This is a story about two little girls.  These are two very disturbed little girls.  And they really like to sing ABBA songs.  ABBA will never sound the same to me again.

Theres is found abandoned in the woods as a baby.   With no family to call her own, she is taken in by Lennart and Laila, two aging musicians.  Lennart and Laila almost made it big with several musical chart-toppers.  But as time went on, their fame faded.  But, their dreams of stardom never subdued.  Their only child, Jerry, spent considerable time in detention and jail as an adolescent and now works shady jobs, living on society's fringes.  He's never made his parents proud.  Now, Lennart and Laila focus on the new baby, in part to avoid their miserable marriage and failed relationship with Jerry.  Their parenting style made me shudder.

Circumstances prevent Lennart and Laila from continuing to foster Theres, and Jerry takes her into his custody.  She is an unusually quiet and disturbed child, with an extraordinary musical talent.  Her voice is unlike anything Jerry has heard, and he's determined to make some money off her talent.

Theresa grows up in a traditional family home, a train ride away from Theres.  She is uncomfortable in her own skin, unable to make friends or make sense of the world.  Her family is concerned for her depressed state.  But when Theresa sees Theres on a national singing competition, she feels a kinship she can't explain.  When the two girls meet, the chemistry is apparent.  Their friendship strikes a dangerous level and their combined effort at achieving success is petrifying.

This review is somewhat vague, as there are so many plot twists, I don't want any spoilers. 

I first came across Swedish author Lindqvist's "Let the Right One In", a modern twist on the traditional vampire plot.  That novel has been turned into horror films in both Sweden and the U.S.  His newest release, "Little Star", cements his ability to disturb and terrify.   This particular story has been compared to Stephen King's "Carrie", but I think his horror strikes a much more ominous note.

Born To Die by Lisa Jackson

Dr. Kasey Lambert has returned to Grizzly Falls Montana to practice medicine. Leaving Seattle behind along with a failed marriage, she is happy to settle into her grandparent's old farmhouse outside of town. Life is moving along smoothly until two deaths make the news.

Shelly Bonaventure, a B movie actress dies in Hollywood in what appears to be a suicide. But there are certain aspects of her death that have the lead detective questioning that assumption. The second death is of a school teacher right in Grizzly Falls. She has fallen off a snowy mountain path while jogging. Her death looks like an accident until arsenic is found in her system.

Kasey is saddened by the deaths but would not have thought much more about them if it weren't for people remarking on how much Kasey looks like the two women. And when a new patient of Kasey's, who also looks very much like her, is killed when her van goes off the road into the river, Kasey is feeling very uneasy about living alone in a secluded house.

Trace O'Halleran, a good looking rancher and single father, meets Kasey when he brings his son into her clinic. He is attracted to Kasey, possibly because she looks remarkably like his ex-wife who has not been in contact with her son or Trace for months. Trace and Kasey discover they are both searching for answers about the women being killed and they join forces to find out what connects these women before the killer finds Kasey.

It's winter in Syracuse, cold and dark and snowy. Lena can remember bits and pieces of her childhood in the jungle, before she was found and then went to live with Pia and Henry. They kept saying they would adopt her when they got all the papers together, but it never happened and Lena lives with knowing that she wasn't the daughter they really wanted. She has always wondered what happened to her birth parents, and maybe that is why she feels such a connection to the families that are losing their babies. There are too many to fit the normal pattern, and as Lena tries to put it all together, she begins to wonder if the deaths could really be murder, and how she fits into the picture.

This book has the same flowing, descriptive writing style of Diana Abu-Jaber's earlier books. It seems to meander along, but at some point you realize you're sitting on the edge of your seat, biting your nails. For an intriguing mystery with haunting atmosphere, read Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber.

Larry Ott and Silas Jones make an unlikely pair. Larry comes from a middle-class, white family, whereas Silas is poor and black. Regardless of their class and racial differences, they start a friendship in high school and enjoy spending hours exploring the woods together. Larry takes a neighborhood girl, Cindy Walker, on a date to the drive-in movies. When Cindy doesn't show up back at home, Larry is the prime suspect, even though there is no evidence and he never confessed to the crime. He is outcasted from the community anyways, and after high school, he ships off to the army for mechanical training.

After high school, Silas, a skilled athlete, finds himself on scholarship to university.

Both boys return to their small town as men. Larry as a loner mechanic, still perceived as "Scary Larry," evenafter all those years away. Silas has joined the police force, and keeps busy with local crime.

Another girl disappears, and her vanishing will bring these old friends back together in ways neither expected.

In A Bad Day for Sorry, the series debut, Stella starts out with a pretty simple case of attitude adjustment. Chrissy Shaw needs a hand with her no-good ex-husband, Roy Dean. It gets complicated when Roy Dean disappears with Chrissy's two-year-old son. No one is surprised when Stella finds that Roy Dean has been running with a bad crowd. Fortunately for Stella, her work isn't bound by the same rules that govern law enforcement personnel, so she's free to investigate in whatever way gets results. Unfortunately, handsome local sheriff Goat Jones has his eye on her. Or maybe that's a good thing for Stella, too.

Although I've seen this series compared to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books, Stella has a harder edge that reflects her experience as an abused wife. She has lived some of the worst life can dish out, and she's committed to making sure other women don't have to. Her vulnerability comes from the knowledge that she can't save them all. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, and Littlefield does a fine job with the rural Missouri cast of characters. If you like strong, middle-aged women who don't mind skirting the law to do what's right, check out Stella Hardesty in A Bad Day for Sorry.

Catherine Land responds to a personal ad from a man seeking a reliable wife. She travels to rural Wisconsin in the dead of winter, to meet Ralph Truitt, her new husband. Truitt is an accomplished businessman, wealthy and respected in the small town. Both husband and wife have dark secrets from previous relationships, and neither one is forthcoming about their desire to marry again. Their relationship quickly progresses from strangers to passionate lovers. But as shadows of their pasts resurface, scandalous manipulations ensue and deceit is abound. A Reliable Wife is a highly calculated, psychological thriller. It bears strong semblance to Du Maurier's Rebecca. Goolrick was inspired by the book Wisconsin Death Trip, which is a photo collection of Wisconsin families in the early 1900s, and paints a dreary and morbid look at pioneer life.

Leo Demidov is a mid-ranking member of the MGB, a prototype for what later became infamous as the KGB. Leo is a true believer in Soviet ideals and in the infallibility of Josef Stalin. In February, 1953 he is sent by his superior to deal with a delicate situation: a lesser-ranking MGB operative has reported that his young son has been brutally murdered. Because the admission that a murder has taken place would contradict the assumption that egalitarian Soviet society has eliminated crime, Leo attempts to reason with the grieving family and, when that fails to persuade them, intimidates them into accepting the "official" explanation of a tragic accident. Leo then moves on to what are to him more pressing matters, namely the pursuit ofalleged spiesand other enemies of the SovietUnion. However,a series of disillusioning events culminating in a choice between denouncing his own wife, Raisa, or accepting disgrace and possible execution for refusing to do so...he chooses the later...lead to hisdemotion and exile toa small industrial town in the foothills of the Ural Mountains. Having lost everything exceptRaisa, who admits that shenever loved him and stayed with him out of fear,Leo suddenly becomes very interested in theongoing murders similar in scope and style to that of the son of his former MGB subordinate. Yet ashe struggles to uncover evidence and find the murderer, he meets denial, resistance, and threats of punishment fromupper Party echelons, ultimately becoming a fugitive himself.

Child 44 is a book about transformation and redemption as it's main character, Leo Demidov, progresses from being an ideological member of the Party elite to being a fugitive counterrevolutionary in his attempt to bring a nameless murderer to justice. The author's description of the workings of the Party and the atmosphere of fear, betrayal and reprisalthat brought the general population into submission sent chills down my spine.The author'sengaging writing style createsa page-turner despitewhatmight beviewed as a superabundance of exposition.After all, a third of the book passes between the first reported murder and the next. But there is method here;Tom Rob Smith fully immerses usina worldin whichthe denial of theterrorcreated byindividual murderers isjuxtaposed withthe State-sponsored terror apparatus. Everything seems to be upside-down and that is the most intriguing aspect of this novel.

For a thriller that takes usinto one of history's most totalitarian societies, check out Child 44!