Category Archives: Jennifer Hillier

April 22, 2020 · 11:58 pm

Review: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Title: Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Length: 338 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Overwhelmed by tragedy, a woman desperately tries to save her marriage in award-winning author Jennifer Hillier’s Little Secrets, a riveting novel of psychological suspense.

All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret…

Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken.

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix.

Permanently.

Review:

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier is a fiendishly twisted domestic thriller.

Sixteen months later, upscale salon owner Marin Machado cannot let go of her guilt over her four year old son Sebastian’s kidnapping.  She is still struggling to return to normal life and she remains haunted by her son’s disappearance.  With the help of her therapist and group therapy, Marin now goes into work for a few hours daily.

However, at home, she and her husband Derek have drifted apart and they spend little time together. When her private investigator Vanessa Castro emails her, Marin is hoping for news of Sebastian. Vanessa instead informs her that Derek is having an affair with grad student McKenzie “Kenzie” Li.  Although not overly surprised by the revelation, Marin is absolutely furious at… Kenzie. Instead of confronting Derek, she calls her longtime best friend, bar owner Sal Palermo. After a drunken afternoon together, Marin takes Sal up on his offer to help rid herself of her problem. But will she eventually regret her impulsive decision?

Marin is barely functioning after Sebastian’s kidnapping. She narrowly survived the deep depression that overtook her but she is making progress at rejoining life. She knows she is responsible for the growing distance between her and Derek, but she cannot muster the energy to try to fix her marriage. Energized and enraged after learning of his affair, Marin sets in motion a stunning plan to remove Kenzie from their lives.

Kenzie is struggling to make ends meet when she becomes involved with Derek. She is fully aware he is married but she does not allow his marital status to bother her.  Kenzie has a tangled history that is revealed late in the story and provides startling insight into what guides her choices in the present.

Unfolding from both Marin’s and Kenzie’s points of view, Little Secrets is a riveting mystery that is full of tension.  The characters are vibrantly developed but none of them are particularly likable. The storyline is engaging and the suspense grows with each passing chapter. With a couple of jaw-dropping plot twists, Jennifer Hillier brings this clever mystery to a breathless, edge of the seat finale.  I absolutely loved and highly recommend this diabolical mystery to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Jennifer Hillier, Minotaur Books, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

June 10, 2018 · 11:57 pm

Review: Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Title: Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 320 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

his is the story of three best friends: one who was murdered, one who went to prison, and one who’s been searching for the truth all these years . . .

When she was sixteen years old, Angela Wong—one of the most popular girls in school—disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, now an executive and rising star at her Seattle pharmaceutical company, was involved in any way. Certainly not Kaiser Brody, who was close with both girls back in high school.

But fourteen years later, Angela Wong’s remains are discovered in the woods near Geo’s childhood home. And Kaiser—now a detective with Seattle PD—finally learns the truth: Angela was a victim of Calvin James. The same Calvin James who murdered at least three other women.

To the authorities, Calvin is a serial killer. But to Geo, he’s something else entirely. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo’s first love. Turbulent and often volatile, their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed.

For fourteen years, Geo knew what happened to Angela and told no one. For fourteen years, she carried the secret of Angela’s death until Geo was arrested and sent to prison.

While everyone thinks they finally know the truth, there are dark secrets buried deep. And what happened that fateful night is more complex and more chilling than anyone really knows. Now the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong.

How far will someone go to bury her secrets and hide her grief? How long can you get away with a lie? How long can you live with it? Find out in Jennifer Hillier’s Jar of Hearts.

Review:

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier is a compelling and twist-filled mystery.

Fourteen years after Georgina “Geo” Shaw’s best friend, Angela Wong, disappeared, her remains have been unearthed in the woods close to Geo’s childhood home. The investigation quickly hones in Geo and after her arrest, she agrees to testify against Calvin James, her boyfriend at the time of Angela’s murder. In exchange for her co-operation, Geo only has to serve a five year prison sentence while Calvin is sentenced to life in prison.  

After Angela’s disappearance, Geo and Calvin’s lives went in very divergent directions. Geo is a successful businesswoman with a brilliant future ahead of her. Calvin, on the other hand, murdered at least three other woman and has been dubbed the “Sweetbay Strangler”. Despite the passage of time and the horrific way in which their ill-fated romance ended, Geo is still drawn to the former bad boy turned serial killer which her old high school friend, Seattle Detective Kaiser Brody is quick to notice. Kaiser is also quite convinced that Geo knows more than she is telling but she refuses to tell anymore about what happened to Angela than required.

Geo is not an easy woman to feel much sympathy for given her past. Yes, she was only sixteen when she was involved in Angela’s death but she had numerous opportunities to tell the truth. As an adult, Geo takes full responsibility for the choices she made and she is quick to admit she realizes just how unconscionable her actions were. Fully aware she cannot completely put the past behind her, Geo nevertheless wants to look forward as she tries to find a job and a place to live after she is released from prison.

Complicating Geo’s integration back into society are a series of unsettling homicides that are eerily reminiscent of Calvin’s previous murders. There are very disturbing alterations to the present day murderer’s MO that are quite puzzling and it is difficult to fathom the killer’s motive for these changes. When Kaiser uncovers the horrifying truth about the victims, he is very concerned for Geo’s safety.

Through a series of sometimes harrowing flashbacks, the truth about Geo’s relationship with Calvin is fully revealed. Her obsession with the five years older man leads to radical changes in her behavior as she devotes all of her free time to him. The situation comes to a head in a dramatic fight with Angela but this also serves as a wake-up call for Geo. The girls quickly make up and their friendship is soon back on track.  Their reconciliation occurs just days before Angela’s murder and Geo remains guilt-ridden about her role in the night’s events. In fact Geo is carrying such a heavy load of guilt, curious minds will be desperate to learn exactly what transpired that fateful night.

Jar of Hearts is an absolutely spellbinding mystery that has plenty of shocking secrets and stunning revelations. Although Geo is a somewhat unsympathetic lead character, it is not hard to root for her as she tries to get her life back on track. The present day murders are very brutal with some truly horrifying elements and astute readers will most likely deduce the killer’s motive right before the big reveal.   However, Jennifer Hillier has a few tricks up her sleeve as she brings this riveting novel to a rather surprising conclusion.  This clever mystery is sure to be a hit with fans of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Jar of Hearts, Jennifer Hillier, Minotaur Books, Mystery, Rated B+, Review, Suspense

July 14, 2014 · 11:58 pm

Review: The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier

the butcherTitle: The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From the author of the acclaimed suspense novels Creep and Freak and whom Jeffery Deaver has praised as a “top of the line thriller writer,” The Butcher is a high-octane novel about lethal secrets that refuse to die—until they kill again.

A rash of grisly serial murders plagued Seattle until the infamous “Beacon Hill Butcher” was finally hunted down and killed by police chief Edward Shank in 1985. Now, some thirty years later, Shank, retired and widowed, is giving up his large rambling Victorian house to his grandson Matt, whom he helped raise.

Settling back into his childhood home and doing some renovations in the backyard to make the house feel like his own, Matt, a young up-and-coming chef and restaurateur, stumbles upon a locked crate he’s never seen before. Curious, he picks the padlock and makes a discovery so gruesome it will forever haunt him… Faced with this deep dark family secret, Matt must decide whether to keep what he knows buried in the past, go to the police, or take matters into his own hands.

Meanwhile Matt’s girlfriend, Sam, has always suspected that her mother was murdered by the Beacon Hill Butcher—two years after the supposed Butcher was gunned down. As she pursues leads that will prove her right, Sam heads right into the path of Matt’s terrible secret.

A thriller with taut, fast-paced suspense, and twists around every corner, The Butcher will keep you guessing until the bitter, bloody end.

The Review:

The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier is a page turning mystery that is engaging and quite fascinating. While it is not a typical “whodunnit” since the killer’s identity is revealed very early on, it is nonetheless a compelling novel that I recommend to fans of the genre.

Retired police chief Edward Shank made his career off the infamous Beacon Hill Butcher case and although the murderer was gunned down before he could stand trial, there are few who doubt he was indeed the killer. However, nearly thirty years later, Shank’s grandson Matthew makes a chilling discovery that could exonerate the dead man, but revealing the truth would mean destroying everything Matt has worked so hard to achieve.

Matt’s girlfriend, Samantha, is one of the few people who believe the police accused the wrong man in the original Butcher case and as an author of true crime novels, she has been investigating the old case. Samantha has a personal stake in her current work in progress since she is convinced The Butcher is responsible for her mother’s (unsolved) murder two years after the suspect’s death. It appears Sam might be on to something when murders in the present bear startling similarities to those old cases and no one is more stunned than Sam when the killer’s identity is finally uncovered.

A jaw-dropping revelation in the first chapter is the first of many clues that the killer is a stone-cold psychopath. Absolutely no remorse or second thoughts plague the murderer and in fact, a new murder marks the beginning of a series of grisly and vicious killings. Since there is little suspense as to the murderer’s identity, The Butcher focuses on Sam’s investigation, Matt’s disintegration after he unearths the family’s secrets and ultimately, the motivations for the murders, both past and present.

The characters are reasonably well-developed but they are not particularly sympathetic or easy to like. Edward features predominantly throughout the story and he is definitely not a warm and loving grandfatherly figure nor is he the typical police officer. He is cold and calculating and the peeks into his psyche reveal the depths of his depravity. Matt is self-absorbed and highly driven to succeed. He has some of his grandfather’s traits and this adds an interesting nature vs. nurture element to the story.  Sam is the most likable character but it is frustrating to watch her stay with Matt despite how little effort he puts into their three year relationship.

Jennifer Hillier easily draws the reader into this character-driven story with an unusual plot and a cast of diverse characters. Although a little slow paced in the beginning, it quickly picks up steam and hurtles to an unexpected and rather dramatic conclusion. While it is not an action packed thriller, The Butcher is a riveting novel that stands out from other books in the mystery genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Gallery Books, Jennifer Hillier, Mystery, Rated B, Review, The Butcher