I’m halfway to my Goodreads 2021 target of 100 books!
With 50 (mostly) great books under my belt, I thought it was time to take stock and pick my favourites so far.
These five in particular have helped light up my 2021…
I've included affiliate links in this post - thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.Continue reading Woah-oh, I’m halfway there!
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Bone Code’ by Kathy Reichs, the latest in the forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan series of thrillers.
With thanks to Random Things Tours and publisher Simon and Schuster for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to the lovely people at Harper Collins for inviting me on the blog tour for ‘The Therapist’ by B A Paris, a tense psychological suspense novel that is out today!
My Review:
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘The Therapist’ by B A ParisI have a huge apology to make. This book has sat on my NetGalley shelf for a long time and I should have read and reviewed it much earlier. Not least because I have missed out on reading this until now. This book was published in 2019 by Collins Crime Club, part of Harper Collins.
This is the third in Bonnie MacBird’s excellent series featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. I’ve now read all four books (the latest, ‘The Three Locks’, has just been published – you can read my blog tour review here). I think they can be read in any order as, although there are some recurring characters in the books aside from the expected ones, I don’t think there are spoilers.
Continue reading ‘The Devil’s Due’ by Bonnie MacBirdThis book was published on 11th March by Canelo.
I’ll admit that I was intrigued by the prospect of this book – a crossover of Agatha Christie’s ‘And Then There Were None’ and Love Island! The idea of a murder mystery under the all-seeing eye of a reality TV programme was definitely an attraction as I’d read and enjoyed ‘Dead Famous’ by Ben Elton on a similar theme many years ago.
This book centres on an ex-police officer, Kimberley King, who is invited to take place on a reality TV programme on a remote Greek island. The show – ‘LoveWrecked’ – is scheduled to have a number of young, beautiful people take part, but only a few make it to the island before it is cut off from the outside world. Along with the show’s producers and a cameraman, the contestants are pulled into a dark and disturbing situation when corpses start turning up with alarming regularity. Who is the Judge pulling all the strings and will anyone survive?
This was an engaging and fun read – I raced through it to find out what happened. It is cleverly plotted and fast-paced – I liked the fact that the narrative was broken up with chapters of news reports or social media feeds or emails. I also enjoyed the fact that – like Kimberley King – I was useless at working out the solution and was kept guessing to the end.
I found I didn’t have much sense of the characters as individuals, although I guess that is partly due to the reality TV element – how much do you really know about people just from watching them interact? The focus is mainly on Kimberley and you do get a bit more of a sense of her. I think I just accepted that the surface-level characterisation and back-stories were inevitable given the social media and reality TV premise.
Yes, some of it is far-fetched and perhaps doesn’t hold water entirely, but I’d recommend you suspend disbelief and just immerse yourself in the story. There’s certainly plenty to keep you reading – lots of dodgy characters to suspect, lots of twists, lots of deaths. It’s a lively story with a fun setting – so just enjoy!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
If you’d like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Header photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash.
Happy publication day!
This is the third book in the DCI Jonah Sheens series by Gytha Lodge, following on from ‘She Lies in Wait’ and ‘Watching from the Dark’. Both the previous books were excellent, so I was pleased to be granted an advance copy of ‘Lie Beside Me’ for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.
This book opens with a nightmarish scene – a young woman wakes in her bed with a dead man next to her. She doesn’t recognise him and she cannot remember the events of the night before. DCI Sheens and his team at Southampton Police are called in, but by the time they arrive, things have changed…
What follows is a clever police procedural in which Sheens and his team are called upon to investigate some tangled relationships and shady people with things to hide. As they get nearer to the truth of what happened that snowy night in Southampton, the stakes are raised once again and it is clear that the death is part of something much bigger.
As expected, this is a compelling and engaging story that covers all aspects of the police investigation – we see the interviews with suspects, the pathology, the crime scene examination, the digital analysis and the lives of those investigators at the heart of the Southampton team. For crime fiction fans (me included), this is pretty fascinating stuff – although it might not hit the spot for adrenalin junkies who like their reading more on the thriller side of things. There are some genuinely tense and creepy moments, but the focus is the unpacking of the story of what happened on the night in question.
I really liked the way that the narrative shifted between the investigation and a first-person insight into the woman at the centre of the investigation, Louise Reakes. It was interesting to hear how she started to piece together the events of the evening in tandem with the police team.
Normally I prefer crime novels that focus on the investigation and do not dwell too much on the private lives of the police officers. However, there was a sub-plot in this book centred around a female police officer, Juliette Hanson, which I thought was intriguing – I’d love to see her developed as a character even more in the next novel as she felt particularly authentic and convincing.
Overall, this is another excellent addition to the DCI Jonah Sheens series and one that I would recommend. Although this could easily be read as a stand-alone, I would still suggest starting with the first book in the series as it would enhance your understanding of the team dynamics. This is a lively and well-paced story that will keep you turning the pages to the (satisfying) end.
If you would like a copy of this book, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Happy publication day to this brilliant crime fiction book! This is the eighth book in the series featuring DI Gina Harte.
I have read a lot of this series now and they do just seem to keep getting better! The earlier ones in the series focused a lot on Detective Gina Harte’s own personal story but – now this storyline has played out to a greater extent – I love the new focus on the ingenious plotting, creepy scenarios and casts of suspicious characters!
This book opens with the death of a student, Amber, whose body is found in Cleevesford Park – she went out on a date and never returned to her worried housemate. Harte and her team begin their investigations and begin uncovering some weird characters and lots of secrets surrounding the dead woman. The leads begin to mount up and Harte and her team struggle to prioritise their work – but a second disappearance has them scrambling to find connections before there is another murder.
I’m already bought into this series and like the character of DI Gina Harte – she is a likeable character and I also like the fact that she is a strong older women (she has a grown-up daughter) who is in control. Her relationship with her team is positive and (mostly) problem-free, which is great as the focus is on the investigation rather than the police team. The team themselves are often not particularly distinctive, so it was brilliant that one of them got a more important role in the plot this time around.
The plotting itself is cleverly done – there’s always lots happening and plenty of red herrings to fall for. In fact, this series seems to be getting more tense – the sections narrated by Meredith were really quite creepy and kept me on the edge of my seat! I read this book really quickly as I couldn’t wait to find out the next twist.
I’d wholeheartedly recommend this for readers who love police procedurals, especially if a female lead is a draw for you (as it is for me). I’d suggest you start at the beginning of the series really, to fully appreciate the strength of DI Harte, but this would be fine as a stand alone.
Header photo by Bill Oxford on Unsplash.
If you’d like a copy of this fabulous police procedural, please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this excellent police procedural, ‘An Eye for an Eye’ by Carol Wyer. This is the first book in the series to feature DI Kate Young.
This tour was organised by Damp Pebbles. The book was published on 1st February 2021.
Book Blurb:
A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control.
DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest.
But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer might be closer than she ever imagined.
As she works to uncover the truth, Young unravels a network of secrets and lies, with even those closest to her having something to hide. But with her own competence—and her grip on reality—called into question, can she unmask the killer before they strike again?
My Review:
I love detective fiction with a female lead so I was pleased to be invited on the Damp Pebbles blog tour for this book, the first book in a series to feature DI Kate Young. The fact that is it set in Staffordshire – pretty close to my own home ground – was an added bonus!
In this book, DI Kate Young is called back to work after a traumatic incident that has demonstrably clouded her judgement. She is put onto a murder case with a small team – just two colleagues, Emma and Morgan – although it is also clear that senior management within Staffordshire Police are scrutinising her every move.
She is investigating the rather gruesome killing of a local businessman, Alex Corby, who was tortured and killed in his large, remote house. However, as she begins to uncover the events of Alex’s last day, it becomes clear that there are a lot of suspects , secrets and lies to work through – and Kate’s personal life and issues keep threatening to surface too.
I’ll admit I was worried about the PTSD element of the story as this is becoming quite a staple of this type of detective fiction – and, if I’m honest, I prefer my detectives to be a bit more straightforward! However, I needn’t have been concerned – in Wyer’s hands, the cliché of the broken and troubled police officer becomes something more realistic and compelling as we watch Kate struggle with her mental health issues and her loyal team questioning her capability.
What I really enjoyed about the story was the clever plotting. I’ll admit I just about beat Kate to the final solution, but only just! Throughout, I was caught up in the twisty narrative and the ingenious way that the story strands intertwined – there were so many twists that I didn’t see coming and the final denouement was so far from where I thought we would end up when the story began. For that reason, Wyer should be commended for producing a genuinely surprising narrative.
I liked too that the investigations were methodical and logical, something seen as the right way to do things by Kate. There was a real sense of the investigation stopping and starting which felt realistic – the police team hit dead ends as often as they found important clues, although this didn’t slow the pace of the novel at all. In fact, rather a lot happens to keep the story moving…
Overall, I’d recommend this as a clever and engaging piece of crime fiction. For those who love police procedurals (like me!), this is an excellent example of the genre. I really hope that the next DI Kate Young book will be available soon!
About the Author:
USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer writes feel-good comedies and gripping crime fiction.
A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in LITTLE GIRL LOST and demonstrated that stand-up comedian Carol had found her true niche.
To date, her crime novels have sold over 750,000 copies and been translated for various overseas markets.
Carol has been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television. She 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 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.
Social Media:
Website www.carolwyer.co.uk
Blog www.carolwyer.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCarolEWyer/
Twitter https://twitter.com/carolewyer
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/carolwyer
Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/carolewyer
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-wyer-407b1032
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14925467.Carol_Wyer
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj5O-lvkAYO19S0AMW8VqJQ
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2LdJpdV
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/35y4g2j
Publishing Information:
Published in paperback, digital and audio formats by Thomas & Mercer on 1st February 2021
I love crime fiction and was intrigued by the idea of a forensic psychologist being involved in a murder mystery – mainly, I think, because I’m not sure what a forensic psychologist is, but it sounds interesting!
This is the first in the series featuring Will Traynor helping the police with investigations and is an extremely promising start. Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book opens with the brutal murder of a jogger on a popular trail. Her head is removed from the scene in a gruesome and horrifying twist, but forensic investigations of the nearby area uncover a whole host of other problems that need dealing with too. Detective Inspector Bernard Watts is put in charge of the investigation with an inexperienced rookie police officer, PC Chloe Judd, for support. Together, they begin to uncover the truth about the crime, aided by criminologist Will Traynor – who seems to have his own agenda.
This is a well-paced and engaging police procedural. I found that there were plenty of events and twists to keep me reading and enjoyed the interaction between the main characters – including a fabulous and likeable forensics expert, Dr Chong, who I hope features in future books. PC Chloe Judd is also an interesting character and I liked the fact that she is still learning – it was good to see a more insecure and relatable police officer starting to find her feet.
I was less sure about the character of Will Traynor. I thought that he would be more central to the investigation, but actually Watts and Judd are the key figures. He made some interesting observations on the investigation, but also seemed a bit of a liability! I’d be intrigued to see how his story is developed in future books.
Overall, this is a well-written and cleverly-plotted crime novel. I am certainly looking forward to the next book in the series by A J Cross and would recommend this to those who love a twisty police investigation.
If you’d like a copy of this book, published in paperback on 4th February 2021, please use my affiliate link below – thank you for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Header photo with thanks to Ahmed Adly on Unsplash.
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Laura Purcell’s ‘The Shape of Darkness’.
This tour is organised by Random Things Tours and the book is published today (21st January)!
From the Publisher:
As the age of the photograph dawns in Victorian Bath, silhouette artist Agnes is struggling to keep her business afloat. Still recovering from a serious illness herself, making enough money to support her elderly mother and her orphaned nephew Cedric has never been easy, but then one of her clients is murdered shortly after sitting for Agnes, and then another, and another… Why is the killer seemingly targeting her business?
Desperately seeking an answer, Agnes approaches Pearl, a child spirit medium lodging in Bath with her older half-sister and her ailing father, hoping that if Pearl can make contact with those who died, they might reveal who killed them.
But Agnes and Pearl quickly discover that instead they may have opened the door to something that they can never put back.
‘Dripping with atmosphere with a corkscrew plot, Laura Purcell just gets better and better’
STACEY HALLS
‘Darkly addictive and utterly compelling. Reading Laura’s books is like watching a horror movie where you have to keep hiding behind a cushion because you dread what is coming next, but you simply have to find out!’
RUTH HOGAN
‘Wow. I think it’s her best one yet and that’s saying something. A story of a woman haunted in every way possible, I think it’s a future gothic classic’
MARTYN WAITES
My Review:
I’ve loved Laura Purcell’s previous books so I am very grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy – as always, opinions are entirely my own.
Gothic spookiness is really my thing, so I have absolutely lapped up Purcell’s previous books – I particularly liked ‘The Corset’ and ‘Bone China’ where the creepiness focused on inanimate items that seem to have more power than they should. I was expecting something similar from ‘The Shape of Darkness’, but feel that this book delivers something different altogether.
In this novel, our main character, Agnes Darken, is a silhouette artist working in early-Victorian era Bath. She has struggling health and relies on her art to support the family she has been left with after the death of her sister, Constance, a number of years earlier. However, bad things start happening to those who sit for her silhouettes and – as mysterious deaths begin to stack up – she searches for answers from a medium who seems to be able to communicate with the dead. The dead speak through a strange child, Pearl, and Agnes gets caught up in the girl’s own problems with devastating consequences.
One of the real strengths of this book is the way that Purcell ramps up the spookiness. This is a book absolutely packed with memories of the dead and their ghosts – the séance scenes are genuinely creepy and the tension is high for a lot of the novel. It certainly kept me reading as I wanted to understand the strange events and occurrences – as a life long cynic, I was desperately trying to find rational explanations for what was happening (often with no success!)
Another element that I really enjoyed was the sense of mystery – as murder mysteries are my favourite genre, I was absolutely engrossed by trying to work out who was behind the deaths and even if there was a logical pattern or set of clues to latch on to. Every time I felt that I was getting close, Purcell whipped the rug out from under my feet and I would have to start again while balancing the supernatural possibilities. There were a lot of twists and revelations and my head was spinning a bit by the end!
The period details were also well integrated into the novel – it felt like a real historical world, although I don’t know that it was specifically Bath as I don’t know that city. The gloom of the houses, the dirt and danger of the streets, the domestic details – everything felt authentic. In fact, some of it was rather stomach-churning – Pearl’s father’s illness, for example, is described in rather gruesome detail.
I did struggle a little with the fact that Agnes was not a particularly strong character – I like my protagonists with a bit more sass, whereas Agnes was weakened by her recent illness, pining for a man and seemed to mostly accept her role as subservient female. I do understand that this was the societal norm, but I longed for her to stand up and do something at times.
Overall, this is a beautifully written, well-researched and engaging Gothic novel. It hits the spot for those who like a bit of supernatural terror while also being absolutely rooted in the grim everyday realities of those living in fairly poor conditions in the 1850s. It’s cleverly plotted and will certainly keep you racing through the pages to the end.
About the Author:
Laura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs. Her first novel for Raven Books, The Silent Companions, was a Radio 2 and Zoe Ball ITV Book Club pick and was the winner of the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award, while her subsequent books – The Corset and Bone China – established Laura as the queen of the sophisticated, and spooky, page-turner.
laurapurcell.com |@spookypurcell
