More bookish suspense...

Mila Vasquez works in Limbo--the missing persons bureau at Federal Police Headquarters--where the walls are covered with photographs of the missing. So she's surprised when she gets summoned to the scene of a mass homicide. The apparent shooter? A man who went missing seventeen years earlier. Then another murder is committed; this time by a woman who went missing three years ago. It's a disturbing pattern. Why did these people decide to disappear all those years ago? Where have they been all this time? And why are they coming back to commit these murders now? As Nina puzzles over these questions, she comes across an even more disturbing clue. One that links these cases with another that took place twenty years earlier. A case that was never solved.

"The long night has begun. The army of shadows is already in the city. They are preparing for his coming, because he will soon be here. The Wizard, the Enchanter of Souls, the Goodnight Man: Kairus has more than a thousand names."

The Vanished Ones by Donato Carrisi is an intense and compelling psychological thriller that delves into the darkness that dwells in the souls of men, and how easily some people can by manipulated by evil. Carrisi's plots are impossible to predict; I love his many turns and twists, and how I never know what's coming next. And Mila is such a great character:  complicated, unconventional, impulsive, perceptive, and utterly devoid of empathy. She's also a fear junkie who's drawn to the darkness within her own soul. She's in Carrisi's previous novel, The Whisperer, (which I also loved and which you should really read first).  Carrisi is the master of psychological suspense and his books are unforgettable 5-star reads.

Happy Reading!

P.S.  Carrisi's The Lost Girls of Rome is also an amazing read.

Another bookish thriller...

Anomalies: that was what they always looked for. Tiny tears in the thread of normality. Little departures from the logical sequence of a straightforward criminal investigation. It was in those insignificant details that something else often lay concealed, something that pointed to a different, unimaginable truth.

 There are a lot of story lines to keep track of in Donato Carrisi's The Lost Girls of Rome; these seemingly unconnected threads do eventually weave together into one intense psychological thriller, but it was a bit of a challenge at first keeping them all straight. I'm glad I persisted, though.

First, there's Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst who photographs crime scenes. Her photojournalist husband, David, recently died. His last message to her? It's freezing cold here in Oslo. The problem with that? He died in Rome. So, what story was he researching and who killed him? His last 5 photographs hold the clues and Sandra is determined to follow them and find the truth.

There's also a serial killer, Jeremiah Smith, and his most recent victim, a young woman named Lara who is still missing.

And an Interpol agent who claims that he knew David and who is searching for David's photographs...and for something else.

Then there's Marcus, part of an old secret society, who's looking into these seemingly random crimes, but who's own past is an ever bigger mystery. He may be suffering from amnesia, but he's the master of anomalies.

To say this book is complicated is an understatement. What holds it together are the characters, especially Marcus and Sandra. I liked them both. And Carrisi's deft writing kept me reading through all the strange twists and turns to the very end. And what an ending! Carrisi draws from real life criminal cases which adds authenticity to his novel. (Be sure to read his Author's Note at the end.) Plus, it's set in Rome. What more could you want? This is a fast-paced and intense mystery that'll leave you gasping.

Happy Reading!

The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi

Death is highly seductive.

Corpses always arouse our curiosity.

Death, especially violent death, 

exerts a strange fascination on the living.

Five missing girls. Six severed left arms. One criminal mastermind. Dr. Goran Gavila, a noted criminologist, is searching for the monster behind these crimes. Helping him, is Mila Vasquez, a young detective who's solved 89 missing-person cases. This case leads them and the other members of their team into a labyrinth of darkness, where each new clue that they find adds another twist to the mystery and seems to take them even further from the truth. 

I love a good mystery and The Whisperer is a chilling psychological thriller that is hard to put down. Not only is it literary and intelligent, it's also haunting. Carrisi's characters are complex and multifaceted, and each one has a secret, including Goran and Mila. And you won't believe the ending! I never saw it coming. This is definitely one of the best books I've read this year. In a lot of ways this book reminded me of two other books I really loved: In the Woods by Tana French and Now You See Me by S.J. Bolton. If you're a fan of either of these authors, I think you'd really like Donato Carrisi, too.

Happy Reading!