March 2022 - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘See No Evil’ by David Fennell

Fennell’s first book, ‘The Art of Death’, was one of my top crime books of last year so I was eagerly awaiting this sequel and a chance to follow the story of DI Grace Archer of London’s Metropolitan Police. Thanks to NetGalley and Zaffre for my copy for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.

Blog Tour: ‘Yinka, Where is your Huzband?’ by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Yinka, Where is your Huzband?’ – thanks to Penguin/Viking Books for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

The story centres on Yinka Oladeji, a thirty-one year old Londoner who is looking for love. Unfortunately, her extended Nigerian family don’t think she has time to waste and are praying for her – while constantly asking the whereabouts of her ‘huzband’. As her friends, cousins and sister get married and start families, Yinka seems to be treading a solitary path. When her cousin Rachel gets engaged, Yinka sets herself a challenge to find a date for the wedding – with some unexpected results.

Book Review: ‘A Flicker in the Dark’ by Stacy Willingham

This book is just so tense! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story focuses on Chloe Davis, the daughter of a man convicted for the abduction and killing of teenage girls in their small town in Louisiana. Twenty years have passed since the murders and Chloe has built a life as a psychologist dealing in trauma in Baton Rouge. Armed with her first-hand experience of traumatic events (and a slight prescription-drug dependency), she is trying to move on with her life and plan her wedding. When teenage girls start to go missing, it seems that Chloe’s past may be catching up with her…

Book Review: ‘The Echo Man’ by Sam Holland

Wow, this is a page turner!

The story begins with a house fire in which Jess Ambrose’s husband is killed – an arson attack which the police blame on Jess, causing her to go on the run from hospital. Disgraced detective Nate Griffin believes that Jess is innocent and tries to help her. Together, Jess and Griffin spot a horrific link between some gruesome and brutal murders. It seems that someone is copying famous serial killer murders from the past…and they aren’t about to stop their reign of terror.

Book Review: ‘The Marmalade Diaries’ by Ben Aitken

Given that Aitken’s previous books have been mainly focused on travel, it would seem that a Covid lockdown might put a crimp in his style.

Not so.

This book covers the period of national lockdown when Aitken, in his thirties, ended up living with 84-year old widow, Winnie Carter. She needed a helping hand round the house, he needed a cheapish room to rent – but neither of them then needed a period of national shutdown to be announced that threw these unlikely housemates together even more intensely!

Blog Tour: ‘A Life for a Life’ by Carol Wyer

Thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours for inviting me to take part in this very exciting blog tour – ‘A Life for a Life’ by Carol Wyer is the third book in the excellent series featuring DI Kate Young.

Blurb:

Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.

When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.

Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.

With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?

My Review:

I’ve followed this series from the start and so was very keen to read the latest instalment – thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours and Carol Wyer for my opportunity to read and review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

This story falls into two main strands and both are pretty tense!

The first is DI Kate Young’s investigation into seemingly random murders happening on her territory. After the first murder – a young man with a hole in his head abandoned at a station – the killings don’t stop and there doesn’t seem to be any pattern in terms of location or victim. How can she catch a killer when they are so unpredictable?

Alongside this, Young is also still continuing her ongoing crusade to get vengeance for her husband’s murder. She has uncovered police corruption at the highest levels and now is unsure of who she can trust – and how she can bring down the man at the heart of the problem.

The police corruption element has been a feature of the past two books so – while it was good to see the climax of that story – it was refreshing to get such an involved and complex serial killer plot alongside. The murder mystery was well-plotted, pacey and hard to look away from – especially when the police team start staking out possible crime scenes and waiting for the killer’s next strike.

DI Kate Young remains an engaging character at the heart of the books. Her grief is portrayed with suitable complexity and her lack of certainty on where to turn for support make her an isolated figure at times – albeit one with steely determination and a willingness to bend rules when needed. Her police team are a mostly likeable bunch – but she is very much the main player in these books.

As always, I really appreciate the setting of these books around Staffordshire, not far from my home. It’s quite engaging (and a bit disturbing) to read about places you know and so I was pleased to see Trentham Shopping Village and Blythe Bridge make an appearance – I’ll never look at these places quite the same again! And I’ll definitely watch out for people lurking with bolt guns!

I’d recommend this to those who are familiar with the series so far – although this would work as a standalone, I think it is much more impactful when viewed within DI Young’s back-story. If you like well-written, tense police procedurals then this is a series that you should not miss.

About the Author:

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer

Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-E-Wyer/221149241263847
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolwyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolewyer

Website : https://www.carolwyer.co.uk

Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894

Amazon US : https://www.amazon.com/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Square Haunting’ by Francesca Wade

Another book that I’m shamefully late in reading – but very glad that I did.

Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review – I also bought a copy of the audiobook from Audible and so my review reflects my experiences of both.

This book centres on Mecklenburgh Square, an address in Bloomsbury, London that was home to five groundbreaking and fascinating women during the interwar years. It’s an interesting idea, that this little corner of London famous for its thinkers and writers, was the shared address of these brilliant women – even though they didn’t live there at the same time and were often resident at very different points in their lives. For all of them, Mecklenburgh Square proved to be the ‘room of one’s own’ (in Virgina Woolf’s words) that gave the women the freedom to develop their careers independently.

(Audio)Book Review: ‘Madhouse at the End of the Earth’ by Julian Sancton

I’m quite obsessed with Antarctica and love historical non-fiction, so this was an obvious choice for me. The book’s subtitle – ‘The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night’ sold it to me instantly!

(Audio)Book Review: ’24 Hours in Ancient Rome’ by Philip Matyszak

I love an Audible bargain and this is one of my best purchases of recent times!

The book covers 24 hours in the life of Ancient Rome, with each ‘hour’ focusing on a different person who lives in the city. We see a diverse selection of people over the course of the day, as well as learn a lot about how the inhabitants of Rome lived. This is clever and entertaining social history.

Blog Tour: ‘The Ethical Stripper’ by Stacey Clare

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Ethical Stripper’ by Stacey Clare.

Thanks to Random Things Tours and Unbound for inviting me onto the tour and the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:

Forget everything you’ve heard about strippers: this book is an antidote to stigma, shame and stereotyping.

How can a feminist also be a stripper? Is stripping sex work? What makes sex work “ethical”?

In this powerful book, Stacey Clare, a stripper with over a decade of experience, takes a detailed look at the sex industry – the reality of the work as well as the history of licensing and regulation, feminist themes surrounding sex work, and stigma. Bringing her personal knowledge of the industry to bear, she offers an unapologetic critique and searing indictment of exploitation and raises the rights
of sex workers to the top of the agenda.

‘The Ethical Stripper’ rejects notions of victimhood, challenges stigma and shame, and unpacks decades of confusion and contradictions. It’s about the sex-work community’s fight for safety and self-determination, and it challenges you to think twice about every newspaper article, documentary and film you have seen about stripping and sex work.

‘The Ethical Stripper’ takes a comprehensive look at sex work, balancing the lived experience of the author with an examination of the different legal frameworks for sex work around the world.