Shell Games - by Bonnie Kistler (Paperback)

About the Book

"A glamorous, madcap mystery following a wealthy woman of a certain age whose life is turned upside down by love - and true confessions. Kate Sawyer is a somebody, not only in Florida, but up and down the East Coast. A hugely glamorous and successful real estate developer, she has more money than she will ever need. At the age of seventy, Kate finally gets back together with her childhood sweetheart, and they get married in a gigantic wedding that is the talk of the town. Everybody, especially her thirty-something daughter, is thrilled, even though it's always been just the two of them. On their wedding night, the new husband turns to Kate and makes a stunning confession about a well-known crime from years ago, that he says he has committed. But did he? Or is Kate losing it? Or maybe he's just trying to gaslight her, so that he can take control of her assets. There's a prenup, of course, but there are always loopholes... Shell Games is a delicious psychologically thrilling dramedy of errors that will make you wonder if these people are paranoid, crazy, or just as confused as the rest of us"--

Book Synopsis

"A truly spectacular psychological thriller with a dazzling mystery at its core. Shell Games is the ultimate one-sitting read that has everything--incredible family dynamics, characters that burst off the page and a premise so deliciously enticing and surprising that the pages quite simply turn themselves. Bonnie Kistler is a genius!"--Matthew Blake, author of Anna O

A brilliant page-turning thriller about a young woman whose fabulously wealthy mother might be the victim of an elaborate con or might be losing her mind--and the daughter can't tell where the truth lies.

Julie's mother Kate is a force of nature--a glamorous woman of seventy, a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn't easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother, and she and her husband Eric are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie.

But their storybook romance ends abruptly. On their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before.

Charlie says she imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn't possibly have committed that crime.

Julie doesn't know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?

As Julie tries to navigate through this maze of paranoia and mind games, cracks start to develop in her own marriage as it seems that Eric is keeping secrets . . .

Set against a backdrop of rampant development and devastating climate change, Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom.

Review Quotes

"Bonnie Kistler's Shell Games [is] a clever Alfred Hitchcock/Patricia Highsmith (Strangers on a Train) psychological mystery . . . . This novel is whip-fast, wryly narrated and a mind game of a read. Keep your eye on the ball." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Un-put-downable . . . .Kistler masterfully keeps the action thrumming with a series of subtle ground-shifts that force readers to recalculate everyone's motives. The narrative never veers into implausibility as the misdeeds and double-crossings stack up, resulting in the rare page-turner that doesn't deflate in its final act. This will keep readers up all night." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An absolutely perfect setup . . . . A wonderfully suspenseful, twist-filled, edge-of-your-seat story that builds to a smashing conclusion. As good as Kistler's previous books were, and they were very good indeed, this is hands down her best novel so far." -- Booklist

"A truly spectacular psychological thriller with a dazzling mystery at its core. Shell Games is the ultimate one-sitting read that has everything--incredible family dynamics, characters that burst off the page and a premise so deliciously enticing and surprising that the pages quite simply turn themselves. Bonnie Kistler is a genius!" -- Matthew Blake, internationally bestselling author of Anna O

"Packed with secrets and surprises, Shell Games is a twisty page-turner that will keep you guessing until the very end! Using her experience as a lawyer, Bonnie Kistler has infused her latest thriller with intriguing legal quagmires and counter-tactics. The result is a thoroughly engaging read featuring a glamorous-but-flawed family tangled in the perils of wealth, power, and deception. You'll want to stay up late reading "just one more chapter." -- Toni Halleen, author of The Surrogate

"This is a twisty, soapy, psychological thriller, that you don't want to put down. A perfect holiday read." -- Red Carpet Crash

"Bonnie Kistler is fast becoming a sought after mystery writer. Her characters are not paper cut-outs but so real we might find ourselves thinking about someone we know. Her plots are never simple, but include so many twists and turns if we were in a car, we would be grabbing the dashboard for support." -- Woman Around Town

"Shell Games is a psychological thriller that will make your head spin and the pages turn as you wonder exactly who is doing what to whom . . . . A multi-faceted thriller that delivers a number of unexpected plot twists." -- Novels Alive

"With her new novel Shell Games, Bonnie steps seamlessly into the realm of domestic, psychological suspense. This is a whodunit, a whydunit, and a satire of the lives of the rich, famous, and sometimes clueless--in today's Florida." -- Hasty Book List

"Finding the truth, and unwinding the consequences is a fascinating, page-turning psychological thriller, with a truly surprising conclusion." -- The Paris Insider

"I thoroughly enjoyed Shell Games. It kept me on my toes and had me thinking and rethinking everything I was reading as all great psychological suspense novels should. Kistler not only shows her legal expertise and familiarity with Sarasota, but also spins a tale that plays out at times like a true domestic thriller and a classic murder mystery, featuring a small group of characters who all have their own motives." -- Bookreporter

"Accomplished narrator Tavia Gilbert tells this story about love, resentment, confessions, dark suspicions, climate change, and other crises. While Gilbert skillfully portrays multiple characters, her rendering of the main character, Julie, is outstanding. In the early parts of the story, we hear a mousey, timid woman who is eager to please. As the plot progresses and we hear Julie growing more in control of her life, Gilbert changes her tone and timbre. The author comments on her interest in facets of the story at the audiobook's closing." -- AudioFile Magazine

"Another engrossing thriller, filled with shocking twists and turns." -- Bookloon.com