📖 Feature Friday ~ Breakneck Point by T. Orr Munro

 

Welcome to Feature Friday

It's a warm space to a highlight a book coming soon which is on my radar

and one I am looking forward to reading

HQ
14 April 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

A gripping new crime series for fans of Val McDermid, Jane Casey, Cara Hunter and Mare of Easttown

CSI Ally Dymond follows the evidence – wherever it leads.

Her commitment to justice has cost Ally her place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast.

Only when the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe can Ally put her skills to good use. Yet the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory. And no one wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison.

Time is running out to catch a serial killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike. When he does, Ally will be forced to question the true nature of justice like never before.

The idea of starting a different crime series from the beginning is very appealing especially when it is a new author who is also just starting on this literary crime journey. I read a lot of gritty crime stories set mainly in UK cities so to retreat to the sleepy Devon coast will be a nice change of scene.

So as they say...watch this space..

@jaffareadstoo #FeatureFriday #amreading

Breakneck Point is available to pre-order from wherever you buy books.

Twitter @TinaOrrMunro #BreakneckPoint #FollowtheEvidence

@HQStories

📖 Book Review ~ The Lies She Told by Lynda Renham

 

Raucous Publishing

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book

Life in the village of Stonesend is pretty uneventful, that is until Detective Tom Miller is transferred there following a personal tragedy. He is not greeted well by officer Beth Harper, who feels he is not up to the job. The day of his arrival, Kate Marshall, a teacher at the local school, is beaten in her own home and left for dead. The villagers are left in a state of shock. Was it a random attack, or something more personal?

📖 My Thoughts..

It seems that nothing much happens in the sleepy Oxfordshire village of Stonesend until DI Tom Miller is transferred there and then, suddenly, things seem to go sharply wrong when Kate Marshal, a local school teacher is brutally attacked in her home. DS Beth Harper is at first resentful of the arrival of Tom Miller because as her senior officer he encroaches on what Beth considers to be her patch, especially as the Stonesend villagers are well known to her and the woman now fighting for her life is Beth's best friend.

Intelligently woven within the police investigation into Kate Marshall's attack is the story of Mae and Blanche Lethbridge, a mother and daughter who also live in Stonesend and who seem to have more than their share of troubles. Their individual stories become more and more fascinating as the mystery continues. 

Beautifully written, with fascinating characters who all seem to have something to hide, I raced through the story in quick time, eager to put together all the jigsaw puzzle pieces of this clever crime thriller. By the end of the story, I could quite easily see this developed into a crime series as I am sure there is more to explore in the relationship between DI Tom Miller and DS Beth Harper.

The cleverness of the plot, and the tense, and at times, quite shocking revelations certainly make The Lies She Told into an intriguing and tightly plotted mystery.

About the Author

Lynda Renham is author to many popular romantic comedy and gripping psychological thriller novels. She lives in Oxford, UK. She has appeared on BBC radio discussion programs and is a prolific blogger, Twitter and when not writing can usually be found wasting her time on Facebook.

Twitter @Lyndarenham #TheLiesSheTold

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Amazon UK

📖 Book Review ~ Catch as Catch Can by Malcolm Hollingdrake

 

Hobeck Books
April 2021

The Merseyside Crime Series #1

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book

A mutilated body apparently washed up on a windswept beach…

A violent criminal gang preys on moped riders across the area…

A teenage girl is desperate to escape sexual exploitation…

It’s a tough introduction to Merseyside for Detective Inspector April Decent, who’s just arrived from her native Yorkshire. Together with new colleague Skeeter Warlock, Decent quickly discovers there’s a sinister link between them all, one that will bring them face-to-face with some uncomfortable home truths.

Catch as Catch Can is the first in the Merseyside Crime Series from Malcolm Hollingdrake – bestselling author of the Harrogate Crime Series.

📖 My Thoughts..

Detective Inspector April Decent has her work cut out when she arrives in Merseyside to take over an investigative team of detectives who are already a tight knit group. However, the discovery of a mutilated body on the beach at Crosby only lends a sense of urgency to the department especially when links are discovered to a criminal gang who seem to be terrorizing the streets of Liverpool.

It's been great fun getting to know this interesting bunch of detectives who are not only embroiled in a complicated investigative case but who must also get to know how their new boss operates. Prominent in the team is the imaginatively named DS Skeeter Warlock, who along with DI April Decent doesn't suffer fools, and who, with the rest of the team, is equally determined to rid the Liverpool streets of the worst kind of villain, namely those who prey on the weak and vulnerable. 

The story moves strongly and swiftly, sometimes getting the perspective of the crime gangs as they go about their criminal activity, and also that of the investigative team as they do their best to bring the perpetrators to justice.

It has been exciting to spend time in Merseyside with this new crimes series with its setting in a city I know well and the beach in Crosby I have visited many times. Thankfully, I have never made a gruesome discovery but I enjoyed how the author brought Antony Gormley's Another Place to life with its shifting sands and ever changing atmosphere. The city of Liverpool, such an important character in the novel, comes vibrantly alive, the scouse sense of deprecating humour, the mean and moody streets and the intricate twists and turns, all add a sense of realism to the sinister activity which is affecting city life.

Well written, with a fine eye for detail and great local knowledge of this part of the North West, Catch as Catch Can gets this series off to a great start. I look forward to meeting DI Decent and DS Warlock again in Syn, the next book in the Merseyside Crime Series.

About the Author

You could say that the writing was clearly on the wall for anyone born in a library that they might aspire to be an author but to get to that point Malcolm Hollingdrake has travelled a circuitous route.

Malcolm worked in education for many years, even teaching for a period in Cairo before he started writing, a challenge he had longed to tackle for more years than he cares to remember. He is the author of the popular Harrogate series featuring DCI Cyril Bennett along with this new Merseyside crime series.

Website

Facebook

Twitter @MHollingdrake

Amazon UK

@HobeckBooks

📖 Book Review ~ Betrayed by Roberta Kray

Sphere
18 March 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

After losing her mum in a tragic accident, Chrissy Moss fought to survive on one of the East End’s most notorious estates. When a fifteen-year-old girl disappears, hours after delivering a message for a local gang leader, the residents take the law into their own hands, causing buried secrets to resurface.

And you must fight to survive.

With rumours flying about the girl’s disappearance, the truth about Chrissy’s mother is called into question, and Chrissy begins to suspect her death was no accident: it was murder. But people on the estate are refusing to talk, and to find answers Chrissy must unravel an age-old web of deceit that runs right into the heart of London’s East End.

As Chrissy grows nearer to the truth, she unwittingly inches closer to danger. Could it be that she, like her mother, has put her trust in the wrong person?

📖 My thoughts...

Chrissy Moss and her two teenage friends are whiling away a boring Sunday afternoon when the arrival of a handsome older boy shakes them out of their lethargy. When he asks them to deliver a message, this, seemingly innocent action, sets off a chain of events which has repercussions for each of the girls' in the future but it also has links to hidden secrets which have been buried for far too long. 

Not for the faint hearted, Betrayed brings into sharp focus a rundown London estate where neither hope nor charity is allowed to linger and where poverty and abusive behaviour is considered normal. Chrissy and her friends seem to be caught in a quagmire with no escape, so when one of them goes missing, it's only a matter of time before the tinder box of unrest and disquiet goes out of control.

Filled with an abundance of twists and turns, Betrayed rolls along with gusto, cleverly moving forwards in time as we get to know Chrissy, the feisty protagonist of the story, in some detail and it is her voice which comes across loud and clear as she tries to make sense of what happened on that fateful Sunday in 1975, when her best friend went missing.

In Betrayed, the author brings to life the seamier side of life in London's East End with a sense of drama and intrigue and with a palpable tension which lasts from first page to last.

About the Author

Through her marriage to Reggie Kray, Roberta Kray has a unique and authentic insight into London’s East End. Roberta met Reggie in early 1996 and they married the following year; they were together until Reggie’s death in 2000. Roberta is the author of many previous bestsellers including No Mercy, Dangerous Promises, Exposed and Survivor.

Twitter @LittleBrownUK

📖 Book Review ~ The Night Hawk by Elly Griffiths

 

Quercus

Hardback 1 February 2021
Paperback edition 8 July 2021

Dr Ruth Galloway returns to the moody and beautiful landscape of North Norfolk to confront another killer. A devastating new case for our favourite forensic archaeologist in this acclaimed and bestselling crime series.

The Night Hawks, a group of metal detectorists, are searching for buried treasure when they find a body on the beach in North Norfolk. At first Nelson thinks that the dead man might be an asylum seeker but he turns out to be a local boy, Jem Taylor, recently released from prison. Ruth is more interested in the treasure, a hoard of Bronze Age weapons. Nelson at first thinks that Taylor's death is accidental drowning, but a second death suggests murder.

Nelson is called to an apparent murder-suicide of a couple at the isolated Black Dog Farm. Local legend talks of the Black Shuck, a spectral hound that appears to people before they die. Nelson ignores this, even when the owner's suicide note includes the line, 'He's buried in the garden.' Ruth excavates and finds the body of a giant dog.

All roads lead back to this farm in the middle of nowhere, but the place spells serious danger for anyone who goes near. Ruth doesn't scare easily. Not until she finds herself at Black Dog Farm.

📖 My thoughts..

The Night Hawks is the thirteenth book in the Ruth Galloway series of crime novels and as always this story gets off to a dramatic start when a group of metal detectorists, who call themselves The Night Hawks, discover the body of a young man in an isolated spot on the beach alongside some buried treasure which may well be artifacts from the Bronze Age. 

Bringing forensic archaeologist, Ruth Galloway into the case means that she is, once again, working alongside DI Harry Nelson and his investigative team as they seek to discover more about the victim. As if this wasn't complicated enough the whole investigation becomes even more sinister with the discovery of  two bodies in an isolated farmhouse, known locally as Black Dog Farm, a darkly sinister place where unusual things have happened before. That these unrelated deaths may be linked in some way is what makes this such a fascinating and complex crime story.

The Ruth Galloway series is by far my favourite crime series and I devour the books in the space of one sitting as they are, in my opinion, unputdownable. Having been a fan from the very first book , meeting up with Ruth and Harry in each successive story is like meeting up with your old friends. I enjoy how the author intersperses details of Ruth and Harry's complex relationship into the story as well as bringing back all the supporting characters, especially Cathbad and Judy, who are such an integral part of the story.

The plot in The Night Hawks is as complex as ever and the author deftly weaves together several complex story threads, gradually increasing the tension, until in the latter part of the novel the danger is ramped up to high and both Ruth and Harry have to find their inner reserves of strength in order to keep one step ahead of someone who really does want to see them come to harm.

This may well be the thirteenth book but the series hasn't lost any of its freshness nor its appeal to readers and if you haven't started this series then I do urge you go to the beginning and work your way through some excellent crime novels.

About the Author

Elly Griffiths was born in London. She worked in publishing for many years. Her bestselling series of Dr Ruth Galloway novels, featuring a forensic archaeologist are set in Norfolk.The series has won the CWA Dagger in the library, and has been shortlisted three times for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of theYear. Her Stephens and Mephisto series is based in 1950s Brighton. She lives near Brighton with her husband and their two children.

Twitter @ellygriffiths #TheNightHawks

@QuercusBooks

📖 Featured Book of the Month ~ Exit by Belinda Bauer

Bantam Press
21 January 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE MURDER . . .

Pensioner Felix Pink is about to find out that it’s never too late . . . for life to go horribly wrong.

When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he’s there to perform an act of charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath . . .

But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police – after making the biggest mistake of his life.

Now his world is turned upside down as he must find out if he's really to blame, or if something much more sinister is at play. All while staying one shaky step ahead of the law.

📖 My thoughts..

Septuagenarian Felix Pink is just your average pensioner wearing a beige jacket who sits compassionately waiting whilst some very sick people take their dying breaths. He's not by their side to help their demise in any way but when the sad affair is over, Felix calmly packs away the detritus of his presence and steals away never to be seen again, that is, until one day when it all goes horribly wrong.  

It's been a while since I read a crime thriller which made me laugh out loud but from the moment I met Felix I knew that he was going to fully occupy my thoughts for the time it took to read this excellent story. Felix is just so inoffensively ordinary that you can't help but love him and that's where the absolute strength of this story lies in that everyone is just so ordinary, and yet the author brings out all the subtle nuances of their quirky personalities with a delicious sense of mischief,  and a real talent for making the ordinary become absolutely extraordinary.

Belinda Bauer shows that it is perfectly possible to juggle both humour and tragedy and still write a daring crime story. There's a lightness of touch throughout which allows the really dark moments in Exit to have the desired impact whilst at the same time softening the blow with something deliciously daft which makes you laugh out loud. I thought I knew where the story was heading but I really didn't and I loved it all the more because I didn't see what was coming.

Reading Exit over the past few days has been a real delight which is why I have no hesitation in making it my Featured Book of the Month for February.

Exit was published on the 21st January and is available now in ebook and hardback from all good book retailers.

About the Author

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa and now lives in Wales. She worked as a journalist and a screenwriter before finally writing a book to appease her nagging mother. With her debut, Blacklands, Belinda was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work in 2013. Her fourth novel Rubbernecker was voted 2014 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2018 her eighth novel, Snap, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Her books have been translated into 21 languages.

@PenguinUKBooks #Exit

📖 Blog Tour ~ Into the Woods by David Mark

 

Delighted to be part of the blog tour today

📖

Aria & Aries
Head of Zeus
21 January 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

If you go into the woods, you're in for a dark surprise.

Thirty years ago, three girls followed a stranger into the woods. Only two returned. The surviving pair have never been able to remember what happened or what the fate of the third girl was. Local rumours talk of hippies and drugs and mystic rituals, but no one has learned the truth.

This story is just what Rowan Blake needs. He's in debt, his journalistic career is in tatters – as well as his damaged body – and he's retreated to the Lake District to write. Yet even Rowan isn't prepared for the evil he is about to unearth, for the secrets that have been buried in that wood for far too long...

 📖 My Thoughts...

As the story begins Rowan Blake is in the Lake District, sheltering from the pitfalls of his life at the wonderfully named Bilberry Byre, supported by his hippy sister, Serendipity, who seems to be his go-to person when his life gets a little rough. That Blake is a belligerent man who is prone to moods of despair comes across from the outset and yet for all his moods he a likeable man with huge potential.

That Blake has hit rock bottom is obvious for although an accomplished writer and journalist his last two true crime books, whilst critically acclaimed, haven't brought in the sales he so desperately needs to survive. Having been badly injured due to a recent altercation, Blake finds that he relies heavily on both his sister, and his young niece, Snowdrop, herself budding journalist, which doesn't help either his irascible moods, or his peace of mind. 

Then out of the blue, Blake's interest in piqued by a thirty year old local story involving three young girls who disappeared for a time into the woods with a stranger but only two of them ever returned. Blake sets out to find out just what happened to the missing girl with dangerous consequences. There is much to learn as the investigation is far from straightforward and the assorted characters who flit into and out of the story each bring their own particular skill to the story. The complexity of what is being uncovered takes some concentration and the dark and brooding northern background only adds to the dark and disturbing feel of the story.

After something of a slow start the book picks up pace as the story progresses, and the dark and sinister edge continues throughout. As Into the Woods is the first book in a proposed trilogy, it will be interesting to see where this talented writer takes the story to next time.

About the Author

David Mark spent more than fifteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crimereporter with theYorkshire Post. His writing is heavily influenced by the court cases hecovered: the defeatist and jaded police officers; the competent and incompetent investigators;the inertia of the justice system and the sheer raw grief of those touched by savagery andtragedy.He writes the McAvoy series, historical novels and psychological suspense thrillers.DarkWinterwas selected for the Harrogate New Blood panel (where he was Reader in Residence)and was a Richard & Judy pick and aSunday Timesbestseller. He has also written for the stage,for a Radio 4 drama (A Marriage of Inconvenience) and has contributed articles and reviews toseveral national and international publications. He is a regular performer at literary festivalsand also teaches creative writing.

Twitter@davidmarkwriter #IntotheWoods

Website

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Head of Zeus @AriesFiction

📖 Book Review ~ The Museum of Desire by Jonathan Kellerman

Arrow Books

12 November 2021

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

ONE WILD PARTY. FOUR COUNTS OF MURDER.

A mansion in Beverly Hills is leased out to host an event wild enough to herald the end of days.

The next day there isn’t a living soul to be seen. In the driveway sits a super-stretch limo, unlocked, with four bodies inside it. Nothing links the victims together. Each has been killed in a different way.

Now it’s up to brilliant psychologist Alex Delware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to begin their grisliest and most baffling case yet.

As they struggle to make sense of the mass slaying, they will be forced to confront a level of evil that nothing can prepare them for.

📖 My thoughts..

I'm very late to the party with this series as Museum of Desire is now the #35 book in the Alex Delaware series and as this is my first time reading of the partnership between psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis I entered this 35th crime scene with an air of trepidation just in case I couldn't pick up the back story. I needn't have worried as from the dramatic start to the story, with the discovery of a gruesome crime scene, I was completely hooked in by the story.

 

That this is a complex murder investigation is obvious as the story gets under way. Four bodies, all seemingly unconnected to each other, are found after a party has taken place at a prestigious mansion in Beverley Hills, and the more Sturgis investigates the more questions are raised which is why he relies heavily on psychologist Delaware helping out with profiling the perpetrator of this heinous crime. Both Delaware and Sturgis work well together as each complement the other and when one starts to falter the other gives the much needed boost needed to carry on with the complex investigation.

The story moves along at a cracking pace and there is never a moment when the momentum lapses or the tension lessens and I found that I really couldn't stop reading until I had discovered just why these disparate characters all ended up dying together in such dreadful circumstances. The author writes with knowledgeable conviction and has obviously invested such time and energy into the series that everything just gels beautifully together.

Museum of Desire is a fast action crime thriller with a decidedly gritty edginess so it's not for the faint hearted. However, I am sure that fans of the Alex Delaware series will find much to enjoy in this latest crime investigation.

About the Author

Jonathan Kellerman is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher's Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer's Daughter.

Website

@ArrowBooks

Publication Day Review ~ The Other People by C J Tudor

Penguin UK
Michael Joseph
23 January 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this book

She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room . . .

Driving home one night, stuck behind a rusty old car, Gabe sees a little girl's face appear in the rear window.

She mouths one word: 'Daddy.'

It's his five-year-old daughter, Izzy.

He never sees her again.

Three years later, Gabe spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, searching for the car that took his daughter, refusing to give up hope, even though most people believe that Izzy is dead.

What did I think about it..

In April 2016, Gabe was travelling home on the northbound stretch of the M1, returning to his wife and daughter, when he has a fleeting a glimpse of a little blonde head in the back of the clapped out car in front of him who looks remarkably like his five-year old daughter, Izzy. The rational part of his mind tells him that this couldn’t be possible, as Izzy is safely at home with her mummy, but the little blonde girl looks so much like Izzy...

What the follows is a creepy and menacing story which takes us on the nightmare journey that quickly becomes Gabe’s life. The only reason for his meagre existence is to find out what happened to his wife and daughter on that fateful night in April 2016, the night his life became a living nightmare. Gabe is doomed to travel up and down the motorway, forever searching for Izzy, a futile journey which is both heartrending and heartbreaking.

I’ve read The Other People with my heart beating a staccato, clicking the kindle pages faster and faster in order to understand the depth of Gabe’s utter despair and rationalise the insidious evil of the Other People.I’m conscious that I can’t say much about the story without giving far too many plot secrets away and this is one twisty turns story which deserves to be read without any spoilers.

The story draws you in with the depth of its emotion and the author very cleverly reveals just enough information at the right time, drip, drip, dripping little clues and small nuances which creep and crawl into your mind so that it becomes impossible to put the story down for more than a few minutes at a time.

The Other People is a very clever thriller which grabs your attention right from the very first sentence and doesn’t let you go until the chilling end of this fabulous story.

About the Author

C. J. Tudor's love of writing, especially the dark and macabre, started young. When her peers were reading Judy Blume, she was devouring Stephen King and James Herbert. Over the years she has had a variety of jobs, including trainee reporter, radio scriptwriter, dog walker, voiceover artist, television presenter, copywriter and, now, author. Her first novel, The Chalk Man, was a Sunday Times bestseller and has sold in over forty countries.

Twitter @CJTudor #TheOtherPeople

@PenguinUKBooks

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Blog Tour ~ All the Rage by Cara Hunter

Thrilled to be part of this Blog Tour for this exciting crime series

Penguin Random House
23 January 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

History doesn't repeat itself. Does it?

A distressed teenage girl is found on the outskirts of Oxford. The story she tells is terrifying: grabbed off the street, a plastic bag forced over her head, then driven somewhere remote and subjected to an assault.

DI Adam Fawley is doing the best he can to investigate, but the teenager refuses to press charges. All he can do is try to ignore the sickening feeling he's seen something like this before...

But when another girl goes missing, Fawley knows his time is running out.

Because if he ignores the past any longer, this girl may not be coming back.

What did I think about it..

All the Rage sees DI Adam Fawley and his investigative team once again embroiled in a complicated and complex mystery which seems to have a foothold in the past, and yet, the situation in the present is very much central and pivotal to the story as a whole.

A teenager is found in a distressed state but when questioned Faith Appleford refuses to press charges despite the attack being extremely brutal. Faith has her own personal reasons for this lack of cooperation which further complicates an already difficult case. When another girl goes missing, DI Fawley realises that old secrets may well emerge in the race to bring the perpetrator to justice.

The story is suspenseful, dark and complicated and is everything, and more, from what we have come to expect from this series and this talented author. I've read the previous three books and thoroughly enjoy the way the author brings each of the characters to life, especially DI Fawley, who like all lead detectives, is something of a flawed character with a tragic past. However, Fawley is also a very realistic and believable character with an inbuilt integrity which shines through despite the appalling cases he, and his team, get to investigate.

All the Rage, as is usual with this series, had me trying to second all the way through, and just when I thought that I had the plot sussed, it would veer off in another unexpected direction so that I really didn’t see where it was heading, and that’s what makes this series so appealing. All the Rage has all the elements needed for a suspenseful crime read - complex, gripping, and totally unputdownable.

About the Author

Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels Close to Home, In the Dark and No Way Out, all featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019 and No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara's novels have sold more than three quarters of a million copies worldwide. Cara Hunter lives in Oxford, on a street not unlike those featured in her books.

You can sign up for Cara's newsletter by clicking here

Twitter @CaraHunterBooks #AlltheRage

@PenguinUKBooks

Blog Tour ~ The Other You by J S Monroe

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of this blog tour

Head of Zeus
9 January 2020

My thanks to the publishers and Midas PR for my copy of this book
and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police as a Super Recogniser, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.

At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health, in his high-tech, modernist house on the Cornish coast. When she’s with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.

Until, one day, Kate looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor. A doppelgänger. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?

Gripping, emotive, original and complex, The Other You is a psychological thriller that explores memory and identity, paranoia and pretence – and asks whether we ever truly know the people we love.

What did I think about it..

After a devastating car accident, Kate struggles to put the pieces of her life back togther, but she does so safe in the knowledge that her boyfriend Rob is going to be there for her and has her best interests at heart. Living in Rob's beautiful hi-tech house on the Cornish coast gives Kate the opportunity to rebuild her life, however, all is not well in this Cornish paradise and when some odd things starts to happen, Kate starts to look again at her relationship with Rob.

What then follows is a clever psychological suspense story that looks at the issues of trust and deception and which follows the trajectory of Kate's life very closely especially as she tries to understand a series of bewildering turn of events which threaten her safety. The story moves along at a cracking pace and I was soon gripped by what was happening in Kate's life. Her unique skill as a Super Recogniser, which is the ability to recognise individual facial characteristics from hundreds of random faces, is an absolutely fascinating concept, and the author works this, very cleverly, into the narrative.

The Other You is a fast action and pacy psychological suspense story which had me on the edge of my seat. I had no idea where the story was heading which makes the final denouement, when it comes, all the more terrifying.

About the Author

J.S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. His psychological thriller Find Me became a bestseller in 2017, and, under the name Jon Stock, he is also the author of five spy thrillers. He lives in Wiltshire, with his wife and children.

Website

Twitter @JSThrillers #TheOtherYou

@HoZ_Books

@midaspr

Book Review ~ The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

Gordon Tilson is a lonely widower who befriends a young woman online. When her sister is injured in a car accident, he sends her thousands of dollars to cover the hospital bill and runs off to Ghana to surprise his new love. But he soon disappears without a trace…

Frustrated by the inadequacies of the local police in Accra, his son Derek turns to a PI agency for assistance where there is a new detective on the scene determined to prove her worth…

What did I think about it..

The Missing American is an interesting crime novel which is set in Ghana, a place the author obviously knows well, and he puts this knowledge to good use in the way that the place and the people are made to feel authentic.  

It took me a little time to settle into the story as there is a lot going on and quite a few characters to get to grips with, however, once the story started to take off and I became more invested in the characters I started to settle into the story with more interest. The private detective connected with this complicated case is Emma Djan, she's an interesting character and her search for the eponymous missing American takes her into the dark and dangerous world of internet crime and her quest to root out corruption makes for interesting reading.

The author writes well and brings a complexity to the story, handling the crime at the heart of the novel in a competent way. There's a sense of mystery throughout the story and the author does a tidy job of bringing all the pieces of the puzzle together, I enjoyed trying to second guess where the story was heading.

The Missing American is the start of a new series of crime novels featuring Emma Djan.

About the Author

Kwei Quartey was born in Ghana, but moved to the USA to complete his medical training at a time of political unrest between students and the then military government, He practiced as physician for more than twenty five years while simultaneously writing, before deciding to become a full time novelist in 2018. His previous work has been published to great critical acclaim and had appeared on the Los Angeles best seller list.

@Kwei_Quarty

@AllisonandBusby

Publication Day Review ~ Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson

Headline
9 January 2020

My thanks to the publishers and Annabelle at edpr for my copy of this book

Pieta has a secret . . . Ten years ago, Pieta was kidnapped by ‘The Blindfolder’; a man who said he wouldn’t kill her if she kept her eyes closed for 48 hours. She never told anyone what happened to her, vowing to move on with her life. But when her attacker starts hunting down his past victims, Pieta realises she may finally be forced to tell her deepest secrets to stay alive..

Jody has a secret . . . Fifteen years ago, policewoman Jody made a terrible mistake that resulted in a serial killer known as ‘The Blindfolder’ escaping justice. When Jody discovers journalist Pieta survived his attack, she realises she may finally have found a way to catch him. But that would mean endangering innocent people..

What did I think about it..

Tell Me Your Secret is a truly sinister story which pulls at your imagination right from the beginning, and I think, and I've read lots of this author's work over the last few years, that this one really is one of her best.

Two fascinating women take the lead role, Pieta, is a damaged survivor of the man who has been nicknamed The Blindfolder, a kidnapper who threatens his victims with death if they open their eyes during the 48 hours of their dreadful ordeal. Jody is the police officer who is racing against time to bring this deadly perpetrator to justice before he strikes again. That Pieta is a survivor is obvious from the start, she's a feisty young woman who is doing the best she can to keep herself and her child safe but when The Blindfolder starts to resurface she is truly terrified of reliving her past experiences.

The story moves along at a cracking pace and the individual chapters from both Pieta and Jody give a real insight into the damage which has been done to both of these women. The reasons for both of their interest in this case becomes deadly apparent as the story progresses, and as the web gets tighter and tighter, so the story gets more and more convoluted.

I raced thorough Tell Me Your Secret in a matter of hours as I really couldn't put the book down until I had discovered the whole of the story in all of its fascinating detail.

About the Author

Dorothy Koomson is an award-winning, global bestselling author whose novels include the Sunday Times bestsellers The Friend, That Girl from Nowhere, The Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before, The Chocolate Run and My Best Friend’s Girl. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages with sales that exceed 2 million copies in the UK alone. Dorothy’s books are powerful, thought-provoking and compelling ‘emotional thrillers’ where moral dilemmas are central and where the complex emotions of family and friendships are explored. Her third book, My Best Friend’s Girl, was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads of 2006, and her novels The Ice Cream Girls and The Rose Petal Beach were both shortlisted for the British Book Awards in 2010 and 2013, respectively. 

A TV adaptation loosely based on The Ice Cream Girls was first shown on ITV1 in 2013. Her novels have all been Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers including That Girl from Nowhere, When I Was Invisible, The Friend and Tell Me Your Secret. Dorothy was a 2018 Quick Reads author with The Beach Wedding which was also selected as a World Book Night giveaway title in the same year, with The Ice Cream Girls a 2019 World Book Night title. 

Passionate about the importance of reading and literacy, Dorothy is a regular speaker in libraries and at festivals and supports the work of the National Literacy Trust, an independent charity that transforms lives through literacy www.literacytrust.org.uk and Little Green Pig www.littlegreenpig.org.uk, a Brighton and Hove based charity that offers free writing workshops for young people in need. Dorothy lives in Brighton (well, Hove, actually) and the city is an ever-present character in her novels.

Twitter @DorothyKoomson #TellMeYourSecret

@Headline

@ed_pr

Review ~ Body Breaker by M W Craven

Constable
Little Brown
9 January 2020

Avison Fluke #2

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book

The second dark and twisted thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, the acclaimed author of The Puppet Show.,

Investigating how a severed hand ends up on the third green of a Cumbrian golf course is not how Detective Inspector Avison Fluke has planned to spend his Saturday. So when a secret protection unit from London swoops in quoting national security, he’s secretly pleased.

But trouble is never far away. A young woman arrives at his lakeside cabin with a cryptic message: a code known to only a handful of people and it forces Fluke back into the investigation he’s only just been barred from.

In a case that will change his life forever, Fluke immerses himself in a world of New Age travellers, corrupt cops and domestic extremists. Before long he’s alienated his entire team, has been arrested under the Terrorism Act – and has made a pact with the Devil himself. But a voice has called out to him from beyond the grave. And Fluke is only getting started…

What did I think about it..

When a severed hand is found on the third green of Cockermouth Golf Club it leads DI Avison Fluke and the Force Major Incident Team into a very dark and dangerous investigation which has its roots in Cumbria but which takes Fluke into some of the darker areas of his past. There's a discussion amongst the FMIT in Body Breaker about who it was who said that 'golf is a good walk spoiled' and regardless of who was responsible for the phrase there's no doubt that the round of golf at the start of this novel is one that the golfers, and detectives, won't forget in a hurry.

By any stretch of the imagination Body Breaker is a powerful thriller. It's filled with all the twists and turns we have come to expect from this talented writer, with a cast of returning characters who literally leap fully formed from the page. The plot, as ever, moves along at a cracking pace,  and as we learned from the first book in the series, Fluke is a detective who does things entirely his own way which sometimes means acting in an entirely unorthodox manner in order to get results, but hey, this is fiction after all, and a flawed and unconventional lead detective adds a fascinating dimension to another gritty murder investigation, which has more than hint towards terrorist activity.

This second book in the series is no less convoluted than the first, and whilst it can be read as a stand alone story, there are some finer points of character progression which would be entirely lost without prior knowledge, so my recommendation is that you should start with Born in a Burial Gown and enjoy this excellent series from the start.


Originally published in 2015, the first two novels in the Fluke series are being reissued on the 9th January.

About the Author

M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle, running away to join the army at the tender age of sixteen. He spent the next ten years travelling the world having fun, leaving in 1995 to complete a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse. Thirty-one years after leaving Cumbria, he returned to take up a probation officer position in Whitehaven, eventually working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge, accepted redundancy and became a full-time author. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals . . .

Website

Twitter @MWCravenUK 

@TheCrimeVault

Amazon UK

Review ~ Born in a Burial Gown by M W Craven

Constable
Little Brown
9 January 2020

Avison Fluke #1

My thanks to the author and publisher for my copy of this book

The first gritty thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, the acclaimed author of The Puppet Show.

Detective Inspector Avison Fluke is a man on the edge. He has committed a crime to get back to work, concealed a debilitating illness and is about to be made homeless. Just as he thinks things can’t get any worse, the body of a young woman is found buried on a Cumbrian building site.

Shot once in the back of the head, it is a cold, calculated execution. When the post-mortem reveals she has gone to significant expense in disguising her appearance, Fluke knows this is no ordinary murder.

With the help of a psychotic ex-Para, a gangland leader and a woman more interested in maggots than people, Fluke must find out who she was and why she was murdered before he can even think about finding her killer…

What did I think about it..

Whenever I visit the English Lake District I am in awe of its unspoiled beauty, the majesty of its hills and mountains and the splendid isolation of its hidden crags. Born in a Burial Gown has its focus in Cumbria, as this is the place that Detective Avison Fluke calls home, however, we are about to discover that there are darker elements at play in this beautiful part of the country.

Born in a Burial Gown is the first in the Fluke series, so there's a certain amount of getting to know the main characters. Detective Inspector Avison Fluke, the lead detective of the Force Major Incident Team, is a fascinating character, he's stubborn, unpredictable and a bit of a maverick and I warmed to him immediately. Fluke is everything you want in a lead detective but from the outset we realise that all is not well in his world, however, his work ethic exceeds his own personal cost and from the start we understand that Fluke is a detective who isn't in the business of messing around when there's a murder investigation to get sorted.

The mystery at the heart of the novel is complex and convoluted, both gritty and dark in equal measure with a realistic sense of the unpredictability of a police investigative team working together. The characters who make up the FMIT are an odd bunch and at first glance seem like a team of misfits and yet, they all have their own individual strengths, and none more so than Fluke's oppo, DS Matt Towler, who has a similar military background to Fluke and a shared past which is alluded to as the story progresses.

I'm deliberately not sharing any spoilers about Born in a Burial Gown except to say that it is a really cleverly constructed murder/mystery and a cracking good introduction to what promises to be an addictive crime series.

Originally published in 2015, the first two novels in the Fluke series are being reissued on the 9th January.

About the Author

M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle, running away to join the army at the tender age of sixteen. He spent the next ten years travelling the world having fun, leaving in 1995 to complete a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse. Thirty-one years after leaving Cumbria, he returned to take up a probation officer position in Whitehaven, eventually working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later he took the plunge, accepted redundancy and became a full-time author. He now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals . . .

Website

Twitter @MWCravenUK 

@TheCrimeVault

Amazon UK