"Green Haven" by Luca DiMatteo

333 pages; Published by Mascot Books, ©2020

A nursing home is not somewhere you want to be. Oscar Green wants to change that. Using the family fortune he has inherited, Green wants to create a place where people can go and comfortably live out their days. His vision is called "Green Haven". It is a place of luxury where residents have all they could possibly want, and their families know they are well-taken care of. Oscar is so confident in his dream that one facility soon becomes three, and the rich and infirm have places to choose from for a comfortable end of life.

But there is more to it than just luxury. Luca DiMatteo's book features a sinister plotline where patients are dying at an alarming rate, even for a nursing home. The suspicious nature of the deaths raises the curiosity of Cathy Arden, Green Haven's director of nursing. Arden realizes something is amiss, and she's not the only one. Kyle, Green Haven's administrator, has noticed an all-to-convenient uptick in deaths on certain days of the week. This, coupled with a vendor contract gone wrong, doesn't help the working relationship between Kyle, who approved the contract, and Cathy, who enthusiastically recommended it. Already suspicious of each other, Kyle and Cathy suspect each other of being behind the murders.

DiMatteo's book features additional storylines to the murders and the ever-growing apprehension between Kyle and Cathy. Doctor Marissa Oliver is doing all she can to keep her struggling practice alive, but it's not enough. A lack of incoming money and her student loan keep her worried about her finances. That worry is alleviated when Oscar offers her a job with Green Haven. Oscar's interest in Marissa is more than just professional; something Marissa knows and feels she can use to her advantage when negotiating a salary.

Green Haven has frequent visitors from the church. Father Brendan Pierce and Sister Diane Loretto make regular appearances to administer last rites. They are always in contact with those who soon pass not long after their visits. Could two people from the Catholic Church have a hand in the growing number of deaths? Detective Oaks can't rule anyone out no matter what his gut tells him about the case. His work is hampered by uncooperative witnesses and the FBI coming in and claiming jurisdiction. Whatever Oaks needs to do, it has to be done through backchannels to avoid the FBI's disapproval.

"Green Haven" does an exceptional job of juggling then tying together the multiple points of view. Readers will have their own guesses when it comes to the murderer. Those guesses may change with each chapter. A romance between two characters, another character on the run from the police, and an exploding car won't make it easy to guess "Whodunnit", but the demons and internal battles of all the characters in this book will leave the reader turning the page and wonder what will happen next.

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