Time to do some catching up.  I have spent a large part of July reading and a tiny part of July writing reviews so it’s time to redress the balance.  I finished over a dozen books during my summer break and that is too many to fit into a single catch-up post so I shall break these down into double headers.

Thin Air – Lisa Gray

Private investigator Jessica Shaw is used to getting anonymous tips. But after receiving a photo of a three-year-old kidnapped from Los Angeles twenty-five years ago, Jessica is stunned to recognize the little girl as herself.

Eager for answers, Jessica heads to LA’s dark underbelly. When she learns that her biological mother was killed the night she was abducted, Jessica’s determined to solve a case the police have forgotten. Meanwhile, veteran LAPD detective Jason Pryce is in the midst of a gruesome investigation into a murdered college student moonlighting as a prostitute. A chance encounter leads to them crossing paths, but Jessica soon realizes that Pryce is hiding something about her father’s checkered history and her mother’s death.

To solve her mother’s murder and her own disappearance, Jessica must dig into the past and find the secrets buried there. But the air gets thinner as she crawls closer to the truth, and it’s getting harder and harder to breathe.

The first book to feature PI Jessica Shaw and it’s a cracking start to what I hope will be a long running series. Shaw is an immediately likeable main character and Thin Air places her at the heart of the narrative.

Shaw discovers she is a kidnap victim, taken from her family at a very young age and seemingly brought up by a family who are not her own. Determined to investigate her own past and a seemingly forgotten crime Jessica heads to LA where she shall encounter a cop called Pryce.

Pryce is investigating the brutal murder of a student who, despite her wholesome image, has been hiding a secret life from her friends.

The two investigations have a very different feel, Pryce in the immediate and unsettling present while Jessica digs into events long forgotten. Lisa Gray balances the twin narrative superbly and the story zipped along pulling me deeper into the lives of Shaw and Pryce.

Tension packed thrillers are my reads of choice and this was everything I had hoped it would be. I need some more Jessica Shaw in my life.

Thin Air is published by Thomas and Mercer and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thin-Air-Jessica-Shaw-Book-ebook/dp/B07G8NTJVP/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KRU874PGPUKX&keywords=thin+air+lisa+gray&qid=1564515932&s=gateway&sprefix=thin+air%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1

Blood & Sugar – Laura Shepherd-Robinson

June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock – horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark.

Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham – a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career – is visited by the sister of an old friend. Her brother, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing . . .

To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend’s investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy Tad had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family’s happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him.

And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford . . .

I decided I needed to take a variety of titles when I packed the holiday reading so I included Blood & Sugar to ensure I had a historical thriller to get my teeth into…1781 here I come.

I didn’t read the blurb on this book, choosing to go in cold and see where the story would take me. Pleasingly it took me to an engaging tale of murder, slavery and deception.

Historical novels have to capture the feeling of the correct time and place if I am going to stand any chance of losing myself in a story.  Obviously I have no point of reference to life in 1781 but I felt Laura Shepherd-Robinson did a fantastic job when describing the world and time which her protagonist, Captain Corsham, inhabits. Much of my mental world building came from the additional, incidental detail which the author included – it became immersive.

So to Corsham.  He is visited by the sister of one of his old friends. Her brother is missing and she fears for his safety as he had been making powerful enemies.  Corsham’s friend had been an outspoken critic of slavery and would side with the slaves as he tried to secure a better life for them. His actions were very much at odds with the norms of society in the 1780’s and Corsham agrees to help find his old friend.

As you may expect, a well-to-do gentleman asking tricky questions in some of the more “earthy” parts of the city will soon attract unwelcome attention and it is not long before Corsham finds himself in peril.

Historical novels are always a bit of a departure from my normal reading but Blood & Sugar was a very welcome change to the usual diet of police procedurals.  Laura Shepherd-Robinson has penned a slick thriller with some brutal and unflinching moments. Many of the biggest names in crime fiction have been lavishing praise on Blood & Sugar – it is easy to see why.

Blood & Sugar is published by Mantle and is available to order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sugar-Laura-Shepherd-Robinson/dp/1509880771/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1564517200&sr=8-2