Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda

 

Amazon's Summary:

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

My Review:

When Hazel's step father passes away, his brother, notifies her that she inherited his house. This made one of her step brothers upset because he felt the house should be split between the 3 of them.

Important details:

1. Her step brothers' real mother died in an accident which was witnessed by Caden, the younger brother. He has suppressed this memory thus making him have terrifying nightmares when he was young.

2. Her stepfather marries her criminal mother and life goes on smoothly until her mother disappears and supposedly drained her stepfather's bank account.This created a very hostile atmosphere between Caden and her. The older brother,Gage, did not change the way he treated his stepsister.

3. There were actually 3 crimes that made the whole scenario very confusing. The recent one was about a group of teenagers who broke into homes and stole an item as proof of their deed. The second one was the one that happened 10 years ago was when her mother disappeared and siphoned ll money from her stepdad's bank account. The other one was the accidental death of her step brothers's mom.

4. What really happened:

    * The boys' real mom was having an affair with the uncle and accidentally died while trying to meet him. This was witnessed by Caden,the younger brother. Caden confesses this incident to Hazel's mom who decides to escape, fearing for her life. She had intentions of coming back for Hazel and writes a note to Hazel. Why she didn't bring Hazel in the first place is beyond me. She had to make her new place safer for Hazel before getting her?

    * Gage sees the note and thinks his father killed Hazel's mom so he replaces the note. His father thought Gage killed the mom so he siphoned all his cash and placed it inside a secret wall. This is to make it appear her mom took the money and left. Minwhile, the uncle was blackmailing the father all these years. Caden thinks the mon left because he told him her secret.

    * The father made a will and stipulated Hazel gets the house but the boys should inherit everything in the house which included the stashed money on the wall.

5. It was the uncle who killed her mom and all other witnesses. He eventually died in the flood while he was trying to kill Hazel. In the end Hazel split the inheritance with her brothers, with Caden and his family occupying the residence. It is assumed Hazel goes back to her own place and resumes working with her friends.

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Bitter House by Kiersten Modglin

 

Amazon's Summary:

Vera Bitter is dead, but her secrets have yet to be buried.

After the tragic death of Bridget’s parents, her grandmother took her in. Vera Bitter raised her from behind a closed door—cold and uncaring from the moment she arrived at Bitter House. After Bridget’s high school graduation, Vera kicked her out without so much as a goodbye, and Bridget never heard from her again. Which is why, when she receives word of Vera’s passing and discovers she’s inherited the family manor, she’s immediately filled with dread.

Those worries are amplified when she arrives at Bitter House after years away to find an enigmatic piece of her past waiting for her. Growing up, there was only one person Bridget distrusted more than her grandmother, and that was Cole Warner—the son of Vera’s house manager and the bane of her childhood existence. Now, he’s her new housemate.

Owning the house she was once forced to leave with a man she’s always despised forces Bridget to confront feelings and questions she’s been running from since the day she was driven away from Bitter House.

My review:

Once she is forced to share the house with the son of Vera Bitter's secretary,things start to spark up. Though Claire, the secretary took  good care of her she and Cole fought bitterly as kids. But now the proximity between the two started paving the way for a blooming romance. Then she starts receiving messages warning her how bad her grandma was. Each letter proved to be true until finally the  truth comes out on the 7th letter. Vera wrote those letters and instructed her neighbors to gradually give it to Brigitte.

The bodies in the garden were the bodies of Cole's abusive father and the guy who killed Brigitte's parents. The secret tunnels let Vera and her neighbors  save abused women and give them alibis while they got rid of their husbands.

What started out as a promising novel fell flat in the end because Brigitte and Cole for the next ten years continued the crimes with the neighbors. I thought they would end this crime spree and live happy ever after. Apparently not!

Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea

What Amazon says:

When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby nearly three decades ago, a woman’s search for answers draws her to an ominous small town in Nevada and a dangerous web of corruption, power, and lies in this engrossing, propulsive new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later.

My own review and Summary:

She decides to visit this powerful family to solve the mysterious disappeance of her parents and who was the lady who gave her up for adoption.She is then approached by the son of the sheriff who was killed while trying to solve the mysterious car accident and  the disappearance of her parents 30 years ago.

To summarize the whole story, the victim of the car accident was the accountant who suspected someone was malversing the funds of this powerful family. He was clubbed to death and the murderer used her mother's car to run him over. The sheriff during that time was murdered when he suspected foul play. When her parents found out this deceitful way on trying to pin the murder on her mother, they too were murdered.

It was her uncle, her father's brother who was stealing from his family because of his severe drug problem, As mentioned earlier he had to murder his brother and sister-in-law because of this knowlege. He hired a woman to give the baby(Our main character) for adoption. After the deed was done, he also murdered her. Eventually , he also killed his parents.

It was a very good novel but for some reason it was not as enticing as the other book this author made.