SUSPENSE SISTERS: NOVEMBER GIVEAWAY

Suspense Sisters: November Giveaway

The Memory House by Mary Alford - Book Review

 Recently, one of my friends sent me a copy of The Memory House by Mary Alford, and I'm grateful that she did! From the moment I read the first sentence until the last page, this story had me hooked!

Some truths aren't buried.
They're hidden inside us.
When grief counselor Elise Warren inherits Coldwater Hollow, the crumbling Victorian estate of her estranged father, she expects to settle his affairs and finally leave the past behind.
Instead, she finds hidden journals, secret recordings, and evidence that her father’s controversial psychological treatments may have harmed more than they healed.
As Elise digs deeper, fragments of her childhood begin surfacing—memories of a frightened girl named Ivy, whispered warnings from her long-missing mother, and a darkness lurking beneath the house itself.
But the more Elise uncovers, the less she trusts her own mind.
Someone has been inside Coldwater Hollow.
Someone is watching her search for answers.
And someone desperately wants one missing piece of evidence to stay buried.
Because if Elise remembers what really happened twenty years ago, she may discover that the greatest mystery was never what happened to Ivy.
It's who Ivy was.
And the truth could destroy everything she believes about herself.
The Memory House is a gripping psychological suspense novel about memory, identity, and the dangerous secrets families bury in the name of protection.

I'll try to narrow down all the great qualities of this book to my top three, or you'd be reading this post forever. 

1.) The psychological angle felt fresh and new. The author did an amazing job of creating a tight web of psychological suspense that kept me guessing until the big reveal!

2.) The characters felt lifelike. Both of the main characters intrigued me, and Elise's history of memory fragmentation added so much that left me wanting more. 

3.) The setting felt like a character. The house itself took on a life of its own until it became like a character in the story. I love it when that happens!

If you haven't read The Memory House yet, you really should! It is an excellent read. You can get a copy here.

Comment below with your favorite part about Thanksgiving for a chance to win an ebook copy of The Memory House.

Let the Cooking Begin

Photo by Steph Quernemoen on Unsplash

So some of the Suspense Sisters got together and wrote five Christmas novellas and put them into a collection called Holly and Homicide. If you scroll down past my blog post, there is a link with a description of the stories for preordering the collection that comes out November 17. The stories are suspense or mystery and some have a touch of romance. All of them have a whole lot of Christmas Spirit. One of the things we did with this anthology is include a recipe that is part of the story in each novella. My main character Vesper Montgomery works a caterer who makes simple food like mom would make. The recipe below is a Christmas cookie recipe I have used for years that makes fluffy sweet cookies, not the cardboard with frosting on it that sugar cookies can often turn out to be. I hope you will try it out. This is a great time of year because between Thanksgiving and Christmas people are cooking all kinds of special kinds of foods, many that are often only made for these holidays.  

Best Christmas Cookies Ever

¾ c. white sugar

½ c. butter

½ tsp vanilla or lemon

1 egg

½ c. sour cream

2 ½ c. flour

Dash of salt

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1. Mix together sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg. Add sour cream

2. Mix flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to the wet batter until well mixed.

3. Cover and chill for at least one hour.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

5. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a generous ¼ inch thick. Using cookie cutters, create desired shapes. Place on a lightly greased pan.

6. Remove cookies from the oven when the bottoms are light brown, about 8-9 minutes.

7. Decorate as desired.

Vesper’s Tips for Perfect Sugar Cookies:

Depending on the size of the cookies, you should be able to get a dozen to 18 cookies. You can double or triple the batch if you need to make more. Don’t think you can get more cookies by rolling them thinner. That’s how you get cookies that taste like cardboard with frosting on them.

Every oven cooks differently. Rather than go by the time, check the bottom of the cookies. When they are light brown, pull them out. They will be fragile until they cool, but this will prevent the cookies from tasting dry. The sour cream helps too. 

I hope you enjoyed the recipe. And please do think about ordering the anthology. In the meantime, I have a book coming out at the end of December called Taken in Wyoming about a woman who returns to a small town in Wyoming to find out what happened to her best friend who disappeared when they were both eight years old. Of course, there is a handsome police officer who wants to protect her but has secrets of his own. 

I will be giving away three copies of Taken in Wyoming, so leave a comment letting me know your favorite thing to eat or cook during this time of year. If you include your email address with the comment, you will be entered in the drawing. I'll randomly pick the name on Sunday night and inform the winners by Monday (USA only). 

Happy Reading and Happy Cooking to you all!

Sharon Dunn

 

WHAT'S HOT in Inspirational Mystery and Suspense

Marji Laine here. 

This stand-alone suspense grips me! What a great start! 

---

The Witness at Hollow Creek:
A Christian Romantic Suspense Novel

by Jordan Vance 

---

Wren Calloway went to Hollow Creek at dawn to count mayflies. Instead, she saw a man in a deputy’s jacket kill Travis Lyle in the shallows. Then he stopped whistling and stared at her truck.

This clean Christian romantic suspense begins in a mountain town that would rather not believe her. By noon the creek has given up nothing. No body. No blood. The sheriff has a few months left before he retires, and he’d much rather call Travis a runaway than call one of his own men a killer.

Only one deputy takes Wren seriously. Gideon Shaw left Atlanta after a young witness he promised to keep safe was killed. Now Wren is the one in danger, and Gideon can’t stand to lose another.

Soon she’s hiding in her grandmother’s root cellar while someone stands on the trapdoor overhead, listening. Days later, a note under her windshield wiper tells her to go home.

Wren has been angry at God for three years. Gideon still prays every day, but he has never forgiven himself for Atlanta. To learn what really happened to Travis, they’ll have to trust each other first. For two people this guarded, that may be the hardest part.

Set in the hills of East Tennessee, this is a faith-filled story of danger and slow-burning love, with no profanity and nothing on the page you’d mind your pastor reading.

 

---

Enjoy a stand-alone with intensity! Get your own copy of The Witness at Hollow Creek HERE! 

THIS WEEK ON THE SUSPENSE SISTERS

We have exciting things planned for you this week on the Suspense Sisters!

On Tuesday, Suspense Sister Marji Laine will tell us what’s hot in inspirational suspense and mystery.

Wednesday, Suspense Sister Sharon Dunn will share our exciting new Christmas Anthology, HOLLY AND HOMICIDE! It releases on November 17th. Here’s a little bit about the thrilling stories from the Suspense Sisters for your Christmas pleasure. 

HOLLY AND HOMICIDE

This Christmas, danger doesn't take a holiday...

From Suspense Sisters authors Mary Alford, Sharon Dunn, Marji Laine, Nancy Mehl, and Amy San Miguel, comes a gripping Christmas suspense collection.

Deadly Christmas Homecoming by Mary Alford

Fifteen years after escaping an unidentified kidnapper, FBI agent Kate Sullivan returns to her late grandmother’s lodge in North Star, Alaska, determined to reclaim the life fear stole from her. But when a cinnamon candy cane appears inside the locked lodge and someone begins whistling “Silent Night” outside, Kate realizes her nightmare has followed her home.

As a blizzard cuts off the town, Police Chief Cade Walker joins Kate in finding out the truth about her abduction. Their search reveals that her captor may not have acted alone. And the man who has remained hidden for fifteen years will do anything to keep Kate from exposing him.

An Old-Fashioned Christmas Crime by Sharon Dunn

Not realizing that attempted murder is on the menu, Vesper Montgomery agrees to a last-minute catering job for a friend in a desperate situation. When a snowstorm leaves her stranded at an isolated Montana hotel, she tries to uncover which of the guests is behind the shenanigans that could leave one or all of them dead. Vesper is no detective, but she does listen to true crime podcasts when she makes food deliveries. Can she keep people fed, find the culprit and get home in time to open presents with her son and sister?

Trapped in Tinsel by Marji Laine

"I’m supposed to be dead?"

Tasha Sanderson was only following orders: calm the client and take notes. Now someone has tried to drown her, and the only person who knows she survived is the stranger sent to bury her body. Can she trust him? Does she have a choice?

Undercover agent Zach Powell spent months getting close enough to bring down a smuggling ring. One attempted murder, almost in front of him, undoes everything. Why would these men kill a woman unless she has something on them? He intends to find out... if he can keep her alive.

Neither expects to take shelter in Tinsel, Texas. This town knows how to do Christmas, and how to keep secrets. 

And someone in this charming little town is keeping a deadly one.

A Silent Night in Holly Hills by Nancy Mehl

Hannah Sloane came to Holly Hills hoping for a quiet Christmas. Instead, a raging blizzard traps her inside an old Victorian house where something – or someone – doesn’t want her to feel at home.
As the snow piles up and the storm cuts Holly Hills off from the outside world, strange noises and unsettling discoveries convince Hannah she isn’t alone. Then Police Chief Eli Mercer arrives with questions of his own.

With the storm worsening and escape becoming impossible, Hannah and Eli must uncover the secrets hidden inside the house before whoever is lurking in the shadows makes certain this silent night becomes Hannah’s last.

Shadows of Christmas Past by Amy San Miguel

When Libby Henning discovers an anonymous package on her father's doorstep, she assumes it's a garden variety Christmas delivery. Then another arrives. And another. Each contains a piece of evidence connected to the death of a member of Frostmoor Church. As Libby and Officer Grant Mitchell dig into the past, they uncover secrets that powerful people have spent fifteen years protecting.

Amid the stress of the mysterious packages and caring for her father in the wake of his dementia diagnosis, Libby finds herself in the crosshairs of a shadowy figure who is determined to keep the past buried ... whatever it takes.

PREORDER IT HERE 

Sharon is giving away copies of her exciting book, TAKEN IN WYOMING. Leave a comment for your chance to win!

ORDER IT HERE

Friday, we’ll hear from Suspense Sister, Amy San Miguel. She’ll review THE MEMORY HOUSE by Mary Alford.

Some truths aren't buried.

They're hidden inside us.

When grief counselor Elise Warren inherits Coldwater Hollow, the crumbling Victorian estate of her estranged father, she expects to settle his affairs and finally leave the past behind.

Instead, she finds hidden journals, secret recordings, and evidence that her father’s controversial psychological treatments may have harmed more than they healed.

As Elise digs deeper, fragments of her childhood begin surfacing—memories of a frightened girl named Ivy, whispered warnings from her long-missing mother, and a darkness lurking beneath the house itself.

But the more Elise uncovers, the less she trusts her own mind.
Someone has been inside Coldwater Hollow.
Someone is watching her search for answers.

And someone desperately wants one missing piece of evidence to stay buried.

Because if Elise remembers what really happened twenty years ago, she may discover that the greatest mystery was never what happened to Ivy.

It's who Ivy was.

And the truth could destroy everything she believes about herself.

The Memory House is a gripping psychological suspense novel about memory, identity, and the dangerous secrets families bury in the name of protection.

ORDER IT HERE 

Don’t forget to enter our monthly contest!

THE SUSPENSE SISTERS

WE LOVE BOOKS

Book Review: ROMANCE RUSTLERS AND THUNDERBIRD THIEVES

Marji Laine here. 

I truly didn't know what to expect from this mystery from Suspense Sister Sharon Dunn, but having finished it, I can see that the title of this book is PERFECT! 

This book is promoted as a mystery with humor, but it is much more than that. The main character, Ruby Taylor is deep with a diverse background. Sharon does an amazing job of springling little details about Ruby throughout the book. By the end of the book, she is a friend, like a sister and someone I'd get a kick out of having lunch with. 

And what's even better is that all of the characters are treated with the same care. Wesley (the love interest) Ruby's mom, the missing man and his fiancé, even the woman who is going to kill her husband have diverse and engaging backgrounds. 

Yes, you read that correctly. This story opens with a full-on murder intention that Ruby and her mom just seem to stumble into. They get tangled up with a would-be killer despite Ruby's best efforts. What happens with that situation is priceless!

Then there's the man with the gun. Oh, and what they found at the cabin. Yes, this mystery is complicated, and so juicy! And it's even more engaging to have it in Ruby's point of view. Her internal thoughts are like an ongoing standup comedy of one-liners. Nobody hears her thoughts except the reader, and they not only ignite the humor, they also reveal some deep-seated issues within Ruby. 

Issues that are a little heart-breaking. Dealing with deep-seated regret, despair, and self-condemnation are things that most everyone can identify with from some point in their lives. So following Ruby not only through this mystery, but also as she grapples with true-to-life circumstance was heartwarming. And eye-opening. 

I look forward to reading the rest of this series! Next book is SASSY CINDERELLA AND THE VALIANT VIGILANTE. You can find it HERE! 

Here's a little more about ROMANCE RUSTLERS AND THUNDERBIRD THIEVES: 

No one makes a fool of Ruby Taylor—or her friends. 

This tough cookie of a detective winds up in a tangled mystery. Follow the fiery redhead through a harrowing adventure to right the wrongs of love—with helicopters, flying buffalo, and a heart-pounding chase scene for good measure. Guaranteed fiction! Always funny. Always a great mystery. 

While keeping her day job at a Montana feed store, amateur sleuth Ruby Taylor rights the wrongs of love searching for a groom who disappeared days before his wedding. 

Her own faith deepens as her heart opens up to the possibility of romance for herself. She learns to reconnect with family and deal with the wounds of the past. 

Each book of this award-winning series, offers humor, faith and an intricate who-dun-it mystery. Follows the clues and meet the suspects along with Ruby while you laugh out loud and get to know the characters who reside in small town Montana. 

“Reads like a Sue Grafton novel.” Janet Chester Bly author of Hope Lives Here

Get your own copy HERE! 

What was the last book you read that truly surprised you? I'd love to know about it. Leave a comment with your answer and your email address and you might win a copy of GRIME BEAT. The first book of my Grime Fighter mystery. Learn about it HERE! 

Let me hear from you!