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Shattered Bones (Audiobook) – Kate Bendelow

SOCO Maya Barton is called to a canal where a heavily decomposed male body has been discovered. A bank card belonging to Trevor Dawlish is found in the cadaver’s pocket, and the name matches that of a missing person. All seems straightforward – until Trevor’s wife phones the police to say that Trevor has returned home, leaving Maya and the team wondering who the unknown male is.

When it’s revealed that the male was dead before he entered the water, Maya finds herself with a murder on her hands. But when another body is discovered, the case becomes further complicated. The hope is that facial reconstruction of the first victim will help solve the mystery – but it may lead Maya and her team down an even darker path.

I received a copy of the audiobook from ISIS Audio which allowed me to take part in this audiobook blog tour. My thanks to @DanielleLouis_ for the opportunity to join the Shattered Bones tour.

A body hauled out of the water which is too decomposed to get a clear identification. Who is poor unfortunate? That’s the first challenge which will face SOCO Maya Barton and her colleagues. Once they know who he is they will then have the unenviable task of working out who killed him.

There can be no doubt that the man in the water was murdered then dumped, post-mortem investigation shows he was strangled before entering the water. But cause of death seems to be all Maya and colleagues do know, their mystery man isn’t giving up many clues to his identity.

It could have been so much more simple. The body had a bank card in a pocket of his sodden clothes. Unfortunately the card belonged to Trevor Dawlish and Trevor has gone missing. His wife has seen him just once in the past fortnight when he briefly popped home but the body has been in the water for most, if not all of that two week period so the potential victim becomes a prime suspect. But Trevor is keeping well off the radar, much to the dispair of his wife.

For Maya the complexity of this challenging case is only one of the problems she is facing. Her estranged father is due to be released from prison. He has contacted Maya’s mother to assure her he is a new man and that he poses no threat to Maya or her mother but Maya isn’t convinced. As the story progresses and her father released Maya becomes increasingly concerned her father is lurking and plotting to come after her – is she right?

Shattered Bones was my introduction to Maya Barton but the second story in the series. It works well as a standalone story though and I didn’t feel I wasn’t following any of the plot threads in Shattered Bones because I had missed earlier events. Maya is a fascinating lead character and definitely one I would revisit – the fact she is a SOCO was a welcome change to the usual police procedural too.

I listened to Shattered Bones through an audiobook and, as I have come to expect from ISIS Audio, it was a quality production. The narrator did a fabulous job making Maya and colleagues relatable and engaging. I am a fan of shorter chapters in audiobooks too as it makes it easier to jump in and out of the story and fit in some listening around the school runs and dog walks, Shattered Bones very much ticked this box too.

The story did feel it took a little time to pick up the pace while the characters were introduced and slotted into their respective places. But in terms of a slow burn there came a point when events suddenly ignited and it all kicked off. I was blindsided by where events eventually ended up and was very pleasantly surprised as to how easily I had missed clues. Great fun.

Shattered Bones is available as an audiobook and also in digital and paperback format. You can order a copy here: Shattered Bones (Audio Download): Kate Bendelow, Annabelle Indge, Isis Publishing Ltd: Amazon.co.uk: Audible Books & Originals

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February 28

The Killing Kind – Jane Casey

Ingrid will never forget what John did.
The people he hurt. The way he lied about it so easily. The way she defended him.

Now he’s back.
He says a murderer is after her. He says only he can protect her.

Would you trust him?
The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike…

I received a review copy of The Killing Kind from the publishers. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this tour.

The Killing Kind made me tense as I read. Properly unsettled and uncomfortable. Long before I reached the end of the book I knew I would be looking back on it favorably as The Killing Kind does achieve the tension you look for in a psychological thriller which some books just fail to achieve.

Ingrid is a formidable and confident lawyer. At the start of The Killing Kind we see her shred apart the defence put forward by a woman that claims she is a victim of a dominating and controlling man. Ingrid picks holes in her story and leaves enough doubt for the jury to believe John isn’t a controlling manipulator but she implies the woman is obsessed with him – he is attractive and charming and she has clearly shown feelings for him.

The case ends with success for Ingrid but the police officer that helped arrest John makes her aware he still thinks John is dangerous and tells Ingrid this may have been the best chance to put him in jail.

The timeline of the story does shift through over three years of Ingrid’s life and readers can see how her life pivots from the point she secures John’s freedom. He turns his attention to Ingrid and any feeling of “normal” she may have had is gone.

The Killing Kind shares chapters where Ingrid is experiencing pressure, where she is confronted by her predator, suspects a random incident may he his doing or when she returns home to find the most horrific of discoveries. There are also chapters which are just written logs of harassing telephone calls or a statement taken to support a claim she makes against John. It all becomes increasingly upsetting and you see Ingrid’s confidence whittled away.

I don’t want to dwell too much on events within the book as that takes us too far into spoiler territory. Suffice to say there may be more going on in Ingrid’s life than she realises. You may feel she is making some bad choices and when she talks with John it never seems a good idea. But when you hear his side of some stories you feel he believes there is a twisted logic in his thoughts but you also feel you cannot trust a single word he says. Clever writing and so frustrating when a character doesn’t say or do what you feel is “right”.

The Killing Kind was a terrific read (if uncomfortable at many points). Jane Casey nails the dilemma, terror and absolute vulnerability of Ingrid to make readers understand and sympathise with her predicament and root for her to get her life back on track. But how many will die before that can happen?

The Killing Kind is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-killing-kind/jane-casey/9780008404963

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February 10

A Loyal Traitor – Tim Glister

Duty or honour. Which would you betray?

It’s 1966. London is swinging, and the Cold War is spiralling.

Clear cut lines have faded to grey areas. Whispers of conspiracies are everywhere. Spies on both sides of the iron curtain are running in circles, chasing constant plots and counterplots. And MI5 agent Richard Knox is tired of all of it.

But when Abey Bennett, his CIA comrade in arms, appears in London with a ghost from Knox’s past and a terrifying warning that could change the balance of power in the Cold War for good, he has to fight to save the future.

He must also face an agonising choice: who will he believe, and who will he betray – his duty to his country or his loyalty to his friends?

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley. My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this tour.

I don’t read many spy thrillers these days as I found too many of them were becoming tales of dry, political manoeuvres with clever writing but not much by way of thrills. But A Loyal Traitor may well bring me back to books about the Cold War as this is an exciting, engaging and exceedingly well told story which I absolutely loved.

Tim Glister takes us inside MI5 where lead character Richard Knox works. Knox will cross paths with CIA agent Abey Bennett who appears in London in the company of someone Knox never expected to see again who will thrust Knox and Bennett into a high stakes adventure.

On the opposing side there are deadly threats being dispatched with an unknown mission to keep the readers guessing. A prototype Russian submarine is lurking off the English coastline. The Brits are aware there is something out there but they don’t appear able to get a good trace on it – the Ghost Submarine is causing real concern to MI5. Also a deadly assissin is making their way around Europe, taking out people identified as threats to Russia and the KGB agents. Both sides in this covert conflict are brilliantly represented and the readers get to see how West and East are moving their players around the story. You never quite know what’s going to unfold but Tim Glister makes it clear everything is building up to an explosive conclusion – it really didn’t disappoint.

The characters feel very much like they could just step off the page from the 1960s and the authenticity they bring to the blog story got me very invested in their success (and hope they survive the experience).

A Loyal Traitor is wonderfully paced, never felt unlikely or had me suspending disbelief which really helped my immersion in the story. More of these would be very welcome.

A Loyal Traitor is published by Point Blank/Oneworld Publications and is available from today in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-loyal-traitor/tim-glister/9780861541669

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January 18

The Twyford Code – Janice Hallett

It’s time to solve the murder of the century…

Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. Wanting to know more, he took it to his English teacher Miss Iles, not realising the chain of events that he was setting in motion. Miss Iles became convinced that the book was the key to solving a puzzle, and that a message in secret code ran through all Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Iles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven has no memory of what happened to her.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Iles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today?

Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Iles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn’t the only one trying to solve it…

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the tour. I received a review copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

It’s quite a thought to finish The Twyford Code in mid-January and wonder if ANY book this year will come close to matching the intricate planning and devious distractions which Janice Hallett delivers here.

As a child Steven Smith attended an inner city school where he did not shine. Unable to read, school was just a place he attended and it took him away from what seems a troublesome home life.

But one year he had a teacher (for RE) who really seemed to cut through and make a difference in Steven’s life – Miss Iles. Steven and a cluster of his friends seemed to get more from Miss Iles than any other class they attended. One memorable day Steven found a book on a bus, a children’s story by Edith Twyford. Miss Iles has an immediate reaction- it’s a banned book she tells him.

Twyford’s attitudes are very outdated and unpalatable for a modern readership. Of course for a group of adolescents a banned book is instantly more fascinating. But then the bombshell…Miss Iles tells them of a code hidden within the books.

She takes her small class on a trip to Twyford’s cottage down in the English South-West and on that trip Miss Iles disappeared. The kids got home (Steven cannot recall how) and Miss Iles was never seen again.

Years later Steven is newly out of prison (we discover why through the story) and he is looking to find out exactly what happened to Miss Iles on that trip and more importantly he wants to get to the bottom of The Twyford Code – it’s a puzzle which is the focus on dedicated Internet forums and the prize for solving it seems to vary from wealth, health cures and even secrets of extra-terrestrial life.

Steven has learned how to read while in prison and seems to have a natural aptitude for problem solving. Picking up a copy of one of Twyford’s books he sees messages in the words. A return to her cottage suggests a picture clue remains in her study. The hunt is on – who killed Miss Iles, what’s the treasure for solving the code and who are these mysterious strangers who seem to twart their progress at every turn?

The story is excellent. The codes and puzzles which the author uses through the book must have taken an eternity to properly thread into the narrative. I love clever stories and this is fiendishly well done. But this is a spoiler-free zone so I can’t get into the details of what shone through in terms of clever tricks.

One slight rain-cloud hung over The Twyford Code for me. Steven tells the story through audio recordings. That’s to say he turns on a recorder and we see the transcript of his conversation and the responses from others. It’s an interesting quirk and the software on the old iPhone he is using can sometimes make transcript errors – “Miss Iles” becomes “missiles” for the reader. And there are other instances.

Personally I found this narrative style quite tricky to read and it took some of the enjoyment out of the book. My reading fun became an unusual effort of concentration. The story kept me going to the end though as I did want to see how matters resolved. I suspect many people will have no issue with the narrative style but I think I would have preferred to read this through audiobook.

In brief, a great puzzle adventure which will command your attention.

The Twyford Cods is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0984VDLWF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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January 18

Remember My Name – Sam Blake

If she’d turned off her phone, instead of listening in, perhaps no one would have died…

When Cressida Howard catches her entrepreneur husband playing away from home, she hires security expert Brioni O’Brien to get the evidence she needs for a speedy and financially rewarding divorce.

But what Brioni uncovers goes beyond simple infidelity. Because Laurence Howard is also in bed with some very dangerous people. Bribery and blackmail are the least of his worries as someone comes after the women in his life – someone who is out to destroy Laurence and his empire, whatever the cost.

And Cressida and her teenage daughter could soon be collateral damage, if she and Brioni don’t act fast.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this leg of the Remember My Name tour. I received a review copy from the publisher.

This was fun. I sat down with Remember My Name half expecting a domestic noir story about infidelity in suburbia. This was my fault – I focused on the words “playing away from home” in the blurb when the bigger clue was “security expert Brioni”. You see this story does begin with Cressida suspecting her husband of cheating on her but her husband is head of a large online platform and the couple are very successful, thank you very much.

Michael, the possibly cheating husband is spending long hours in the office and neglecting his wife and their teenage daughter. During a phone call Cressida hears Michael seemingly drinking with a woman she doesn’t know (Nina) and the pair don’t seem to be discussing business.

Cressida enlists the support of Brioni. Brioni will dig into Michael’s life and try to find evidence of infidelity so Cressida may have any evidence she needs to pursue a divorce should she need to.

Brioni finds who Nina is and her alarm bells also ring when she learns about Kate, manager of a company working within Michael’s organisation and someone Michael seems unnecessarily close to. He has been buying Cressida, Nina and Kate expensive gifts. Brioni has suspicious so she hacks the company computer system to dig deeper.

At this stage the story ramps up and Sam Blake treats readers to boardroom drama as Michael’s firm are trying to secure a huge merger with an American firm with a dubious reputation. There are attempts on the lives of some of the key characters, a body is discovered by one of Brioni’s friends and nobody seems able to trust anyone else. It’s gripping and really, really good fun to read.

My perceived domestic drama became a business/tech thriller with high stakes and near death incidents. Wonderful.

The story zips along at a great pace, characters are all fun to follow as each seem to be playing their own game within the plot and the twists and turns the plot took were hugely enjoyable. As I said earlier – this was fun.

Remember My Name is available in digital format, paperback and audiobook too. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0997PD57Y/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 17

Bitter Flowers – Gunnar Staalesen

Fresh from rehab, Norwegian PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues…

PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when a challenging assignment arrives on his desk.

A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool and a young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Varg Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found.

As the threads of these apparently unrelated crimes come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Varg Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.

I am grateful to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host a leg of the Bitter Flowers tour. I was provided with a review copy of the book but I read a purchased copy.

Bitter Flowers takes us back to Bergen for another meet up with Private Investigator, Varg Veum. I have now read quite a few of the stories in this series and enjoy Veum’s understated but dogged determination. He he is a sleuth that grinds out results rather than dashing from scene to scene so the cases he investigates feel smarter and multi layered forcing Veum to dig deep and uncover information to progress his case.

In Bitter Flowers we join the story as Varg is being taken to his new job by his physiotherapist. He has been in recovery and slowly returning to full health, the alcohol he had been reliant upon is out of his systems and he wants to keep it that way.

His new role is to run a security check on a luxurious residential property and make the house seem occupied while the owners are in Spain. His physiotherapist has found him this post and she is taking him to the property for the first time. Veum also feels she may be flirting with him, they have been close during his rehab but she made it clear she had a boyfriend.

On arrival, while Veum looks around the large house, he has the feeling they are not alone in the property. Veum isn’t wrong – a body is floating in the indoor swimming pool. He hauls him out but by the time he is out of the water his physiotherapist is gone and a man has called the police. Who made the call? Where did his friend go?

His pursuit of answers leads Veum into the heart of an environmental dispute. The family that own a plant which produces toxic waste are central to his investigation but the family have their own problems, campaigners are mounting angry protests at the chemicals escaping from their factory.

In another surprise twist there also seems to be a connection to a famous cold case. A young child disappeared from her family home in 1979. Over seven years later (this story is set in the late 1980s) the girl has never been found. Now Veum finds himself chatting to her (divorced) parents and is uncovering new evidence.

His interest in multiple cases draws unwelcome attention though and he may not realise it but Veum is putting a target on his back.

Bitter Flowers felt the most accessible of Gunnar Staalesen’s books and I flew through this story in just two days. Translation thanks to Don Bartlett – the hand behind the previous Varg Veum books I have read – who has delivered another beauty with some devastating moments of poetic tragedy.

Lots to love in this series and I think this is my favourite so far.

Bitter Flowers is published by Orenda Books and is available in digital, paperback and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B099P8KXZ6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 15

The Key in the Lock – Beth Underdown

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace.

By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose death decades ago haunts her still.

For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.

My thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin for the opportunity to join the blog tour for The Key in the Lock. I recieved a review copy ahead of publication.

The Key in the Lock is Ivy’s story and it is a story of grief. Grief over the deaths of two boys, thirty years apart and in very different circumstances. But both deaths will have a profound impact upon Ivy and Beth Underdown writes about both in beautiful and haunting prose.

Durning The Great War Ivy’s son, Tim, has signed up and left to fight in France. Ivy was deeply unhappy with his decision, he had been studying at Oxford and she feels his decision was made while he was away from the family home and while she was unable to try to persuade him out of it. It is 1918, there is talk the war is very nearly over and Tim was just slightly too young to sign up – he could have waited and possibly there would not have been any need to head to the front line as the war may end soon. But it wasn’t to be.

While Tim was in the trenches he met his end, never to return home. But the telegram which his parents received informing them of his death stated simply that Tim was “Killed”. Killed. Two missing words are to cause Ivy much additional upset – there is no suggestion of Tim having been killed “in action”. Why, when her son was facing Germans on the front line, does his death notice not tell her he did fighting? As she struggles to understand what may lie behind the shortest and most devastating of messages an incident in her home will change Ivy’s life forever. Things will never be the same but will she get answers to the questions she has?

Understandably devastated at Tim’s death, Ivy is also dwelling on an earlier death. That of young William Tremain who died in a fire at Polneath house in 1888 (thirty years before). William had been trapped inside a room in Polneath which caught alight. His body was found under the bed but he had died before flame and smoke could be quelled enough to make a rescue possible.

Ivy had been nearby and was one of the first on the scene. She naturally became caught up in the subsequent inquest through slow and clever revelation Beth Underdown makes it clear to readers that there is more to William’s death than a tragic accident.

He was found under the bed of one of the staff, she would show kindness to the young boy – something which did not always appear to be the case from the patriach of the family. But the maid, Agnes, who would fuss and care for William wasn’t in her room in Polneath when the fire started nobody is sure where she was. The fire was in her room though and so was William. The child would come to visit her some evenings if he could not sleep. So when the fire took hold it appears William panicked, hid under the bed to escape smoke and flames and tragically lost his life.

Yet as the inquest and narrative continues there are unanswered questions. Why did William not run from the room? Where was Agnes? How did the fire start?

Both deaths occupy much of Ivy’s thoughts and the story switches between 1888 and 1918 as more information is established which helps readers understand what ocurred during both periods. Ivy is the central character to both tales but a deep and fascinating cast will spin in and out of her life and Beth Underdown weaves a rich narrative around them.

A beautifully told story of grief and a search for understanding.

The Key in the Lock is published by and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-key-in-the-lock/beth-underdown/9780241503300

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January 1

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello – Chris McDonald

Wedding bells are chiming in the idyllic, coastal town of Stonebridge. For Sam and Emily, it should be the happiest day of their lives. But, on the morning of the ceremony, the best man is found dead. The police quickly write his death off as a tragic accident, but something doesn’t seem right to wedding guest and groomsman Adam Whyte. Armed with an encyclopaedic, but ultimately ridiculous knowledge of television detective shows and an unwarranted confidence in his own abilities, Adam and his best friend (and willing Watson), Colin, set out to uncover what actually happened to Daniel Costello.

My thanks to Isis Audio for a review copy of the book ahead of today’s Audiobook Publication.

Happy New Year and Happy Audio Publication Day to Chris Mcdonald as the first of his Stonebridge books releases to a new audience as a talking book.

At time of writing there are five Stonebridge books in the series and The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is the first and the first to be released as an audiobook. It’s my introduction to the series too so a perfect time for me to catch up on a series which was catching my eye last year.

This story is described as a modern cosy story and that’s not typically been my normal choice of reading but I read the blurb and it sounded fun. Good news. It WAS fun. Events surround a wedding and the wedding party are all gathered in a large (exclusive) country house hotel.

The title does rather give away who the victim in this murder tale is going to be. But within the first few chapters he stands out as a toxic character and his forthcoming demise doesn’t seem the worst outcome. However the manner of Daniel Costello’s death leads the police to conclude it was an unfortunate accident after too much drink had been consumed.

At this point Adam Whyte intercedes. He has seen far too many crime dramas to dismiss some unexplained details surrounding Daniel’s death. He ropes in his friend Colin to assist as Adam begins his own investigation into the murder(?) which has taken place right under his nose.

This was a delightful way to begin my reading for 2022. Chris Mcdonald keeps readers and listeners hanging onto the story with short and snappy chapters. Adam’s investigating makes for fun listening and although this is quite a short tale it didn’t feel light on details and there are plenty of suspects to challenge the home detectives joining in at home.

As you would expect from an Isis Audiobook, the audio version is a great listen. Narrative responsibility sits with Stephen Armstrong and I very much enjoyed being guided through this story with his voice in my ears.

Great fun and plenty of humour through the story to add to my enjoyment of a clever wee murder mystery.

The Curious Dispatch of Daniel Costello is available as an audiobook and in print and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913331873/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_B1AVCYY25CHVHJ2ZCNDPhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1913331873/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_B1AVCYY25CHVHJ2ZCNDP

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December 20

The Gift – Eleanor’s Story – RA Williams

The North Atlantic, 14 April 1912. Amid the chaos of the sinking Titanic, a young Eleanor Annenberg meets the eyes of a stranger and is immediately captivated. As the ship buckles around them, she follows him down into the hold and finds him leaning over an open sarcophagus, surrounded by mutilated bodies. She catches but a glimpse of what lies within before she’s sucked into a maelstrom of freezing brine and half-devoured corpses. Elle is pulled out of the water, but the stranger – and the secrets she stumbled upon – are lost. Unintentionally, however, he leaves her a gift; one so compelling that Elle embarks on a journey that pulls her into a world of ancient evils, vicious hunters and human prey to find the man who saved her that fateful night. From trench warfare at Cape Helles in 1915 to a shipwreck in the tropical shallows off the Honduran coast, from a lost mine beneath the towering Externsteine in a Germany on the verge of war to the gothic crypts of Highgate Cemetery in London, Elle gets closer to a truth she has sought for most of her life. But at what cost? Gifts, after all, are seldom free.

I received a reveiew copy from the publishers. I would also like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Gift.

If The Gift was a movie (oh what a movie it would make) then it would absolutely be crying out for some between scene interludes where a series of dots track the progress of the story location across a map of the world. It begins on board the Titanic but events will see us in the trenches of Gallipoli during WW1, to lecture halls in the USA and then out in the ocean around the carribean. It’s a story which crosses continents and wherever the adventures take us there is always the threat of an unknown evil lurking in the background.

Onboard the Titanic during her maiden fateful voyage we meet Elle, a feisty 17 year old who is travelling with her parents. She is fending off unwelcome attentions of bankers and businessmen when the ship strikes the iceberg. But below decks one of the crew has discovered a horror in one of the holds, before alarm can be raised he is captivated by the sight of something watching him from the darkness, he will never see the light again.

As the alarm on the ship is raised Elle is below decks – she hears the shouts of alarm but not of the disaster which looms for Titanic, for a much more pressing danger below decks. There are names shouted, warnings, shotguns are discharged and one name – Balthazar stands out in the chaos.

It’s a dark, eerie and exciting opening to this story and the sinister, gothic danger continues. RA Williams has done a terrific job of teasing chills and keeping the reader’s attention. Action quickly switches from Titanic lifeboats to trench warfare at Gallipoli. This time we see a promoted soldier in no mans land, crawling through carnage to bring his own terror to the enemy as he hunts down snipers and enemy soldiers ensuring his own platoon stay safe. It is while he hunts among the bodies of the fallen that a “devil” is spotted – a creature which could not be explained but one that someone else may have seen.

The scenes in the trenches were particularly engaging. I loved this part of the story and the thinly veiled contempt which is shown to the officers who secure themselves safely away from the action is terrifically scripted.

Through the story is a constant threat of an undead evil. Mayan gods are mentioned, bats, ressurection and powerful sentinels. There is so much detail given about these mysterious forces that you will become captivated by the story which unfolds.

Elle grows into Eleanor and she is a successful academic. People travel many hundreds of miles to hear her speak about mysterious carvings, messages from history which crop up in new places around the world seemingly suggesting an old tale has spanned the globe when travel was extremely limited. The common theme – A Gift. While a gift would seem to be a positive story in these tales it really does not have a good association, fear and death seem more common companions.

The Gift comes as a fast flowing adventure tale with lashings of detail of evil forces. I loved it.

The Gift is published by Whitefox Publishing and is available in hardback. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-gift-book-1-eleanor/ra-williams/9781913532956

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November 27

The Lost – Simon Beckett

Ten years ago, the disappearance of firearms police officer Jonah Colley’s young son almost destroyed him.

A GRUESOME DISCOVERY

A plea for help from an old friend leads Jonah to Slaughter Quay, and the discovery of four bodies. Brutally attacked and left for dead, he is the only survivor.

A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

Under suspicion himself, he uncovers a network of secrets and lies about the people he thought he knew – forcing him to question what really happened all those years ago…

I received a review copy of The Lost from Orion and was delighted to be invited to join the blog tour by Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers

I have been enjoying Simon Beckett’s books for several years after picking up The Chemistry of Death not long after it first came out. Beckett’s books always keep me hooked and I am not ashamed to admit he hoodwinks me every time with his clever plotting. Needless to say I had been looking forward to starting The Lost.

Read in just two sittings it’s safe to say I loved this book. It had the feel of a race-against-time thriller where the protagonist only has 24 hours to avert a disaster. But it’s not that type of plot, I believe the “up against a deadline” feeling I got from The Lost may actually be a reflection on how events are spiralling out of control for Jonah Colley.

It begins when a friend from the past reaches out to Colley asking for help and for Colley to meet him late at night by the docks. Colley is confused to receive the message. Both he and the sender are police but his old friend is no longer a friend, the two fell out many years ago during the aftermath of Colley’s son Theo disappearing while Colley was meant to be watching him.

Colley attends the meet to find out why, after all this time, his former friend feels he needs Colley’s help. But he walks into a horror show. His friend lies dead, three more victims are on the scene too wrapped in plastic having suffered before Colley’s arrival. Colley tries to escape buy is attacked by the killer and has to fight for his own survival. He manages to call the police for support but gets badly injured before they arrive.

Waking up in hospital two days later, knee rebuilt in surgery, Colley struggles to understand what has happened. To make things worse it seems he is a prime suspect in the murder of his friend.

The Lost is Colley’s story, trying to clear his name but there is also growing evidence the man suspected of abducting Colley’s son may be involved in the murder of Colley’s friend, the murder police suspect Colley committed.

Why, after ten years, is one man hell bent on ruining Colley’s life? He means to find out but there will be more deaths and innocent lives will be at risk before Colley begins to understand what’s happening around him.

I don’t think I have the words to tell you how much I enjoyed The Lost. It delivered everything I want from a thriller. It kept the pace up throughout the book and the action was coming thick and fast; at no point did I want to pause my reading. Terrific book, you should not miss out on this one.

The Lost is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095RQFNN9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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