That's Not My Name by Megan Lally

 

The GIRL:  "I think I might be dead."  She wakes up in a ditch by the side of the road, bruised and bloodied. And unable to remember who she is or how she got there. The police find her, and so does a man claiming to be her father. He says her name is Mary Boone. And he has photos of her, an old school ID, and her birth certificate. He must be telling the truth. So why does nothing about him feel familiar?

DREW:  "Life really goes to shit when everyone thinks you killed your girlfriend."  Drew's girlfriend, Lola, went missing five weeks ago, and everyone in their small Oregon town blames him, including the police. They keep trying to get him to confess. But Drew knows he didn't hurt her; he thinks someone may have taken her. And he's determined to do everything he can to find her. 

My thoughts:  What a fun summer thriller! Lally does a great job of building a sense of dread and unease as she alternates between Mary's and Drew's POV.  Mary's fears grow as she notices inconsistencies in her father's story; and Drew's desperate search for Lola is equally compelling. These two characters are both believeable and easy to root for. The story itself has suspense and tension and a good twist at the end. I really liked it. 4.5/5 stars.

The Wintringham Mystery by Anthony Berkeley

 

The story:  Having run through his small inheritance, demobbed army officer Stephen Munro is forced to take a job as a footman at Wintringham Hall, the country estate of Lady Susan Carey. It's a bit of a lark, though Stephen quickly discovers he's not really footman material. When Lady Susan decides to throw a party things get even more awkward for Stephen when his old schoolmate, Freddie Venables, shows up as one of the guests along with Stephen's old flame, Pauline Manwaring and her new fiancè, a man Stephen immediately dislikes. Then one of the female guests disappears during a silly parlor game one night and Stephen adds amateur detective to his list of duties. 

My thoughts:  I thoroughly enjoyed this British Library Crime Classic. Stephen has a take-life-with-a-grin attitude that I found endearing. His encounters as a footman, especially with the uptight and strict butler, Martin, and with Freddie and Pauline were very funny. And the mystery of Cecily's disappearance kept everyone in the house guessing. Was it a prank? Or something more nefarious? I liked Pauline's spunk and her back-and-forth banter with Stephen as they investigated things together. There are some fun twists and turns along the way and the obligatory red herrings, too. There's even a bit of romance. All in all, this is a delightfully charming mystery. 5 stars.

Happy Reading!

The other Anthony Berkeley mystery I've read:  The Poisoned Chocolates Case.

Every Waking Hour by Joanna Schaffhausen

 

As a teenager, Ellery Hathaway was abducted by notorious serial killer Francis Coben. She barely survived. Now she's a detective in Boston, still slightly broken and fragile, and still on probation with the department. She's also sort of seeing Reed Markham, the FBI agent who found and rescued her all those years ago. Not that she's great at relationships. She and Reed are on a picnic with his seven-year-old daughter, Tula, when a twelve-year-old girl goes missing from that same Boston park. But was Chloe Lockhart abducted? Or did she run away on her own? The discovery that Chloe's older half-brother, Trevor, was murdered before she was ever born certainly complicates things. Is her disappearance somehow connected to his death? Reed joins Ellery's investigation as they hurry to hunt down the truth and find Chloe before it's too late.

This is the fourth book Joanna Schaffhausen has written about Ellery Hathaway and Reed Markham. And while her mysteries are always well-plotted and compelling, it's her characters that I love. This case is especially hard for Ellery because of her own traumatic past--a past that complicates every aspect of her life. Including her feelings for Reed. And loving Ellery definitely complicates Reed's life. But they make a great team when they're working together to solve a case.

I thought Every Waking Hour was an amazing psychological thriller! And with that ending, I hope Schaffhausen hurries up and writes the next book in this series ASAP. 

Happy Reading!

The other books in this series (which I also loved):

#1 - The Vanishing Season 

#2 - No Mercy

#3 - All the Best Lies