Nerd Girl Loves Books

This is the first book in a new series featuring mild mannered, kind, business genius Walter Nash. He’s got a prestigious job at a financial firm and is good at it. He has a beautiful wife and daughter and is making a good living. After his father’s funeral, he’s approached by the FBI and asked to be their inside man to take down a criminal enterprise that his business is involved in. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years.

3.5 stars rounded up

Claire’s older sister Natalie was killed just after her 18th birthday and a man was arrested and sentenced to prison. Claire tries to deal with it by moving to another city and becoming an investigative journalist. She’s not close with her mom, but when her dad tells Claire that her mother injured herself and needs her help, she reluctantly returns home. But, Claire’s mom doesn’t want her there and Claire finds herself drawn to the old vineyard where Natalie worked the summer she died. She stumbles upon a job at the vineyard working with a handsome foreman. She finds an old diary written by one of the vineyard owners hidden in the cabin she’s staying in. Initially it seems like a young rebellion and love, but the more Claire reads, the more sinister the writing becomes. Claire starts to wonder if her sister’s murder is tied somehow to the old events at the vineyard, and whether the right killer is in prison.

This was a slow-burn mystery that occurs over the course of a day-long sweet sixteen birthday party for Sophie, with flashbacks involving almost the entire cast of characters. The mansion high on the hill towering over the town has always been the source of curiosity. The main characters are:

DANI: Sophie’s new stepmother who’s been plagued by self-doubt ever since the birth of her own baby girl

ÓRLAITH: the superstitious Irish nanny who senses a looming danger in this cavernous house

MIKAYLA: the birthday girl’s best friend who is not nearly as meek as the popular kids assume

KIM: the cunning ex-wife who has a grudge she can’t let go of . . .

I didn’t read the first book in this series, but I didn’t feel lost while reading this one. Eleanor is a best-selling author and has just finished wrapping up a movie of her latest novel. It stars her best friend Emma, who is engaged to her leading man and getting married after the film wraps. The entire cast and crew are invited to the wedding on Catalina Island, just as a storm develops that will hit the island. As the wedding weekend gets underway, Eleanor discovers a dead body. This sets the guests in a panic and overstretches the one police officer still on the island.

I didn’t know going into this book that it was inspired by The Godfather, but now that I know it, I can totally see it. Roman is a successful financial consultant in Atlanta and is summoned to his small hometown of Jefferson Run after his father’s car accident. It’s a run-down, crime riddled town in central Virginia that’s run by gangs. He finds out that his younger brother Dante is in debt to dangerous criminals that he needs to clean up. His his sister, Neveah, is exhausted from holding the family—and the family crematorium business—together.