The Suicide House (Rory Moore/Lane Phillips #2) @CharlieDonlea @KensingtonBooks #murder #lies #boardingschool #teenagers @absltmom

Many years ago there was a commercial on TV which told people a product called Calgon would take you away. Looking for the same take me away focus, I was ever so pleased when I was approved for Charlie Donlea’s newest book The Suicide House. I am pretty much of a neophyte when it comes to his books, but the one I did read Don’t Believe It, provided me with many great reading hours. I am happy to report that this new book also took me on a journey where I was able to forget the Pandemic nightmare and instead focus on a nightmare being portrayed at an elite boarding school.

Rory Moore and Lane Philips enter into a world where young people have died tragically by throwing themselves in the path of an oncoming train after an initiation ritual at their prestigious high school goes disastrously awry. These two characters, first introduced in his book Some Choose Darkness form the background of ferreting out what exactly is occurring as certain students are chosen to join a secret club if they pass the man in the mirror test. The initiation takes place in an old abandoned house on both the winter and summer solstice, that once was home to the teachers in the school, but is now deserted. It lay next to railroad tracks and these tracks become the place where students have thrown their lives away.

As in most initiations, there is hazing and cruelty, and the gauntlet being thrown down as to how one can gain entrance to this most sought out secretive club. Teachers are usually the butt of pranks and one teacher in particular has been designated as the patsy for the kids initiation rites.

Things go disturbingly wrong and the students who were privy to a night where two students were massacred, hold a secret, a terrible conspiracy that threatens their very lives. As the deaths mount, Rory and Lane try to ferret out what exactly is happening. These two are wonderfully developed characters, Rory, being not only a forensic reconstructionist, but also autistic. Somehow she is the pivotal character equipped to see what other don’t. Lane, is the ying to her yang and he analyzes serial killers. As we follow all the characters, there emerges the idea that one among them is a cold blooded killer and it’s probably not the man who was convicted of the crime.

Fast paced, engrossing and compelling, this story will keep the reader fully engaged in the tragedy that unfolds. It’s certainly was for me, a fascinating and riveting story. Definitely recommend this one and now onto more Donlea books for this reader!

Thank you to Charlie Donlea, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for a copy of this gripping book due out June 28, 2020.

and here’s the author:

Charlie Donlea is the USA Today and International bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken and Don’t Believe It.  His latest novel, Some Choose Darkness is available now in paperback format.  

His fifth novel, THE SUICIDE HOUSE, will be released July 28, 2020, and available for pre-order now.  

His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages across twenty countries. He resides in Chicago with his wife and two children.