Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler

 Julie’s mother Kate is a force of nature––a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.

But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before. 

Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime.

Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?

As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .

Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.

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Amazon.com: Shell Games: A Novel: 9780063378964: Kistler, Bonnie: Books

Bonnie Kistler is the author of SHELL GAMES (on sale November 19, 2024); HER, TOO; THE CAGE; and HOUSE ON FIRE.

A former trial lawyer, she was born in suburban Philadelphia and educated at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

After law school, she decided to seek adventure in Alaska––or at least as much adventure as she could mange while toiling away as a junior lawyer in a law firm. Perhaps her greatest adventure there was meeting her husband, coincidentally also a Philadelphian. She soon moved with him to Arkansas, and a few years later, full-circle back to Philadelphia. Having endured three different states' bar exams in four years (!), she decided to stay put.

Bonnie spent the remainder of her law career in private practice with major Philadelphia firms. She specialized in corporate litigation and successfully tried cases across the country.

But her love of writing eclipsed all else, and ultimately she left the law behind to become a full-time author.

She and her husband now live in Southwest Florida and the mountains of western North Carolina. 

This book was perfectly done. Kistler did a great job at keeping me captivated from the beginning until the end.

Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

The Cage By Boonie Kistler

 Combining the propulsive narrative drive of The Firm with the psychological complexity of The Silent Patient, a gripping and original thriller about two professional women—colleagues at an international fashion conglomerate—who enter an elevator together . . . but only one is alive when they reach the ground floor.

On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company’s human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company’s lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish. 

Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor.

When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?

An incredibly original novel that turns the office thriller on its head, The Cage is a wild ride that begins with a bang and picks up speed as it races to its dramatic end.

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The Cage: A Novel: Kistler, Bonnie: 9780063089143: Amazon.com: Books

Bonnie Kistler is the author of The Cage and House on Fire, and, writing as Bonnie MacDougal, several other psychological thrillers. A former Philadelphia lawyer, she and her husband now live in Florida and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

My Thoughts...

This was such a unique thriller.  Well legal thriller. I was glued to the pages until the very end. I had to find out what happened and how it happened.

4 star read, I recommend this one.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.