📖 Book Review ~ Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey

Penguin Random House/ Transworld
25 April 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy if this book to review

 

The Labasques aren’t like other families. Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators and other animals just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother. Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed Cutter. Now there may be no way to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution…

📖 My Review…

The Labasque siblings eke out a meagre living hunting alligators in the muddy swamps of Jacknife, Louisiana. Outcasts from the townsfolk, Dewall, Beau and Cutter live a lonely life, plagued by their own peculiar demons and always just on the edge of the law. When Cutter’s body is found in the swamp there is no-one to mourn her passing except her friend, Loyal May, who has recently returned to Jacknife to look after her aging mother and also to work on the local newspaper. 

This is a bleak and rather sad story which places small town America in the spotlight, revealing old hurts, misguided superstitions and downright hostility from those who should be trying to solve the mystery of Cutter’s untimely death. There’s an edgy creepiness to the story which I found quite unsettling and yet I couldn’t put the book down even though I jumped at shadows when reading long into the night. The author describes the town well, its place within the southern states and the townsfolk who would rather not admit that they should also take their share of blame. With clues sparse and no-one really trying too hard to discover what happened to Cutter, Loyal, using her journalistic skills, turns detective to piece together the last few days of Cutter’s sad and complicated life.

Rich in atmosphere, Our Last Wild Days is a slow and beautifully layered story which creeps under the surface of the skin, with characters who linger in the shadows of the swamps which surround Jacknife like a dirty blanket. It is a place which gives up its secrets ever so slowly but which is ultimately compelling, it is a story which is already firmly placed on my book of the year list for 2025.

About the Author

Anna Bailey is a Sunday Times bestselling author from Gloucestershire. Their debut novel, Tall Bones, inspired by their experiences living in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, was nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and Goldsboro Glass Bell awards, as well as the Prix Nouvelles Voix du Polar. Their short stories, based on their travels through rural America, have been dramatised for BBC Radio 4, including ‘Long Way to Come For a Sip of Water’, which was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award. They live in Bordeaux with their wife.

📖 Book of My Month ~ The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey

Harper Collins
Hemlock Press
27 February 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the book

 

On a small island off the coast of Scotland, an isolated community is grieving. Eighteen-year-old Alan Ferguson was found at the foot of the lighthouse – an apparent suicide.

DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate. A raging storm keeps them trapped on the island for four days. And the locals don’t take kindly to mainlanders.

As George and Ritchie question the island’s inhabitants, they discover a village filled with superstition and shrouded in secrets.

But someone wants those secrets to stay buried. At any cost.

📖 My Review ..

DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to the remote island of Eilean Eadar, which lies off the coast of Scotland, in order to investigate the mysterious death of eighteen year old, Alan Ferguson. The arrival of the detectives is met with a mixture of excitement, distrust and downright malevolence from many of the islanders who resent any intrusion from the mainland. Whilst Alan Ferguson’s untimely death can be regarded as a tragic suicide, there are questions to be answered however, the islanders do not give up their secrets easily, and become more distrustful as the story progresses. 

There is a genuine air of tension which builds gradually and even the detectives start to feel the pressure of being cut off from everything. I took a while to warm to the detectives, especially Georgina (George) who carries the burden of a past trauma which affects her judgement and makes her rather unpredictable. The story is definitely creepy, with a genuine air of mystery, from the stark sentinel of the lighthouse, which lures above the island, to the turbulent sea and the ever present danger of being surrounded by people with secrets to hide.

Well written, imaginatively described, The Wolf Tree is a locked-room type mystery which builds the tension deliberately slowly, which mirrors the slow pace of life on the island where nothing is ever rushed. Eilean Eadar is a place of dark secrets and with twists and turns I didn’t seen coming, this is definitely a thrilling story which kept my attention from start to finish. I liked it so much I am delighted to make The Wolf Tree the Book of My Month in March.

About the Author

Laura McCluskey is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and actor. She created the production company Sibylline Films and co-founded Three Fates Theatre Company. The Wolf Tree is her first novel.

X @Hemlock_Press

X @HarperFiction 

X @fictionpubteam

#LauraMcCluskey #TheWolfTree

📖 Book Review ~ Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister

Penguin
30 January 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

It’s Camilla’s first day back at work, her daughter’s first day at nursery.

But husband Luke is nowhere to be seen. The only trace of him is an unfinished note. Camilla tries to put it out of her mind; there must be a rational explanation.

At work, there are welcomes back, and too many distractions.

Then it starts.

Breaking news: there's a hostage situation developing in London. The police arrive: Luke is caught up in it.

But he isn't a hostage. Luke - doting father, successful writer, enthusiastic runner and eternal optimist - is the gunman.

What Camilla does next is crucial. Because only she knows what the note he left behind says, and the clues it might hold…

📖My Review..

Literary agent, Camilla’s first day back to work after her maternity leave is not the peaceful transition she wanted as she is horrified to discover that her husband has been caught up in a hostage situation. When Camilla discovers that her normally peaceable husband is not the victim but the perpetrator her whole world falls apart.

What then follows is a tense and cleverly plotted thriller in which we follow this complex story as it unfolds. We get to know Camilla, her life after the event and her overwhelming need to discover just what made her loving husband act in the way he did and what drove him to such a desperate situation. With a strong cast of supporting characters including, Niall, the police negotiator, who played such a pivotal role in the hostage crisis, a picture of a complex crime starts to emerge. 

This is one of those intriguing stories in which it would be all too easy to give away something important so I won’t reveal any spoilers only to say that this kept me engrossed trying to understand why a seemingly mild mannered family man would act so out of character. There are enough twists and turns to keep the momentum going and some dark moments which fit in well with the plot.  I enjoyed the reveal, parts of which I didn’t see coming, and felt a great deal of satisfaction at the conclusion of the story and the hidden meaning in the book’s title. 

Famous Last Words is a well written mystery/thriller by a talented writer who brings such a sense of reality to her stories. 

About the Author

Gillian McAllister is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of eight stand-alone novels. Her books have been selected for the Radio 2 Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the Richard & Judy Book Club, and is published in thirty-six languages.

Twitter @gillianmauthor #FamousLastWords

@MichaelJBooks