I really liked this book. It had everything I was hoping for. However, sometimes the writing style kind of left me thinking wth. It was very tedious at the beginning, but it did get better. Dee going back and forth from present to past and remembering all the things her spy mother had taught her and her brother. She didn't know it at the time that she was being taught espionage techniques because her mother always made a game out of the lessons complete with points awarded and special gifts given.

While as I said, sometimes the writing did take me away from the story when Dee would go off into her mind, the ending was everything that you would want in a thriller. Once you get through the beginning, you won't be able to put it down! Strange things are going on in Dee's life and you just HAVE TO keep reading to find out what they are.

I definitely recommend this book, just remember give it time. It's worth the wait!!

Thanks Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and Net Galley for providing me a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

By Jamie Mason
ISBN: 9781476774459
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: 2/3/2015
Format: Other
My Rating: 4 Stars

 

A special thank you to Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jamie Mason’s MONDAY’S LIE, is a mixture of quirky, wacky, and think "old detective spy movie," for a humorous and an "off the beaten path" wild crazy ride contemporary mystery thriller.

Poor Dee loves the days of the week, and each one has a meaning connected to her memories and future. She thinks Monday her marriage will be over, as her mother always said never to keep a man for more years than you could count on your fingers (sounds about right). However, her mom lost some of her fingers along the way.

As a child there would be stories of daring stunts in exotic backwaters and then twenty minutes later, her mom would be helping her with her algebra. Clues, and more clues…..she teaches her children how to be good spies.

Needless to say she did not have a normal childhood with Dee and younger brother Simon (now a cop). Her late mother Annette, was a former covert operations asset (CIA) where she learned many spy games and tricks and how to lie at an early age.(Some wild events happening here).

Her mom, Annette left her money and she thinks her husband, Patrick (her college sweetheart) wants her dead. Her brother had told her years ago that Patrick was a boring dork who would build a picket fence, knock her up with 2.3 children, and buy a golden retriever. At the time she thought it sounded perfect. She thought if you had a boring life it would be normal, which is not what her childhood was. Anything but.

Now that Annette has been gone for years, Dee is still trying grasp how all will be worked out, to solve the mystery while a blue sedan is tailing her and texts from Angela, and all sorts of strange things happening. The burglary at the yoga studio, the insurance? Something is not right. “If clues waved flags and blew trumpets, baby girl, we’d all be Sherlock Holmes.”

Mason has some imagination. From past to present; let the games and the suspense begin!

This is a hard one to review, as there are so many humorous one liners with this array of eccentric characters. You will not be sorry, stay with it, as it all comes together by the ending. If you have not read Three Graves Full, would recommend. Both books are like "no other"!

By Jamie Mason

ISBN: 1476759189

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication Date: 3/25/2014 

Format:  Audio

My Rating:  4 Stars 

 

Jamie Mason’s, debut THREE GRAVES FULL is an extraordinary novel of motive, murder, mystery, and suspense; dark and deep, mixed with quirky, witty, and deliciously wicked characters.

 

Looking forward to Mason’s upcoming MONDAY’S LIE, (Feb/2015) a new thriller about a woman who digs into her unconventional past to confirm what she suspects: her husband wants her dead. (so excited as have an ARC via NetGalley).

 

Jason Getty has lived in fear and is guilt ridden, from the day he killed a man in rage, and buried him in a remote corner of his yard, seventeen months earlier. He cringes every time a dog, or gardener goes near the sacred space, as he desperately does not want to be discovered. As time goes on the coast may be clear and he may just have gotten away with murder.

 

However, he decides to hire a landscaping crew to clean up his neglected property, making sure they stay away from the spot. However, they discover two other bodies in the yard, and Jason has no clue where they came from….hello, when did this happen? The two bodies, a man, whose fiancée wondered what happened to him, and the wife of the man who used to live in the house.

 

Now he has to worry about a full blown investigation, and blow his cover and hidden body. With a cast of quirky characters, including two detectives and a very special dog, to a unique killer and dual stories of betrayal and murder. Readers get to hear from different voices and thoughts of Jason Getty, Leah Tamblin, and Boyd Montgomery for a psychological thriller, keeping you turning into the night.

 

What a ride-- with dark twisted humor, and oh, so beautiful funky prose with so many twists and turns your head will be spinning-- for a delicious Halloween treat! An author to follow; look forward to Mason’s upcoming “Monday’s Lie” for more!

 

 

 Monday's Lie

By Jamie Mason

Coming 2/3/2015 

ISBN: 9781476774459

 

 

 

From the acclaimed author of the “ripping good” (The New York Times) debut novel Three Graves Full comes a new thriller about a woman who digs into her unconventional past to confirm what she suspects: her husband wants her dead.

Dee Aldrich rebelled against her off-center upbringing when she married the most conventional man she could imagine: Patrick, her college sweetheart. But now, years later, her marriage is falling apart and she’s starting to believe that her husband wants her gone…for good.

Haunted by memories of her late mother Annette, a former covert operations asset, Dee reaches back into her childhood to resurrect the lessons and “spy games” in which she learned memory tricks and, most importantly, how and when to lie. But just as she begins delving into her past to determine the course of the future, she makes a discovery that will change her life: the money that her mother left behind. Now, Dee must investigate her suspicions before it’s too late and untangle conspiracy from coincidence, using her mother’s advice to steer her through the blind spots. The trick, in the end, will be in discovering if a “normal life” is really what she wanted at all.

With pulse-pounding prose and atmospheric settings, Monday’s Lie is a thriller that delivers more of the “Hitchcockian menace” (Peter Straub) that made Three Graves Full a critical hit. For fans of the Coen brothers or Alexander McCall Smith, this is a book you won’t want to miss.

 

It's not often that you see an adult male protagonist who is not an "alpha male" in a suspense/thriller/mystery book. I liked that Jason represented males who are scoffed at, derided, bullied, and dismissed. It made him seem more human, more fragile, and frankly, made his crime more believable. Oh, and I also really appreciated that no children were abused or killed in this book, and that no women were raped! What a concept! I wasn't even sure that suspense novels were even written without at least one of those elements any more!

I did have a couple of problems with the book, though. First, I do not think that Jason should have gotten away with his crime--yes, he may have felt pushed to it, and yes, people do kill in a moment of loss of control, but the fact remains, Jason did kill someone. I also didn't think that Leah's reaction when she learned that Jason was a murderer was at all authentic or realistic. Honestly, who would decide to help a murderer cover his tracks after only knowing him for a few hours and in a highly dangerous and volitile situation?. I did enjoy the story, however, and would definitly read more by Jamie Mason.

I so wanted to like this book, but I was so disinterested in every single one of the characters. I didn't care if they lived or died, or what happened to them. The first few chapters were interesting and I tried really hard to keep my enthusiasm up, but I just couldn't do it. Halfway through this slog of whining, and introspection, and stopping in the middle of a scene to back up in time to narrate some piece of history, I gave up and skipped to the end. I found the end didn't matter much to me since I was so disinterested in the book.