Despite my preference for a good police procedural set in the UK where I understand the rules and behaviours Now I have read The Dry I have to agree tDespite my preference for a good police procedural set in the UK where I understand the rules and behaviours Now I have read The Dry I have to agree that there are far worse places to set your novel than Australia. This is particularly true of course if like Jane Harper you live in Melbourne. It is a credit to the quality of her writing that this book got optioned in so many territories from the off.
So I started the book and quickly got immersed in an outback town in the middle of a drought (not a minor one with a few weeks of no rain, but a sustained amount of heat and no rain at all) was overtaken by the murder/suicide of a farmer and his family. All the anger and worry in Kiewarra previously without a physical outlet is focussed on this tragedy. So the story starts and we have a killer sentence:
“It wasn’t as though the farm hadn’t seen death before, and the blowflies didn’t discriminate. To them there was little difference between a carcass and a corpse.”
The local policeman, Roco is investigating while Aaron Falk, a friend of the suspected perpetrator, Luke Hadler, is using his leave to help Luke’s father, unofficially. The problem is that years before Aaron Falk and his father had to leave town over suspicions that he was involved in the death of his friend, Ellie. Luke and Aaron had an alibi but that didn’t stop people talking, and believe me, this was no low-level grumbling. So Aaron is back to investigate what happened at his old friend’s farm and he can’t quite believe that his friend would have committed such an atrocity but are events from the past clouding his judgement.
“And yes, he battled the daily commute to work and spent a lot of his days under fluorescent office lights, but at least his livelihood didn’t hang by a thread on the whim of a weather pattern. At least he wasn’t driven to such fear and despair by the blank skies that there was even a chance the wrong end of a gun might look like the right answer.”
Now once again the book absolutely checks my preference for crime fiction having elements from the past intersecting with those in the present. And the mystery of what happened to Ellie looms larger the longer Aaron stays in Kiewarra.
You could say two solid mysteries, well-plotted and convoluted enough to keep the keenest of minds working on their theories is enough for an author but Jane Harper’s real skill is bringing the characters to life. Now you may not like them all but you won’t forget many of them, I can assure you of that. The characters alongside the town (which is almost a character in its own right) give the story an oppressive feel which is underlined by episodes from the past being placed throughout the book, the distinction being marked by italics and tense. Much later we hear from Ellie herself which gives us a three-sided view of life, and death.
This is a superb novel and of course I know that there is a second in the series called Force of Nature. Since I can assure you this isn’t one of those frustrating books that leaves on a cliff-hanger, I’m not quite sure how that one can possibly play out (I’ve resisted looking at the synopsis) but I am very sure that the quality of Jane Harper’s writing means that I can’t afford to miss out.
“Death rarely changes how we feel about someone. Heightens it, more often than not.”...more
Bethany Mitchell is in prison for doing a ‘bad thing’, what that is isn’t revealed until close to the end of the book. Erika, Beth’s counsellor in priBethany Mitchell is in prison for doing a ‘bad thing’, what that is isn’t revealed until close to the end of the book. Erika, Beth’s counsellor in prison asks her to record the good things in an attempt to get her to ultimately confront what she has done.
I started All the Good Things with an open-mind; what I didn’t expect was how hard the experience hit me.
Bethany is just twenty-one but her life was already an exercise in surviving from her earliest memories. And this is exactly what we learn as her good things are lessons she’s learnt, or people she’s bonded with as she makes her uncertain way through the care system. This isn’t a straightforward account of misery though as Bethany has experiences that I’m sure many of us can relate to from her first job at the Odeon, and those that many of us have been lucky enough to avoid such as being removed from her first foster home where she formed a bond with her foster-father Paul over her love of stories, however outlandish.
One of the things that is so compelling is that this girl who obviously has difficulty, however justified, in personal relationships is utterly realistic. She loves stories, she likes excitement and she lives in the moment. Beth is intelligent and troubled and with each episode of her life I wanted to step in and do something, quite what I wasn’t sure, but to let such a life travel in such a wayward manner was very much like watching a slow motioned car crash, ‘the bad thing’ or some other ‘bad thing’ felt the inevitable outcome.
The construction of the novel which has us simultaneously reaching back pretty much chronologically, through the episodes in Bethany’s life, as a child at school, with her boyfriends, leaving care and moving into her first flat and onto a relationship where she felt like she’d reached adulthood. We also see her growing in confidence as she is helped by Erika to make sense of her past and to hopefully work towards making a better future.
The book is almost a textbook lesson on life on one level that doing a bad thing does not make someone a bad person, on another when life is full of unhappy events, even if you have some good moments that can go on the list then sometimes one event leads to another and then to another until they become overwhelming.
Some items on Bethany’s list: Friends you can be weird with. How cats find the sun to lie in even on a cloudy day. Reading books which make me laugh and books which make me cry and books which make me feel a bit more OK about who and where and what I am.
Ultimately Clare Fisher has hit the holy grail in writing about such a sensitive subject, not only making us care about her mixed-up protagonist from a less than easy starting point but doing so without explicitly excusing any of her behaviour. Only the hardest of hearts could read this story without feeling sympathy for more than one of the characters inside the covers....more
So we have Ruby Day, a vlogger aged just 20, who posts videos about all the fun stuff in life, shopping, make-up and the like, and then she goes missiSo we have Ruby Day, a vlogger aged just 20, who posts videos about all the fun stuff in life, shopping, make-up and the like, and then she goes missing. Why would anyone want to take Ruby and why do they want to keep her name in the spotlight by posting videos about her, post disappearance.
There is no doubt that Ruby’s disappearance is a mystery but her parents are convinced from the start that this is serious, and although she’s an adult the investigation is fast-tracked. After all everyone wanting the mystery solved, most of all Ruby’s adoring teenage fans, it has fallen to a special crimes unit set up in the centre of London with all the best equipment money can buy to find out. Enter Detective Sergeant Zain Harris who is working for Detective Inspector Kate Riley. Both are strong and determined characters and part of the smallish team carrying out the investigation which is far more techy than most police procedurals. We enter the realms of the ‘dark web’ as Zain uses less than approved methods to delve into Ruby and her associates’ on-line life.
The lead characters have been created with a real sense of depth and mystery. Kate Riley is keeping a secret regarding her transfer from the US to London, and alongside the main plot this side interest is eked out allowing the reader to build a picture of her background, but crucially no-one else knows these facts and she is determined to keep it that way. Meanwhile Zain is keeping his own demons close to his chest too, with clear signs that a previous case prior to him joining the newly formed team has psychologically damaged him, he too isn’t over keen to share his private life either. Alex Caan hasn’t neglected the more minor characters though and cleverly reveals them in half-light, each one needing to enter centre stage a few times before I got a sense of who they really are, and this includes our missing vlogger Ruby who has far more substance than it would first appear. On the one hand this is excellent, far more true to life than those books which give you fully-formed characters from the off, but with a rather large cast, it took a fair amount of concentration to ensure that I knew exactly what was being revealed about whom!
I really enjoyed this foray into a life that is a bit like a foreign land to me. Of course I know what YouTube is and I know that vloggers get endorsed by companies for promoting their goods but I haven’t ever been moved to see what it’s all about, I think these lifestyle vlogs are aimed at younger viewers than me! However that aside I can see that this world means big money for those who are successful and in Cut to the Bone we meet Ruby’s management team. I did have a quiet chuckle when one man was asked to reveal exactly what he did for his fee, after all Ruby was successful long before she needed an agent and a contract!
The pace of this book was fairly brisk with a number of different perspectives used and with so many side issues to be considered including the tactics of those from all walks of life who want a larger slice of the pie than they deserve, the need to keep reading on was a compelling one. Some of the descriptions, especially later on in this book are not for the faint-hearted, and as graphic as you’d expect for a book that is describing visual media!
Overall a fantastic debut full of a great mixture of characters with a plot that was as interesting as it was unusual.
I’d like to say a big thank you to Twenty7 Books for allowing me to read a copy of this book ahead of the paperback publication today, 3 November 2016....more
Starting back in 1986 with a killer first line: "The boy loved his parents more than anything on this Earth. And so he had to kill them."
I have a fondnStarting back in 1986 with a killer first line: "The boy loved his parents more than anything on this Earth. And so he had to kill them."
I have a fondness for books that stretch back to the past for the focus of a current investigation, and this is a bloody one, has its roots very firmly in a time and a place that for most of those who were present, would rather forget! The setting for the past is a children’s home and this one is of the particularly grim variety where the children are overseen by a slovenly couple under the management of a man Gordon Tallis, whose love of power is palpable.
In the present DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley begin their investigation with a triple murder of a particularly horrible nature. Ray Drake has recently been widowed and has a difficult relationship with his daughter April while Flick is newly promoted and with her boss insisting on watching her every move in this investigation, deeply worried that he is already regretting his backing of her promotion. The interaction between the two is puzzling with Fick moving away from her by the book investigating style to the more intuitive one that Drake uses. She can’t understand quite why Drake is so dismissive of her thoughts, with the pair pulling in opposite directions the reader can’t help but wonder is Drake going to pull rank on his newly promoted DS.
There is tension in the past and present scenes, from the first to the last page; this is not a book to choose to relax with, you need to pay attention, close attention. What the writer gives us is a wonderful array of characters who feel realistic. We learn about the mundanity of some of our victim’s lives, many of whom are not the morally upstanding citizens that deserve unreserved sympathy for their plight, but Mark Hill’s pen doesn’t stint in bringing them to life; it is easy to see his scriptwriting talent wrought upon these pages. The drudgery of a day in the life of a shelf-stacker spent dreaming about his retirement in Spain, his life planned in expectation of greater rewards in the future was one of the evocative early scenes which bought the man to life – only for my hopes for him to be shot down in metaphorical flames.
Each of the scenes both past and present are well-drawn without underlining the difference in time periods the obvious way by naming popular products and fashions but somehow the ‘feel’ of the past was there, and that’s written by someone who was of a similar age to many of the children in this book! The author has given a real sense of moral ambiguity with all of the characters and that is never harder to do when the natural inclination towards the children depicted is one of sympathy rather than condemnation but the author obviously works to the maxim that our sensibilities are there to be challenged.
This is a seriously well-plotted book and despite this being Mark Hill’s debut novel, the assuredness of his writing is never in doubt. I knew early on that this was going to be a cracking good read, and it was. Bookended by the stunning opening and one of the best finishes to a crime novel I’ve read for a long time this is one writer who has made it onto my ‘must-read’ list of authors, and not many get promoted to that position after a single book.
I received an ARC of The Two O’clock Boy from the publisher Little, Brown Book Group UK, and in return this unbiased review is my thanks to them....more
This is a domestic thriller with a difference, far more subtle than the normal fayre and dare I say it, with a less simplistic message than some.
The bThis is a domestic thriller with a difference, far more subtle than the normal fayre and dare I say it, with a less simplistic message than some.
The book opens on 20 October 2015 with an excerpt from The Telegraph announcing the death of a famous artist, he’d been stabbed. We then move straight back in time to the turn of the millennium in the year 2000 and meet Lily who is a solicitor facing her first day assisting the defence in a criminal case. The subject is Joe Thomas an incarcerated man accused of murdering his girlfriend. It is also Lily’s first day back at home in her Clapham flat as a married woman, she has married an aspiring artist, Ed, who works in advertising to pay the bills.
Next we meet Carla who is a child of nine who lives downstairs from Lily and Ed with her Italian mother Francesca. Carla’s father died when she was a baby and she longs for the things the other girls at school have but most of all she longs not to be different. While Francesca works Carla is looked after by Lily and becomes a subject for Ed to draw and paint.
The first half of the book follows these flawed five characters throughout the time that Lily is building her case to free Joe Thomas. The hours are long and her marriage to Ed less than perfect. We know that Lily misses her dead brother Daniel, and that she feels guilty about something that happened before she married, but whatever caused the guilt, Lily is not telling anyone. But there is no doubt that she sees something of Daniel in her client Joe. The author also paints a worrying picture of a young girl who learns to lie to and manipulate those around her to ease her unhappiness.
One of the most brilliant things in the book is precisely that all the characters are a mixture of good and bad. Does being good in one area of your life redeem yourself for those times that you behaved less well? This theme runs into the second half too when we meet Carla in 2013 as an adult, a beautiful young woman who is determined not to end up like her mother, alone and unhappy. She decides to seek out some old friends and so enters Lily’s life once more.
Along with the complex and enthralling characters we have other reoccurring issues including Asperger’s syndrome, fidelity, deception and lies and we all know one small lie can easily multiply to become something huge!
The chapters alternate between Lily and Carla which kept me reading long after I should have put the book to one side, as they revealed not only parts of their own characters but also of those around them. This isn’t a fast paced book, the author covers a lot of ground and the depth of the story being told becomes apparent as the layers are peeled back on the characters. Using her writing, rather than a jaw-dropping twist, the feeling of dread increases quite alarmingly once the second half of the book begins. After all we now know something of what each of the characters we’ve met are capable of, but how does that link to the tantalising opening headline? If you want to know, you really should read My Husband’s Wife.
I’d like to offer a huge thank you to Penguin UK who gave me an advance copy of this book for review purposes. This review is my unbiased thanks to them. ...more
Kickboxing Detective Garda Cathy Connolly is called to a break-in at Zoe Grant’s house in Dublin which opens up a crime far bigger than the burglary tKickboxing Detective Garda Cathy Connolly is called to a break-in at Zoe Grant’s house in Dublin which opens up a crime far bigger than the burglary that she was sent to investigate. Amongst the scattered clothing in Zoe’s bedroom is a beautiful wedding dress with added decoration which seems way out-of-place, some small bones have been sewn into its hem. And if that wasn’t enough for the Garda, the FBI believe a double murderer who needs urgent apprehension has entered Ireland, and they want him found.
The story that follows is complex, told from the viewpoints of three women; Cathy, Zoe and Emily Cox, a woman who works with the elderly in London. I always rejoice when fiction gives us women who are more than decoration and to get three such women who all display their strengths in very different ways really is exceeding expectations Ms Blake! Zoe is the most vulnerable of the three, understandable when her house has been ransacked which is shortly followed by the unexpected death of her grandmother but she forges on setting up an exhibition of her art despite it all. Emily demonstrates not only her caring nature when she befriends an elderly woman who is suffering with confusion, but also her steely side when she persuades her husband, a consultant psychiatrist to help out in practical ways. And then there is Cathy, a woman who despite turmoil in her personal life doesn’t resort to histrionics but makes plans and follows them through, although I’m quietly pleased to confirm she’ll break a few rules if required.
The underlying plot to this novel is complex, there is plenty of switching of viewpoints and a fair few mysteries that need unravelling. The author walks the line with grace between providing the reader with action, great characters and a credible plot with an equally believable solution and creating utter confusion with so much going on. This is a huge accomplishment for a debut novel, although this is a book that requires a certain amount of concentration as unusually the viewpoints switch within chapters. The headings to some of the chapters involve sewing terms bringing the reader’s attention back to those gruesome alterations that the unknown seamstress made to the wedding dress, and as when or why is also a mystery, they were quite clearly carried out for the purpose of concealment.
The author keeps the tension levels high by adhering far more to the actual time-lines of carrying out the necessary tests than many popular dramas we may watch. Despite the grimness of the wedding dress, this isn’t a depressing read, something achieved by some genuinely realistic yet appealing relationships between some of the characters. It is nice to see a police force not beset by one-upmanship and unrealistic expectations, Cathy and her partner Detective O’Rourke are mutually supportive and we understand why when we hear a little of their back story.
So in case you couldn’t tell, I was incredibly impressed by Little Bones, another great author to come out of the Bonnier Publishers imprint Twenty7 books. If you like your crime fiction to involve the more traditional police procedural, one that has a little more complexity to the generic, this may well be a book that you will really enjoy. This book has also confirmed my suspicion that Twenty7 have a huge talent in spotting these debut novelists, four out of the four I have read have been seriously impressive – a pretty good bet by anyone’s standards. If you have a manuscript that you think might be suitable for them and live in the UK or ROI, you might want to enter their competition but don’t delay it has a closing date of 31 May 2016.
I’d like to say thank you to the publishers for allowing me to read this book ahead of the publication in eBook format on 17 May 2016. This review is my unbiased thanks to them. ...more
The first thing I have to say about this book is it is hard to believe how entertaining a narrative can be when ‘spoken’ by a woman in a coma!
Sarah isThe first thing I have to say about this book is it is hard to believe how entertaining a narrative can be when ‘spoken’ by a woman in a coma!
Sarah is in a coma, unable to communicate at all, lying in her bed listening, in part to the conversation going on around her. Her mother and her father visit and we can tell so much about them through their snippets of conversation. Likewise the nurses, some are more solicitous than others but the real mystery is, how did Sarah end up lying there, in that state? Sarah was mugged, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time that’s what everyone says.
We first meet Kelly sat waiting for her mother in the relatives room on the night that Sarah is admitted. Her mother has gone to check on her younger brother and she sits, observing the other inhabitants of the waiting room. Kelly is a teenage girl who has been befriended by Sarah, a young woman closer in age to her mother than Kelly. From Kelly we know that Sarah has been giving her tips on how to stay out of trouble, and it seems to be working… or is it?
This is a really hard book to review, so much of what I want to say will reveal the story that it is far better you explore for yourself. What I can say is it is far more moving, and less dramatic, than many books that fall into this genre. This is psychological fiction at its purest a book that reveals the secrets behind many of our characters, how they relate to others, how they present themselves to the wider world and what other people really see them for.
The other side to this book is it is scary! No-one wants to be in such a vulnerable position and Sarah is in a state where she longs to break out of her coma and communicate with those around her. She wants to know who she is, how she got there and who some of her visitors are. This isn’t an enviable place to be especially when some of what she hears causes her intense fear.
Deborah Bee has writes in an appealing style with alternate chapters narrated by Sarah and Kelly. Kelly spends many days at the hospital, coming to terms with her friend’s fragile state, yet shoved to one side when the family are in place, watching and waiting for any sign of movement whilst struggling with varying degrees of discomfort while speaking to someone who doesn’t respond at all.
This is a unique read, not quite what I expected but in many way so much better. I didn’t expect to feel so moved by both narrator’s lives and although I guessed some of the final outcome I was far from correct on many of the finer details.
I was offered my copy of The Last Thing I Remember from Midas PR who work on behalf of Twenty7 books in return for my honest opinion ...more
Simon Booker seasoned screenwriter of prime time TV drama has turned his hand to writing a new series of crime fiction, Without Trace is the first booSimon Booker seasoned screenwriter of prime time TV drama has turned his hand to writing a new series of crime fiction, Without Trace is the first book which introduces us to Morgan Vine, a journalist and childhood friend of Danny Kilcannon. Danny is in HMP Dungeness after being convicted of killing his teenage step-daughter Zoe four years previously.
Unusually for crime fiction much of this book focusses on the end result for the perpetrator of crime, prison. Danny is in prison, his life has been narrowed down to the confines of his cell, one of the few highlights being the prison book club which his old friend Morgan runs as a volunteer. What most of the other prisoners don’t know is that Danny and Morgan were close friends, went to school together and she has been one of the chief campaigners for his release. Absolutely convinced that he didn’t kill Zoe, likewise she also believes that his wife Rowena committed suicide and that’s why she disappeared without trace. When a key witness withdraws his statement Danny earns his freedom. But, then Morgan’s own teenage daughter goes missing.
This is a tense book, with flashbacks to her teenage years in the late 80s, a time when Danny was one of the closest friends of the girl whose father was headmaster of the school. In these excerpts we understand a little of what makes Morgan tick, why she has been so determined to free her former friend. In the present in the aftermath of her daughter’s disappearance it is only too easy to see why the doubts, never previously voiced or entertained begin to trouble her.
It might be tense but this book is also a fast moving thriller with new evidence, false leads and dodgy characters present on practically every page there was a point where I thought it was inevitable that the book would fall into the mid-section dip, surely unable to keep the frantic pace going while still holding the multiple strands of plot into any semblance of order. I was wrong, this is a book that doesn’t let up so don’t start it late at night if you have to get up early the next morning! With its short chapters a style that any serious bookworm knows just begs for ‘just one more chapter before…’ it was definitely hard to put down! In many ways the style reminded me that this author has been a writer of TV drama as the focus was definitely on the action and the complex plot while most of the characters being drawn with a broader brush, to keep the story moving at a pace.
Although fictional, and obviously so; I simply couldn’t really buy into the fact that any police investigation would sanction a journalist, the missing person’s mother to boot, being told key details along the way, it is also just as obviously well-researched. The scenes in the prison (which although a fictional HMP) felt entirely authentic with the smell and the unpredictability of men locked up while still coming across as human come from the author’s own volunteer work for restorative justice and prison reading groups.
As I stated at the beginning this is the first in a new series featuring Morgan Vine and I will definitely be interested in how her character develops. I know some of her background now, her fierce maternal instinct and her thwarted journalistic ambition which is plenty to build on for a second novel and I can’t wait to see how, following the fantastic resolution to this book, what is in store for her next. Unfortunately the next book isn’t due to be published until 2017.
I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy of this book for review purposes....more
Sometimes when you start a book you just know that you are going to really enjoy it; this was one such book. This feeling transcends plot and characteSometimes when you start a book you just know that you are going to really enjoy it; this was one such book. This feeling transcends plot and characters and can only be put down to writing style, which is so much harder to define, so beyond saying the writing flows exceptionally well, I will leave it there.
The story starts way back in 1978 in Derbyshire when two young girls get into a car with a woman, only one of the girls returned, Rachel, and in the intervening years there has been no clue as to what happened to her friend Sophie.
In the present Sophie’s mother, is found dead in a hotel room, news that is quickly followed by the discovery of a body in nearby woods. These two events cause the police to take another look at the historic crime. Rachel is questioned but she is not able to remember anything more than she could as a young girl but this doesn’t stop DI Francis Sadler and DC Connie Childs believing that she must hold the key if only they can work out the right questions to ask.
This is a very easy book to read but don’t let that fool you into thinking that the plot and the characters are simplistic, far from it!! With the strands in the past and present dexterously woven throughout the story there is a lot to ponder, not least Rachel’s fascination with ancestry. Unusually Rachel’s family tree concentrates on the women in her family with the roots of suspicion or even outright dislike of men, threading back through many generations. Rachel has used her interest in genealogy to build a career, she is no stranger to hunting through the archives on behalf of her clients; even the least astute reader can’t help but wonder how far back the seeds to the crimes were actually sown. However with the secrets in this Derbyshire town bubbling away below the surface the intrigue level is really high. My poor detective skills were on overdrive as I cycled through the normal motives drawing a blank in every direction.
Rachel is a great character, a woman who has been determined not to be defined by what happened to her as a child, but nor is she blasé about it. With fresh interest and new deaths the journalists are back and she is none too pleased to see them. It isn’t just Rachel’s character that feels so realistic, I don’t think I met one secondary or even minor character that I wasn’t equally convinced that I could meet out on the street.
This is a crime novel which certainly exceeded my expectations with all the elements that are required to successfully produce a high quality story all present and correct. The ending, which I often don’t mention was perfect, the book whilst having plenty of surprises does not bring a motive and character out of left field, rather staying true to the more ‘old-fashioned’ crime novels where the perpetrator is justly identified from combing the evidence which all makes for an incredibly satisfying read.
I am thrilled to see that Sarah has a second book due out in September 2016, A Deadly Thaw, because I will definitely be putting this author to the top of the ‘must-read” pile. In Bitter Chill was a book that was worth every last speck of the five stars I awarded it and better still is a book I can see myself re-reading in the future with just as much enjoyment. ...more
This book grabs you from the start with the realistic situation of a mother trying to load everything onto a train but not being fast enough so that hThis book grabs you from the start with the realistic situation of a mother trying to load everything onto a train but not being fast enough so that her baby disappears down the track without her.
As others have pointed out as the story progresses you can guess how and why events happen but this doesn't spoil the enjoyment of this book. It is fast paced and you can't help but sympathise with a mother who has said things out of sheer desperation.
If Abbie Taylor writes another book I will certainly buy it....more
I loved this book and would recommend it to others.
The lead characters were fantastic and throughout their detective work they went down many blind alI loved this book and would recommend it to others.
The lead characters were fantastic and throughout their detective work they went down many blind alleys trying to find out who murdered a 12 year old girl. This made the book believable as you followed every twist and turn with them. The relationship between Adam and his partner was so true to life and if I'm honest I wanted things to turn out differently for them both.
The fact that there were unresolved mysteries didn't spoil the book. I'd read previous reviews and had this on my wish list for some time as I'd been put off by the negative comments but so glad I went ahead and bought it.
I'm now going to read Tana French's other two books!...more
Meet Eddie Flynn a con-man, turned lawyer so already we know that this is a man who is prepared to play dirty to win. The setting is New York, the oppMeet Eddie Flynn a con-man, turned lawyer so already we know that this is a man who is prepared to play dirty to win. The setting is New York, the opposition, why only the Russia Mafia, what else would you expect? The stakes, well that would be Eddie’s young daughter who has been kidnapped by aforesaid gang and if Eddie doesn’t buy enough time for the head honcho, Olek Volchek, to escape then young Amy and Eddie himself will be toast.
The story gets right into the action immediately with the reader getting to know the chief protagonist via his present story interspersed with his background which explains his journey from hustler to lawyer, two jobs Eddie is at pains to explain are closer in skill-set than you might imagine. With a group of convincingly clichéd Russians to snarl, threaten and menace at every given opportunity we could forgive Eddie for feeling more than a little anxious, not least because he has a bomb strapped to his back and the detonator is in the hands of Volchek’s right-hand man, but valiant Eddie sits down with a suitcase full of case files and prepares for the courtroom fight of his life.
I enjoyed the courtroom action although I had a sneaky suspicion that Eddie’s inspired cross-examinations were perhaps assisted by the fact that the prosecution seemed slightly less brilliant than we were led to believe, I decided to go with the flow and suspend my belief as Eddie went from courting danger in and out of the courtroom in his desperation to save his daughter’s life. Eddie is forced to ask for favours to help him out and who should he ask? Why his friends of course, who just happen to be a gang leader from another gang and a senior judge, what luck!
This is a fast-paced story with plenty of action but along with that there is a touch of humour, a book that knows its place and is all the more appealing because of that. A book to read for pure entertainment to get into the moment and roll with the punches, gasp at the twists and to hold your breath when everything gets all too much! This would be ideal reading for a long journey, not too complex but fun but don’t choose one with too many changes or you might just end up at the wrong destination.
I have to admit I didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did, I’m not a big fan of crime fiction featuring gangs as they are often violent, there is the ever-present suggestion of violence in Steve Cavangh’s book but most of the action takes place off-page, and the mobsters abide by rules that aren’t understandable to any sane human being but although I wouldn’t go as far to say I warmed to Volchek and his side-kicks I didn’t feel the contempt you might expect.
I am sure this won’t be the last we hear of Eddie Flynn and I will be first in the queue to pick up the next instalment having been won over by this likeable if flawed character....more
Rebecca Bradley’s new creation DI Hannah Robbins isn’t for the faint-hearted (just look at that cover), this novel covers some particularly grim subjeRebecca Bradley’s new creation DI Hannah Robbins isn’t for the faint-hearted (just look at that cover), this novel covers some particularly grim subjects but fortunately without subjecting the reader to endless scenes of violence. That said I found it quite a creepy read, with the descriptions of a girl shut in the cage playing on my mind long after I closed the book, something that doesn’t happen too often, and that I can only put down to the writing which snuck underneath the hard skin of this reader.
DI Hannah Robbins is a little bit of a mystery and I have to say her relationship with a journalist is surely not the wisest of pairings, which suggests that, when she’s not doing the day job, she leads with her heart and not her head. But there is little time for romance because as this story opens there is a killer to find, a young girl has been found naked and battered in a dirty alleyway, and most affecting of all, unknown. The race is on to find out who she is and what had happened to her and DI Hannah Robbins is soon on the trail when another young girl is found dead.
Rebecca Bradley doesn’t spare the details of the pressure the Police are under to find the killer before the media turn on the investigation, making those higher up the force so keen for a quick result that the investigation takes on a nightmarish quality with Hannah only stopping to gulp a glass of wine and a quick sleep before desperately looking for the links which will lead to the killer. Unlike in many books of this genre the victims are also given a personality, albeit seen through the eyes of their friends and family. This book is well researched which has the advantage that anyone who doesn’t read quite as many ‘gripping police thrillers’ as is eased into the jargon and acronyms.
Unusually for me I managed to have a lucky guess at the perpetrator although that didn’t lessen my enjoyment, in fact I was punching the air with delight when Hannah had her quarry in sight. Shallow Waters is a complete novel but one that leaves you wanting to find out more, especially about Hannah which means that I will definitely be watching out for the next in the series.
I’d like to thank the author for allowing me to read a proof copy of this thrilling read....more
This is Rose Haldane’s story, she is a journalist at the Herald her articles being chiefly of the filler type on beauty products and female medical isThis is Rose Haldane’s story, she is a journalist at the Herald her articles being chiefly of the filler type on beauty products and female medical issues, but Rose has ambition despite her boss’s determination to not only get her name wrong but put her down at every opportunity, even more so when she insults him in front of the team.
Six months after Rose and Lily’s mother Diane dies, they go around to their parent’s home to go through her things for their father John. Going through a box on top of the wardrobe they find some diaries, a flick through these shows that Rose was adopted. This is a huge shock to both women they realise that their differences of opinion on so many subjects are because they are not sisters at all.
Sandra Danby writes a tale that is as much about relationships as it is about Rose’s search for her parentage, a search that quickly becomes an obsession. The relationship between Lily and Rose is subtly altered by this new information and while Lily is trapped in a cycle of longing for a baby Rose is placed in the unenviable position of replacing her mother as a sounding board, a job she feels unequal to not least because Diane and Rose had an uneasy relationship. Could the fact that she was adopted explain this?
Both Rose and Lily are likable characters whilst not being of the sickly sweet variety and combined with a pace that was just right for this kind of tale made for an enjoyable read. The discoveries made by Rose, her relationship with her colleagues as well as a newly-fledged romantic liaison felt entirely realistic. I loved Rose’s desperation to find out more both through the diaries and by interviewing friends of her mother, again a reaction that felt natural. Even better the author allows the reader to put themselves into the character’s shoes, thereby allowing the reading to feel smooth without endless emphasis on how Rose is feeling, what she is thinking etc.
With the contrast between her mother’s life in the sixties and Rose’s in the present day along with a number of twists and turns this was an emotional and enjoyable tale and one that I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read. If this sounds like a tale you would enjoy Ignoring Gravity was published yesterday 21 November 2014 at a bargain price in e-book format at Amazon. The physical copies of this book will be available in January 2015. ...more
Janie Jackson has been released from prison on a technicality after spending ten years locked up for her mother’s murder Her mother’s murder was commiJanie Jackson has been released from prison on a technicality after spending ten years locked up for her mother’s murder Her mother’s murder was committed when Janie was just seventeen, a socialite, spoilt rich girl whose reason for living was to feel superior to everyone around her and now released from prison she is determined to find the truth, but Janie can’t really remember anything excepts snippets from that night. Ever resourceful she uses these fragments of information to carry out extensive research while in prison and by the time she is released thanks to her faithful lawyer Noah she has a plan.
Told in the main part by Janie, a girl with a wicked turn of phrase but not someone I would choose as a friend, we visit a small town in America, Ardelle, which Janie is sure will provide some answers to Marilyn’s life before she died. Here she meets a bunch of very strange characters including a policeman and bunch of very odd women who are all involved in putting on a historical event. Janie has to keep her cover, the media are busily trying to track her down and Trace her chief hater and prolific blogger is also on her trail.
There are excerpts from interviews, texts to her lawyer Noah and letters which slice through Janie’s sarcastic dialogue. To put it bluntly if you have to like the protagonist in a book, Dear Daughter is probably not the book for you, however I could amuse myself by sniggering at some of her comments and although at times I felt occasionally felt some sympathy for her, those moments were fleeting.
This is a reasonably fast paced plot with all sorts of clues to Marion’s origins barely covered due to the loose-lipped residents of the small town which has a long memory. I was keen to know more and the pages turned faster and faster as Janie discovered more about her mother’s past, but I did wonder more than once how this was going to help her discover what happened on the night of the murder. The reveal was almost an understatement until bang we were at the finish line and I was sad to say goodbye to Janie.
I’d like to thank the publishers Random House UK for allowing me to read this startling novel in return for this honest review. Dear Daughter was published on 14 August 2014...more
I really enjoyed Hidden by this author and pondered over both the plot and its execution so I was really keen to read her debut novel Falling which waI really enjoyed Hidden by this author and pondered over both the plot and its execution so I was really keen to read her debut novel Falling which was published last year.
This book opens with us meeting Cecilia Williams a flight attendant based in Wales, a place she never intended returning to. That very morning she had packed her bags leaving her husband and young son. Without a backward glance, convinced she has made the right choice she prepares to board the flight, directing the passengers to their seats before take-off. And then both passengers, crew are in the terrifying scenario of a plane falling from the sky. As the plane comes to settle on a snowy hillside torn in two with only a handful of survivors, everything has changed, or has it?
Parallel to this story is that of retired Police officer Jim who on visiting his daughter’s home finds her missing. Jim visits the police station hoping to find his old friends and is instead confronted by a board duty officer more interested in his phone that taking down the details or being remotely interested in the disappearance of Libby, a Community Support Officer. Once the crime is finally reported the man who leads the investigation into her disappearance is Cecilia’s husband Tom.
We also hear from Freya, the daughter of the deceased pilot where she reflects on her life with a rather distant father yet at the same time supporting her younger brother and her distraught mother. There are secrets in this family too, some better hidden than others.
This book is populated by a wide selection of characters, some more likeable than others. I found it difficult to sympathise with Cecilia in particular but as the storyline progressed I came to understand, if not like her. But these characters don’t act in isolation they all have relationships with others and sometimes crossover between the individual stories that I found myself immersed in. Like the characters the relationships cover the range, from close and caring to distant and remote with a scattering in-between. The relationship between Tom and Jim was both authentic and touching, a lovely touch that is often overlooked in this genre of books. The richness of both characters and plots didn’t fail to engage me and I was desperate to piece together all the various elements.
And then there is a setting which in the depth of winter, those cold days that are currently thankfully behind us, gives an added chill to the various mysteries that populate the pages of this intriguing and fresh feeling novel.
This book is multi-layered, complex and deals with difficult issues but it does it so very well. The different viewpoints give a depth to the stories being told and lifts what could be one very confusing sets of episodes into a tautly and engaging read. It is billed as a psychological thriller and the psychological element is definitely present, I’m not quite so sure it fits into the thriller genre being one of those books to ponder over rather than one that gets your heart racing. ...more
How do you get over the rape and murder of your only daughter? If you are Jim you look for your dead daughter everywhere, she is with you as an appariHow do you get over the rape and murder of your only daughter? If you are Jim you look for your dead daughter everywhere, she is with you as an apparition. If you are Patty you will spend twenty years searching for her killer vowing to avenge for her death.
I am not really a big fan of ghosts, so when I started reading The Last Winter of Dani Lancing I was irritated that Dani is talking to her father so many years after her death. That feeling didn't last long as I got sucked in by the story and agreed that Jim's relationship with Dani adds a certain something to this time-hopping story of a hunt for a murderer.
The story is told through the eyes of Jim, Dani's father, Patty her mother and Tom now a detective in London who was Dani's friend, although it soon becomes clear that he wanted more than just her friendship. Dani died in Durham having moved there to go to university and the trail crosses the country as the story unfolds.
The use of the different times from before Dani's death to the present where Patty believes she has now found a concrete lead to Dani's murderer is used to perfection to increase the tension as pieces of information are revealed. P.D. Viner really proves himself to be a master at that slow turn of the handle revealing a twist and then taking a step in a different direction, making this reader wait for the next revelation, the next piece of the puzzle all the while reappraising who I thought had murdered poor Dani. I have to say I was so far off knowing whodunit it was laughable.
The characterisation was fantastic, Jim only willing to remember his beautiful and innocent daughter, Patty who was filled with the need for revenge, a raw anger against the killer but what feels like a more realistic portrayal of a mother's relationship with her complex daughter and Tom, known as the sad man, perhaps because of his role in the police he is the one chosen to break bad news; or is it because he was broken by the death of the young woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with?
A truly original take on what could have been a depressing story of those people left behind when someone dies; instead it is this and so much more, and I will certainly be looking out for more books by the talented P.D. Viner.
I received a free copy of this book from the publishers Random House UK in return for this honest review. They bill this as `A hauntingly original debut that will stay with you long after the last page' and I don't disagree....more
At the beginning of World War II Dorothy is hanging out washing when an aeroplane crashes into a field behind her house. Alone and aloof Dorothy opensAt the beginning of World War II Dorothy is hanging out washing when an aeroplane crashes into a field behind her house. Alone and aloof Dorothy opens her heart to the possibility of happiness when Jan Pietrykowski, the Polish Squadron Leader comes to visit her following the crash, but how does this link to the letter found amongst her grandmother’s belongings?
This book has letters, a mystery in the form of a family secret and a bookshop; everything I love reading about! There are intrigues in the present, relationships both familial and romantic, an unfurling of a cold heart with the background of the war to add urgency to every moment.
Although at first I didn’t warm to either Dorothy or Roberta their stories soon wormed their way under my skin and I fell in love with both stories, past and present, willing the two women on to find happiness.
There is much to enjoy in this debut novel, the settings described to perfection, I could easily picture the little cottage, the bookshop which I ached to visit, as well as clearly understanding why Dorothy stood apart from her fellow villagers thereby becoming a main source of their gossip. A book with a lot of charm to sweeten a tale of love and loss.
I received my copy of Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase from Lovereading.co.uk as I am part of their review panel. ...more
This is a tale spanning from the early 1970s to the late 1980s told through the eyes of identical twins Isolte and Viola. Their mother Rose is a free This is a tale spanning from the early 1970s to the late 1980s told through the eyes of identical twins Isolte and Viola. Their mother Rose is a free spirit their father is a mystery. Rose has bought her girls up in line with her free and wild lifestyle, but on their move from a commune in Wales to the Suffolk countryside she decides to stop home schooling the twins and send them to the local school. Their home-made clothes and unconventional education don’t help the twins to fit in with their classmates, something not helped by them being kept down a year and therefore attending the local primary school instead of the secondary along with their peers. With no friends the girls roam wild in the local woods and meet up with another set of identical twins, Michael and John.
The author has structured the book so that the narrative not only switches between Isolte and Viola but also in time periods too at times it takes a while to work out which twin is narrating, however I did enjoy the patchwork style of building up what happened in the girl’s past against their lives in the present. This naturally lends a feeling of tension to the storyline as pieces of information are revealed and explains why the twins are haunted by events in 1972 before they left Suffolk to start another new life in London with their aunt.
This is a haunting tale and there is no doubting the writing ability of Saskia Sarginson which led to this book being chosen as one of Richard and Judy’s Book Club in the Autumn list of 2013, but if I’m honest although I wanted to know more, the gaps in the timeline caused far too many questions for my liking which combined by the slow pace meant that I was not as enthralled by this book as her later novel The Other Me.
I am a big fan of dual timeline stories but in this instance the story set in the 1970s was of far more interest than that of the 1980s where one works as a fashion editor for a magazine whist the other is hospitalised through anorexia. Part of the problem with the present tale was there simply wasn’t much action as both girls in different ways, ruminated on the past which led to the unravelling of their childhood. What was interesting in this section was to see how the two reacted to these same events in different ways and how the long buried secrets still effected them both fifteen years later.
What Saskia Sarginson managed exceptionally well was the time period. The occasional, mention of brands and attitudes of the two time periods, caused sparks of nostalgia which worked particularly well with the author using these references sparingly to evoke the time without it becoming a book about ‘Do you remember when x happened?’ or ‘Do you remember when we used to do y and eat z?’ The scenes set in the Sussex countryside in a cottage with an outside privy was also exceptionally well done; I had no problems at all visualising the two girls with in a dank cottage eating foraged produce whilst their mother rustled up another misshapen dress for them to wear.
This is book had an original feel to it and will definitely appeal to those who are interested in twin stories with not one but two sets to examine in this wide-ranging story. ...more
Who wanted Hugo Fletcher a famous philanthropist dead? He clearly was killed by a woman as he was found naked on a bed, but which woman and why?
This bWho wanted Hugo Fletcher a famous philanthropist dead? He clearly was killed by a woman as he was found naked on a bed, but which woman and why?
This book manages the ramping up of the tension perfectly, each revelation moves the story along particularly the letters Lady Laura Fletcher wrote, but never sent, to her former best friend Imogen. The cast of females are well written, Laura, Imogen, Stella the mother and Becky the policewoman are perfectly drawn and realistic in the never ending twists and turns.
Great story I hope Rachel Abbott writes a second book soon. ...more
![Ignoring Gravity [Rose Haldane: Identity Detective #1]](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472645761l/22554299._SY75_.jpg)
Loading...
