From The Bookshelf – Grab This Book

In The Blink of An Eye – Jo Callaghan (audiobook)

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye. DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss.

A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

I’m reviewing a book from my Audible library

In The Blink of An Eye was the Waterstones Thriller of the Month in January 2024 and the sequel is due in the very near future. After hearing so many of my fellow bookbloggers showering praise on this book and knowing they are champing at the bit for the next Jo Callaghan release I felt it was time to catch up. I had Audible credits and was very much in the mood for a read which would throw a different dynamic into the mix. An AI police officer sounded like something too good to pass up.

A good choice – Kat Frank is a lead character I immediately found myself rooting for. She’s a recently widowed mother, her husband’s terminal illness was mentally and physically draining. After his death Kat and her son have tried to rebuild and adjust to their new lives, as we join the story Kat is returning to work and her boss wants her to head up a new team. It’s suggested Kat leads a pilot project reviewing old (cold) cases of missing people, the taskforce which is assembled to review these cases will be assisted by an Artificial Intelligent Detective Entity (AIDE) which has been given the name Lock.

The reader is told Kat has issues with AI. We learn why and we wonder if this partnership is doomed from the outset. Prospects for success seem even bleaker when it also comes to light that Lock has been developed as his creator doesn’t believe the police force is fit for purpose – Lock is to remove the possibility of corruption and prejudice, bias and human error. It can do menial tasks in the blink of an eye, it can learn, analyise and adapt.

Lock should be an asset but for Kat it will also bring huge problems, not least it does not understand nuance, compassion or how a police officer with twenty years of experience will have a gut instinct for what is right and what feels wrong. It will be a learning experience for all involved.

As I previously mentioned: Kat, Lock and her team are reviewing missing people cases. What the reader knows is that an unknown narrator has contributed to the story too – someone who’s been taken. Is locked alone in a room, drugged, possibly interfered with (in some way they cannot determine) and they are not alone in their unusual, medicated prison. The drugs this unknown person is given keeps them weak, mostly asleep and far too disoriented to do much beyond survive day to day. It is a chilling form of captivity and this was conveyed very effectively in the audiobook where narration duties moved from the excellent Rose Ackroyd (who takes the lead for 99% of the book) to the equally impactful voice of Paul Mendez. Giving the mysterious captive a different voice hit home.

I don’t like to make a habit of comparing authors when I put together a review however…if you enjoy the awkward, often stilted pairing of Poe and Tilly in the excellent books by M.W. Craven then the scenes with Kat and Lock will delight you. I’d go further to compare In The Blink of An Eye to a fusion of the great American thriller writers: Robin Cook and Michael Crichton. It’s a terrific read bringing elements of tech, police investigations, medical undertones and a cast of characters who find it difficult to relate to each other and accept “their” way of working is not the only alternative.

I touched briefly on the fact I listened to the audiobook. Huge plaudits to Rose Ackroyd for a wonderful listen. She brings Jo Callaghan’s words to life and had me listening longer than I’d planned as I was totally drawn into the story. There are many characters who all sounded, acted and felt unique and it is refreshing to hear an audiobook where the narrator can convincingly “do” the regional accents they attempt! My current audiobook has an American reader spectacularly failing to make her Irish character sound like a resident of the Emerald Isle.

The time I need to invest into an audiobook is two or three times more than it may take me to read the same book in paperback. I like my audiobooks to be a top quality listen and In The Blink of An Eye certainly hit that mark. One minor quibble would be about a plot thread being a bit too obviously signposted; but when that event did come to pass it actually played out better than I had feared and I enjoyed the subsequent fallout from said event. Bit cryptic but no spoilers will be found here and it certainly would not deter me from recommeding In The Blink of An Eye.

This book hits hard emotionally as it deals very well with loss, illness, isolation, grief and prejudice – but Jo Callaghan keeps the mystery flowing, the tension high and the humanity of Kat Frank to the fore. It’s a storming book and I enjoyed it immensely. I’m more than ready for more Kat Frank in my TBR please.

In The Blink of An Eye is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/in-the-blink-of-an-eye/jo-callaghan/9781398511194

Category: Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

January 16

The Trials of Marjorie Crowe – C.S. Robertson

How do you solve a murder when everyone thinks you’re guilty?

Marjorie Crowe lives in Kilgoyne, Scotland. The locals put her age at somewhere between 55 and 70. They think she’s divorced or a lifelong spinster; that she used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, or a witch. They think she’s lonely, or ill, or maybe just plain rude. For the most part, they leave her be.

But one day, everything changes.

Local teenager Charlie McKee is found hanging in the woods, and Marjorie is the first one to see his body. When what she saw turns out to be impossible, the police have their doubts. And when another young person goes missing, the tide of suspicion turns on her.

Is Marjorie the monster, or the victim? And how far will she go to fight for her name?

I received a review copy from the publishers, Hodder & Soughton, through Netgalley

Here it is. The high-bar to which all other books will need to aspire to match through 2024. When I tell you I started my reading this year with a stone cold banger of a book it’s no exaggeration. The Trials of Marjorie Crowe will introduce you to one of the most memorable lead characters you’re likely to encounter for many months to come and her story will live with you just as long. I adored this book.

Marjorie Crowe is a witch. Not the halloween-esk, pointy hat, bubbling cauldron type of witch but a woman who’s learnt from her predecessors which plants and flowers can have medicinal benefits, the roots which will help make a lotion or the oils which could make a salve. She lives in an old cottage in a quiet village in central Scotland. Naturally the other villagers, particularly the teenagers, consider Marjorie a figure they can ridicule and easily dismiss but Marjorie doesn’t care too much about wagging tongues, those that came before her faced bigger dangers than being mocked by their neighbours (wirriet and burnt) and she goes on with her day and follows her routine – like clockwork.

Each day Marjorie takes the same walk around the village of Kilgoyne, she treads the same paths, turns the same corners and passes directly through the local pub (not stopping). Every. Single. Day. It drives the publican crazy and it further adds to the rididule Marjorie exposes herself to but Marjorie is a creature of habit. One day, however, something is going to happen during Marjorie’s walk which will shake her to her core. Deep in the woods Marjorie finds a local teenager, Charlie McKee, hanging in a clearing. Marjorie heads home – stunned and incommunicative – she doesn’t raise the alarm and it is only when Charlie’s body is discovered several hours later that people start to question why Marjorie didn’t tell anyone of what she saw until it was far, far too late.

The villagers of Kilgoyne will shun and turn on their peculiar neighbour. But for the reader there’s a small amount of clarification dripped into the story by C.S. Robertson. When Marjorie speaks with the police about what she saw when she found Charlie it seems there were two impossibilities – one is that someone else had seen Charlie, alive and well, an hour later than Majrorie saw his body. The second impossibility was who was beside Charlie in the woods when she saw his hanged body.

As I read I was sure Marjorie was always truthful about what she had seen. This is a woman of utter conviction and she knew she was right. Until the point came when Marjorie herself began to doubt what she’d seen. How could she be mistaken? What of the unexplained coincidence of markings appearing on a tree which mirrored an identical mark that appeared when another teenager vanished from the village around two decades earlier? More mysteries and more dangers, small villages are always a haven for secrets and C.S. Robertson makes sure Kilgoyne is packed with unanswered questions.

Events in Kilgoyne escalate as another teenager disappears and Marjorie finds herself under increasing pressure and scrutiny. She’s done nothing wrong (that she sees) but the court of public opinion is very much against her – the real trial of Marjorie Crowe appears to be a trial over social media, in the streets by her home and in the heads and hearts of her neighbours. Will Marjorie be strong enough to withstand the pressure of all the negative attention and what happens when emboldened mobs decide they can take matters into their own hands.

There is so much to this story that I simply cannot do it justice in such a short space. This is a book crying out to be your next pick at your local bookgroup, it needs discussed (only with people who know what happens) and the impact it had on me will last for quite some time. Stellar reading – grab this book!

The Trials of Marjorie Crowe releases on 18 January 2024 in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can get your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-trials-of-marjorie-crowe/c-s-robertson/9781529367690

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

December 12

My Ten Favourite Reads of 2023

It does not feel like twelve months since I last sat down to select my favourite reads of the year, yet here we are.

It hasn’t been the best of years in terms of getting reviews onto the blog. I’ve still been reading but I started the year on an extremely busy contract (the day job) and it was draining – at the end of a long day the last thing I could do was open up another laptop screen. Then in the summer my crazy busy contract finished – I flew home early from my summer holiday to begin the second crazy busy contract of the year (day job part the second) – again lots of reading but, again, not so many reviews added to the blog.

This has made me even more determined to share my ten favourite reads of the year. There have been many cracking books which I shouted about as I read them but I want to showcase my favourites (particularly as there are still a couple of weeks to go until Christmas and I hope you may consider gifting some of these suggestions).

So without further ado (and in no particular order) I present the ten books which gave me the most pleaure in 2023

Paris Requiem – Chris Lloyd

I start with Paris Requiem. I read this back in February, had the pleasure of hearing Chris Lloyd speak about this book at September’s Bloody Scotland Festival and I have been recommending this particular title for 11 of the 12 months in 2023. It’s a crime thriller set in 1940s Paris. The lead character is a French cop and he is trying do do his job while the German army is occupying the city and putting their own leaders in positions of power in the city.

For Eddie Giral there’s just one question…why has a man he recently put in prison just turned up (very, very dead) in the office of a Parisian night club?

https://www.waterstones.com/book/paris-requiem/chris-lloyd/9781409190325

The Last Line – Stephen Ronson

It’s another book set during the Second World War but this time the action takes place in the South East of England and the hero of the tale is a former soldier who finds himself accused of a particularly nasty murder and has to prove his innocence. Along the way he will become embroiled in a mystery surrounding a missing refugee and also find himself facing off against some particulary dangerous “businessmen”.

A terrific debut novel from Stephen Ronson who delivers a perfectly paced, gripping thriller which I knew was a certain inclusion in this list as I rushed through the last few chapters. I was dying to see how this story ended but at the same time I really didn’t want it to end.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-line/stephen-ronson/9781399721233

The Darkest Sin – D V Bishop

It’s another historical crime thriller but this story takes place in Florence, Italy in the year 1537. The second of three Cesare Aldo books by D.V. Bishop that I read this year. I could honestly have selected any one of the three (City of Vengeance, The Darkest Sin and Ritual of Fire) to make this list as I virtually devoured each story back to back..it got to the point I was beginning to develop an Italian accent!

The Darkest Sin got the nod due to the sinister nuns, the sublimely clever twist of getting a very different story for those that had read City of Venegance than those that had not read CoV and also Aldo being a terrific character I want to read about again and again.

If you haven’t read D.V. Bishop yet I implore you to get that put to right immediately.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-darkest-sin/d-v-bishop/9781529038842

The Sun Down Motel – Simone St James

Here is the best ghost story I read this year. A haunted motel? A small town with secrets? A dangerous predator? Yes please!

In 1982 Viv took a job as the night receptionist at the Sun Down Motel. But Viv vanishes one night and is never found again. In 2017 Viv’s neice, Carly, comes to the Sun Down Motel to try and discover what happened to her aunt – she discovers more than she could ever have expected.

This is a terrifically creepy tale and a damned good mystery too. If you don’t do supernatural then it’s not for you but miss out at your peril.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sun-down-motel/simone-st-james/9781405962315

The Institution – Helen Fields

This book is not for the faint of heart. I do like my crime thrillers to be on the darker side but Helen Fields has delivered a particularly grim situation and (excuse the prison pun) but it’s shackles off on the dark and gritty narrative.

In the world’s most secure prison hospital a nurse is murdered, her child abducted and the clock is ticking to recover the infant and catch a killer. It’s a locked room mystery but with everything ramped up to the absolute maximum.

I’ve always enjoyed books by Helen Fields but this really raised the bar.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-institution/helen-fields/9780008533519

The Devil You Know – Neil Lancaster

Regular visitors will know that I generally favour reading about recurring characters than I enjoy stand-alone novels. The Devil You Know is the newest title in the terrific Max Craigie series (book 5). Having devoured each of the previous Craigie novels I feel this series is only going from strength to strength with The Devil You Know simply blowing me away with page after page of thrills and action.

At the risk of incurring your temporary wrath – I got to read an early copy of The Devil You Know and it’s not on general release until March 2024. But let me assure you…it is well worth the wait. Why not pre-order your copy so you don’t miss out. Really….don’t miss out.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-devil-you-know/neil-lancaster/9780008551322

The Hotel – Louise Mumford

If The Sun Down Motel was the best horror novel I read this year, The Hotel is the best chiller. Not a full horror novel but suitably chilling and with a plot that had me thinking “Blair Witch” when the protagonists take video footage of their nocternal visit to an old, abandoned hotel high on the Welsh coastal clifftops.

Great characters, a clever mystery story and a hugely enjoyable read which just flowed from first page to last. Hunt this down and check out The Hotel

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-hotel/louise-mumford/9780008589943

Murdle – G T Karber

I love puzzle books. I love logic puzzles and I love murder mysteries. That’s Murdle in a nutshell. A collection of fun mystery puzzles which challenge the reader/player to solve the clues and discover the murderers. Grab a pen, Grab This Book and enjoy something charmingly different.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/murdle/g-t-karber/9781800818026

The Silent Man – David Fennell

Another dark crime thriller and another absolutely cracking read. This thriller has a serial killer, a gangster with a vendetta against a cop and her family and it packs tension and twists into every chapter.

I hadn’t read David Fennell’s earlier books and I am correcting that oversight already – this story just hit the ground running and I just kept turning the pages. This is the kind of book I love to find – a story which immediately makes me feel I need to read all the other books by the same author.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-silent-man/david-fennell/9781804181737

The Stranger Times – C.K McDonnell

This was an audiobook listen and it made me laugh out loud so many times that I just could not leave it off this list. Falling firmly into the fantasy realms I loved the manic chaos of The Stranger Times (a weekly newspaper of odd, unexplained and the totally bonkers aspects of life). The boss is a sweary, drunk, the new reporter is making it up as she goes along, the tech support is a young teenager and the office manager tolerates them all (just).

Elsewhere a dark magician is breaking the rules and has a brutal monster under his control which he will unleash onto Manchester (and the World) if he can overcome those that would oppose him.

I’d bought book 2 of this series long before I heard the last chapters of book one. So Much Fun.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-stranger-times/c-k-mcdonnell/9780552177344

That’s my ten. I left out some really good books by authors I love to read and I wish I could have included more than ten books in my “Ten Favourite Reads” list but I work with numbers all day and to have a list of ten with more than ten books would make me positively antsy.

I shout about books every day of every week over on social media – I am @grabthisbook and if you follow me on Twitter/X I will endeavour to continue to flag up terrific reads through 2024 and beyond.

Enjoy what you read and share the booklove.

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

November 16

Murder at Holly House – Denzil Meyrick

A village of secrets. It’s December 1952, and a dead stranger has been found lodged up the chimney of Holly House in the remote town of Elderby. Is he a simple thief, or a would-be killer?

Either way, he wasn’t on anyone’s Christmas wish list. A mystery that can’t be solved, Inspector Frank Grasby is ordered to investigate. The victim of some unfortunate misunderstandings, he hopes this case will help clear his name.

But as is often the way for Grasby, things most certainly don’t go according to plan.

Soon blizzards hit the North York Moors, cutting off the village from help, and the local doctor’s husband is found murdered. Grasby begins to realise that everyone in Elderby is hiding something – and if he can’t uncover the truth soon, the whole country will pay a dreadful price.

I received a review copy from the publishers (and I bought myself a digital copy). I was invited to join the blog tour for Murder at Holly House by Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours

Murder at Holly House – a new Denzil Meyrick story releasing just in time for Christmas and if I could be so bold…a cracking gift idea for the crime fiction readers you may find yourself shopping for over the next few weeks. Its light and humorous tone make for hugely enjoyable reading (it did get a little darker as the tale progressed) and the array of quirky elements on display in a small Yorkshire village frequently made me chuckle.

The hero of the piece is Inspector Frank Grasby. He’s a somewhat hapless figure, a bit too self assured of his own skills but sometimes it seems he isn’t the quickest at picking up on the obvious facts right in front of him. Frank likes too many flutters on the horses but isn’t good at picking winners. He’s had his fair share of occupational mishaps too – the most recent being the loss of a number of thoroughbread horses which he allowed to escape, much to the chagrin of their owner. Frank is being exiled out of York to the small town of Elderby where he is being asked to investigate a series of small thefts which are vexing the local dignataries. He will find more than he bargained for – not least a dead body stuck in a chimney at the home of the local bigwig.

Frank will have help investigating this unusual death, the local force is staffed by an aging copper who suffers unfortunate bouts of narcolepsy and a young constable that seems incapable of making himself understood, despite the fact he’s speaking English. Frank’s most helpful aide will come from the young American intern Deedee (Miss Daisy Dean). Frank finds Deedee very pleasing to the eye and as they are both boarding at the same guest house Frank harbours fantasies of winning her affections. Unfortunately for Frank, Deedee seems to consider anyone over 35 to be ancient (Frank is 38) and she’s amusingly uninterested. As it is the early 1950s Frank isn’t particularly enlightened in how to deal with a young intelligent woman in the police force and will try to shelter her from the more gruesome elments of a murder investigation.

The character interactions in the book are a real triumph, players are unpredictable and often hopelessly clueless. The real fun begins when Frank realises he cannot know who to trust. In a small town there are alliances and friendships as well as common enemies, tough for a new bod to negotiate and when people are dying the natural inclination is not to be helpful.

It’s always nice to be able to write a review about a book I loved and which I believe would be equally loved by a large audience. Murder at Holly House is great storytelling, set in the 1950s for a nostalgic, historical mystery and written in a very readable flowing style which definitely hits the “one more chapter” vibe.

Get this book into your shopping baskets without delay – it’s a good’un.

Murder at Holly House is published by Transworld and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/murder-at-holly-house/denzil-meyrick/9781787637184

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

October 8

Dark Horse – Gregg Hurwitz

THE HERO
Evan Smoak: former off-the-books assassin – code name Orphan X. His world is divided into those who deserve his help and those who’ve brought his singular brand of justice upon themselves.

THE VICTIM
A desperate father reaches out. His teenage daughter Anjelina has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico. And while money is no object, Evan soon realises that his prospective client’s past is as clouded and compromised as his own.

THE MISSION
If Evan is going to put his life on the line to rescue Anjelina, he must first decide whether he can act on behalf of a bad man. And even then, up against the men who are holding his daughter, there will be no guarantee of success . . .

I recieved a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley and this review is based upon that digital copy and also my personal audiobook copy which I bought through Audible.co.uk

It’s an Orphan X novel so even before I began reading I knew Dark Horse was going to be fun, full of thrills and lots of action. I was not wrong. Dark Horse takes the reader back into the world of Evan Smoak, an Orphan (note the capitalisation) who uses his very specialist skills to help those in need. Evan is contacted by telephone, he speaks with those in need and he decides if he can help them with their predicament. He never knows when a call may come in and he relies upon people he helps to pass on the word – if there is too long a gap between missions Evan will start getting restless. He is very much a man of action and it feels he needs a mission to keep him going.

So what is an “Orphan”? Evan was recruited as a child when he was in the care system. He was taken into a secret Government project where children were trained to be killers, focused lethal weapons who would do the dirty work of the US Government. Totally off the radar and if they should ever fail or be caught in the execution of a state sanctioned mission then the US Government would have total denial of their existance. Expendible resources and the early books in the series show how that project didn’t come to a pleasing conclusion for anyone involved. The Orphan’s were all extremely well paid for their trouble and Evan has significant wealth which allows him to hide (also a skill he was taught) from authorities as he suspects his own Government would kill him without a second’s pause if they knew where he was.

In Dark Horse we see Evan receive a call. A distraught father wants to recruit the help of “The Nowhere Man” (Evan) as his daughter was kidnapped from her birthday party by men who are “business competitors” of her father. The dilemma for Evan is that the man calling him has made his money trading drugs and other illegal goods – he’s a dangerous individual in his own right and keeps his own cartel in a remote town where all the locals know and respect him. If Evan is going to step in and help then he is going to have to get around a heirarchy of thugs, goons and trusted “soldiers” of a dangerous man. And the enemy he will have to rescue the kidnapped girl from are equally well resourced.

The power dynamic in Dark Horse is significantly different from the earlier novels. Evan is working for a client that feels he is more powerful than Evan (that’s new) but he understands Evan has skills which he does not have at his disposal so there should be no problem securing the support he needs – finding the right man for a tricky job has never been a problem to him before. But with his daughter’s life at stake there’s no room for error. He’s also a man used to keeping secrets and not showing weakness so how does Evan know what his is being told is accurate and trustworthy?

Away from the latest “mission” we find Evan has more problems. He has taken on a young computer whiz-kid (also associated to the Oprhan project) as Joey…and her dog…need supervised. She’s a teen on the cusp of adulthood and she doesn’t appreciate being treated like a child. Joey has plans of her own and wants to travel but Evan is reluctant to let her go off on her own, even if she is likely to be the most dangerous person in any room she is in. Plus Evan has some domestic issues which need to be resolved, decorating and rebuilding his home, and while he is away on a mission he needs someone at home to supervise the contractors to make sure the work is done to his own specification. Entrusting that responsibility to a grumpy teenager may not be the smartest move Evan could make. It is a real distraction from the mission and Evan is a man of supreme focus so you know there will be issues.

Watching Evan juggle personal issues while trying to single handedly outsmart a slick cartel of criminals is extremely entertaining. The action moments benefit from some more light-hearted scenes (though Evan doesn’t see the funny side) but it helps Gregg Hurwitz make his hero more relatable as a man with real-life issues and not just a slick machine of destruction.

Through terrible planning on my part I accidentally read Dark Horse before I read Prodical Son (the story which immediately preceeds Dark Horse). Unfortunately it seems Prodical Son has something of an explosive cliff-hanger ending and, more so than any of the other novels in the series, there are spoilers at the start of Dark Horse as the readers are brought up to speed on events immediately after Prodical Son. Normally I’d be explaining that the Orphan X novels can each be read as a stand-alone book in the case of Dark Horse that comes with a small caveat – it CAN be read as a stand alone but if you are planning on reading the other books (and you really should) then Dark Horse will tell you some of what occurs at the end of Prodical Son. But a new reader to the series could absolutely jump into Dark Horse and still be treated to a really enjoyable thrillfest.

There aren’t many authors that can deliver a gripping adventure of this quality but Gregg Hurwitz seems to be able to do it year in and year out. His Orphan X books are tremendous additions to my bookshelves each year and I savour the anticipation ahead of starting a new book and try not to rush through each new story so it lasts!

Dark Horse is an easy book to recommend – the whole series are easy books to recommend. However, this story really pushes Evan’s moral compass. He is engaged by a man who has accumulated wealth through criminal acts. He should be the enemy for Evan but as his client is now a victim will Evan step up to help him recover his daughter? This is reading time very well spent.

Dark Horse is available in paperback,digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095XRLLXC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

Category: Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

September 29

You’d Look Better as a Ghost – Joanna Wallace

I have a gift. I see people as ghosts before they die.
Of course, it helps that I’m the one killing them.

The night after her father’s funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn’t know it, but it’s not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But even before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it’s not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Claire will do anything to keep her secret hidden – not to mention the bodies buried in her garden. Let the games begin…

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the blog tour for You’d Look Better as a Ghost.

It doesn’t seem quite right to have a serial killer novel which also makes you laugh out loud. Yet here we are. You’d Look Better as a Ghost definitely had me laughing but there are also scenes which give you pause for thought, how we treat other people and how they treat us runs through the heart of this story and Joanna Wallace uses this to extremely efficient effect.

We meet Claire. She’s recently lost her father and is attending grief counselling but her group brings together a rather odd assortment of people. There’s an extremely angry Welshman, a furious note-taker, a “nice” lady who will be deeply offended by bad language (which is unfortunate given the presence of the Welshman) and there is Claire too – she’s a serial killer and the star of this book.

Claire sees the world as a slightly better place when some people who have done bad things are no longer in the world. So Claire may take mattes into her own hands an murder those bad people. Her garden is a busy old spot and inside her house there are some very unusual decorations.

Feeling slightly out of sorts while she grieves Claire decides she is going to murder someone who emailed her by mistake, apologised, but Claire didn’t think he looked sorry enough when she tracked him down.

Unfortunately for Claire she’s not as careful as normal and inadvertently kills a man who had his own criminal endeavours on the go and his partner in crime is going to find out what Claire knows about his disappearance.

In her grief therapy group Claire realises one of their number may not be quite what they appear but can she work out who’s keeping secrets before her own secrets are revealed?

I know we shouldn’t really be rooting for the killer in a crime novel but Joanna Wallace puts the reader on Claire’s side. We see young Claire, a young child, and how she thinks and behaves differently from the other kids around her. Then we get an insight into her home life and some insight into some of what may have shaped Claire’s formative years.

What I found most compelling was Joanna Wallace’s portrayal of vulnerability and how she plays on our perceptions of those vulnerabilities. I couldn’t possibly elaborate on that (spoilers) but when some plot threads were unraveled I was applauding the slick way I had been played.

I really enjoyed You’d Look Better as a Ghost, it’s clever, funny and unpredictable. I’d certainly welcome more stories like this and I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get my wish.

You’d Look Better as a Ghost is published by Viper Books and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPN1KP22/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

September 23

Girls of Little Hope – Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen

Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they?

Being fifteen is tough, tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town like Little Hope, California (population 8,302) in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen girl friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town’s most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago.

Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. Donna the troublemaker can’t remember anything. Rae seems to be trying to escape her memories of what happened, while her close-minded religious family presses her for answers. And Kat? Sweet, wannabe writer Kat who rebelled against her mom’s beauty pageant dreams by getting fat? She’s missing. Dead. Or terribly traumatised, out there in the woods, alone.

As the police circle and Kat’s frantic mother Marybeth starts doing some investigating of her own, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.

A chilling and eerie tale of monsters, teen angst and small-town America for fans of Stranger Things, The Thing, and the 1990s

I recieved a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

Three girls went walking in the woods near Little Hope. Three friends, young teenagers, who face all the usual problems of teenage life and aren’t part of the school “cool” crowd. There’s not much of note happens in Little Hope but when the three girls don’t all return safely from their walk suddenly a small town has a lot going on.

Two of the girls return, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened on their walk – or so they say. Their third friend, Kat, remains somewhere in the woods and search parties are organised. People come out in big numbers to search for the missing girl but the searches are not successful and Kat’s mother, Marybeth, becomes increasingly frustrated at the perceived lack of endeavour and commitment from the police to continue the searches.

The great writing in this story comes from the dilemma which the two other girls face. Donna and Rae are not talking about what happened in the woods. They both know they are going through a personal trauma and internal turmoil but until they can get together and discuss what happened to them they are not saying anything. And who would believe them anyway? The other great part about this book is the way the authors capture the angst and frustrations of teenage drama. The blurb describes it as a story for Stranger Things fans and I can think of no better comparison. Spooky instances, most people oblivious to an unseen danger and distinctly odd twists to the story.

What I initially didn’t take in was that the blurb does not just compare Girls of Little Hope to Stranger Things but also to The Thing. Yup – big clue there that this book was actually a horror tale. I’d been enjoying a well written mystery novel – the characters were entertaining, their problems had me hooked and the investigation into the “walk in the woods” story was starting to reveal some discrepancies in what Donna and Rae were telling the police. Why did the girls lie about where they were walking? Were they lurking near the home of a dangerous local criminal? Who else may know where Kat could be found?

Girls of Little Hope wasn’t the teen crime mystery I had been anticipating. It’s actually a mystery story which suddenly moves to creepy horror then raises the stakes further to move from creepy to outright carnage. Once things really kick off in Little Hope the town is never going to be the same again. As for Rae and Donna, they know what happened to Kat but it there anything which can be done to undo what’s gone before?

Despite being surprised by the slide from mystery to horror I was not disappointed – I love me a good horror story and Girls of Little Hope IS ad good horror story. The reader will care what happens to the three lead characters and will be more than a little shocked when they learn what really did happen in the woods.

Girls of Little Hope is published by Titan Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFZXJYB7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

September 22

The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black – Lisa Hall

You know she has been murdered. Can you stop it happening twice?

Two very different lives…

It is 2019 and Lily Jones is living her dream in LA. Sort of. It hasn’t quite turned out as she planned and instead of working as a movie producer, she is cleaning at the prestigious Beverly Hills Hotel. At least she gets to work in the renowned Paul Williams suite, site of the brutal murder of Honey Black 70 years ago, shrouded in rumour and dark glamour.

It is 1949 and Honey Black is about to hit the big time. She may have started out a country girl from Hicksville but now she is a star. And Hollywood had better watch out – nothing can stop her now!

One Hollywood murder…

After an accidental bump to the head, Lily finds herself in Hollywood, 1949. Like a dream come true, she is rubbing shoulders with the great and good of Tinseltown. Including Honey Black… Horrified, Lily realises that the actress has only two weeks left to live before she will be murdered.

Could this be why she has found herself in 1949?

To find the killer and stop them in their tracks?

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley

A time-travel adventure which will catapault Lily from Hollywood in 2019 back to to the golden era of filmmaking in 1949. It gives The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black an utterly fabulous setting, Lily is one of the most likeable lead characters I’ve encountered this year and I constantly had the feeling I was reading a book which the author loved to write.

Where to start?

Lily is a girl displaced. English born and a lifelong fan of classic movies, she has travelled to Hollywood with the hope of finding a successful career in the industry she loves. She is working in one of the hotels in Holywood, a staff member who’s keen to help her colleagues and is a good friend to them too. She dreams of getting a break and being offered the opportunity to work on a movie but as the story begins she’s offering to help clean one of the suites in the hotel – the room where upcoming starlet Honey Black was found murdered 70 years earlier.

Lily takes a knock to the head while cleaning what had been the room occupied by Honey Black. When she recovers her senses Lily finds she has been transported back in time. It’s 1949. Lily has no money, nowhere to stay, no idea what’s happened and she’s a very modern girl in a very old fashioned world. None of these things are going to make life easy.

But it’s not all bad news for Lily. She is given an amazing opportunity to work as an assistant to an upcoming new starlet…Honey Black. Yes, Lily has arrived in 1949 in the days before Honey is due to be murdered. Has she been sent to the past to avert a murder? Should she try to intervene and change history? Or is it just coincidence and, if so, how on earth is Lily going to get home?

Watching Lily navigate her way around movie sets, Hollywood stars and handle the attitudes and behaviours from 70 years ago is a huge amount of fun. She’s a no-nonsense sort by nature so there’s no hope of Lily accepting the misogynistic culture on film sets or of adopting a demure and deferential persona so she fits in. We are going to enjoy a feisty and independent woman shaking up the world around her.

I loved reading about life in the late 1940s, there are several cameos to enjoy from huge Hollywood stars (no spoilers) and Lisa Hall makes the whole period come alive around the reader. Lily gets to contrast clubs and hotels with the LA she knows so well. She makes friends along the way but ruffles more than a few feathers as she leaps to the defence of her new employer, Honey Black.

As for Honey herself, she’s a small town girl who’s been given a huge opporunity to become the “next big thing”. But if Honey is to succeed she will need to be better than her rivals, behave impeccably, defer to the big bosses and be squeaky clean. Unfortunately it seems soneone wants Honey to fail and temptations, challenges and physical attacks will all need to be dealt with (often by Lily) if she is to finish filming the movie which should propel her to the brightest of spotlights.

There’s so much to love about The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black and it’s all to easy to forget Honey is due to be murdered and Lily is trying to prevent that from happening. I got far too caught up in the world of films, producers and directors, bickering actresses and the social lives of a long-forgotten generation. The writing and scene setting is joyous, the characters are glamourous, whimsical and deeply posessive of their own celebrity. I don’t know if it would be possible to revisit that world given how events pan out (again no spoilers) but I am sure Lisa Hall would find a way to make it happen if we were all to cross our fingers, wish really, really hard and all buy a copy of The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black…there’s a handy wee link just below this paragraph to help you get your copy.

The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black is published by Hera Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-mysterious-double-death-of-honey-black/lisa-hall/9781804365946

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

September 5

The Trap – Catherine Ryan Howard

Stranded on a dark road in the middle of the night, a young woman accepts a lift from a passing stranger. It’s the nightmare scenario that every girl is warned about, and she knows the dangers all too well – but what other choice does she have?

As they drive, she alternates between fear and relief – one moment thinking he is just a good man doing a good thing, the next convinced he’s a monster. But when he delivers her safely to her destination, she realizes her fears were unfounded.

And her heart sinks. Because a monster is what she’s looking for.

She’ll try again tomorrow night. But will the man who took her sister take the bait?

–

Inspired by a series of still-unsolved disappearances, The Trap is the startlingly original new thriller from internationally bestselling author Catherine Ryan Howard.

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for The Trap. I recieved a review copy from the publishers ahead of the blog tour.

Late at night on a dark country road, a woman is walking alone – she is heading home from a night out and her phone is dead. A stranger drives past and stops to offer her a lift. Every instinct screams at her not to get into the car – but she accepts the lift and risks putting herself in danger. It’s a tense situation and a terrific opening to The Trap – you can’t help but fear for the safety of this character who we’ve only just met and you’re braced for something awful to happen.

But what if the woman was actually looking to be picked up by a monster? What if events prior to that fateful meeting had led her to the point that placing herself in danger felt like the only option she had? This is where The Trap takes readers, into a story where Lucy feels lost, frustrated, forgotten, ignored and desperate. She’s furious that her sister is missing. There are other missing women in Ireland who, like Lucy’s sister, simply vanished leaving no trace other than a broken mobile phone – yet the Guard are not treating Lucy’s worry seriously and don’t want to commit to a full investigation or link the cases of the other missing women incase it sparks fear there is a predator abducting lone women.

Lucy goes out late at night to try to lure out the man she beleives took her sister from her. Her sister’s boyfriend, the Family Liaison Officer appointed to deal with Lucy and the families of other missing women are all trying to be supportive but Lucy can’t accept nothing is happening to bring her sister back to her.

It is an emotional and disturbing premise for a story and Catherine Ryan Howard has wonderfully captured the upset, anxiety and frustrations of her lead character. But she also shifts the narrative to show the readers what the officers in the Missing Person’s Team are doing to try and trace the women who have been reported missing. They have a suspect – a narcassistic man who was the partner of one of the missing women…he is far too slippery to let the police get too close though. Then there’s a breakthrough and a shock twist which may reveal the fate of the missing but how will the Guard change their approach and what impact may this have upon the families?

Most disturbingly is the fact we also get to see inside the mind of a predator. The man who explains how he came to be responsible for snatching women off the roads and why he does what he does. We learn of his background, the trigger steps in his “journey” and his acknowledgement that he is using true crime documenataries to learn what mistakes to avoid. Really chilling.

Weaving the narratives between victims, predator, investigators and the other supporting characters is extremely deftly done and the story zips along at good pace and with constant intrigue to keep the reader turning the pages. When unexpected events crop up they very much were unexpected – this book really didn’t go where I had anticipated and I enjoyed it all the more for the unpredictability of the plot.

I’ve enjoyed all the previous books Catherine Ryan Howard has written and it gave me particular delight when I reaslied there are nods (easter eggs) to earlier books in The Trap. The Jurrasic Park reference I was looking for was easy to spot, as it appeard about 8 pages after I remembered to look out for it, and there’s even a (sort-of) author cameo to enjoy too which cranked up my enjoyment levels even more. All these wee touches were very much appreciated by this reader and at no time did they take me out of the story – such was the focus I was giving Lucy’s plight.

This book was started and finished in a single day. I totally inhaled it, got completely caught up in the story of the missing women, the official response from the Missing Person’s team and the steps which Lucy was prepared to take to find her missing sister. I can honestly say we didn’t end up in a place I’d expected – once again Catherine Ryan Howard befuddled me and delivered a clever, clever mystey for me to enjoy.

This is going to be an easy book to recommend – I loved it and I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t love it too.

The Trap is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-trap/catherine-ryan-howard/9781787636606

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

June 13

The Doctor – Annie Payne

Care giver, life saver… or cold-blooded killer?

Running away from a past she’d rather forget, Doctor Alison Wilson has moved to a new town to take up the role of Medical Officer at failing hospital St Margaret’s.

Tasked with shaking things up, she quickly learns that things are worse than they initially seem: patient records are in disarray, staff morale is low, and there’s something afoot that she can’t quite put her finger on…

As Alison starts to dig into the hospital’s past, she gradually discovers a trail of lies that runs deeper and darker than she could have ever imagined.

There’s a cold-blooded killer in the hospital. And they’re hiding in plain sight…

I received a review copy from Avon via Netgalley.

Long time ago while I was still a teenager I was making the jump from reading Agatha Christie novels into “proper grown-up books” which is to say I was ready to leave behind Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys and Tintin and start buying crime stories which you didn’t find in the children’s section of our local bookshop. That said, as I draw ever closer to my 50th birthday I still love a Tintin book!

One of the first authors I discovered – one of the early few that replaced Agatha on my TBR – was Robin Cook. He wrote medical thrillers, most notably Coma, and all his murder mystery stories were set in and around hospitals and featured a wealth of sinister phsyicians or medical staff who could (quite literally) get away with murder on their wards. There are far too few medical and hospital crime stories out there these days so when I saw The Doctor and read the blurb (as above) I was hit with a wave of nostalgia and knew I had to read this book. Boy was I glad I did!

Alison is taking over as a senior administrator in a failing hospital, she is leaving a busy London hospital and moving to a smaller place as she is leaving her broken marriage (after her husband had an affair) and seeking new challenges and a fresh start. Her introduction to the hospital isn’t the best as nobody seems to have known she is arriving, then when she starts trying to suggest changes there is resistance. While a certain amount of pushback is not entirely unexpected for a “new broom” looking to shake up a chaotic/shambolic operation there seems to be something not quite right at St Margaret’s hospital.

We follow Alison as she tries to integrate the new controls and measures which are badly needed to make St Margaret’s a more efficient operation but it is clear something isn’t right. Her meetings are inexplicably cancelled, reports she requests don’t arrive, colleagues are waiting for guidance on issues they brought to her yet Alison isn’t aware of their requests. She is blaming tiredness, mixups and she knows she is turning to a calming glass of wine far too often. These slips are undermining her self-confidence but they are also making her colleagues question her competence.

More alarmingly is the reader knows there is a killer in the hospital. We shadow them as they usher some patients to their deaths. It’s chilling and unsettling. The medical staff at our hospitals aren’t meant to bring death to their charges. Equally chilling is that the killer has their eye on Alison – she’s a threat and is going to be turned into a scapegoat or possibly even a victim.

Annie Payne is serving up a mystery, a thriller and a tense pageturner which I really enjoyed. As I alluded to at the start of my review, there are too few medical or hospital thrillers and I will always lap them up. More like this would be very welcome thank you.

The Doctor was published by Avon Books on 25 May 2023 and can be ordered here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-doctor/annie-payne/9780008562007

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off