Welcome to Thriller Thursday! Read on for my reviews of Killing Mind, a crime thriller featuring D.I. Kim Stone by Angela Marsons and a Psychological Thriller, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger. These are two authors that are among my auto-reads and although not their best books, both are enjoyable.

Killing Mind (D.I. Kim Stone #12) by Angela Marsons, Jan Cramer (Narrator)

Published May 13th 2020 by Hachette UK – Bookouture

4 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In Killing Mind, Kim is called to the scene of what is believed to be a suicide, but she feels something isn’t right. Talking to the parents of the young woman also gives her a feeling that she doesn’t have all the information. She sees something in a photo that tells her that this was not a suicide and when another body turns up in the local lake with his throat cut in the same way, she knows there is a serial killer around. Digging, they find out that both victims spent time at Unity Farms, a retreat for those who are looking for peace and family. Unity Farms preys on emotionally vulnerable people. Is someone on the farm killing people who want to leave? Kim and her team need to figure out what is going on before they find more victims.

This was another chilling Kim Stone crime thriller/police procedural that kept me interested. I have read books about cults, but this one was a bit different. It seemed that the residents could leave if they wanted to, which is not something that usually happens. The leader also didn’t portray himself as a “god” but more like a loving father. There was also a man who deprogrammed those leaving the cult, hired by the parents and he was a bit creepy himself, with a lot of secrets. In order to get more information, Kim convinces her boss to put in an undercover officer to try and locate a couple of people, so we get to see “Tink” in action again. I was worried about her, not sure if she would make it out alive. This was a bit different than some of the other Kim Stone books I have read. The team was still working together, but Bryant is busy and distracted by another case of a murder/rape that seems to have been committed by a newly released prisoner that he had put away. I wasn’t sure if these two crimes would intersect or not. The characters we meet at Unity Farms were likable, even the leader, who was just trying to give love to those whose families didn’t care about them, at least that was the message. I enjoyed this story, but not as much as some of the previous ones. Once again, Jan Cramer narrates this book and I love her performances. She is the voice of Kim Stone for me.

Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six by Lisa Unger, Vivienne Leheny (Narrator)

Published November 8th 2022 by Harlequin Audio, Park Row

3 Stars: ⭐⭐⭐

It’s Hannah’s birthday, so her tech mogul brother treats her and her husband, a friend and her new boyfriend and himself and his pregnant wife to a weekend getaway at an isolated luxury cabin in the woods, complete with spectacular views, a hot tub and a personal chef. It sounds like a wonderful weekend, but from the beginning when they can’t find the place and they are in a dead zone, you know things are going to go wrong. There is a storm brewing and they are told about the cabin’s spine tingling history by the chef. What secrets are they keeping? Who is this new boyfriend who has crashed the party?

From the beginning, I knew something was going on, just by the title, but it took awhile to sort everything out. There seems to be two totally unrelated stories going on. We have the group at the cabin, then there is a storyline about a bunch of people who have found out by doing a DNA test that they are related, related to a murderer. Several people who were also related have died, so I a sure that one of the people at the cabin must have been conceived by this sperm donor, but who? This second story is being told by Henry, and I was curious about his story. I really enjoy Lisa Unger’s books, but this one didn’t do it for me. There were some extraneous storylines that just cluttered things for me and the people at the cabin were not all that likeable. As we learn about their past, I was not impressed with them and got to the point that there was only one that I really cared about, and that was Hannah’s sister-in-law. As we got to the end of the book and things began to come together, I became more invested. The genetic story interested me more than the other, but the ending was a bit of a letdown. Overall, this was just and okay read/listen for me. The audiobook was narrated by Vivienne Leheny and I did enjoy her performance, which was able to keep me interested in the story when it started to go off the rails for me.