evie's sister Marya. The book was a bit choppy, to say the least. The twists became many, and there was more than one red herring. Revenge may have been the dominant theme of this story, but the reader will see where the characters went through a process of healing and forgiveness. I am curious about whether or not this is part of a series or not. This story has a beginning and an ending, so if there is another book, it will need to focus on other characters. 

 

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#Review - Strangers She Knows by Christina Dodd #Thrillers / #Psychological

Series: Cape Charade (#3)
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Release Date: September 17, 2019
Publisher: HQN
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Psychological

Perfect for fans of Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, Linda Howard, and Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd returns with the chilling finale to the Cape Charade trilogy.

I have three deadly problems:

1. I’ve seriously offended a maniacal killer.

2. I just had a bullet removed from my brain.

3. My new daughter is growing up too fast—and she’s in the line of fire.

Living on an obscure, technology-free island off California means safety from the murderer who hunts Kellen Adams and her new family…or does it? Family time becomes terror-time, and at last, alone, Kellen faces a killer playing a cruel game. Only one can survive, and Kellen knows who must win…and who must die.

 

Strangers She Knows, by Christina Dodd, is apparently the final chapter in her Cape Charade series. I recommend that future readers read the series in order as it follows the main character Kellen Adams through a series of hair raising adventures. I haven't read the in-between novella's, so I might be a hypocrite in telling other readers to do so. However, the story will make more sense to you if you have read the others. In this episode, Kellen Adams is healing after brain surgery but things quickly escalate when Kellen's former best friend/nemesis escapes from Federal prison.

Kellen, her husband Max DiLuca, and their daughter 10 year old Rae, end up on a world wide hop, skip and jump until they land on a small island off the coast of California. The old mansion on the island has an unhappy history as we learn through a diary from a character named Ruby and the isolation and atmosphere seems to have a disturbing affect on the mental health of the current caretakers of the island who seem to hate the DiLuca's. Then, the unimaginable happens, Mara Philippi an escaped serial killer who promised to take everything away from Kellen the way she feels Kellen took everything away from her, arrives.

In this story, Kellen has three serious issues to deal with. (1) Mara who showed up at her wedding looking for a confrontation. But, Mara doesn't really understand why Kellen isn't up to her expectations after brain surgery. (2) Having a bullet from the brain is not an easy procedure and the physical therapy that is involved may be overwhelming to anyone else but Kellen who has survived some brutal situations over the course of this story and her years in the military. (3) Rae has become a handful. She had to grow up fast not knowing if her own mother would recognize her, or even love her. But, they've had their own adventures in this series. 

Overall, this may not be the strongest book in the series. The pacing in the first half is a snail pace as we have to be reminded of previous events, and watch as Kellen struggles to regain her strength and the use of her hand which includes piano lessons. It is fair to say that there is a large gap between this book and the previous one that is apparently covered in Hidden Truths. I think the author truly spent too much time with Ruby and her background on Isla Paraiso. I think it's good that this may be the final book in the series as the ending apparently shows that Kellen and family are prepared to move on to other things, literally. I hate to reign crap down on Rae's shoulders, but she is like nails on a chalkboard at time. Of course, this is a typical reaction to a youngster who lives on the internet, and must be connected to the internet and her friends 24/7.

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What Doesn't Kill Her by Christina Dodd #Review #Thrillers

Series: Cape Charade # 2
Format: Paperback, 400 pages
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Publisher: HQN
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Genre: Thrillers

One secret, one nightmare, one lie. You guess which is which.

1. I have the scar of a gunshot on my forehead.
2. I have willfully misrepresented my identity to the US military.
3. I'm the new mother of a seven-year-old girl.

Kellen Adams suffers from a yearlong gap in her memory. A bullet to the brain will cause that. But she's discovering the truth, and what she learns changes her life, her confidence, her very self. She finds herself in the wilderness, on the run, unprepared, her enemies unknown--and she is carrying a priceless burden she must protect at all costs. The consequences of failure would break her. And Kellen Adams does not break.

What doesn't kill her...had better start running

 

What Doesn't Kill Her is the second installment in author Christina Dodd's Cape Charade trilogy. Against all odds, Kellen Adams has proven she can survive and thrive. But to protect the family she never knew, including a daughter she is just getting used to, she now must defend against a menace she can’t imagine. What Doesn't Kill Her is a novel that doesn't stand alone. 

It is necessary to have read Dead Girl Running in order to understand the full scope of what Kellen has endured, and so, this review may or may not contain some spoilers for events in the first book. Kellen's life has taken a strange turn. She went from serving in the military, to being discharged after being injured, to becoming assistant manager of Yearning Sands Resort, to surviving a brutal villain along with a shocking betrayal that led to an even more shocking surprise.

Kellen is someone who is basically a computer on two legs. She can remember every thing about a person after meeting them. She can remember the location, schedule, and qualifications of every employee at the resort. What she can't remember is a year of her life, or why she has what appears to be a gunshot scar on her forehead. This time around, however, Kellen gets a bit of her past told back to her Maximilian DiLuca, who she had a romantic past with, and who refuses to allow her to disappear like she did before.

With Kellen feeling restless, and not understanding her role as mother to a 7 year old girl named Rae, Kellen takes a job from Nils Brooks. All she has to do is pick up an artifact, and deliver it to a reclusive man who is supposed to tell if the artifact is real, or a fact. But, things quickly spiral out of control. Her so called partner betrays her, Rae decides that mommy is on an adventure and needs to join in, which leads to all sorts of action, and dire circumstances.

It's fair to say that I will not spoil the events that happened while Kellen was in a coma, or how she ended up in said coma. But, I shall say that Kellen feels inadequate at being a mother. After all, her past gives no clue whether or not she would have been a nurturing mother. Her brain is not wired that way. As she tries to get close to Rae, she also has to deal with more severe issues. As in someone is still out to get her, and she has no clue who that person might be. After all, everyone she thought she knew back when she was living in Maine, is no longer among the living. 

This book left me with a bad feeling in my mouth. No, it wasn't a bad story. In fact, it was pretty good overall. I just hate when authors go back to back with cliffhanger endings which force you to read the next book. I know, it's pure idiocy on my part. But, in this case, it might force a change in how things get started in the final book in the series called Strangers She Knows. You can already tell by the title that things are going to get weird really fast.

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#Review - Dead Girl Running by Christina Dodd #Thriller

Series: Cape Charade (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Publisher: HQN
Source: Library
Genre: Thrillers

I have three confessions to make:

1. I’ve got the scar of a gunshot on my forehead.

2. I don’t remember an entire year of my life.

3. My name is Kellen Adams…and that’s half a lie.

Girl running…from a year she can’t remember, from a husband she prays is dead, from homelessness and fear. Tough, capable Kellen Adams takes a job as assistant manager of a remote vacation resort on the North Pacific Coast. There, amid the towering storms and the lashing waves, she hopes to find sanctuary. But when she discovers a woman’s dead and mutilated body, she’s soon trying to keep her own secrets while investigating first one murder…then another.

Now every guest and employee is a suspect. Every friendly face a mask. Every kind word a lie. Kellen’s driven to defend her job, her friends and the place she’s come to call home. Yet she wonders—with the scar of a gunshot on her forehead and amnesia that leaves her unsure of her own past, could the killer be staring her in the face?  

 

Dead Girl Running is the first installment in author Christina Dodd's Cape Charade series. Former Army Captain Kellen Adams has taken a job working as an assistant manager at a resort called Yearning Sands. Kellen is someone who is basically a computer on two legs. She can remember every thing about a person after meeting them. She can remember the location, schedule, and qualifications of every employee at the resort. What she can't remember is a year of her life, or why she has what appears to be a gunshot scar on her forehead. 

With the arrival of a new group of vacationers, and the discovery of a woman's dead and mutilated body, comes more unwelcome scrutiny, more twists and shocking turns, and a rediscovery of who Kellen Adams really is, and why it appears she is running away from someone. Every guest and employee is a suspect. Even those who she once served with in the Army. Kellen is a woman with a past rife with secrets, violence, and memory loss and a present filled with stolen artifacts, ruthless smugglers, and dead bodies.

Like others, I picked this book up because I loved the the summary and decided to request the book from my library. I am not disappointed. There's so much that happens in this book. But, to be honest, I was engrossed in finding out what the real truth about Kellen was and what really happened to her that ended up with Kellen being discharged from the service, and how she ended up with a very pronounced scar on her head. As you read this book, there are chapters that explains her past and helps make sense as to why she is the way she is now. 

I think it really does flush out who Kellen really is as a main character and why understanding her past is so important. It is fair to say that Kellen could be considered to be an unreliable narrator. You get the sense that those around Kellen know more about what happened to her, and are trying to do the right thing by her. On a different note, I was absolutely floored by the ending. What just freaking happened?!?!?! I am happy that I actually hold in my hands the next book in the series! I think I will recommend that readers start by reading the short (61 pages) novella that kicks off this series. I think it might answer some questions.

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