book review Archives - The Quick and the Read

Book Review: ‘You Are Here’ by David Nicholls

Ahhh, so I know there’s a lot of fuss about Nicholls’ ‘One Day’ at the moment because of the Netflix series, but that’s not what brought me to this book. I absolutely loved Nicholls’ ‘Starter for Ten’ (great book, lovely film) and hoped for more of the same.

I can confirm that ‘You Are Here’ is also a great book. Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.

This book alternates chapters told by Marnie (long term single and lonely Londoner) and Michael (getting divorced, keen walker and countryside-lover). They’re brought together by a mutual friend on a loooooong walk across the Lake District and then – who knows? – maybe even over to the opposite coast. The epic journey starts with a group of unlikely walkers setting off from the west coast of the UK with accommodation booked along the way. The weather isn’t great, the walkers aren’t all very keen, and gradually the numbers dwindle – allowing new friendships to be built between unlikely characters.

Book Review: ‘A Stranger in the Family’ by Jane Casey

I absolutely love this series! This is Book 11 in the DS Maeve Kerrigan series – and it’s yet another brilliant, tense and precisely-plotted police procedural. You’ll want to clear the diary for this one as you won’t easily put it down.

The story opens with Maeve being called to what seems to be a murder-suicide of an older couple, the Marshalls. However, things don’t quite make sense at the crime scene and the investigation soon becomes a double murder. This would be tragic enough, until the couple’s links to a child’s disappearance 16 years previously are uncovered – and it seems that the motives for the double murder lie in the earlier tragic event. It’s up to Maeve to unravel the truth about the Marshalls and the cold-case of the missing child – as the answers are inextricably joined.

Book Review: ‘Dark Rooms’ by Lynda La Plante

It’s that time again – an update on #TeamTennison and the mission to read all of the Tennison series before the publication of the latest book in summer 2024!

Thanks to Compulsive Readers for my spot on the team and to Zaffre Books for my review copies of the novels. As always, opinions are entirely my own.

So, we’ve got to Book 8, ‘Dark Rooms’, and it’s another gem. It does feel like every book in the series is different and unique – we are a long way from formulaic here!

Book Review: ‘The Haven’ by Fiona Neill

I’ll admit the blurb pulled me into this one – a sixteen year-old girl waking up in the forest with no memory of what happened. She has a head injury and there doesn’t seem to be anyone around…except a police team who visit occasionally and seem terrible at solving things! What happened?!

Book Review: ‘The Second Murderer’ by Denise Mina

It’s a brave author that takes a beloved character and creates a new story for them – and that’s exactly what Denise Mina has done here with Raymond Chandler’s famous private detective, Philip Marlowe.

Marlowe is mulling over a case that he’s closed that doesn’t feel right when he gets a summons to the sprawling Montgomery estate set high above Beverly Hills. The young heiress to the family fortune, Chrissie Montgomery, is missing and Marlowe is asked to find her. However, her elderly and dying father isn’t taking any chances – he’s hired another private detective who Marlowe knows well in order to set the rivals against each other in finding his daughter. As Marlowe gets nearer to the truth, a murder is committed and Marlowe has to consider whether Chrissie really is safest returning to her family.

Book Review: ‘Murder in the Family’ by Cara Hunter

I love Cara Hunter’s police procedurals (featuring DI Adam Fawley) so I was thrilled to get my hands on ‘Murder in the Family’, Hunter’s first standalone novel.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy – opinions are entirely my own.

Book Review: ‘The Hotel’ by Louise Mumford

I’ll admit I totally judged a book by its cover with this one – a spooky hotel with a maze in front of it? Yeah, I’m in! I hadn’t read any books by Louise Mumford before but I’d definitely read more.

Book Review: ‘The Tumbling Girl’ by Bridget Walsh

Brutal murder in a Victorian music hall? A feisty heroine? Humour and twists galore? Definitely count me in!

Thanks to Gallic Books for sending me a copy of this book for review – as always, opinions are my own.

Book Review: ‘Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend’ by Dan Jones

The tagline for this book totally won me over – who doesn’t want to read about ‘gay gods, Sapphic saints and queerness through the ages’? Add in a back-cover mention of Lestat and Louis from ‘Interview with a Vampire’, Virginia Woolf’s ‘Orlando’ and (more classical and more what I expected from the book) Achilles and Patroclus from Homer’s ‘Iliad’ and I’m sold. Sign me up!

Book Review: ‘The Night Watch’ by Neil Lancaster

This was my first book by Neil Lancaster – and I don’t think it will be my last!

The reviews for this series are amazing, so I was pleased to be granted a copy by NetGalley so that I could make up my own mind.

The book opens with the deaths of a high-profile lawyer and one of his past clients, one of Scotland’s most notorious criminals who has just been released from prison. As the bodies begin to stack up, DS Max Craigie starts to suspect that they have a murderer taking revenge on those who have done bad things – a vigilante killer who seems to have insider knowledge of the police’s methods and processes. The investigation team is forced to face the fact that the culprit may be one of them – but how are they going to uncover someone who knows their every move?