Skip to main content

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Biography

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum


Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum's professional writing career began in her senior year at the University of Hartford, when she published a scholarly paper on the work of Doris Lessing. After graduating Summa Cum Laude, she became the assistant editor of a scholarly journal published by that school's English Department. In short order she was asked to produce, write and host a local cable television program she named "Literary Perspectives." By the time she had finished that project, she landed a job with the Farmington Valley Herald newspaper and started to sell her work on the freelance market.

Over the years, Barbara has taught a variety of writing classes, public speaking workshops, literature seminars and, for more than 15 years, facilitated book discussion groups for adults. Her work with children inspired her to create a reading enrichment program for kindergartners up through sixth graders. Barbara is a voracious reader whose tastes run to contemporary literary fiction and mystery/suspense/thrillers. She is also a film buff and loves to play word games of every sort.

Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

Reviews by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

by C. J. Box - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

When a prominent University of Wyoming professor goes missing, authorities are stumped. That is, until Joe Pickett makes two surprising discoveries. First, he finds the professor’s vehicle parked on a remote mountainside. Then he finds the professor’s frozen and mutilated body. When he attempts to learn more, his investigation is obstructed by federal agents, extremists and Governor Colter Allen. Nate Romanowski is rebuilding his falconry company --- and financing this through crypto mining with the assistance of Geronimo Jones. He’s then approached by a shadowy group of local militant activists who demand that Wyoming join other western states and secede from the Union. They ask Nate to throw in with them, but he’s wary. Should he trust them, or is he being set up?

by Carrie Doyle - Fiction, Mystery

On the tropical island of Paraiso, Plum Lockhart has a new zest for life after solving a couple of pesky murders. She is thrilled when she gets an invite to dinner on the yacht, where she can mingle with famous singers, up-and-coming stars, society swans and billionaires. After a few hours on the boat, Plum is less than impressed with the celebrity set, and when a server tries to pull her aside to confide a secret, she wonders what else may be lurking beneath the surface. Two days later, one of the servers from the yacht --- a girl with a dragonfruit tattoo --- washes up dead. As the ship prepares to set sail across the Caribbean, it becomes clear that everyone on board has a motive, and Plum must sleuth out the killer before she becomes the next victim.

by Flora Collins - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Vera is ruthlessly ambitious, beautiful and knows how to get exactly what she wants. When she meets a wealthy older man on an exclusive dating app, she thinks nothing of the wife he tells her he’s separated from. But days later, when the man and his wife are found dead in their home, Vera is immediately blamed for their deaths and branded as good as a murderer. A year later, she emerges from a cocoon of self-pity and tries to reenter the world, but the specter of scandal still clings to her. Then she’s invited to a memorial for the wife of her former lover. As she learns more about the family, and about the couple and their friends, she begins to suspect there was more to the story than an affair gone wrong.

by Mark L. Dressler - Fiction, Mystery

Detective Dan Shields is rudely awakened in the middle of the night and responds to a report of two dead people at the Hartford City College radio station. Student DJ Gordon Gunderson's late Sunday evening jazz show ends abruptly. Listeners hear nothing but dead air. His death is an apparent drug overdose, but the other victim, security guard Christine Kole, appears to have been brutally murdered. The last text message on Gordon's cell phone leads Dan down a path of lies and deceptions. Adding to the detective's case load are the Halloween killings of two men, both costumed as Batman. The late-night shootings occur at different Hartford locations. Are these homicides related, or are they coincidental?

by Nicci French - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Jude hasn’t seen Liam in years, but when he shows up at her work asking for a favor, she finds she can’t refuse. All Jude has to do is pick Liam up at a country train station --- without telling anyone. So what if she has to lie to her fiancé? Jude is still committed to him and their imminent wedding, even if she and Liam were in love once. She owes him. After the car crash that changed everything years ago, bright, ambitious Jude went to medical school, back on the path she had planned before meeting moody, artistic Liam. Meanwhile, he never fully recovered from the dark stain the accident left on his record. Now he’s gone. When the police show up at the station instead of Liam, Jude realizes that she knows nothing about the man he’s become.

by Stuart Woods - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

During an intense storm in Dark Harbor, Maine, a perplexing murder lands a dead man on Stone Barrington's doorstep. As secrets swirl around this mystery man's identity, Stone quickly sets out to unravel a web of cunning misdirections and lies. Soon enough, he is embroiled in an elaborate game of cat and mouse between the CIA and nefarious foreign forces, including a bewitching new companion who comes under his protection. But when Stone's actions draw the attention of an old enemy, one who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from getting out, Stone realizes he may have finally met his match.

written by Jussi Adler-Olsen, translated by William Frost - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

On her 60th birthday, a woman takes her own life. When the case lands on Detective Carl Mørck’s desk, he can’t imagine what this has to do with Department Q, Copenhagen’s cold cases division, since the cause of death seems apparent. However, his superior, Marcus Jacobsen, is convinced that this is related to an unsolved case that has been plaguing him since 1988. At Marcus' behest, Carl and the Department Q gang reluctantly begin to investigate. And they quickly discover that Marcus is onto something: Every two years for the past three decades, there have been unusual, impeccably timed deaths with connections between them that cannot be ignored. As the investigation goes deeper, it emerges that these "accidents" are in fact part of a sinister murder scheme.

by Stuart Woods - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

After returning home from a treacherous adventure, Stone Barrington is all too happy to settle back down in his New York City abode. But when he's introduced to a glamorous socialite with a staggering inheritance, Stone realizes his days are about to be anything but quiet. As it turns out, his intriguing new companion has some surprisingly familiar ties and other far more sinister ones --- including a nefarious enemy who gets too close for comfort. When it becomes clear that this miscreant will stop at nothing to get what he wants and will endanger all whom Stone holds dear, Stone must step in to protect his friends and prevent a dangerous madman from wreaking havoc across the city.

by Helen Cooper - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

One year ago, Leah’s feisty 21-year-old niece, Amy, mysteriously drowned in the beautiful lake near her family-owned resort in Northern Italy. Now, Leah’s grief has caught up with her, and she decides to return to Lake Garda for the first time since Amy’s death. What she finds upon her arrival shocks her --- her sister, brother-in-law and surviving niece, Olivia, seem to have erased all memories of Amy and fought to have her death declared an accidental drowning, despite murky circumstances. Leah knows she must look beyond the resort’s beautiful façade and uncover what truly happened to Amy, even if her digging places both her family ties and her very life in danger.

by Kate White - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

After losing her husband, Derrick, in what appears to have been a random street crime, thirtysomething Emma has built a new life with widower Tom, who is kind, handsome, driven and successful. Emma is finally able to feel safe again, both in her relationship with Tom and in the home they've made together on the Connecticut shore. Then one day a homicide detective shows up at Emma and Tom’s door asking questions. Though Emma had been cleared of her husband’s murder, it appears that law enforcement is taking another look at her and the case. What do they know? Are they on the right track this time? And most importantly, will the renewed investigation ruin Emma’s chances of a happy life?