August 31

Eight Detectives – Alex Pavesi

All murder mysteries follow a simple set of rules.

Grant McAllister, an author of crime fiction and professor of mathematics, once sat down and worked them all out.

But that was thirty years ago. Now he’s living a life of seclusion on a quiet Mediterranean island – until Julia Hart, a sharp, ambitious editor, knocks on his door. His early work is being republished and together the two of them must revisit those old stories.

An author, hiding from his past, and an editor, probing inside it.

But as she reads the stories, Julia is unsettled to realise that there are parts that don’t make sense. Intricate clues that seem to reference a real murder.

One that’s remained unsolved for thirty years . . .

If Julia wants answers, she must triumph in a battle of wits with a dangerously clever adversary.

But she must tread carefully: she knows there’s a mystery, but she doesn’t yet realise there’s already been a murder . . .

 

My thanks to publishers, Michael Joseph, for the review copy which I received through Netgalley

 

Visiting a Mediterranean Island to meet reclusive author Grant McAllister is editor Julia Hart. Julia’s employers want to publish a collection of stories by McAllister which have been out of print and largely ignored for many years but Julia believes there is now a market for these clever tales.  McAllister was a professor of mathematics and he devised a formula or a set of rules into which all crime fiction will fit – his collection of stories will be used to demonstrate each of these rules. One story per rule.

Julia and McAllister sit together, Julia reads a story and the pair discuss the rule or classification which that story fulfills.  Julia also highlights some inconsistencies in each of the stories (there are always one or two) and challenges McAllister why he allowed them to creep into the text.  Some are very subtle and I confess I missed virtually all of them – even when I knew to look out for them as the book progressed.

As a novel, Eight Detectives gives the reader a collection of short stories to enjoy – each a tale of Golden Age crime which are being hailed as Christie-esk in their execution.  Indeed one of the stories is very much penned in homage to one of Dame Agatha’s finest novels and this is noted in the book. The stories are all quite different as each needs to conform to one of McAllisters rules and we only know the rule at the end of each tale. This ensures a reader can be surprised at the outcome of each story.

As with any short story collection (which Eight Detectives technically is not) there are some stories which are more enjoyable than others.  So I found there were periods of the book where my attention waned. The story of Julia and McAllister between the short stories links the whole book and suggests there is a further untold tale developing; but that is a possible encroachment to spoiler territory and you need to read for yourself to learn about their conversations.

I found Eight Detectives a tricky book to review.  I am very much a fan of the concept of the rules which McAllister devised.  I liked Julia and though I cannot talk about her analysis of each tale and her ‘error spotting (because spoilers) this was also very well executed by the author.  However I am not a great fan of short stories and I wasn’t gripped by some of the tales.  To compare my reading experience to a train journey…there were times I was excited by the view, some bits felt comforting and familiar but at the end of the experience I felt a bit flat.

So a quandary – should I review it on the blog?  Well as you are reading this…YES.  It is a clever, clever premise. I am seeing a lot of love for it from other reviewers and for fans of Golden Age crime and “cozy” crime I would highly recommend it.   Is it a page turning thriller?  NO.  I struggled to see it to the end as it just didn’t hit the mark with me.  We can’t love them all.

 

Eight Detectives is published by Michael Joseph and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081R2MWFG/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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August 17

Ash Mountain – Helen Fitzgerald

Single-mother Fran returns to her sleepy hometown to care for her dying father when a devastating bush fire breaks out. A heartbreaking, nail-biting disaster-noir thriller from the bestselling author of The Cry and Worst Case Scenario.

Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway.

She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants…

Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…

 

My thanks to Orenda Books for my review copy and to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Ash Mountain tour.

 

I make this point so frequently…stories set in small towns are the best for tales of secrets and surprises.  This is very true for Helen Fitzgerald’s Ash Mountain – a small Australian town where our main protagonist Fran lives. What initially seemed to be a story about living and growing up in a small community evolved with a dark mystery lurking in the background. Oh and a fire. A huge fire.

Fran is caring for her elderly father, a teenage daughter and is boosted by having her son, Dante, around too. Fran became a mother at age 15; as she is in her 40’s now Dante is mid 20s and very popular around town. I got the feeling Fran is less popular than her son and enjoys the fact he is much loved within his community. Fran is charmingly nervous, insecure yet determined and independent – all the complex characteristics people have and they are briliantly utilised by the author who makes Fran one of the most believable characters I have encountered for many months.

Helen Fitzgerald tells Fran’s story in a fascinating chronology.  Chapers go from today (the day of the fire), to last week (10 days before the fire) to 25 years ago when Fran was the awkward girl at school desperately trying to fit in. It keeps the narrative punchy and gives a great insight into why Fran acts as she does now, why her pregnancy is relevant to a secret kept for over 20 years and why small down enemies never let go of their childhood niggles. Characters in small towns linger for a long time, some people Fran would rather never meet again – some she feels she cannot do without.  This is most acutely reflected in Fran’s father – dying a slow death with Fran caring for him.  They are both scared by what the future may hold, neither admit it to each other and their buckle-down approach to getting on with things feels a mask for their impending seperation.

I haven’t mentioned the fire.  Well I *have* mentioned it but not explained it.  The book opens with a huge forest fire beating a fast path towards town.  Everything is fleeing but not Fran, she is bunkered down and worrying if her father got clear, if her daughter was near or if she got away.  Most chapters in the book are set in the days leading up to the fire. Some are many years earlier but every now and then we get a real-time chapter of Fran on the day of the fire and we are reminded that all the lives we have been reading about are all in grave peril from relentless flames.

It’s wonderful storytelling.  Helen Fitzgerald has a wicked talent for capturing people and making you believe in them, root for them and cry with them.  Ash Mountain is a bit of a departure from my regular crime thriller reads but it was a very welcome change.  Now available in paperback if you had been hanging off on picking this up – now is the time.

 

Ash Mountain is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, audiobook and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ash-Mountain-Helen-FitzGerald-ebook/dp/B081S12YDL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1597610021&refinements=p_27%3AHelen+FitzGerald&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Helen+FitzGerald

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August 8

The Witch House – Ann Rawson

Who can you trust, if you can’t trust yourself?

Alice Hunter, grieving and troubled after a breakdown, stumbles on the body of her friend and trustee, Harry Rook. The police determine he has been ritually murdered and suspicion falls on the vulnerable Alice, who inherited the place known locally as The Witch House from her grandmother, late High Priestess of the local coven. When the investigations turn up more evidence, and it all seems to point to Alice, even she begins to doubt herself.

Can she find the courage to confront the secrets and lies at the heart of her family and community to uncover the truth, prove her sanity, and clear herself of murder?

 

 

My thanks to Red Dog Press for my review copy and for the chance to join the blog tour

 

Witchcraft entwined with a murder story in The Witch House by Ann Rawson.  The majority of the tale is very much the murder side though and Alice’s association with witchcraft giving more of a theme to the background story – well that and the fact the murder victim appears to have been laid out in a ritualistic position.

The opening scenes set us up nicely for what may follow.  Alice lives in a remote location and stumbles upon the corpse of a rabbit. The rabbit has been laid out as if it has been used in a ritual. Chalkmarks depict symbols around its body and a stake has been thrust into the corpse.  Alice is upset by her discovery but doesnt want anyone else to see the dead animal so she cleans the sight and throws the corpse off into the distance.  Unfortunately for Alice that was just a precursor for what was to follow.  She goes to see her friend (and Trustee) Harry Rook only to find he has also been killed.  His body is positioned exactly the way the dead rabbit had been.  Alice is naturally upset and moves the stake which had impaled Harry when searching for signs of life.  Unfotunately for Alice the police take a very dim view of her decision to interfere with a crime scene – particularly when Alice appears to be their prime suspect.

The Witch House has a degree of uncertainty for the reader. Alice reveals to readers that she was sectioned after the death of her grandmother – the two were very close whereas Alice’s relationship with her mother is clearly a challenge for them both.  The uncertainty I mention comes from the fact Alice seems to doubt her own memory on a number of ocassions. There are details and events which she has to discuss with the police but she cannot honestly recall some of the things they believe she may have done. This adds an extra layer of intrugue as while reading The Witch House I couldn’t shake the feeling that the information Alice was sharing with the reader may not actually represent the truth.

Despite the murder of Harry Rook, Alice is determined to get on with her life.  She knows she is not a killer and before Harry’s body was found she was in the process of signing up to resume her studies.  Alice’s grandmother appears to have amassed a healthy collection of rare treasures which Alice and her new professor are discussing and exploring.  I found the archaeology elements of Alice’s life to be fascinating and they gave nice moments of respite from the murder scenes and the anxious moment Alice feels when having to deal with her mother or the intense questionning from the police.

I have purposefully not focussed too much on the detail of Alice’s life and the complexities of her mental health concerns while under suspicion of murder. The reading of The Witch House allows much of the information to be drawn out at the best time in the story, knowing too much too soon would detract from the reading enjoyment. Alice’s story is well worth exploring – she is a likeable lead character who you want to be able to trust. But should you?

 

The Witch House is published by Red Dog Press and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B088S7PD5H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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August 6

The Lies You Told – Harriet Tyce

Can you tell the truth from the lies?

Sadie loves her daughter and will do anything to keep her safe.

She can’t tell her why they had to leave home so quickly – or why Robin’s father won’t be coming with them to London.

She can’t tell her why she hates being back in her dead mother’s house, with its ivy-covered walls and its poisonous memories.

And she can’t tell her the truth about the school Robin’s set to start at – a school that doesn’t welcome newcomers.
Sadie just wants to get their lives back on track.

But even the lies with the best intentions can have deadly consequences…

 

My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to join the blog tour. I received a copy of The Lies You Told from the publisher.

 

I read crime and horror fiction. I don’t bat an eye at murder scenes, ghostly or monsterous carnage or even at depictions of evil crimes and wrong doings.  I know it isn’t real.  But I find reading about bullying to be hugely uncomfortable.  I get annoyed, anxious and so very frustrated when I read about bullies. So Kudos to Harriet Tyce for dropping a big bundle of angst into my hands with her excellent depictions of loathsome bullies in The Lies You Told. It all seemed so believable that I experienced maximum bully-hating fury at some chapters.

In The Lies You Told we meet Sadie.  She and her daughter (Robin) have left America for reasons we don’t immediately know, they have left Sadie’s husband and they are in Sadie’s mum’s old house. A house she hated as a child and it is clear she had no fondness for her late mother either.   Robin is to be enrolled at Sadie’s old school which is somewhere Sadie also doesn’t seem to hold too many fond memories of. The reader knows Sadie is putting herself into a situation she is far from happy about but we don’t immediately get to know why Sadie is seeking this fresh start.

The early stages of the book follow Sadie and Robin trying to adjust to their new lifestyle.  Neither find it easy.  We see their engagements around the school and it left me with questions I needed to have answers to.  Why is Robin forced to endure the misery of not being one of The Group?  Why are the PTA mums so abhorrant and mean to Sadie?  Though I did feel Sadie seemed to have a knack of saying the wrong thing around them…a nervousness of being picked on by the group?  These questions kept me reading, I needed to understand what was happening and I was desperate for their respective upset to be resolved.

Away from school Sadie has other issues to contend with.  Before leaving for America to have Robin – a decade before the events in The Lies You Told – she was a well regarded lawyer.  On her return to the UK Sadie is given the opportunity to work on a high profile case, a teacher accused of grooming one of his pupils. The case should never have been brought Sadie is told by her colleagues.  Harriet Tyce worked as a criminal barrister for a number of years and she draws upon that wealth of experience ensuring the the courtroom scenes in this book make for compelling reading.

For the reader we get the courtroom drama, Sadie and Robin’s domestic dramas and the overarching mystery around why the pair left the US to find themselves in this strained and unusual position.  More than enough intrigue to keep the pages turning and certainly some fabulously realised characters to keep me emotionally engaged with Sadie’s plight.  Blood Orange was a real high point in my 2019 reading, Harriet Tyce has another good ‘un on her hands with The Lies You Told.

 

The Lies You Told is published by Wildfire and is available in Hardback, audiobook and digital format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WWSCGVS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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