Six Graves by Angela Marsons

What I did not like about this book is that they merged two stories, with the second one being about disgruntled prisoner who hates Kim Stone . He has escaped from jail with the sole piurpose of seeking revenge. It did not lend anything interesting to the main crime other than just add additional pages of no importance to me.

Now the main crime:

When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene of a house fire, she’s shocked to discover it’s claimed the lives of two teenage children and their parents. But this tragedy is not quite as it seems. Each body is marked by a gunshot wound and the mother, Helen Daynes, is holding the gun. However there are questions if she started the fire before killing herself or someone killed them and started the fire.

Additional information:

1. There are remaining sibings. Twins. One gay twin with a partner and a female twin with a husband and child.

2. The younger daughter who was killed is 15 years old and is pregnant.

3. The mom changed the will stating she wanted children not naturally born to her to inherit the business and other properties.

4. She had a foster child who she had to return because she was having a difficult pregnancy. The child she was carrying died afterwhich she tried very  hard to get her foster child back. Unfortunately, Social Services would not allow her to get the child back because she might return him again.

Her mental state deteriorated but she still gave birth to the  the twins and eventually the 2 younger ones. Then she decided to foster another child.

What we eventually learn:

The foster child was actually the partner of the gay twin and who also seduced the female twin in order to get close to the family. When he learned the mom planned to foster another child, he was enraged because she returned him. Next, he found out about the will wherein she wanted any child not born to her naturally to also inherit. He thought she made this change in the will for the new foster child. What he didn't know was she intended to find the foster child and included him in the will.Hence he killed the family except his partner and even the female twin who was falling in love with him.

The 15 year old was impregnated by the female twin's husband. So he got fired from the business the family had and is thrown in jail. The gay twin eventually took care of his sister's child after the husband was thrown in jail.

It was such a heartbreaking story. Imagine being returned to foster care after the mom got pregnant. He did not know she had a difficult pregnancy and actually wanted to get him back. The change of the will was made with him in mind.

All The Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham

 

Synopsis :

One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. 

Isabelle  hasn’t slept well in a year since Mason's disapparance. This has led to the demise of her marraige.

Isabelle agrees to be interviewed by a true-crime podcaster—but his interest in Isabelle's past makes her nervous. His unnerving questions has brought about very tragicand uncomfortable memories from her own childhood,

History:

When she was a child , her sister drowned while she stood by. Isabelle sleep walks and when she woke up she witnesses the death of her sister. Before she could realize what happened, she sees her father intervening. Everything becomes a whirlwind of bad memeories, with the cops closing the case. She thinks she may have sleepwalked(again) and did something horrible to her son. The cops mention there was no sign of any break-in.

Her husband eventually visits her and tells her he is seeing another woman who was their counselor.

What Really happened:

1. She was her husband's mistress while he was still married.

2. His wife got depressed and committed suicide.

3. The blogger is the wife's younger brother who suspected something foul going on because his sister was pregnant and highly unlikely to kill herself.

4. Her husband hated having kids and had his new mistress (the counselor) kidnap the child and give him to another mother who could not have kids or adopt. The mistress looks like Isabelle and the neighbor's cctv show her carrying the child away. Since the the neighbor was harboring his criminal son, he could not come forward. Besides, the face was not clear in the video.

5. In the past, Isabelle's mother developed post partum disease and killed her sister. She was about to kill Isabelle until her father rescued her. The Father managed to have the police to close the case so as not to aggravate the situation.

What happens next:

The husband and the mistress are arrested.

My take:

Stacy is not a fan of romance. I actually thought Isabelle  would end up with the brother. However, that situation never came to fruition. Just like in her other novel. The main character ended up breaking up with her fiance who she thought was the killer.